Thursday, May 21, 2009
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
This is a cool video...
Friday, February 20, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Google recently introduced a new feature that allows for the wirless syncing of Calendar and Contacts to the iPhone. I've already been getting this service for free for quite a few months from https://www.nuevasync.com/ However, at this point, I don't see why I would continue to use Nuevasync. So I will be switching to the, now, native Google syncing service. Hopefully it works as well.
UPDATE: Well I switched to the Google syncing, but I quickly switched back to Neuvasync! The reason? Apparently Google doesn't support syncing of public calendars!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
All computer programming languages are abstractions of Machine Language. All abstractions leak (see the Law of Leaky Abstractions http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/LeakyAbstractions.html) ... they don't 100% remove you from the reality of the thing, they are tools that help you get your work done faster & easier, but when they fail or don't mask the reality completely you have to know how to work without the abstraction... otherwise you are just a tool too.
Natural Language (human speech) contains way too much ambiguity and complexity to be translated by a compiler into Machine Language. The only hope for natural language programming would be (A) use a subset of language with specific rules that removes all ambiguity and most complexity... but that would just be another programming language. (B) or wait for real computer AI (which will probably never happen).
Anyway you look at it, you HAVE to learn to program, to program.
Friday, January 30, 2009
"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you"
-Nathaniel Hawthorne
Thursday, July 31, 2008
The "Mojave Experiment"
a.k.a "Let's make fools of the general public."
Check out this guy.... video clip .... since when is it a good idea to trick and make fools of your potential customers?
Microsoft, what are you thinking?
Friday, July 18, 2008
The new MobileMe service being offered by Apple sounds great, but without the ability to support custom domain names (via MX records) I cannot use it and that's a shame.
Google Apps/Mail supports custom domain names (multiple domains, even) for free! So why can't Apple!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Parent and Child Database Relationships
Easy if you keep it simple.
an excerpt from http://evolt.org/article/RI_to_the_Rescue/18/13276/index.html
"Every database relation is a one-to-many relation involving just two tables, a parent table and a child table. Yes, you may hear other terms like one-to-one, many-to-many, and so on, but these are all just special cases of the one-to-many relation. Don't let them fool you. Understanding databases is easy if you keep it simple.
So each relation is one-to-many, involving a parent table and a child table. This terminology is not standard, merely convenient, if somewhat unfortunate. Some people say master and detail; sometimes, I'll say owner and member, a flashback from pre-relational CODASYL databases as out of date as bell-bottom pants (except that unlike pre-relational databases, bell-bottoms may one day be back in style).
As you might guess, the parent is the "one" and the child is the "many." Each parent can have many children. The reverse, I am afraid, is not true, not in a relational database. A child can have only one parent. Please don't dwell too long on the obvious fact that in real life a child has two parents -- you will only get confused. In a relational database, in a one-to-many relation, each child has at most one parent. This is important. This is also why the parent-child terminology is unfortunate."
Friday, May 30, 2008
I just discovered this cool site called Songza.com
Very cool, you can listen to music for free and even embed songs on a website....
Songza: The music search engine & internet jukebox. Listen. Now.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
I needed an HDMI cable to connect my Xbox 360 to a new HDTV that I had recently bought, so I went to my local Fry's and was shocked by the prices. They had HDMI cables priced as high as $300! The cheapest I could find was about $50. That is absolutely crazy, we are talking about a cable here, nothing complicated, just a simple cable. They all do the same thing!
I stood in the aisle for a good 20 minutes searching over and over for the cheapest one (they had a huge selection), unable to come to grips with the fact that I was going to have to spend so much for a stupid cable. Eventually I came to my senses and decided to walk away without a cable, I refused to pay that much! So instead, I decided to go look in the computer accessory section (on the other side of the store, I had been looking the in the TV section).
Guess what I found in the computer-accessory & various-cables section?
$15 HDMI cables.
Moral of this story? Don't pay an Idiot Tax for HDMI cables.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
I have been listening to too many podcasts for too long now.
I'm cutting down to just a couple podcasts per week and going to begin listening to music again!
Some great sounds to code to:
The Dave Matthews Band
The String Cheese Incident
Soul Coughing
Pink Floyd
Led Zeppelin
Postal Service
The Shins
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Exciting at first.
But I learn.
Everything is nothing to me now.
I wonder how it ever was.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
He woke up this morning a little earlier than normal because today is the first year anniversary of his escape. He wants to relish every moment of the day and to not take his liberation for granted.
He escaped the rat race exactly one year ago today. He likes to think of his liberation from that 9-to-5 dredgery as a "Neo's-Awakening". His life is fundamentally changed and he sees everything in a new light. Sometimes he seriously wonders if he has died (maybe without knowing it, like while he was sleeping) and is now living in some kind of afterlife that he has mentally constructed for himself... it really is that wonderful.
....
Friday, April 25, 2008
What is a Libertarian?
The libertarian, or 'classical liberal' perspective is that individual well-being, prosperity, and social harmony are fostered by 'as much liberty as possible' and 'as little government as necessary.'
Ask yourself these questions...
How much liberty is good for the individual?
How much government do we need?
For more information...
Read Wikipedia
and I recommend reading Henry David Thoreau's book Walden.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Here is a good article about C# 3.0 and LINQ
C# 3.0 introduced a number of new features for LINQ. In this article we'll examine the new features like extension methods, lambda expressions, anonymous types, and more."
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Worth checking out if you are at all interested in developing an Adobe Flex based web application....
Intuit’s Radical New Flex + QuickBase Cloud Platform
Friday, February 29, 2008
I'm so excited! I submitted Zen of Clover to Apple yesterday and today it is the featured download!
Zen of Clover is an OS X widget. Its a small freeware game; where you float over a clover patch looking for 4 leaf clovers. Its just meant to be a relaxing little break in your day... theres no pressure, no scoring.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Jonathan Coulton performs "Still Alive" in Rock Band. Still Alive is that catchy song from that awesome game Portal (one of the Orange Box games). If you don't know who Jonathan Coulton is, or you don't know what Portal is, then where have you been!?! Google them now!!
Friday, February 22, 2008
The Source Code Is The Design: "The Source Code Is The Design" is a cool wiki page dedicated to Jack W. Reeves' idea that coding is designing.
A few quotes from the page...
"It seems like a common error in software project management is in treating all the stuff that developers do as a manufacturing activity. This seems to be a driver behind a lot of poor management decision making, and unrealistic goal setting."
"Since programming is a design activity, not a manufacturing activity, you shouldn't automatically think you can treat programmers like assembly line workers. The Source Code Is The Design might help explain why throwing more programmers at a project that is behind schedule will hurt it, not help it."
"A software developer is more akin to an artist than an assembly line worker, since they are designing in writing source code. It takes time, consideration, and in some cases, a bit of skill. Creation can not be rushed."
Thursday, February 14, 2008
If I were a greater man I would have an actual list of "rules and virtues to live by". However I am not that organized or disciplined, but I do like the idea of it. Benjamin Franklin, a the age of 20, create a list of 13 virtues that he religiously (attempted) to follow for his entire life. He carried them with him and even kept a log of how he well he was adhering to them. I'm not even close to being that Great, but I would like to be. So I thought this blog would be a good place for me to start listing and organizing my own set of life-rules.
#1. Honesty
The older I get, the more I realize that the old saying, "honesty is the best policy", is true. If nothing else it is simpler. Lies can quickly become complicated; it is a burden to have to remember them as to not get caught in the lie some point later in life. It's simpler to always tell the truth. When in doubt tell the truth. The only exception to this rule is when telling a lie would spare someone else's feeling; and in this case it would be preferable to say nothing than to lie.
"Honesty is the best policy." ~Benjamin Franklin
"No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar." ~Abraham Lincoln
"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything." ~Mark Twain
"Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom." ~Thomas Jefferson
"People who are brutally honest get more satisfaction out of the brutality than out of the honesty." ~Richard J. Needham
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
YouTube - Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video
Here is the actual speech (go to minute 9:30 for the Yes We Can part)....
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
The Apple TV upgrade is good. I like that I can rent movies from iTunes. Although I would like a longer 'watch-time', 24 hours isn't long enough. Come up give us at least 48 hours or, preferably, 5 days. I would like to be able to rent a movie, put it on an iPod and take it on a weekend trip and let my kids watch it multiple times anytime during the trip. Blockbuster is better because no matter what the allowed rental time is (1 day or 5), I could choose to keep it longer and pay a small late fee... its my choice.
The iPhone software upgrade it good. Nothing to write home about.
The Macbook Air.. being an Apple fan, I want to like it... but I don't. When I heard rumors about a thin Macbook, I pictured it being a replacement (ie. next version) of the Macbook. I have a Macbook, I looked at mine and imagined it about as thin as an iPhone with the 3/4" bezel around the 13" LCD shrunk down to maybe 1/4". Now that would be a nice upgrade.
But instead Apple kept the Macbook unchanged deciding instead to add a new model to the lineup, the Macbook Air. And they decided to price it between the Macbook and the Pro. Not good. If they wanted to make a new (third) model, they should have named it Macbook Nano and priced it below the Macbook. Something around $600 would sell great, i think. No one cares about the lame multitouch pad and the 'full sized' keyboard. People like small things, like the Asus Eeee PC. The tiny Asus linux-based laptops are selling like hot cakes. I was hoping for an Applefied version of it.... take a look at this picture (the Asus Eee PC compared to the Macbook) and try to imagine how cool it would have been if Apple had announced something like it today!
