Nilore Vagan’s Blog

Sorry for the long delay between posts.

I’ve been rather busy, as things have been happening around the house.

But tonight, I found a killer deal on a quad-core processor/memory bundle. Saves me 100$.

However, I still am only short a little bit, to cover shipping.

After I get this new server put together, I’ll have a chat on its way.

Okay, just a quick update since I haven’t given one in a while

I’ve spent the last few days deciding how I’m going to do the game I mentioned a while back… I think I have it figured out, so I’ve started production. Right now, I’m working on the design for the pages, which will be used to hold the beta signup page. I just need to make a few changes to it, and it’ll be ready.

I call it the beta signup, but it’s more alpha testing, since it’ll still be in early development when public testing starts. I just like to have lots of feedback for bugs, and so forth.

…you gotta do it -right.-

Getting tired of trying to use someone else’s scripts, Eri and I are going to make our own. We’re currently working on a chat made out of python. Eri knows the python, so I helped rig up the database and will design the shell for it later. Like, once she gets the code end all set up.

Actually, I’m going to design the shell right away, but attaching it to the scripts will be something to do later. I hope this one works. We’ve been trying (off and on, mind you, not constantly) for a couple of years now to try to set up a chat site like this one. We hope (hopeahopeahopeahope) that this’ll work.

If it does, I think it’ll be Jhinlot’s first project to be truely put into operational standards.

I’ve spent all day today trying to rig up that chat script. Most of the installation went pretty smooth, up until the part it was supposed to work.

“function public.getsearch(unknown) does not exist” will haunt me until I figure out how to fix it.

A quick google didn’t yield much, but then again, it’s late and I’ve already spent all day on this. I see the “getSearch” function in the public schema (I’m using postgresql, by the way; not that I’m too happy with that, it’s what the software requires), so I assume that part’s correct. Which means that it’s the (unknown) part that’s causing the problem. A little more down the error, “unknown” is replaced with the server’s IP address along with the file path to whatever perl script caused the error; which, in my current status, is all of them.

Looking farther into this function, it lists the variable where the address goes as “Domain name to check against.” I have no idea what this thing is supposed to be doing, but it’s apparently on all of the perl scripts that this software uses. But due to my lack of expertise in this particular field, I really have no clue.

I’m not a professional when it comes to perl and postgresql. IN fact, I know very little about it. I’m a PHP/Mysql kind of guy. And I realize that Perl opens up a lot more doors than PHP does. But if you’re going to publicly release a script, at least make sure your install instructions are clear, just in case the person using it doesn’t know his way around Perl and the like.

I’ll figure it out.. I promise. If anyone knows anything about this, help would be appreciated…

EDIT: Okay, fixed that. Now I get

Transaction Error:

DBD::Pg::st execute failed: ERROR:  cannot EXECUTE a null querystring
CONTEXT:  PL/pgSQL function "getsearch" line 19 at EXECUTE statement

And have even -less- clue what's going on.

Well, today I realized that my server just was -not- set up to handle the scripts I wanted to feed it. So, I wanted to start from the ground up. In order to do this, we nuked the server’s drive entirely. It’s not like I wasn’t going to do that anyway, seeing as I’m still planning on upgrading the server…

Also, I managed to get the Archive’s main site set up. I’ve got a new gallery and such in there, too; hopefully, I can also find a way to store images in there so I don’t have to stream off of Youtube. Even though it makes more sense bandwidth wise to use Youtube.

We are very, -very- determined to get the script we want running. It’s a fancy chat script… not ours, but we really like it and the source code was free, anyway. I’ve been trying for nearly two years now to get this thing running, and all it’s done to me is be a pain in the butt. Mostly because I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to Perl and Postgresql server.

Okay, I play WoW, or The World of Warcraft, on a daily basis, while I’m not working on important stuff. Last night, I decided to have a little fun, and leveled myself up from 6 to 22 in little over three minutes. About 30-40 of those seconds was spent in a duel.

The character I’m playing there is Firai, on the server Tortheldrin. Yes, this is legal; yes, this is an official server.

I record a bunch of stuff while I’m playing, particularly my PKs. I have 4 PKs (Player Kills) on Tortheldrin, only two of which, though, did I record. Hopefully, I’ll have enough to compile a decent video by the time I’m 70.

