*Update!  It gets better.  My ancient pre-hunterdavis.com website from 2001 is still available on the wayback machine!  I've posted all my rants from 2001 below the break.

10./14/2001

I'm putting up my christmas lists today.

10/13/2001

Well it's been a while. I've got some good news and some bad news. Well ok no bad news as enterprise is on tonight and it takes names. The good news is I can get my opengl stuff to compile and run under windows so maybe i'll throw down some csserver adventure graphical adventure pretty soon. we'll have to see.

9/22/2001

Sorry for the frequent dropouts in ping time and connections, the cable modem's been acting up on me. Everything should be ok for the rest of the weekend though.

For those of you who can't get to it, i put up the wolfie multiplayer test to download */this is no longer the case*/

9/18/2001

My new switch has come in!!! Csserver Adventure is back online! I'll be posting examples for cs355 graphics in the next day or two, expect chapter 2 examples that work and hopefully a canvas class that will properly compile with a special myGLprog.cc made all special like. I'll also be posting pictures from my big vacation soon, and a help guide/tutorial to start out cs355.

Csserver Comic! will probably not continue due to lack of interest, i might start it up again someday though, after my movie gets made this summer.

8/9/2001

**Update 2**

Well I have put up quite a list of previously banned texts. That fact that some of them have been banned in the past is a tribute to censorship. Honestly, high school barring Huck Finn? I have about 30 works up so far, all of Sherlock Holmes stuff, some other interesting stuff and i'll be putting up the complete works (possibly just the plays) of Shakespeare and the complete works of edgar allen poe. I'll be going through most of my world cultures books and putting those up (or at least the ones that are legal to put up [us copyright law])

**Update: As long as i'm going to be a document server i'm going to start puttin up previously banned texts that we generally have to read for a university class, the ones that cost bucks and you use once. I hope i can save someone some money**

I have been asked to host the Anarchist Cookbook on my web server. Having researched the legal implications of this i have procured a publicly available copycat version of the book so i'm going to put it up under the archives/documents section. If anyone really wants to look you can find a few other versions around the web and you can even buy the original on amazon for 7 dollars. I'm all for the first amendment so have at it. Just don't try anything that's on it.

8/04/2001

**Update** Scanner is gone, returned it after period of inactivity. Site was down for about an hour due to blackout but is back up***

7a.m. And my neighbor's having a yard sale. How exciing is that? I got the scanner, comic 2 is up. I just took some pain medication so i'm floating in a sea of drug induced tranquility for the time being. Perhaps i'll have another comic up for you today? Maybe i'll work on more enemies in my game? Maybe i'll just sit here and watch the pretty colors swirl by my face. Time will tell i guess.

8/03/2001

**Update: I bought a scanner today. Csserver Comic ## 2 is up, and the suspense is building...**

Bill Splitter Calculator is up and running, basically it's for multiple people splitting a bill. Sounds simple enought right? Basically it is, but there's a bit more too it than that. My problem is that whenever i get a new roommate it's in the middle of the month and it takes a little while to figure out the costs that everyone should pay. Well that's basically what this little javascript program does, it lets you enter in the number of days each person was available for the time period of the bill and the calculator figures out how much each person (up to 5) owes on that bill.

In other news, i still havn't gotten a scanner, so ther'es no csserver comic number 2 yet, but worry not i'll buy one as soon as i get one cheap enough. I'm still laid out in bed for another couple weeks (surgery) so expect a lot of new programs and updates in the next few (basically so i don't go nuts with boredom.) I'm thinking of putting my web cam back up, but that's always a tough decision considering how often i comb my hair. Maybe i'll get a hair cut today... maybe.

8/2/2001 **Update** Online Bill Splitter Calculator will be going up today!

After an extensive surgery what do you normally do?? It turns out that I get really bored and start programming. I have updated csserver adventure to beta 1.5. Basically I have ironed out all the bugs and added a few other perks (mult-name characters, ect...) I'll be adding an account for playing the game only on my box so clicking on the Play Csserver Adventure Online Link will now also give you a username and password to play the game with. It should also work on mobile phones and java devices but i have not tested it as of yet.

Updates for the month of July--
Csserver Adventure (The Comic) Episode 1 is up!
Update # 2: I have signed up for a messageboard that a few people have told me is pretty good, i guess we'll see if anyone posts. I'm starting work on the comic, i'll probably get a scanner in the next week.