By the way... The Asus Eeee PC sells for only $399. Apple could have added $200 more worth of hardware coolness to it and sold it for $599 ... that would have made for an awesome keynote.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
I'm interested in Flex. I really like the idea of being able to quickly create a very rich web application that is cross platform & browser compatible. Beats the hell out of HTML. Adobe is kicking ass lately. Watch out Microsoft... I bet there are a lot of developers out there thinking the same thing. I've been a loyal MS developer for years, but as of late I'm losing the love.
Hello Microsoft, we need to talk... The excitement is gone. Maybe we should start seeing others. ... Hey, geez don't cry. ... No, no it's not you, its me. ... Really ... No, really. ... OK ok ... I got to go, we'll talk later. ...
... Hello Adobe, what are you doing tonight? ;)
I'm interesting in understanding REST better than I currently do. I think using RubyonRails and Flex in the way described in the following article is a good example of a RESTful api. Because the middle-tier calls are simply calls to a URL and that URL simply provides data in an XML format. Rails is an excellent choice for this type of api/data exchange. This is really worth the read....
Read the Article...
Liverail - RubyOnRails (1.1) and Flex (2.0): Pt 1
If you have SSH access to your hosting account and want to use a GUI to view your MySQL databases on that remote server, you can set up an SSH tunnel and use a program like CocoaMySQL to manage your remote database. When it works, it can be really userful and is a nice break from a web-based solution like phpMyAdmin.
First, make sure you can login to your host through SSH. After you are certain it works, you can open up a tunnel like this:
ssh -L 3307:[ip address of host]:3306 [username]@[ip address of host] [-p ssh portnumber]
This opens up a tunnel from your local port 3307 to port 3306 on the remote host. Here is the example again with dummy data, using a non-standard ssh port 8022:
ssh -L 3307:192.168.2.1:3306 user@192.168.2.1 -p8022
Once that connection is set up, fire up your MySQL GUI and connect to your local IP address (127.0.0.1) and specify the new port you set up in your tunnel (3307). Here is how it looks in CocoaMySQL.
Read more here...
Stereo Interactive & Design » How to set up an SSH tunnel to a remote MySQL server
Friday, November 09, 2007
Adobe is quickly becoming an awesome company for software development. Thermo (a code name) will usher in a new paradigm of web development. Much like VB made it easier to create Windows programs, Thermo and Flex (and AIR) is going to the same thing for the web. Can you say Web 3.0?
Video: Thermo Sneak Peek at Adobe MAX Day 2 Keynote at Aral Balkan
Monday, October 29, 2007
Douglas Crockford's famous article about javascript. "Despite its popularity, few know that JavaScript is a very nice dynamic object-oriented general-purpose programming language. How can this be a secret? Why is this language so misunderstood? ..."
Friday, October 12, 2007
This is a video of Lee Brimelow giving a session from AIR Camp Denver titled "Transitioning to the Desktop with Adobe AIR". In his session Lee talks about some of the things he has learned while working with Adobe AIR, demos some apps he has been working on, and shows how to use Flash Authoring to create AIR applications.
watch video
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Aptana: The Web IDE : A free, open-source, cross-platform, JavaScript-focused editor and development environment for building Ajax applications. It features code assist on JavaScript, HTML, and CSS languages, FTP/SFTP support and a JavaScript debugger to troubleshoot your code.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
I've heard about Google Book Search for a long time, but it wasn't until today that I actually 'discovered' it. It is very cool. It's amazing to think something this complex exists and is free.
Inside Google Book Search
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Scratch | Home | imagine, program, share
Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web.
Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design.
Every new model (g3,g4,g5) of the iMac has been completely different than the one before it. So I expect that todays announcement will be as equally radical.
Personally I liked the looks of the g4 (the one that looked like a desk lamp, who else but Apple could make something like that a cool thing?). The first Mac I ever owned was the G5 iMac, I still use it daily and love it. It is very good at looking good without getting in the way (either physically, because is has a small footprint, or aesthetically because of its minimalistic design).
One of the best things about being an apple-fan are these hyped-up new product Events that Jobs gives. Its remenisant of the excitement christmas or birthdays used to bring when I was a child. Obviously, I'm eagerly awaiting for today's Media Event to start to see what cool new "toys" Apple has in store for us.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Thursday, June 07, 2007
I read this in a MacRumors forum today...
"I doubt it. Vista never even had 50% of the buzz surrounding the iPhone.
Even my Grandma wants one. More than can be said for Vista."
It liked that quote so much it prompted me to create this ad....
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=3722476&posted=1#post3722476
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
I think tomorrow will be a big day. Supposable Palm is going to show off some new type of mobile computing device and Microsoft is going to be showing off a new revolutionary device (the playtable?). Plus, Gates and Jobs are taking stage to answer questions and have a debate or something.... that sounds intriguing.
I believe Apple is stirring up some real innovations.
Bet that the new Palm device is a competitor to the iPhone. Although I think it will be something different than a smartphone. My money is on a small and sleek, almost all screen, mobile touch monitor device designed to run widgets. A very customizable and networked device.
The rumored MS Playtable sounds cool. Quite awhile ago I watch a MS Labs demo on a big multitouch device, Looked like a drafting table, but all screen. If that is what they announce tomorrow, I will be drooling for one.
Apple is way passed due on refreshing their iMac desktops and laptops. I bet they are holding off for the WWDC conference coming up soon (or maybe waiting for Leopard). I think they are going to be coming out with some type of new big multitouchscreen iMac. Maybe something that can lay flat and be 'typed on' or stood upright to be used like a regular monitor. I think Leopard's new Core Animation feature is designed to support the cool multi-touch / dragging around windows that this new type of display will allow.
June 2007 is going to be a very interesting month.
» Microsoft to take the wraps off ‘PlayTable’ | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Awesome.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Friday, April 13, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing...
Flow (psychology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Smart cars are coming to the US and they are going to be sold for about $15k. I could see people buying one of these as an extra car to use for running errands around town. And at only 8.5' long, they don't take much room in the garage.
Read more about smart...smart (automobile) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
I just read an interesting article on CNNMoney talking about how virtualization is blurring the line between the Mac and PCs. CNNMoney: Windows is coming to the Mac - and Mac to PCs - Jan. 22, 2007 It got me thinking about how Apple could choose to allow licensing of Mac OS X to third parties like Dell. I know, people say "NOT GOING TO HAPPEN". However, I think it might and here is why...
Apple Computer changed their name to Apple Inc. They will continue focusing and growing the iPod marketshare. They will begin focusing on the iPhone market... sales will grow to the predicted 10 million units sold by 2008. At this point, the iPhone sales and income will eclipse the Mac computer revenue.
So, by the end of 2008 the iPhone revenue will have more than replaced the income from Mac sales. Apple's bread and butter becomes the iPod and iPhone (and whatever cool gadgets they release by then), the Mac becomes much less important to their bottom line.
This puts Apple in position to license Mac OS X (to Dell, HP, whoever) without the worry of cannibalizing their own Mac computer sales. Its a gamble on Apple's part, but it will pay off and within 2 years (by 2010) they will have a 50% marketshare on all new PC sales; not that OS X will completely replace Vista, but it will seamlessly extend it through advanced virtualization features... the average consumer doesn't really understand (or care) that they are running two OS's, they think of it more as an add-on... its "Windows Vista Plus Mac". They like the cool eye candy it offers and the iPod/iPhone enhancements it enables.
It is estimated that by 2010 the total world sales of PCs will be more than 1.5 billion (600 million in the US); Apple will be making more from the licensing of OS X than they ever did by selling the Mac.
All this occurs because the iPod and iPhone 'play well' with Windows Vista, but they work best with Mac OS X. The Mac becomes the ultimate accessory... funny eh?
Monday, January 22, 2007
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Carl Howe's article on SeekingAlpha.com (Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field: As Powerful As Ever - SeekingAlpha) tries to distill Job's persuasive speaking style down to eight bullet points; Uses visuals, Focuses on the problem, Says it three times, Stories, Dramatic pauses, Uses Comparisons. Its a good article, worth the read, maybe someday Job's business presentation style will be taught in college, you know... something that can anyone could duplicate, some kind of charismatic formula that a person could learn... but I doubt it. Now on the other side of the coin, John Dvorak's article on MarketWatch.com (Balmer, iPhone and Reality Distortion Fields)
proposes that Jobs' "reality distortion field" to be some type of eastern mystical transcendental trickery learned while traveling throughout India in his youth. Interesting thought, but a bit on the wacko-side... another one of Dvorak's attempts for publicity, I'm sure. But it is a good read.
My opinion. Steve Jobs is simply a charismatic person. There are actually a lot of people like him out there, but he is (as far as I know) the only one in a position to get attention in the Big Business world. He has a 'hippie' attitude, disregards the status quo and is highly narcissistic. Also, I think he did enough LSD during the 70's to make him crazy, in a good way. The dude is just plain cool. I'm absolutely positive he will go down in history as one of the greatest businessmen, to be included with the likes of Ford, Franklin, Morgan.
I predict that Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) will sport a drastically new and improved interface. It will be using Core Animation to do all sorts of new and cool effects. It's overall theme will go toward a darker look; black and shiny. They will have a push towards full screen apps; all new iLife apps will be fullscreenable... kind of like the existing iPhoto full screen mode. The full screen modes will be enhanced by the Spaces feature.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
OK let's go out on a limb here and state that Apple has invented something new with the iPhone.
