June 28, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
Embedding non-image data inside an image isn't a new trick, but some reddit commenters are finding that data for a Spore creature is uniquely embedded in the .PNG file that can be downloaded from the creature's Sporepedia entry.
While some commenters originally discovere…
Embedding non-image data inside an image isn't a new trick, but some reddit commenters are finding that data for a Spore creature is uniquely embedded in the .PNG file that can be downloaded from the creature's Sporepedia entry.
While some commenters originally discovere…
June 25, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
I've been focused on a lot of tool development lately, and in my quest to design the best possible tools my mind has wandered into the concept of abstraction and how it is everywhere in software.
In the world of languages, low-level assembly was developed to abstract out…
I've been focused on a lot of tool development lately, and in my quest to design the best possible tools my mind has wandered into the concept of abstraction and how it is everywhere in software.
In the world of languages, low-level assembly was developed to abstract out…
June 21, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
It seems that one of the least discussed factors affecting software development productivity is the software build time (or compile time). Perhaps that's because so much of software has gone the way of the web that build time is less of a concern for most of the industr…
It seems that one of the least discussed factors affecting software development productivity is the software build time (or compile time). Perhaps that's because so much of software has gone the way of the web that build time is less of a concern for most of the industr…
June 17, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
The trip was good, relaxing, and I hardly thought of events back home. I went back to work today with a fresh perspective and readiness I haven't had in a while.
I read two books and got about halfway through on a third. One of the books I read was The Myths of Innovatio…
The trip was good, relaxing, and I hardly thought of events back home. I went back to work today with a fresh perspective and readiness I haven't had in a while.
I read two books and got about halfway through on a third. One of the books I read was The Myths of Innovatio…
June 10, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
I'm headed to Mexico for a fishing trip vacation this week and won't be back until early next week. It's a much-needed break, as I've taken little time off over the last year. It's also good timing, since we're about to hit the final 5-month stretch of development of my…
I'm headed to Mexico for a fishing trip vacation this week and won't be back until early next week. It's a much-needed break, as I've taken little time off over the last year. It's also good timing, since we're about to hit the final 5-month stretch of development of my…
June 08, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
This is too cool. I just came across Livescribe, a new platform with a pen that knows what you wrote and records audio at the time you wrote it.
Take notes in class and can't read your handwriting? Livescribe can play back the audio at the precise time of your messy hand…
This is too cool. I just came across Livescribe, a new platform with a pen that knows what you wrote and records audio at the time you wrote it.
Take notes in class and can't read your handwriting? Livescribe can play back the audio at the precise time of your messy hand…
June 06, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
Not to get the "details" train started, but I had to laugh when I came across this post at the Business of Software Blog. Bottom line:
Not to get the "details" train started, but I had to laugh when I came across this post at the Business of Software Blog. Bottom line:
"Grand visions are great, but easy. It's the details that count, and they're hard."
June 04, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
I search for inspiration in all areas of life, and politics is no exception. Regardless of your political leaning, Barack Obama's Democratic nomination clinch is an historic event, particularly since he went against the political juggernaut Hillary Clinton.
What's inspir…
I search for inspiration in all areas of life, and politics is no exception. Regardless of your political leaning, Barack Obama's Democratic nomination clinch is an historic event, particularly since he went against the political juggernaut Hillary Clinton.
What's inspir…
May 30, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
Bob Walsh posted some great advice on his 47 Hats blog from guest writer Starr Horne about 5 time-sucks that will add 3 months to your launch date. I don't want to steal the thunder from 47 Hats, so go there if you want more detail, but here's the five points with my ow…
Bob Walsh posted some great advice on his 47 Hats blog from guest writer Starr Horne about 5 time-sucks that will add 3 months to your launch date. I don't want to steal the thunder from 47 Hats, so go there if you want more detail, but here's the five points with my ow…
May 29, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
I've been out of town the last few days at a Product Steering Committee event held by Presagis for the simulation industry. The event was under NDA, so I can't talk about it, but it was a good experience and I thank Presagis for inviting me out to talk about their produ…
I've been out of town the last few days at a Product Steering Committee event held by Presagis for the simulation industry. The event was under NDA, so I can't talk about it, but it was a good experience and I thank Presagis for inviting me out to talk about their produ…
May 25, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
I recently posted a survey of opinions on the Torque Game Engine Advanced, but that didn't yield me a lot of responses so I decided to download the latest version and take a look. I'm doing this out of interest for a side project.
