Next version of the Arduino simple server socket watchdog showed here time ago.
Every 30 seconds this prototype test If Google http server is up, else yellow led will light up. The improvements comes with a DHCP request to get internet connection dynamically (thanks to DHCP Library) and the LCD display showing info during the check process.

LCD shield built schema and source code for text transitions are available in previous post.

A LCD shield is usefull to get info when you work with prototypes, whatever project you think, you may found a situation where you want to print messages to Serial interface in order to debug or control your logic. But, is there a better place for watch messages than your software IDE? Yes, a LCD display close to your prototype board.

One of the most important things in game development is the world object architecture you need to create/instance game entities.

There are a lot of differents ways to develop a game objects architecture, so in this article we are going to try to focus in a different way to create a game objects architecture as the standard way. We are going to take advantage of components and to split the game object data from the entity itself.

Read More >>

Code styling is an important issue wich you will need to deal with, several times in your developer life.

Depends in wich team you are, depends who is your leader, you must to code some style or another. So, here comes the comparisions.

Read More >>

Searching for an alternative to Scaleform, SONB has implemented Hikari in Esenthel basing on Hikari undocked version. At this moment can load .swf files in Esenthel applications, update and draw them, move across the screen and change their opacity.

Read More >>

Hikari is a small yet powerful library that makes it easy to use Flash content in Ogre3D.

Hikari undocked grow from the need to use this library with other 3D engines, by decoupling Hikari from original render engine ( Ogre3D ).

This middleware was developed in Zed Games to be used in Planet 51 Online game ( free MMO based on spanish movie ), running under Trinigy Vision 3D engine.

Read More >>

Arduino prototype to monitor if servers sockets are answering right. We just need to add the Ethernet Shield and some leds to start experimenting with network issues.

It makes an open socket action each 10 seconds to get sockets state. If connection success, nothing changes. If connection failure, you will see a colorized led bright advertising that server socket is down.

Now is being used at Zed Games to monitor MMO ( Massive Multiplayer Online ) PC Game servers, and also like stress tool for testing massive socket connections ( for instance to detect reboot problems while a lot of clients are trying to open connections before server is up ).

In the last version of program, we can admin ( enabling / disabling monitors ) and watch servers states remotely with a minimal web server, so you don’t need to be near of the watchdog to know about.

David Cuartielles at Valencia Campus Party 2009 give us a master class of advanced arduino issues. He brought a experimental new Arduino shield with Video support.

Thanks to the community beta.pesepe.com, I have seen posted a little game developed in C and in my spare time for the Sony handheld console.

It was an idea to improve the existing game for the PSP and can play more than one type of pyramid. You can read the article and download the game free by clicking here. As with any homebrew you need a custom firmware on your PSP to play.

The player directly from the developer end, negating the economic forecast and distribution. By eliminating many middlemen.

Something is changing.

Since Linux distributions like Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon can easily set up a desktop with Compiz Fusion plugins. We will have a striking effect multiescritorio with graphics and many options for interaction from keyboard and mouse combinations.

Read More >>