noise

Sky and Free's awesome XNA game - YouTube video

Robin Debreuil — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:31:00 GMT

Sometimes people ask me if I helped - I didn't, and quite honestly I couldn't do a lot of that shader madness even if they wanted help : ). My Grandma bought me my first computer (a Vic-20) when I was exactly 15, so I guess they have a head start. Still...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTj-Q5i9yuM

Japan, Petzold, and Triangles

Robin Debreuil — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:12:00 GMT

It has been a busy summer! We were in Japan for August (and man was that nice or what!), then we spent most of September moving and settling in to the new farm (and man is this nice or what!). That being that, it has been a bad summer for blogging, I have a number of posts I hope to make in the next little while. Hopefully it will be like when Mitch Hedberg pinches the microphone cord -- he lets go and a whole bunch of jokes come out...

I've been reading a great book by Charles Petzold:

3D Programming for Windows: Three-Dimensional Graphics Programming for the Windows Presentation Foundation

I'll post a fuller review once I'm fully through it, but the great thing about all his xaml books is he starts using code and builds from there to markup. Imo Xaml is 99% useless, but at its heart it is at least the new GDI. If you know your way around it in code, you can either ignore the markup, or use it and not be pissed off every time you 'compile'. So this is what makes his Xaml book not just good, but actually essential.

The man has a friggin Windows tattoo. That was a shock. And still a great book.

But first up, in Japan I was working on and off on triangulation to display vectors in directX. It was intensely hot. The long and short of it is A) Converting that stuff efficiently is fairly tedious, but interesting (is that even possible, to be both?), and B) there are a lot of triangles in a typical Flash vector drawing. Like 4 tons of triangles per square inch. I don't think it will even work for the default approach, where curves are 'curve fitted' using lots of little triangles. ZMan was kind enough to send me a link to a very interesting approach from MS Research I've done a few tests, tried a few ideas that didn't work, and this seems like the best approach I've seen so far.

Also while in Japan, I found a body... I guess not everyone is happy. I'm not sure why that is so surprising, but there it is. I'm really sorry that is true.

Here is the code. The code really looks like it bubbled up during a one month on and off sloppy experimentation extravaganza in 40 degree humidity. In fact it is. Worse, it isn't even finished. But it really is almost finished (just need one more segment add routine, but I'm all busy doing swf action code stuff. Oh and need to clean up, aka start over -- but it is the thought that counts right?). That being said, here it is:

Le Code

Zoom in and out with the A-Z keys, arrows for direction. To get the other xaml files to run (in Game1.cs), you have to disable hull removal (the part that isn't finished). That is the RemoveToSegment method, on line 243 of Delauany.cs. I'll try to finish it up, and convert it to something useable, and post again. Did I mention it is messy?

Btw, if you are interested in this stuff, there is but one starting point on the web, and that is this page: Jonathan Shewchuk is the guy

Ok, who can resist a screen shot? The mighty letter R.

Ok, what were you expecting then?

Bought a farm...

Robin Debreuil — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 01:02:00 GMT

We finally found the farm we have always been looking for, and signed the deal today. It is a small acreage of mostly popular and saskatoons (berries). There is about 10 acres of cultivated land, 40 acres of trees, and 5 acres of yard. Lots of deer and wild turkeys, a number of out buildings, and a great garden. Well what can I say, we are all really happy : ).

There are some pictures below, and a google maps view as well. If you are in the area after September, please drop in : ).

The new farm

SWF to XAML Conversion Tool Now Available!

Robin Debreuil — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:23:00 GMT

After considerable fits and starts, we are happy to announce the shipping of our SWF to XAML conversion tool. It converts SWF graphics and animation into pure (codeless) XAML that you can use for your Vista and eventually Silverlight projects. In recognition that the SWF vs XAML debate usually has religious overtones, we've went with a faith based theme. It has a very unusual UI, but works from the very normal command line as well.

TheConverted

There is currently no demo version, however if you would like to see how well your animation will convert, just send it along and we'll be happy to send the converted XAML back with any notes.

Well not much else to say - there are more details on the site, as well as samples of SWF and Xaml side by side. They look so cute together.

Btw, if you are interested in using the SWF IP you created in video games, we are getting close to an initial release of a SWF to XNA converter as well. XNA allows you to build video games that play on both Windows and the XBox 360. It is very cool, but is just begging for some good old Flash animation in there : ).

Best music video ever according to me.

Robin Debreuil — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 04:16:00 GMT

For those of you who don't know the difference between French and French Canadien (and there are lots of you), this explains everything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgYJwzxRgmI

ps. Dale Hawerchuck played for the Winnipeg Jets in the 80's.

pps. That is hockey in case you are from Uranus.

Google plus Apple?

