Groovy and Grails
I primarily write Java code at work and lately I’ve been looking for something new and interesting. I’ve looked into frameworks like Ruby on Rails and Django, but I can’t really use those technologies at work. This is where Groovy and Grails step in. With Groovy I can write code that makes use of exiting Java classes, I can compile Groovy code and use it in an existing Java project, or I can use a framework like Grails. I’ve already manged to get a Maven / Eclipse project setup to compile Groovy and Java code for me by using the gmaven plugin. It wasn’t easy to setup, but I can now develop in Eclipse and use either Groovy or Java code in the same project. I still want to write a “real” application using Grails though. I’ve got one potential project at work, I just hope I get the chance to try out Grails!
Picked up a PSP 3000.
I picked up a PSP 3000 at Best Buy back in July. I got the Rock Band Unplugged bundle. I also grabbed a few older games at GameStop. Here’s what I’ve got so far.
- Rock Band Unplugged
- Worms Open Warfare
- Resistance Retribution
- Killzone Liberation
- Burnout Legends
One thing I learned about the PSP is that the games really need to let you save in the middle of a level. I’ve played the first level on Killzone Liberation about 5 times so far. I always get interupted before I’m finished playing so I haven’t gotten very far with that game. Games like Worms and Burnout are great because a match or race can be finished in just a few minutes, so even if you have to stop in the middle of a game you don’t lose much.
Rock Band and Resistance are great games too, but if I play for more than a few minutes my hands start to hurt because of the awkward controls (Resistance) combined with buttons designed for smaller hands than mine.
All in all I like the PSP, but to me it’s only good for short gaming sessions. I’m looking forward to getting some classic games Activision Hits Remixed or the Sega Genesis Collection. It’s too bad you can’t play all the old NES / SNES games on the PSP. That would be really cool.
What’s going on?
Wow I really need to get better about updating my blog. Hannah and I recently got back from a trip to New York City. We had a blast! Our son Ethan is six months old now and he is awesome! He gets more fun every day! Here’s a picture of Hannah and I in NYC. 
I’ve picked up a PSP and several new ps3 games since the last time I posted. I’ll follow up this post with some updates.
Wolfenstein 3-D
Wolfenstein 3-D
My Little Gamer.
Hannah took these pictures while I was playing my PS3.
It looks like Ethan is playing too!
Ethan playing video games.
Ethan playing PS3
Worms
I recently downloaded Worms from the Playstation Network and I’m glad I did! I first played Worms almost ten years ago when I was in college. It was Worms Armageddon for the Nintendo 64 and it was a very entertaining game! My college roommate and I were both instantly addicted to the game. We rented it several times while in college, but could never find a copy to buy. I purchased Worms 3D for the Gamecube years later, but was pretty disappointed by that game. When I saw that the Worms on the PS3 was the original I had to have it. My wife and I have been playing Worms all weekend! She watched me play several games and then decided to take the tutorial and learn how to play. She’s working her way through the challenges, and I’m watching her play now! I played through the game and won every trophy possible. The multiplayer aspect of the game is not as polished as I would like, but for 12.99 I really can’t complain. I’ve probably played Worms more than some of my more expensive PS3 games.
Anyway if you’ve never played worms buy it! If you played it long ago and loved it, then you should love this version as well!
Stripes, Stripersist, JPA, and Maven
I’ve been using the Stripes Framework now for over a year and I think it’s great! It’s a request based web framework that works with very little configuration. I love the way it provides you with what you need without getting in your way! I’d heard some guys in the #stripes irc channel talking about JPA and a Stripes plugin called Stripersist and I decided to give it a try. It’s awesome! The combination of Stripes and JPA alone are great, but with the Stripersist plugin it took all of the hassle out of both the web component and the model component of writing web applications!
Anyway there’s an example application in the Stripersist download directory linked above, but I wanted to give everyone my pom.xml file. If you’re using maven it will help you get all of your dependencies setup quickly. I’ll also link my web.xml and persistence.xml files.
(The Stripersist jar file is not currently in the Maven Repository, but you can manually install it into your local repository with the following command)
mvn install:install-file -DgroupId=org.stripesstuff.stripersist -DartifactId=stripersist -Dversion=1.0 -Dpackaging=jar -Dfile=/path/to/file
I borrowed most of the contents of the following files from either the Stripersist example or the Stripes Book Blog. If you haven’t picked up the Stripes Book yet I’d encourage you to do so! It’s a great book!
Here are my configuration files.
Once I get a more complicated example written I’ll try to post the Stripes ActionBean and the Entity Objects.
I hope someone finds this helpful!
Killzone 2
I purchased Killzone 2 three weeks ago and I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed the game! I initially downloaded and played the demo and because of the demo I almost didn’t buy the game. Lucky for me I played the demo a few more times and eventually got comfortable with the controls and picked up the game. I started out playing through the single player campaign on the normal difficulty level. It wasn’t very hard and it was a lot of fun! The game play is very immersive. It’s by far the best first person shooter I’ve played on a console.* There are only two “bad” things that I noticed about the single player game. One is the story. I never played the original Killzone so it felt like I was thrown into the middle of the story. It didn’t take too much away from the game though. The other “bad” thing was the language. Profanity in general doesn’t upset or offend me, but I think they could have come up with a little more creative dialogue. I had to turn the voice volume all the way down so that my wife didn’t have to listen to constant barrage of profanity.
When all is said and done Killzone 2 is a great game. I’ll write a followup post with information on the multiplayer aspect of Killzone 2. I think I need to play multiplayer a bit more before I write about it.
*(Quake 3 remains the all time champion in my book)
Ethan Cole
Hannah and I got the joy of welcoming Ethan Cole into the world on March 24th 2009!
He was born at 4:30 p.m. and weighed 8 pounds even. He was 20 3/4 inches long! Ethan and Hannah are doing well! We are back at home now and enjoying life as new parents!
Here are a few pictures of Ethan!
Fallout 3
I finally finished playing Fallout 3 this weekend, and it was a really fun game. I still can’t believe how HUGE the game world is. It took me between sixty five and seventy hours to finish the game and I still didn’t see or do everything! I did take the time to win all the trophies though. I’m glad they included trophies in Fallout 3. They kept me motivated and playing the game for more than just getting to the ending. I must say at times it felt like work completing the quests. I always felt a sense of accomplishment when I finished each quest though. I pretty much stopped playing all other games while I was playing Fallout 3. I’m glad I’m done with it, but I’m also disappointed the ps3 won’t be getting the downloadable content that the xbox 360 will get. I guess now I can move on to other games. My wife and I are trying to finish Guitar Hero World Tour right now. I think we’ve only got a couple of gigs left. Fun stuff though!