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	<title>MonkeyDispenser &#187; Software Development</title>
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	<description>Wargaming, miniatures and software...apparently.</description>
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		<title>It&#8217;s what I do for a living so don&#8217;t call it &#8216;playing&#8217;!</title>
		<link>http://www.monkeydispenser.com/2007/06/26/the-ultimate-working-experience/</link>
		<comments>http://www.monkeydispenser.com/2007/06/26/the-ultimate-working-experience/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:09:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jason</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hardware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Software Development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Office]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Working from Home]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.monkeydispenser.com/2007/06/26/the-ultimate-working-experience/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Today my new Samsung 226BW arrived, which pretty much ends my spending on gadgets for the foreseeable future. Setting it up wasn&#8217;t quite as easy as I&#8217;d hoped since my video card (an ATI Mobility Radeon X1400) refused to provide it&#8217;s native resolution of 1680 x 1050 using an analog connection. After three hours I [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.monkeydispenser.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/242.jpg" title="Zenji Offices"><img src="http://www.monkeydispenser.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/242.thumbnail.jpg" title="Zenji Offices" alt="Zenji Offices" align="left" border="2" hspace="5" vspace="5" /></a>Today my new Samsung 226BW arrived, which pretty much ends my spending on gadgets for the foreseeable future. Setting it up wasn&#8217;t quite as easy as I&#8217;d hoped since my video card (an ATI Mobility Radeon X1400) refused to provide it&#8217;s native resolution of 1680 x 1050 using an analog connection. After three hours I resorted to the digital connection and it worked first time.<br />
<span id="more-26"></span><br />
<a href="http://www.monkeydispenser.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/241.jpg" title="Zenji Offices"><img src="http://www.monkeydispenser.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/241.thumbnail.jpg" title="Zenji Offices" alt="Zenji Offices" align="right" border="2" hspace="5" vspace="5" /></a>Why didn&#8217;t I try that in the first place, i hear you ask? Well, two reasons &#8211; Initially it had worked through analog (for about 30 minutes) and second I have a KVM switch for the second monitor so I can switch it between the PC, Mac and Linux server. The KVM doesn&#8217;t support digital, obviously. Also, when it was working, the switch definately didn&#8217;t give the bet picture quality. The KVM switch is a D-Link DKWM-4U which was touted as giving a really good picture quality, but I guess I stretched it a little by wacking on a 22&#8243; monstrosity.</p>
<p>Through the digital cable the picture quality is outstanding. I&#8217;m, very happy with it. So happy in fact that I just wanted to play videos all day while in my office (a temptation I avoided, obviously). I love the irony of displaying the Linux shell on it. The letters are so big you can probably read them on the pictures here. They sure are sharp letters though!</p>
<p>I think I pretty much have everything sorted now. Maybe some would say over-sorted since I have more kit than I would ever be given in a permanent office job. Bear in mind that this is what I do for a living before passing judgement! As a friend once said to me (when I was fighting my conscience over buying the MacBook), you wouldn&#8217;t expect a professional photographer to only have one camera. Having said that they probably don&#8217;t feel the need to upgrade every year (though I imagine digital cameras have started to bring that about).</p>
<p>I&#8217;m sure everyone who works in (and enjoys) software development gets that comment about &#8216;playing with computers&#8217; from friends, relatives and probably even partners from time to time. My advice would be to just ask them why they think that &#8211; you might be able to put them right (in a nice way, obviously). If you get too defensive (like me) it just sounds like you have something to hide!</p>
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		<title>MonkeyDispenser v3.0</title>
		<link>http://www.monkeydispenser.com/2007/06/06/monkeydispenser-v30/</link>
		<comments>http://www.monkeydispenser.com/2007/06/06/monkeydispenser-v30/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:44:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jason</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Site]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Software Development]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.monkeydispenser.com/2007/06/09/monkeydispenser-v30/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Another major update to the site, this time involving the move across to using WordPress. When I first created the site (properly) I used it as a project for learning PHP as well as a few dynamic html techniques. The blog-type format was fun to write and taught me a lot of things that I [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Another major update to the site, this time involving the move across to using WordPress. When I first created the site (properly) I used it as a project for learning PHP as well as a few dynamic html techniques. The blog-type format was fun to write and taught me a lot of things that I now use in my day-to-day work on other projects.</p>
<p>But, in terms of a fully functional blog site I was never going to be able to reproduce something with this level of technical ability without some serious time commitments. And it&#8217;s not like anyone was going to pay me to do it either!</p>
<p>So far I&#8217;m very impressed with WordPress, and its plug-in framework means it can easily be expanded to suit other needs. I think that when I come across a client who wants a blog-style site then this is where I&#8217;ll be starting in future. It&#8217;s easy to set up, well supported and I can save the innovation for the unique features they require!</p>
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		<title>I am the Mac Daddy</title>
		<link>http://www.monkeydispenser.com/2007/05/20/i-am-the-mac-daddy/</link>
		<comments>http://www.monkeydispenser.com/2007/05/20/i-am-the-mac-daddy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 20 May 2007 16:07:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jason</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hardware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Software Development]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.monkeydispenser.com/2007/05/20/i-am-the-mac-daddy/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Finally I took the decision to get a MacBook. I&#8217;ve been worried for a while that only having one machine could cause problems as a freelance software developer should that machine decide to go belly up.
