My buddy Kral successfully made it through the MS interview process. He's starting a job up there in Redmond next week.

It got us talking about all the legendary MS interview questions. Here's some dude's blog entry with LOTS of sample questions (some logic, some programming)

2004Discussions: interview Questions - Microsoft

Posted 8:18 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Want to check out this HDTV and Home Theater podcast. Probably a bit dry to talk about this stuff over audio only, but worth a listen.

http://htguys.com/archive/2005/September192005.html

Posted 7:52 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Decent article about the corporate culture at MS. Mostly framed around Steve Ballmer and his view on the company.

First part here

Second part here

Posted 7:14 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

I've always wondered when building a computer, how to calculate how big of a power supply to get.

Here's a decent calculator to help out.



Posted 9:44 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

My buddy Intern Joe and I tried to hookup tonight for an online Battlefield 2 session.

The title says it all - why is it so hard to find friends, find a server, connect, and get a game going in PC games? I had this same problem with Ghost Recon back when I tried that on the PC as well. With BF2, you can't even remember favorite servers, keep a friends list, etc. I remember it being a little better in the GameSpy software, so I'll have to try that next.

It's SO EASY with XBox:

• push power button
• play game

Intern summed up our sweet online session last night beautifully:

4:40 gt [Google Talk] call placed.
4:41 session begins
4:42 begin looking for room
4:48 still looking for room
4:49 realize need to patch game to most recent version
4:54 finished patching game. system freezes.
4:59 back in room
5:05 found room
5:07 in room.
5:09 cruising around map as gunner with v-nerd as driver.
5:13 lost, confused, no idea where the battle is. fire shots in the air.
5:15 must exit game, time to feed sara session ends. never saw an enemy soldier.
AWESOME game.

classic...

Update:
Two days later, intern and I figured, we've already been through all this ramp-up cost, so let's fire up a game, should only take a few minutes, right?

8:12 gt call placed
8:14 after quick "how-doin's", fire up BF2
8:16 begin looking for room
8:19 realize that Dan is on a different machine than before, and this machine is not patched
8:20 Dan starts download of patch
8:20 Intern starts in a game
8:24 Dan starts patch process
8:30 (long ass process - what the hell is this thing doing?) path process done
8:32 Dan back in lobby looking for intern
8:35 connect by IP to same game where intern is
8:38 finally in the game, trying to figure out where intern is
8:40 about to meet up with intern, game is over, MEC wins (38-0)

sweet! love this game...

Posted 9:39 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

XHTML Character Entity Reference

Posted 9:41 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

As seen on AOTS, Video Search

Posted 9:01 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Download details: Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar Beta

Posted 7:52 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Getting involved (and crushed) in Battlefield 2 lately. Here's a decent community site with info, maps, forums, newbie guide, etc.

newbie guide

Total Battlefield 2

Server Remote Administrator

Video tips from CNET

Start game NOT in fullscreen mode. Allows to see chat, etc. behind, and minimize the game.
Basically, change the shortcut to have "+fullscreen 0" ... instead of "1"

Tweaks to make for optimal game performance. Tweak Guides

Stats

• BF2Tracker
• BF2S (mostly same data as bf2tracker, but with some "last played info")
• another stats site (more up to date for now since the Special Forces exp pack is screwing with the feed for bf2tracker and bf2s)
• BF2Stats.nsvr.info - one page of high level stats, and live sig
  

Mods

Multiplayer cooperative, 32 bots on a map sized for 64, additional control points, vehicles, many airports opened up

ahh - supposdely cooperative play is unsupported by EA games. However, a single player game can be joined by IP address. Will have to try this out on my LAN...

Yep, works. Just have to open some ports if your buddies are coming in from outside the firewall. from memory, verify these: 16567, 29999, 4711 (this last one is new as of patch 3)

The guys at Rising Conflicts are coming up with the uber mod. Not done yet (as of 12/20/05), but screenshots look great.

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VOIP
Intern and I were in a game last night with a dude that was using the built-in VOIP. We usually just hookup over Google Talk, so we've been oblivious to the VOIP in the game. It's very cool actually, and automatically talks to your squad, and lowers volume of surrounding sounds. This thread talks about configuration, and the facts about who can talk to who.

I haven't confirmed mine is working yet, but apparently have to press "B" to talk? Wish it was just voice activated...

Lastly, we were struggling on how to CHAT with someone while in-game. Turns out, you just use one of J,K,L to chat with ALL, TEAM, SQUAD. [see options / audio] (I was trying a bunch of obsolete commands inthe command console (~), with no luck.

Having more trouble with in game VOIP. Some saying since patch 1.0.3, but now we're up to 1.1.2 I think (compatible with special forces exp pack). Anyway - Ventrillo is apparently yet another voip client. Have to look into it - not sure if it requires server software support, or P2P like Skype, etc.

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How the kit unlocking system works.

Here is a list of the ranks, and points needed to acquire each. (I've got a LOT of work ahead of me)

Server Groups

Global Conflict has organized games modeled around a map of Europe. Will have to look into this.

Live Sig

Check out my BF2tracker sig (is this live? does the global score still say 183?):
Nope - I'm up to 212 now, and no update on the pic -- looks like it's a static snapshot. Bummer.

Update 10/18/05 - well NOW it shows 219, so I guess the data IS live. bf2tracker was down a few times the past couple days, so maybe that was the cause...



...and here's another one, this one from bf2s.com, actually comes in 4 different pieces
(this one is only as up to date as how often I hit the site - he only refreshes stats data when we hit the site)





And here is yet another sig, from bf2stats.nsvr.info

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Special Forces Expansion Pack

Looks like this is old news (from July), but there's already talk of the expansion pack for BF2. Apparently this one has all special ops dudes. I'll never get good at the original BF2 before it's already time to buy the expansion.

Update 11/09/05 - sure enough, the Special Forces expansion pack is now available for purchase on the EA site. Apparently you can buy, and download the bits now, but can't play until 11/22. Sweet, this will give me something to do instead of Xbox 360 (they come out the same day) -- while I wait for my company to fulfill their promise to buy us each a 360.

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Classic chopper pilot story from my buddy Intern Joe"

so funny, i jumped in and instantly, 6 dudes were in there with me and i was the pilot. after a shaky start, someone asks "count, you know how to fly this thing?" i dont know how to answer and landed in the middle of the battlefield, with everyone alive, but it was funny as hell

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Other Links

Clan strategy planning tools. Supposedly real-time drawing on map, icons, arrows, etc.

Killer panorama pics / views of BF2 and other games - check it out.

Posted 10:01 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Just an addicting time wasting game. Didn't give it much time, but could only get past the first level.

game is here

Posted 10:44 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink