Having my own business is one hell of an attractive idea, and being able to earn money from using my personal programming and designing skills would be absolutely amazing. These two ideals, in my opinion, go hand-in-hand. I could draw you out an idea of what I want the website to look like, and even how I would begin to go about making the thing, just from my brain refusing to let me sleep last night.

But it begs a few questions:

1. Is it worth the time effort? Especially over the next year when I should be working hard to make sure I get my grades for University.

I think it is. It’s not like I do a whole lot of homework anyway – any work I do tend to be in topics where I don’t know things and hence for interest as much as for my teachers.


2. Would I actually have the capabilities to run a business? And isn’t it cheating calling a one-man-band a business?

Any business requires an idea, and I have that. Ok, ideas for what products I’d actually make aren’t quite specific, but it’d be making video games: In all probability, these would be flash-based games that earn revenue from advertising; cheap windows-based games that people would buy online (emphasis on cheap); or Xbox 360 games distributed on Xbox Live Arcade. The second question is beyond my scope to answer, but it would be adding a whole new level to anything I produce – would you rather buy a product from John Smith, or from his company that has a flashy website and no mention of the fact that it’s him on his own?

3. Would I make any money out of this at all, or would I be wasting my time?

Well, the advertising idea would certainly make money – no matter how little – and more importantly, any of these ideas would make money after the games cease being useful for me. Let me clarify: once they’re finished and I’ve learned any techniques that I’m going to from making them, they then start earning me money. The way I see it, that’s the perfect way to have it working until I finish University.

But yeah. All of this is summed up in an article I was just shown: Ramen Profitable, but I was thinking of it anyway. It’s certainly an idea, and I can just do what I normally do: Make programs and learn new techniques. The fact that I’d be earning money on the side is honestly just a bonus. It could well be a good experience for me, though I’d certainly not be starting until I’d produced a couple of games that I consider web-worthy, and messed about with a website until I had something that looks great.

But I’d be interested to know what you think: If you just read this, tell me. I don’t care if your comment says I must be off my face to think of this, or if you think I’m less skilful than a dead rat – I’m asking for you to think of the cons that I’ve mostly neglected to cover, and whether or not you think they outweigh the advantages.

~ Godders.

Since breaking up for the summer, I’ve hardly been active on the social front. This weekend was spent coding and playing Halo 3, and I went to Matty B’s BBQ last week which has been my only contact with anybody I know outside work. Apart from bumping into a couple of friends who go to a different college and I’d not spoken to in ages on the bus home.

Unfortunately, buses aren’t the best place to have a catch-up session, especially when you’re only on said bus for 20 minutes. Alas. Anyways, you’ll be wondering what the purpose of this post is if it’s not web design.

Well, one of my closer friends has been ignoring me lately. And being ignored is a lot like passive whitespace on a web page for the following reasons:

• You can’t do jack to stop it being there, even the best designs will only minimise it.
• You don’t really want it to be there at all, you’d rather everything just fits.
• It’s main component is nothing. Just emptiness. And that sucks.
• It’s not useful like active whitespace – those points in conversations where the silence is useful, whether you’re just mulling things over or just happy in one another’s presence.

But hey, life goes on. Work is pretty good, though lack of a bass pedal for the Rock Band drum kit means everyone’s just been playing Fifa at lunch. I take the opportunity to check Facebook/forums and just generally chill out, because I suck at Fifa multiplayer haha.

So: the 50 Things update.
5. Start to learn Java.
This was fairly easy. I’ve only done the basics thus far but to be honest, picking up a new language once you know a couple isn’t too difficult. It’s mostly just about learning the syntax, and your IDE does a lot of that for you.

Am on track for 11, as long as I don’t miss one in the next week and a half.

16. Get my main PC connected to the internet.
And it is glorious. Oh how I missed having a quality computer to use.

22. Cook a meal without being asked.
I should have specified that this is for my family, not for myself. At any rate, I’ve done both: lots of crappy dinners for myself and a Vegetable Risotto for the family, which was yummy.

31 remains out of reach for the moment: am 920/1000 GS in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. 60 of the remaining points are easy to get but take a little tedium. The other 20 points could be gained in as quickly as a minute, but are for a damn-near-impossible level (Mile High Club, on Veteran difficuly. Ouch)

A tweet tomorrow and Wednesday will complete 38, thanks to the fact that they let me tweet while at work.

41. Forgive somebody.
While the injustice of what a certain someone did a while ago is evident, it’s in the past and it changed nothing. So who cares?

That makes 9/50, with a further 3 close to being done. Progress, if a tad slow for my liking. Oh, and I have ActionScript planned for this weekend. Fun times.

~ Godders.

However, once things are downloaded (Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition has a whopping seven-and-a-half hours to go at the current rate) I can start coding again. This is something I’ve been looking forward to for ages, i.e. since I stopped having a Windows-based PC connected to the internet.

Now, this summer for me presents a real opportunity to develop my programming skills. I’m working full-time in web development which will provide a fantastic platform to become proficient at XHTML, CSS and PHP with the opportunity to throw some Javascript in there too. But that’s not the only thing.

Microsoft have got an initiative called Dreamspark. Essentially, it’s a way for students at high school, college and university to get their hands on free copies of their proprietary software. We’re talking everything from Visual Studio (2005 and 2008 editions) to their Robotics software, Server software and one particularly interesting piece of kit: XNA Game Studio 3.0

This allows people to develop games for Windows Live. That includes Xbox Live, by the way. It provides full support for achievements, Xbox 360 game controllers and all sorts of funky multiplayer stuff. Admittedly, the free subscription that you get from Dreamspark doesn’t allow you to publish the games you make, but as a learning experience I think it’s fantastic.

It’s also possible to make these games in any language that supports the .NET framework which means I can develop my skills not only in the language that I am fluent in (VB.NET) but also in the one that i’m not so confident with (C++).

I’ve got a real buzz though, am really looking forward not only to working but also to actually being able to code again within a good environment.

~ Godders

I’m Godders. I’m an A-level student at the 6th Form of Heckmondwike Grammar School. I study Maths, Further Maths, Computing and Physics. I studied Chemistry to AS-Level but there’s not a force on earth that can make me take it any further than that.

In terms of hobbies, I like to sing, code, and procrastinate from doing real work. Though I’m going to do something about that last bit. I also play far too much in the way of computer games and listen to music 24/7. Of course, most of you will know this already.

The title of this blog, Like The Angel, is a reference to my favourite band on the planet, Rise Against. They’re amazing, and you should listen to something by them right away.

Today, I went to the Open Day at Manchester University. The talks about Accommodation and Student Finance were boring but informative, and the talk on Computer Science was great. Still, I’ve only got Cambridge to compare it to thus far, so I’m not sure where it’ll fit in my list. Also, I’m generally unsure about if I want to study Computer Science by itself, or with Mathematics.

And that will do for this moment in time. More thrilling posts to follow!

~ Godders.