HTML5 / LocalStorage Web application manager tool

  • April 2, 2011
  • James Skemp
As previously mentioned I've been spending a good amount of time looking at HTML5/local storage in my free time. For testing purposes, I ended up putting a number of items within my video games offline application, which is fine, but results in some extraneous information on the page. To clean this up, as well as to allow for additional functionality, I've gone ahead and created a Web application manager for my media.

Read More

Interesting feature with parsing XML with jQuery on Safari

  • March 27, 2011
  • James Skemp
I've been playing around with HTML5 quite a bit recently, in particular with offline Web applications. My second experiment (my first is on pause) was with making my video games available, so that I can access the listing when I'm out shopping at used game stores. It's still in progress, but you can see my offline listing of video games now. My main intention is to make this available on my iPod Touch, so I was a bit dismayed when I found that the listing didn't display the title of the game.

Read More

Supporting HTML5 manifest files on IIS 7 using Web.config

  • February 18, 2011
  • James Skemp
Having recently picked up an iPod Touch, to replace my Classic, I've become very interested in HTML5's ability to navigate content offline. In my environment I decided to create a separate directory for my manifest files. I'm also running IIS 7, on Server 2008 R2, so .manifest files are already defined for WPF. So that that isn't an issue, I created a Web.config file in the manifest directory with the below contents.

Read More

The Kinect is selling really well; but is that good for gamers?

  • November 29, 2010
  • James Skemp
Techmeme had a couple of interesting titles this evening. "Kinect is Selling 2X as Fast as the iPad" and "Microsoft: Over 2.5M Kinect Sold." Even if I thought I had the space for it (I'd have to move furniture every time I wanted to play it in my current apartment) I still wouldn't pick up the Kinect. Why? First there's the price. At $150 you might as well buy a PSP (which I did) or a Nintendo DSi.

Read More

23+ hours with the PlayStation Portable: Initial thoughts

  • November 15, 2010
  • James Skemp
On the first of the month I purchased a Sony PlayStation Portable, which was delivered to me on the 4th. Since then I've used it, mostly for play, for approximately 24 hours. Approximately 23 hours and 12 minutes of that was with my first game, Crisis Core; Final Fantasy VII, and the rest (which was probably over an hour) was initial setups, as well as the playing of a handful of demos, and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which I had purchased for play on my PS3 a long while ago.

Read More

Sin City / color in movies

  • October 23, 2010
  • James Skemp
A thread from Facebook that I don't want to lose. To be updated as more responses come in. Initial post Ah, color in movies. Like the bar scene - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbl2LxNZ2eY - in Sin City and near the end of Avalon - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P28-PPzCI3k - and the obvious ones in the Wizard of Oz. Any other good examples? Response from Rob Lumley You seem to be mentioning when a particular color stands out.

Read More

Extended iTunes Track class for PHP

  • September 26, 2010
  • James Skemp
In a previous article, I had outlined classes in C# and PHP to handle iTunes Playlists to Xml outputs. Having let it sit on the back burner for long enough, I finally went back to the PHP class and finalized the constructor. I also added two functions for sorting. Below I have the current code for the class (a current version of the Track class for PHP will always be available elsewhere) and then an example implementation.

Read More

iTunes Track class in C# and PHP

  • September 8, 2010
  • James Skemp
I've recently begun reading up on PHP again. As I'm most fond of my iTunes Playlists to Xml application, I thought I'd work with that application's output - XML files with playlist data - as I continued to dig into PHP (instead of stopping now that I know enough to tweak existing code and create new functionality). Here's a basic Track object in C# and PHP. I'll of course be elaborating on these as time goes by (and already have code for the C# implementation).

Read More

Shadow Hearts: Covenant leveling information

  • September 6, 2010
  • James Skemp
As I continue to look through my old files I found leveling information for Shadow Hearts: Covenant, from December 2005 to January (1st) 2006. I've converted it from an ODS file to XML, and am making it available. Shadow Hearts: Covenant leveling guide. Since I have a leveling guide for Shadow Hearts: From the New World (previously written about), it almost makes sense to go back and play the original Shadow Hearts to get information for that game as well.

Read More

Thoughts on the Kinect and Playstation Move

  • September 5, 2010
  • James Skemp
Laying aside the question of whether these are merely in response to the amount of money being made by the Wii, and whether the technology will be as lasting as history suggests 3D televisions will be, I've been thinking about the Kinect and Move recently. Here are my thoughts. How well will they work? This is the biggest question. Ever since they were first shown on television there's been the question of what environments will support the Kinect.

Read More