Connor’s Blog

Web Developer, Student, Blogger.

Archive for June, 2009

The Blog: Two Years and Counting

Jun 23

Posted by Connor in Articles, News

Ah, two years and counting! It feels good, yet, at the same time, it’s depressing to see how I used to write. Anyway, I created this blog two years ago to the day, a few days after I left Middletown for good. The fact of the matter was this: when you are in limbo, you need a place to spew your mind. As such, the blog (which used to be called the Clog, up until February 2008) was that place. In the past year, I believe that both my posts, as well as general attitude, have changed. Don’t worry, often change is a good thing, other times it’s not.

In order to celebrate the birthday of the blog, I planned to have a new theme developed for WordPress to launch today. Unfortunately, I gave up on that a few minutes after I started, so we will all have to deal with this public, albeit modified, theme. Personally, I like it, and it’s been growing on me ever since I installed it a few weeks back. Now, as I may have possibly hinted at a few posts back, I do plan on publishing a retrospect of the past two years sometime before the end of this month (I know, a week isn’t that long of a time to write retrospect, especially of two years, but I will do my best). I will also be discussing what’s going on with my own personal life, my tech life (including some new Game Maker news/rumors/etc. as well as current and future projects), and basically anything else that comes to mind.

Looking back, excluding the three months that I failed to post on here, my posting frequency has been in quite a state of flux, but I think I am starting to settle into the two or three posts a week spectrum. Yes, it is not a lot, but at the same time, it’s all the writing I can muster in my free time during the week. Even though summer is upon us (well, at least here), personal and other commitments limit the amount of time I can dedicate to posting on here, as well as working on my own personal web projects. That being said, I will do my best to post as much “unexpected” content (things that are not released on a time schedule, unlike the Week in Review) as I can come up with, including my own comments on various news articles and events, personal opinion on various happenings, and the like.

All in all, I really do feel that the blog has done completed its purpose gracefully; it served as the whiteboard and psychiatrist of my mind, in a sense. I could describe random projects or events without having to fear about who read it. Well, in a way, there is always a fear about who reads your works, especially when they are about anything, but that is one of the consequences of free speech, I guess. But, despite the blog/clog completing its original, defined purpose, it is far from dead: like everything old, or at least appearing so, we can repurpose and redefine our goals, ambitions, and the products of them. As such, the blog is not going anywhere, not for a long, long time.

Connor Wilkins

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Game Maker (8?) Has a New Feature

Jun 22

Posted by Connor in Articles, Game Maker

I have not been told this new feature directly, but it’s pretty safe to say that it’s true. After all, I do have photographic evidence that YoYo is indeed working on this, despite what they are publically saying. Anyway, I can’t beat around the bush anymore. Just check out the picture below, and you should be able to pick it out fairly quick:

gamemaker_for_linux_final

What? Don’t see it? See the lower portion of the dialog in focus? “Mac OS X and Linux Ports”.

Yes, Game Maker is coming to Linux. I do not know when, I do not know how, but it is. Be ready. That is all.

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The Week in Review (6/8/09)

Jun 15

Posted by Connor in Life

Ah, what a week. It’s amazing how much one person can screw things up. Who did the damage? Me. I know, what a shock. So, to begin, it was my last full week of school, which was nice. I was getting to the point that I really couldn’t stand sitting in a classroom anymore without going insane. That being said, I made it through. Plus, when you played cards for 18 periods in total (out of 45 in a week), that definitely helps. All in all, it was a relatively simple week: a lot of review, a quiz here or there, and just general shenanigans and the like. On Friday, I decided to change my schedule for next year, and as such, put myself into five different college courses: College Freshman English (Composition 1 and 2), AP Government, AP Psychology, College Algebra/Pre-Calculus, and French IV. Plus, with regular Physics, that puts me at six actual classes for the year, and hopefully a free period or two so I can get a study hall. Anyway, the most interesting part of my week (personally, WWDC was a whole other matter), was regarding what I alluded to last week: relationships.

You see, things were going pretty well. We talked and stuff, and it was generally assumed that we were basically going out. Except, assuming isn’t doing, as I would come to find out. On Tuesday, we were chatting it up on Facebook, when she changed her status to: ” ‘one thing to do, three words for you’ :)”. I hope you would know the song “1, 2, 3, 4″ by the Plain White T’s, otherwise the lyric is lost to you. Anyway, later that night we had this conversation (well, this is an excerpt of a five hour chat):

10:16pm – Connor

lol i liked it better when there was one person lol

at least she won’t be here all day next year :D:D

10:16pm – ???

yeah thats gonna rock

one person?

10:17pm – Connor

amber, laura

10:18pm – ???

ah

i know one more too

10:18pm – Connor

oh really

10:18pm – ???

yeahh

i hear shes pretty cool

10:19pm – Connor

oh yea i think i might have heard about that one

the name escapes me at the moment

sure i’ll remember sometime

10:20pm – ???

yeahhh i forget it too

she has a nickname

10:20pm – Connor

yea, i think you’re right

10:21pm – ???

yeahhh, its short

10:21pm – Connor

3 letters?

10:21pm – ???

if i remember right so is she

yeahhh

10:21pm – Connor

hmm

starting to bring back memories….