Update: I am looking into doing a web-comic for csserver adventure, and cs life here in general. I'm going to have to scan in some pictures of people and things so i'm going to have to buy a scanner first. If anyone knows a win2k (i use photoshop, sorry i'm i windows pansy in that respect) compatible scanner around here for around 30 bucks, give me a holler. I already have some storylines drawn up, should be able to post pretty often whenever i get the scanner.

This is now being hosted by ME! mwahahahaa. My linux box is now fully operational and soon you will see the power of this death-star!!!! I also am bringing my old site over here so you'll soon have a link to that on the navigation bar.

New Beginings, new Languages, and a new life
6-23-2001-- Here it is, the long awaited post from our dead, forgotten here of the page... Time to tie up some loose ends. Half.com is once again honorable, and then some. I was refunded a generous amount for thier mistake in letting the burner sell me a game, and I was very happy when i saw my account statement. I never got any money from the guy in Florida for my magic cards, and I know now that i never will. Was it fate telling me to hold on to my cards? Nope, it was fate calling me a loser for letting a bunch of money go down the toilet. All my friends have already abandoned magic, a testament to the inability of life-dominating factors to hold our interest for more than a few years. Now I am left with this magic collection that I cannot sell for 1/10 it's worth, and don't know where I would do it anyway. Maybe one of these days i'll stop by a comic shop and see if i can get some videogames or anime/manga out of it on a trade, but the future does not look bright for my magic cards. I have learned my lesson, Ebay, half.dot.com., etc may be fine to sell things, but it's too easy to get ripped off by an online store. I am about to buy the new Ura Zelda games, you know, the ones for game-boy. Everything I've heard sounds good, but first I've gotta get circle of the moon (castlevania) I'm building a new system. 2 actually, one for my little sis who's leaving for college across town next week and one for, well hell what reason do nerds ever give for wanting a second system, it's gonna be sweet. I found this old 386 rackmount server with an lcd display and keylock, just like back in the day. I painted the sides black and the top and back silver. The front is really dark blue. The front and sides have silver paint lightly sprayed in a fine mist over them to give the appearance of a night sky that's cloudy and full of stars. This system is going to take more names than any system has ever taken before. I'll probably end up putting one of those new mobos in where it has a geforce2mx built right in, that should hopefully save me some bread. Maybe i'll buy an actual thunderbird instead of overclocking my duron again...maybe. Either way i'm going to have to get a huge hard drive for it, it's going to get my new video capture card (quality not like the tvwondervePOS that i've been struggling with, i'm giving it to my sister) When in doubt, buy something new. i don't know if that's an actual saying but it sums up all i feel about the computer industry at this very moment in an all-consuming cracker with cheese on it kind of statement. Kick ass. Penny-Arcade is kicking ass as usual, but they're feeling the industry-wide belt tightening just like the rest of us. We all wish we could donate more to em, but that's just not the way life's goin down right now. I hope i can convince my friends to go to necrowombiecon it will be the greatest get-together of nerd-types ever!! In light of that, i am going to have to start saving some money up right now, especially with my tonsils coming out next week and me being unable to work for 2 weeks because of that fact. Hopefulliy i'll be able to take the greyhound up to chicago during that time to see my sugar momma. On that note, i'm off to watch the crouching tiger dvd again, later
Sega Dreamcast Emulation and the end of honor
3/13/2001-- Well my moral dilemma is over. Like so many other "burning plants" the guy who sold me the burned dreamcast game has been shut down. I had nothing to do with it. Good for me I suppose, justice prevailed in the end I suppose, but I still don't have my cash back. I emailed half dot com, and hopefully they will return the money I spent and I'll buy a real game this time. hopefully.
Now, on to the good stuff. The dreamcast is a powerful system, a powerful system that can emulate other systems. Once again, it's not legal to emulate games you do not own, but playing through some of my old favorites has been great! Super nes, gameboy, genesis, master system, even some computer games (and linux) can be emulated. Check out dcemulation for some great info about it. I have personally caused the decline of my roommates study habits thanks to the original Shining Force. He'll never be the same again. I sent away all my applications today to major game companies, hopefully I'll get a call back soon, hopefully. The production of morse-games is going painfully slow, I'll be lucky to finish any of them before next year. But they will be finished!!! It's a real shame about the demise of the Dreamcast, I seriously doubt this phoenix will rise again. That's a sad sad moment in game history in my opinion, the demise of sega systems. Nintendo and later Sony have always dominated, but there has always been sega in the background, plugging away with good RPGs and such, but no longer. Even if they begin to make games for other systems, will they ever have the glory of having their own system again? I have a theory about that. Microsoft will need a developer for it's X-box, and sega is experienced in that area at least. But what about the ever-increasing handheld market. A handheld Win-CE game console will not be far off, but who has the manufacturing capability and market know-how to make it fly, and who has worked with Microsoft in the past??? SEGA! That's right I see Sega of America turning it's back on console manufacturing completely, and focusing on the handheld market (a market that it had always worked in but never excelled, I have a theory about that too**) Hopefully some of our favorite sega characters will continue to live on, but if not, oh well, I've always got my dreamcast and my dreams.