Robin Debreuil — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 19:35:00 GMT

I've often thought google and apple would make a good fit, esp now as vista is starting to roll out. The OS could open up a bit to present a reasonable option, google could enhance the IPod area (apples current cash cow, which earns much more than the computer division). I think the youtube/ipod/search combo could grow into a media powerhouse. Apple is bsd based which is also a fit, and now intel as well, which makes opening the OS much more feasible. Also the market cap would ballpark MS at that point (MSFT 286.26B, GOOG 147.20B, AAPL 78.00B).

The big thing though is without that MS can just pick them off slowly (or try to anyway) with unchallanged cash reserves. MS makes most of its money on OS and office, so a google/apple OS that comes with openOffice for very cheap could really hit them where it hurts. Also I think it could really redefine the whole desktop commputer experience, something long overdue frankly.

PS I'm no mac flag waver, I have one but have been very windows oriented since commodore : ). Just would be nice to see competition there for once...

Or are there reasons this wouldn't work (I'm no financial analyst of course).

scriptdoc format

Robin Debreuil — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 17:37:00 GMT

We are fleshing out a javascript documentation format that allows not just good doc generation, but good tooling as well (in the Aptanat IDE or otherwhere). Of course due to the variety of uses and styles, the dynamic nature, and even the many flavours of JS out there, this does require a lot of heads to hammer out a spec that works.

Like the IDE itself, this process is very much community driven. Please check it out (scriptdoc.org) if you get a chance, and see if it would fit your needs. And of course there is a fourm there where you can join in the process by simply joining : ).

Hope to see you there!

aptana dugg

Robin Debreuil — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 13:42:00 GMT

I hadn't heard of digg.com until it knocked out the Aptana servers for a few minutes this morning with this link . It looks pretty cool, kind of like stumble upon with more humans. Yes, if I'm not going to get out more often, I should at least look up once in a while.

(btw, I work at aptana, and was the only one who didn't know digg from dag)

Summeroli's blog

Robin Debreuil — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 23:13:00 GMT

Summer's Blog

Still trying to think of a good name for this one : )

There's Gold in That Thar Pee

Robin Debreuil — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 03:14:00 GMT

In the spirit of sharing, here is an invention you can feel free to just go with and make your first million. Please send me a postcard when you are done.

I've always thought of a trip to the urinal is a good time to clear your head (well, apparently I was doing it wrong, no matter). On occasion however, there are situations I encounter that even complete mastery of the urinal game haven't prepared me for. The occasion a few days back was immediately following an tall gentleman with a very strongly scented pee (still in the process of flushing down, which adds to the updraft). Whao. Naturally this can bring out the doctor in pretty well anyone, and I spend about half my own urination diagnosing the terrible infliction that this poor man must be suffering from. I worried for him, knowing that most people's olfactory glands are not high up enough in their chain of command to book a doctors appointment. And then it struck me.

What if you had a small device in every urinal/toilet that could do a quick analysis of your urine as you pee'd, giving you the result on a little card once you were finished. It could even give advice: "Drink two more cups of water" --- "No more sugar for the rest of the day" --- "You have cancer, see a doctor immediately". Kind of a cross between a fortune cookie and a Doctorate of Nephrology. Admittedly most people do not want to find out they have cancer from a urinal, but early detection is key here.

So I walked back to the office contemplating the perfection of this -- increase personal wealth by exploiting people's deepest fears, while cynically pretending to help them. Ahh. Kind of the way most of our charity goes to the "what-will-we-possibly-do-with-all-this-money" medical industry, but without all the research expense. But alas, a short trip to google would soon prove that in spite of the years spent nurturing my cynicism, I'm still a rank amateur. Just to get some ballpark of how fast/expensive/comprehensive a urine test could be, I typed in "urine sample test price". The first hit was, and I shit you not here, Affordable Urine Samples. My God, a company that will sell you 'clean' urine samples, cheap, allowing you to pass a drug test or splash it on yourself and get a stiffy. This beat out the billions of dollars of medical research that has taken place over the last hundred plus years, the stuff that could have saved your life if not for buddy's page rank. The samples even come with a free "substitution kit". Look at that guy on there, he wears a suit and sells piss. How can mere mortals compete?

It did get me to thinking though, forget the medical angle. The toilets could administer drug testing for pretty much any corporation large enough to have separate restrooms for the board. And even better, you could collect all the clean samples people submit and resell them to the Sneetches without stars on their bellies. The beauty there is you potentially wouldn't even have to transport the stuff -- just store clean samples onsite in old Dr. Pepper cans, then sell it secretly through vending machines. It's foolproof.

This sounds crazy, but honestly 20 years ago people would have hit you in the genitals with a shovel if you tried to get them to pay $2.00 for a glass of water. The trick is finding things people can't do without (afaik the list it is breathing, eating, drinking, screwing, pissing and shitting), and then just make it unhealthy, expensive and debilitating (McFries, whiskey, smokes, love...). Instant fortune. As you can see, the good ones are almost all taken, and piss is almost certainly next. So let a thousand showers blossom, the time is now sweet pee!