I say, that with the iPhone, Apple has just created a totally new class of computing device. The iPhone isn't a cell phone that connects to the internet and does some PDA tasks (aka smartphone). Nope... Apple has invented a new type of computer, its truly an appliance-computer. Easy to use and made for the masses.
I think we would all agree that the first Macintosh was a revolution in the computing world; I think the iPhone will be remembered in the same way. The Macintosh was revolutionary, mainly, due to the fact that it made using computers easier to use. Every new version after it has just basically been an evolution... the iPhone "takes it up a notch". History will tell, but I think it is enough of a change to be considered a milestone in computing. The switch to appliance computers.
I think that the personal computer (as we now know it) is closer to its end now that Apple has announced the iPhone. The iPhone (or something very much like it) will eventually replace the desktop/personal computer (for the average joe) and I say good riddance.
Some say the iPhone won't prevail because a multi-function device pales compared to single purpose devices. True, the iPod might pale compared to a good stereo system or a a big HDTV, but thats what the AppleTV is for. Right? To play music and videos where they sound/look the best? Right now you have to have a Mac/PC to use the AppleTV, but in the future it could as easily stream from the iPhone-applicance-type-of-device.The personal computer is dead.
"Skate to where the puck is going"... The iPhone is as revolutionary as the first Macintosh, if not more so.
Here is what I think: Computers are generally too hard for people to use, or better phrased, computers have too steep of a learning curve that out weighs the benefits people want from a computer.
I know this is hard to believe, but most people don't like computers. Computers generally "get in the way" and cost too much. Most people get home computers for only a few reasons:
1. Email.
2. Surfing the internet.
3. Games.
4. Digital pictures.
5. Digital music.
The iPhone has the potential to make the desktop computer a thing of the past... or at least not necessary for the general population. The iPhone is an appliance, its simple to use and could do all 5 things I listed above, albeit number 3 is somewhat limited but that is what the Wii or Playstation3 is for.
In general, I believe the iPhone will raise the "standard of living" when it comes to information access and computing for the mass of the world's population. Revolutionary.
Interesting that the iPhone is with Cingular. I'm not real happy about that. My experience with Cingular's GSM is that it offers spotty, generally low reception that is limited to populated areas; get into any rural areas (which isn't hard to do in Indiana) and you you lose signal. So I am very hesitant to switch to Cingular even though I very much want to use the iPhone. But i have hope...
iPhone is just the beginning. By 2010 WiMax will most likely be ubiquitous, and then things really begin to change.
I bet Apple is getting into the game early with the iPhone. Relying on EDGE as a stop gap solution until WiMax becomes a reality in the USA (and throughout the World). Sprint Nextel has recently announced that they will be pushing out WiMax 4G service in 2008. That is the same year Apple expects to get the iPhone really rolling; predicting 10 millions units sold. I think WiMax is going to be a huge boom to the mobile market and Apple is positioning themselves to dominate it. I think this is what Jobs meant when he quoted Gretzky: "Skate to where the puck is going, not where it's been."
Sprint Nextel Announces 4G Wireless Broadband Initiative with Intel, Motorola and Samsung
Monday, January 08, 2007
Tomorrow is the Macworld 07 keynote. As usual there have been a lot of rumors going around. This year, the big rumor is the iPhone. Many say its a 'sure' thing.
My prediction: The iPhone will be able to run widgets. Wouldn't that be cool! I'm not a big fan of widgets right now... but running on a portable device, I think they could be very useful. It would basically make it a universal gizmo, whatever you want it to be... a gps device, weather station, email reader, web browser, mp3 player, video player, game player, news reader, very customizable. I'll even take a stab at the name; how about the iPod (yeah thats right, iPod).... or maybe brand it under the Mac name... the Mac Nano.
We'll see....
Updated 1/10/07: Hey I was right! Kinda. Its yet to be known how open the iPhone will be when is comes to 3rd party widgets.
Friday, January 05, 2007
After reading an article on Slashdot regarding a potential cure for cancer and how it involved a natural chemical named Butyrate, I started googling butyrate and that lead me to esters which (somehow) lead me to digestive tract bacteria. Anyway, I just learned something new: Prebiotics are foods that contains nutrients that nourish the bacteria throughout your digestive system, they generally do not digest easily, so they "survive" past the stomach and can enter the intestinal tract in a state and be "consumed" by the good bacteria. .... So I guess we should all be mindful of our 'good' bacteria and feed them well.
UM Univeristy of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center: News Archive - Progress Newsletter Spring 2002 Online: "Prebiotics and Probiotics: What Are They and Why Should I Eat Them"
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
XFrog.com sells a 3D modeling application that allows you to create 'organic' models (aka plants).
I'm going to download their 30 day demo and try creating some models for the game I am designing.
Here are a few of my favorites from their Gallery....
Monday, December 18, 2006
Watch out, OS X is invading Windows Bliss!
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Poem: "Things You Didn't Put On Your Resume" by Joyce Sutphen.
Things You Didn't Put On Your Resume
How often you got up in the middle of the night when one of your children had a bad dream,
and sometimes you woke because you thought you heard a cry but they were all sleeping,
so you stood in the moonlight just listening to their breathing, and you didn't mention
that you were an expert at putting toothpaste on tiny toothbrushes and bending down to wiggle
the toothbrush ten times on each tooth while you sang the words to songs from Annie, and
who would suspect that you know the fingerings to the songs in the first four books of the Suzuki
Violin Method and that you can do the voices of Pooh and Piglet especially well, though
your absolute favorite thing to read out loud is Bedtime for Frances and that you picked
up your way of reading it from Glynnis Johns, and it is, now that you think of it, rather impressive
that you read all of Narnia and all of the Ring Trilogy (and others too many to mention here) to them
before they went to bed and on the way out to Yellowstone, which is another thing you don't put on the resume:
how you took them to the ocean and the mountains and brought them safely home.
Successfully
installed gnome on my VPSLink server!It was surprisingly simple to do. Just a couple commands...
apt-get update
apt-get install gnome
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Finding a good a VPS provider.
I've been researching VPS providers for the last couple weeks. There are a lot to choose from - everybody wants my money! Makes for a difficult choice.
I finally chose VPSLink. Why? Well honestly I liked their website, its looks good... sort of web 2.0-ish... also I liked that they offer VPS setups based
on development environments (LAMP or Rails), but the main thing I liked was the price.... $75 per month gets you a 40GB hard drive & dedicated 1GB RAM & 1000GB bandwidth.... sounds a bit too good to be true... we'll see.I have a few different goals.
#1. To learn Linux (without having to actually install it on my laptop).
#2. Setup FreeNX (NoMachine.com). This will allow me to access the VPS server (using gnome or kde) from anywhere.
#2a. Eventually my plan is to run it on a Macbook, using the new Spaces (virtual desktop) feature in Leopard; one screen will be Mac OS X, the other will be Linux.
#2b. Having a remote gnome session that I can use to surf the net from work (bypass corporate firewall and blocked sites) ;-)
#3. Have complete control of my webserver. Rails, Mono, PHP, Cron jobs, anything I want!
#4. A development machine that I can access from anywhere.
And by the way... Here is an interesting blog post I found that talks about setting up Rails on VPSLink. Rails on vpslink
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
This would be a nice place to be for Christmas.Running Buffalo Log Cabin a Brown County vacation home with Hot Tub & Pond near Nashville Indiana
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
When we first got our dog we signed up for training classes at the local Petsmart. The trainer talked a lot about feeding your dog a quality dog food; which I do. I like to feed Grover either Pro Plan or Sensible Choice dog food (they don't contain corn and meat is the #1 ingredient). But the trainer went all ga-ga over the all barf diet. Yeah that's right, he suggested only feeding your dog barf! ..... But that doesn't mean what you are probably thinking. Barf stands for Bones And Raw Food. In others words, only feed you dog real food - not store bought dog food. Instead, feed them raw meaty bones and and other unprocessed foods, the type of food dogs would eat in nature. There is supposed to be many benefits to dong this; including much less poop to clean up. Apparently dogs have a hard time digesting store bought dog food, because of the high content of corn and other fillers. Also, of course, it is just healthier for your dog.
Anyway I stumbled across this page today and and thought, wow, thats cool! ... BARF Raw Diet Veggie Mix
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
The people over at Lifehacker.com share a little information on what tools they use to run their 'placeless' office. I especially like that they tell us what site meteric tools they are using...
Lifehacker: "We're also fans and users of Sitemeter for up-to-the-minute site traffic stats, Google Analytics for in-depth traffic analysis and MyBlogLog for click stats."
Nintendo and Apple, my two favorite brands. This ad was created by a fan... it isn't an official Nintendo ad, but I tell you what... it is, hands-down, the best ad I've seen for the Wii. Nintendo should seriously be paying the guy who made this ad. .... This ad is a great example of fan-created advertisement, which you find a lot of in the Apple and Nintendo worlds.... especially Apple. You know you have a good thing going when your customers are willing to make ads for your products. The the popularity and Youtube and podcasts, I am sure this type of advertising will become more and more prevalent. ... One more thought, it is possible that Nintendo is actually behind the making of this ad, if they are... kudos to them for being that smart.
New Apple/Nintendo Wii Ad - Google Video
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Friday, November 03, 2006
Flexible Rails is a PDF book ($20) that will teach you how to use Rail and Flex to create very impressive web apps, very quickly. I looked through the Book Preview and it seems to be very well done; lots of color pictures and interesting to read.
