more UT2K3 bot whinging...

I have been informed that the original UT bots had a superhuman awareness of flag positions in CTF maps. In UT2K3, not only is this still the case, it's far more noticable. It's starting to really wind me up that, no matter how devious I am in my choice of route once I've grabbed the flag/ball, I still have an amazing tendency to turn a corner and find the ENTIRE enemy team waiting for me. L33t skillz I can cope with (up to a point), but psychic powers are too much...

geek-out

This is mostly my day job, so those of a non-geek persuasion should look away now.

You may have noticed reports of a Java versus .Net benchmark [caution: 2.2MB PDF file] doing the rounds, whach alleges that .net is faster than J2EE. Speaking as a professional J2EE person, if what this article says is true, the benchmark is seriously flawed, to the point where I start to suspect deliberate bias. Of course, M$ is trumpeting this result to the moon and back.

Now, I'll freely admit that J2EE ain't the fastest architecture in the world, but that's not its primary aim. J2EE is mostly aimed at reducing total cost of ownership, by encouraging (with extreme prejudice) several forms of "best practice" in the design and programming of systems, and allowing code to work cross-platform. It sounds like the .net system tested here is seriously flawed in the "best practice" respect. To add to the injustice, having played with the J2EE petstore, it's a combination of technology demonstrator and example code for teaching purposes, not any kind of performance benchmark tool. They're comparing a "real car" to a cutaway "how a car works" model. Apples and oranges.

Which would you rather have, a system that runs 10% faster, or a system that is well designed and easier to debug?

[links from The Register]

[edit: tidy up, fix the typos, make mental note to copyedit more when drunk]

I love CSS

Just did an update to my website, mostly just a redesign to something a bit less clunky, which took about 45 minutes thanks to CSS. It would have been way quicker if I'd dithered less when deciding on the precise appearance. I also fixed the nav menu to be less horrible in Opera, and mopped up a few typos.

UT2K3 patch

Not had much time to play with it yet, but it does seem to have improved things a bit. The bots seem less dangerous at very short range. Jinking can disrupt their aim with the link gun up close.

Good night last night...

Our extra "fifth thursday" FONT meeting in FAB cafe, Manchester. Loud, but fun. The music was a bit suspect until Max Oblivion showed up and raised the tone somewhat. Some people were gathering there before going to Satan's Hollow for a fancy dress halloween party. A real range of costumes, of particular note being a Thor/DareDevil double-act (who, I am semi-reliably informed, were SH's doormen, dropping in to say hi before the club opened...) The six-foot barman dressed as Snow White was pretty disturbing, but not as bad as Shaggy dressed as Princess Leia.

And so, to Novacon...