{weblog_url} en james@studioshadowlight.com Copyright 2010 2010-11-18T22:29:04+00:00 http://jamesspringer.com/index.php/site/life_outside_of_your_own_digital_shadow http://jamesspringer.com/index.php/site/life_outside_of_your_own_digital_shadow#When:22:29:04Z While I’ve been neck-deep in web design, game design and illustration these last several years, I’ve never lost the need to break away from it all and actually live my life offline. It’s been a tricky balancing act, to be sure, but honestly I’d rather be spending my time with the people in my life that I care about anyway. With that in mind, I wanted to share this video with those of you who haven’t seen it. Websites and online games can facilitate social interaction, but none of them are actually a replacement for the real thing. Inspiration, 2010-11-18T22:29:04+00:00 http://jamesspringer.com/index.php/site/game_development_yeah_im_going_there http://jamesspringer.com/index.php/site/game_development_yeah_im_going_there#When:06:35:44Z Since I’ve recently been taking several classes in school to learn Adobe Flash inside and out, I’ve been bitten by a bug. I’ve tried to avoid it in recent years to really hone my web development skills, but I’m still being drawn to game development (Hey, even web developers need a hobby!). These classes have had me designing and coding simple web applications in Flash and the amount of homework is insane. But in spite of all of that, I still decided to download a game development tool called Unity and take it for a spin. For the last 2 hours I’ve been completely thrashing the “Bootcamp” demo scene (I saved a copy of the original pre-built scene first). I know that sounds crazy, but it’s how I become acclimated to new (and sometimes intimidating) software. I dig in and play with it. I wreak havoc in the demo files. I replaced the rock textures and plastered random pictures on them. I squashed and stretched random objects. I dug into the assets to see how game objects were built. I looked at the comments in some of the scripts just to see what I could figure out. Here’s the way it’s going down. I have the Indie Developer license for Unity. This gives me the ability to design games (which will certainly be all kinds of simple and terrible at first), which you’ll be able to play here on the site, in your browser. Doesn’t that sound like fun? No, but in all seriousness - I’m going through a beastly tutorial on building a platform game which covers a ton of material, so hopefully they won’t be THAT bad. There is also Unity for iPhone, which is a version of the dev tool geared specifically for iPhone game development. That’s my next step. I’m going to chronicle as much of this new adventure as I can. I want to take you through going from being a newbie to becoming proficient at this. I’ll keep you all posted. Design, Development, 2010-10-08T06:35:44+00:00 http://jamesspringer.com/index.php/site/what_is_ftp http://jamesspringer.com/index.php/site/what_is_ftp#When:01:26:58Z We all have to start somewhere, and I recognize that - so if you’re a seasoned web developer you may not need this article (but it always helps to review the basics), but for all of you who are just starting out, I’ve got you covered. This article is a complete guide to FTP in plain English. You’re probably here because you read somewhere that you need to “FTP something to your server” - but what does that mean? FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. That’s about as much geek speak that your going to get in this article (and even that isn’t too bad). The key terms there are file and transfer, and that’s exactly what FTP software is used for. If you have software that you need to get onto your server with your web host (like a content management system, forum, or even just some HTML), your going to use FTP software to get it there. Let’s take a look at the process. First up, we need to get us some FTP love, and there is a lot of free FTP software out there. If your on a PC, I’ve used FileZilla before, and liked it. If you’re on a Mac, you can grab CyberDuck for free as well. I use Transmit, which is a paid FTP program from Panic! (an awesome Mac dev house). Up next, is connecting it to your host. To do this you’ll likely need some credentials provided by your host, so let’s break those down. Protocol: This is the required connection method (usually FTP or SFTP) Server: This is the address where your server lives (usually something like ftp.yourdomain.com) Username: Provided by your host Password: Provided by your host Let’s take a closer look at that stuff up there. You know what FTP means - SFTP means Secure File Transfer Protocol. Some hosts require a secure connection, no biggie. Server denotes where your FTP software is going to place all of your stuff that you’re transferring from your computer. It needs this address to get everything to the right place, just like a postal worker needs your street address to get mail to you. Username and password are straight up, just make sure you get this info from your host. If you log into a control panel with them, chances are you’ll find these credentials there. If your hosting solution is fully-managed, you might have to fire off a quick email (but they should have given all of this info to you when you first signed up). Ok, let’s connect and transfer files! So you put in all of the credentials and connected, now what? Well here’s a breakdown of the interface, and thankfully it’s very, very simple. You have all of your local files on one side, and all of the files on your server on the other. If you want to get a file off of your computer and onto your web server, how do you think you do it? Yep, you’re right - you drag and drop. It’s that easy. Development, 2010-10-06T01:26:58+00:00 http://jamesspringer.com/index.php/site/nostalgia_music http://jamesspringer.com/index.php/site/nostalgia_music#When:23:35:33Z Man, 25 years of Mario. These games are without a doubt, my absolute favorite. Proof that no matter where you grew up, this music truly shaped who we are today. Totally blows me away. I never thought that this would get the full orchestral treatment when I was a kid, but dammit, I really hoped it would happen… Inspiration, 2010-07-07T23:35:33+00:00 http://jamesspringer.com/index.php/site/craigs_list_scam_exposed http://jamesspringer.com/index.php/site/craigs_list_scam_exposed#When:22:00:13Z I’ve recently uncovered a ridiculously elaborate online scam while shopping around for a MacBook on Craig’s List. I’m still in disbelief that people would go to these lengths to steal people’s hard earned money. I know that opinions may differ on what actually defines an elaborate scam, but read on, and you’ll see that I’m not exaggerating. While on Craig’s List I spotted a post for a black MacBook for $400.00. I thought “This sounds way to good to be true!” but I decided to investigate this “awesome” deal anyway. Remember the old saying; If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I sent an email stating that I was interested in buying the laptop and waited for a response. The next day I received this reply: “Bold Dreamer” 10/03/2008 04:30 AM
Subject
Re: 13” MacBook, 2,16 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 2 Gb memory, 120 Gb HD - $400 Hello, The laptop is still available and I hope you are still interested. My name is Amy and I am now in Manchester, U.K.
