Sunday, November 29, 2009
5 weeks of enduring the work, I finally found something worth doing, Flash. Yes, Flash Actionscript 3. I managed to find Adobe Flash CS 4 in the company's computer, this means to say that I can do my own 'self defined' task. Since there is no way the company will give me games related work to do, I'll shall find some amusement with flash.
Well, Monday, Tuesday were dreadful as per normal.
Wednesday and Thursday were better because:
1: I completed the allocated task 2 days before the deadline (Thursday),
2. I used the left over time to do work on my 'self-declared' task,
3. I managed to shut the manager's mouth without much hassle, i.e. I managed to please him with my work to the extent only minor improvements are made to the final product,
4. No other work was given after submitting the task at 4pm,
5. And Friday was a holiday!
On Thursday, I saw my company appeared in a magazine, CIO. The article is featuring top 20 successful companies in Asia and my company appears in it. Featuring only a third of a page of the magazine, I thought what's mentioned on the article are absolutely native.........................
Lol, just kidding. Anyway, I wouldn't even bother buying that magazine just to read a small part about the company. It's cost can buy me a Chelsea's Monthly Fan Magazine. :)
Today's my grandmother's birthday. There was a buffet lunch and almost every single one in the family turned up for this once in a year occasion; from her children to her grandsons and granddaughters, I bet that must be a memorable day for her. I managed to catch up with my cousins and find out what they are doing now. It didn't take long before I felt the heat in the air due to the heat from the buffet table. My cousins and I were finding ways to cool down, from switching on a 'deceiving' looking electrical fan to standing at the entrance doors for cool air. About the food, I think it's still O.K. From mee-siam to cereal prawns to sweet sour chicken to nyonya fish to yellow rice, it's very scrumptious. =)
Final comment; Manchester City, go FUCK yourself if you ever replace Mark Hughes with Guus Hiddink as your manager. I hope your next match with the Blues, you'll receive a sounding trashing! Now, go feed your Wee-Citizen-Hole with all your filthy cash and find other sore losers for the managerial job!
Hm... My appology for the above comment. Okay, that's it for now. Like the British says, 'time flies when you are enjoying yourself'.................. well, not exactly for me but may you and I have a great week ahead.
Schönen Tag noch...
Auron
Labels: ITP Part 5
Posted at || 7:10 PM
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Sunday, November 22, 2009
There isn't much for me to comment about this week's internship. Just simply; Same Shit, Different Day.
Settled?
Work?
- Boring, uninteresting.
- More interest with what mademoiselles are doing whom are complaining about.
- Why?
- Challenging
- Sense of accomplishment when finally solved the problem.
Relationship with Company?
- My advice to them is, "Be close but not too close"
- Company Supervisor (CS) is my good friend :) The others, just working partners. I need them, I'll look for them. If not, leave them alone.
Any Updates?
- New Intern from NAFA (Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts) joined the company on Monday. He told me secretly he's disappointed not being able to make games... sounds familiar.
- CS is leaving sooner than I have expected, in about 2 weeks time in mid-December. The company will have only 5 full-time employees once he leaves.
- Was told about lots of 'ugly' stuff by CS with regards to his departure, and past full-time staff. It's disheartening and saddening to listen to what my CS went through. However, deep down inside, I know he made the right decision to leave and with him all the best for his future endeavors.
What I've learnt:
- I Control My Destiny, None Shall Stand In My Way
To be continued...........................Labels: ITP Part 4
Posted at || 6:44 PM
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Sunday, November 15, 2009
End of week 3 of my 17-week internship programme. It's a better week as compared to the last 2. The work given is incredibly irrelevant but I accept the challenge:
To touch up a few scenes in the program/game/software by editing the xml code.
- Shift a few models to the correct position. (just changing X, Y, Z position that's all)
- Check if information of the model is correct. If incorrect, replaced the information with a new image.
- Crop almost 100 irregular sizes of raw images into 1024 x 768 and put it into the program/game/software.
It wasn't as difficult at first expected but cropping 100 images is not fun!
On Friday, something ridiculously happened and had the entire company (4 of us) laughing out loud. It was afternoon around 4pm, I refilled my bottle and at the pantry, I saw a box full of kuehs at the table.
~ The CEO bought them in the morning and he messaged everyone on Skype this: "Hi guys, I bought some kueh kuehs. Please help yourself to them at the pantry.". My company supervisor ate 1, the other intern ate one, me and the other guy did not. Why? He's vegetarian and doubt it's ingredient. I, just don't like it.~
It was 9.30 in the morning when the box entered the company and at 4 plus in the afternoon, the box is still filled with the 'sticky pastry'. I asked the rest of the people, "Are we going to keep the kuehs until Monday?". When they realized that, everyone broke into laughter. I told the 'more senior' staff that me and another Intern doesn't like it, what should we do to it. He said, "DUSTBIN!". I wonder how he stay so calm after replying with a hilarious one word comment. The 4 of us argued where it should end up and the other intern brought up that the box is already filled with ants and it's nest!!!!! Then the senior guy said, "Off it goes into the DUSTBIN !!!". LOL. When I left the company at 6.30pm, it was still around. I hope its already gone when I go back to work on Monday!
At the end of the third week, I finally showed what the company business manager I'm capable of. He gave a task which I complained immensely because of how demanding he is but it ends up well. I showed him the completed task reluctantly and he responded by gave me a pat on my shoulder and said, "Well done. Thank you.". That's quite a surprise; to be acknowledged by a manager! Now that I know what he's looking for and is in his 'good books', I'll keep up the momentum and impress him with what I've got. : )
I seriously wasted this weekend playing a new Massively Multiplayer Online game, Red Cliff. It's an decnt game to be honest; it's 3D, tons of options and customization, lots of hard work and effort put in for a free-to-play game and has a strong influence of the Romance of Three Kingdom. I looked forward to playing this game since last week but after experiencing it, I decide to call it quits.
