Author: Tony

I uploaded my fifth tutorial last night. This one is called Managing Game States in C++. Maybe one of these days I’ll write a book.

I still have a little bit of cleaning up to do in the text of this tutorial, and some parts will need to be explained more clearly. But, the code should be good enough to explain exactly what’s going on.

I’ve already gotten some nice feedback on my Lua tutorials, and I’m interested in hearing what people think of this one.

I’ve added a new tutorial to the site. This one covers the Simple DirectMedia Layer. SDL is a library for creating cross-platform multimedia programs. If you’re interesting in learning how to write games that work on Windows, Linux, and MacOS, this will get your started.

The beginning of my projects page is online now. It lists a few things I’m working on right now, plus a couple of my first ever programs. I’ll add more screenshots to that page when I get more time.

Also, I’m finished with all of my tests this week, and I have a week off from school. I really like going to school, but it’ll be nice to not have to drive over 300 miles next week.

Very observant readers will notice a new link under navigation called tutorials. This is where I’m planning to put a lot of the things I’ve written about programming and system administration. There will be another new section added soon for my projects.

Right now, the only available tutorials deal with the Lua scripting language. If you’re a programmer interested in integrating Lua into your C or C++ programs, this will be wonderful news for you. If you aren’t, this will probably just give you a headache…

Well, here it is – my 100th entry on this web site.

I started keeping an online journal all the way back on September 9, 1999. Back then I was still adding entries by hand editing the HTML. We’ve certainly come a long way since then.

Now seems like a good time to reflect on why I started doing this and why I’m still doing it. A web log is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family who are far away. People anywhere in the world can look at our site and see what we’re doing.

A site like this is also a way of recording our lives so our children can see what it was like “back in our day”. Note to self – I need to post something about walking six miles to school everyday, up hill, both ways… You know, just for future reference.

Another good reason for keeping a site like this is just to have a way to express your feelings about things in a public way. Everyone has opinions about things that they would like to share (for proof of this see my post about SUVs and terrorism). I think many people spend the majority of their lives feeling like they can’t really be themselves and show their true colors. It’s almost like therapy for me to share my ideas and opinions with the world.

As I’m nearing the end of my degree in Computer Science, I hope to evolve this site into a demonstration of my programming and design skills. To this end I’ll be adding a section with programs and tutorials that I have written on various topics.

It’s taken me almost four years to come up with my first 100 entries, and I think that’s way too long. Back around the beginning of the year I said I would like to update the site several times a week, and I still feel that way. No one visits a site that isn’t updated regularly (except maybe Geoff). And if no one is visiting the site, I might as well shout my ideas from the rooftop. In an effort to keep the neighbors happy, I’ll do my best to post interesting things here a lot more often.

So check back soon, you never know what you’ll find.