Orion Genesis World Builder

Posted on June 21, 2019 by Eric DeBrosse

I’ve been working on the Orion Genesis World Builder. The GUI needed some updates, so it would look better on Windows 10. Everything seems to be functioning pretty well now! More updates to follow soon…

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Web Site Account Management Fixes

Posted on February 21, 2019 by Eric DeBrosse

I finally got busy and fixed all of the problems that were introduced when I upgraded the web server to Fedora 29 Linux. The main thing was recompiling the support for MSODBC and SQLSRV within PHP. Now the account management system works again!

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West Coast

Posted on December 20, 2018 by Eric DeBrosse

Still here kicking it.  Been dealing with some health issues, but I’m back at it again!

Looking forward to working with a past collaborator on the engine.  I must tell you, he is a super awesome programmer.  I’m planning on getting back to the west coast again soon, to talk with him in person and perhaps work on a few things.

I’ve also been upgrading and maintaining the web server.  It’s now running on Fedora 29, the latest Red Hat release.

More to come soon!

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Day Job

Posted on July 25, 2018 by Eric DeBrosse

My day job doing robotics and automation keeps me busy.  My health has been playing tricks on me this year also.  Something has got to give though!  I want to get more work done on the engine than I’ve been able to do lately.  However, the fire is still burning strong in me.  So, expect to hear some great news soon!

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The Changing Dynamics of the Web

Posted on June 21, 2018 by Eric DeBrosse

The world wide web is becoming a more dangerous place than ever before.  It seems SSL encryption is a must for all web sites now.  The days of the http:// protocol are numbered, in favor of the more secure https:// protocol.  I decided it was time to go ahead and get wildcard certificates for all of my domains and sub-domains.

I recently had to go over my entire web site, and change all of the web links to https.  This way, you never leave a secure page while browsing my pages.

orionengine.com
orionengine.net
oriongenesis.com
orionscript.com
mindblowngames.com
mindblowngames.net
beentheregame.com

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Time Keeps on Ticking Away

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Eric DeBrosse

The Rolling Stones once said “Time Waits For No One”.  The thought of this really bums me out.  There is never enough time in the day to do what I want!  Not only did I have the flu in January, the last few weeks have been spent dealing with some sort of stomach virus!  Ugghh!  Think I’m finally feeling better though.

I decided to make the entire orionengine.com web site use SSL (i.e. https).  It seems that Google is flagging sites now, if you don’t have an SSL certificate.  I don’t want people to be scared away from any of my web sites!

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Server Status Hardware

Posted on February 24, 2018 by Eric DeBrosse

I’ve created a Raspberry Pi Zero W device that I can use to monitor my servers.  The software periodically checks to make sure the web server is responding, and all of the game servers in the cluster are accepting connections.  I think I’ll add a little red flashing LED to signal there is a problem.  I might even make a version with a larger OLED display, so I can display more details at once.  Currently the device is meant to operate locally over Wi-Fi, however I could use my phone as a hotspot for the device while at remote locations.

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Network Driver

Posted on February 8, 2018 by Eric DeBrosse

Well, I’m still working on the network driver code for the engine.  I just can’t seem to get everything exactly the way I want.  Network code is just so hard to troubleshoot!  However, I’m sure it will come together soon though.

I’ve been sick on and off with this stupid flu bug that has been going around.  That makes it hard to get motivated to work.  However, I’m finally starting to feel better.  I’ve also been spending some time playing around with Raspberry Pi boards.  There are so many cool things you can do with them!  I’m making a small Raspberry Pi Zero wireless device to display the status of all my game servers.  Sorta like a little pager I can carry around.

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Happy New Year 2018!

Posted on January 1, 2018 by Eric DeBrosse

Well, it’s a new year already!  I look forward to continue working on the Orion Engine SDK and the Been There Game software.  I feel this is going to be a great, productive year!

I logged into the game servers again today.  Everything is still working well… that’s awesome!  I’ve been doing some experimenting with the network code and hope to have the final modifications complete soon.

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Christmas Break

Posted on December 16, 2017 by Eric DeBrosse

Well, I finally have a fairly complete plan for the new network architecture.  I’m hoping to fully utilize my Christmas break, by working on the code!  I pray nothing at my day job comes up, that could steal my time away from the engine.  I have nine servers running here, all waiting for me!

The last couple of weeks at work have kept me pretty busy.  But I did manage to get some web site updates in, and to make some tweaks to the SDK tools.  The Orion Gatekeeper has also undergone some changes.  It’s more efficient now.  I also upped the number of possible server destinations (i.e. worlds) that can be returned.

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