Have you heard of Adone Flex? I just learned about it today and so far I think it is great! I'll keep researching it a bit more, but I really think this is the way to go for web developement. Fuck ASP.Net, Flex rocks!
Monday, October 16, 2006
Why Good Programmers Are Lazy and Dumb: "Why Good Programmers Are Lazy and Dumb
I realized that, paradoxically enough, good programmers need to be both lazy and dumb."
Thursday, October 05, 2006
The Butterfly WebSite
I just noticed that the Butterfly website is selling banner ads for CPC of .25 cents. For that you get a 115x115 banner ad displayed on their website. They claim to get 16,000 unique visitors each day. I am going to try advertising my screensavers (www.naturescreensaver.com)... its worth a shot.
I think this is really a good example of the Long Tail in action.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Introducing JSON: "JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)" is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate. It is based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language.
I recently learned about JSON while attempting to intergrate Del.icio.us tags into a blog I was creating.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Socrates was said to hold knowledge in high esteem.
One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, "Socrates, do
you know what I just heard about your friend?"
"Pause a moment," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you
to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."
"Triple filter?"
"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend,
it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to
say.
The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are
about to tell me is true?"
"No," the man said, "actually just heard about it and..."
"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not.
Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are
about to tell me about my friend something good?"
"No, on the contrary..."
"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but
you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because
there's one filter left: the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell
me about my friend going to be useful to me?"
"No, not really."
"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor
good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"
This is why Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem.
It also explains why he never found out his best friend was banging his
wife...
Why email is so addictive - Lifehacker: "variable interval reinforcement"
In additional to describing why people get addicted to check their email, Variable Internal Reinforcement makes sense and explains a lot. Once I started thinking about it I could see it popping up in many places; slot-machines, scratch-off lottery tickets, podcasts, rss feeds, etc.
Note to self: consider Variable Internal Reinforcement when designing video games, as a way to deliberately make the game addicting.
Monday, September 25, 2006
This is very interesting and looks like a lot of fun. I've used the VR goggles that are seen in this video; they were called IO Glasses (or something close to that). They've been around for years, back in the mid nineties they cost about $700, not sure how much they would cost now.
Golf club Royal Bromont - Google Video
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Best Buy's bold experiment... Results Oriented Work Environment (ROWE).
I'll be watching this one. It sounds like a good idea, I;m sure the employees love it. But will it actually work? We'll see.
This "Results Justify the Means Work Environment" could produce some very interesting situations. For instance, employess at best buy could outsource their own jobs? You know, forward all thier work to some guy in India or where ever and then pay him a percentage of your income. Or maybe even outsource your job to 3 other workers and get a shit load of work done, impress your manager and get promoted. I don't know... lots of potential there...
ABC News: Working When and Where You Want
Thursday, June 29, 2006
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way - lifehack.org
Describe the goal, not the step
If you are trying to find out how to do something (as opposed to reporting a bug), begin by describing the goal. Only then describe the particular step towards it that you are blocked on.
Often, people who need technical help have a high-level goal in mind and get stuck on what they think is one particular path towards the goal. They come for help with the step, but don’t realize that the path is wrong. It can take substantial effort to get past this.
Stupid:
How do I get the color-picker on the FooDraw program to take a hexadecimal RGB value?
Smart:
I’m trying to replace the color table on an image with values of my choosing. Right now the only way I can see to do this is by editing each table slot, but I can’t get FooDraw’s color picker to take a hexadecimal RGB value.
The second version of the question is smart. It allows an answer that suggests a tool better suited to the task.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Friday, June 09, 2006
Picasa for Linux. Google! Way to go!
This is very cool. Google has released a linux version of Picasa. I used to use (and love) Picasa when my primary home computer was a Windows pc. Now that I use a Mac I'm using iPhoto, but honestly if I could use Picasa on the Mac, I would. Its just that good.
So now that Google has released Picasa for linux, lets take a quick look at 10 things Google's doing that should make M$ worried...
#1. Gmail. (Outlook killer)
#2. Google Calandar. (Outlook killer)
#3. Writely (Word killer)
#4. Google Spreadsheets (Excel killer)
#5. Picasa for Linux (better than anything M$ offers)
#6. Diva Video Editing for Linux (one of Google's Summer of Code projects )
#7. Google's Firefox Toolbar 2.0 (makes Firefox even cooler)
#8. Google's Browser Sync (makes Firefox even cooler)
#9. Google Notebook (makes the OS/harddrive less important)
#10. Google Maps
Its almost to the point where your choice of OS is moot.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Time-lapse video of the removal of a post-it note mosaic mural of elvis presley, and the installation of a new one featuring Albert Einstein.
Post It notes as a wallpaper is such an awesome idea. Even if you don't go to the trouble of making a photo-realistic mural, simply covering an entire wall with yellow post its would be visually appealing.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Being a product of the 80's, I find this movie of particular interest. If nothing else it's just interesting to see how much fashion and trends have changed between 1984 and 2006... looks like Sonny went from wearing a white jacket and pastel tshirts to a grey jacket and black tshirts - sounds good to me.
YouTube - Miami Vice movie teaser
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
I just listened to a very interesting episode of the Gillmore Gang (podcast). They had a very interesting guest, Hugh MacLeod. From what I could gather he is an artist and owner of vineyard (Stormhoek wine). I went to his website GapingVoid.com and was a bit surprised at the cartoons (his art) he creates; they are basically just scribbles on the back of a business card. Wierd and dark and generally tech-based, they are compelling to say the least.
Monday, April 17, 2006
This is very cool. Its a _free_ Flash image viewer. It would be an impressive way to display photos on a website.
AIRTIGHT - PostcardViewer Download
View a demo here.
Friday, April 07, 2006
Yeah, when you get a chance read this article... nuvo.net / Ten under 10... it will either motivate you to do more with your life, or , perhaps, just make you say f{}ck it all.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Lots of rumors going around that Apple will be releasing a new product, some kind of Apple branded cell phone... the iPhone. This rumor has been recyled over the years, Apple's owned the iphone.org domain for a long time, but who knows? I'm skeptical. However I do think it would be great if they could create a cell phone that would work seemlessly with a Mac. I'm sure they could make it 'cool' and everyone would want one... it would be another lure to buy a Mac (like the iPod is).
That would allow them to offer a complete solution, much like iTunes/iPod and for them to really make it work, I think they would need to become the actual cell phone provider; MVNO. Hey, if Earthlink can do it so can Apple.
Mac Rumors: iPhone Rumor Rebound?
Today at work I was debugging a problem found during system testing. The problem was that some of the dollar amounts were being totaled incorrecty - they were off by a penny. No problem I thought, I'll just go in and use the Math.Round function where nessarcy to make that penny stop misbehaving... that's where it started getting interesting. I spent about an hour stepping through the code, checking variables, and even using a calculator to verify the proper rounding... and I was about to say Math.Round() has a bug because it is returning Math.Round(.125, 2) as .12 !! What the F^ck is that! However, after some googling and carfully reading the microsoft docs for Round(), I realized it was doing exactly what it was supposed to do.... even though I think it stinks. For whatever reason Microsoft chose to use Banker's Rounding rules when they created Round() for .NET 1.1. I did see that for .NET 2.0 they added an option to specify a rounding method, ie. to chose normal rounding.
From MSDN:
Math.Round Method (Decimal) (System): "The behavior of this method follows IEEE Standard 754, section 4. This kind of rounding is sometimes called rounding to nearest, or banker's rounding."
Friday, March 10, 2006
YouTube video - Microsoft Re-Designs the Ipod Packaging
Dude this video is a total riot! A parody of what would happen if Microsoft redesigned the iPod box. It goes from the current Apple simple design (artistically designed box) into a total collage of marketing-team-lead crap.
Multi-Touch Interaction Research: While touch sensing is commonplace for single points of contact, multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more than one finger at a time, as in chording and bi-manual operations. Such sensing devices are inherently also able to accommodate multiple users simultaneously, which is especially useful for larger interaction scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops.I have to check out the video demo of someone using the multi-touch computer. In addition to looking just plain fun, it looks like it could be very functional. It seems to be a very intuitive, almost organic, way to interact with the computer. I'll put my money on this being the next big change in the GUI.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
cabel.name: Nintendo DS Lite First Look: "Nintendo DS Lite First Look"
The new Nintendo Ds is looking pretty cool... but what I liked most about this page was the awesome zooming thumbnail effect. I am going to remember that and try to scrape the javascript.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
"Corporate Spin: With the introduction of Despair Video podcasts, the company opens a new front in the war on motivation- while simultaneously offering a tantalizing glimpse at life inside the company itself"
My thoughts:
If you like their artwork, you'll love thier video podcasts. Check'em out... but be careful of you watch them while at work your coworkers are going to wonder why you're laughing.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Paper Says Edible Meat Can be Grown in a Lab on Industrial Scale :: University Communications Newsdesk, University of Maryland
Sounds yummy, eh? But seriously makes me wonder if future generations will be eating man-made meats. I can picture some sort of applicance setup in the kitchen that actually grows this kind of stuff. Maybe we'll all have a Mr. Meat setting right next to the Mr. Coffee pot... Ah, the future will be a wonderful thing.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Shiira Project - Shiira is a web browser based on Web Kit and written in Cocoa. The goal of the Shiira Project is to create a browser that is better and more useful than Safari. All source code used in this software is publicly available.
