Quick Note:

I know been a long time but have been very busy with university work and enjoying playing arround with OpenGL and such. But went to this event today and just thought id post up a few comments :)

XNA Launch Event
After attening the seven different sections of the day i was very impressed with what they displayed of XNA, the shear power for rapid development of game ideas was amaizing. In a few minutes a demonstrate was able to create a 3d scene, okey it may not of been astonishing graphics but they were pretty impressive. But also astounding considering the amount of code he wrote, i think it was 10-20 lines to have a scenery and a little tank okey didn't do much but 10-20 lines of code usually your just working on getting the window to display.

Sadly i didn't take many photos i was to busy listening to the presentation.

Just thinking about what is possible with XNA amaizes me and how quickly ideas are able to be turned in to a reality it is great. Not only this for Windows but also works with Xbox360 and is easily deployable through VS2005 C# sadly only express but im sure that will be fixxed soon.

If that doesnt blow your mind then start thinking community having students and hobbyists or even teams of students working together improving on other peoples components build new ones and then send a final release onto the Xbox community its just one of the things that they are aiming for with XNA, granted they arn't there yet but the protential is there and it wont be in the too distant future before the methods are in place.

XNA and the market - my take
Although im not so sure that top end games will be completely written in C# and XNA but what i think is more than likely is prototyping games using it. Think of a company being able to rapidly turn an idea into a prototype and then see wether they think that the game is commercially viable it wont be amaizing the graphics wont be astounding but i think this will take away from the idea of graphics making a game. If the idea is developed first and a simple version of the game is worked on and improved quickly a good enjoyable game will result. This also works with people able to start building a game and then show people clearly what there idea is so that it can be improved apon if liked.

If you havent guessed im rather taken with XNA, im going to enjoy fiddling with it other christmas and i hope alot of others will too.

p.s. Rob miles of the Univesity of Hull got the most laughs :)

Havent posted in a while but got a few new toys i will be posting today about a gadget that allows you to be able to use your ide/sata drives externally.

Item is the R-Driver III its a small device with a usb cable on the device it has a SATA port a 3.5" IDE connector and a 2.5" Connector the 2.5" does not require power but others do. This is not a problem since the pack comes with a transformer so you are able to use anywhere without the need of normal PSU.

!Image to Come!

Sata:
I have tested it using a Western Digital 80gb hard Disk, i have also tried a Maxtor 250gb HD this seems to have problems im not sure why though looking into finding what the problem is.
2.5" IDE:
Tested using old Notebook hd only 4.2gb but works very well is powered over usb and provides a nice external drive if u want to be quick switching drives without changing USB ports or using extra ports.
3.5" IDE:
Western Digital 80gb worked fine no problem :)

Overall even though it didn't work with one of my sata drives it is a great bit of kit and something i will be hanging onto for years to come.

I have been using Windows Vista for a few days now and it has grown on me. I dont know wether thats because ive got used to the speed or was just expecting to much to start with but i have am starting to see some advantages.

1. Security or the Perseption of
Windows Vista is mad on Application security a key example of this is when you try and open Computer Management in Administrative Tools it asks wether you want to do that. Makes you feel like Windows is really trying to protect you bad thing is if you are trying to get arround quickly asking if you are sure really gets annoying quickly.

2. GUI
Well what can i say about this it is incredible good althoug vry domanding has nice effects only thing is it needs to be easier to find the keyboard shortcuts for. From other Windows its easier to use the little fast windows switch - Alt + Tab(doesn't always work with preview windows sometimes reverts to little icons dont really understand that). But i had to watch a Windows Vista Preview to get the 3D Switching window - Windows Key + Tab. But once you found this combination be warned you wont be able to stop playing with it even writing this post i have used a few times...

Conclusion
Well i think thats it for the moaning today but i hope any ickle annoyances will be solved before the final release where by the looks of it ill be getting a copy of Windows Vista, if not just to feed my addiction of 3D Windows Switching :)

I havent posted in a while but got a few things to talk about today.

Windows Vista
Let start by talking about the spec of my computer:
Pentium 4 630 3.0GHz
1024mb DDR2 RAM
ATi X300 256mb Graphics
ATA133 HD (Have SATA but running windows vista on secondary)

Now under Microsofts spec my computer fits, so in theory it should run Windows Vista without a problem. If only that was true...

When running on full settings doing one thing at a time is great, all the pretty little features run smothly not a problem. When you try to do more than one thing say, watching a video chatting in irc while surfing the web and downloading something (typical computer use) then things start to go dreadfully wrong.

