No Blogs for a Couple Days

Today was not a very exiting I have planed to get some chores done and this will apply for tomorrow as well. It's a shame to break my weekday streak but I am sure you guys don't want to hear about me painting all day.


So until Monday you can keep up with me on twitter @CDSteer and I will talk to you soon.

Day Eight: Sharing Knowledge

So today I continued with the method using time slots to control my focus, this made what is normally my time loss of a day where I have to put flyers in papers and deliver to one of my rounds far more efficient. This was because I was able to get my seconded round done too. This is normal something I do the following day but with time slots making time was easy and frees up time tomorrow so it will not be lingering over fun things. (Reading this back its a lot cooler for me it you reading this you properly don't care.)


This said it left less time for projects, in fact no work was done on projects to day instead I spend some time with my Raspberry Pi trying raspbmc the version of xbmc. Its pretty much a media centre but that not the part that interested me, I mainly wanted to test the airplay feature, something I have on the Apple TV in the living room and I wanted to see how it held up on a non Apple device. After some testing my opinion is, it's not great seen as you're only saving about £70 for a buggy solution with no mirroring but more that this I think its a waste of your Raspberry Pi there are far cooler things for the little computer to do. So I put Debian on it, as I was missing a UI form using Arch the OS I was using before.


Next and properly the last thing worth talking about today was retuning to my old comprehensive school to show my old IT teacher the Raspberry Pi. The Pi has been intended for schools and my old teacher is interested in using them and when he found out though my little brother I had one on order he asked if I bring it in sometime. I was very happy that he was showing interest as it something I would have loved to had when I was in school, so I gave him a quick rundown of it showing it him working and all that jazz, was there for while, it was great to be able to aid a teachers interest in introducing the Raspberry Pi in schools.


That about it for today time for the quote and its from the great scientist Albert Einstein, it about knowledge and fits in nicely with my demonstration I gave today:

The only source of knowledge is experience.

So bit of a short today but as always follow me on twitter @CDSteer and I will be back with more tomorrow.

Day Seven: Sticking to Slots

Yesterday I came to the conclusion that although was getting more productive I needed to improve my time management and control my focus. So this morning my aim was to structure my week in iCal so it then syncs to my Google calendar and pushes to all my devises so then theres no escape from alerts. The main thing that was important to add was breaks this way if I gave myself some time to check twitter or my RSS feed at controlled points would be more productive in work sorts. It basically stops me from checking distractions every 5 minutes effecting my concentration on the more focused required task, but I still know I will be able to check these things after at a set time rather than just trying and failing to hold out until its finished.


So did it work, yes and I think theres two key points that helped one is the removing the distractions e.g. closing chrome or the twitter app and secondly setting the time limit made me what to get as much done in that slot as possible before I hit a break. Removing the distractions was something I would do when I was in school and college and even though what I do now is more fun it still requires focus and using it on my own projects too has really helped today, and I will continue in to the future.


So, in todays schedule was of corse a slot to make the schedule this was important but of corse needed to be controlled or I would spend far to much time tweaking and making it look all fancy. So I got the rough structure in place and added small slots for review on each morning of this week. After this a quick morning break to check the news form the pervious night and the morning so far. Then the first working slot was leading Django something I have wanted to start for a while so I just dived in today beginning with a couple of pages of an online guide. Theres nothing really to report on other than its now got a slot for everyday this week so it safe to say I enjoyed it and I still really enjoy coding for the web. Then it was time to stop for lunch to sync back up to the internet before the next slot which was to work on mini-adventure. 


Today I added more encounters making the game longer, and with the encounters being based on the players level I needed more mobs. So a troll and spider (in future versions it would be cool if the spider had the poison power like the rouge) have been added for the higher levels. The next thing added was an item drop function this will drop the items added in the last version, a health potion or an action point potion and then once the random drop is returned its added to the players bag for use in battle. These will be very helpful as the game is now a little longer. The plan for next time its to start adding narrative options rather than just the current one after anther battle. The options I hope to write with let the player choose where to go next and even find items in the cave or walk into sudden death, heck maybe I'll write a mini story with jokes and pop culture references.


The final slot is blog writing time, perhaps the most important task to put a time limit on as since I have been writing these my bed time has been moving forward quite alarmingly, so I am aiming to start them earlier in the day and try improving my sleep cycle.


Seen as I used a great quote about time yesterday that would be super hard to top, I think I will use one about sleep as its how I finished. So from the amazing Leonardo da Vinci:

"A well-spent day brings happy sleep."

