I must be bored...

In my time off from the Yodermatic, I've found that I had a lot to catch up on since I started there last October, and have been really rolling to get a lot done... until recently when I pretty much got everything up to date. Now, I'm faced with something I haven't had for a long time: a slight time surplus. Now, naturally, I should be spending this surplus time to do things even more productive... but, instead, I explored MySpace Apps. Well, there goes productivity.

Yes, big_cray is one of the 55 millionish users of Mobsters, as well as Heroes, Mafia Wars... and a few others I don't care about as much. As it should be plain to see for just about anybody, these are all pretty much the same application, just with different themes and slightly varying numbers. Regardless, destroying a few virtual foes does have some entertainment value.

However, I am me, and I am really incapable of doing anything fun without thinking of a way to do it more efficiently, which then results in me putting work into it. So, I spent 5 minutes building a spreadsheet for Mobsters that calculated the new cost of a property after the cost is inflated after purchase, as well as the cost/income ratio, alluding to the next best buy. It was ok, but it didn't produce an actual list, and I didn't like manually stepping through and looking at the ratio. This looked like a job for some JavaScript.

So, I spent considerably more than 5 minutes constructing a JavaScript calculator to do what I wanted. Knowing that there were so many applications that used the same basic formulas, I left it pretty open ended, so I was easily able to make calculators for half a dozen other applications in mere minutes each. Now, Cray had finished his tool, and was free to spend time playing.

Once again, I am me, so I began to wonder if I had reinvented the wheel. I did some searching and found that other people had published their own calculators... that were based on Excel spreadsheets and were mostly inferior to my original spreadsheet that I had been unsatisfied with. Interesting...

So, I decided to publish my work over at Andyville so people would have another option. This also does something else: opens up the gates for new suggestions which will (you guessed it) lead to more work for me to do in my play time.

Of course, since I began writing this entry, I've thought of a few nice new additions that my calculators could use... so, back to work!
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Big Cray: Accept No Substitute

MySpace Application Calculators
Mobsters Territory Calculator
Heroes Kingdom Calculator
Mafia Wars Property Calculator
Dragon Wars Land Calculator
Pirates - Rule the Caribbean Island Calculator
Outworld Colony Calculator
Rockstars Promotion Calculator
Vampires Minion Calculator