What we do:
We offer embedded software solutions for the automotive industries and consumer electronics market.
Good morning!
My journey into the wonderful world of video games started at age 15 with a little game called Ultima 6. I opened the box and discovered magic. Inside the box there was a cloth map, a smooth obsidian “moonstone”, and a compendium which served as a guide for new travelers. I installed the program and was whisked away to a new world. It’s hard to express exactly how large that game world was… you could explore it for months and still not see it all.
I played Ultima 6 for about a year and a half until I beat the game, but before I was done, that world was a part of me. I came away with a love of fiction, imagination, and epic games that persists with me to this day.
It’s probably no surprise that I eventually wanted to return the favor. About eight years ago I started learning programming languages, such as C++ and Java, with the goal of developing role playing video games (RPG’s). A little research told me that it’s not easy to create these virtual worlds, but I had no idea exactly how difficult until I worked on it for a few years myself. Modern online role playing games are developed by teams of professional programmers. The teams generally range in size from around 10 to 300 people, and they take anywhere from three to seven years to release the first version of a new game.
This means that I will probably need assistance to create a very fun online game. Even if I manage to get one working, its market share would be limited because I tend to enjoy games that are more old fashioned, with retro graphics and classic styles. Most consumers these days want the latest modern advances. Basically there are small odds of my ever releasing a game, and almost no chance of financial reward.
Despite these obstacles, I’ve continued the efforts part time for most of the last eight years. I love the ideal and I love the work, and if I occasionally stop loving it, I take a break until I can love it some more. Sometimes it feels like I’m a squirrel climbing Mount Everest, but for some reason I haven’t quit yet. Today I know more about game programming than I ever did before, and maybe it’s possible that I will beat the odds.
Programming can be useful, but I think that persistence is the best skill I’ve taken from from my game development experiences. It’s helped improve many areas of my life.
How can persistence help you reach your dreams?
They say that if you never quit on a goal, then you will either achieve it, or die trying.
In this small tutorial we’ll show you how can you create nice rollover buttons using CSS, which can contain text, images or both. Using text on the buttons can be important for SEO reasons, search engines give greater value to textual links.
Using text and colors only
For our first button we’ll use only text and colors for the rollover effect.
Our HTML code is quite simple:
<a href="#">Button</a>
The CSS code:
To make this link a rollover button, we’ll use the following CSS code:
a.button {
display: block;
color: #FFFFFF;
background: #000000;
width: 60px;
height: 25px;
line-height: 25px;
text-align: center;
text-decoration: none;
font-weight: bold;
border: 1px solid #000000;
}
a.button:hover {
color: #000000;
background: #FFFFFF;
}
Pretty simple, isn’t it?
If you haven’t been paying attention to the mobile market at all or you aren’t a gamer you might have missed out on what is being called the first big hit of the mobile age of gaming. Of course, I’m willing to bet that you have at least a small clue as to what I’m talking about. Angry Birds has been heralded as “one of the great runaway hits of 2010” not just in the gaming market but in the cultural climate as a whole. It’s become almost a part of the cultural lexicon and has showed up on a bunch of different types of media outlets, including major news stations.
There are 5 angry birds!
To understand what has made this game such a phenomenon we must first look at the mobile market. Here we have a developing market that is still in its infancy as far as the progress that we’re likely to see in the next decade. Everything is going to be so shockingly new and exciting that Angry Birds might look like Pong looks to us in relation to today’s computer games. That being said, it’s still an impressive entry into the market and has taken it over almost completely. Every single gaming company is trying to break down how Angry Birds sold so many copies, how it’s so addictive and how they can make a game just as successful and meaningful.
Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen for a lot of these companies simply because you can’t replicate magic. Magic is magic, and Angry Birds just happened to tap into that perfect blend of likability, storyline and pure fun that helped it climb up the App Store charts until it was number one for quite some time.
