Tips on Code Fixing

I often get questions about cleaning up someones HTML or code, and I offer a few different methods of cleaning up your code and figuring out why its exactly broken.

1. Print outs

Printing out the code and what the website looks like in COLOR form, this is important to not have it all black and white, if you have it all printed in color form it makes it easier to read and note what tags are what. Printing it out allows you to mark up a page and place the code next to the printed out website and gives a easier task moving from code to site. I know its a old school method but it works.

2. Different browsers/HTML programs

if you use dreamweave and only dreamweaver and it gives you weird errors, try copying and pasting your code into another program and open it up in another browser see if its doing the same thing. I often encounter students who only work in safari or firefox, and they don't test in chrome, oprea, or IE. Also try using visual studios, its free and easy to test out your code or even better try notepad and construct your page that way. Because I find doing that can differently make you see something you are missing or overlooking because you become so dependant on the computer catching the mistake. 

3. Get a buddy

Sometimes a fellow coder can see why your website doesn't look like it is because they can offer creative and different insight on how to fix a problem, just don't bug them and expect them to fix it off the bat and if they can't don't get mad just be happy they are giving insight. 

4. SLEEP ON IT

Studies have shown that if a problem bugs you, if you sleep on it, your brain will focus on it and come morning you will have that moment of clarity where you see the problem and bam instead of just stressing for hours you fixed it super fast.

Well there are some of the things I do, just a few little tips since I tutor students and they often pull out their hair and freak out. So hopefully my students read this and realize there are easier ways to fix code problems then pulling their hair out. 

My Thoughts on the Call of Duty Elite app

Elite has been out for a while and for such an ambitious platform it has been less than stellar. Users were unable to log-in and Activision took a hit by giving away a free month to make up for the fact, it DID NOT WORK. Additionally, the console and phone applications were supposed to be available on launch day for Modern Warfare 3, but they weren’t. Was it worth the wait?

Sledgehammer games have been working extremely hard at getting the whole ELITE platform actually up and running. The Android version of this application has finally landed, but the iPhone version has been out for the past week, and the consensus is…IT WORKS. The overall application makes each player’s statistics available like they would get from the online site. So your recent matches, K/D ratio, win percentages, custom classes, and challenges, for example, are now available to view on your Android and iPhone. Currently, it gives just basic controls, however, what is missing is clan control, Elite TV, comparing stats, groups, and the big thing, information on competitive gaming.

Even though the Call of Duty Elite application is in its infancy, it has the potential to be one of the greatest gaming applications on the go. Clan Management, Elite TV, or my personal favorite, the ability to view and stream video from players from your friends list would be a great idea and would give you a chance to show off your uber ner skills to your buddies.

Currently, the ability to change your custom classes and load them to the Modern Warfare 3 game is definitely awesome, but if you are like many players, once you have your classes set up, you don’t change them. Until the Call of Duty Elite application receives a much-needed upgrade, this application is just an average tool to keep track of your statistics and improve your classes.

*I originally wrote this for @konaskorner.com you can find the write up here 

2012:What I Hope To Accomplish

After seeing Amy Okuda post a blog about her resolutions for the year, it kind of inspired me to write my own. 

1. Get a gym membership and get prepared for the zombie invasion.

2. Complete a app and get it on one of the marketplaces.

3. probably the most important one, get a full time job doing either web design or app development.

4. Complete the witcher/dragon age 1&2/Final Fantasy 13 and pokemon black. yes I said pokemon, gotta do something at school.

5. Not Die

6. Find a girlfriend, not a fuck buddy, or just someone to date but a actual girlfriend who helps me accomplish my goals in life.

7. Develop a more focused way of not spending money.

8. Travel to another city outside of texas, I am thinking vegas, I want to try the bacon martini.

9. Get paid to write.

10. Finish writing my books. 

11. Design a few more websites and expand on my portfolio.

12. Mend old friendships to those I have lost touch with.

13. Not allow myself to have people walk over me and instead tell them to go fuck themselves...in a nicer manner.

14. Read one book a month.

15.And finally meet Camilla Belle and or Amy Okuda..simple? yeah i think so.

thanks for reading, now i have to get back to programming. Expect more of these this year, at least one a week. I will try to keep you up to date with everything going on and actually fill ya in on info.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

When films are "americanized" it is usually seen as a taboo due to the fact most americanized film really suck, but does this film stive to win the american audience? 

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo revolves around a not-so-common girl who does not-so-common things that involve "investigating" certain people for a security company. When Lisbeth Salander is investigating a newspaper editor, Mikhal Blomkvist, she gets involved with a plot to find a missing woman but gets involved in something much more sinister. 

Let me first say that this movie is a murder mystery, so don't expect explosions or high-action packed scenes. This is a film about discovery and the characters that are tracking down just what happened to this billionaire's niece 40 years prior to disappearing.  This movie is probably going to be the slowest, most insane movie you can see due to the deep character development and the strong story. This movie seems to go more in depth then what its European counter part did, such as elaborating on certain key aspects of the characters and how the investigating went.

