Pong in Unity

Pong in Unity3D is a time lapse affair at using what I've learned so far from tutorials and videos and recreating the classic computer game Pong.

Creating Pong in Unity time lapse

The actual process of creating the game was tricky, not to mention getting to grips with objects and references within the Unity environment. There's a great course on Udemy which teaches game dev, part of one of the modules was used as inspiration to create this. You can find it here [Note: I'm not affiliated with udemy and do not gain any benefits from this link]
https://www.udemy.com/course/unitycourse/

Apart from that actual slug fest that is trying to build something and get it working was recording the process and then compiling, editing and trying to create something that is coherent, useful and inspiring at the same time. Hopefully some of that aspects comes through. Original set of videos ranged well over 2 hours, not including ones I had to cut down or omit completely. Missed some key code modifications towards the end, the "AI Saga." I'd come across this great tutorial from Blackthornprod for crafting a simple AI which you can find here:
https://youtu.be/rhoQd6IAtDo

Hoping to build a tutorial out of this shortly, till then enjoy the video:

Stay warm this winter with these handy little devices

Stay warm this winter with these handy little devices

Now that the cold bitterness of winter has become reality, how do you stay upbeat in what is arguably one of the dullest seasons of the year? Upbeat might be tricky but staying warm doesn't have to be.

Here are some products designed to keep you that extra bit warm throughout this chilly season:

Zippo Re-Useable Hand Warmer

Now at first glance two things come to mind, if not the hands. First it's a Zippo, which everyone is surely familiar with. So no surprises there. The second is that it is a reusable hand warmer which adapts the all too common fluid lighter system to provide a heating system sans the flame to keep your mitts warm.

There are two variants in terms of heat duration - 12 and 6 hours.

Dr.Warm Rechargeable Heated Insole

The extremities are usually the parts of the body that cold first as the body redirects blood flow to keep the major organs of the body nice and ticking. And also the extremities tend to be the parts of the body which has the least in terms of thermal protection or layering. 

What to do in a situation like that? Well how about heated insoles which you can recharge and reuse at hours at time?

Sunbond Heated Rechargeable Gloves

This is for the outdoor enthusiast or those who would be out in the element for prolonged periods of time as this pair of gloves supposedly offers warm toasty mitts anymore from 4-12 hours.
The gloves are made of waterproof material from 3M with two 3.7V 3600 Mah UL/CE certified batteries.

Hothands Instant Warmers

Now these are the disposable varieties which provide upto 10 hours of heat for various. There are two types of feet warmers and one type for the hands

*The links provided are affiliate links, using which means I will receive a small commission without any cost to you. The items described have not been personally used but have been selected by product ratings and review. Purchase dicsretion is advised.

So I took photos for 30 days - part one

I'd planned on doing a series of 30 day challenges. This is the first on - taking photos for 30 days. The goal is to complete 30 days of learning a new skill. This video is the first part of the series and I'll be doing a write up soon about the stats, issues and experiential learning of not just the skill in question but the process of documenting it, tools I used and how I could improve any of those facets

DaVinci Resolve - Create a spotlight effect

How to create spotlight effect very easily in DaVinci Resolve 16.

How to see Instagram likes count

How you can still see Instagram likes count if you are so inclined:

Instagram removes likes count

Instagram removes likes count. What does it really mean and how will it play out? Will instagram backtrack on this seemingly altruistic move. Do they have some ulterior motive in terms of monetization funelling more in their favour?

Rick and Morty keychains

Got keys and chains somehow need a way to put them together? Well you're definitely going to need these.

First we have everyone's in your face, irreverent, iconoclast whose vivisection of society is at once acerbic as it is astute - the inimitable Rick Sanchez asssssss Pickle Rick! I mean who wouldn't like a pickle in their pockets or purse right?

Next we have Mr Meeseeks. If nothing else to remind you to stay on track with goals and be single minded till it's done is a great ideology. Otherwise existence is pain.

What's Rick without Morty eh? Or what's Morty without Rick? It's the whole chicken and the egg, I must confess I need to go back through the episodes to get back into it and the lore, but arguably one needs the other or are they a complement to one another? Are they the SAME person?? I'm just grasping at random thoughts here. I'm sure the fanlore or actual mythology might be more interesting. In the meanwhile have this as a constant reminder of that dynamic always at hand. Also comes with a neat dog tag with the show's title.

*The links provided are affiliate links, using which means I will receive a small commission without any cost to you. The items described have not been personally used but have been selected by product ratings and review. Purchase dicsretion is advised.