What’s even better is the fact that Rovio Mobile doesn’t nickel and dime their customers like a lot of the app developers out there. Most companies will force you to shell out a couple extra dimes or cents for any upgrade or feature boost in the next iteration of the product. Angry Birds decided to just launch new bonus levels and unlockables free of charge. Of course, they did release some standalone packages that cost extra, but by that time fans were so excited to see the new content that they were happy to pay the money – and probably would have paid even more if Rovio decided to charge more.
I suspect we will look back at Angry Birds and see that they were quite the game changer in the mobile market. It’s still in its infancy and companies like Rovio have the potential to completely shape the direction that it goes in due to their large influence and market cap. They are thought leaders in the space and seem poised to stay in that position for some time to come, provided they don’t do anything dumb and lose their lead. Then again, the next Angry Birds could be right around the corner and none of us would have the slightest idea!
Recently, my boyfriend of four years asked me to marry him, and I am thrilled to say I accepted. My girlfriends told me one of the ways to tell if your fiancé really knows you is if he picks out a ring you love and totally would wear. According to them, if he ends up picking something you hate, thinking you’ll love it, perhaps you should reconsider before saying yes.
Luckily I didn’t have to base my decision on something as seemingly ridiculous as the style or size of the engagement ring. I am now donning a beautiful platinum ring with a princess cut diamond. I love moving my ring finger and watching the diamond sparkle in the sunlight.
My fiancé obviously knew me extremely well because I have always told him how much I love platinum rings. Something about the color of the metal somehow makes it so much more interesting to look at and wear than a simple gold or silver band. And the quality of platinum is unmatched. It is no wonder platinum is so popular!
Now, we are planning our wedding and looking at many different styles of wedding bands to give to each other on that special day. I feel already very lucky and spoiled to have such a beautiful ring on my finger, but now we are looking into getting tungsten wedding bands, at least for my future husband.
Tungsten is a great metal for men to use because it is noticeably heavier than gold or silver, so it feels hefty and weighted. Instead of having a dainty coil of gold around his finger, tungsten is a much better choice. Additionally, the prices of gold, white gold, and platinum have all been on the rise in the past few years. Meanwhile, tungsten wedding bands remain a very viable option that won’t break your bank in this tough economy.
Another reason we like tungsten for the metal to be used for our wedding rings is that it is extremely strong. This means it is much harder to cause damage, corrosion, or wear on the band. Gold and silver tarnish so much easier, and the rings require almost constant maintenance and repair to keep them looking their best. Think about how often you use your hands, and how dirty they can get. You don’t want your ring to be damaged at all simply from normal, every day use. The strength of the material also means that the metal is extremely resistance to scratches, dings, and dents that would normally be caused by daily wear and tear.
We are still months away from the wedding and have plenty of time to decide on what rings we want to wear. We don’t want to rush the decision because, after all, our plan is to be wearing these rings for the rest of our lives. However the first choice right now definitely seems to be a set of wedding bands made out of tungsten. It seems like with tungsten we just can’t go wrong.
I am a big proponent of reducing carbon emissions by using green energy sources, and clearly the best way of generating green power at home is using solar power. However there are still many misconceptions about solar power and solar panels so here are some of the most common questions I get from friends and family on the topic:
Q1: How do solar panels work anyway? How does light turn into electricity?
Answer: Sunlight is turned into electricity by solar panels using a process called photovoltaics. Special substances in the panels such as different forms of silicon produce a voltage when they are exposed to light from the sun. Solar panels include enough of these substances in one area so that the voltage produced is sufficient to power electrical devices in your home!
Q2: If I use solar panels in my garden will they steal the sunlight from my plants?
Answer: No absolutely not. The only way using solar panels in a garden would reduce the light reaching your plants is if they are placed directly over plants and blocking the sunlight directly from reaching them. Anyway, the best place for your panels is on your roof where they are mostly out of sight and get maximum exposure to the sun because there is nothing around them to cast a shadow over the panels.
Q3: Doesnt the carbon footprint from manufacturing solar panels cancel out any advantaged gained by using them to produce power?