My first impression of this web browser is simply, Wow! It's based on KHTML so the browsing compatibility is as good as Safari's, yet Shiira offers a lot more in the eye-candy and awesome features arena. I just now stumbled across their website and haven't actually downloaded and tried it yet. If you’re a Mac user, give it a try - I will be. After a few days of use, I’ll update this post with a personal review....
Monday, January 16, 2006
This game falls in line with the whole "video games are art" theme I have been touching on in my last few blog entries.
Electroplankton this game has been described as "touchable media art" and is not your typical video game. It was created by a Japanese musician and is only available directly from Nintendo. It's web site is quite informative and entertaining; containing video clip interviews from the developers. I recommend checking it out.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
"So don't be tempted by the shiny apple Don't you eat of a bitter fruit Hunger only for a taste of justice Hunger only for a world of truth 'Cause all that you have is your soul. I thought, thought that I could find a way To beat the system To make a deal and have no debts to pay I'd take it all, I’d take it all, I'd run away Me for myself first class and first rate But all that you have is your soul. " -Tracy Chapman   |
Friday, January 06, 2006
I heard someone say that once the analysts begin repeating the rumors, that the rumors are usually true. That said, take a load of this one...
USATODAY.com - Gates shares spotlight with new Windows: "Possibilities include a Media Center-like hub built on a Mac Mini computer, or devices for wirelessly transferring video from a Mac to an HDTV. Or it could be 'as dramatic as Apple getting into the TV space,' manufacturing Mac-friendly HDTV models, says Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster."
- UPDATED 1/12/2006 - Well this prediction didn't happen - bummer. Overall the keynote was a little underwhelming.
- UPDATED 1/8/2007 - Interesting. In anticipation of tommorow's 2007 Macworld Keynote, I looked back in my blog archives and found this entry. I had forgotten that one of last year's big predictions was a media center built on a Mac Mini. Looks like that prediction was about a year early. Everyone expects the iTV to be released tomorrow.
The are doing some very interesting things with the Mindstorms robotic kit. The current version is basically a geek's toy and can be used to build some fairly impressive machines. However, the next version is going to be a major upgrade. You can read about it here... GoRobotics.net - LEGO Creates New Version of Mindstorms!
But what really fascinates me is wondering what LEGO Mindstorms will be like in, oh say, 10 years from now. I'm hoping that I'll be able to create seven foot walking machines (trying to avoid the word robot - not sure why) that are strong enough to mow my yard. Wouldn't that be cool!? I guess that might raise a few concerns; like what if my evil neighbor decides to build a machine specifically designed to hunt and kill cats that enter his yard, or even worse people! I suppose LEGO will eventually have to implement Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics".
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Garageband.com has a cool thing going on. They have tons of indie artist submitting them songs that are copyright-free (or at least RIAA-free) and they have recently created a cool way for music lovers to easliy create podcasts. I was able to register, pick a song, create the podcast and embed it into this page in less than 5 minutes. I could have gotten fancier by adding my voice and an umlimited amounts of songs, but for now my podcast only contains 1 song. But thats not important, what is important is how easy this was to do and that Garageband hosts the podcast for free. From what I understand there are no size or traffic limits, but I haven't tried confirming this. Anyway... enjoy this podcast.....
The Gizmo Project Plug-In for Adium allows Adium users to also access their contact list on Gizmo Project. The plug-in allows you to do everything within the Adium application that you can do with Gizmo Project.
Features:
* Call other Gizmo Project users for free worldwide
* Instant message Gizmo Project users
* Make calls to the traditional phone network for as low as 1.8 cents per minute
* Free voicemail
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
If you enjoy this TV show, you'll enjoy reading this article...Link:Slashdot | The Mythbusters Answer Your Questions
Monday, December 19, 2005
And for those of you wishing to get a copy, here's a pdf rendering of Cris Crawford's old classic....
The Art of Computer Game Design (377K uncompressed file):
Friday, December 16, 2005
Casual game development attracts creative, artistic people. Tools like Unity enable these types of people. It allows them to focus more on their creativity and less on the machine's technicalities. Unity totally excites me, it gives me a sense of freedom and a new view of, and I hate this phrase, the Gaming Industry.
Some may say that the gaming industry is becoming similar to the movie industry, and I agree. Big budgets and marketing made to appeal to the masses. That’s OK... let the gaming industry grow and become movie-like because I think the casual gaming market will split off and evolve into a something different. I'll even be as bold as to say A New Art Form.
I had an interesting thought this morning... as time passes and even better tools (like Unity 2.0 maybe) come along that allow creative people the ability to more easily create computer games, game developers will becoming more like authors and/or painters. For instance, anyone can operate a typewriter, learn to use a word processor, or spread paint with a brush - the difference between 'normal' people and artists is talent.
What do you think?
by Randy Edmonds, Dec.2005
link to Unity
link to Digg
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Symphony OS Beta 1 ... Pretty website.
I last tried Symphony in September, I checked thier website today and it sure looks good. I mean the site graphics and screenshots are very appealing to the eye... kind of like candy.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
How big is portal sales, actually ? - Page 2 - Indiegamer Developer Discussion Boards: "The games that sell very well in 'portals' generate hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue for the people who own the game (the developer or the publisher). Games like Big Kahuna Reef coast well over $100,000 to make (when you pay the salaries of the guys who made it plus other coasts) and it generated a very nice return on investment. I can't get into specifics about how many units sold, or if the developer gets paid $2 per copy or $15 per copy. But in the end, it generates enough royally revenue from the portals to pay many very talented people a very nice salary and help fund the development of the next game.
I am only restating this here because of what some people in this thread say they can't believe. Start believing it is possible. But don’t count on it happening for you.
__________________
James C. Smith – Game Designer/Programmer - Big Kahuna Reef, Ricochet Xtreme (aka Rebound), Ricochet Lost Worlds"
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
"A Plumbing We Go" a classic Three Stooges flick. In one scene Curly tries to fix a water leak by screwing in pipe after pipe until he eventually cages himself. That has always reminded me of computer programming. For this reason, I just created the graphic you see in this post. From now on I'll use it as my icon for code/programming related blog posts.
-Have a day.
I have a deadline at work and I have been spending an ungodly amount of time coding the last couple weeks. Most of that time I have earbuds crammed in my head listening to songs from my iTunes library. Very late nights, after 12 hours of constanting coding, in a coding induced euphoric daze I have basically rediscovered the band Soul Coughing. -they really fit the mood sometimes- I think El Oso is their best album, it isn't available on iTunes ... but here is a good song...
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
X-develop is what I am currently using to write C# code on my iMac. It's the only decent IDE I've found for doing C# on the Mac. Even so, I am pretty happy with it - it does some things (like code completion) better than Visual Studio 2003.
By the way, I am using it to write the C# code while working with Unity... a truly awesome game development tool.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Looking for free music? You can find quite a range of styles and quality at iCompositions. I like the community feel it has and it would be easy to waste (maybe not really waste, but anyway...) quite a few hours just surfing the thousands of homemade songs.
Monday, November 14, 2005
Friday, November 11, 2005
Heuristic
Heuristic is the art and science of discovery and invention. The word comes from the same Greek root as "eureka": εὑρισκω, which means "I find". A heuristic is a way of directing your attention fruitfully. The term was introduced by Pappus of Alexandria in the 4th century.
The mathematician George Polya popularized heuristic in the twentieth century in his book How to Solve It. He learned mathematical proofs as a student, but didn't know how mathematicians think of proofs, nor was this taught. How to Solve It is a collection of ideas about heuristic that he taught to math students: ways of looking at problems and casting about for solutions.
Some commonplace heuristics, all from How to Solve It:
* If you are having difficulty understanding a problem, try drawing a picture.
* If you can't find a solution, try assuming that you have a solution and seeing what you can derive from that ("working backward").
* If the problem is abstract, try examining a concrete example.
* Try solving a more general problem first (the "inventor's paradox": the more ambitious plan may have more chances of success).
In computer science, a heuristic is a technique designed to solve a problem that ignores whether the solution can be proven to be correct, but which usually produces a good solution or solves a simpler problem that contains or intersects with the solution of the more complex problem.
Heuristics are intended to gain computational performance or conceptual simplicity potentially at the cost of accuracy or precision.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Now, I am without doubt a dreamer and I’m always thinking up more stuff than I will ever get done, however creating these little casual games is something I think could really be worth trying. Selling a game at $20 online, would mean we would have to sell 50,000 copies to make a million dollars. Is this unrealistic? I don’t know. How big is the market? About 1.25 billion dollars a year (according the to IGDA Casual Games Whitepaper). That means we would need to capture .08% of the market, less than 1 tenth of 1 percent. Another way of looking at it is like this… One million dollars = 50,000 copies sold, divided by 365 days = 137 copies sold per day. Sounds like a lot, but wait… let’s not limit ourselves to only America, let’s make a Chinese and Japanese version too (“all your bases are belonging to us”). So if we sell the game in these three countries, we only need to sell the game to 45 people per day per country. Dude, we could be millionaires.
Friday, October 28, 2005
This site makes very original and funny videos. They are free to watch, check then out. http://www.prangstgrup.com
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
I discovered this amazing 3D modeling application yesterday! SketchUp. I can't put into words just how exciting this tools is! It is so easy to use and the 3D objects can be exported into Unity. The possiblites for game creation are damn near endless and my dreams are running rampant!
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Web pages that upload files are often frustrating to users because the user receives no feedback on the status of the upload while it progresses. Using Ajax and Ruby on Rails, you can communicate with the server during the upload to retrieve and display the status of the upload.
