Tone Parsons

This is a Discovery Channel program covering the history of video games from the beginnings of Atari to the Nintendo Game Boy.

It’s just over 46 minutes long (it’s the full, uncut episode) and is very interesting if you have the time.

It also makes me rather cranky. Back in 1980, I got my first computer (the Atari 400 with a whopping 8K of RAM!). I was programming in basic and by 1982 I had written several fun games for the TSR-80…. the largest of which was a Dungeon & Dragons style game.

It generated a random map with random monsters and treasure and supported up to 4 players (it was a turn based game). It had text at the bottom of the screen giving descriptions of each room and generated a map of explored areas above.

It was also a lot of fun!

My friend Dewayne and I thought we were sitting on a gold mine if we could only sell it. Those dreams were dashed when I read an article in Dragon Magazine (the official D&D magazine) that stated they were in no way interested in computer games (because that wasn’t the focus of the game, and it never would be).

We dropped the project, and the floppy that it lived on was eventually erased to make room for another program.

Other computers I’ve owned over time (prior to the 286): The Kaypro 1 and the Amstrad PCW 8512.

Of course, my current video card has more memory and a faster GPU than my first 9 computers combined.

Today is my 4th day in the new department at work.

Of course, every day so far has been focused (in part, or in the case of yesterday, wholly) on issues with the old department. Today’s looking like more of the same.

Things I’ve been doing for my department: Flex 2 has become my new best friend. For those who aren’t familiar with Flex, it’s a platform for publishing flash based applications (in the swf format) that use ODBC for data mining. It’s pretty.

I’ve also been looking into the CSS for an extremely large internal website and will probably have to rewrite a good chunk of it.

Oh… the good times (and lots of link goodness)!

Other news: I just can’t get enough of the Caribou Coffee chocolate mocha granola bars. OMFG!! These are SO INCREDIBLY GOOD!! I currently have two boxes in my cube (as I’ve eaten the other 3). Seriously…. if you like coffee… buy these! They smell incredible when you open the wrapper and taste even better. It’s like crack… with granola!

And finally: Christmas^tm is only 17 days away. Don’t forget your favorite webmaster while you do your holiday shopping (there’s a list here…. I really want the Samsung!!)

Looking for the perfect gift for the kids this Christmas^tm?

Well… look no further…. here’s the hot lineup for this year!

Read more

It’s monday and everything has changed.

I went to bed as a Solutions Engineer and woke up this morning as a Senior Web Developer. I also woke up to a couple of extra bucks in the bank (well… in 2 weeks, anyway).

It’s my first day in the new department. I’m still trying to get my cube organized (as I moved from one side of the building to the other), and am trying to learn people’s names. My new manager isn’t here this week, but I’ve been told he’ll be here next week.

Hopefully I’ll know what the heck I’m supposed to be doing by then.

Wheeeee!!!!