I finally realized why I, and perhaps ma…
I recently posted a survey of opinions on the Torque Game Engine Advanced, but that didn't yield me a lot of responses so I decided to download the latest version and take a look. I'm doing this out of interest for a side project.
I finally realized why I, and perhaps ma…
May 21, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
Nintendo's latest New ThingTM, the Wii Fit, came out today, and for once in my life I managed to actually get something the day it came out. I played with it and got a small workout after I got home, and my impression is that it's a fun, innovative technology that provi…
Nintendo's latest New ThingTM, the Wii Fit, came out today, and for once in my life I managed to actually get something the day it came out. I played with it and got a small workout after I got home, and my impression is that it's a fun, innovative technology that provi…
May 19, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
Garage Games recently released v1.7 of their Torque Game Engine Advanced. From what I've read they've made a lot of improvements. Anyone have any experience with TGEA and willing to share their opinion?
I've actually had a license for a few years now (since the early ado…
Garage Games recently released v1.7 of their Torque Game Engine Advanced. From what I've read they've made a lot of improvements. Anyone have any experience with TGEA and willing to share their opinion?
I've actually had a license for a few years now (since the early ado…
May 18, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
Socrates is attributed with saying:
Socrates is attributed with saying:
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is a habit."If you ever have a desire to be great at anything then you must strive for excellence in every aspect and every detail. This is another way of saying "nail the details". They…
May 14, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
This is going to be a short post, mainly because I'm having a very busy week in preparation for a weekend out of town, but I'm a little bothered by a recent blog post from a popular software development blogger that pretty much berates the eXtensible Markup Language, ak…
This is going to be a short post, mainly because I'm having a very busy week in preparation for a weekend out of town, but I'm a little bothered by a recent blog post from a popular software development blogger that pretty much berates the eXtensible Markup Language, ak…
May 12, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
Here's a forgotten fact: this month marks the 20th anniversary debut of Barry Boehm's spiral process model.
While that seems like a lifetime ago in the software world, the concepts of the spiral development process are rooted in today's most popular software process meth…
Here's a forgotten fact: this month marks the 20th anniversary debut of Barry Boehm's spiral process model.
While that seems like a lifetime ago in the software world, the concepts of the spiral development process are rooted in today's most popular software process meth…
May 10, 2008
Cross-posted at Simbryo.
Back to making some progress on the scene editor tool, I've quickly added some actor picking code. It's nothing fancy - click on the actor and it shows a bounding box; click elsewhere when the actor is selected, and the actor is deselected and the bounding box goes away.
It's…
Back to making some progress on the scene editor tool, I've quickly added some actor picking code. It's nothing fancy - click on the actor and it shows a bounding box; click elsewhere when the actor is selected, and the actor is deselected and the bounding box goes away.
It's…
May 08, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
An engineer wrote some code today that at first glance confused me. I read code like I read the English language, which is to say I read patterns of code and recognize algorithms to piece together program flow, and in this particular case I didn't recognize the pattern.…
An engineer wrote some code today that at first glance confused me. I read code like I read the English language, which is to say I read patterns of code and recognize algorithms to piece together program flow, and in this particular case I didn't recognize the pattern.…
May 07, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
I was sent this article on MSNBC about Toyota and its innovation-centric practices. It reminded me of a manifesto I read on ChangeThis (excellent site by the way), and of course that motivated me to write up a quick thought on innovation..
Innovative thinking in the corp…
I was sent this article on MSNBC about Toyota and its innovation-centric practices. It reminded me of a manifesto I read on ChangeThis (excellent site by the way), and of course that motivated me to write up a quick thought on innovation..
Innovative thinking in the corp…
May 05, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
I was blog browsing a while back on the 47 Hats blog and found an interesting blog entry that speaks to a question I often see online from small developers: what's a good process for me?
The entry, "Process and the microISV", highlights four practices that help with sma…
I was blog browsing a while back on the 47 Hats blog and found an interesting blog entry that speaks to a question I often see online from small developers: what's a good process for me?