Monday, October 10, 2005
The Unity game development tool is very impressive. It is unlike anyother tool I have tried for game development. I stress the word tool.
Friday, October 07, 2005
I just subscribed to Textdrive, going to start messing around with Ruby on Rails and centralizing iCal data using WebDav.
Welome
TextDrive is a hosting company run by and for people who love publishing on the web.
Our reasonably priced hosting plans offer space on highly optimized, top-of-the-line servers, and feature what we consider to be the very best tools for working with data, managing email, and serving web pages.
TextDrive is the right choice for those who use and wish to support free, open-source publishing applications such as Textpattern, WordPress, Instiki and frameworks such as Ruby On Rails. We provide excellent support for the open-source scripting languages PHP, Ruby, Perl and Python, and databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite.
We have no photographs of our CEO strutting past server racks, or of women in telephone headsets ready to take your call, but we hope you’ll consider joining us all the same.
This rant from Steve Dupont's web site is seriously funny. Driving. Granted, it's a wide category, especially in terms of ranting. There are a whole bunch of worms I could yank out of this proverbial can, but in the spirit of brevity and discipline I'll limit...
If you get a chance check on his podcast. Weird, crazy, insane humor at it's best.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
My laptop bag is beginning to wear out and I have been looking online for a better replacement. Think I've found what I want. It is made by Crumpler Bags and is called the Horseman (i like the brown one). It will hold tons of stuff. I mean, man it holds so much stuff I would be like a horse if I wore one! Check it out here... crumpler horseman 17" bag
While your at it check out Crumpler's home page. It is, without hesitation, the strangest company home page I have ever seen!
http://www.crumplerbags.com
Also, you could watch this video clip. It is about Crumpler's vendor booth at a MacWorld Conference. http://www.crumplerbags.com/Qmark/index.php?id=99
Ruby on Rails.
http://www.rubyonrails.org/
Pragmatic Programmers love Ruby on Rails. And are helping document it.
http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/rails/index.html
Webhost provider for Ruby (and other open source languages)...
http://textdrive.com/
Download and watch this...
http://rubyonrails.org/media/video/rails_take2_with_sound.mov
Thursday, September 22, 2005
NerdTV is a new weekly online TV show from PBS.org technology columnist Robert X. Cringely. NerdTV is essentially Charlie Rose for geeks - a one-hour interview show with a single guest from the world of technology. Guests like Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy or Apple computer inventor Steve Wozniak are household names if your household is nerdy enough, but as historical figures and geniuses in their own right, they have plenty to say to ALL of us. NerdTV is distributed under a Creative Commons license so viewers can legally share the shows with their friends and even edit their own versions. If not THE future of television, NerdTV represents A future of television for niche audiences that have deep interest in certain topics.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Awesome.
Friday, September 09, 2005
Quote: "Symphony OS is a Desktop computer operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux and Knoppix GNU/Linux. Rather than using the KDE or Gnome Desktop environments as most Linux distributions do, the Symphony OS team has created the revolutionary Mezzo Desktop environment. Symphony provides what we consider to be the easiest to use Linux experience there is."My two cents: I downloaded the ISO, loaded it inside a VMWare session and played around with it for a few minutes. My first reaction is that has potential. Enhance the eye-candy a bit more, smooth out the "alpha" wrinkles and I could see something like this actually competing againest Mac OS X. I will be keeping an eye on the Symphony OS Project.
Friday, September 02, 2005
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
I've been dreaming again. Here is what it was about....
Tivo had an awesome news release today! Apparently they are going to be competing with Apple in the podcasting & music arena. They have some really cools things planned. First they are going to be selling an iPod-like device that will connect to all series 2 Tivos (via the USB port)... they're calling it a tiVod (pronounced T Vod). It comes standard with an 80GB hard drive and automatically syncs all the Tivo contant, much like an iPod syncing with iTunes.
In addition to the tiVod, they are also going to be releasing a subscription based music service that will have both a Tivo and web based interface, so users can listen to music using the Tivo or while online. The music service is actually a rebranded version of Yahoo's MusicMatch. And as if that wasn't enough!.... Tivo also announced a that they will be intergrating a podcasting aggregator into the Tivo menu - this feature will be replacing the 'Tivo Showcases' item on the Tivo Central menu (no love lost there!). But the really cool thing about Tivo's podcasting aggregator is that they are supporting video podcasts! So as time goes by and more video podcasts become available online, the need for real cable TV shrinks. In fact, Tivo is predicting that in as little as 5 years the majority of thier subscribers will be strictly 'broadband-users', meaning that they are getting all content (both audio and video) from the internet.
Monday, August 22, 2005
NOVA Online | Time Travel | Traveling Through Time
Can the flow of time be stopped? Certainly some mystics thought so. Angelus Silesius, a sixth-century philosopher and poet, thought the flow of time could be suspended by mental powers:
Time is of your own making;
its clock ticks in your head.
The moment you stop thought
time too stops dead.
How to spend $4 billion? Google has several ideas - Technology - International Herald Tribune: "Google executives also say they plan to unveil on Wednesday a 'communications tool' that is potentially a clear step beyond the company's search-related business focus."
Friday, August 19, 2005
"Client Side Scripting using ASP.NET " The key functions used to include the client side script are RegisterClientScriptBlock and RegisterStartupScript methods of the Page class.
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
The Wisdom of Crowds: "'No one in this world, so far as I know, has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.'
-H. L. Mencken "
Killer Game Programming in Java: "Killer Game Programming in Java"
Early (sometimes very early) draft versions of the book's chapters can be downloaded from here.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
G3D: G3D Manual: "G3D is a commercial-grade 3D Engine available as Open Source (BSD License). It is used in games, tech demos, research papers, military simulators, and university courses. It provides a set of routines and structures so common that they are needed in almost every graphics program. It makes low-level libraries like OpenGL and sockets easier to use without limiting functionality or performance. G3D gives you a rock-solid, highly optimized base from which to build your application."
Thursday, July 28, 2005
This thing looks awesome. The first device that totally tempts me to switch from iPod/iTunes...
ARCHOS: "Created for modern families, television fans and people on the go, the ARCHOS mobile Digital Video Recorder AV 700 offers direct TV recording and the best of home cinema on the go. Available in 40 or 100GB*. Store up to 400 hours of video1 or 250 movies1."
I really like iTunes, but this is worth a try... because the songs would be compatible with all mp3 players, not just the iPod.
MP3 music download website, eMusic: "With eMusic, you get more for your money. Our subscriptions start at just $9.99 a month for 40 downloads."
Worth looking into ....
"Mophun technology can be used to develop games for a wide range of terminals. It is designed to bridge the gap between traditional console-based and mobile games and the game-centric API and SDK help the developer in speeding up the development process."
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
I think this is a great idea, so cool!! Each key on the Optimus keyboard contains a small OLED display that can dynamically change. The possiblites are endless. I think this type of thing should be intergrated at the OS layer.... the function keys (F1 - F12) would become a thing of the past, instead they would either blank out or display a meanful icon/word based on the application currently active.
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Imagine this... a crossplatform online (java based) version of Office. ThinkFree has actually created it, and it is free! They are offering their online versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint - plus 30MB of online storage (optional use). I signed up and tried it out, it is impressive - give it a try. I would say, that for the normal user, ThinkFree Online would be more than enough. Why buy MS Office?
ThinkFree Office Online
Monday, July 25, 2005
BlitzMax, a cross platform programming language based on BASIC, but with many weird and wonderful additions, is interesting and is worth a look if you are considering writing 2D games for MAC, PC, LINUX.
The Official Blitz Website
Friday, July 22, 2005
Rocketboom: "daily with amanda congdon". I watch this most everyday via my iTunes podcast subscription.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
"DBDesigner 4 is a visual database design system that integrates database design, modeling, creation and maintenance into a single, seamless environment.
It combines professional features and a clear and simple user interface to offer the most efficient way to handle your databases.
DBDesigner 4 compares to products like Oracle's Designer�, IBM's Rational Rose�, Computer Associates's ERwin� and theKompany's DataArchitect� but is an Open Source Project available for Microsoft Windows� 2k/XP and Linux KDE/Gnome. It is release on the GPL."
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
I downloaded the trial version and played around a bit and all in all I was impressed. It is the perfect choice for building a small desktop application. The GUI builder is far better than VB's ever was (lots a cool features), it has a multitude of functions to make child's play of things as like playing MP3 files, making Web Service SOAP calls, working with XML files, working with JPEGs or GIFs. It has a built-in Sprite engine, a built-in 3D engine, and a built-in 2D vector engine. It has code auto-complete (intellisense), is object-oriented, and strongly typed. Plus - it automatically compiles (to native code) all project code and resource files (graphics, audio, xml files, etc.) into a single royalty-free executable... making distribution a total breeze.
REALbasic 2005
Friday, July 08, 2005
"Steve Jobs has a reputation for thinking different. But now he might be planning a move for Apple that will leave even his biggest fans surprised--becoming a phone company. " read more...Forbes.com - Magazine Article:
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
I have recently switched my home computer to an iMac G5. So far I am very happy with it. We have only had it a couple days so I haven't had time to completely set it up. But right out of the box I was extremely impressed with the quality of the machine. It is simply beautiful - it is like the Lexus of computers... very sturdy, sleek, well designed.
