Justin Dugger

WildPwnguin is playing Prince of Persia: TFS

Prince of Persia: TFS - score: 190 of 1000, achievements: 11 of 40

by WildPwnguin GamerCard on July 25, 2010 05:53 AM

WildPwnguin is playing BioShock 2

BioShock 2 - score: 675 of 1150, achievements: 32 of 53

by WildPwnguin GamerCard on July 24, 2010 01:31 AM

WildPwnguin is playing BioShock 2

BioShock 2 - score: 280 of 1150, achievements: 20 of 53

by WildPwnguin GamerCard on July 23, 2010 02:41 AM

WildPwnguin is playing BioShock 2

BioShock 2 - score: 175 of 1150, achievements: 15 of 53

by WildPwnguin GamerCard on July 22, 2010 04:54 AM

WildPwnguin is playing BioShock 2

BioShock 2 - score: 95 of 1150, achievements: 8 of 53

by WildPwnguin GamerCard on July 21, 2010 07:57 AM

WildPwnguin is playing BioShock 2

BioShock 2 - score: 15 of 1150, achievements: 2 of 53

by WildPwnguin GamerCard on July 21, 2010 12:57 AM

WildPwnguin is playing BioShock 2

BioShock 2 - score: 15 of 1150, achievements: 2 of 53

by WildPwnguin GamerCard on July 20, 2010 06:46 AM

WildPwnguin is playing

- score: of , achievements: of

by WildPwnguin GamerCard on July 15, 2010 11:18 PM

Arduino Update

An alert (and anonymous) reader commented on a previous post about Arduino packaging, letting me know that packaging has been accepted into Debian—both the Java IDE and the underlying compiler toolchain. A big thanks to Phil Hands and Scott Howard for their efforts!

This is a very new package, so patches are still rolling in. The DebianImportFreeze has come and gone, but Scott appears to be on top of things, having just filed a sync request a few hours ago to pull in a few more changes. If he keeps that pace up, he'll make MOTU in no time ;)

by Justin Dugger on July 09, 2010 06:42 AM

How can I put the extra money on my prepaid phone plan to work?

How can I put the extra money on my prepaid phone plan to work? As a very frugal person, I have a prepaid phone plan that costs $100 a year. For the past two years, I've spent roughly $50 of that each year. As long as I renew the plan with another $100 every year, I can carry over the unused balance.

But there's a hitch; if I only used half of the balance one year, I'm not likely to vary that dramatically. I was talking with a friend of mine who had a Virgin prepaid plan and lamented that he had accrued quite a balance this way over a few years and decided it was a ripoff. I understand the sunk costs fallacy, though maybe not why he decided it was enough to change providers.

I'm comfortable with writing off 50 dollars a year, but I'm wondering if there's any good way to cash my balance out, or at least put it to a better cause than T-Mobile's bottom line. I hear about some places using minutes as currency and I'm wondering: is there anything now or on the horizon in the US that might help a scrooge out?

by Justin Dugger on July 08, 2010 11:28 PM

University Renderfarm management tools?

Faculty are requesting tools to manage the rendering crunch during finals week. Currently the status quo is a free-for-all in the computer lab during project deadlines. People end up "reserving" computers for rendering with signs threatening curses, mutilation, or death if disturbed, so we need something to manage renders. Campus closes at midnight, so something that can queue up enough work overnight without intervention is best.

I'm having trouble finding any other local animation education departments, so I'm putting this out to ServerFault: what tools do you use to manage a desktop renderfarm and notify students when batch renders finish?

by Justin Dugger on June 22, 2010 11:46 PM