Aha! I figured out why the site broke a couple of days ago. The TrackMania server crashed and that was causing the slow down. Note to self: Add some error checking to the TrackMania files. The server stats have been added to the enws and games pages again. There's still some stuff going on at the bottom of the page but I don't want to mess with it right now. If you don't like it, click the remove server link to get rid of it.
I have been spared having to save the world from a zombie invasion as I just found out my computer won't run Left 4 Dead. The Freaky Friday 24 demo started at 5pm for me today and I was able to watch the intro movie but then the game crashes to the desktop with a memory error. I'm not going to spend the next two hours trying to figure it out because I will probably go to bed then and then the free trial will be over before I have another chance to play.
Thanks to Sabre for pointing out that Valve is doing a free 24-hour trial of Left 4 Dead starting at 12:01am GMT this Friday. It would be nice to have a whole weekend to try it but what can you do? At least I found out about it with enough time to pre-load it not like the time .GrinderRobot told me it was on sale the day after the sale ended. Click here to start pre-loading Left 4 Dead.
I was not pleased with the season finale of Heroes. You know it's gonna lead to bad things. Hopefully the finale of Lost will be better tonight.
A week or two ago I figured out how to save a variable in Facebook's data store for an app I was working on. It took me several hours and it doesn't get deleted after 24 hours like I was afraid it would because of Facebook's Terms of Use but now I have to figure out how to retrieve a friend's var so you can see your friend's stats but now that I know how much the online documentation sucks for making a Facebook app, I have lost interest in finishing it. If it helps anybody, here is how I got the data to be saved using PHP. First I set up a form to enter an id number. Then I created a php file to receive the form info. Include the usual Facebook stuff...
<?php
require_once 'facebook.php'; // load facebook.php
require_once 'constants.php'; // get your facebook key and secret from a separate php file so you don't have to enter it every time
$facebook = new Facebook($key,$secret); // create new facebook app
$user_id=$facebook->require_login(); // require login
I got the variable from the form submit and did some error checking to make sure it gets a response when added to the URL of the site I am trying to display. Then if it's good, I save it to Facebook like this...
So my app works where you can see your results but nobody else can. If somebody wants to tell me how to retrieve a friend's userId, send me a code snippet using the contact us form.
In other news... Grrrrr! I spent like an hour today trying to figure out why my Slim Devices Squeezebox would not connect to the wireless network here at the DOH! Network. I finally figured out that it has reassigned its mac address. Nice! Stupid Squeezebox! You don't know how close you were to me running over you with the truck.
The season finale of Heroes is tomorrow. That will be one less thing I have to worry about weekly for a bit. I think the finale of Lost is coming this week too but I was too angry to watch last week's episode that they were pimping as an all new episode but it was really an all new recap.
AAARRGGGHHH!!! I hate PHP. The site is having a bad code day today where the same code that worked fine on Sunday is taking forever to load today. I didn't do anything to the site yesterday so I know I didn't break something. So if you are reading the news or checking out the game servers, give them like 5 minutes to load. They work. Just not as fast as they should. The error logs aren't showing anything and HTTP Fox doesn't show specific files taking longer than normal to load. It's just a bad code day.
UPDATE: It looks like the news and game servers pages not loading is being caused by the Trackmania server stats script. That hs been disabled for now. The Team Fortress 2 players list is broken too but that's something screwy with qStats. Not that qStats has changed in like four years. For some reason Left 4 Dead is not showing up at all in the server stats and I don't think there was any update there.
UPDATE: Valve just released an update to Left 4 Dead to add a new survival mode where it's a battle to see how long you can last against ever increasing hordes of undead. Maybe we'll see a sale in the next week or two.
I hate caching server too. When I work on websites at work I have to work directly in the QA environment because I don't have a fully functioning dev environment. The QA environment is closer to what is live and because of that, it uses caching servers to store images so that when I make updates it takes about 15 seconds for my changes to show up. Today they are taking a lot longer. Is it because yesterday was 4/20 that everything is running slow?
I also hate having access to the live site and changing a file there by mistake when I am trying to update something in QA. Luckily the change I just made was just moving items in a nav to how they were suppose to be but if it were something big, I would be really really mad.