My Druid, Talendeaesis, is level 33, with only 1 day and 2 hours on her /played time.

Maybe I’ll make a guide…

Okay, I have this really bad habit of trying to do lots of things all at once, even though I know I probably can’t handle it.

Guess what?

I’m going to do that again.

This time, I’m going to try to write a story, program an AI, and build an online game all at the same time.

This game will be a browser-based MMORPG similar to games like Ogame and Bite Fight. Only, I want to try to impliment real-time battles. No silly “you attack him and lose,” but you rather get to control what your character does. I’ve tinkered with the idea before, but never got around to perfecting it. And I get to build the whole thing from scratch, too!

Woohoohoo!

I promise I’ll let people see this one, though. JhAIMS can’t be shown around yet, but this game, I’ll probably send out tester keys and the like real early on.

Just now, I got JhAIMS to recognize the two basic addons I have set up. “Login” and “News,” the two addons together will allow for users to view recent news and log in, if they have rights to. Right now, JhAIMS displays all addons along a menu bar… the addons will only be there if they’re installed, and will disappear on their own upon uninstallation. After writing the Login and News addon scripts, I’ll start to expand.

Neither of these scripts should take very long… in fact, I have most of the code already, I just need to move it over for JhAIMS to see it.

While working on JhAIMS’ GUI the other day, I encountered an interesting problem with attempting to use HTML frames in order to separate the fields.  Instead, I’m now using just plain HTML, and will add CSS later… CSS, in my opinion, is a lot better for keeping content separated, anyway, and can produce just about the same effect (while not having adjustable frames, it can make it look like there’s a frame there).

In the mean time, I’m adjusting the system to handle a completely modular setup… JhAIMS’ core itself will be near functionless, but will be able to adapt and attach to addons that can be added and removed… So far, so good.

Not too long after getting my home server repaired, and getting ready to get my new server, I absentmindedly deleted the database behind www.nilorevagan.com.

I feel like the King of All Cosmos. Next thing I know, I’m going to send out little digital people to roll up loose data to repair my database with.

Oh, well.

I guess I’ll just make another site, complete with brand new database and the like. I’ll have it done by Wednesday so that you guys can see chapter 4 when it comes out, and I’ll repair all existing links to point to the new site later.

Back to business… I recently discovered Adobe Flex. When my father told me about it last night, I thought it’d be kinda cool. He mentioned that it made for a “sharp-looking web application.” Well, he showed me a few things it could do, and he was right. It did create rather nice, visually appealing web applications.

But my inner Webmaster got a hold of my logic engine, and said, “Hey. There has to be some kind of problem with this.” So, I asked a few questions and did some research. It turns out that Flex is just like Flash, except it’s pretty much strictly coding, rather than having to mess with timelines and the like. Which includes the client side having to have the Flash 9 plugin for their browser.

I don’t like Flash. when I say that, I mean, “I don’t like building web pages with Flash.”  Flash itself can make some neat applications, like chat sites, menu bars, and movies. It can be used to make media applications online, among many other things. Flash can do great things.

Making a consumer-friendly web site is not one of them.

I’m sorry, but I’ve spent years in training to build web sites that are able to be viewed, understood, and used from ANY browser. You cannot do that with Flash. I could understand crafting a site with Flash if you could provide a ‘bare-bones’ site as well, in order to allow users who cannot use Flash to access your site as well. I can understand sites whose purpose requires Flash or other various plugins (Youtube, for example). You go there to see the Flash content.

What I don’t understand, is this fad that everything has to be animated, glowing, shiny, moving around, spinning, bobbing, twirling, fading, whatever other effect you want on an informational website. Cool websites are… cool, yes. They look nice, they draw the eye. But do you really need all that extra stuff? An exteme example would be Windows Vista. Do you -really- need all that asthetic garbage that does nothing but look pretty and slow your computer down?

A rule of thumb I always keep when designing a web application is “keep it simple.” You can make a visually appealing web site without resorting to shiny gimmicks. If you wanna use Flash or some fancy Javascript, have some kind of alternative ready in case the user has them disabled or doesn’t have them at all. Remember that the goal is to make your website as compatable as possible.