–Aaron

P.S.

Also available on Soundcloud

Some of you may be asking “Why the switch?” Well, I’ve been an avid follower of the Valley tech scene for quite some time now, from TechCrunch and GigaOm all the way down to Valleywag. I have also been the earliest adopter of tons of weird web stuff at SPG (to the sometime-bemusement of my coworkers!)– so it stands to reason that I would eventually find myself moving out to SF and working for a web company!

Anyway, if you’re not quite sure what Greplin does or who they are, I forgive you! They’re still quite young. You can check them out at http://greplin.com — or just watch this video:

Anyway I’m incredibly excited (and also incredibly nervous!) to be joining these guys out in the bay. By the way, did I mention that Greplin is nominated for a Crunchie? Well we are! Vote for us! (I think the we/us pronouns are appropriate, even though I haven’t technically joined up yet? Not really sure, but ohwellz!)

Now somebody needs to buy my house. Quickly, get to it! It’s in a great spot in Carrboro– walkable distance from everything!

[related: In Which I Leave Spark Plug Games]

And so it is, that after nearly three years of Igniting Fun, I have made the difficult decision to leave Spark Plug Games. Amie and I have been talking about moving out West for awhile now, and San Francisco seemed like a natural fit– given that I’m a bit of a fanatic for new web technologies and the startup scene.

In early February of 2011, I will be joining Greplin, Inc. as a software engineer and Mobile Dude.

I’ve absolutely loved working at SPG. I don’t lie or exaggerate when I tell you it’s the best work environment I can possibly imagine. This is to say nothing of the absolutely incredible people that I’ve had the privilege of working with. The guys at SPG are nothing short of world class talent and I can only hope to work with them again someday.

Obviously there are reasons for my decision, which I won’t go into here, but I think the best explanation is a simple one: I got the “itch”.

I need to see what else is out there and I wouldn’t mind getting away from games for awhile. Seeing that I’ve been fascinated by Valley culture and the tech race for awhile now, it really does make perfect sense for me to be there at this point in my life.

Now buy my house… Seriously, you guys! It’s in a great part of Carrboro and we don’t need it anymore. I’ll love you forever.

[related: In Which I Join Greplin]

Either way, the fact that they spend the first 1/3 of this video on NDK tells me that they’re realizing how incredibly important it is to have code compatibility with iOS.  Lets also not forget the fact that the future of Dalvik Java is somewhat in question thanks to a certain evil DB company. It is very possible that Google is hedging, in the (imo unlikely) case that they are actually forced to move away from Java on Android (And yes, ‘DB’ can mean two very different things in the above context).

via [Android and Me]

There are THIS many books in the list.

Anyway, I think I’ll start perusing some x86 Assembly and some Advanced BASH. Haven’t played with those in awhile (and I’ve always been nothing less than woefully inadequate when it comes to assembly). I also need to reignite my quest to dive deeper into web stuff. Been too buried in native/local lately.

…Ooh! Scheme book by old man Dybvig– reminds me of college. And holy crap they’ve even got Maven guides!

Don’t thank me, thank [StackOverflow]

Thoughts?

…Well, other than the freezer burn, that is. Either way, there’s always something at least a little healthy in the house….

Gee, thanks summary!

…only to drill down into the object to find more of this:

WHARGARBL?

Do you see my actual string there at the very bottom? Man… I’d really hate to have to do this every damned time I want to get at a string! Luckily, that empty summary box is not the final word in debugger previews. Instead you can use a handy little scripting language to create DATA FORMATTERS that will do the work for you. Check this out!

What's that?

….and then…

HOOOOOOOOO!

BAM! You win. By the way, in case  you were wondering: The ‘:s’ gives you the summary field of the value you’ve drilled down to.

Also this:

The Console can be useful as well.

P.S. — You can build Data Formatters into your project via a Bundle, instructions HERE

...Yeah

I’m sorry I abandoned you, Internet! I know I haven’t called or written lately, and I’m really sorry for that. I’ve been spending quite a bit of my off-hours time developing noncritical engine features for NYMPH, and haven’t really had much time to write on the ol’ blog.

I’ve got a couple ideas for posts kicking around that you may find interesting. Firstly I want to write about why the hell it’s so hard to turn a profit over here in Gameland while Techland over in the Valley seemingly has more money than it knows what to do with. I mean– I know we’re kind of commoditized as a field, but don’t we get a pass by sheer virtue of the fact that we’re in a creative industry? Evidently not.

But there’s more!

I also want to do a “post-mortem” on our asset exporter– my preconceptions going in, challenges, things I learned, etc. Before I say anything else on that though, I’ll need to get boss approval. It is proprietary tech, after all. Technically it wouldn’t be a post-mortem because it’s not dead (if anything it’s in drastic need of overhaul), but who’s counting?

I guess I could also do a post about JavaScript+HTML5 vs ActionScript, but the truth is I haven’t really worked with JS enough to be able to draw any credible conclusions. I will say that I’m far less bullish on Javascript after realizing how valuable it is to have a naturally obfuscated intermediary such as compiled Flash. Get JavaScript obfuscation right, though– and I think we may finally be rid of The Beast once and for all.

A few days ago, my dad dropped his Kindle while going through airport security, breaking the screen. Pretty depressing situation, considering he had just recently purchased the thing.

Well it seems that Nissan could learn a couple lessons from Amazon– as they are now overnighting him a brand-new replacement, free of charge. He didn’t need to escalate the case to a manager, or beg and plead, nothing. He simply told a low-level CSR that he had dropped the kindle, and the CSR authorized a replacement.

Thanks Amazon, you guys rock! (Sorry Nissan, you’re still pretty useless)

…and we wonder why the auto industry is in so much trouble.