As I've said on many occasions RetroCopy was designed from the start to be multicore/multiCPU friendly. Designing complex multithreaded applications like RetroCopy is quite difficult though.
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I've pretty much finished all the new shader and graphics filter related code but thought I would show off one that can turn 16bit games into 8bit ones.
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I've been working on the "in game" GUI for the actual emulator (yes I know) and while I was there I decided to re-enable some old code I had, and that is shader based graphics filtering.
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I've been sick the last few days with one of those human viruses we seem to get every now and again, the common cold. What is the best way to cure that? Doing more work of course!
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As the title suggests here you will find the latest video I have made showcasing some of the new RetroCopy features.
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So the last week has seen A LOT of stuff added to RetroCopy but the title of this post is a bit misleading as it is hardly the biggest of things I've been working on. Nonetheless it's also something cool.
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So I've almost finished up the shadowing aspect for the new release, and I even have a few numbers to throw around in regards to multi-light performance.
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OpenGL Shadow Mapping has been on my mind for a while now but I always put it to the back burner. With the recent changes to the 3D engine I thought what is a better time?
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Tommy sent in the near-final database for Sega Game Gear yesterday and I thought I would take a moment to talk about it. The database itself will be used to compile proper GAME files from your Game-Gear rom collections.
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A friend was talking to me about the arcade game 1942 when I realized, "Hey! That looks relatively simple to add".
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I decided to take a look into adding collision into the RetroCopy virtual room, which may seem like a simple task but it's not as easy as it first seems.
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So today I worked a bit more on the 3D engine of RetroCopy, making it more seamless and easier to use.
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Ever wanted to build your own 3D arcade or virtual room? Well... I know a few here have because they have told me to add such features... but yeah.
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So during the last few days I've been working on a new custom 3D sound engine for RetroCopy and like promised here is a video showcasing it.
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Here is another video showcasing off a bit more of the RetroCopy 3D engine. This has 20 virtual machines running, and 20 dynamic lights.
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I've made a video of a new 3D arcade in RetroCopy. It's more a possibility of the future of RetroCopy and it's virtual room than anything else.
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So the new version is just around the corner. And to celebrate the near 1100 members we have now I'm going to be giving it to RetroCopy members first.
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I have now moved fairly far in getting System 1 and 2 fully supported in RetroCopy and I will show some of the progress here.
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Some weeks ago a user emailed me a link to the MAMEWORLD forums where "legendary" MAME developer R.Belmont posted some critique of RetroCopy.
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I spent the last two days implementing a rudimentary Sega System 1 arcade driver. By rudimentary I mean I haven't completed all aspects of it (including adding System 2 support), but for the most part it's fairly good at the moment
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Bock sent me an email yesterday telling me of some new games he had dumped from the place that is on the verge of war! No I'm not talking about Israel, Turkey or Iran...I'm talking about Korea!
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Many kids that had the Sega Master System found themselves feeling like 1980's hackers when they discovered the snail maze game that was snuck into the BIOS.
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So I've been working away on some interface improvements which is part of the main push for this next version. However there is some more emulation related news to report.
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I thought this might interest some people out there, obviously most can see the magic in RetroCopy but how are the 3D boxes built?
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Following on from the card box below, here is what the Mark III box will look like in the next version.
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Anyone ever get a SMS card game? I'm going to be adding the remaining box types for the Sega Master System to the upcoming version which is going to be v0.800.
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So just want to give my Easter wishes to everyone, even if a little belated. I don't really celebrate it per se, but it's fun to have a holiday and enjoy the finer things in life.
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Easter is almost upon us, the magical time when Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins such as gluttony and emulation. Will there be a Retro Egg Hunt this easter?
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Have you ever had your internet service interrupted? These days not being connected to the internet is like unplugging yourself from the Matrix, you have to get your information the old fashioned way.
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Before the release today I want to talk about a problem facing all of us road users, and that is of the police and their little cameras.
