Ouch!!! 1 project (somewhat) failed!?

I’m in deep shit…

The last post was in January 5, so i missed 3 days for this blog. Yeah, this blog was supposed to filled with at least a post each day for Christmas and New Year event, so i guess my plan worked out well. Anyway, in those missing 3 days, I was in a very deep shit… In that 3 days i and my project team worked on our Java web project (rebuilding Moedia using Java Server Faces framework), and the result: pretty much (somewhat) failure.

FYI, (somewhat) failure doesn’t mean that we failed totally, but we failed to complete it. This project is actually 80-90% completed, but I’m a perfectionist so a 20% hole is a failure to me. Because of time problem, we decided to cut off one feature out of the project. In the end, my lecturer managed to find just too many unexpected holes in our project. I know it’s entirely our fault that we got this (somewhat) failure result, since i worked this project with unmanaged process and with too little time. I just can hope and try to give more effort for the next remaining project: ASP.NET project.

I’m in deep shit… –_-"

Well, at least we can still answer this question given by the lecturer: “What makes this project worth the A mark?”. Autoscaling picture, usage of Java Server Faces, MVC styled developing, on the fly component building, and stuffs. Yeah… most of the other students didn’t use JSF framework. They just used plain JSP and developed the project using traditional JSP/PHP/ASP developing method. So at least, our project still has its own advantage.

Using framework in web developing is not an easy task. Well, at least not easy for the beginner, but most developers will say that using framework is a must for team development. Framework enabled project will give you an MVC styled development, which mean you can clearly divide the development between Model (database stuffs), View (interface stuffs), and Controller (connector between DB and interface).

I’m in deep shit… +_+

Anyway, sorry for the technical stuffs. Just skip it if you don’t know. So yeah… Christmas and New Year is pretty much passed. I have to get my ass working again since there’s still 2 weeks left before this semester ends. Until then I’ll be busy again just like last November. I myself haven’t even watched any new season anime episodes, let alone new episodes… i haven’t continued watching Kampfer, which i left at episode 2. XP

That’s all for now, pretty much short post for today. I can’t really sure at that time i can give you a real post. So that’s it… see you later!

MoeDIA

MoeDIA - Moe is Definition of Indeterminable Arts

MoeDIA, sounds cool and moe! Yeah, this is one of my projects for this semester. I think this project is the project worth to be posted in my blog, because this project is the best project in this semester. This project was created for Internet Application Development subject's final project.

What does this site, MoeDIA, do anyway? The task of the project is to create an e-commerce website that sells photos. Sounds crazy, but this kind of website DOES exist. Try http://www.diomedia.com and you'll know what I'm saying. This diomedia site sells photos, and they mean business. MoeDIA is also a site that sells photos, MOE figure photos!

I worked this project with 3 friends as a team. The one who suggested selling figure photos was me. I know my fellow team members would directly agree with me because I'm the one providing the photos. My lecturer wanted at least 300 photos were ready and uploaded in this site. After some counting, i found out that my photos still haven't reach that number, so i asked ron~ to help, and he gave me permission to use his photos for this site. Thank you very much ron~ ! I wouldn't be able to finish this project without your help.

The basic layout design is done by my friends, I'm the one who put it up in HTML. The logo, Reinforce photo in the logo, and the banner were created by me. I used Vista wallpaper, some nice Photoshop layer masking, and Rein's photo for the banner. The rest of the layout was done by my friends.

Anyway the title was also my idea. Came from diomedia, i could only think title that revolves around "Media" word. So i came up with this MoeDIA word, yeah... moe really influenced us all, including my project. Not only that, i also came up with this line :

Moe is Definition of Indeterminable Arts

which is MoeDIA in short, cool huh? XD

Series list page, find photos by browsing the series.

Back to the topic, this site sells moe figure photos, so the first step is to create some categories. I decided to categorize the photos into some classification: Series, Characters, Figures, and Manufacturers. If you're a member of Tsuki-Board, you'll know that I'm a little bit to far with the categorizing. But this is about subjects, and i have to met the lecturer's requirement, that is to categorize the photos for at least 3 classifications.

Talk about layout, i think this is the best page I've ever think. In the left side of Series row, there's a thumbnail of photo for the particular series, selected randomly of course. And the right side of the row is the coolest feature in this site IMO. A bluescaled photo, cropped around eyes, looks cool i guess.... And if the mouse hovered on the row, it will light up and showed its real color. Look at the screenshot above for example.