One of the first things I did was setup the Fast User Switching. Windows XP has this same feature, but it totally pales in comparison. Mac OS X Tiger let's you setup users and assign them rights (very easily), for instance my son's user account is setup with the "simplified finder" option, which basically limits his access to a menu of applications that I have granted him access to use. This is really great, I don't have to worry about him accidently deleting/moving files on the hard drive or messing with my business/developement applications. The Fast User Switching feature in Mac OS X is, by itself, a good enough reason to use a Mac.
BTW... I got the iMac on ebay (for a real good price). The specs are G5 1.6GHz, 512 MB RAM, 80GB HD, Combo DVD/CD-RW, 17" LCD, Mac OS X 10.4 - TIGER, iLife 05, and nVidia 5200fx 64mb video.
For the record, I am not a fanatic of any OS. Windows or Mac OS X, they both have their own advantages. I still own an HP ZD7000 laptop (Windows XP Pro) which I do all my work on.
One more thing, getting the iMac and playing with with it is fun. I am bored with Windows and the iMac has bought back some of the wonder and excitment that got me hooked on computers in the first place. It reminds me of my early computing days... its like I am 14 years old and just bought my very own Commodore 64.
Apple - iMac G5
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Getting tired of the default desktop backgrounds supplied by your operating system? InterfaceLIFT offers high quality wallpaper from the best photographers and digital artists on the web. InterfaceLIFT: High-Resolution Wallpaper
Friday, July 01, 2005
Antanas Mockus had just resigned from the top job of Colombian National University. A mathematician and philosopher, Mockus looked around for another big challenge and found it: to be in charge of, as he describes it, "a 6.5 million person classroom." One of his innovative ideas was to use mimes to improve both traffic and citizens' behavior. Initially 20 professional mimes shadowed pedestrians who didn't follow crossing rules: A pedestrian running across the road would be tracked by a mime who mocked his every move. Mimes also poked fun at reckless drivers. The program was so popular that another 400 people were trained as mimes.
Mine Control is an artistic endeavor using game development experience to explore the art of interactivity in non-traditional entertainment. Their Shadow Gardens system is very impressive. Check out a few of the videos and take a look at the About Us page, both are very cool.
Also, check out the 2003 Indie Game Jam page. They used the Shadow Garden system to come up with some excellent games.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Recently I have been hearing a lot of talk on a new technology named Ajax. But Ajax isn't really a new technology, rather it is a coming together of a few existing technologies; namely XHTML, CSS, DHTML, DOM, XML, XMLHttpRequest, and Javascript.
Here is a good article I found that will help bring you up-to-speed....
adaptive path � ajax: a new approach to web applications
Friday, June 10, 2005
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Steve Jobs: "We don't have good language to talk about this kind of thing. In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service. The iMac is not just the colour or translucence or the shape of the shell. The essence of the iMac is to be the finest possible consumer computer in which each element plays together. ...." Storm's Nest - Steve Jobs on Design
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
ASP.NET : Learn ASP.NET: "Get 17 hours of hands-on ASP.NET training for Free - a $349 value!
For a limited time only, Microsoft Learning is offering Developing Microsoft� ASP.NET Web Applications Using Visual Studio� .NET, a 17-hour self-paced online training course, for free ($349 value).
Click here to get started and enter promotion code: 8317-MSDN-6595."
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Steve Jobs is the most interesting character of the digital age.
I recommend this book...
Monday, June 06, 2005
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Cross-platform application development does not neccessarily mean Java. This article document explores the Mono Framework and developing a cross-desktop application using Glade, the Gnome libraries, the Db4o embedded database, and the C# language.
read more here...
"Q: I understand you're a big Apple Computer (AAPL ) fan. Is that right?
A: I have a bit of a love-hate thing with them. I've got half a dozen Macs at home. I use one as my DVD player, and I travel with a Mac laptop. I think they do really nice designs.
But trying to deal with the company is so hard. Everything is a secret. They don't tell their partners anything. We've been trying to cooperate with them on Java, but there's not much we can do, since the cult of secrecy makes it impossible for anyone over there to tell us anything. "
read full article here...:
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Life, Physics, Philosophy, and Beer... I really like this story.
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.
He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between golf balls.
He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes."
The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things--your family, your children, your health, your friends, your favorite passions--things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
"The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car.
The sand is everything else--the small stuff.
"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house, and fix the disposal.
"Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented.
The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers."
Monday, April 25, 2005
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
David Micheal and Davis Sickmon talk about making a living as an independent game developer. Can I Make Money as an Indie?
Friday, April 15, 2005
Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Apple Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" Review, I like Thurrot's style of reviewing and this review is exceptional.
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
The Tiger has been unleashed!Monday, April 11, 2005
"How do our assumptions about other people, as constituents of our universe, manifest themselves in the deep operations of the mind? In Chapter 10 of Mind Hacks, you'll explore how your very own operating system, the mind, reacts to other people, from processing faces to how emotion is induced. "
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
OK here it is, I predict Apple will come out with a widescreen version of the iPod to compete with Sony's PSP and Microsoft Portable Media Players, maybe they will name it iPod Wide. It would be nice if they would enhance the menu system to be more graphical (like a Tivo's menu) and allow for video playback in addition to photos. I have "photoshopped" what I expect it may look like. Click the picture to enlarge.
I am very happy with my new iPod Shuffle. The intergration with iTunes is what makes this, seemly featureless, MP3 player top notch. And using it as a thumbdrive to store and transport files in a pinch makes it an even more mobile-must-have. HINT:I recently came up with a neat way to organize files on the Shuffle; using iTunes order the songs on the Shuffle in alphabetically order based on Artist, doing this makes it easier to find a specific song while listening to the iPod Shuffle. For example, want to skip to a Grateful Dead song, simply switch the iPod Shuffle to sequential-play-mode and then hit the skip button until you get to the 'G' section. Another neat thing that an alphabetically ordered play-list will give you is the ability to listen to same artist songs on-demand, for example: while listening in shuffle-mode you hear a group you really like and want to hear another one of their songs, simply switch from shuffle-mode to sequential-mode and then you can skip back or forward to listen to an of that groups songs on your Shuffle.
- Randy Edmonds
"All the best hackers I know are gradually switching to Macs. My friend Robert said his whole research group at MIT recently bought themselves Powerbooks. These guys are not the graphic designers and grandmas who were buying Macs at Apple's low point in the mid 1990s. They're about as hardcore OS hackers as you can get. ... ", from Return of the Mac by Paul Graham
Friday, March 04, 2005
Monday, February 21, 2005
Friday, February 18, 2005
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
I'd like to play around with this.. Creating a Pocket PC Today Screen Plug-in with the .NET Compact Framework
Friday, February 04, 2005
If you are at all intrigued by Apple and their fabulous operating system, you should read What is Mac OS X? . For instance, did you know that Mac OS X is the NEXTStep OS? And if you want to see a great video demo of NEXTStep, here is an old video of Steve Jobs giving it a demo.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
This site
Training: Online Seminars is an great resource, and it's free! This is a good example of why it is good to be a Microsoft developer.
What is Mono? Is it contagious? It could be… Join renowned webcast speaker Joe Hummel for an overview of Mono, the open source .NET platform for Linux. Learn about the capabilities of Mono and its possible uses in your enterprise. This webcast is the first in a two-part series; Part 2 will air on February 8, 2005 Events Home
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Well looks hell just froze over, cause I am going to buy a Mac.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
I am anxiously waiting for Jan 11th 2005 for two reasons. Reason #1, it is my wife's birthday (had to pay dues) and #2, it is first day of the 2005 Apple Expo and Steve Jobs' keynote presentation.
Think Secret has predicted/leaked that Apple will be announcing a new iMac to their product line; a $500 'headless' (no monitor) iMac. I hope this is true. If it is, I'll be getting one to replace the crappy frankenstien-custom-built piece-o-crap that my wife and kids use as our family computer. I have been interested in Mac OSX for about a year now and I would like to buy a Mac, but the costs have held me back (also the fact that I have a perfectly fine 19" monitor). This product, if actually released, will fit my needs perfectly. My fingers are crossed.
Monday, January 03, 2005
Check out this article, it's pretty old but it's really good and helps explain why you still need smart people as programmers ( i.e. when you need to hire a programmer to do mostly VB programming, it's not good enough to hire a VB programmer.)
Joel on Software - The Law of Leaky Abstractions
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
I have been using the free version of PDF995 for quite some time now and I really like it. It is a very easy and free way to get 'Print to PDF' ability on your PC. Simply install the PDF995 Print Driver to your computer and then, from any program, select the PDF995 print driver and print your document as normal. The PDF995 driver then displays a print options window that it very much like a Save window. Once you supply a file name and location the PDF995 print driver saves ("prints") the PDF. The PDF will look just like the printed document, even includes color! Download the free version here .... PFD995
Friday, December 10, 2004
Got a few minutes to waste? Here is a fun place to waste'm...Some Cool QuickTime Movies: "Some Cool (Mostly Apple-Related) Movies"
I got a little Photoshop happy the other day and made this new wallpaper. I call it OS X Bliss.
I see that the iTunes Music Store Now Accepts PayPal. That got to be good for Paypal. I have also noticed that Napster accepts Paypal.
Here is something to look forward to...
War of the Worlds : A Steven Spielberg Film - Teaser Trailer
Interesting fact: the narration in the War of the Worlds trailer is almost word-for-word from the beginning of the book.
From the trailer:
"No one would have believed in the early years of the twenty-first century that our world was being watched be intelligences greater than our own, that as men busied themselves about their various concerns, they observed and studied. With infinite complacency, men went to and fro about the globe, confident of their empire over this world. Yet, across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded our planet with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us."
