Teen Tech

Well, I went online to www.toysrus.com and I bought myslef a world famous Rubiks Cube.  Pretty amazing little toy.  I got it scrambled it, then got stuck.  I looked online for some algorithms (steps to achieve a predictable outcome), used them, then solved the cube.  Easy.  It took me nearly 20 minutes to solve after I had found the sequences.  Next I want to work on speed.  With this, I not only need to oil up my cube, but to either discover or look up some more optimized algorithms built for speed.  Currently, according to www.speedcubing.com which is the unofficial world records page, the record is 7.12 seconds to solve the cube.  That’s SECONDS.  My best time right now is 2:27.265 minutes, so I’ve got a long way to go.  According to Jessica Fridrich, who is a leading Rubik’s cube expert and mathematician, there are about 1211 possible algorithms that could potentially be used to solve a cube.  She uses about 80 on a regular basis often getting times of less than 15 seconds.  Wow.  Well, I’m going to try to break from my current method which is slow and tedious, and ATTEMPT to learn some new stuff.

Hey there everyone,

Well, like I said in my previous post, I like Team Fortress 2 (”TF2″). There is a stats program out there right now called HLStatsX at www.hlstatsx.com. The problem with this is that it costs five euros a month to use. I not only don’t want to pay for it, but I don’t want to outsource it. This software records stuff like who kills who, with what, how often. Your favorite class, and what not. It runs off of the server logs which all TF2 servers give, so, I decided, what if I created my own. This is all fine and good, except for when I actually opened the server logs. It looked a little something like this:

L 01/27/2008 - 21:43:43: “Programertobe<7><STEAM_0:1:7752907><Red>” killed “Bot05<8><BOT><Blue>” with “shotgun_hwg” (attacker_position “573 12 64″) (victim_position “739 141 64″)
L 01/27/2008 - 21:44:09: “Programertobe<7><STEAM_0:1:7752907><Red>” killed “Bot05<8><BOT><Blue>” with “fists” (attacker_position “691 119 64″) (victim_position “692 167 64″)
L 01/27/2008 - 21:44:13: “Programertobe<7><STEAM_0:1:7752907><Red>” changed role to “scout”
So, I’ve been working on writing my scripts to just pull out the relevant information, which has been a pain, but I’ve made some progress. I want to compile all of the information to a web interface so players can look at their rankings, and stats themselves, so the information has to be in a readable form. I’ve included with this post, a copy of my current source code and server logs, so you can see what I’ve been doing and hopefully where I plan to go with it.

http://tech-works.info/stats.txt
http://tech-works.info/logs.txt

Last night was the most intense sporting event (for me at least) that I have ever seen televised.  It was MLG’s (Major Leage Gaming) finals for the national title held in Vegas.  At this time, all of the bracket information that I’m giving out, may be incorrect as MLG’s site has not been updated with the new information at this time.  I do know for a fact though that this is the very last year that MLG will be holding Halo 2 leagues because of the releas of Halo 3, so last night was the final Halo 2 matches to be played in that professional circuit. 

Going in, there were a total of five teams left, Team 5k, Team Str8 Rippin, Team Agency, Team Carbon, and of course Team Final Boss.  Teams Carbon and Final Boss were my favorites for making it to the finals, but I wanted Final Boss to come out on top.  In the end though, Str8 Rippin knocked out 5K, Agency knocked out Str8 Rippin, Agency knocked out Str8 Rippin, then finally Carbon Knocked out Agency.  It had happened.  The single match that I’ve always wanted to watch with the new rosters, Carbon vs. Final Boss.  Last year, team Carbon let “Strongside” go, and team Final Boss picked him up, but right after Carbon fired him, they went on to win the national title, so it was a grudge match.  My favorite player in MLG is Dave “Walshy” Walsh on team Final Boss.  Red Bull sponsorships, and a nice paycheck from MLG, he is considered by many to be the top player on the planet. 

In the Carbon vs. Final Boss, it was a first to 50 team slayer match on midship, which is not my favorite map at all.  The game was within 2 kills for almost the entire match with the lead being handed off back and forth.  In the end, Team Final Boss won 50-48, and they were handed a check for 100,000$.  It was an amazing match.  Very intense.  Every player played at the top of their game.  “Ogre 2,” who is one of a set of twins on team Final Boss (”Ogre 1″ and “Ogre 2″) was given the MLG MVP award because he had over 160 more kills then deaths throughout the season.  Simply amazing.  In the end, hard work, dedication, and a little red bull got them through.  It was a sight to behold.

Today I have had a pretty bad day.  I first went to the nearest “Game Stop” with the intentions of trading in a few games, and purchasing a used copy of “Halo 2″.  I got to the store, made the trades and purchased the game, then I went out to the van to go back home.  I locked my keys in.  So, with no cell phone to call anyone or money to pay for a locksmith, I got smart.  I was able to break into the van using one of my shoelaces, my wallet, a yellow tube I found, and a stick.  I’m not going to go into any details, just in case someone wanted to use this information for malicious reasons, but after just an hour, I was on my way back home.  When I got home, the game didn’t work.  It was just too scratched, so I go back in my van to go back to the store, and when I got there, the lady behind the counter showed me all of the copies of Halo 2 she had in stock, and I took the best one, so I head back home.  It didn’t work either, so after driving about 80 miles (it is about 20 miles to the game store), I still don’t have a working copy of the game.  Very Depressing.

