Code Justin

Archive for the ‘Other’ Category

One of my other ‘passions’ besides programming is investing.  Though I don’t have a lot of money to play with I do love learning about investing.  When I first turned 18 I took the money I got and started learning about the Foreign Exchange Market (Forex).  Just like programming you must first learn what half the words mean!  So after learning the key terms of Forex I quickly took off and started learning a lot of technical trading.  I lost what little I invested (I used high leverage plus Forex is very risky in nature).  After that I entered into a ‘play money’ contest which the goal was to see who could make more money trading Forex in one week given 100k play money.  I won the contest and got a free $200 account (which is double what I first invested).  So I did technically make back what I first invested.

I have not traded Forex in MONTHS (over 6 months) but something is telling me to get back into it.  I’m thinking about taking $100 or so and just playing around with a very small micro-lot broker.

I do not know much about other markets but I do know that Forex can be a very fun challenge for technical minded people.  For myself I just love finding patterns and predicting the future based on the technical indicators I have and developing my own trading strategy.  If I didn’t like computer science so much I probably would become a broker.

If you guys are interested I could even post some Forex how-to’s for programmers.

Ho Ho Ho

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays, will post again soon!

Want to wish everyone a late night Happy Thanksgiving!

I was lucky enough to attend two meals =]

I happen to find an old Computer Science book yesterday.  If I get bored enough I might crack it open and check it out.  It’s called “Computer Science – An Overview” from 1988.  I would post a picture but I couldn’t find one on the net so I’ll take one sometime.

Have a nice Labor Day Weekend!

Funny Labor Day Photo
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I’m going to start working on the game again today but I thought I would mention that someone gave me an original imac yesterday at my graduation party. The computer is in GREAT shape becuase whom ever had it really took good care of it and even kept all the original manuals ect.  I’m not too much of a mac fan but I do love these imacs. I remember using them in elementary school (used to look inside of them since they are clearish). I know I played Simcity on the imac but I’m not sure if Oregon Trail works on it. Regardless I think it’s cool that I just happened to be given one at my party and I will be sure to tinker with it sometime. Too bad apple wont let me submit iPhone apps from OS 9, haha.

I probably wont be working on the game too much today because I’m having my graduation party.  You can expect the next post to be tomorrow or Monday.

If you feel genrious there is a donate button on the right hand side of this blog *wink*.

I hope everyone is enjoying their 4th of July celebrations!

4th of julyJust another reminder that starting this Monday I will be keeping a detailed developer log of my journey into creating a commercial mobile game using J2ME.  So while your out at the picnic don’t forget to tell your grandmother and brother in law about my upcoming blog series starting this Monday (they can subscribe to my blog for future updates).

I have been following E3 for the past two days and as I had mentioned in an earlier post I would post about anything interesting I saw.  So below is a report of the nifty announcements for each keynote.

Wii:

Nintendo was hands down the most boring and uneventful.  All the games pretty much stunk and there wasn’t anything I found interesting.  They are releasing Mario Galaxy 2 and another Metroid but the game previews weren’t too great so can’t judge them just yet.  The only thing they announced besides the fact they were the highest selling console was some really dumb pulse thingy.  They didn’t even have a tech demo for it.

(Wii Vitality Sensor)

Xbox360:

The game announcements were pretty average but better than Wii.  The main thing I liked about the presentation was their motion sensor.  It seemed really neat because you didn’t have to wave a stick in the air.

(Xbox360 Motion Sensor Stage Tech Demo)

PS3:

Sony really shocked me.  They were hands down the best out of the three.  First off their games looked really good and had some awesome presentations.  What was even more surprising was the motion sensor they demoed.  It was very accurate and unlike Xbox’s demo it had almost no lag behind the actions.

Note: Since Sony just got done with their presentation I will be posting the videos as they become available and also will be posting higher quality videos when they come out.

(God of War Game Play Demo)

(ModRacers Track Builder Live Demo)

-No Video Yet-

(PS3 Motion Sensor Tech Demo)

PC:

The good old PC did get some mentions after some game demos but for the most part the only two things I found interesting was one the fact that APB (All Points Bulletin) is still alive.  I seen that game years ago and figured it must have been dead by now.  The other thing that was surprising was the pretty cool trailer for Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic.  It is a mmorpg that will be coming out on the PC.

(All Points Belletin)

(Star Wars Knight of the Old Republic Trailer)

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Starting tomorrow G4 will be broadcasting 22 hours of live footage from the E3 expo.  Starting off at 1pm tomorrow Microsoft will be releasing their keynote.  For those that do not know what E3 is, it’s basically the biggest conference for game publishers to release information about their upcoming games/systems.  Even though I do not game too much I’m interested to see the advancements and the new technology the companies will be announcing.  If you do not get the G4 channel on your TV you can watch the broadcast live on their site.

If you really don’t care or don’t have the time to tune into E3 I will be posting any news I find interesting on my blog.

Also I will be posting my senior career movie tomorrow.  I’m just doing some final editing now.

Happy Memorial Day

I want to wish all our veterans and currently active service men and women a happy memorial day.  Be sure to thank those today that have served our country and remember those who gave their lives for our freedom.