Kevin Peno

So jQuery Love made a post talking about Games Over the Wire yesterday. I found it ironic that this was posted on the same day that I posted about using comet for games. Coincidentally, I also had been discussing with a few people offering a comet web service to allow people who can’t setup a comet server to share my server. Well, needless to say, the post made me want to set down a complete the service. So, here’s all the details.

First off, go and sign up to get an API key so that you can use the service. Second, take a look at the documentation on the methods available. After that, it is as simple as making a GET/POST request (w/ SOAP if you prefer) in the correct format for the method.

I’ve left all the API Key’s to run with unlimited requests. However, if the this gets popular I will obviously need to throttle those that are beating heavily on the server. So it is probably not a generally good idea to put your API key in your JS source, even though the service won’t care either way. Doing so would give the ability for anyone to make requests against the server in your name with full access to your channels, etc.

Let me know your thoughts!

Update: I’ve updated the service links to a new C# web service.

I’ve been experimenting with Comet programming techniques for web applications for some time now. Most specifically, I’ve focused my experimentations on how Comet programming techniques could be applied to bring real-time action to games on the web. All without the need for a user to download a plugin and/or wait for some plugin to load on the page. There’s nothing new about this technique, nor anything extremely special (besides the above noted advantages), but, being the purest that I am, I’d prefer to not require anything other than what is available to almost all web browsers (including mobile ones). Comet fits my requirements perfectly.

So, why this ramble? Well, obviously you are bored, hopefully with a friend who is also bored, because who doesn’t like a give a good old fashion ass whooping Battleship style?! I’ve made an early prototype of a game I will be releasing in the next few months leveraging exactly these features and those of jQuery and jQueryUI. Check it out here. Go ahead…try the page on your Wii or any mobile phone that supports mouse dragging. I think you’ll see that the system is much more responsive than the fully AJAX ideas like SinkMyShip.

I’ve already got ideas on the table to expand the classic game to include random terrain generation, harbor defense mechanisms, “big guns”, and special effects to ensure nothing survives your strategic assault. Should you feel so inclined, everyone is welcome to make any suggestions for a super crazy battleship-like turn-based game as well and I’ll see what I can do about incorporating them in to the final version. Happy hunting!

KeithFrank.net » Captcha? Nearly Killed Him.

This is so true. Are the spammers really winning? Are we destroying usability because there lack of valuable spam filtering software? Shouldn’t we be focusing on improving such technology rather than destroying the user experience further? Maybe everyone else is already submitting to the same destruction suffered by the customer support industry where it was decided that it is acceptable to be treated like dirt for the benefit of some company.

I wont stand for that and I hope you won’t either. Next time you see an image like this, please walk away from that site and never look back. Only by standing up for our right to usable software will we continue to enjoy our internet experience. If you think it’s not worth the effort to leave the site, then you rank with the scum clinging to IE6 after all these years, and, if that is any example, god knows the kind of contributions you’ve made to the web so far.

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What is it about this page that makes it worth setting as your default? Is it the fact that you hate waiting for programs to load? Do you simply like to choose your own path when you start the browser? Maybe you just found yourself changing your homepage so often you finally got sick of it.

Whatever the case may be, welcome to my blog and enjoy!