The gallery page, also equipped with tags.

This is the gallery page. Just like your usual gallery / image board site, i guess... Every photo is equipped with 2 buttons, add to favorite and add to cart. I used AJAX scripting here. For the detail, see below. Maybe some of you already familiar with the photos. Yeah you've seen them. The photos are my photos and ron~'s photos. Total of 325 photos uploaded here, and all of them is my photos and ron~'s photos. Once again thanks ron~ for providing me the photos.

Some of you may wonder who's doing what here. Here I'll list who's doing what (if one of my team member sees this maybe they'll get angry because i exposed their nickname here :P) :
- welsen : Image PHP processing. Created the image upload system, which include the resize to small and medium size, cropping and resizing of thumbnail image, and also watermarking the image (using GD library).
- c_nyo_88 : Created the HTML layout for every pages in this site. Sounds tough, but that's his job. Completing layout for every pages, except without PHP script attached.
- wili_huang : Created the whole admin control panel. To view, edit, and delete things in database, like figures, manufacturers, series, manufacturers, user, etc.
As for me, i was doing the rest. Yes... the whole functionality (PHP scripting) in this site is done by me. Starting from PHP ,Javascript, and AJAX scripting, administering the database, generating the SQL scripts, etc. Pretty though, but at least i didn't have to do the layout.

Photo detail page, not very interesting, but this is where you see all kind of details.

This is the photo detail page. I forgot to mention that i also have tags system here. Too bad the tags system isn't as great as you think. It's just still the basic. I put up date uploaded, author, size, and figure - character details for the photo detail.

Notice that the photo is watermarked. The watermark logo is the same as the site logo. The one who worked the watermarking process is my friend welsen. He used GD PHP library to process this. Actually the whole image uploading and processing was done by him. That really helps a lot because i don't have to manually resize and create a thumbnail for all 300 photos myself XD.

The user profile page, it's my profile!

This is the user profile page. Not much going on here. Just a little detail of the user, without "about me" and stuffs. My target wasn't really to design a real site. This site is created just to met up with the lecturer expectation, so i decided not to get into unnecessary details. The favorite photos part is the strongest point of this page. Every user can add their favorite photos up to 6 photos, and it will show up in each user profile pages.

Some nice features in this site, such as dropdown menu, rollover image, and AJAX shopping cart.

Here are some nice notable features in this site. Rollover background images on the sidebar, dropdown menus on the menu bar above, and the AJAX shopping cart / favorite photos layer.
As for the sidebar, i used td:hover CSS scripting, as easy as you think, just change the background-image property in the td:hover part. For the dropdown menus i used Javascript, well for this part Javascript is a must.
And the last is AJAX shopping cart / fav photos layer. By clicking star / cart button in the main page, you can add the photos directly to your cart or fav photos without changing page. The shopping cart layer will appear directly after the server finished processing the cart / fav photos. You can see up to 6 fav photos there, or 6 latest items added to your cart.

Well that's my project, but that's not all. I didn't show the user CP and admin CP pages here. I'm still thinking of rearranging this site, throwing out the "e-commerce" part, and make this site become my personal figure photo gallery and host it (and once again thanks to ron~ i got a free host @ sonicver2.otadesho.com, except i haven't used this host for a real site / blog).

Well that's it for now! See you at the next post!

At last i'm officially back online

That's right man! I'm finally back online. My exam period is over, the projects are all over, and i got my internet connection back online. It's pretty significant upgrade, from 128kbps to 1Mbps. This post marks the end of this 5th semester of my study in iSTTS. All that's left is just waiting for the results.

So many things to do, post, games, anime, and figure photo sessions. And I'll have to work it all out this holiday which is one and a half month long.

My assignments kept me away from otaku life...

I have to keep myself behind the desk this week...

Just a short update for this week. My assignments unexpectedly keep increasing over this week (09/15 - 09/20). And to add the "excitement", all those assignments' deadlines are next week (starting tomorrow). It really sounds like hard works. Ordered by deadlines, here are my assignments:
- Chi Square and Kolmogorov Smirnov method - Simulation and Modelling
- Javascript - Internet Application
- Summary of chapter 8 (Assembly Language for IBM PC) - Microprocessor 1
- String and array practice - Microprocessor 1
- Baseline Project Plan - System Analysis and Design
- Paper about a data warehousing tool - OLAP and Data Warehousing
Except for Microprocessor summary, i have most of them 90% completed in this week, that's why i have no time at all to keep my otaku life running. I said about Nanoha photoshoot in the last post, in the end i haven't done that yet.

