Tech Application from EnergyAssassin

Member Name EnergyAssassin

Additional In Game Names: KnightWhoSaysNii

How old are you? 18

Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Do you have Discord? Yes

How many hours per day do you spend on Meepcraft? (average) 2

Have you ever been a Tech on a different server? Never for a legitimate server.

References: Please give IGN's @Noahnda @Bm8558 @Its_Madison

Introduction: (I will save all programming-related content for the next section)

Hi, I’m Jack, known as EnergyAssassin. I’m a senior in highschool. In the fall, I will be attending University of Wisconsin-Madison. I am very proud to have been accepted and look forward to the experience (but not the loans :/).

In school, I compete with my school’s math club in meets and contests. One of my greatest joys is problem-solving, and this club is an excellent outlet for that. I was honored to be part of the team that took 2nd in our most recent meet. I have also been the Co-President of Technology for my school’s technology club for the past 3 years. During that time, I demonstrated the entire process of building a computer, discussed new technology, and showcased video games. I am also taking AP Calculus BC and AP Physics 1 this year. I took these classes because, like the math club, they challenge me to think and solve. I am very fortunate to have engaging teachers for both of these topics, which I attribute to my passion in them.

Outside of academics, I keep myself busy. Year-round, I rock climb with my friends on our school’s team. Rock climbing is an amazing sport that I only started about a year ago, but I have fallen in love. It’s all about challenging yourself, and has a deep mental aspect besides being physically demanding. During the fall, I have raced with the mountain biking team since sophomore year, which I got the opportunity to captain this year. Mountain biking, while being an awesomely exhilarating experience, has taught me determination. With races lasting over an hour, and the body consuming in excess of 1,000 calories, I have found true exhaustion, and the will to keep moving.

Outside of school, I am the Vice-President of Programming for my venture crew. I am involved with planning outings, and holding effective meetings which includes being an effective communicator. I have met several long-time friend through being a venture scout, and had so many great memories too. This summer we will be going to Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia, where they have a multitude of options for high adventure like downhill mountain biking, zip-lining and backpacking. This has inspired to show my friends the fun of camping, and I led a little excursion to a local state park for some rock climbing and tent camping this last summer.

With the rest of my time, I mostly play video games. Obviously I play MeepCraft, which I joined over 4 years ago. Something @Cooleysworld said that really stuck with me back in TeamSpeak a while ago was that Meep never leaves you. (I know I’m messing up the wording but the general idea is there) I have no doubt I have sunk over 1000 hours into Meep over these years, and I’ve always had fun. I also got into Breath of the Wild recently. It’s my favorite game from the recent past. I love how much fun is to explore and find little secrets that are hidden all over the place. I bought an Oculus fairly recently as well, which I love. Everyone should definitely try VR.

Music-wise, my favorite artists are Blink-182, Post Malone, Taylor Swift, Kendrick, Chance, John Denver and Billy Joel. Spotify discover weekly is awesome for finding new music, and it has definitely turned me on to entire genres. Blink is very special to me because one of their albums, Enema of the State, is my favorite of all time. Besides listening, I play Tuba in my school’s band, and also play bass in a band with my friends. My favorite TV shows are The Office, How I met your Mother, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Please describe your experience as a developer. meepshowcase.mp4

Three plugins I have made in the past are showcased above.

Grow is a plugin that I made to be like Conway’s Game of Life, but in 3D. Conway’s Game of Life simulates a sort of cellular growth. It counts the number of neighbors a cell has, and that determines if a cell will live, die or reproduce. Too many neighbors, the cell dies from overcrowding, too few, the cell dies of loneliness, and at the right amounts, the cell will just stay alive, or reproduce and make another cell. In 3D, there are just more neighbors to consider and more ways for the cells to expand. I am very happy with the result as I have made the Game of Life in just about every programming language I’ve learned. (Visual C#, Javascript, Java, Python)

SimpleLog logs whenever someone breaks or places a block, and records the user, the block, and the time. This can then be viewed later. Data is saved and retrieved using MySQL, and it would be very easy to adapt this plugin for more events.

MiniGame is a plugin that introduces powerups to PvP. An admin can create any number of arenas they like to play this in. An admin can also customize where the arena will spawn players, and where powerups will spawn in the arena. Powerups include a speed boost, and a health restoration. However, the system would be very easy to build upon and add more power ups. Also something to note is that the Arena that an admin sets up can be saved to be loaded automatically when the server restarts.