Answer: Not necessarily. Production methods are always improving and the modern high tech methods used to manufacture panels has reduced the time taken to offset the carbon generated by producing the panel with the clean source of power produced by the panel down to under four years. So if you are using panels for 10 or more years to power your home your net carbon footprint is far lower than without using solar power.
Install your own solar panels
Q4: Isnt it too expensive to set up enough solar panels to power my home?
There are ways to keep the cost down if you want to start producing your own clean energy at home. For example, if you are interesting in learning how to make solar panels it is actually pretty straightforward to do most of the work yourself. Some people setup up solar systems that generate good clean energy from the sun for only a few hundred dollars – it is possible to get involved in solar power without spending lots of cash or needing to be a rocket scientist.
So hopefully that clears up some issues for people on the fence about jumping on the solar power bandwagon – stop think about it just get going and do it, the planet will thank you.
The end of the year is quickly approaching, and I know many of you are probably going to create a list of resolutions to work on as soon as January 1st hits on the calendar. I don’t know about you but at least when I was younger my resolutions always included drinking less alcohol, smoking fewer cigarettes (or quitting altogether), and losing weight. Now that I’m older I have mostly lost hope that I will ever quit smoking cigarettes or drinking a beer or two every night when I get off work, but I was able to lose weight a few years ago. I’m sure there is a large proportion of you out there who want to lose weight in the coming year, whether just dropping the added pounds you put on during Thanksgiving and Christmas, or making a substantial change to your life.
Track your results carefully.
Several years ago I worked really hard for several months straight and I lost about forty pounds in the entire year. I got into the best shape of my life and I looked and felt great. My cholesterol levels dropped, as did my blood pressure. I was spending less money on groceries because my appetite decreased in size, and I was getting hit on at bars way more often. Life was great!
That year and for the next couple of years after I was always asked about how I finally did it. Everyone wanted to know what my secret was. The truth is, there really is no secret to it. All you have to do is watch what you eat. It doesn’t mean going crazy and cutting out anything that has an ounce of fat, sugar, or carbohydrates in it. Instead, the lesson to learn here is one of moderation. Eat plenty of vegetables and proteins, and help yourself to dessert, a glass of wine, or french fries once in a while. You don’t need to be eating all three of those things every day.
The other tip to focus on is exercising. This doesn’t mean killing yourself for three hours at the gym every day. It means just making small changes to your daily routine: walking to the store four blocks away instead of driving; taking the stairs to your apartment instead of the elevator; and making sure you sweat or get your heart rate up a few times a week.
Finally, use a weight loss calculator. It doesn’t seem like it would really make a difference after changing the way you think about diet and exercise, but it definitely helped me keep on track with my weight loss and also not feel like everything was lost if I didn’t eat right for a day. If you follow these tips it really shouldn’t be that difficult to lose those extra pounds next year. And in all honesty, the best idea is probably not to wait until January 1st to get started on these goals. Everything you see here can be done on a daily basis starting today, so don’t put it off any longer. Also take a look at this Youtube vid for some other handy advice on diet and fat loss:
Every now and then there comes along something in technology that has the potential to shift the way we experience information in a very significant way. In the 1970s it was the revolution of the personal computer, led by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Bill Gates. In the 1990s it was the advent of the internet, the technological leap that allowed us to communicate and connect with each other from halfway across the globe. The fact that you’re even reading this post right now is evidence of the far-reaching power of the internet.
Avatar as seen in 3d
In this day and age there have been vast improvements in other areas of technology that sometimes are left by the wayside. Everyone seems to think that the only way technology can improve is in relation to the internet and computing technology, but they are very misguided. There have been vast jumps in other fields as well that have gone underappreciated.
One prime example is the recent development of 3d TVs. They have silently climbed into stores worldwide and have been growing in popularity despite the fact that many people don’t know much about them. Sure, people have gone to the movies and seen Avatar or the latest animated film in three dimensions, but most are completely unaware that this technology is making its way onto the home television.