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So I've been playing around a bit with optimization settings in my compiler. For some reason I thought some x64 CPUs didn't have SSE2, but apparently they all do.
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So the next release is almost upon us again. To whet the appetites of what is coming I have uploaded a few MP3's of the sound in RetroCopy v0.720
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So I originally was going to be releasing something earlier than the current date but it's been POSTPONED (postpwned?)! The reasons why aren't many but they are important.
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So it's almost upon us, those who took part in Microsoft's Windows 7 RELEASE CANDIDATE program have just a few days to purchase and install the full ultimate version.
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So next release is imminent but I thought why not show off a screenshot showing the new sound options.
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So within a day or two the next release will be out. I will talk about what this next release will contain and post a few screenshots.
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So I'm trying to get releases out on a quicker schedule from now on, which means limiting how many things I work on at once, but today I have a video showing the new automatic save feature in RetroCopy.
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So as can be seen the new version is out. Hopefully it runs smoothly for everyone, quite a lot of testing has gone into it but you can never be sure can you?
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The torrent file for RetroCopy v0.700 media is now online, so start your torrent programs and get ready for the big release. Make sure you are logged in, head to the download section and grab the torrent file.


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So there I was using my computer today, viewing RetroCopy's 3D game room when my 22 inch LCD monitor just suddenly stopped working.
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Well today another important feature was added to RetroCopy 0.700 to make it ready for next release. And that is game logging.
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So the video for the next version has been worked on and released. Of note to followers of the blog here is it showcases a few things not seen before.
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Well I feel rejuvenated, I went for a small holiday over the weekend to refresh the batteries and it worked. I keep being surprised by the amount of work needing to be done before release but as each day passes less and less is needed.
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You know how I can always tell a release week from a non release week? Some crazy real life stuff always happens on a release week and this one is no different.
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After scouring over the members wishes in the wishlist thread I realized that I should stick in something that goes well with covers while I have the chance.
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They say video games rob people of their creativity, well retro games don't because you still had to use your imagination! Anyhow a status update on the new version, everything is rolling along very nicely for a release in the upcoming week.
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So as can be guessed by the title, GameGear gear-to-gear cable emulation has been added to RetroCopy for the next version.
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So last night I finished the screenshots and every game tested works in RetroCopy. There are still a few more games to be added online also.
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So I've been busy the last few days taking screenshots of every SMS game. Besides knowing that nearly every game I've tested has worked flawlessly I think I've done myself an injury.
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As would be obvious to most regulars the changes have occurred. Stay with us while we update the games with screenshots, cheats, etc over the next few days. You can start posting reviews and recommendations from now.

Other changes include retropoints and a cookie login system (so you stay logged in).
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As the Pixies so eloquently put it in their song the number seven has a special meaning to a lot of people out there. It's not my favourite number but the next release does have 7 in it.
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So what things did you expect to happen by 2010? I was making a build of RetroCopy on the 1st of this month and up comes 2010 for the file date, I had thought we (Earth) would be in a different place by now.
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So as has been talked about in my posts over the last few weeks some changes are occurring to the site very soon, hopefully in the next few days.
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Tommy has been going over the SMS games for the new database update and recently got to the Phantasy Star. An interesting thing about this game is the many variants, including a "megadrive version" of it.
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Well it's that time of the year again where everybody wishes each other "seasons greetings". Ho ho ho merry christmas!
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I spent this last Sunday going over my audio code in RetroCopy. Somewhere over the last 2 weeks a small bug had crept into the virtual room audio, at least I thought it was a bug.
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So today I have some more progress screenshots of the next version and the changes to interface.
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Today I worked more on the interface, including adding a way to filter the games, country flags and even some nice threaded disk access.
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So I have been yabbing on about the new GAME format for a while haven't I. Well the next release is where most of the features of it will actually be used.
