I found this interesting forum thread at gamedev.org regarding Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). It discusses (with some variation) some issues with a serverless MMOG. In the traditional sense, MMOGs depend upon a central server to send and retrieve game data. The central server would coordinate information needed from one client to be passed to another. For example, the central server would have to somehow convey that a player was passing in front of another player's line of sight.
This of course requires a lot of machines and even more bandwidth (which is probably the basis for MMOGs requiring a monthly subscription). However the thread proposes an interesting thought about removing the central server. It raises issues in security and trust, notification, scalability, and network persistence. Who would keep track of information if no one was playing? How can you trust any machine? Etc.
These issues were very reminiscent to those I dealt with in a class I took at RIT. The class was called Research in Ad Hoc Networks. We were given this scenario at the beginning of the class:
Imagine being at a sporting event - thousands of people are there. The winning score at the last second was caught by hundreds of digital cameras... except yours. You missed it. No sweat. You'll just tell your camera to talk to all the cameras in the area and get images from theirs. A network would have had to fire up without a central server. Security and trust would have to be agreed upon. And several other topics regarding this ad hoc network would need to be addressed.
Studying those topics and then reading the forum thread really felt like similar issues. Perhaps some possible solutions for ad hoc networking could be employed in a serverless MMOG. I think the topic is really interesting .. and quite daunting. But if the bulk of the reason a monthly charge exists on MMOG is due to hardware and bandwidth, this could be a possible fix for that model.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Monday, June 13, 2005
into the west
Anne and I have been dating for almost 9 years and I have never met her extended family. She's had to deal with mine from almost day-one, but I've never met hers.... until this weekend.
Anne's uncle Jon was getting married in Colorado and much of the family was coming in and getting together for the occasion. Fortunately Anne's dad Rick, Anne, and I were able to fly out as well.
It was only my second flight anywhere. And it was my first time off the east coast at all. The flying was pretty easy. On the way out, we had a layover at Charlotte. No biggie. As we landed I'm instantly looking for mountains. "Where's the Rockies? Where are the Rockies!?!" No where. It was cloudy!
We left the airport and headed to Aunt Anita's (all family references are Anne's, not mine) who was hosting the rehearsal dinner. Anne had given me a small piece of paper with a number of names and lines with relationships scribbled. It started easily enough. Rick has parents and 4 brothers with wives. Then Anne added kids. And first wives. And their kids. And then the fact that Anita is actually the bride's aunt as well... making Jon (the groom) Anita's sister-in-law as well as aunt. By the end, the scrap of paper looked more like a football play than a family tree.
So finally getting to Anita's and studied well I was ready. I met aunts and uncles and grandparents. And then I met the bride's family as well (which I was not prepared for). Rick had warned me that meeting his brothers would be a lot of "fun" for him. I was worried. I expected a bit of sophomoric pranking and humor and humiliation. They sat me down in the center of the four brothers where they began the "deee-scusion." I learned fairly quickly that the right answers were the ones that reflected their taunts, insults, and embarrassment-invoking questions with equal immaturity. Needless to say I fit in quite well.
The wedding the next day was very nice. I have never attended a Catholic wedding before, and while it was a bit longer, it was just as nice. At the reception, they served a free mimosa. Aunt Debbie unfortunately noticed that Anne and I were the first two at the table to finish ours. Oops. We slipped on that first-impression test. Anne and I had a good time dancing and such.
After the wedding, we went over to the bride's family's house for a post-reception party. It was a casual party for Jon and Lori to open gifts. Jon offered some words of wisdom in the form of jokes. And when the night was finally done, we sent them off with cans attached to their car bumper.
Sunday the Maynards got together and we continued the jokes and food. The brothers settled down a bit and caught up on happenings with each family. As they left I got several comments saying that I passed the trial and would be accepted into the family :-) Aunt Sheri said they voted and I survived. I could see how that vote would go...
"Dave"
"Someone taller"
"Dave"
"Somebody with more money"
"Dave"
... Looks like the "Dave"s win.
As the weekend drew to a close, I got to see some mountains ... which were beautiful. Colorado is a really cool place. I got to see Denver's stadiums from a distance ... which was real neat. Anne and I got some cool wedding ideas.
The flight on the way back was just fine except that we were running behind. We were on some crappy-ass plane from Pittsburgh to Syracuse which sucked, but we arrived safely.
With the weekend all over Anne, Rick, and I had a great weekend meeting/visiting her family. I hope we see a bunch of them come over for our wedding next April.
Anne's uncle Jon was getting married in Colorado and much of the family was coming in and getting together for the occasion. Fortunately Anne's dad Rick, Anne, and I were able to fly out as well.
It was only my second flight anywhere. And it was my first time off the east coast at all. The flying was pretty easy. On the way out, we had a layover at Charlotte. No biggie. As we landed I'm instantly looking for mountains. "Where's the Rockies? Where are the Rockies!?!" No where. It was cloudy!
We left the airport and headed to Aunt Anita's (all family references are Anne's, not mine) who was hosting the rehearsal dinner. Anne had given me a small piece of paper with a number of names and lines with relationships scribbled. It started easily enough. Rick has parents and 4 brothers with wives. Then Anne added kids. And first wives. And their kids. And then the fact that Anita is actually the bride's aunt as well... making Jon (the groom) Anita's sister-in-law as well as aunt. By the end, the scrap of paper looked more like a football play than a family tree.
