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Michael Feathers on testability beforeClarity (pdf).

Tell me where it hurts - writing Diagnostic Tests for your application. By Mike Clarke Pragmatic Automation.

Manipulating Structured Data with Ruby. Sample chapter from The Ruby Way.

Gamasutra - GDC 2005 Report: Audio Production for Halo 2. Interesting, too-short piece at Gamasutra.

Raible has an interesting pointer, Firefox and the lack of a developer community, on burn-out when developing free products.

The future perfect - Interview with Iain M. Banks. (registration/faffing required)

Burn The House Down - Game Developers Rant session at the GDC. (No audio yet).

Some of the the little features in the mysql 4.1 release.

Software Development Dilemma: I Have to Interview a Job Applicant. How Do I Go About It?. A good sample chapter from Richard Whitehead’s book “Leading a software development team - A Developer’s guide to successfully leading people & projects”.

MF Bliki: CatastrophicFailover.

Slashdot | PopCap Games Releases Open Source Framework. *C++ Framework *tools *a number of very clean-looking, heavily-commented demos. *Also, (for non-commercial use only) they include a few great animated sprites, sounds and fonts.

Yeah, I was hoping this was the Java framework, too. %w( gift horse mouth )

Update on the java question: “We aren’t developing our web games in Java anymore, we’re doing our newer titles with C++ using ActiveX.”

So I guess it’s not cost-effective for them to work on polishing and documenting the java framework for public release.

As for why they’re not developing their web games in java anymore… “Legalities. That’s basically about it. Stuff we can’t control. Microsoft dropped it’s JVM with recent versions of XP so it’s less of something we can count on. That and some partners won’t take Java games anymore.” - someone called “Architekt”

Someone points out that gamegardens.com have released a java framework and also do hosting for multiplayer games.

After a hugely productive weekend of dev with rails, with no hitches whatsoever, I just hit a big waste of time caused by (i think) going to rails 0.10.1.

I had a windows (xp), ruby 1.8.2, rails 0.10.1 “No route for path:” problem which was presenting itself even with a freshly generated app and the simplest controller. The eventual fix was to reinstall ruby! I didn’t try many intermediate steps.

This appeared when I went from rails 0.10.0 to 0.10.1. Couldn’t find it so after an hour or so.

tried: - occurred for all urls (other than / defaulting to index) - updating all gems. - Stopping/starting server. - repeating problem with brand-new generated app. (still present).

I should have tried to use RubyGems capability to run an old version of Gem-installed components to kick off rails 0.10.0 on the same machine. (starting point at onestepback.org).

Eventually, I tried on another machine which had never heard of ruby before, and it worked perfectly. Working installation: win2k, ruby 1.8.2 gems 0.8.6, rails 0.10.1

I know, I should have found the bottom of the problem. Here, for those searching for the same solution and finding nothing, is reminder that if all else fails, there exists a refresh option.

How To Find MP3’s With Google.

Four Days on Rails.

“Rails is well documented on-line; in fact, possibly too well documented for beginners, with over 30,000 words of on-line documentation in the format of a reference manual. What’s missing is a roadmap (railmap?) pointing to the key pages that you need to know to get up and running in Rails development.

Four Days on Rails is designed to fill that gap. It’s about 40 pages of A4, and by the time you’ve read it, you should have a useful toolbox of Rails techniques and a good idea of where to look on the web for more information”

ONLamp.com: Rolling with Ruby on Rails, Part 2. See also Part 1

Sweng-gamedev mailing list - Software Engineering, as it applies to Game Development

So You Want to Be a Game Programmer?.

“I often get email from people looking to get their first job in the game industry asking me for advice. What are companies looking for in candidates for entry-level programming positions? How come it’s so difficult to land a job? I can’t answer for the industry as a whole, but I can certainly tell you what I am looking for when trying to fill an entry-level programmer position.”

Gamasutra: Growing a Dedicated Tools Programming Team.

A look at BioWare’s tools team.

[The Uruk-Hai are stacking Saruman's devices into the culvert at the foot of the deeping wall. An Uruk-Hai comes running in carrying a specialised torch.]
Aragorn: "WTF is that?"
Gimli: "I can't see!"
Aragorn: "Kill teh tard!"
Legolas: "KK!"
Legolas [Arrow] Uruk-Hai
**The Uruk-Hai stumbles the last few steps but manages to pitch himself into the culvert with the torch.
Uruk-Hai [Wallhax] Rohirrim
Uruk-Hai [Wallhax] Rohirrim
Uruk-Hai [Wallhax] Elf
Uruk-Hai [Wallhax] Rohirrim
Uruk-Hai [Wallhax] Elf
Uruk-Hai [Wallhax] Rohirrim
Uruk-Hai [Wallhax] Elf
Uruk-hai has killed a teammate
Uruk-Hai is no more
Uruk-Hai is no more
Uruk-Hai is no more
Theoden: "OMG! WALLHAX!"
Rohirrim: "Turn it off!"
Rohirrim: "Hackers!"
Uruk-Hai: "LOLOOLOLOL!"
**The Uruk-Hai start pouring through the breach in the wall
Gimli: "OMFG! TEAMS FFS!"

Two Towers translated into leet gamerspeak (boingboing).