Oh well... next week is the last week before another week of national holiday, so i still have to hold my breath for another week. And after the holiday week, there will be mid-tests. I think I'll start the photoshoot for most of my new figures in this holiday. Not to mention playing Disgaea 3 and watching some number of anime.

Sakagami Tomoyo - Kotobukiya is going to be re-released this December

Anyway, Kyou and Tomoyo figures from Kotobukiya are going to be re-released this December so I'm taking up this chance to order Sakagami Tomoyo. There's also a sale in HLJ. I think there won't be any interesting figures for you collectors, but i managed to found a Force Impulse MG kit for my brother. And the last is my Blanc Neige is on the way to my place, just a little more day and she'll arrive.

So that's it for now. I can't surely say there will be updates in this week, so yeah.... that's all folks!

Melty Blood R - Java programming project

Melty Blood R

Ah... At last, an update. After 2 weeks of hell working on my Java programming project, i finished this project yesterday. A complete 5 minutes animation music video, featuring Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai OP song, and Melty Blood characters.

I don't plan on publishing this project since it could become a copyright problem. I'll just post some of the screenshots. All characters are owned by Type-Moon. Credit goes to SyNdicate for the sprites, you can get them here.

I made this as a sidestory. There's no major connection between this Melty Blood R and the real Melty Blood. I just used the characters and some vital points like Akiha is Shiki's sister, Sion can transform into vampire, and Ciel is a vampire hunter.


Story goes like this:
Introduction part:

Ciel in ... whatever...

Just playing cool in this intro part. This part goes around 1 minutes. In this part, all the characters except Akiha show their coolness, and some artworks.

Sion tatari

In this part, i also showed that Sion can transform to a vampire. She looks suffered in this part. It's hard to show that Sion can transform into a vampire. People who watch this should understand some part of Melty Blood first.


Action part:

Ciel vs... MENOS!?

In this part, they show some of their skills in beating some (random) enemies. Ciel killed a Menos with her bare hands (and feet). Yeah, i love the kicking parts.

Blast them up, Sion!

Sion's always looks cool when she used her gun to fight. Those zombies are Zombie prisoner and Zombie master from Ragnarok Online.


Plot part 1:

Sion killed Akiha and Shiki can do nothing except watching her die.

So here's the storyline begin. Shiki witnessed with his own eyes, Akiha killed by Sion in her vampire form. Of course he's mad and he wanted to take revenge for Akiha.

Ciel sword throwing skills is the best.

But Shiki wasn't in good shape, so he ended up get beaten by Sion. But fortunately, Ciel, who can sniff vampire from distance, came and attacked Sion, but it missed. Sion ran away, and Ciel chased her. Shiki's able to get up stayed in that place, looking at Akiha.


Plot part 2:

Nice kick there, Ciel!

The battle begin here, on top of Tokyo Tower. Ciel managed to chase Sion, but Sion has returned to her normal form on the way. So Ciel got the upper hand in this fight.

Ciel lost, but Shiki kicked Sion's butt.

What? Ciel got the upper hand? Who said that? She lost, and now Shiki came and helped Ciel. But he came not to help Ciel, but to take revenge for Akiha.


Plot part 3:

Thanks Photoshop, i can colorize my background with your help.

What? Sion's vampire form appeared again, and this time, it's full power! Now Sion got the upper hand. Shiki and Ciel fought Sion together with full power. But...

BLACK BARREL REPLICA

HOLY $#*& !!! It's Black Barrel Replica dude! It seems that Shiki and Ciel enjoyed Sion's Black Barrel Replica goodness., and i know it hurts, A LOT.


Plot part 4:

They blasted of the skies and fell off the ground.

Noooo...!!!! They died? If they died then you have to close this Java application. But don't worry, miracles do happens... in anime.

Cruel Etherite action.

Sion's cruelty didn't end there. Shiki was trying to get up but Sion kept whacking him with her Etherite. This is not very good for Shiki and Ciel.

Throw everything Ciel!

Hey, i already said it before, miracles do happens (in anime). So there they are, got up again in full power and unleashing their ultimate skills. As for Ciel, she did a thousand swords throw. She threw swords in 8 seconds duration.

Shiki slashed (almost) the whole screen.