Sony is an example of a company that is leading the charge with 3d TVs and putting out a good amount of quality televisions to choose from. They also happen to have one of the most user-friendly eyeglasses for their televisions that I have seen on the market yet. It’s surprising how much work actually has to go into the production of accessories that aren’t the actual television. Without comfortable, well-fitting and durable glasses, the entire product itself would be a flop. You could have an exquisite television that projects the clearest, most dynamic three dimensional images that are humanly possible and it would be ruined with a cheap, shoddy pair of glasses.
Let’s talk about the actual technology behind 3d TVs. I’m not quite sure on the exact method that they’re able to mimic the same effect that has been on the big screens for some time now, but I have to say that the result is very impressive. I thought it would be quite a while before three dimensions came to television but I was dead wrong. It looks like the success of 3d in the movies was enough to propel all of the world’s biggest television producers to invest a lot of resources into developing the same technology for the home. I think I speak for all fans of television and video in general when I say that it is going to revolutionize the viewing experience for consumers everywhere.
Stop using it
Nooo!!! This can only lead to trouble. Sure, you have the item now, but do you have enough money in your accounts to head home and pay the bill that night? Or do you have enough money in your budget next month to pay it off? Because if you don’t you’ll most likely be stuck paying interest – is it worth it? How much credit card debt do you have already? If you run a free credit report will you be happy with what you see… don’t use credit any more than you need to.
This one only applies to hourly workers or people who get paid overtime. It’s easy to plan to work more hours, but what if you get sick or you need to attend a funeral or your car breaks down or… well, you get the picture. Planning on future income that isn’t a sure thing can be dangerous.
Do you really? Really really? Like if you don’t get it you won’t wake up tomorrow? Remembering to determine what your needs really are and what are just wants is important. Maybe it really is a need – then you need to sit down and work it into your budget. If it’s a want, though – save up! It’ll still be there later, I promise.
Just because something is on sale, doesn’t mean it’s a good deal. It also doesn’t mean you’ve got to buy it that instant. Sales and other ‘deals’ are just motivational techniques used by stores and companies to encourage you to buy now, instead of waiting for later. This might be one of the most used phrases out there. We’re basically saying, “Yes! Instead of going $50 over my budget, I can get this and only go over $35!” Over is over, right?
Ok, but what happens at the end of the month when you’re out of milk and bread and something else and don’t have any money in your grocery budget? How good is that sweater/TV/whatever going to look? I wonder if it goes good with barbecue sauce…
Ha! I’m so guilty of this one. I’m always trying to use fuzzy math in my head in a store and trying to figure out if we have enough money to get something or if we can get money from somewhere to get some. Knowing exactly how much money you have budgeted for a certain category when you go the store helps a lot. When you hit that number, you just stop shopping. Difficult, I know, but it works! If you have time, a simple glance at your budgeting tool will inform you. If your bank is cool and you can get a text update or call someone, do it! Then you’ll be able to spend without worrying if you’ve gone over or have enough money.
Why? I’m guilty of using this one as well. If you deserve it, then you’ve probably sacrificed and saved for it. What qualifies as deserving something? You’re the only one that can be the judge of that, but when used incorrectly this phrase is the trademark of the “entitlement generation” and can get you in some hot water with your spreadsheet.
Unless you’re referring to the savings you’re holding onto for just such a purchase, this one is always a bad idea. Savings are to save not to spend. If you borrow a little from savings every time you want something, pretty soon you’ll be out of savings to borrow from. Save up for things you want and use that money for them, but going into your emergency fund for a new jacket isn’t the best idea.
Never say never. Sometimes this is true, but you should save up for it. The situations in which this really phrase really applies and you haven’t had some sort of advanced notice to save up for the purchase are few and far between. With the Internet these days almost every little shop where ever you go on vacation has a website or even a 1-800 phone number and you can call and order.
But a little more in groceries and a little more in clothes and a little more in entertainment adds up to a lot more than your budget. If you can, you’ve probably built a little buffer into your budget for the occasional spending mistake, but if you’re consistently spending more than you’ve budgeted, you’re going to want to re-evaluate your budget and your spending habits.
How about you? What are some things you’ve told yourself to get around your budget, and how have you avoided them?
