Nov 15, 2005

Blogging in Windows

I agree with a bunch of stuff that Robert McLaws says about Microsoft being a dinosaur, however I think that the various people blogging in Windows would disagree that Windows doesn't blog. We've released multiple CTPs of WinFX and Vista over the past year, and more to come (soon!). Windows is a big organization, very big (8,000 - 14,000 depending on how you count it!)... Of course I and some other folks think it should be smaller, but that rant can be another post.

Developer Division (which produce Visual Studio) is a much smaller organization, and has been leading in transparency. I've worked in DevDiv for many years, and now in Windows for several years, and the two groups definetly have different cultures. I'm happy to see the Windows group learning from DevDiv's experiments. I'm thrilled that CTPs are becoming a more common thing, that people are blogging more, and that community is becoming something that everyone thinks about.

I agree, we have a long way to go, I'm just not sure I understand your point in your post... Should we post internal milestone planning? Is it that you want to see our VP's blogging about our next release?

Nov 06, 2005

Still thinking about boats

I still don't have one yet, but I'm getting closer to pulling the trigger and getting one. A blog is an interesting thing, because it serves as a history of what you said when... for example, I have a good recollection now of exactly the last time I posted about boats.

My criteria for a boat have changed since then, but one thing remains - I don't know how to close on the purchase. I can't find any good source of unbiased data on quality, performance, and features of boats. Almost every boat review I read says "this boat is great, you should buy it!".

The top boats on my list right now; SeaRay Sundancer 260, Four Winns 258, and Maxum 2600 SE... or the 24' version of each. I'm concerned that the SeaRay is overpriced for a perception of quality, or that the Maxim is too low of quality?

My goals for the boat is to big enough to "camp" on with Megan and up to two kids, or potentially another couple. It should be trailerable, however we will moor it on Lake Washington, so it doesn't need to be super trailerable. It should be able to take 8 people out for a day cruise comfortably. It doesn't need to be great at water skiing or wakeboarding, however tubing should be doable. Swimming is a must.

There are a bunch of other brands that I need to investigate, Cobalt (however their boats seem to be small for a given length), Regal, Chaparral, and Crowline. Any others I should look at?

The big question I want to figure out - how do you judge quality? I hear lots of "Bayliners suck so don't buy a Maxum" type comments... but I wonder if that is like people complaining about a Ford or Chevy. Is there really a substantial build quality difference between a Maxum vs. Four Winns vs. SeaRay? obviously the resale value of a SeaRay is better than Maxum, but is that a good indication of quality? (i think so)

PSP and video

I decided i'm going to get my PSP up and running with video. I ordered a 1GB stick of memory, which should be here in a week or so. Now I need to figure out the software.

My understanding is that there are two main components I need; first, the DVD -> MPEG ripper. Second, the MPEG -> PSP Video converter.

ImTOO offers a suite for this.

There is PQ DVD.

PSP Video 9, which appears to only do the MPEG -> PSP portion.

Chris Prillo just reviewed the PSP Media Manager from Sony (again, for the MPEG -> PSP part)

And then there is the Xilisoft DVD to PSP suite.

What to do? I'm guessing that there will be a bit of a workflow problem here - i really want to be able to rip a couple movies right before I go on a vacation or something, so having something that is easy to operate, potentially supports batching or offline (maybe that can sync to the PSP instead of requiring explicit action?).

Hmm... i'll have to think about this more...

Nov 02, 2005

End of The Month of the Book

Well, it's over... but it's not. I got through a lot of good work during October. I really feel I turned a corner where I began to focus on writing, instead of on the technology. I have until the end of December, and I'm still behind. The book focus is going to continue. Over the past couple days I've let it slip a little, but I need to get back into it.

Oct 28, 2005

Writing is hard...

... editing is ridiculously hard.