The entry, "Process and the microISV", highlights four practices that help with sma…
May 04, 2008
Cross-posted at Code.Implant.
I finished reading Dreaming in Code today. It's a decent book, although it's definitely geared toward the non-programmer. Even then, I did pick up the occasional good quote or reference while reading, and on occasion it was a useful exercise to relate their software dev…
I finished reading Dreaming in Code today. It's a decent book, although it's definitely geared toward the non-programmer. Even then, I did pick up the occasional good quote or reference while reading, and on occasion it was a useful exercise to relate their software dev…
May 04, 2008
Cross-posted at Simbryo.
I decided to go ahead and throw my cheating detail texture in the shader just to see how it looks. Not bad. It gives me more ideas for the future, but I think the terrain is starting to look sufficiently "good enough" to move on to the more important tasks. Here's a new scre…
I decided to go ahead and throw my cheating detail texture in the shader just to see how it looks. Not bad. It gives me more ideas for the future, but I think the terrain is starting to look sufficiently "good enough" to move on to the more important tasks. Here's a new scre…
May 03, 2008
Cross-posted at Simbryo.
I decided to take a break from the scene editor for a day and do something "fun", so I focused on improving the visual quality of the terrain. I added texture splatting and started to add a detail texture, but I may hold off on that since it will be more involved than I want…
I decided to take a break from the scene editor for a day and do something "fun", so I focused on improving the visual quality of the terrain. I added texture splatting and started to add a detail texture, but I may hold off on that since it will be more involved than I want…
April 30, 2008
Cross posted at Code.Implant.
One of the more junior engineers on my project told me today that he made a "mistake" with the task he's working on: he tried to reuse code without understanding what the code did in the first place so he could go about properly reusing it.
The code in question isn't a p…
One of the more junior engineers on my project told me today that he made a "mistake" with the task he's working on: he tried to reuse code without understanding what the code did in the first place so he could go about properly reusing it.
The code in question isn't a p…
April 30, 2008
Cross posted at Simbryo.
The scene editor now has enough functionality to add actors to the scene. The nice thing about completing this feature is that it involves using each of the features I've worked on over the last week or so, including the scene browser, the prefab window, and the camera movem…
The scene editor now has enough functionality to add actors to the scene. The nice thing about completing this feature is that it involves using each of the features I've worked on over the last week or so, including the scene browser, the prefab window, and the camera movem…
April 30, 2008
Cross posted at Simbryo.
Chalk up another task. The camera movement code is functional in the 3D window. There's one thing that's not quite working, but I'm pretty worn out and need to take a break so I'll come back to it later. Otherwise, camera translation and rotation work great with the keyboard…
Chalk up another task. The camera movement code is functional in the 3D window. There's one thing that's not quite working, but I'm pretty worn out and need to take a break so I'll come back to it later. Otherwise, camera translation and rotation work great with the keyboard…
April 29, 2008
Cross posted at Code.Implant.
I'm still reading through the book Dreaming in Code. It's taking longer than I had hoped, but sometimes it's been a difficult read for me - not because it's a bad book or bad writing, but because sometimes the author is describing something about software development of…
I'm still reading through the book Dreaming in Code. It's taking longer than I had hoped, but sometimes it's been a difficult read for me - not because it's a bad book or bad writing, but because sometimes the author is describing something about software development of…
April 28, 2008
Enough of the scene browser is complete that it now shows the actor hierarchy in the scene. It doesn't do much else, but as I add more functionality to the scene editor I will be able to flesh out more of the scene browser's functionality.
My development approach to this engine and toolset has been …
My development approach to this engine and toolset has been …
April 28, 2008
Unfuddle. How cool is that? You get SVN source control, bug tracking, schedules, and pretty much anything else you might need for small software team development - for FREE. Of course they have plans that have more features for real money too.
Cool. I may give it a try if my SVN storage requirements…
Cool. I may give it a try if my SVN storage requirements…
April 27, 2008
Neil Davidson of the Business of Software Blog posted an item the other day drawing parallels between software and writing tips from famous authors.
For instance, Hemingway once wrote that "The first draft of anything is shit." The analogy to software is that the first time you write code is certain…
For instance, Hemingway once wrote that "The first draft of anything is shit." The analogy to software is that the first time you write code is certain…
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