So finally getting to Anita's and studied well I was ready. I met aunts and uncles and grandparents. And then I met the bride's family as well (which I was not prepared for). Rick had warned me that meeting his brothers would be a lot of "fun" for him. I was worried. I expected a bit of sophomoric pranking and humor and humiliation. They sat me down in the center of the four brothers where they began the "deee-scusion." I learned fairly quickly that the right answers were the ones that reflected their taunts, insults, and embarrassment-invoking questions with equal immaturity. Needless to say I fit in quite well.
The wedding the next day was very nice. I have never attended a Catholic wedding before, and while it was a bit longer, it was just as nice. At the reception, they served a free mimosa. Aunt Debbie unfortunately noticed that Anne and I were the first two at the table to finish ours. Oops. We slipped on that first-impression test. Anne and I had a good time dancing and such.
After the wedding, we went over to the bride's family's house for a post-reception party. It was a casual party for Jon and Lori to open gifts. Jon offered some words of wisdom in the form of jokes. And when the night was finally done, we sent them off with cans attached to their car bumper.
Sunday the Maynards got together and we continued the jokes and food. The brothers settled down a bit and caught up on happenings with each family. As they left I got several comments saying that I passed the trial and would be accepted into the family :-) Aunt Sheri said they voted and I survived. I could see how that vote would go...
"Dave"
"Someone taller"
"Dave"
"Somebody with more money"
"Dave"
... Looks like the "Dave"s win.
As the weekend drew to a close, I got to see some mountains ... which were beautiful. Colorado is a really cool place. I got to see Denver's stadiums from a distance ... which was real neat. Anne and I got some cool wedding ideas.
The flight on the way back was just fine except that we were running behind. We were on some crappy-ass plane from Pittsburgh to Syracuse which sucked, but we arrived safely.
With the weekend all over Anne, Rick, and I had a great weekend meeting/visiting her family. I hope we see a bunch of them come over for our wedding next April.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
dating a developer: a female perspective
Ryan found this fun and entertaining blog entry. It's a look at dating geeks from the female side. I laughed all the way through it. I think she's got a compilation error in it (you'll see it once you read it), but her intent is in the right place.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
After spending a bit too long on hacking my blog, there are some sorta-cool, sorta-new things. You'll see the NavBar up above is missing. And I've added a "Add a Comment" link right off the post - so feel free to do so. I added a "Technical BlogRoll" a few days ago in the sidebars. It's a slowly growing list of weblogs relevant to software development.
Anne and I attended a wedding for a neighbor of hers two weeks ago. Steve shot this picture of us in my backyard before going out for the night. We thought we looked hot (for once both of us look good in a picture) so I thought we'd share.
Posted by Hello
Monday, June 06, 2005
mac podcast
Are you a mac fan? Do you have too much time on your hands? Then this podcast is for you. It's not my cup of tea, but I thought it was interesting enough to blog about for the see of readers who may be into that kinda thing.
fun weekend
Jeremiah's bachelor party was this past weekend. We had a great time. That is all I can tell you. I'm sworn to secrecy. :-D
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Muse you can Use: Lite-Brite, Lite-Brite....
Muse you can Use: Lite-Brite, Lite-Brite....
I was running through a few random blogs and found this blog featuring an awesome link! I could play around with this for hours!
I was running through a few random blogs and found this blog featuring an awesome link! I could play around with this for hours!
Eagerly awaiting Myst 5
I can't wait.
I just saw a preview of the upcoming (and supposed final) installment of the Myst series called End of Ages. I am SO excited. Apparently they had a display at E3 and I was not informed. However, GameSpy was there and did a nice preview spread on the game this week.
It's said to be a departure from typical Myst games in that it will utilize a full 3D environment (similar to a FPS) rather than 360-degree panoramas to point-and-click on. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I've loved almost everything they've done so I'm sure I won't be disappointed.
Myst 5: End of Ages is slated for a fall release and I'll be there. I've had to include a screen shot from GameSpy. I hope this doesn't make the post look crappy. Awe man!
PS: The image was too wide for my blog and the CSS they've given me doesn't conform to wide images. I've shrunk it here so you can get the jist, but I'm also linking it so you can see it as it's ment to be seen.
I just saw a preview of the upcoming (and supposed final) installment of the Myst series called End of Ages. I am SO excited. Apparently they had a display at E3 and I was not informed. However, GameSpy was there and did a nice preview spread on the game this week.
It's said to be a departure from typical Myst games in that it will utilize a full 3D environment (similar to a FPS) rather than 360-degree panoramas to point-and-click on. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I've loved almost everything they've done so I'm sure I won't be disappointed.
Myst 5: End of Ages is slated for a fall release and I'll be there. I've had to include a screen shot from GameSpy. I hope this doesn't make the post look crappy. Awe man!
PS: The image was too wide for my blog and the CSS they've given me doesn't conform to wide images. I've shrunk it here so you can get the jist, but I'm also linking it so you can see it as it's ment to be seen.
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