I hate Steam for releasing an update last night that made it so I couldn't play some Team Fortress 2. They are probably hard at work fixing it so I can play tonight but I just wanted a little time to blow stuff up last night and the game let me down. And for what? The updated didn't add anything to the game that I could use last night. It added some code for hats but not enough that I could put a hat on last night. Although I could have deleted all my weapons and have no way to get them back with another feature they added. nice!
I'm mad at following procedures at work only to have the guys I need to make changes give me the run around because they don't bother to really read my request for change. They see a key word in the request and reject the job saying it's not their department. I send a request to this other department and they say it's not their department either, go talk to the first guy.
I'm made at the stupid tree in the front yard that has been there for like six years and hasn't grown. Stupid tree. It's big enough that it would leave a good sized stump if I were to cut it down and the homeowners association would probably get all over my case if there were a stump in my yard. Stupid HOA.
I really hate telemarkerters. I'll tell you right now if you call me and you are selling something, I will hang up on you. I will not let you read your script and politely decline because you don't take frikkin' no for an answer and keep spewing scripted text. As soon as I have verified you are calling to ask me for money I'm out.
I hate when I add a buncha songs to the iPod and then when I start listening at work, I can't stand any of the songs on there. That reminds me, I need to update my playlist today.
While driving around this morning I saw what looked to be a Ferrari SUV. It didn't look like any current concept photos you can find on the Internet and the Ferrari website has nothing on it so I am hoping it was just some tool he fixed up some truck to make it look like a Ferrari because it was not good looking at all and I would hope Ferrari would not put out something that looked that bad.
I was thinking in the shower this morning that my Facebook app is missing one important feature. The ability to view the avatars of other people. It works all great seeing your own but there's no code to check out the avatar of another person. It needs a little bit more work but I don't think it will be as bad as what I already have working as I cross my fingers.
I was thinking the other day I should have a LAN before it gets too hot but I think I waited too long. It was like 90° this weekend. I went in the pool instead and now I wreak of chlorine.
Looks like Shaka is getting his game on. He is promising to start updating the Game Republic website and has even brought back the Shaka cam although the shot is a flashback Deathcon LAN pic. That's me in the front with the keyboard on my lap. That was from my mouse/joystick gaming period.
I finally figured out the backend stuff for a Facebook app I am working on. Now I just need to make some error checking stuff and clean it up and it should be ready for the world. Hopefully nobody else builds the same thing before I am ready to go prime time.
The DOH! Network server stats page has been updated to now let you add and remove game server so you don't have to look at the servers I like all the time. It still needs some error checking if a server doesn't exist but if you mess it up completely, delete your DOH! Network cookie and it should put the default servers back in.
I had to remove and reinstall Team Fortress 2 because my Junction map is corrupt and I couldn't figure out where the heck to find it in my TF2 install. The Steam app said my game was up to date but I would keep getting kicked from servers running the Junction map. Hopefully this will resolve the problem. I wish the next Team Fortress 2 update would hurry up and get here. Shaka asked me to school him in it the other day but now he only logs on in the middle of the night when he knows I am not around because he is skerd.
DOH! First it was Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons & Dragons passed away and now the co-creator Dave Arneson has died too. Check out Shaka's Blog of Death as he recounts playing Dungeons & Dragons in his youth. Reading Shaka's site reminds me of the time in high school when I stumbled upon a couple of guys I knew playing Dungeons & Dragons on a stairwell at the back of the school. I hung out with them for a couple of days at lunch but they weren't interested in a third player for their game so I eventually made my way to the senior lawn where I played a lot of hacky sack. One of those guys from the stairwell would later go on to purge his bladder in class a few weeks before graduation. Thank you Shaka for making me remember that.
The official Team Fortress website has been updated with word of the next class upgrade. It's the sniper. Not one of my favorite classes but it is looking to be the biggest update to date. There is also another update planned before the sniper update that will include new content for all classes. Sweet! You gotta love a company that supports their games after launch as much as Valve does.
With all the Team Fortress 2 I have been playing lately, I am starting to get a LAN jones on again. If anything it will be good to get all those monkeys that were playing it at the last LAN motivated to play it again now. But then again they will probably be too scared to play against me and my bone saw of justice. But whatever. Hey, I understand they are getting older and can't hang with the FPS's like they use to. The too fast action gives them seizures and junk. At least I'm not asking them to play Left 4 Dead. That game looks crazy with the zombies pouncing on you from six blocks away. That's not cool at all. I like my zombies slow and stupid.