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Seriously!  This is starting to annoy me..  I swear every 5 or 6 months, I have another dead harddrive.. It’s not like I hate them or anything.. I just can’t keep them alive..  It’s almost like my house is where HD’s go to die..

Last night I had yet another one bite the dust..  Thankfully it was my secondary game drive, not my primary OS drive.  I have learned to make my primary OS drive a SSD, they seem to last longer..

I’m likely going to go get another SSD today as my new game drive..  I’m just tired of the 1950′s technology that is HD’s failing on me..

C# Confusion

I’m really kind of frustrated at the general lack of helpful input from other people on the internet when it comes to trying to learn a new programming language..  It almost seems like folks just don’t want to be bothered or that they have the opinion that “by god it was hard for them, so it should be hard for you.. ”

Human beings are blessed with the ability to learn from one another, and while we are also often cursed with the disinclination to do so, quite often it seems that those “in the know” don’t want to share that knowledge when others are clambering for it..

I’m fairly new to C# and am interested in learning it..  I’m not new to programming though so I understand most of the basic concepts, I just need to learn the syntax and the “flavor” of the language..  The IDE is pretty familiar because I’m an old time Delphi programmer (C# was written by the same guy apparently)..

I decided I wanted to write an application that take a screenshot of a DirectX game while it was in the background (not minimized)..  I’m having a lot of trouble getting it to work correctly, and trying to find people to help is very much like trying to find Venuses arms..

I can’t help but feel very alone in my struggle and that plain sucks..

Latest Image

So I have always liked submarines, I think they are pretty neat.  I have wanted to create a 3D sub for a while and finally decided to get started on one..  Instead of going with a more modern design I went with one of the most popular submarine designs of old; the German type VII.   I also have to admit that another reason for this design is that I like the game “Silent Hunter” and the fifth installment of the game is coming out this year.

As I work on it, I’ll post images here to show where I am at and as with all my other posts the top most image will show the latest image or render.

I’m creating this entirely in Modo 401 using my Wacom tablet with the intent to make it as photo-realistic as possible.  That’s gonna be tough because it will force me to model everything in sub-d and it will really make me have to pay very special attention to my models materials, the shader tree and lighting..

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Holy crap, SRS Solutions has done it again..  Previously I pretty much gave up my own theme creation in order to simply use their EOS theme.  It was superior to what I was creating and saved me a whole bunch of time.. But this time they have out done themselves.

The Arjuna theme is outstanding..  I especially like that it works in the exact same way as EOS and so theme switching is 100% seamless!  Thank you guys a bunch.. This is awesome..

I highly recommend this theme, or the EOS theme.

So something that I have been pondering is the creation of a rapid application framework/IDE similar to Delphi for javascript, in javascript..  Bear with me..  This is more or less theoretical conjecture at this point, but it amuses me and I wonder what kind of value there would be to be had from such a platform.

Where Delphi has always excelled, even to this day, is where its IDE and it’s VCL meet – you design the look of the application first, and then slap code in behind it second.   Not the other way around.   Users are given a “form” on which they can drag components from the visual component library.   The VCL is a vast palette of components and elements really allowing you to make your program look however you want..   Afterward positioning everything and making the program look “correct” you go into each component and add the various bits needed to make them do what you want.  

When it comes to rapid application development, Delphi is king.   It beats VB, VC and Java hands down for easy of program design.  This is my opinion of course and largely an opinion based on my experiences with it years ago.   I don’t use it any more but I know a lot of folks still do and it’s doing fairly well..  I also see a lot of elements of Delphi’s innovated IDE in other IDE’s out there.. (*cough*Eclipse*cough*)

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Social Bookmark Icons

So I have added several links to social networking bookmarking sites to each of the pages within the theme..  I really wasn’t sure which ones most folks used so I went with the 4 that I knew the most.. I’m sure I’d be better served by adding twitter, google and others.. but really I’m not sure which ones most folks use.

I had thought of using an addthis.com bookmark button but I don’t know that I want their button on my site.. it’s kind of ugly plus I don’t know that I want to link to them.  I think they do popup ads and I’m not really keen on that..

If more networks are required I’ll likely create my own button system to house them all..