And from the book:
No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied [...]. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. [...] Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
If anyone out there would like to buy me the Laptrap Grande 17" I would take it :-) Seriously, these bags are very interesting...Shaun Jackson Design - Higher Ground
Friday, December 03, 2004
// A cool Javascript example that fades the background and displays
// a PLEASE WAIT message on a form submission.
// NOTE: Barebones code, not runnable, for example only.
// NOTE: Runs best with IE
<style>
.divModal {
background-color : #ffffff;
filter : alpha(opacity=75);
left : 0px;
position : absolute;
top : 0px;
z-index : 10;
vertical-align: middle;
}
</style>
<script language="JavaScript">
function submitPage()
{
if(document.all){ //MSIE splash screen
if (document.forms){
for (i=0; i<document.forms.length; i++){
for (j=0; j<document.forms[i].elements.length; j++){
if (document.forms[i].elements[j].type.toString(). __
toLowerCase().indexOf("select") != -1) {
document.forms[i].elements[j].disabled=true;
}
}
}
}
modal.style.top = 0 + parseInt(document.body.scrollTop);
modal.style.width = document.body.clientWidth;
modal.style.height = document.body.clientHeight;
modal.style.visibility = 'visible';
splash.style.left=(document.body.clientWidth-splash.offsetWidth)/2;
splash.style.top=(document.body.clientHeight-splash.offsetHeight)
/2 + document.body.scrollTop;
splash.style.visibility = 'visible';
animateDots();
}else{ //NETSCAPE splash screen
document.open('uploadsplash.jsp','uploadsplash',
'height=150,width=300', true);
}
document.uploadwithout.submit();
return true;
}
function animateDots(){
updateDots(1);
setTimeout('updateDots(2)', 500);
setTimeout('updateDots(3)', 1000);
setTimeout('updateDots(4)', 1500);
setTimeout('updateDots(5)', 2000);
setTimeout('updateDots(6)', 2500);
}
function updateDots(inDot){
if(inDot == 1){
dot1.style.color = nextColor(dot1.style.color);
setTimeout('updateDots(1)', 3000);
}else if(inDot == 2){
dot2.style.color = nextColor(dot2.style.color);
setTimeout('updateDots(2)', 3000);
}else if(inDot == 3){
dot3.style.color = nextColor(dot3.style.color);
setTimeout('updateDots(3)', 3000);
}else if(inDot == 4){
dot4.style.color = nextColor(dot4.style.color);
setTimeout('updateDots(4)', 3000);
}else if(inDot == 5){
dot5.style.color = nextColor(dot5.style.color);
setTimeout('updateDots(5)', 3000);
}else if(inDot == 6){
dot6.style.color = nextColor(dot6.style.color);
setTimeout('updateDots(6)', 3000);
}
}
function nextColor(inColor){
if(inColor == "#333333"){
return "#ffffff";
}else if(inColor == "#ffffff"){
return "#cccccc";
}else if(inColor == "#cccccc"){
return "#999999";
}else if(inColor == "#999999"){
return "#666666";
}else if(inColor == "#666666"){
return "#333333";
}
}
</script>
<div id="modal" class="divModal"
style="width:800px;height:600px;text-align:center;visibility:hidden;">
</div>
<div id="splash" class="strong"
style="text-align:center;visibility:hidden;z-index:20;position:absolute;
left:0px;top:0px;border:#777777 double 4px;padding:4px;
filter:alpha(opacity=100);background-" nowrap>
Please wait while we upload your<br>
images to our server <span id="dot1" >•</span>
<span id="dot2" >•</span><span id="dot3" >•</span>
<span id="dot4" >•</span><span id="dot5" >•</span>
<span id="dot6" >•</span>
</div>
<form name="uploadwithout" action="....."
method="POST" enctype="multipart/form-data">
<a href="" class="strong"
onclick="javascript:submitPage(); return false;">upload</a>
</form>
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Taken from a Google Newsgroup
Klaus Hartmann wrote:
>Hi! Hi Klaus :-)
>
>Imagine a scrolling ground, that is moved by 3 pixels per frame. With
>a frame rate of 25 fps, this results in a smooth scrolling (if you use a
>proper timer, like RDTSC or QueryPerformanceCounter). Sadly, on
>some video-cards, this will look, as if the screen flickers (even if you
>use page-flipping).
Reason being you do _not_ draw every frame. Thus, the human brain can be
irritated. For the following example, let me use some different numbers so I
can skip a bit of math :-)
Let's assume you scroll 60 pixels/second, at 30 fps. Your monitor is running
at 60Hz. At frame 0, everything is OK. At frame 1, your picture _should_
have scrolled one pixel, but it has not. At frame 2, the picture is where it
is expected to be. At frame 3, there's again a difference between the
position the brain assumes and the real picture. This leads to some kind of
flickering.
This gets even worse if
a) The refresh rate is not a multiple of your frame rate.
b) Your refreshs are not exactly locked to the display. If the monitor is
running at 60 Hz, and you update at 30 fps, make sure you're always using
either the even or the odd display frames. If you just update every
_average_ 2nd frame, you could end up having up to 3 frames difference
between two updates, and next time no frame.
Example:
Update Monitor Frame
0 0
1
1 2
3
4
2 5
3 6
>With 75 fps I could scroll the ground by 1 pixel per frame, without altering the scrolling speed. If I do so, the flickering disappears.
>But increasing the frame rate to 75 frames per second does not really
>solve all problems:
>- the target-computer might not be able to display 75 frames per second
Determine the display rate if you can, and divide it by 2 or 3 to get a
decent frame rate.
>- the games overall-speed changes, because there's not only the
> scrolling background, but sprites and animations and so on.
Move this to a separate thread.
>So my questions are:
>
>How can I use the maximum possible frame rate, with the rest of the
>game running at constant speed (and not warp-speed on fast computers)?
Synchronize to the monitor frame rate. If this is not possible, make your
updates dependant on elapsed time, use a triple buffer and draw as fast as
you can :-)
>How do I synchronize the graphics with the maximum frame rate
>(i.e. scroll by 1 pixel, instead to 3 pixels). The frame rate depends on
>the target system, which doesn't make things easier.
You can query the frame rate using DX. (Sometimes)
Otherwise, you might try timing how long it takes until you can flip again.
>How to use multithreading to update the next frame in the background,
>before it is displayed? It does not make sense, to *WAIT* for the next
>frame, and then draw and flip. In fact, it must be possible to draw while
>waiting for the next frame. Anything else would be a waste of precious
>time.
Let your update routine update all variables relevant to screen redraw into
two alternating buffers. This way, one is always ready, the other one is
updated. If you want to redraw, lock the 'ready' buffer so it does not get
overwritten. Since it was the last recently updated buffer, its state is as
close to redraw time as possible.
If you use *three* update buffers, you can even avoid blocking the update
routine while a redraw is in process.
(When one buffer is locked for redraw, alternate between the other two
buffers)
>Is it possible to implement frame-drops (for slow computers) in a timing
>environment like this?
If you're using multithreading, the frame rate need not be synchronized to
the update rate in any way.
>Are there any references or source-snippets on the Internet? I was looking
>for some information myself, but... no success.
Not that I knew of... If you get any references via e-mail, please post them
here. I'd be interested in it too :-)
Bye,
Robert
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Here's a good thing to remember... how to disable ASP.NET clientside validation.
<script>
function DisableValidation()
{
for (i=0; i<Page_Validators.length; i++)
{ ValidatorEnable(Page_Validators[i],false); }
return true;
}
</script>
Sunday, October 24, 2004
I created this wallpaper for my laptop using photoshop. I like it and thought others might as well, so check it out and use it if you want to! It's a play on Apple's 'Think Different' campaign. I really like the brushed metal effect... and it is very easy to do in photoshop. Here is a link that show you how to do it... brushed metal
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Here is a cool little program that can do some pretty cool stuff with your collection of digital photos...AndreaMosaic and here is a link reviewing the program... How-To: Make your own photo mosaics
AT&T Labs has a cool text-to-speech demo at http://www.research.att.com/projects/tts/demo.html I have been using this site to make custom .wav files to use as Windows system sounds.
Here is an interesting blog I just stumbled upon and will probably check out occasionally...Paul Thurrott's Internet Nexus
-Randy
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Thinking about creating a custom collection object ( a class that implements ICollection, IList, etc.) with pulic properties? Think again. The collection object's properties will not serialize, only the items in the collection will serialize. I learned this one the hard way!! Here is a google groups article I found that sort of explains it.... Google Groups: View Thread "XmlSerializer and Custom Collections"
- Randy
I use, and love, Picasa. It is often compared to Apple's iPhoto and is one of the best pieces of software I have every used on Windows. The user interface is extremely rich and a pleasure to use. Google just bought Picasa and thus is now FREE!... your can't beat that.
By the way,I use Picasa'a HELLO service to post pictures and related captions (like this post) into this blog.
Slashdot is a great site! I look at it everyday.
Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters -Randy
I found a site that explains how to remove the banner ad in MSN Messenger ...Remove MSN Messenger Ads
Yesterday Microsoft introduced the newest version of Media Center. It looks very cool and I will be upgrading as soon as possible! So far, this is the best site I could find supplying a detailed review.... Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Review
Here's a link I found useful, explains the various ways of impleamenting a singleton pattern using C#. Implementing the Singleton Pattern in C#. I recommend the fourth version, I have used it successfully in an enterprise level .NET application. -Randy