So I wish you a happy sleep to night and I will return tomorrow for more blogging shenanigans. But until then keep up with my twitter shenanigans at @CDSteer.

Day Six: Back Behind the Wheel

Back form the weekend, back to blogging and yes as the title suggests I have been back out driving after about eight months. I must admit I was a little worried about returning but I was really surprised to see how much I remembered but at the same time there were a few things I needed reminding on. I started in an industrially instate as I did the first time drove, here I went over the basics again and started regain confidence I had perviously lost. After about an hour of diving around the estate I went out on to the open road, this was something I did not expect to be doing first day back. I handled some roundabouts and a traffic light and over all I was impressed with my performance as I certainly exceeded what I expected to achieve. Thanks to this have I now have a better feeling about driving something I had completely lost before.


I other news, I started to draft a letter to send to companies asking if they can offer any work experience though the summer, this was something I had been able to do last summer but unfortunately they could not keep me on. So this time I went on the search for a job closer to the type I wish the peruse. The last job I had although not specific to computer science I did learn a lots about general business and working life but potentially having the chance of experiencing an environment of my chosen field would be invaluable. So I am going to send the letter to IT places and web developers in my area and hope something comes of it, given the current job market I am not hold my breath but seen as I am offering myself for free its worth a try.


So when writing the letter I began explaining my college results, projects have done at home and in college, plans for university and some information about my personal qualities. I am also trying to put across my passion for computers in the letter and that I want to learn because to show willing I think is really important.


The last thing I want to talk about today was missed for my slightly rushed post on Friday, that is a review of week one. So it was the first time had blogged and I have been having a lot of fun, sitting down writing about what I did every day was great to help highlight what needed doing the next and also help me to improve stuff I was doing though refection. Its also highlighting that I don't do a lot on interesting things and that somedays it was hard coming up with a decent amount of words when I really did not do much or what I did was more or less a list rather than an insightful task to write about. So for this week planing and time management are going to be key aims. So staring tomorrow morning I will open iCal and build myself a timetable with sessions and breaks, that way I can control my distractions and focus at the right times.


Todays final quote is about time and comes from the great scientist (and another personal hero of mine) Charles Darwin and he said something I think is far to easy to forget:

"A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life."

I hope to return to more a more organised person with an action plan to share. Until then catch me on twitter: @CDSteer.

Day Five: Fun Fridays

So my weekend kind of came early this week and this has resulted in this post being a lot later than usual seen I have come in late and been out all day and playing with a new toy I purchased but more on that later. For now I will begin by saying there was no work done towards my projects it was all pure enjoyment but nevertheless one of the projects was to blog each day so here I am.


This morning started lazy, I got up a little late after a nice lie in and had a late shower. Then I went to Cardiff for the rest of the day with my family and had a fantastic time. It started as a tip to an all you can eat Chinese on the bay, that on its own was fantastic, all the different food, the sweet deserts and delicious Chinese dishes I certainly had my fill by the end. 


Then after this we went for a walk around the bay and came across a food show, well after filling up at an all you can eat this did not seem the most inviting place for us in our current state. We continued to explore anyway and had a brilliant time and as far a being full was concerned the samples were small and easy on the stomach. We tried some cinnamon coated nuts there where all different types of nuts, I enjoyed them all. Also as we went round we found some great stalls will local alcohol, after flashing my ID I tried all different types of Whiskeys, cider, liquors and brandy. I enjoyed one called Innkeepers's Tipple so much we bought a bottle in celebration of my resent results. We had a great time at the show trying lots of different local foods and drink, I would love to attend anther.


On our journey back we visited some shops, one being Maplin where I got to look at the electronics stuff and maybe pick up some ideas for future projects. The final shop was were I got my new toy the Sony NEX C3, it's a mirrorless lens camera that is soon to be discontinued and replaced with the F3. Now I have been fancying this camera as recently I have been frustrated with the bulk of my DSLR limiting where I take it. This new camera is tiny in comparison to a DSLR by still keeps the functionality and high quality. Even with this reason the price of entry was still far to high to justify until today. The camera was in clearance as it was the last in stock and with stock coming the price became just right and I walk away with one. I played with it a little this evening but will give full impressions in my Monday blog.


So yeah a bit of a fun day today eating and shopping not the most productive but we all need some fun. This leads me to my next point my weekends are often unpredictable and have no real structure (a little like this Friday) so I will not be able to guaranty posts. So I will be back Monday until then I am going to finish week one with a quote from the movie Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure as I feel we must also remember the little things:

"Be excellent to each other"

I will be back Monday enjoy your weekend.