**Ok, here it is. Sega was one of the original portable console game manufactures, what went wrong? First of all, the hardware sucked. The screen may have been brilliant, but the technology required 6 AA batteries every 3 hours!! That's freakin crazy! Next, it based it's compatibility on a system that nobody had bought (master system) seriously, how many people did you know with a master system? Not many I'm sure. With the overpriced unit floating on store shelves, the market was ripe for the gameboy to excel. With 2 A batteries lasting over 6 hours and a slew of games with familiar characters and themes, the gameboy dominated, and still dominates 12 years later!! You can still play 12 year old games on your new color game boy systems (and soon on your gameboy advance systems) Now that's longevity, based on the broken back of Sega.

Sega Dreamcast, honor, and burned games
3/9/2001-- OK, I understand that many of you like to use burned games, but none of you (I hope) have any delusions about their legality, they are illegal. That said, I am not condoning the use of the games, but I am not about to make a judgment call there so lets continue. Well, we've all heard of half.com right? Get movies and games half price. Why are the games so cheap? BECAUSE MANY OF THEM ARE BURNED! Listen to me or learn this the hard way. I ordered a dreamcast game (a capcom vs. title) thinking I was getting a good deal for a 20 spot... Yeah right! It comes in the mail, and guess what...it's burned! What a load of crap, it's not even guaranteed to work at all. To make it worse, the guy sends me a gameshark cd "free" so that the deal will seem sweeter. Lets see....WHY HEY, LOOKIE HERE, IT'S BURNED!! Trying to remain calm I think it over, I just paid 20 freaking dollars for 60 cents worth of burned disks!!!!! Argh ahhhh, to quote scorpion* circa 1992, if thoughts could kill 50% of the world's population would've just dropped dead. If I wanted a janked up crack and a burned cd i would've made it myself. The worst of it is I can't get my cash back, that's right I'm forced to spend more money or break the law. Whether or not the disk works is not the point, I'm just pissed I was forced into it. Even worse, I'm forced into another ethical dillema, should I write the guy asking for my money back, should I rat him out, a cardinal sin among gamers? Of course I'm not going to rat his ass out, but with me getting screwed over a lot lately I've been getting a little pissed at the way things have been going. Oh, and the guy's not a guy, he's a regular corporation. So he's ripping off a ton of people this way. A regular street husler-type. I can't exactly force him to email people that his games are burned either, to bring in some kind of authority breaks the code. I guess it's another polite letter time. Hooray.
*For those of you who who lived under an adventure gaming rock back in the day, scorpion was an unnamed game review/strategy writer in the early days of computer gaming world.