Open Source Database Designer DBDesigner

I was fortunate enough to try out a new open source database design application. Check out the video for my first impression.

Create a YouTube Channel Subscribe Link

Here's a simple way to create a link that will prompt the user to subscribe to your channel.

Instagram Image Sizes

So I had an issue with my code snippet posting on instagram
https://www.instagram.com/codenlife/

Where the template I had used initially resulted in text that was too small to be legible.
So basically it came down to the different size formats and how it could trip up the unwary poster.
Here are the different resolutions available:

Square

Max Resolution: 1080 x 1080
Aspect ratio: 1:1

Both sides are equal and can range from 600 x 600 to 1080 x 1080.
Anything larger than 1080x1080 will be resized to fit and anything smaller than 600 x 600 is not
recommended at all as quality will suffer.

Landscape

Max Resolution: 1080 x 566
Aspect ratio: 16:9

Horizontal side is longer than the vertical.
This is the one I used originally resulting in tiny illegible text.
This one takes the least amount of visible space on the page. Offering
the least screen real estate of the three.

Portrait 

Max Resolution: 1080 x 1350
Aspect ratio: 4:5

Vertical side is longer than the horizontal.
This could be an ideal candidate for say an infographic or anything that requires more length area.

For the purposes of code snippets using a square format is the best option it fits precisely within Instagram's crop area so as not to require much adjusting compared to the others.

ScrollMagic Tutorial

A quick primer on pinning elements using ScrollMagic. The video walks through the tutorial and information related to references needed in the tutorial can be found below the video.

Demo: https://donyd.github.io/ScrollMagicDemo/

References

Use these for the JavaScript libraries needed for the code from their respective delivery networks:
jQuery:
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.4.1/jquery.min.js">
</script>

ScrollMagic:
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/ScrollMagic/2.0.7/ ScrollMagic.min.js"></script>

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/ScrollMagic/2.0.7/ plugins/debug.addIndicators.min.js"></script>

Background Image:
https://github.com/donyd/ScrollMagicDemo/blob/master/images/scaler_bg.png

Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel, another surefire gem in Marvel Studios crown? No spoilers but typically I recommend people watch a movie first before reading anything about it. All in all somewhat rough around the edges but still a good movie to watch. I'd give it a 2.75 out of 5.

The early part of the movie has jokes that fall flat, character interactions that come off more awkward cringe rather than awkward ha ha - surely feels like b-roll material that was hastily patched together. One visual gag where Ver (aka Captain Marvel) asks for Fury's pager seems poorly executed and shot, almost as if the other actor was oblivious or forgot to read the script. Some of the jokes and setups are blase mostly by the way they are telegraphed that a person can almost anticipate what would happen, if not, quote exactly what will be said.

The niggles do tend to lessen as the movie progresses and seems to somewhat even form an enjoyable little turn of storytelling which redeems the title. However, the laissez faire treatment of the main character's development leaves a lot to be desired. Particularly when characters who have almost no recollection of their past or when thrust into a completely alien, and potentially hostile environment, conducting themselves in a completely relaxed and jovial manner is beyond me. Then again Ver seems to have been jovial by nature from the early scenes so this could be more easily overlooked than say the likes of Cable in DeadPool 2.

Another gripe is the relatively little showcased in terms of the character's mythology, demeanor and not to mention power scaling. A little more development of how the powers manifested, pseudo-scientific explanation and tribulations as Ver would have questioned, struggled and come to grips with her new world would have made this a more solid piece. Instead we see someone who instantly reneges her hitherto training and conditioning, while combating a species that has the ability to assume a person down to the DNA level, and almost immediately strikes up a rapport with an alien agent. Captain Marvel truly deserves a better build up than this movie allows. Especially since she is bound to play a very pivotal role in the overall continuum.

It's a shame that titles such as these are just seen as stop gaps, or worse, money grabs as people are clearly enamored with anything Marvel and even a bad showing will still be lapped up and often overlooked. They are very relevant for the Marvel movie canon as most people would not be privy to the larger Marvel universe and story line except for the movies.

Most of this could be chalked up to Marvel probably focusing more on the main course - Avengers Endgame. The result of which could be less resources being spent on this movie.

It's happened before with Thor Ragnarok being delectably under cooked and being the lead up to Avengers Infinity War which was a much better orchestrated and performed piece. If history is anything to go by, this bodes well for the next Marvel release - Avengers Endgame.

Install R on Windows

A quick video on installing R programming language on windows.

Install Ruby on Windows 10

A Quick video on how to install Ruby on Windows