Day Four: Health Potions and Keeping Healthy

So its day four and I am still putting these out, I never though I would keep to writing a post everyday but it seems to be working quite well and as intended I am certainly getting more done know I have to sit and write about it everyday.


I started today where I left off yesterday, wanting to read some tips on testing code. So this is what I did this morning, and I found some interesting posts about testing but a lot of what I read referred to finished releases of programs rather than testing as you go. This started to make sense to me as every time I work on my program I seem to change something I had previous thought was fine. Therefore testing a finished product will allow me to make a list of criteria I directly test parts of the project when I have a better idea of the bigger picture. I will also need to take an in-depth look at unittest something I looked at today but was very confused by it, but no worries I will try again at a later date.


Ok, so as far as tasks for today I thought it was time to get started on adding useable items to the game and a bag to keep track of the items the player finds. A good item to start with was the health potion and along with this an action point potion to restore AP of the player as this would have very simular functions to the health potion. So, I started by making a bag object this will track the number of potion and in future have slots of items like weapons and armour found in the game. In the bag class I then made functions for using the items, this was to deduct the amount in the bag and then return the value of the amount of points to restore to the player.


It was around this time I went out to do my seconded paper round. When I returned I wrote code to allow the player to access the bag during battle and use the items I set up. I made this a battle bag function as it will be different to the full bag I will add out side combat, this bag will only show items that can be used in battle. This makes it easier for the user as in some games it will list all the items and then only once you click on the item it warns you it can't be used in battle. This finished up the potions, I checked it all worked then committed it to my GitHub.


Then it was time for me to get back out running, and today I had a plan for training my weakness, hills. On my usual run there is a medium sized hill towards the end of the route back to my house, this is something that is very unavoidable in Wales. So today I took a light jog to the hill and set my Nike+ app for 2 km and ran to the top and then back down. I did this until I had run the full 2 km then I ran back to my house. During the session I maintained a steady pace as I was also controlling how I descended from the top as well as pushing myself on the asent. I was pleased with how I did and next time will aim to do longer so I can finally concur the hills.


So its time for final thoughts again, I would say today was great, I work very effectively on implementing the potions so I feel I am gaining a good understanding of what I am leaning so far. I also a had an excellent workout on the hill and can't wait to see how I fair against it come my next run. Looking forward into tomorrow I think I will start to add item drops form killing the mobs so the player can find the potions and then I think I will start listing some cool items to add to the game as well as working out how the player will then equip them.


The quote I going to use today is personal favourite of mine from one of my inspirations Steve Jobs, the quote I think is very relevant to this proses:

"For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."

As always the progress I made today can be found on my GitHub and as always you can follow me on twitter @CDSteer I will be back tomorrow with the last blog of the week.

Day Three: Results Day

This morning I was woken up with a letter from my college, inside my results from the IT BTEC I had just completed a couple of weeks ago. It was the deciding letter on whether I could fulfil my offer from my chosen University and go forward to study in the field of Computer Science. I opened the letter to find the listed units and the corresponding grades. In each one I got top marks and gaining distinctions all round with an over all grade of D*D*D* (for people not familiar with BTEC a D* is the same UCAS points as an A* but as you properly guessed it D because it stands for Distinction). I was over the moon to finally receive the results after two years of work, but most importantly it's the final ticket that will get me to University to fulfil my goal of studying Computer Science, my main focus in life.


When I found out the results like most people who live on the internet I went to twitter to broadcast my great news. On first glance I saw a tweet from Professor Brain Cox about the Higgs Boson then it dawned on me I had forgotten about the Cern announcement. So rushed to the website and started catching up on the new about this amazing new discovery. In fact this took up most of my morning by the time I did some reading and watching then some more reading and watching the time flew by. It's a very exciting day for science and for me the second set of amazing results today.


Next came work, in order to have a constant income of money I have maintained a paper round, well two too be exact. I have kept them from a young age to earn extra money. It's a boring job but for what I do its easy money plus I get to listen to podcasts as I work which helps.
After I finished putting the flyers in the papers and one of the rounds. I wanted to get back to the coding my game, as so far there had been no progress on any of the projects. My main aim was to fix the poisoning function for the rouge so I would be able to commit the new version of the code to GitHub. Well, after taking some time to re-write how poisoning works and looking at and improving code from yesterday with a fresh view. I started to realise the code was getting longer and harder to test this is a problem I will need to address so this is now top of the game section on TaskPaper.


