WPF etc

Well for the last few months I've been focusing on WPF (windows presentation foundation). Basically Vista promise for improved user experience that was not realized in Vista. Whats funny is its there but just the foundation (no pun implied). After reading and putting a few joke applications together in my spare time I've become a firm believer in this technology. Microsoft has taken the really good things about HTML/CSS/DOM/AJAX reworked them into an incpmatible format called XAML that has the features of all 3 but a much better integration and operations expecially when creating RIA (Rich Internet Applications).

I'm not going into all the wonderful things on thh internet but try this link for pointers to all the articles I think are worthwhile .

I got interested in the 3D part of WPF just because it is sexy. I don't believe that it will have the same level of application as the 2D stuff but it is fun. 3D modeling is a lot of fun but difficult to learn, any 3D application such as 3DMAX, Maya or Lightwave can be a very challenging thing to learn, but I've found a wonderful set of learning tools from Tuffs University. I happly working through the lessons I'm on lesson 4 succesful created the lab lessons. The wonderful thing about all of this is it's free. Blender is free. The University course is free and you don't need a very powerful computer to get Blender working.

So if you want to learn 3D modeling give it a try.

Suppose They Gave a War & Nobody Came

This about the new media format Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD not the Iraq situation where everybody is about to join in. They are about to finally release products in the next few months. But there is a dirty little secret that few realise and that is that some of those movies being release are just on plan old DVD's but formated to use MPEG4 with the new disc layout to provide the higher quality picture. Given the complexity of getting the new technologies to even deliver a HD picture given all the layers of copy protection and the expense of the new hardware. I thin many people will be using DVD players with the new HD simulated output for a long time and only the few will bother with the expense of the new technolgies.

I do think a few blu-ray disc will be sold but because the PlayStation 3 will be in so many homes that people will by the discs just to see but they will buy the game hardware first and the blu-ray second.

I saw a really wonderful play last weekend. It was amazing that such a deep and complex work was written in the 1920's. THe work marries the characters complex attributes to what is the final translation that you see from the actors on the stage. If you live in Evansville and have next weekend free I highly recommend you by a ticket. The student actors really give it their all in such a way that makes many professional production seem weak.
Six Characters in Search of an Author
by Luigi Pirandello
Translated by Carl R. Mueller
The most remarkable attribute of Pirandello's art as a playwright is his magical power to turn psychological analysis into amazing theatre. The sweeping gesture of six characters storming into a rehearsal and interrupting an already chaotic creative atmosphere serves as a bold opening to this striking allegorical work. This Puliter Prize-Winning author playfully investigates the paradoxical nature of human beings struggling to balance their desire for immortality against a yearning to truly live in the present. Heralded around the world as a masterfully written piece of theatrical genius, Six Characters in Search of an Author provides an entertaining reflection of our absurdly complex lives.
February 17-18, 23-25 @ 8PM
February 19, 26 @ 2PM

Squeak

No its not a mouse squeaking its a new computer language for Kids nad a very powerful one. Last weekend my son went to the University of Evansville for the Cub Scouts Engineering pin. Part of that Pin relates to computer engineering and they built a squeak porgram. It was amazing, it reminded me of Logo but after digging a little deeper I realized that this was a user friendly smalltalk engine. If you have a kid and wnat to start them on programming computers i highly recommend squeak at squeak.org or squeakland.org