This short post is just about a little pet peeve of mine. How long it takes to recieve a reply to an instant message from some people.

Instant messaging is supposed to be like having a face to face conversation except in text no?

Well if someone came up to you in person and asked you a question would you wait 2-5 minutes to respond?(Watch a clock to see how long this actually is)

That wait is precisely what some do on instant messaging services(albeit extended at times. I’ve been on extended waits ranging from 15 minutes to over an hour). Now I understand that some people are busy and such and I respect that, but there is an away button isn’t there?? It has a purpose you know. It’s there to tell people you are away from your keyboard or cannot respond for any other reason.

Others have actually noted in the past that I reply to IMs too quickly. So I’m confuzed. Is it bad that I give whoever is IMing me my full attention?? Apparently instant messaging is not supposed to be instant.

</rant>

Feel free to comment about this and/or give examples of this happening to you and/or your standpoint on the matter on the comments page here or on the syndicated topic on Screeze.com

Two words. Epic Win.

Today I finally put up the Armagetron Advanced server for Screeze I was planning on doing since Screeze started but never found the time to. You can find it on the server list as: Screeze The Fruit. It’s a fast paced server with a cool map, and growing death zone in the center that makes for a great, dizziness inducing, party server.

Now on to Twitter.

I have had a twitter account for a while now(about 2 months i think) but I haven’t used it. With a little bit of coaxing I was convinced to at least give it a try. You can find me at http://twitter.com/afroshock . I’ll post there things too small to put here and some tech updates for Screeze, while normal Screeze updates will be on the Screeze account http://twitter.com/screeze (not exactly ready atm).

Apparently there are leaked pictures that show a new slimline PS3. Now, these pictures are definitely not the prettiest, but hey, they might still be real. It might just be without any of the chrome and such added yet. I’m happy with my nice 80GB PS3 but if this means a cheaper cost PS3 then why not? Who knows, E3 is just around the corner.

What do you guys think? Real or fake?

Feel free to comment either on here or on the aggregated topic on Screeze

Slim PS3 in production? Leaked pictures say yes – PlayStation 3 News – QJ.NET

A few friends and I made a paper board game based off of Territory War a few days ago at school. It started really close to the game but soon spread out into insane things like a really jacked stick figure guy on fire that can throw grenades 3x the distance and a team of Russian soldiers and tanks. It was really quite fun to say the truth

So as we’re playing we say that the game we came up with would make a really good sequel to Territory War. So I said that I could do it, and that it might actually be a really good PC game.

Soon after, I scanned all of the images we made and put them into Photoshop to clean them up. Then, I started working on development. It’s going very well and I already have the whole engine completed and a cool little easter egg that reproduces a bug I found while making the engine. I’ll hopefully have a usable beta by the end of the week.

I’ve made a cool new game as an extension of the Screeze launch game.

It’s a text-based game with many hidden clues and in the future will force you to make decisions that change the outcome of the game.

If you want to check it out you can find it at http://screeze.com/game.html

I’m sorry that the tron servers are down. This is due to a power outage that has recently come to my attention. I will be bringing the servers back up as soon as possible, which will be sometime tomorrow in the early afternoon.

I want to make another PSP game but I have completely no idea on what kind of game it should be. If you have an idea shoot me a comment here, or reply on the aggregated topic on Screeze.

BTW, I want to add a type of trophy/award system and have the ability to play on the computer as well and sync progress so your ideas should have this in mind for types of games this would work with. For instance a simple game with a bunch of minigames wouldn’t work because there is no need progress saving.
Although, if you think you have a really awesome idea but it doesn’t work with the aforementioned requirements tell me anyway.
If I use your idea you will of course be credited in the game.

As you may or may not know, Screeze is powered by myBB and I’ve had no problems with it.

However, now it comes time I want to make a sub-site for Screeze and implement a Single Sign-On system only to be faced with the harsh reality that myBB is way behind the other board softwares in this sort of thing.

I found no bridges for myBB or anything at all that would help me make a SSO system, so I made my own.

I spent about 5 days learning about OpenID and making an implementation for myBB so I could share Screeze’s user information.

The way I made the implementation was by altering phpMyID. My solution does not use Screeze’s DB at all. Rather, it checks the login cookies to see if your logged in, and if you are it sends out the OpenID with your username. If you aren’t logged in, it allows you to by opening a window with a login form and going back a page in the browser to let you try the OpenID again.

This of course is much more streamlined in the subsite, since I have more control over everything.

So, Screeze users, consider this an early preview of the full surprise. You now all have OpenID’s. Your OpenID is in the following format:

http://screeze.com/USERNAME

I’m hooked on Pandora.

It’s this cool service that creates an online radio station to your taste of music. Just give it a few samples of music you like and let it do the rest.

Try it out at Pandora.com