VBAS Assignment

by Jonathan in Education, Programming on Tuesday January 31, 2006 at 0235hours

Please excuse me while I rant and bitch about my Visual Basic Assignment.

– Begin ranting

So I decided to have sounds that overlap each over for my game (one sound playing background music and other sounds to provide sound effects). So fine, tried to use my existing framework to accomplish that.

My existing framework being a class that interfaces with the Windows API (winmm.dll) to send a sound stream to the soundcard. The textbook solution was to embed a Windows Media Player control into the form and call it to play the sounds I required. This solution was not very elegant as I had trouble getting the sound to loop (for the background sound) and when I did, it was not smooth at all.

That was some time back, when I first started coding the game. Now that I’m 95% done, I had to revisit to add overlapping funtionality to my class. After 2+ hours of trying every trick I could think of, I discovered that the interface with the Windows API does not allow me to have 2 sounds playing simultaniously.

Bloody Hell. Nevermind, took a break.

Then I had a brillent idea. I decided to use Threads to each execute an instance of the class. So I spent another 1+ hour on it. Then tested. Damn. Still doesn’t work.

At the end of it all, I went back to using the textbook Windows Media Player solution. It works. So now I have my API interfacing class running the background music AND the Media Player. Not forgetting 3+ hours of wasted productivity.

Why wasted productivity?? Because I learnt things that is not covered in my VBAS syllabus. Wait? Isn’t that a good thing? Learning beyond the textbook?

Not when you’re in an education system as screwed up as Singapore’s one is.

– End Ranting

Righto, now that that is off my chest, the PHP cBoard is now functioning. Beta testers anyone? The account management, however, is taking longer then I expected. Hopefully I’ll find time here and there to put things together. Anyhow, the PHP cBoard is running on my blog, so if you encounter any errors tagging or whatnots, please do let me know.

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The Road Not Taken

by Jonathan in Life on Saturday January 28, 2006 at 0120hours

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost (1874–1963)

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The Youth Team (OVA)

by Jonathan in Uncategorized on Tuesday January 24, 2006 at 1926hours

I am this –> <– close to giving up and forgetting about the whole thing alltogether.

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Realism

by Jonathan in Life, Victoria School on Sunday January 22, 2006 at 0157hours

I realised that I haven’t blogged in a while.

Oops.

Life’s been a bore lately, with all the assignments / projects / reports and such. If stress could be converted to electricity, I have enough in me to power the whole of Singapore for one week. Maybe two.

Then there’s the whole issue of the YVA or whatever we finally decide to call it. I use the term ‘we’ loosely, since it looks more like a one man operation on my part. The rest have other commitments I guess. I understand.

Thank god for VS. Headed back on Friday after school for the OVA soccer tournament. Interesting. There is a lot more to plan / consider then we have done. LTC BBQ was after that. Needless to say, if there’s one thing that is as effective as drugs in releasing stress, the VS related events in my life would be it. Without the negative side effects of drugs too.

All in all it was a good BBQ. I most definitely had fun playing soccer and chatting with the shirts.

Now that the Final Exams are looming, I’ve got to start mugging again. This time more then last sem thanks to SP’s screwed up module per semester load.

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All schools should go co-ed

by Jonathan in Education on Sunday January 15, 2006 at 1722hours

In response to a letter in Inbox, Sunday Times 15th Jan 2006

Apparently, somebody is happy that ACS(I) has gone co-ed (although its technically not co-ed, just that they have IB if i’m not mistaken). OK. Fine by me. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

But its gets too far when the writer, Ang Ah Lay (from Hong Kong) goes on to “urge our policymakers and school professionals to convert all OUR (emphasis mine) remaining single-sex schools into co-ed ones as soon as possible.”

Who the F does he/she think he/she is? (Sorry, I’ve never been good at recognising the gender of Chinese names)

Apparently, he/she’s one who believes that “single-sex schools unwittingly create an artificial barrier to the natural evolution of wholesome interaction between our boys and girls”.

COME ON. Its not like single-sex schools chain us to our tables and chairs and never let us leave the school right? Heck, in VS, it was a common sight to see Victorians, after school of course, take a bus down Marine Parade Road to Parkway just to hang out with their girlfriends. So much for the great “artificial barrier”.

And then there’s the whole issue that “co-ed schools offer a more conducive environment for our children to nature social skills early in life, thus helping them to develop into confident well adjusted individuals”.

Har Har Har. I’m seriously laughing my pants off. For the unacquainted, read John’s post

I think single-sex schools provide a good environment for LEARNING. That is, after all, the main reason why we have school in the first place! That said, single-sex schools allow for the brotherly / sisterly bonding and unity, which in turn provides for NO distractions (in the school environment) during the period of our lives where we may not be fully equipped and ready to deal with the onset of the opposite gender, especially since its within the age of puberty.

Now I shall not be as generalising and conclusion jumping as the author to state that (or rather “urge”) our policymakers to convert all schools to single-sex. That would be extremely one-sided of me.

There are benefits to a co-ed education just as there are benefits to single-sex education as well. But calling for ALL single-sex schools to go co-ed is pushing my buttons.

I say we leave the system as it is. If the league of parents who feel, like Ah Lay does, that receiving an education in a single-sex school is going to affect the livelihood of their children, then simply avoid single-sex schools like the plague. Its not like you don’t have a choice right?

Just don’t bloody hell make a sweeping statement and call for ALL schools to go co-ed.

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