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Tommy, One of RetroCopy's BETA testers suggested the GAME format should provide native names for games for those that are interesed in such things (usually non english speakers). So the next version of the format will be including this.
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The Sega Virtua Processor was only used in one Sega Genesis game, however that game has a special place because of the little SAMSUNG powered chip inside it.
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So here is the preview video of the upcoming release. Due to copyright restrictions on youtube I had to put it on metacafe.
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An interesting thing maybe some don't know is that the 2 player mode in Sonic 2 uses a special "high resolution" mode to achieve its little split screen effect.
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As I said the other day I have been adding a few cartridge addon chips to the genesis emulation in RetroCopy, today you will see one of them, EEPROM, and it's used in NBA JAM.
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Work continues on the latest installment of RetroCopy. It's funny with emulation, at the beginning of a new core it's all excitement to see something running, but by the stage I'm at now it's more of a chore.
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So the last pictures I uploaded of the upcoming release weren't really that exciting. A few colored bars, who hasn't seen that before?
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So as some people have correctly guessed, Genesis/Megadrive is the next system in RetroCopy, release date to be announced soon. Seriously who falls for the old SNES Sonic hack trick?
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So wow what a release v0.500B was. The most downloaded, the most liked, the least complained about! Well it sure is a change not having to worry about bug reports for once.
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So in case anyone is still following my release schedule, I missed another one! And is anyone else sick of all these acai berry advertisements on the internet?
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So it's been a few days, another deadline was missed, and now a blog post about the health benefits of fasting? Are all emulator authors this crazy?
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So I missed my self appointed deadline of Friday for the release. If I was a boss I'd fire myself?
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So I put together the video package for the next release already. I had a good idea last night and just had to put it together while it was fresh.
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Did you ever wonder who the Tupac Shakur of the emulator world is? ie Someone who got "gunned" down and yet people still think they are out there, emulating things.
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So I spent a few hours today trying to track down a few issues people have been having in RetroCopy.
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People have been asking me "when will the Gamegear be added" so I decided v0.500B was the version for it.
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Am I the only one who thinks that encrypting arcade games is stupid? I was going to release the new version last night but a few encryption issues put it on hold.
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My cheap INTEL I7 1366 cooler came the other day but I haven't had any time to install it until today when the power went out. You can pick the TRUE SPIRIT up for $40-50 US and for the performance it offers this is very reasonable.
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I spent a few hours today putting together the next trailer for RetroCopy. v0.400B is very close to release and as usual I release a video celebrating it.
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A month or two ago I mentioned I was working on an emulator benchmark within RetroCopy but I never released it publicly. I spent a few hours tonight putting something together for 0.400B
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So the release is getting close and there have been a few bug reports from people on old video cards about crashes. So I fired up VMWare and also got crashes.
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4 weeks, 1 litter of puppies, a few beers and what do you get. Well besides a beer gut and the stress, you also get the new Game Database Editor.
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So work on integrating GAME into RetroCopy v0.400 is still underway but I have plenty of new things to show in this update.
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NFL (american football/gridiron) is now being shown in Australia so I've been catching parts of some games. One thing I've noticed is that the players are predominantly black like in the NBA except for the quarterbacks, does anyone else find this strange?
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Woo! Finally over the hump of this new GAME format, I'm definitely on a high from it. Not that it is 100% finished yet but it is nearing there.
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Just a small message! If anyone out there is interested in owning/running an emulator news site get in contact with me. I'm willing to host an emulator news site on this server and provide limited programming for it. So if you have the time and want to start your own enterprise now is the time.

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So I'm _still_ working on the new GAME database editor. Is it because I have been lazy? No. It's simply one of those projects which grows and turns into something you had no idea of at the start.
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I was watching a youtube video of Rambo for the SMS and there were complaints about the games difficulty. Have you ever gone "pffft" when you read/hear something weird, that's pretty much what I did.