This machine has been used for professional needs over the past 13 Months, it is in great condition and runs perfectly, and beyond evidence of normal use the laptop is in perfect shape. The warranty is good until August 2009 and it is fully transferable. One more thing, it works on US voltage so you do not need a converter.
I have attached some pics with the laptop to this e-mail so you can see the condition of the laptop.
Please get back to me and let me know if you like the laptop if you’re really interested in buying it. Thanks,
 Amy Seems pretty straight up at first glance, but a few things should jump right out at you if you’re good at sniffing these types of scams out. The first thing - It’s the ‘ol bait and switch. “Sure I still have the computer, but I’m in the UK now.” Then why are you posting this in US cities on Craig’s List? Why not just put it on eBay? They do make power/wattage converters. Secondly Also, why isn’t the keyboard completely visible? How am I supposed to verify that it is a US model? I decided to have a little fun and send an email to “Amy” (probably a dude) to see if I could get some more out of her/him/them. This is what I received: Hello,
 The laptop will come with everything in the pics, case, mouse, disks.
I will pay for a 2 days delivery so you will receive the laptop within 3-4 days.
Obviously we need a safe way to complete this deal that will allow us to make sure we receive what we are after.
I have found a way for us to complete the deal safely and fast, and in this way you will receive the laptop in less than 3 days, if you move fast as well. The solution is provided by a worldwide delivery company DHL, and they will provide assistance in hadling the payment and delivery of the laptop.
With this procedure you will have the change to test the laptop before I receive my payment.
The procedure is explained on the DHL webpage and please click on the link below to the DHL website to see how we can complete the deal safely and fast directly from the website of the company.
dhl.co.uk/publish/gb/en/services/log_services/air.high.html 
 Let me know, 
Amy (I’ve broken all of the links so you’re not tempted to click on them. You can reassemble them and go for it if you want to though) That’s weird. I’ve used DHL before. They don’t offer any kind of escrow service like the one described in this email. They are a shipping company- nothing more. If you follow that link you’ll see that there is absolutely nothing there that describes anything of the sort either. Also, it seems that “Amy” is suddenly having a hard time grasping the English language. Now, check this out - a few minutes later I receive this email: Look at the red text in the yellow box in this photo (near the middle). You’ll notice another red flag, you have to “pay first then we ship”. Yeah, I bet you will… They went all out, didn’t they? Contained in this email from “DHL”, were two email addresses (seen in the last photo):
customerservice@sameday-logistics- dhlpost.com (online customer support)
paymentservice@global- dhl.com (payment service) This is getting pretty interesting! Let’s have some fun! If you put sameday-logistics-dhlpost.com into your address bar, you get a website that has absolutely no ties with DHL whatsoever. Here’s a shot of where you end up: An untouched stock template. These scammers are using this domain to send the emails that are made to look like they are from DHL. The same is also true of the other email address. This really makes me mad, I’m not going to lie. You know, our parents (and grandparents) could easily fall for this. It’s just convincing enough. At this point in this scandalous transaction, all that’s left for you to do is wire the money to the “DHL” agent. He’ll then clear the package for delivery and you’ll receive it in just a few days. Hold on a minute… Wire the money? Sure, I’ll get right on that… The sad thing is, these scammers have gone to great lengths to dupe people out of their dough, and after doing some research on Google, I’ve unfortunately found out that it has been working. So, I bring this to you as a warning (and I hate to put it this way, but… ) - There really are some people out there that are just waiting to catch you slipping - and then bang you for all you’re worth. Hopefully this entry has saved either you or someone you know some hard-earned money. Inspiration, 2008-10-03T22:00:13+00:00