My final thoughts for day, well I was not the most productive today with regards with work towards my projects but it's not often we get such big scientific headlines like "Discovery of Particle, consistent with Higgs boson". Also I need to make a living too, my paper round helps fund my projects so the distractions today have been worth while in their own way but I will need to make up for loss of time tomorrow, thanks science.


Todays quote comes from the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, and the quote is about distractions, which I though is appropriate for today:

"By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination."

The progress made in the game from both yesterday and today can be found on my GitHub and as always you can follow me on twitter @CDSteer I will be back tomorrow hopefully with more progress than today.

Day Two: Diving Straight Back In

Getting up this morning I immediately started working on my game as I had tasks ready in my head from good old thinking time in the shower and reflection from writing last night. So what were these tasks, first I wanted to map out a flow chart for the battle sequence. This would then help with the next part of breaking up the battle in to smaller functions that can be recalled rather than writing out the variables and the math in each attack sequence.


Ok so lets begin with the chart I made, I used a web app that I came across from watching Google I/O this year because of the introduction of Google Drive, the app is called Lucid Chart. I picked it up very quickly and made a really effective looking chart. You can view my creation here. I need to update that version with some new boxes for defence checks which I added later while coding. So far so good, Lucid Chart is a excellent app I recommend to anyone, hopefully with more time I can give more feedback in the coming weeks.


Now I had the chart it was time to start shuffling code, so I made a new file called battle though I am thinking of changing the name to game_functions as I began moving over player input functions like class selection and battle options. Once the moved over functions were all working and the battle sequence ran again I started to analyse the code looking for what would benefit as its own function. I started with the ones that where clear to me from the chart these were get damage and then inflicted the damage, so these functions where made first. This cleaned up the code greatly as I was just listing the functions and I could simply copy and pate the this list to the opposite attacker and alter the names accordingly. It was at this point I added a defence check so in future I can have more defensive mobs that take more hits and in turn the player and find armour to aid them in taking less damage.


To finish off I did the same for the powers. I made functions the check if the player has the correct action points (something again I made need to call at different points in the game) and I make a get power damage function this will help me better determine the class power as they each work in different ways. It was at this point released the benefit of other function I made because infliction the damage to the mob was the same function as in the basic attack, without rewriting the code. It was around there I stopped, the poison is not working yet, looking over that code is tomorrows task, and because the poison is not working in the current version no commits have been make to GitHub yet, as I only like to upload working code, this is mainly encase in need to revert back to a working verson.


My coding was interrupted by a very enjoyable bike ride out in the lovely heavy rain Wales is know for. Rather than a run I went out with my Dad, little brother and a family friend and had a fantastic time. We took on a big mountain and made it to the top, with no pushing obviously a good test of fitness and I felt quicker than the last time I went up there about a week ago. We then went down some rough tracks and then a speedy finish to the end. All in all it was about 20km and although I was on a bike and not running I still think it counts toward the half marathon project as it all helps my fitness. I have a run planed for tomorrow though will write about it in my next blog.


So final thought for day two, I certainly think blogging is helping my quest for becoming more productive. This morning I got straight back to working on my game after reflecting and writing about it in last nights post, I was full of ideas so thats an excellent start to any day.


The quote I am finishing on it very motivational quote from the former US President JFK, he said:

"Things do not happen. Things are made to happen."

As always follow me on twitter @CDSteer  and I will be back tomorrow with more words.

Day One: Where to start?

In my post yesterday I outlined what I wanted to do with my summer. So this morning I woke up with the full intentions of starting one of the projects but I was hit with the question of where to start and how I am going to start making worth while progress. This was when I released I needed to start planing and breaking down the projects into tasks. For this I used a Mac application called TaskPaper.


In TaskPaper I wrote out my headings of each of the main projects, I then just began writing small tasks I knew I needed to completed. I am hoping this will improve my productivity and help me manage the project with better understanding of what needs to be done. I was able to do some research on driving theory and list the topic I would need to cover. I researched and then listed and bought the items I need for making my binary clock, I then broke down and wrote down some simple steps to get started once the items are delivered.  I then wrote down the next couple of runs I needed for the week and that I needed to do some research what sort of diet I needed and some pre-made training plans to adapt to.


At this point I wanted to start thinking about what I wanted as part of the Mini Adventure game. As the other projects where very easy to break down into task, the game is more of a creative project. I began to understand although I had some great ideas for new functions and features to add to the game like a player bag with usable items or armour and weapon to increase stats. I needed to start thinking about new content as there was only one rat to kill, this this also meant the functions that were working, were not really being tested properly and there was no way to test how the players health and action points hold up in later battles so what good would adding a potion do.