Game Ending Mechanics
2/28/2001-- I know what you're thinking, why does this engineer seem so obsessed with the ending to the ocarina of time? Or at least that's what you would be thinking if you could see me right now. Let me clue you in, I just witnessed one of the most graphically superb endings ever. By the same note it tied up most storyline problems and cut a few loose ends. So why was it so unfulfilling? In a word, content. The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of time was a great game by most standards. The graphics, storyline, and game-play were for the most part top notch. For a children's game. Therein lies the real problem, Zelda's target audience was a group of 10 year olds, cheat books in hand. Don't get me wrong, I did play Zelda when I was 10, and I have used a cheat book or 2 in my day, but why does the game have to tailor to the lowest common denominator. Honestly, when you watch a movie, and it is rated pg-13, does that mean that it should only have the intellectual maturity to match a typical 13 year old? Of course not! Coming from one who has played more than my fair share of games in my lifetime (well games kind of have been my lifetime if you know where I'm coming from) I can tell you that this was not always the case. Final Fantasy 2 (IV in Jap.) was, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest games ever made. I played through it over and over. Was it the game mechanics? Not really, the game could easily have been made on a NES and the controls could have been improved. It was the storyline. And moreover, it was the way that Square did not cheap out at any end-point in the game. I define an end-point as any point where a significant aspect of game-play ends or a character is lost from play. In FF2 this could easily be defiened at a number of points, my favorite being the death of Sage Tellah. (anyone who played it should take note of the beauty of game mechanics intertwined with story *- continued later) HE DIED! Better yet, he didn't crap out and die, he died in a way consistent to the story and gameplay. And they explained it! Not to say that a game should hold your hand storyline-wise, by any means, all I'm asking is that a storyline aspect be clear, and not left incredibly void, intended to spark a sequel. The ending of Zelda was fine, except for one small point (*SPOILER) Zelda and Link never hook up, and you don't know how much of the future they remember! (this may seem terribly confusing to someone who has not played the game so I implore you people, play it) I am not arguing for more romance, or even more drama, only a bit more clarity in the ending. If an ending is meant to end a game and not begin a sequel (Back-to-the-Future syndrome) then shouldn't a player feel rewarded or at least somewhat relieved in his victory. Shouldn't a player be rewarded? The fact of the matter is that the ending of the Legend of Zelda was not a failure because of a coding mistake, or a storyline mistake, it was a failure because of a marketing mistake. Nintendo left the ending purposefully vague so that it could create a sequel with minimum storyline-hassle. With all the loose ends flying around, who needs actual writers, lets just pick up an end and write another paragraph...
*Sage Tellah Game Mechanics-- As mentioned before, the beauty of the Sage Tellah storyline was both it's ending and it's mechanics. The ending was poetic and powerful, it left a lasting impression on the rest of the game and was an excellent plot continuation device. (Edge's parents' deaths and the fight vs. Rubicant was another such point) However, the real beauty lie in the mechanics of Tellah's death. All throughout the game Tellah has been searching for the Ultimate Magic -- meteo. When he finally learns it you are unable to have him cast it, why? Because the mechanics of the Tellah character did not allow his magic points to go above 98, and the meteo spell cost 99 magic points. Clever eh? No extra programming was needed, just a simple magic-point cap. So when Tellah does cast meteo in a fit of rage and justice, it kills him. Poetically simple, and just as sweet. An excellent game and if you don't own it I highly recommend finding a copy. (Or just buy the game, then download the emulator, that way everything is nice and legal.)

Online Ordering, Magic Cards, and About getting Ripped off...
2/26/2001-- Well, another Monday went buy without too much hassle. Had a fairly tough logic and design test, and I really should work on my Combinatorics homework, but those of you who know me should know better. I'm still waiting on my dreamcast and games, I have high hopes for the system, even if it commercially failed. Tomorrow I go in to the career office to try to find a job in the game industry. I hope I hope I hope. I sent away some of my old magic cards about a month ago, to this place in Florida, and have yet to receive payment. I know that things happen, but this is a bit distressing. It's been about 10 days since his last email where he apologized for not having sent the money earlier. I sent a partial-threatening letter yesterday, and hope that I will get my check soon. There's the real sad part, the money. I was not desperate for the cash, but think of some kid who sent away his magic collection in hopes of getting some new cards (or a dreamcast, or heck, a computer (imagine that ) I've lost a lot of respect for the gaming industry, but who knows, maybe, just maybe I'll get that 80 bucks and feel better. Ya know what's really strange? Directx programming has a direct correlation to the topics we're covering in object oriented programming right now, strange huh? Who would've thought a course at this school would pan out...
Just another lazy Sunday...
2/25/2001-- Well, it's Sunday again and there is much studying to do... Yeah right. Anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new dreamcast game I sit around on our new couch, bored. I updated the site with some archived programs from last year, I haven't been motivated enough to compile them in Windows or add graphics so they're plain old unix style command line programs. I can't wait till my new programming book comes in next week, My goal is to program Pac-Morse my the end of spring break. Let me clue you guys in, Dr Morse is my academic advisor and object-oriented teacher. I like the guy, but sometimes we students feel like little pellets being gobbled up, like in a Pac-man game. Well, I ordered a new book on graphs and game programming in C++ so I'm making Pac-Morse my first goal. Tomorrow I go down to apply at various game companies with my career counselor, wish me luck...
Beginnings....
2/23/01--Well, here I am, programming a web site to showcase my programs, and I only have 1 program I want to put up. Typical, computer programmers seem to be the perfectionist type, until it's time to turn in a program for class. Therein lies the rub, for the more anal retentive the programmer, the more errors he will choose to ignore in a program forced upon him by his school or institution. Figures....

I'm telling you to buy a first generation Kindle, Nook, Kobo, or Sony Pocket e-Reader.  Why?  Besides all being based on superior e-ink screens that won't kill your eyes for reading, they have each and every one reached that oh so sweet 40-50$ price point on eBay.