OK,
so I didn’t break the whole bowling alley. Only lanes one and two. Here’s what happened. A ball or two before, I threw my ball like normal, got a gutter, but it bounced out of the gutter (more like it flew out of the gutter), then it hit five pins. Two of those bounced into the gutter about 3 feet out of the reach of the arm that collects the pins, so there they sat until someone hit them. I hit one of them no problem, and that put it back into play. On my next turn I threw my ball, and I hit to top of the pin that was facing towards me in the gutter. The pin acted like a ramp for my lighter-than-usual ball, and that hit the plastic at the top at the end of the lane that had the lane numbers and ball count on it. It shattered it for my lane and the lane next to me. Plastic and the little LEDs were hanging down. Luckily, the guy behind the counter was understanding, even though he still took my phone number. He could have thrown us out then and there, but he actually offered to move us to different lanes. Luckily the damage was with a house ball, and not my own, and hopefully they have insurance. I’ve decided now that I’m going to quit bowling for a while and concentrate on my Counter-Strike playing and getting my team off the ground.

OK,

I always get depressed this time of year. People graduate. At vo-tech the students aren’t all from the same school, they are from all of the Lenawee County schools. Well, some of my friend’s last day at vo-tech was today, and I don’t think I’ll be able to go to his graduation open house, so today may have been the last day that I ever see him. One of these kids knows a ton more about computers and technology than anyone I know including myself. I’m depressed about him leaving (He’s going to college out of state).

On the other hand, I have filled my Counter-Strike team roster. We will probably play in the CAL (CyberAthlete Amateur League www.caleague.com) season 20 starting in January to give us time to practice. I’m working on the website for the team now (www.tech-works.info/CS).

Also, I’m going to be working on my post frequency here, so keep checking back for more!!!

OK,

So, I wrote a post a while back about professional video gaming.  Well, I’ve decided to start my own Counter-Strike (www.counter-strike.net) team.  A team consists of six players, all with their own copy of the game, and a league to play in.  We would play in the semi-pro leage, the CAL (CyberAthlete Amateur League, which is a subsidiary of the CyberAthlete Professional League).  I’ve hit a couple of roadblocks, right now, which will be remedied in time. 

1. I need a complete team roster, which consists of six people.  I have two definite people, and one possible. 
2. Everyone needs a copy of the game.  Pirating a game and attempting to play in the league is cause for a 35 year ban.  Yeah, they’re that strict. 
3. We need a place to practice, then play the games, preferably under one roof.  The games are played online against the other players, but I have dialup internet :(, so that would hinder my brother and me. 

Other than that, we would be good.  Unfortunately, for this, I will be gone during the summer, so we would have to wait one or two seasons (the gaming season is about three months, and the next season begins immediately after one concludes).  That will give us enough time to get the roster together, and get the game for everyone, and find a place to practice/play.  It will happen and when the fall or winter season comes around, we should be ready.

Ok, so I said that I’d get some information about some of the top gamers in their league, so here is a biography of one such gamer.  He plays in the Cyberathlete Professional League mostly playing Counter Strike and Quake.  His name is Johnathon “Fatal1ty” Wendel.  Here is his biography: (from Fatal1ty.com)

Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel started professional gaming in 1999 by entering the CPL (Cyberathlete Professional League) tournament in Dallas and won $4,000 for placing third. Emerging as one of the top players in the United States, he then flew to Sweden where he competed in a tournament against the top 12 players in the world.

By winning 18 straight games and losing none he took first place, becoming the number one ranked Quake III player in the world. Two months later he followed that success in Dallas by successfully defending his title as the world’s best Quake III player and winning the $40,000 grand prize.

Since then Fatal1ty has traveled the globe to compete against the best in the world, winning prizes and acclaim, including the largest prize in competitive video game history by capturing first place at the CPL World Tour Finals and winning the $150,000 prize in PainkilleR. He’s now won a World Championship in 5 different games, a feat never before accomplished.

Well,

There have been quite a few updates in the land of technology lately, or at least my land.  First off, one of the top gaming leagues, the WSVG (World Series of Video Games) has added World of Warcraft to the list of games to be played in their professional circuit during the 2007 gaming season (yes, gaming has seasons).

Secondly, and most importantly, I received a  letter on Friday from Davenport University.  It wasn’t an acceptance letter (I’m only a junior, so I can’t apply anywhere yet), it was a scholarship award letter.  Because of how I did at the Business Professionals of America State Conference, I received a $2,000 scholarship to Davenport, with a chance for that money to grow next year depending on my performance at the BPA conferences.  I was shocked for getting this, and maybe this university is in my future.