And here's Shiki last hit. His ultimate skill wiped Sion once and for all. Sion died, and the revenge is over. Shiki managed to take revenge for Akiha, and Ciel's job is done.


They're back in the place where Akiha died. Shiki thanked Ciel for helping him killing Sion. And Ciel left because her job's done. She is vampire hunter after all.


That's all folks. R in the title Melty Blood R stands for Revenge. The main focus here is Shiki and Akiha. I guess i can say that Ciel and Akiha is my favorite character in this Tsukihime and Melty Blood series. But in Melty Blood game, i like to use Ciel just for her sword throwing skill goodness.

Month of school projects

Sion is the character i used in my C++ Programming project (last semester)

This month, May, a last month before final exam for this semester. And as usual, i have to concentrate all my effort on projects.

As i said before, i'm an IT students, and i have to do projects for some subjects in the last semester. Around 1 month before final exam takes place. There are 3 projects coming right to my face in this semester.

So what are the subjects? Math Logic, Java Programming, and Computer Graphics. If you don't know what's Math Logic is, it's a subject that studies about Boolean Algebra, working with boolean operator like AND, OR, NOT, NOR, NAND, XOR, XNOR, implication, and bi-implication. IN this subject, i have to create a logic calculator and polish notation converter for my project.

In Java programming, i have to make a 5 minutes animation. It's up to me whether it's 2D or 3D, but since i don't have any knowledge about 3D so i planned on making 2D sprite animation. I guess i'll use Melty Blood sprite, with Tohno Shiki as the main characters of the story.

The best 3D CG moviei've ever seen

Last but not least, it's Computer Graphics. This subject studies about how to create 3D objects using programming, polygon drawing, coloring, shading, texturing, and using Open GL. The project for this subject is the most challenging and hardest project. I have to make a simple 3D game. What the hell, i even don't know how to draw a person using programming.

Ciel in maid outfit goodness

As for now, i've finished around 30% of Math Logic project. I think this is the easiest project of all projects, since you can get the algorithm to convert from a certain notation to other notation easily from the internet, especially Programmers' Heaven . I think i'll manage to finish this project in this week.

For Java programming, i already have a little idea for the animation. The basic concept is like making music animation video, just like anime OP animation. At least that my concept will be for this animation. The main body of this animation is the music, once again just like the anime OP animation.

Tohno Shiki GIF animation

I'm trying to create an animation that match with the music. I already chosen my music for this project, that is Naraku no Hana, sung by Eiko Shimamiya, from the anime Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai. The characters, as i mentioned above, will be characters from game Melty Blood.

My resources came from the "danbooru-like" image board called The Repository. In here, you can get some animated GIFs, especially from 2D sprite based (anime) games. With the help of a software called GIF Movie Gear, i can separate all the frames into new separate image files.

Kyonko, Haruhi, and the others

Yeah, that's it for today. I guess i'll have to pause my Otaku life for a month. While waiting for the Godly item to arrive, figma Haruhi. And waiting some figures to be released and shipped here. This May haul :

Reinforce II - Alter
Fate Testarossa - Alter (re-run)

I'm really looking forward to this. Other than that, i still have to wait some figures from my local store which send their items using surface mail :

Nendoroid Puchi Lucky Star #1 - Good Smile Company
Teana Lanster - Movic

I hope all 3 (Haruhi, Teana, and Lucky Star) arrived around this week or next week.

Middle exam week has started

Let's study hard!

Two weeks of middle exam week awaits me right after this Easter weekend. Oh yeah, easter!

Happy Easter 2008!

For some people, exam week means full-time studying and being busy all the time just for exam. But not for me. I would say that i AM more relaxed in this exam week. If you've ever experienced studying in my place (STTS), you'll agree of what i'm saying.

At normal weeks, assignments will come to you without knowing the word "STOP". But in exam week, there is no assignment. That's why it's more relaxing (for me). You know, doing all my assignments seems harder than studying for exam (that's for me again).

Back to Campus : New Semester

Yeah... Yet another semester has started. So that mean, another 6 months of hard works is coming ahead of me. But i'm glad i started this semester with 100% A mark for all last semester subjects.

Although it's looks like a good start, the fact is... I got worse lecturer this semester. Moreover, one of my teammate decided to quit and change course. That's why i don't know how will i be in this semester.

BTW, for otaku needs, i got this fun thing:


Found this thing in Danny Choo News item. Originally from Neta.