Yep!  40-50$.  For the same cost of a video game, a night out at the movies, a dinner (a cheap dinner here in Los Angeles), a pair of slacks, or two weeks of Starbucks blended drinks you can have an e-reader.  Many first generation e-readers come with Wifi and some come with free 2g internet.  Heck buy an extra or two to keep in a drawer at home.  Take them on the bus.  Take them to the beach or rock climbing.  Whip them out at the bus stop or in sketchy neighborhoods.  Treat them like a book.  And when they are lost or stolen or drop and crack or die as all electronics invariably do, simply pull another from the drawer and move on.

You can see an outdated version of it in action here.

Check out the drake equation in QuickGrapher here.

Check out the set of video tutorials we did for it here.

(my favorite video)

Download, exploit, and contribute to the source at the github project here.

And check out the permalink page for it here.

Check out my gallery of some really cool trees (Google+ gallery below as well):

https://plus.google.com/photos/109597056286687737899/albums/5700658936240673073

You can see the permalink page for STV here, or see the GitHub project here:

https://github.com/huntergdavis/Source-Tree-Visualizer

For those of you just finding this blog, I'm a complete media glutton.  I've (legally, at least for now) made digital backups of every DVD, audio CD, BLU-Ray, cartridge game, Playstation game or eBook I've ever owned or created.  On top of that, I tend to keep a local store repository of my 600+ steam game collection for fast retrieval (and if they decide to later pull any of the games I bought).  Add in the couple hundred gigs of personal photos I've taken as well as tons of software projects, virtual machines, disk images, dev environments, half-finished projects, etc  and you're looking at about 5 terabytes of data.  This is locally spread out over my two Drobo storage bots full of 2tb drives.  Unfortunately, some facts about the internet here in America come into play:

JustCloud and Me - by the numbers:

1.  35$ for 24 months of unlimited storage backups, ~1.50$ a month.
3. My limited bandwidth means I can upload roughly  8 gigs per day.
2. My full 5tb of data uploaded over my 768kb pipe will take roughly the entire 2 years of uploading nonstop.

With this knowledge, it is clear JustCloud cannot become my one-stop online backup.  However, if the service remains low-cost, it does provide me with a very interesting alternative backup solution.  Consider my digital landscape:

• Google+/Picasa provides me infinite storage space for photos.  I've already uploaded my 100gb of personal photos there.
• Google Music provides me 20,000 song uploads for music.  This literally is double the size of my music collection.
• Google Docs provides 1gb of storage space for word documents and excel sheets.  This is generally sufficient
• Netflix/Hulu/Crackle cover at least 50% of my video collection currently.  This percentage will likely rise in the future.
• Steam stores the majority of my games in the cloud already

Considering this, I am left with the following classes of data to store:

• Virtual Machines and Work Documents (40gb - 5 days of uploading)
• Source Code and Hack Plans (100gb - 12 days of uploading)
• Personal Documents (10gb - 1.25 days of upload)
• eBooks (50gb - 7.5 days of uploading)
• The Sims/Sims 2/Sims 3 neighborhood and save data (30gb - 4 days of uploading)

Going over this new battle plan, I should be able to upload these data items within one month.  This will take ~250 gigs of storage space on their servers, plus the 250 gigs for the initial transfer.  To compare, Amazon EC2 would charge me 15$ monthly to store this data, and 30$ to download it all if I ever needed to.  As such, if JustCloud stays in business they will have saved me a couple of hundred dollars in online storage costs, as well as given me a bit more peace of mind.  Only time will tell if my expectations will be met.  I'll keep you updated as events transpire.

How is this possible?

I'm up on burners, playa!

It's really quite simple.  There's a terrific Android application called GrooveIP that connects to Google voice and lets you make cell phone calls and txts over WiFi.  This lets me txt and make calls wherever there is WiFi signal (my house and work, and coffee shops).  How significant is this?

Very.  If you look back over your cell phone bill for the past year, how many phone calls were made at home?  What about txt messages?  How many were made at work, and how many at home, and how many anywhere else?  This can be a difficult thing to gauge and may require a bit of detective work depending on your bill.  Still, for me it amounted to the vast majority of my phone calls and txts.

As for the other 5% of the time that I need to make calls or send txts while I'm out and about, I simply purchase pre-paid minutes and txt messaging rates at the lowest possible price that month.  Fatwallet is your friend here.  With Google Voice's ability to auto-forward calls and txts to any number transparently, you can swap burner phones as easily as a few clicks on your computer or even directly from your smart phone.  Winning!