de Paul Warren

Author Archive

My eye is beginning to twitch faster now. I’ve suffered about a year’s worth of inadequate web hosting service. The server is up, the server is down. MySQL won’t work or is broken. Tech Support is responsive 50% of the time. As of this article, the email server is not responding. I was about to make another Support Ticket but guess what… the ticket database was down!! Jeez!

It hasn’t always been like this. I’ve used their service for about 5 years or more. When I first signed up it was great. For several years everything was fine. Then I noticed that things started to crap out. So being a loyal customer, I simply just switched servers and everything was fine again. But I’ve been neededing to do that (jumping servers) almost twice a year lately to keep ahead of the servers going to hell.

Why not move? Well I’m poor. I can’t afford large service charges and the other reasonable ones don’t offer the needed services this one does. It DID work at some point. So it’s not like I had troubles from the start and should have known to switch early on. And when the problems started, I was thinking of just waiting out the problem and it will pass. But in order to move servers to a different provider, I need to be certain of a few things. #1. They must support the version of PHP I want. Too low and I’m not using them. I can’t downgrade all my code to suit them… even with the risk that they won’t be good either. MySQL needs to be high enough too. They can’t be anal about their transfer limits or speeds. I won’t sign up with someone who’s just going to charge me a huge number or cancel my services or automatically upgrade me in the case of one of my sites having a spike of popularity. I’d rather be warned first so I can prepare to respond. I need appropriate access to the files. None of this CPanel crap.

So the only solution I can think of currently is either finding someone who can fit my requirements, or possibly strike a deal with dedicated hosting if I provide the actual server. I’m willing to buy a server if it means my monthly cost is low.

This is really beginning to peeve me though. I’m struggling to develop a few applications, yet I find myself fighting with the stability of the servers more than my own code.

I feel like everything is pending right now. Netfile used by the Canadian Revenue Agency is down and I’m waiting to file my taxes. My laptop isn’t working and hasn’t for a while and I’m waiting for it to be fixed. I’ve recently filed an appeal and I’m waiting on the decision of that. My business is pending as I need to see if I am approved for the self employment benefits. If I go ahead and start the business, I won’t eligible. My current project is taking a lot longer than originally planned. I’m losing my focus and I’m eagerly hoping for the finish date. I have a friend sending me some sketches but he’s ran into some holdups keeping them from reaching me. Getting a new server for my websites will have to wait until I find out if I can get one for a good price. I have other game ideas that will have to wait until iKonquest is finished, and possibly the business has started.

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Being jobless is beginning to take it’s toll. I love being able to sit at home and create the things of my mind, but reality is starting to rear its ugly head and getting in my way. Getting a job cannot wait. But getting one will mean everything else must.

So I’ve been watching Heroes, but as many others, I have had daydreams of having super powers. Whether it’s inspired by comics, cartoons or movies, sometimes even TV shows, my powers are usually unique. At least from my point of view. They probably exist in some character I haven’t heard of before but whatever.

And then there began to show traces I actually did have a power. One I couldn’t control nor wanted. I’m not sure when it really started, but I found I could degrade the technology I was using. Not in the naughty sense , but physically. D-Link doesn’t like me, I seem to defect all cards I get from them.

I saw my first manifestation a few weeks ago (from this post) when I electrocuted my sound card. It took me forever to determine that it was that I destroyed as at first, I thought it was my headphones as it was what I shocked first. Then the speakers as I found out the hard way it wasn’t the headphones. Then I finally decided to test the soundcard and it proved to be the faulty part. It’s been replaced and the new one is working properly.

Concurrently, the laptop has been the biggest pain. A loose screw was shorting out the motherboard, then the motherboard didn’t work or at least it was replaced. Still having problems and it only seems to get worse as the last days for my warranty approaches.

It’s either that or the soundcard issue was a fluke and my laptop just doesn’t like me.

My Authoring Path
I attempted to create a few novels. Made a few that were 50 to 100 pages but Wooah were they bad. I was a young teenager then, what can you expect?

I also didn’t have the knack for original ideas yet. Well some were my own but it was clear where I had drawn my inspiration from. Never completely satisfied, and a good thing too, I continued to rewrite and record notes for other ideas and stories. It seemed that my originality started to bloom where my ability to stay on task and create one solid story had faded.

I now had thousands of little notes all organized into several large binders that were all unique. I could finally say I had true unique and original ideas for stories. But nothing solid as even one written chapter. My goals for writing had also changed. No longer had I written for expressing and exercising my creativity, I now had the desire to create true literary pieces. While I didn’t expect my stories would be a reading requirement in schools, I wanted the possibility to be there.

My second goal was to create something truly science fiction. Something the community would accept as worthy of the category. Any idea too close to those of “Star Wars” or “Star Trek” and my works would get shunned and called not true science fiction. So I collected many Science Fiction magazines and a few classic novels to study for science fiction is truly about. That when the reader opens the book, they know it’s sci-fi.

Now I don’t have anything completed yet, but I’m working for the first time on my first draft. The whole series has been picked at and adjusted to become more realistic and believable. The draft will be my first, but seeing as I’m currently on another path, I don’t have much time to work on it.

The Development Path
Shortly before I entered college, I didn’t even have a computer. Not that I could afford one at that. I learned how to program on paper. While everyone in the class was writing poor code and just hoping things ran, I had to be sure it ran as I had even less time to develop than they did.

I fiddled around with modding games, not that it went anywhere at the time. Didn’t make anything either, I just took a look at the code but moved on to something a little easier. It was around this time that I started to program with perl and PHP. After a year of perl programming in college, I moved on to PHP and have done most of my development in that since.

I have three projects made with PHP. These, I consider my best work. The latest which is also a game, I have posted here, iKonquest.

My other two are an advanced webmail script by the name of Hermes which is currently used at myguarded.name. It specializes in a not-so-unique anti-spam method of whitelists. Eventually I will invest some time to setup Domain Keys for further security, but the biggest few solutions involve the participation of other services.

My last project is called Themis which is the user management script run by both previous projects.

After I finish iKonquest, my next path will be

Business Development Path
Starting and running my own business. I don’t know why, but I’ve found myself too modest for my own good. I always understate my abilities but find I can’t shake myself from doing this. With the passion I have for the gaming industry, I won’t let it keep me down. If I can’t get a job as a developer, I’ll make my own.

While the company is unregistered, it’s name will remain top secret. But until then, I will be developing games on my own under my own name. I’m quite sure running this company for the first bit will take up at least a third of my time.

Designs are already coming together for a game similar to that of Dungeon Keeper 2 and Evil Genius.