One thing that many people do not consider when they purchase pc monitors is calibration. They think that you can simply plug them in and play, and while this is certainly not false, it isn’t the best way to use your monitor. There are ways to improve the quality of your viewing experience that take less than five minutes to do – so what are you waiting for!
Calibrate - its good for your eyes
Companies that manufacture pc monitors have a vested interest in making sure that you’re satisfied with their products. They don’t want to put out a shoddy monitor and get bad feedback. Then, another company is in the perfect position to take their entire market share and destroy the company. Because of this, they want to make sure that they put out a quality product, which means that there are a lot of different ways to tweak your monitor to make sure it’s performing at its best.
The first tweak is brightness. You should see two buttons on your monitor, one with a plus and one with a minus sign. These correspond to how bright or dark the monitor displays at. Think of it in the same way you would think of a light with a dimmer switch. If you keep pressing the plus sign over and over, you will eventually max out at the highest brightness level. Oftentimes this is far too bright for most people, so they lower it a few notches.
Use the calibration program that your monitor came with. It’s the best way to make sure that you’re on target with all of the manufacturer’s recommended settings. They have put a lot of time and money into researching the human eye and it’s relation to LCD, plasma and CRT types of projection. All of these types of pc monitors require different calibration and should be treated completely differently.
One of the most important settings to get right is the color range setting. Without doing this properly, studies have shown that you can trick your brain into thinking it is earlier in the day than it actually is. Some monitors adjust the color range throughout the day in order to mimic the typical colors of sunset and sunrise. This keeps your body’s biological clock in time and prevents excessive insomnia, which a lot of people have experienced as a result of excessive computer use.
The last thing to remember when using a pc monitor is to be wary of your usage time. It has been shown that you’re less likely to blink when you’re working on a monitor, so your eyes can dry out and become irritable. Try to take breaks every thirty minutes or so where you don’t focus on something like a screen. Go out for a job, grab some water or get some lunch. Your eyes will thank you!
Not just about Java
Do you want your website to be accessible for everyone? For those using the popular browsers, PDAs, cell phones, TV-based browsers or screen readers? Of course you do. The following tips will help you to build an accessible website.
1.) Always use css layouts. It separates the content from the presentation, basically the text, the images and other content elements from the markup. You can assign different style sheets to a css layout based document, for eg. for printing, for people with low vision… So the content will not change, just the way it’s displayed. It’s a lot more easier to make the content linearized, this is important to screen reader users because that is the order that screen readers reads the content. You can also modify the the order of the content elements, for example you can move the <div> area holding the main content of the page to the top of your document, without affecting the visual appearance of the page.
2.) Use semantic markup - a markup, that has a meaning. Assign descriptive ids and classes to your <div> areas, wrap your headings into <h1> tags, subheadings into <h2>, paragraphs into <p> tags. Use <strong> instead of <b> and <em> instead of <i> as they are more descriptive. Basically it means that the markup has a meaning for the reader also, not just for the machine – A markup that Everyone Can Understand.
3.) Always validate your markup - a broken markup cannot be fully tested because the output depends on the error correction capabilities of the user agents.
4.) Make your forms accessible - if you are using forms on your site, you should make them also accessible for everyone.
- Form validation – if you are using javascript for validating your form fields, provide also alternative validation method using server side scripting for users who have javascript disabled.
The following sample shows how your source code should look like for an accessible form:
<form name=”sample” id=”sample” method=”post” action=””><br />
<fieldset><br />
<legend>Sample Form</legend><br />
<label for=”user”>Username</label><br /><br />
<input type=”text” size=”30″ id=”user” value=”username” /><br /><br />
<label for=”password”>Password</label><br /><br />
<input type=”password” size=”30″ id=”password” value=”password” /><br /><br />
<input type=”submit” value=”Submit”><br />
</fieldset><br />
</form>
It’s also a good thing to put initial values in the form fields, like in the above example.
