Text-Based Games...

So, I have made it a life goal of mine to create a 3D game of some kind at some point in my life. Realizing the size of this daunting task, I've decided to start a little bit smaller. I think that I want to make a web-based, text-based game that's kind of like a choose your own adventure. I figure that it'll be a good place to start... see how it goes and then move forward from there.

In any case, my plan is to use PHP/MySQL to accomplish this, since I think it will work, but mostly because it's the two web-based technologies (besides HTML) that I'm most comfortable with. Does anyone have any other suggestions that might make my journey a little bit easier?

If I make some decent progress, I'll be sure to post updates here. Or, if it's something you think you'd want to participate in, let me know as well...

News Tewsday - 12/18/07

With Sci/Tech filter applied:

• GarageBand 4.1.1 Offers Custom Ringtones for iPhone (2007-12-14)
• Google develops Wikipedia rival (2007-12-14)
• Celebrating 60 years of transistors (2007-12-14)
• No download needed: OpenOffice beta available as Web app (2007-12-12)
• The most useful keyboard shortcuts you probably don't know about (2007-12-13)
• Word-of-the-Year Ritual Pauses for Puzzlement - New York Times (2007-12-13)
• Celebrating one of the best-selling PCs ever (2007-12-12)
• Get DivX Pro for free (2007-12-12)
• Humans Evolving 100 Times Faster Than Ever (2007-12-11)
• Honda unveils robots that 'talk' to each other, work in pairs - USA Today (2007-12-11)
• December MacUpdate Software Bundle Sale [11th App Added] (2007-12-11)
• Top Sellers of the Year on iTunes Revealed (2007-12-11)
• Firefox 3.0 beta 2 due by year's end (2007-12-11)
• NBC hitches onto download service from Apple rival SanDisk (2007-12-11)
• Zune vs iPod: The Results Are In (2007-12-10)
• Microsoft Disses Windows to Sell More Windows (2007-12-10)

Questions? Comments?

PHP is Magical?

I was looking through the differences between PHP4 and PHP5 this morning, when I noticed something amazing. PHP5 is magical! The screenshot on the left is taken directly from the PHP5 manual, and can be viewed here if you really don't believe me. I love how the last sentence warns you that you can't have these functions in your class "unless you want the magic functionality associated with them." My question is, who wouldn't want this magical power within their script? I know I would.

There's No Place

There's No Place Like 127.0.0.1

This Week's News...

By popular request, I will start listing the headlines I've shared in the News of Interest... section (hopefully weekly) so if anyone would like to comment on them, they can!

So, without further ado, here are this week's headlines -- WITH Sci/Tech filter applied:

1. CompUSA closes shop (2007-12-08)
2. Scientists Report Success in Treatment With 'Reprogrammed Stem Cells' (2007-12-07)
3. Blogger presses Gates for IE8 answers (2007-12-06)
4. IBM says chip 'breakthrough' will shrink supercomputers (2007-12-06)
5. Verizon Wireless warms up to Google's Android (2007-12-04)
6. Gmail integrates AIM, adds colored labels (2007-12-04)
7. High-quality unboxing photos of Amazon's Kindle eBook reader (2007-12-04)
8. Microsoft to Try Nagging Housewife Approach to Pirated Software (2007-12-04)
9. Oh, THAT big square box! (2007-12-04)
10. Behind the Activision-Blizzard union (2007-12-03)
11. Opening act for Gibson's self-tuning guitar (2007-12-04)
12. Rare Mummified Dinosaur Unearthed: Contains Skin, and Maybe Organs, Muscle (2007-12-03)
13. Blizzard and Activision Announce $18.8bn Merger (2007-12-02)
14. The First 100 Dot Coms Ever Registered (2007-12-03)
15. How to Block Facebook's Privacy Compromising Beacon Feature (2007-12-02)

Thoughts? Comments?

Welcome!

Welcome to Option 9, my attempt at a more technical blog. I have the regular blog going, but sometimes I have thoughts that I figure the regular visitor won't necessarily be interested in--thoughts that I regularly have about technology and the IT world as a whole.

Here is where I will try to accumulate these thoughts into a readable, understandable fashion for those who may be interested.

I look forward to what is to come.