In conclusion, work is slowly getting better. I'm looking forward to a new challenge and hopefully I can impress another manager or the CEO. Discontinuation of playing Red Cliff is the biggest turn around change.
And I'll be looking forward to the first grading and possibly my first pay. :)Labels: ITP W3
Posted at || 10:27 PM
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Sunday, November 8, 2009
It's the end of the second week of Internship (finally....) and I find myself still unsettled in this company I'm attached to. It maybe the first time I've worked and hence doesn't expect the company to be like 'this'. What I mean by the word 'this', I just can't find words to describe it. Like what my saviour advised, "Take things one step at a time and see how things goes as time goes by"; I'll try to stay positive and perhaps things will be better.
I've done quite a few things on the 2nd week. Completion of the user manual, uploading all models to the website database via the new company private website, completing models which were unfinished from Week 1 and a new task that will be carried forward to Week 3: the testing of the company's program/game/software.
There's one funny moment on Friday which I thought I wanted to share. Here we go....................
-Start-
On Friday, about 2 in the afternoon, the business manager wanted to show me their program/game/software. He ran the program/game/software and give me a demo or 'walkthrough' of it. It did take very long before everything goes out of hand! The game/program/software crashes so often that it has to be restarted from the start. The computer went into Blue Screen of Death once during the demo and really wasted lots of time just restarting the computer. He was extremely humiliated when all the crashing happened and at one point, he temporary lost interest with what he wanted to show me. He was so so so so so so so so so 'pai seh' (embarrassed) that in one moment he pretended to pick up a call when nobody called !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL
He did eventually pop a question to me which I though was very scheming, "Do you know why the game crashes so often ar? Why do you think this happened".
I didn't immediately reply but here's how, "Hm, very interesting question Mister. Let me think of it before answering that ................. (3 minutes later) .............. I don't think I can help that much since the CEO handles most of the development."
He made a very cold unglamorous comment later on which I thought will piss the company's staff more than me. Anyway, the whole demo of the program/game/software ended with him giving me the task of testing the program for inconsistency (like images doesn't not match the description etc)...............
-End-
I was told that I have to be polite in answering questions so I tried my best here. Do you think I'm not being polite by answering his question that way?!
You must be wondering why I used 'program/game/software' when describing the company's product. Answer is, I don't know what the heck it is. I asked around the company and all replied that 'It's not a game.". I'm thinking, "If it's not a game, then what is it?". I should have the answer by the end of the month. lol.
Last Wednesday was a very special day. My Liaison Officer (LO) or lecturer-in-charge came to pay me a visit to see how I'm doing. I raised lots of issues and I got most of the answers I wanted, from both the LO and my Company Supervisor. My LO even advertised me that I'm a programmer and not some silly typist that does filing or word typing task in front of the Company Supervisor! My thoughts, I'm very pleased that he brought that up. :) Now that the company people knows that I'm a programmer, I hope they give me real stuff to do from next week onwards not typing shit on a Word Document!
Lunch on Wednesday was very special too. I dined with 2 of my classmates, Mox and TrusT. We had a good long chat to share our experience which definitely brightens up my day. I'll definitely treasure that day and remember Mox's advice.
In conclusion, week 2 of my Internship is full of ups and downs but I still alive and breathing to tell the story. I must end the post now and will get back soon enough. Till then, take care.
Auron
P.S. Below are a few images of all the 3D models I've done so far. Please give me your precious comments. And if you like them, I can give them to you provided the company allow me to do so. If you like a close up, I'll post it here as well.
Labels: TP W2
Posted at || 4:36 PM
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Sunday, November 1, 2009
I'll continue where I left off yesterday night about Internship.
What my company does is actually creating a 3D Virtual World game. An example of similar program out in the market is actually 'Second Life'. The 'game play' is you control an avatar, walk around this room and interact with the things there. It can be looking at the painting from China, a feather fan inspired from the 'Romance of Three Kingdom', an ancient vase or other artifacts. What I thought was very cool is the way you place the objects in the game. It is of similar fashion to 'The Sims' where every objects are grouped into furnitures, decorations, wall paintings, etc. You just have to drag the item onto the room and it will appear on screen.
I cannot reveal any more details because my company wants the features to be private so the above should describes some cool things about their game.
I must admit, the game contains TONS OF BUG! Below are some of my findings which are severe to any game or program:
- Clicking on some buttons doesn't do anything. It doesn't feel responsive and double clicking doesn't seem to help much.
- Placing objects maybe easy but MOVING it is a complete hassle! For IT savvy people that can understand my language: Movement in X, Y and Z-axis is a mess! You thought you moved the object upwards but it is actually changing the depth of the item's position. You thought you move the object in X-axis but it ended up moving in the Y-axis!!!
- Crashes too often. Yes, I ran the program so many times and I have no idea why it crashed. I have yet to quit the game successfully with its Quit button! For IT savvy people: when the game crashed, it hangs, showed the nasty Microsoft Visual Studio debugger! That is a really serious error.
Very disappointing game. If wasn't for those bugs, it would really have been fantastic. Anyway, I did a couple of 3D models to expand their game's object collection. I wanted to show it here but realised the screenshots are at the company's computer. However, I promise to share it with you guys in next week's post. I believe I showed it to the mademoiselles already. lol.
Ok, I'll end the post here. May you have a good week ahead.
Auron
"I don't understand bus lanes. Why do poor people have to get to places quicker than I do on a car" Labels: ITP Part 2
Posted at || 4:31 PM
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