I've got a distinct lack of blogs for this month, besides that UE4 announcement thingy.

So here's a hodgepodge of a blog; I'll try to section things off neatly and remember to use paragraphs for once.

Work

Work has been… interesting. I still get basket cases bringing their PCs into the shop, along with other electronic devices.

I've been asked, over the last two weeks, whether I can repair:

> Fax Machines

> Toasters

> Televisions (CRT & LED with a busted screen)

> Amplifiers

> Microwaves

> DSTV Decoder (Set-top Satellite Box)

The looks on people's faces when I remind them that this is a computer repair shop straddle the line between bewildered and horrified.

They seriously don't see why I don't fix these objects. I mean, heck… I could try, but I'd more likely break it/turn it into an analogue computer than actually do what they want me to do.

Also had one of the usual dicks in the shop last week. I was pleased to learn that most of the other shopkeepers I know refer to him as "That Bloody Wanker".

He's a musician, plays Afrikaans gigs (Guitar + Singing, solo) and obviously thinks he's a Big Deal.

So, he walks into my shop with his laptop. He uses it to play his backing tracks and record music on, and for some reason his audio ports have stopped working, and he has a gig the next day. So it's a big emergency, and I help him out.

About 10 minutes and one driver repair later, they're working again. He's overjoyed, until I tell him the repair cost.

Our shop has a basic "service" fee, per hour. So the first hour costs a fixed amount, at our discretion. This applies to any 'basic' job such as the above, or helping people "Fix their Facebook", and so on.

It's about $15, R150 locally (And about 15 loaves of cheap white bread around here).

This is a middling bit of cash; it's not huge though. We pride ourselves on having lower basic rates than the other computer shops in the nearby area. The next lowest price for this sort of thing is R450, three times what we charge.

This guy proceeds to throw the biggest tantrum I've ever heard an adult throw. He goes on and on about how he's a "Starving musician", that I'm a "greedy son of a bitch trying to take his hard earned money" and the usual allotment of swears that the locals learned in school.

If this was my first month on the job, I'd probably have been scared off. Fortunately, I've figured out the best way to deal with them:

"Shut the hell up, pay up, and get out. I don't want to see you in my shop again."

A lot of the customers I have in the shop tend to have a bit of an attitude, like they're doing us a 'favor' in bringing their problems to us.

I often have to remind people that if they knew what they were doing, a lot of the problems they pay for me to fix wouldn't happen in the first place.

I get three primary customer groups (Four if you count the Toaster brigade).

> People needing a problem solved (Repair, Viruses, etc)

> People wanting advice

> People wanting to buy a retail product

The latter two are usually amiable, and never cause any trouble.

People who fall into the first category tend to either be very polite, or extremely vitriolic.

Often, when they see how 'simple' a problem was for me to solve, they get angry and seem to think it's somehow my fault that they didn't know how to solve the problem.

But yeah, my policy with these customers is that I don't want them or need them. Let them go; they'll probably come back later with mumbled apologies (Which has happened a few times when they go to the competition and pay through their nose for the same job).

On a more cheerful note, our landlord told us to move at the beginning of the month. And no, I'm not being sarcastic; she's letting us have another shop in the building that's 6 times the floor space, with a storage room at the back, and all for the same rent!

We're actually in the position where this feels like too much space, and we're puzzling out ways to effectively use it.

One of the improvements we're making is the placement of a coffee table and armchairs, along with a coffee machine and a stack of computer magazines (Those being provided by me; have nearly 300 assorted mags).

To make our shelves seem a little less empty, I'm putting a bunch of old empty part boxes on display; things like GPU boxes, motherboard boxes, etc. Looks nice, and also happens to be stuff we can order.

I'm going to make sure to put an "Order on request" sticker on the empties though, because otherwise I'm going to be explaining myself every day.

Programming

I haven't been doing as much programming recently as I'd like to be doing, but I'm slowly getting back into it. I have a multitude of mini-projects I'm working on at work.

These include:

> QRL - Quick Roguelike; something like Binding of Isaac, with rudimentary graphics. Looks like an Atari 2600 game at the moment.

> QRL3D - Working on a span-renderer akin to Doom and making a simple shooter/roguelike hybrid.

> CSH - C-like scripting language library, trying to make it as tight as possible.

> RAY - Simple raytracer I'm kinda piecing together using the materials below.

I've been getting into the recent habit of naming all my projects in upper-case, as you can see.

At home, I'm working on a Super Secret Project with Jeremy; if you know what it is, let it be known that major progress has been made on it.

I've also been working on a simple port of Exile to UE4, just to learn the ropes. I haven't got much further than importing my assets though. :P

Interesting programming materials

I've been reading from these two sites recently:

Fabien Sanglard's Site

Full of wonderfully constructed breakdowns of classic game engines. Wonderful to read, especially how the Doom & Quake engines work.

ScratchAPixel

Want to learn CG? This site is an absolute gem. Written by anonymous programmers who may or may not work for Pixar and other big companies, it even includes a primer on the basic math you need to know to start writing raytracers. All in C++ too.

Also FlipCode, which I'm using to write the semi-software renderer for QRL3D above.

I say "semi" software, because I'm technically using a GL context to provide an easy way of writing pixels to the screen in a simulated limited-color environment.

Screenshots when I remember to bring them home from work.

Games

Recently, I've been playing quite a lot of Guild Wars 2 (somebody bought it for me, and insisted I try it).

I've never really "gotten into" an MMO before, but this one is definitely interesting. Lots of platforming, adventure, dynamic events, and smooth combat. Musical score is decent too. :P

And for those times when I don't feel like playing anything online, I've been playing a ton of heavily modded Minecraft. I've got about 230 mods installed on my main pack, and I'm having fun building virtual server farms. I'm obviously channeling my rage at a work-related thing from a few weeks ago involving a server, a horrible network and other nameless horrors.

At work, when I'm bored and remember that Klondike/Solitaire isn't healthy, I've been playing through Megaman Zero again, as well as Super Mario Bros 3.

Footnote

The year is just about a third gone. It's scary, because it feels like my birthday in November was just a few days ago. Time flies when you have a job.

I'm thinking of joining both 7DFPS and LD again this year, when they next come around. Assuming I remember, and assuming I have the time. Events tend to conspire to steal time from me just as I'm about to do something I enjoy…

Well, that's enough out of me. Go blog some more you lazy cactus-people.