I am sad to say that I haven't read the books yet, but they are on my list, so I can not compare which one is closer to the book. I will say I was delighted to see David Fincher go back to his roots of SE7EN and Fight Club with a dark story filled with rich characters.  That being said, this is a very dark film due to the subject matter, the many sex scenes and the infamous rape scene, which isn't for the faint of heart I might add. This brings me to the fact that Rooney Mara definitely deserves an award for bringing out the insanity that is Lisbeth. Daniel Craig plays, once again, a solid male character but I would consider him the secondary character and not the lead actor. He isn't the tough guy like he is in most of his other movies. It is all about Lisbeth being a badass and being the not-so-common hero.

 The downside to this movie is the fact that many people will be turned off by how slow paced of a movie it is and how the whole tone of the movie is. This is a crime drama, with a few twists and turns and great side characters, like Stellar Skarsgard playing one of the many people trying to figure out what happened to this missing girl.  Another downside to this film is the fact that you know what is going to happen if you have seen the other film. It keeps very close to the European film, with only some slight adjustments, and leaves a few plot holes. It Also took out a few characters from what I remember.

This movie is definitely a damn good movie, but its not for the faint of heart due to the subject matter.  This movie isn't for anyone who doesn't like crime dramas, or films that are very slow paced.  This movie is for the people that have read the books or want to see how well done an Americanized version should be. It keeps it to its roots while changing a few things here and there, and bringing in new faces. It definitely lived up to its name.

SCORE: 9/10

Battlefield 3:Back to Karkand Revie

So the first batch of DLC has been released for battlefield 3, and if you were lucky enough to buy it when the game was first released you probably got the limited edition, which came with the fifteen-dollar DLC pack known as Back To Karkand. For those of you who did not buy it and are debating on expanding on this battlefieldexperience by purchasing these new maps...hopefully I can help decide that fact. Strike at Karkand, Gulf of Oman, Wake Island and Sharqi Peninsula are the four maps rounding out this DLC bringing back favorites from Battlefield 2. Each of the maps brings a different flavor of variety in how each of them is design, from Wake Island's water assaults allowing for multiple flanking routes, to Strike at Kirkland’s "black hawk down" feel of going in-between buildings with squads and flanking the enemy that way. Playing through each of these maps definitely brings a sense of joy and wonder as each of the levels is destroyed and changed due to the explosions, destruction and utter chaos. Now being a map pack, each map does have its high points and low points, such as Wake Island being too big to get anywhere on foot, same with Gulf of Oman, which is damaging to the console version of 12 on 12. Now if it happened to be PC it would have been a very different story of 32 on 32 so the size of each map does damage the playing field on console as for PC it is just right. Now what damages the console version is the lack of teamwork, which if you go into a game with a solid squad do not be surprised if you are the only squad actually doing stuff while everyone else is cannon fodder. Dice could have done each map on the console a favor and shrank it at least 30 percent getting rid of what feels like miles of open terrain of just running! The new weapons and added "persistence" or challenges as some people are calling it, allow for more weapons for those who already unlocked everything, and give people more time to unlock new weapons and attachments. In addition, the new vehicles are pretty awesome especially the new jet that hovers, allowing you to capture points and take out tanks with ease. The only downside to the jet is that it is only on the American side and not on the Russians arsenal. One of the interesting things that DICE has brought back is the old classic conquest assault mode, which means one team has all the points but the other team has a few more "tickets" and has to go capture them and hold them. This works in theory but when the ticket counter, is only 20 more it kind of takes away from the overall experience of it when you have a bunch of failure noobs draining those precious tickets dry. This is why teamwork is needed yet again and why you will probably never find it on a console; everyone tries to "call of duty" it and rank up kills and not points.   Wake Island is probably the weakest of them all, especially when you are the attackers; you start on the boat and having to huff over to the shore and capture the points and if you fall into the water prepare for a long swim. This map seems to be balanced more to the defenders because they can get to the flags more easily, and get a better spawning position. Also, watch out for snipers and sniper tanks, there is barely any cover in this map because it is very wide open. Sharqi Peninsula is one of the most infantry focused maps due to its small size and the fact the points are easily close together, the great thing about this one is that its more team focused and not vehicle focused or wide if you have a strong squad you can dominate the points easy. This is not a map built for tanks due to tall buildings where you can drop rockets and bombs on vehicles and enemies below...unless of course you are on the receiving end. Gulf of Oman is another double-edged sword map like Wake Island; it has a very far off point with 2 points very close to each other. This map seems to be a very vehicle dominated map. However, if you can manage to get someone in a helicopter to drop you on top of the awesomely tall skyscrapers or cranes get ready for sniper heaven. The big downside to this map is definitely, how long it takes to run from point to point, and even trying to flank around is not the best idea since if you have snipers shooting at you, you will not have any cover since it is very sparse and open.   Strike at Karkand is definitely the strongest of the bunch with how balanced it is for vehicles and just how classic the map is for the battlefield series, vehicles can dominate but so can the infantry. Being able to flank around, hide inside many of the buildings, and take cover definitely brings out the tension. Probably the downside from what I have seen in this map is people will spawn snipe in the defenders spawn with tanks, and just hide in areas that are out of reach of the attackers. Now if you are a diehard battlefield player, more than likely you have this on PC and not on console. Nevertheless, you are probably wondering if you should buy this. This is a definite buy for those who are hardcore battlefield fans but you probably already have it and have been playing for the last few days. In any case, see you online.  

photos via battlefield blog