Rather than in Windows XP things just freezing and being no use to man or beast in Vista it seems that things go black.

Now i must admit even on Windows XP i have a fair amount of things bodge up but i have been using Vista only a few times and every time got annoyed with how i keep seeing these black windows. The other problem i have with Vista / Media Player, is that when viewing a video like i do alot the sync is out of time. When playing on my version 10 media player on XP runs without a problem.

Now this wouldn't be so worrying if i was running under the spec but my pc is midrange and within the spec so should Microsoft be worried about the upcomming release of Windows Vista? i would be!

Internet Explorer 7
Now after my little moan about Windows Vista i guess i should be expected to moan about this but i cant i used it on Vista and it looks great with a lovly slick design, i was so impressed i went and downloaded it for use on XP, although you dont get transparent windows i like the design and functionality better than IE6 and FireFox. Worth Downloading when you get the time.

Imagine Cup
Despite not getting through to the World finals of imagine cup Software Design, i am still very prowd of are group and i dont know if you have read i-nZ's post but heres the link to pictures of our wonderful trip to reading. Imagine Cup Photos

XDA - Windows CE 2003
Unfotunatly when i got my XDA it only came with 2002 so since when i was at Imagine Cup Microsoft were advertising 2005 id see about upgrading unfortunatly havent been able to find the ROM for my XDA yet but will keep looking. But i found 2003. Updated and its got a nice collection of improvements new style of gui allowance for bluetooth even though i dont have it and the one that impressed me the most is when someone hangs up on you it actually ends the call rather than leaving it running. Looking for 2005 but in mean time if you have an XDA update to 2003 worth the effort.

Today was the dreaded day of the UK finals, all the work we have been doing came to a climax with our poster demonstration. Well the demonstartion was fine but unfortunaltly we didn't make the top 3, but we learnt alot from being there mainly to do alot more work in advanced but also to do alot more research into the subject. But we know for next year so be warned any competitors.

My Congratulations to Three Pair the top UK team that one not only  a new shiny Xbox 360 but also a trip to Delhi to compete on the world stage....

Function was great though lovly meal set on by the hilton the night before room's were lovly couldn't ask for better had a great night sleep before picking Microsoft, BT and HP's brains. Very impressed by the look of Office12 looks like a very well thought through application and i will cetainly be implementing it in the company i work for.

Other than that
Congratulations to all teams that made the final we shall see you again next year

I just send in our final Entry for Imagine Cup Software Design Poster, slightly nervous about it should be good though nice trip to reading and get to see the Microsoft offices. Been working sodly on it other the last few days so hopefully should be good enough to do well.

During this time i have also developed some simple apps for the XDA that i will also post up soon with source code for others to modify if they so wish.

I have also started to design a Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition Character Edition for PDA. Going to alot of GUI designing since there is limited screen size on a PDA type device.

Much stuff to do over next few days hoping for good luck at Imagine Cup though :)

On wednesday evening submitted our entry for the imagine cup and we got the response back yesterday that we were one of 10 teams that are traveling down to Reading next Thurday Friday for a lovely event layed on by microsoft. Its not all good though we have to prepare a Poster and Presentation for then because we were'nt expecting  to get through we arn't the most prepared we could be but we shall get there.

On anouther great note my Xbox 360 arrived today, great stuff been playing on it ever since it arrived i currently only have one game for it Perfect Dark Zero, from what i have played of it, its a great game kinda strange getting used to a games console again but ill get used to it soon enough while playing games on it.

One thing that surprised me about the Xbox 360 was the size of the power supply it looks like something out of ghost busters.

Picture of my Room:

*ignore date hasn't been set on camera

Tooey.co.uk has recently undergone a hosting change and currently has the old website but will be having a new website posted soon with a Programming area with all the code i have been promising on it. Just got to squeeze in arroung the imagine cup :)

Finally completed entry for imagine cup with my team, was quite intresting getting it done and will be intresting to see if we get through round 1 but hey its out the way now.
Should be getting Xbox 360 today after large delays but if it comes ill be happy and probably wont post on here for a while getting the complete xbox with hd and all the bells and whistles also getting with it Perfect Dark, should be great fun playing especially when i get home at easter and can play with all my old mates.

Fingers Crossed for Delivery

Been working with my XDA over that last day and had alot of fun with it, especially upgrading the ROM i tried to install it using a hub took me many hours to sort it on my own eventually resorting to update information says 'May cause errors if connected via a usb hub' good stuff changed onto motherboard USB connections worked like a charm no problem.