Two plugins not shown in the above showcase are MBombs and MazeGenerator. MBombs adds a firebomb, a variant of TNT that sets nearby things on fire. It has its own crafting recipes, and works with dispensers. Any type of bomb could be made using MBombs as a base. MazeGenerator is a fairly experimental plugin that makes a maze out of random blocks, using a simple algorithm I made to design the maze.

This year, I am taking AP Computer Science Principles to improve my understanding of computer science theory. Last year, I took the AP Computer Science A exam, which is solely about programming in Java (what plugins are developed in). I am proud to say I received a 4 on the exam, which AP defines as well qualified to do the work required in an introductory class in college. In attending college in the fall, I will be studying computer science. Not only do I have the knowledge required, I will be only get better as I study in college. I have a deep passion for learning and programming, which I described in this essay I wrote for my college applications.

In competing through Future Business Leaders of America, I made a database application to manage a library’s users, books, and checking them out. It used Microsoft Access database, which is quite similar to MySQL. A big focus for me was to make it user friendly, and there are many helpful user experience improvements included. I programmed this in Visual C#, a language similar to Java. At state, I placed 2nd and will continue to nationals over the summer.

In AP Computer Science Principles which I described earlier, I made a program that simulates natural language based on Markov chains using Node.js. The most popular implementation of these is SubredditSimulator on reddit. My final product was a discord bot that continually adds what my friends say to its word bank for simulation. I have attached a version that works in the browser and doesn’t require Node for easier use.

Using unity, I am working on a long-time project called bricks. At its most basic, it allows building with lego blocks in VR. I have very big ambitions for this project, but for right now I have attached the script that snaps two parts together. The more I worked on it, the more it amazed me how much needed to go into making it work right. This script was written in C#.

One of my many implementations of Conway’s game of life was in JavaScript. It’s as described before: a cellular growth, this time in 2D as they traditionally are.

My official programming instruction started in 2015-2016 by learning Visual Basic, GameMaker and Scratch. Then, in 2016-2017 I learned Java in AP Computer Science A. I think that having learned programming in a structured environment, I have a much stronger foundation than a self-taught developer. Today, I continue experimenting with new forms of programing.

My most recent project has been making a plugin to add tab-completions to all Towny commands. It works for static commands, like suggesting a subcommand such as /resident friend, and for variables like suggesting players for /resident friend add <Name>. I made this as a part of Meep’s Community Developers, where Meepers can contribute to open-source plugins. I am very proud that my work will (hopefully soon) be implemented in MeepCraft and help out other players. It was an amazing journey working on it and I am very proud of the result.

What programming languages are you familiar with? Very Comfortable: Java, C#

Comfortable: Javascript, Python (MySQL, YAML, HTML, CSS)(These I realize aren’t programming languages but I feel are relevant to being a developer)

What are you most proud of as your work as a developer? I am most proud of my discord bot I created (I mentioned it earlier, it uses Markov Chains to simulate natural language). While I am proud of the code I wrote, I am more proud of the effect it had. My friends still check in with our “Friend” after over a month. He consistently replies to people with hilarious sayings that make him seem human. I love that my program could have such an awesome impact on my friends.

How do you plan to enrich the experience of MeepCraft with your development contributions? I plan to help out in any way to help ease the load of other Techs and contribute to solving some underlying problems Meep has. Given my experience and passion in game development, I would love to be involved with Meep’s minigames. However, I also understand the need to prioritize other projects. Ultimately, I hope my work can help out the server I love so much.

Do you have a GitHub account or personal website? If so, please provide the link(s) here. I do not have a large amount of work on GitHub, instead I have uploaded all of the code referenced above here: portfolio - Google Drive

 

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--- Double Post Merged, Apr 12, 2018, Original Post Date: Apr 12, 2018 ---

You are down to earth too <3

 

That's what it was! Very true.

You give me too much credit. Markov chains by design kind of simulate natural language, but it's basic. Thank you though

I just found out I'll be in West Virginia when Nationals is happening, which is too bad.

It's cool that we have so much in common! I hope I get to know you better

 

Accepted for an interview!

I've been slammed IRL with quite a bit of work (as you well know from our conversations in ComDev), but I'll make sure to make time to reach out to you to schedule an interview.