Affairs of a Heathen

I decided a few days ago that since I doubt I’ll have Blitz finished by New Years, I can at least add in the ability to auto-update the game from anyone’s PC. After a few days of fussing with installation packages and testing on XP and Vista, I finally have a working auto-updater. The problem I was having was dealing with Vista’s User Account Control (UAC). I don’t have any extensive experience with VB.net, but with VB6 I had to add in OS version checks to see how to handle the manipulation of the game’s files.

The way the auto-updater works now is the game downloads an updateinfo file from my site. This file has the most recent version info in it, ie 1.0.3. The game compares this version to it’s own then gives the user the option to updat now or later. If the update is requested, the game looks at the next two lines in the update file. These lines contain the URL to the auto-updater and what its name should be after downloaded. This allows me to keep the location of the auto-updater out of the actual game in case I need to change the location over time. Once the updater is downloaded, the game exits and the updater is run. The updater backs up the current version of the game and downloads the new one. After that is finished the game is reloaded. I need to do more testing with this procedure under Ubuntu with Wine.

With this system in place, I can distribute the unfinished version of the game and inform my family when it finished. I will also be able to respond to errors they receive and publish fixes to the game (if there are any!).

Bizarre New Fish Discovered.

September 21, 2009—A previously unknown species found off Brazil’s Bahia coast is more than six feet long, has small teeth, and has no scales covering its gelatinous body.

© 2009 National Geographic (AP)

Unedited Transcript

An unusual fish, previously unknown was discovered recently off Brazils Bahia coast.

The fish is over 6 feet long, with a long tail was found floating in the sea by researchers from the TAMAR Project, a sea turtle conservation project.

TAMAR project coordinator Guy Marcovaldi captured the first images of the fish, which was dead and lying near the surface of the water. His special underwater camera is normally used for tracking and filming sea turtles.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Guy Marcovaldi, TAMAR Project: “At first, I got really scared when I saw this huge thing in the water. But then, I decided to jump in the water and film it.”

Specialists observing the fish told Brazils TV Globo the animal weighs about 88 pounds (40 kilos).

It has small teeth and no scales. Due to its large body fat content and gelatinous consistency, researchers do not believe it would be edible.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Claudio Sampaio, Oceanographer, Federal University of Bahia: “It is a rare gem to find a species like this, which is completely new, scientifically speaking. There is no human record of this fish.”

The fish will be preserved in formaldehyde and maintained in the zoology department of the Federal University of Bahia, where experts hope to discover more about the fish, including its origins.

There are over 200,000 known species of sea plants and animals in the world, but scientists believe there may be more than a million others that are still unknown.