Sure this calls to a note-to-self when doing updates read the update information first but hey thats life :)

If you are intrested in having lots of bells and whistles on your phone recommend the Rom from xda-developers.com not actually having much tools on there for programming but its good for bringing Windows CE closer to the standard platform.

Currently going to do some development using C# and the Compact .NET1.0 framework available for Windows CE, will do in C++ if i find there something i hit problems with.

Any project ideas welcome

Will report of anything good i hear for the XDA here

Been working on my HL2 Deathmatch Level today, which seemed to be more of a chgallenge than most people would of thought. The first of my annoyances was Steam Verification which i believe is caused because of my level not being verified by Steam, quick easy solution is Running level when it moans click ok and Create a server, sounds easy but after you done it a fair number of times gets annoying.

Over problems are with creating Car's, that i will need to work on anouther day, since it just pieved me for a while till i got tired and needed a break much prefer coding simple games to hl2 level creation.

Also had to take a picture for an online game i play called Drakkar am part of a guild and needed for there website, dont like pictures at best of times especially when i have to change cards in and out of phone/camera to get them since the usb connection on my camera doesn't seem to work any more.

Anyway a Moany post tomorrow shall be a better day lots of CW todo.

Went down to london for the weekend for my sisters birthday was a good weekend, on the train down from hull to london was working on the Project Hoshimi that i was amaized at how easy is to get through the first roung all you need is to make small modification on where the protector bot goes too and change the things mentioned in the tutorial. Next round will be harder so when i got time fiddling arround to try improve my score.

On Saturday(Sis's Birthday) went too the hotel we were staying at and settled in, then in evening went to see the Lion King at the Theatre was very good very well done recomend to see for anyone who likes the lion king. Then after went out for a meal at the Hard Rock Cafe lovly big meal as always.

Been battling arround with Windows Server 2003 Web Edition since i been back nice little package installed on my old laptop dont think it likes being under such limitations though but seems to run "alright" would use for anything more than testing though too likely to crash on me. Also been looking for hosting that supports ASP .NET 2.0 Unfortunatly this seems very difficult and annoying since i did all my Image site coding on .NET 2.0 seems annoying to redo onto .NET1.1 have to look see where setting is to compile as 1.1 see if it runs under that.

The last thing on the agender for todays blog post is the Software Design for the imagine cup, been meeting up regularly with team mates trying to come up with some really good ideas of how to get us over to Delhi be great fun to go over there see what its like never been to india but anyway comming up with a good idea is harder than i originally thought since this idea is kind of concrete has to be right for hand in on round 1. So guess we'll keep thinking (cant post what we come up with so far since there our ideas not yours :P)

Recntly signed up for Imagine cup going to do the Project Hoshimi solo and am Teaming up with i-nZ and RoyBot for the Software Design.

What i have looked at for the Project Hoshimi is kool except that it wont run on my main computer unless i disable the network thats kind of annoying but works on laptop so will do some work on it over the weekend while im traveling down to not so sunny london for my sisters birthday.

As for the Software design unfortunatly was unable attend brain storming session yesterday morning with i-nZ and RoyBot but have listened to ideas after and think we are leading somewhere but not totally sure where yet going to have more time chatting tomorrow.

Have Also been working on an image website for my friends band will be posting up when i sort out the server for my website. Unfortunatly motherboard on it has gone trying to get hold of replacement to get up an running again smothely.

Started programming an UT bot for a Uni competition earlier tonight spent some time with housemate ivan coding all got it to do was run to wepon grab then run back to spawn location the only thing is we dont know why it ran back to its spawn location. Kinda a minor bug but hey will fix it later on.

Also been looking at some network transfer stuff when i did coding in VB6 i used winsock having trouble finding stuff like that for  C# .NET but will do soon, i can load up the Winsock class but hard to control will look into alternative methods on sunday see if i can get a Server Client running again.

Got new chair earlier in week very wonderful chair nice and cumpfy good buy from Yorkshire Chairs for only £35   bargin i say.

This is my first entry, using TheSpoke kinda strange not sure how often ill post on it im not very good at doing things repeatidly so we'll see how it goes well a little about my self i have an A-Level in computing and im currently studying for my degree in Computer Science with Games Development. I have done some simple games in VB6 i have also done a server based game. I am currently study C# and have an intrest in C++ but sadly only know the basics at the moment i have branched out a little to use OpenGL and DirectX but i really need to learn more C++ before i continue.