Unbelieviable.  I couldnt resist adding to the peanut gallery on this one.  For starters, CNN says predator drones were hacked (thank google news for linking me to the poor headline).  They were not hacked even the slightest.  And second, if you remove encryption from something that should be encrypted (military communications, WTF) then what do you expect will happen?  Did they honestly think this was a good idea?  Did they honestly even think before doing?  Note to Mike Mount and Elaine Quijano of CNN, there is nothing to hack or crack if it isnt secure to begin with.  Note to the DOD, encryption requires more processing power, deal with it.

Often throughout my career many have said “bah, its too slow, it takes too long to setup, does it really have to be secure?”.  If you are asking that, you shouldnt be in the job your in.  Cmon DOD, wake the fuck up!

WTF, $15,000 is too steep a cost and nobody can present a strong enough business case to upgrade a fleet of airliners to Internet based real time black box data collection?  As usual, it’s never impossible.  Technology can do the job if it weren’t for greedy business men and slacking politicians.

So, here’s a business case for you… “The ability to collect data in real time from an airplane in flight, essentially collecting all the info a black box would collect and then some can save hundreds of lives and billions of dollars”.  What if the malfunction that causes a plane to crash can never be identified because its 20,000 ft under the sea, then one month later another plane crashes as a result of the same defects?  Hmm, yes, hundreds of lives can be saved as well as the cost for the search and rescue of said plane and its replacement.

The real question is, what dollar amount do the airlines actually factor into the life of a human being?  They do risk analysis, and that number must exist.  

Michael Lynton said “I’m a guy who sees nothing good having come from the Internet. Period.”.  And he seems to mean it.

It is something you would expect coming from the CEO of Sony Entertainment and something you would expect coming from an old school capitalist.

If what you create for a living can be turned into 1’s and 0’s or it starts off as 1’s and 0’s then you had better stand out from the rest if you are to make it.  Keyword being “you” and not some bloated middle man like what Micahel Lynton represents.

The Internet killed the middle man. With that said, everyone is on an even playing field and the competition is HUGE and the choice for the consumer is 100 fold better.

What does that mean?
Climb above the crap and add something of value, something PHYSICAL and or something that cant be turned into 1’s and 0’s.   In the context of Music (since Michael refers to that) look what NIN did with their limited edition CD boxed set in the age of digital downloads, making $700K  sales from a physical product without a middle man, without a Sony Entertainment.

Where does that leave you?
If you are the creative type, there is plenty of re-inventing the wheel left in the physical world.  In the context of face to face interaction provide added value in what/how you interact with others.   Everyone should read up on Daniel Pink, Why Right Brainers will Rule The Future. Another option, do as I have, learn how to write software.  You can create the new middle man (web server and related tech), just don’t expect a bloated multi million enterprise as a result, sorry Michael Lynton, your days are over.

I stumbled upon this video just now and it really hit home with what I have read a lot about in regards to ones passion and career.  What is said in many books and sites time and time again is to take some of your strengths and combine that with a few of your passions and whamo, you have niche that you can easily climb to the top in with some hard work.  This works for those that want to grow what they have and or make a big career move.

While watching this video it became clear very quickly that this guy was a poet at one time, and it turns out I was right.  He took that and mixed it in with motivational speaking and whamo, a niche that one can make a living off of.

The audio quality could be better, but this is a great video of a motivational speaker who has done many big name keynotes and has some poetry accolades as well.  Kirk Nugent.

FYI – Sure the last two posts have been off topic, a clear sign I have no idea what direction this blog is going.  ;-)

This is a fantastic video.  A well done presentation that I recently stumbled upon in my reader.  Just yesterday my son (7) made a roller coaster with a lot of hot wheel track  (you know, the old school kind) and pillows.  He made the cart out of lego in a very clever way.  Anyway, I digress.

I’ve been a programmer for some time now and have always wanted to give game development a shot.  This game isn’t anything original, except maybe a time limit enforced vs. an unlimited amount of time.  I originally use the C++ code here and decided to switch over to C# and XNA because it would be easier to learn game dev with a language I’m familiar with vs. one I haven’t used in 7 years.

You can watch the video below for an overview of the game.  If you have the XNA Framework installed I encourage you to give it a shot.

What did I enjoy the most?

I enjoyed figuring out how to manage the update and drawing of what was on the screen.  Im familar with developing for http requests, however, developing for something that updates 60 times a second is something else.  The problems I encountered were managing the music and game event timing.  In the end I got lucky with the song I choose as not only is it a great song, but, the timing of it worked out perfectly.

What I would do differently?

For starters I would not be lazy with how it was programmed.  It’s as if I’m a farmer who knows very well how to grow apples and maintain an apple orchard, and then all of a sudden I’m thrown into a tropical environment naked and forced to grow avocados.  All good programming practices went out the window, especially ones specific to C#.  No worries, the next game wont be like that.

How to download/install?

You have a couple of options here.

Option 1: If you have the XNA Framework already installed (only likely if you have developed a game with it) then you can simply download the Visual Studio 2008 Source Code and hit F5.

Options 2: Otherwise, you will need to download all of the following and the .exe Installer as well.

• .NET Framerwork 3.5
• XNA Framework 3.0
• DirectX 9.0c
• XNA Quicks .exe Installer