5.) Always use alt text on your images, as well as title attribute. So if your image is of the knowledge revolution then you need to have the alt text “Knowledge Revolution” for those browsing without images. Also if the image is a hyperlink, use title attribute there too and a longdesc link to a page with the description of the image.
Just because money doesn’t buy happiness does not mean you should ignore it altogether. Poor financial habits can stress you out or strain your relationship, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Follow these 9 tips on budgeting to get a handle on your financial future.
I feel that when it comes to your finances, budgeting is the obvious place to start. This is where your money goes, which I think is much more important then how much you bring in. If you don’t know where it’s all going how can you identify problem areas and address them?
I started budgeting many years ago and it really has changed my life in some ways. It has pointed out areas in my life that needed a change for sure. At one point I found out that I was spending $200 per month on coffee.
That’s crazy!
I can’t afford to spend $200 per month on coffee. But not only that, I should not be drinking that much coffee in a month anyway. So I was able to find a way to slowly ween myself off of coffee and improve my financial situation at the same time.
When you start budgeting, you will start to clearly see areas you need to fix. You will be able to identify areas that are sticking out like a sore thumb and areas that will be agonizing to cut back on. But you have to remember the bigger picture in all of this. You won’t be agonizing over that coffee you are missing out on when you are on the beach in Barbados next summer.
Saving all that money allowed you to go on an AMAZING vacation! See it’s all worth it. I truly hope it works out that well for you though. So take these 9 tips to heart, use one or use all of them, and enjoy the ride to financial freedom.
Tips on Budgeting:
1.) Start slowly – You don’t need to follow your spouse around with a little notebook and pencil and write down every penny they spend. Start with just being aware of where your money goes. Make a list of the major spending categories and keep track of those. Just having this awareness will help tremendously.
2.) Make sure you are getting the best deal possible on every recurring expense such as insurance, bank fees, cell phone contract, internet service provider – anyone you pay regularly money too every month. Something as simple as comparing cheap auto insurance quotes could save you a lot of money very easily.
3.) Use a spreadsheet – There are a ton of free budget templates out there for you to download. Find one and fill it out. You may not stick to it exactly at first but eventually you will be determined to come in under your allotted amounts each month.
4.) Needs vs. Wants – Before any purchase ask yourself if this item is a need or a want. When you go to the gas station, you will say that filling the tank is a need. I can agree with that. But the chili dog from inside, I can say with confidence you definitely don’t need that…your body and your pocket book will thank you.
5.) Break budget into smaller units – Most people budget for the month. There is nothing wrong with that. But for me it always seems to be easier to comprehend if I break it down in to weekly and daily buckets. If say I can only spend $400 this month on eating out, that means I have $100 per week and around $14.00 per day. Knowing that keeps me aware of what I can spend each day and if I’m going to go over that number I can stop myself.
6.) Go green! – Start moving towards a much simpler life style. Instead of buying 3 bottles of water each day, consider buying a water bottle and filling it up each day at the water fountain. Or consider saving on gas by walking places or riding a bike. It may not seem like it but these types of thing add up very quickly, and you will be saving the planet! These savings allow you to spend a little more in categories that are a little more important to you.
7.) Check your progress – Make sure you look at your spending on a month vs. month basis so you can see if you are improving. If you’re spending is accelerating in critical areas you may need to evaluate some root causes. I like to look at trends. 6 months ago I was spending this much, and I’ve gotten down to this much. Go me!
8.) Set Goals – After you have created your budget spreadsheet and you are monitoring your spending, set some goals. Pick an area or category and set a goal to reduce spending in this category by 25%. Then list small steps to achieving that goal. Post them where you can see them, (your checkbook, or your car etc.) and then when you achieve one of your goals go to number 9.
9.) Reward yourself! – No good deed should go unrewarded. When you set a goal or reach a milestone in your financial journey, treat yourself. Spend a little extra for some ice cream or a movie. Or if you hit some of these tips really hard, make that trip to Barbados I mentioned earlier your reward!
These are only a few ways you can improve your financial situation with some planning and awareness. I plan on writing about many more in the future. I would love to hear some tips that you have learned over there years.