I got my second round feedback on the Applications chapter from Michael... over 150 comments in this round. They are all good comments that are making the book much better, but damn! Apparently I've got a lot of "opportunity" to improve my writing. ;-)

Oct 27, 2005

3D Framework

Daniel Lehenbauer has the beginings of a 3D Framework over at his blog. I chatted with him yesterday, and I plan on taking a version of this and integrating it into my book. The idea of a full suite of 3D primitives was something that I've always wanted, but didn't make the cut for V1... it will be great to be able to at least deliver this in sample form in the book.

4 days left in The Month of the Book

This week I took Wednesday as a vacation day to work on the book. Tomorrow I had planned on taking a half day (going up to the mountains with Megan for a weekend getaway), but now I'm going to take a full day vacation and spend the first half writing. Oh, and I'm planning on writing all weekend up at the lodge.

I just finished the first draft of the Visuals chapter - 66 pages. It was fairly brutal, our platform is absolutely huge. I'm not happy at the overall quality of the chapter, but I've at least gotten through all the content. Media, 3D, 2D, Text, and Animation - all covered with some level of depth. Media and 3D probably needs the most help, but I'll get back to them to clean them up before submitting.

Next up is to integrate the second round of feedback on the Applications chapter. Mike has said he should be able to get a first round of feedback done on the Controls chapter over the weekend, so next week will be a big week. Hopefully Monday I'll submit the Layout chapter also.

Writing is hard work.

Oct 23, 2005

8 days left in "The Month of the Book"

This has been a good week for progress on the book. Chapter 4 - Layout is basically in the can (although not submitted yet for various reasons), and I'm making big progress on "The Big One". Chapter 5 is slated to be "Visuals", which means one chapter to cover 2D, 3D, Text, Animation, and Media. I budgeted almost 100 pages for this one chapter, and it's hard to get through.

Its a good reminder that our platform is really big. Not only is it really big, but it also builds on itself. No sooner have I spent 20 pages pages talking about 2D drawing, then I hit 3D where you can take anything from 2D and project it onto 3D. Of course, everything in the whole system can be animated, etc.

All the drawings in the book are being authored in Avalon. I decided that there isn't a platform out there that can capture Avalon bettern than Avalon. I've ended up having to write some new controls (a "SmartShape" library that clones some PowerPoint/Visio features for diagraming), but overall it hasn't been too much work. The workflow is a bit painful - I end up writing the XAML in AvPad, then doing a screenshot. I really need to write a XAML -> TIF program, so that I can skip the screenshot step.

My new favorite feature in the platform - scRGB. I love the extra color and everything, but I really dig the text format in markup. For some reason I find it really easy to write: "sc# .8,1,0,0" for 80% opaque red, instead of "#CCFF0000". I know I should be geeky enough to think natively in hex, but the decimal representation to be really easy to grok.

I also stumbled across an ole post from Joe Beda about scRGB, which I liked so much I asked for permission to include chunks of his post in the book (I'm not sure how much it takes for "plagerism", but since I want to take the *idea* of comparing scRGB to Unicode, I figure it was polite to ask). Joe already said "yes" - thanks Joe!

I've got about 40 more pages to go on the Visuals chapter, if I can push through it this week, then I think I'm golden on schedule.

50mm gone... only the 28-200 left

Yep, 50mm went... the Quantaray 28-200 remains, but for how long?

Wow, apparently the price was too low...

... or just right. Camera body sold.

eBay rocks... one down, three to go

The Battery Grip already sold... eBay is pretty cool with how fast you can sell this stuff. Anyone want to pickup the others before they go?

For Sale: Canon EOS D30

I upgraded my D30 to a new Rebel XT, so now I'm selling my old equipement.

Mike Harsh may not be updating his blog, but he is helping sell my stuff!

Mike posted this stuff on eBay: D30 Body, Battery Grip, 50mm F/1.8 Lens, and a 28-200mm F3.8-5.6 Lens. It's all in great shape and has served me very well. If you know someone that's looking to get into a digital SLR, this might be a good way to get in cheap.

Oct 20, 2005

Chatper 3 - Controls

Finished another chapter this morning. The Controls chapter is in the can now. Controls and Applications where both pretty much written, so now I'm getting out of the "port & polish", and into the "generate content" phase. Much slower.