Also I just wanted to expand my knowledge a little by moving across to a new platform, at least part [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Finally I took the decision to get a MacBook. I&#8217;ve been worried for a while that only having one machine could cause problems as a freelance software developer should that machine decide to go belly up.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.monkeydispenser.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/1179677237.jpg" title="X-Ray!"><img src="http://www.monkeydispenser.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/1179677237.thumbnail.jpg" title="X-Ray!" alt="X-Ray!" align="right" border="1" hspace="5" vspace="5" /></a>Also I just wanted to expand my knowledge a little by moving across to a new platform, at least part time. This way I still have the security of my big-beast-of-a-Dell laptop whilst keeping my private life on the MacBook. Oh yes, I&#8217;m a sucker for iLife and I look forward to getting all of my music and photo&#8217;s onto it. Once I&#8217;ve fixed my network that is since I had to rebuild it just to get the Mac to use the wireless access. Apart from that everything just seems to work&#8230;so far.</p>
<p>The built in camera is a revelation. I wish I had more friends (or at least friends with Macs) so I could video conference!</p>
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		<title>Artificial Intelligence Software Development Kit</title>
		<link>http://www.monkeydispenser.com/2006/09/04/artificial-intelligence-software-development-kit/</link>
		<comments>http://www.monkeydispenser.com/2006/09/04/artificial-intelligence-software-development-kit/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Sep 2006 09:46:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jason</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Software Development]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.monkeydispenser.com/?p=6</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A rather grandly named piece of work I did as my dissertation for a Masters degree several years ago. During the course of the project I gathered together much information from the news groups and several game related sites. There were always lots of people around wanting information on the basics of path finding and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.monkeydispenser.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/1157363329.png" title="Total Annihilation"><img src="http://www.monkeydispenser.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/1157363329.thumbnail.png" title="Total Annihilation" alt="Total Annihilation" align="right" border="1" hspace="5" vspace="5" /></a>A rather grandly named piece of work I did as my dissertation for a Masters degree several years ago. During the course of the project I gathered together much information from the news groups and several game related sites. There were always lots of people around wanting information on the basics of path finding and I always promised I&#8217;d publish my work in the end as a sort of path finding primer.</p>
<p>Obviously I forgot.</p>
<p>But here it is about 7 years later than promised. As with most things I do get there eventually:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.monkeydispenser.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/ai_sdk.pdf" title="Artificial Intelligence Software Development Kit">Artificial Intelligence Software Development Kit</a><a href="../dissertation/"></a></p>
<p>The only thing I do ask if you go on to do something useful with this information is that you perhaps consider linking/referencing it/me. You never know, someone might find it useful and then go on to create the best thing in video-games since Doom. That would be a good thing.</p>
<p align="left"> You can probably ignore the details directly related to the software I wrote unless that kind of thing turns you on. If it does I have the code somewhere still so let me know if you want it rather than cutting and pasting from the documents. The first chapters should give you a fair bit of information on basic path finding though.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve still to tidy up the web version over the next few days (make it look nicer, add a proper index page, etc.)</p>
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