Finally took a couple of minutes to look at why the ngg-gallery slideshow widget wasn’t working since I moved my sites and upgraded Wordpress. Initially I just wanted to reinsert my code to add my CAPTCHA code back in to stop people spamming comments, then I thought I might as well go one step further towards getting the site back to normal.
Turns out it was just a case of setting up the location of the JW ImageRotator file.
What a week! After having my websites hacked, my hosting company (*cough* EUKHost) not telling me they had suspended my account, them refusing to re-enable it or allow me to access emails, and suggesting I either pay for a far more expensive hosting package which I don’t need or find another hosting company. I have managed to get this site back up and running somewhere temporary for now.
Unfortunately the pretty ngg-gallery slideshow widget isn’t working since I upgraded, which just adds insult to injury.
Powered by Twitter Tools.
I’m starting to put the AJAX game framework to the test, and applying it to some game rules. Although currently I’m starting from a higher level not covered by the rules at the moment, which is where individual game instances are created. Whoever is running a particular game instance can set the parameters of the game; starting conditions and victory conditions for instance. Then once the players have joined, the game can begin.
As this system is turn based I intend to allow a turn period to be set as part of the starting parameters. But also provide the option to have this as a maximum turn duration, and process turns as soon as all players have submitted their turn. Since turn processing will take a matter of seconds and the next turn will start once processing has completed, it would actually be possible for all players to be logged in at the same time and submit turn after turn.
Went to see the new Star Trek film tonight and it’s a great film, but…
*SPOILER ALERT!*
At the first suggestion of time travel I thought, “Here we go again, another journey onto a path that movie makers should very carefully tread”. I thought I had gone to see the beginning of the whole StarTrek saga, an introduction showing how the gang got together. But that’s not what this film is about, instead it shows a very alternate beginning, reshaped by some pretty significant changes at the point of James T. Kirk’s birth. Yet despite these major changes the whole cast manage to meet up be thrown together regardless.
I think this film also fell prey to Hollywood impatience, maybe a minor point but I feel it does really taint the stories they tell, and make them seem less believable. One minute the entire cast of “main” roles are leading separate lives and suddenly they are thrown together in believable situations in a matter of minutes. Ok, most of the bridge crew of the USS Enterprise start off as rookies; Sulu is a replacement, Chekov is a very inexperienced but brilliant 17 year old crew member, Spock a commander at the start of his career as number 2, Uhura a cadet, ordered to replace (not assist) an experienced crew member and Jim promoted to number 2 after ignoring his suspension and sneaking aboard the ship. After that it was hardly surprising that the experienced, higher level medical staff would suddenly become incapacitated leaving the way for cadet McCoy to be appointed as chief medical officer. What are the odds? It wouldn’t have been much worse if they’d conveniently had a virus on board that killed off anyone over 25. I can’t imagine a bunch of freshly trained naval cadets suddenly replacing experienced crew in top positions on a battleship for instance, maybe I’m wrong.
I’m so glad that Spock stranded Jim on the right planet, otherwise he wouldn’t have met old Spock and Scotty, he wouldn’t have learned about how the whole situation came about and nor would he have been able to teleport back onto the Enterprise to save the day.
Ok, ignoring all the silly whining and ranting above, I really enjoyed the film and the subtle links back to the original series and films, like the guy in the red suit in the first away team dying (like we didn’t see that coming) and Jim reprogramming the unbeatable Kobayashi Maru test scenario which was described to Lieutenant Saavik in the Wrath of Khan.
They certainly did a great job in casting, that’s for sure.