In order to add new enemies I then released I wanted it to be random based on what the level the player was. So the first thing I needed was a level up system for the player, this would then be run each time a mob was killed. I added an XP value to the mob this would then add to the total XP of the player, once this hit the max which I set as 50 the player would level up and a new max XP would be calculated, in the future I am going to add a function to increase the players stats and like some RPGS/adventure games restore health and action points.


Now it was time to add a function where the mob the player is against is dependent on the players level. I have made this very simple to begin with until I think of more mobs and how I can make them challenging to battle in a basic game. So as it stands players level 1 verse the rat and then players who beat the rat (should be all of them) now with the new level system progress to level 2 and verse a new goblin who is more thick skinned than our friend the rat. I think its important for the rat to always be at level one just like every classic RPG but I will need to find a more random way for different mobs as the levels progress and well as randomising their stats. 


So returning the to the question of where to start? For me making the lists helped me to start seeing smaller areas I could focus on rather than aimless looking at big projects I did not know how to start. But, it also helped me get stuck into something because once I started breaking it down into smaller easier to complete tasks, I immediately seen how these smaller task could be implemented this is why I so quickly got engrossed in coding my game today as I was able to focus on the small tasks rather than aimless writing code worrying about the end result because without the small steps there is no end result.


I will finish today with interesting quote about progress and doing easier things first from the co-fonder and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg:

"I think a simple rule of business is, if you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress."

The progress I made to day can be found on my GitHub and as always you can follow me on twitter @CDSteer I will be back tomorrow to hopefully share more  progress and adventure but properly just progress.

Hello World!

Hi, My name is Cameron I am a 18 year old student from Wales, UK with potentially a very un-eventful summer ahead of me unless I start becoming productive. I finished college last week I am already missing having a clear focus and with two months before I go to university to study Computer Science I am going to be very bored.


I feel blogging, potentially everyday would help me in this endeavour and help to for fill aims I have laid out:

1. Help me to improve or just maintain writing skills ready for University
2. Track and document projects
3. Help me to finish what I start as I will be able to evaluate my progress rather hitting brick walls (metaphorically of-course)
4. Potential engage in a web community

So I need projects to work on to that line up with what I am interested in. So my first and main focus in life is to go to study and work in the field of Computer Science, so I want to take on a project to help me learn to program and improve my programming skills.


During my time in college I had bits of experience with Java, CSS, HTML and Javascript (mainly to use the library jQuery) but the one I took to the most was PHP. With a friend I did a lot of work on small social networking site writing all the backend functions for stuff like logging in a posting messages, the site is currently on a the back burner as we had a hard time differentiating the idea from other social networking sites but it may return one day.


Now I am really into Python drifting in and out of online guides I picked up the basics and ran with it and started making a mini old school terminal adventure game. This is the the project I want to continue with and make my summer project, my current work is on GitHub its very basic and I wish to advance it to something worth play by the end of the summer.


Its not just programming I want to learn other aspects of technology mainly wanting to physically make something myself. So I recently bought an Arduino to tinker and play with and so far I have made a light and a switch and that progressed in to a mini traffic light system but now I am looking to build a binary clock find after finding small guide to follow. I intend to add my own influence to this guide intending to make it look nice in my bed room.


Next on my list is learning to drive, this is something I lost interest shortly after I turning 17, this was a big mistake on my part as driving will be so important for my future. This is why this summer driving is a top priority before I start missing opportunities as I begin to qualify.


Next aim of mine started back in February this was to get in to shape and improve my fitness I achieved this goal with great success losing 3 stone/20kg and reaching my BMI this was though watching what I eat and taking up running. I am continuing to run and really enjoy it so I am now setting my self the challenge of running a half a marathon by the end of the summer.


So the list is a as follows:

1. Binary Clock using Arduino
2. Mini Adventure Game Found here: My GitHub
3. Learning to Drive
4. Run a half a marathon
5. ….And of course trying to blog and share my thoughts on all the progress.

I going to enjoy this process I have always wanted to blog now I feel I have an objective. I will follow this up tomorrow evening with day one of production. I am going to end with an appropriate Walt Disney Quote:

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing"

… and I am going to do just that.


Also be sure to follow me on twitter where I send smaller amounts of text to the internet hopping someone enjoys what I have to say: @CDSteer