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Well what is there to report since the last update? Nothing too exciting unfortunately, unless you're the kind of person that gets excited by databases. I have been working on the revision to the GAME format and basically how that integrates into RetroCopy.
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So a lot of people have been saying "Ralph, maybe you should add some arcade systems because you have those arcade machines in there." . And I agreed, after tidying up my code I realized it wouldn't be too hard to add at least one arcade system.
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Well it's been a few days since a WIP update so I thought I would put together a few images for people to see of the upcoming 0.400B of RetroCopy.
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So I had a little play around with writing something new for the Master System on Saturday. I was surprised how quick it was for me, but since I've been developing emulators for the system for a while now I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
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Over the coming days there may be a little disturbance with the website, so if you see anything weird don't worry too much. I am updating certain aspects of the website and fixing issues people have found.
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The next release is almost ready. With every major release I want to do a video showcasing the new features so I spent a few hours tonight getting it ready.
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So I talked a bit about NVIDIAs horrible OpenGL VSYNC performance (cpu usage) in a previous blog however I have found a solution to it. I was debugging RetroCopy v0.300B on my nvidia machine when I noticed it.
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So last night sometime I had tweaked a few services on my Windows 7 machine, everything was fine until today when I turned my computer on. I ran into a weird issue with the application experience service which I thought I would write about to save someone in the future wasting a few hours on this like I did.
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The RetroCopy virtual gameroom video released the other day seems to have been well received. Thanks to everyone who has rated it and commented on it. I spent the weekend improving the 3D code after finding some issues with it.
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As promised 30 hours ago or so, here is the latest video preview of the upcoming version of RetroCopy. Hopefully people will like what they see!
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So it's been a few days since my last update. There are a few reasons for this, all of which will hopefully bring joy to RetroCopy users...
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So it looks like I'll be breaking my Friday release schedule that I kept up for a whole 2 weeks! Why? Well a few reasons....
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So I've got basic .GAME support for NES happening. Unfortunately it's in a very simple state right now because I don't want to waste too much time on getting it perfect until I've done all the research about mapper requirements. I'll likely put my feelers out to the NES gurus and see what they think.
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This week I'm adding NES back to RetroCopy. As most would have seen from the videos on youtube it is fairly advanced in some ways , in others not.
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Well what a week so far. As mentioned in the BETA I want to get out regular releases from now on as it not only puts a deadline on things for me, but allows everyone else something new to play with.
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Well the first public release of RetroCopy has gone pretty smoothly. The bug reports I am getting back seem fairly minor which is always a good sign for a release. Though of course there are lots of suggestions to look at.
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RetroCopy will be released this Friday. At least that is the current plan. Originally I was hoping to get it out last week but a few things popped up.
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I pretty much finished up the input devices over the weekend for the Master System. I ran into a few snags but nothing too big, and found out some new things about the Sega hardware.
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I've been spending most of my time recently going over the Master System emulation and tidying it up in preparation for release, but I have also uploaded a new video showing RetroCopy's NES emulation.
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Most people automatically think that old consoles like the Master System, Nintendo, MegaDrive, etc, have an aspect ratio of 4:3 simply because that is what the TV has. However few consoles utilize the whole screen and have borders depending upon which region they are in.
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As some of you would know, RetroCopy is somewhat 3D based, and I decided to use OpenGL for the backend. I recently got a new graphics card in the form of an ATI/AMD 4870 and was not surprised at something I noticed about VSYNC.
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I've been fiddling around with RetroCopy again now that I have finished most of my work on the website. Ah it's great getting back to real coding, what can I say, web development makes me appreciative of what I do.
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I splurged recently and got a nice new I7 920 CPU (D0 stepping), which of course meant getting a new motherboard and new RAM. I waited a week for the parts to arrive and am currently posting from the machine, but is it all roses?
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I was quite experienced with PHP but decided to learn ASP.NET (C#) to do this website. It has taken about 3 weeks to write a forum, blog and basic user/site management.
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