10:22pm – ???

yeahhh ???eee

10:23pm – Connor

well i hope to god I can remember who it was

10:23pm – ???

u should try!

10:23pm – Connor

i’ll figure it out :):)

10:24pm – ???

u besttt :):)

Yes, I am very flirty sometimes, haha. Anyway, things we’re going great, until I never actually asked her. The next night, she sent this to Steve, a good friend of mine, and a recent acquaintance of hers:

Once there was this girl.
Who liked this guy.
Who told her that he liked her.
But never talked to her.
And never acted on his feelings.
So then this girl gave up hope on him.
And she became depressed and swore off guys and never married.
And then she died.

I was in shock: how had I let myself screw this up? The next day, her good friend who’s been helping me out told me that, and I quote. “Even if you ask her she said she won’t say yes because she thinks you are just doing it because you are being pressured to.” I literally gave myself a face palm. She said that I needed to “prove” to her that I really wanted this. Once again, I said “Are you serious?” Gah, I don’t have the energy to finish the rest of the story right now. Whenever I figure out what’s going on, I will be sure to update this, either with an expansion to this post or with a new one entirely. Anyway, that was pretty much my week. I hope to get up a post-WWDC round up, including my response to the new iPhone 3G S and Snow Leopard, as well as my review of the BlackBerry Storm (finished two weeks of use, so I need to wrap up the rest of my review). Anyway, enjoy the nice weather (if you have it), and summer is almost here! Just a few more exams to go…

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An Open Letter to the European Commission

Jun 13

Posted by Connor in Articles, Internet, Other Things, Politics

June 13th, 2009

To Whom It May Concern:

As an avid tech enthusiast, I have been following your investigation of sorts into Microsoft’s anti-competitive practices in regards to its internet browser, Internet Explorer. To be frank, your investigation was not unwarranted: Microsoft’s dominance in terms of browser market share is impressive, at the least. But, just because a particular piece of software has dominance in an industry (Internet Explorer had control of 65.5% of the browser space as of May 2009 (1)) does not necessarily mean that it is participating in anti-competitive practices.

Now, before we can start to debunk the notion that Microsoft may be participating in such practices, we need to look at the source of this accusation: another browser, which, despite it’s more than twelve year existence in the industry, has yet to garner more than two percent of the desktop browser market share. Understandably, the company would like to place the blunt of the blame of this failure on Microsoft, and it’s, supposedly, anti-competitive actions. What Opera fails to realize, or, most likely, fails to inform others of is its own dominance in the mobile browser space. As of May 2009, Opera Mobile had control of over 24.6% of the mobile browser space (2). Now, if you were to calculate the iPhone and iPod touch as one entity instead of two, Opera loses the first place position, but in terms of this conversation, we are discussing Microsoft and Opera Software.

So, is Opera participating in anti-competitive practices as well? Of course they aren’t, and neither is Microsoft. Let’s create a real life scenario: if one particular consumer has a BlackBerry smartphone, they are free to download a mobile version of Opera’s web browser onto their device and use it over the built in web browser provided by RIM (the creators of the BlackBerry and its software). Likewise, a user with any modern version of Microsoft’s own Windows Mobile operating system can download a copy of Opera and use that over the mobile version Internet Explorer. This is the exact same case for the desktop: while a web browser may come bundled with an operating system, the end user is free to download another browser at will.

You see, the basic definition of the term anti-competitive is anything that attempts to stop competition between businesses. What I would like to ask you is this: how is Microsoft committing an anti-competitive action by shipping Internet Explorer bundled with its Windows operating system? Does Internet Explorer contain the ability to block other users from downloading another piece of software to browse the Internet? If not, which is the case, why is shipping a particular version of its own software anti-competitive? It does not bar users from finding and installing other alternative software. It does not limit them to what they can or cannot do. All it does is provide a medium for the end user, who, in a large number of cases, does not express a particular feeling for such a piece of software, to browse the Internet.

To the public’s knowledge, there has been no action taken by other web browser developers (notably Mozilla, the developers of Firefox, as well as Opera) to have their browser shipped on Windows. Likewise, there is no reason why OEMs (original equipment manufacturers, such as Dell and Acer) can’t ship another web browser alongside Internet Explorer on machines they build and distribute. As such, I believe it is safe to say that there are no anti-competitive actions occurring here.

To summarize, while Internet Explorer may have dominance in the internet browser market space, their lead does not necessarily constitute that anti-competitive practices are being used. Likewise, Opera (the original company that asked you to investigate Microsoft), has its own level of control in the mobile browser space. As far as anyone in the public can tell, neither company is doing anything that prevents their software (whether it is an operating system or browser) from stopping the downloading or use of another web browser. Browser developers have also, at least from the eyes of the public, have not reached out to offer their products alongside Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and, as such, should not claim that they are participating in such alleged illegal activities. Because of this, I believe your pursuit of such a case is absolutely outrageous and does not reflect any sort of understanding of the technology and software industries.

Thank You for Your Time,

Connor Wilkins

1. According to Net Applications’ monthly analysis of various market shares. (http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0&qpmr=100&qpdt=1&qpct=3&qptimeframe=M)

2. According to StatCounter Global Stats. (http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-ww-daily-20090501-20090531-bar)

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