DanHulton.com

Solving the Node require() path problem for once and for all

If you’ve worked in Node for any length of time, you’ve seen it before: something along the lines of require('../../../lib/util/db/models/system/user). Now, that might be a bit over-exaggerated to prove a point, but I’m willing to bet that there’s one or two of you out there right now thinking...

The Ethics of “Buy or Earn” Microtransactions

Man, lootboxes, right? They’re everywhere these days. Lootboxes, paid DLC, subscription fees, boosts, it just seems like there’s hundreds of extra ways for a publisher to ding you again and again after you’ve bought their game. Recently, Star Wars: Battlefront II has gotten no end of bad press for...

“In Support of Racism”

Shopify recently posted a piece on Medium entitled In Support of Free Speech that they really should have titled “In Support of Racism”. To summarize, Shopify hosts the store for Breitbart, and they refuse to kick them off the service because the ACLU defended some Klansmen once. Just in case you’re...

Code faster with simple Sublime Text improvements

Whether you’re just trying out Sublime Text or you’ve been using it for years, there are almost guaranteed to be a few ways you can tweak it to improve your productivity. There are plugins to automate common tasks, check your code on the fly, or even just pretty it up and improve your morale. In this post...

An open letter to Rob Oliphant, new Liberal MP

Dear Mr. Oliphant, Congratulations on your victory in our 42nd election. Your campaign was hard-fought and well-fought, with door-knockers showing up twice at my apartment, the second time with just 40 minutes to go before polls ended. That’s dedication! Congratulations are due as well to your national team, who...

Read Article

Life

On Being Lucky

There’s an old joke about being lucky that I just love: Every night for thirty years, Earl got down on his knees before bedtime and prayed to God: “God,” says Earl each night. “Please, please, please!...

Read Article

Design

The “Decline of WoW”

First, go read this. Now, since none of you did, here’s the tl;dr version – Warcraft is turning into an online game, not an online world, because that’s where the huge playerbase and money is. I’m actually...

Read Article

Design

Social Game Review – The Oregon Trail

A note about format The weekly thing isn’t really working for me, so these updates – like everything else on my blog – will be sporadic. The problem with trying to do one game a week is that some games just...

Read Article

Uncategorized

Membase on Windows 7 – IP Address Fix!

Membase is truly an awesome piece of software – a really cool noSQL solution, if you’re looking for one. Where it really shines (for me, anyhow), is that it’s the easiest way to install Memcache on Windows 7....

Read Article

Life

VIA One

Benefits: One rye on the rocks, double Hot towel, before and after dinner One three-course meal, including two glasses of very reasonable wine. One after-dinner coffee, with refills. One after-dinner liquer (Bailey’s) One...

Read Article

Games

Facebook Credits, maybe not so bad?

Okay. So. ISA 2011: Facebook Announces Buy With Friends and Frictionless Micropayments tl;dr – FB has a few aces up their sleeves yet. Two neat features they’re rolling out alongside FB Credits are “Buy With...

Read Article

Games

Facebook Credits soon to be mandatory for all canvas games

It’s been a while since my last post, but in my defence, I’ve kept busy. And yet, I couldn’t let the following news slip by without commenting on it: Facebook to make Credits mandatory for all canvas games The...

Read Article

Games

Social Game Reviews: CityVille & Ravenwood Fair

Seeing as I now work at HitGrab, I figure it’s time to get serious about games. And much like how you must read a lot to become a good author, you must play a lot of games to become a good game designer. I play plenty of...

Read Article

Life

Oakville – Arrival

I almost didn’t make it. An early-morning tragedy left us cold, hungry, and alone on the streets of Ottawa. Desperate for food and shelter, we roamed – finding nothing. Our safe haven, our final shared moment was...

Read Article

Uncategorized

Memcache on PHP 5.3 on Windows 7 64-bit

This one is more of just a reminder for myself, but also a bit of help to the community. If you want to run Memcache on Windows 7 using the latest version of xampp (1.7.3, with PHP 5.3), you’ll need the following extension:...