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End of the year holiday

Hello there everyone. It is this time of the year again. Whether you are a lonely programmer or still have a good time with friends and family, everyone might have some free days from work to get more sleep or do some programming. Sit down and have some time to think about how to get the programming going again! It's just a puzzle to be solved.

Already best holiday wishes and a happy new year 2025!

Black Friday

This friday (29th of November) it is Black Friday in the UK and in the Netherlands. It is a festivity where there are many shops of all kinds offering large discounts. If you're using Steam (download store) then you could purchase a lot of games at large discounts, sometimes up to 80%. This is for you programmers out there who still like to do some gaming.

I always keep a wish list all year and then during Black Friday I see what the discounts are and then finally buy those games. I'm quite a collecter by now, I've been saving up network multiplayer games for later in life when I want to finally have multiple PCs standing in a house to use with friends. Currently the Windows 10 platform for games is quite large, as opposed to earlier where Steam was still in its early phase. So I just buy a lot of games!

Old and new year's day

Hello soup-people! Hopefully everyone has been able to enjoy some bit of vacation around this end of the year. Vacation sales are running high (if you need any more games from Steam!), and people are planning their new year with goals written down. Have a good old year's day and already a happy new year 2024!

Libera IRC

Hello there! Because of that Blitzed will stop its IRC services at the end of this month, we have moved to a new IRC network and channel! We have moved to the Libera network, and we are now an official Boolean Soup chat channel. So if you're sometimes coming into IRC, update your information to these:


irc.eu.libera.chat
port 6697 (TLS, secure) or 6667 (unsecure)
#booleansoup


You can always use this new web chat to enter:
https://web.libera.chat/

Or ofcourse you can use a modern IRC Client, like the paid services we really enjoy called IRCCloud (www.irccloud.com), which also works for free. Mibbit however does not work with the new network. We are remaining in this channel with several people with conversation about game and software development, more than in the past. Drop by once.

Update: The channel is out of use since the end of November 2023.

Visual Studio 2022 released

Visual Studio, Microsoft's programming studio package with Visual C++, Visual C#, and Visual Basic in it, has been released as a new version 2022.

Ever since VS appeared it was very quickly a very complete package. When I was still in high school Visual Studio 6 was distributed to me and other students through the informatics teacher. This was specially for the computer club students from high school, and many of us tried it. We couldn't see all too far though, we were mainly using Visual Basic because it was easiest. In the end it turned out this was not structured enough for serious programs. These days we would have preferred Visual C++ or Visual C#.

The new version 2022 (17.4) is the first Visual Studio version that is strictly released as a 64 bit version. This is because the new PC hardware and Windows versions are mostly 64 bit. In the past there have been "Express" versions released of Visual Studio, which were free versions that were feature limited in functionality but nontheless very usable. These Express versions are no longer offered, these days there are the following versions available: Community, Professional, and Enterprise. Community version is the new free version, it is more complete than the old express version (in fact alike professional edition) and aimed at individual developers, open source programmers, small teams, and scholars. Professional edition is the entry level commercial edition of VS. It comes with MSDN (documentation), installer packaging and is required to purchase for companies. Enterprise is for companies with new tools for database development, collaboration, and more.

The supported C++ and C# standards: C++17, C#11.0. However VC++ is a language beyond the C++ standard specification, it holds additional commands. The current Visual Studio version will remain supported by its makers for 10 years (just like older versions). VS holds a code editer, UI-builder, auto completion, parameter view, code refactoring, a debugger and more. So what can you do with VS? Ofcourse you can make your own games and other software. Bennu programmers can make libraries for Bennu with VC++ which has always worked in the past (with Fenix). There is a new generation of C# programmers which use Unity with VC#.

Visual Studio 2022 can be downloaded for free (Community version) at https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/

From Microsoft's website Visual Studio Professional is 534,- euros. For 10-40 euros you can buy a VS Professional CD key or an Enterprise edition CD key in online stores.

Happy new year 2023

Have a good 2023 everyone. I thought fireworks at midnight had been forbidden, but there is a lot of it here. I live in the middle of a large city, I thought everything had been set off at earlier times today but no!

The newest trend for us IRC people is using IRC Cloud (http://www.irccloud.com), which provides a bouncer functionality (you always remain in the chatroom) and a chat backlog for when you weren't connected. It provides a modern web chat interface with a lot of different emoticons, and the use of an avatar. The client and log can be accessed through a smartphone (Android).

Yearly goal setting remains important for a programmer, so hopefully there is time for all of you to set and reach goals the coming year. It's not always bad, I always make most of my goals since doing the yearly plan making. Us in IRC are still programming well and sharing.

Happy New Year 2022

Happy New Year 2022 everyone. This could be another fine year of programming and reaching your goals. Has anyone had any success meeting the programming goals of previous year?

In other news the Steam discounts continue until January 5 of the new year.
The new Matrix movie The Matrix resurrections will be up for streaming on Youtube Store the 21st of January in this new year. That's rather quick after release. Update: purchasing is now possible through the link.

In even other news, We are still in an IRC channel called #bilge at irc.blitzed.org or timtam.uk.eu.blitzed.org.

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE

yeaah.

It's only a few hours away, the new year. That deserves a 12 doesn't it? NO

It deserves a 00:00 and not your stupid 12AM.

These programmer's eyes do not lie. Because a new day, a NEW YEAR absolutely should recieve a clean slate.

What do we do with 12 then. OK I'VE FIGURED IT OUT IT'S 0-11, now. or then, whatever...

As programmers, we should be more responsible with our unitising and go with the 24 HOUR clock. Because I said so. Well can't wait 'til good old 00:00 to celebrate.

AND YOU CAN'T EITHER SO GO HAVE FUN. HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE