Blog Andrex = new Blog();

So I took this programming quiz, and here are the results:

"Your programmer personality type is:

DHSB

You're a Doer. You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.

You like coding at a High level.
The world is made up of objects and components, you should create your programs in the same way.

You work best in a Solo situation.
The best way to program is by yourself. There's no communication problems, you know every part of the code allowing you to write the best programs possible.

You are a liBeral programmer.
Programming is a complex task and you should use white space and comments as freely as possible to help simplify the task. We're not writing on paper anymore so we can take up as much room as we need."

Spot-on, I'd say.

XNA freaking rocks. Just thought I'd say that. I just followed the first XNA tutorial and I was floored that there's a "Model" class, and sutff like that. I thought it would be a lot harder.

Anyways, Polar Nights may be delayed. There's a medium to strong possibility. In the meantime I'm working on a flash video, a 2D turn-based strategy game for my grandpa, and I'm strongly considering making a 2D version of Animal Crossing. It's a lot.

Especially considering that since I created this blog I've joined TagWorld and Facebook, plus I have my old blog Carol of the Bells and main hub the Temple of Andrex to continually update too. It's almost like my entire personality is being drained out into these five websites as I struggle to continually update them with mountains of content on me.

But then again I think that's what I wanted. I never want to be bored on the internet, and now that I have five giant websites to update frequently, I never will be. That is, until I drop one or more. Until then, I have a lot to do!

This kind of post seems like it should be on Carol of the Bells. x_x I'm confident Polar Nights will be finished eventually. I have a texturer, and I'm both a programmer and modeller (in-training), so for now I have all I need. Thanks MS for such a great programming language and toolkit!

(Check out CB Model Pro, it's free FOR NOW, since it's in Beta. After 15 days you need to register, (for free), but the software is really intuitive.)

Oh yeah, Sonic and the Secret Rings comes out tomorrow! No way I'd miss out on a great new Wii game (especially since this is a drought, Sega new what they were doing releasing it now). Strange that Sonic's return is marked on a Nintendo platform, when his Xbox 360 and PS3 "revivals" bombed on all levels a game can fail at. I'll post a review here after some significant time with it. Check out the latest trailer below.
 

string deck

(

string spadeAce("3", "ace of spades", "false"),

string spadeTwo("2", "two of spades", "false"),

...

);

drawnCard = deck[randomValue];

drawnCard[randomValue[2]] = true;

info.Label = "You drew a " + drawnCard[randomValue[1]];

If I ran Microsoft for a month, I'd make a lot of lasting changes that would mostly unify them in a better way to take on competitors, but not only in the OS market. This is of course ignoring the fact I'd transfer millions of dollars to an untraceable Swiss bank account and shortly disappear thereafter. =P

First, I'd make everything unified. Microsoft's already gone halfway by renaming a lot of things with the Windows moniker. I'd go a few steps further, though. Any MS program has to be "Windows [Program]". Everything. Windows Word, Windows Paint, Windows Studio, etc. Microsoft needs to eliminate it's entire brand name if people are to trust them again. Pathetic, but at this point it's the only thing that would be swiftly effective.

Next is online. Windows Live Search, Windows Live Spaces, etc. are great unifications. But this is the web, not an OS. "Live" is definitely a good title to bestow to any Microsoft-based internet application. But then we have MSN. Sorry MSN, but anything with "Microsoft" has to go, even if it is an acronym that most people don't know what it means. Rename it the "Live Network", and bring Live Search, Live Spaces, Live Studio (a toolkit for web-development, more on that soon), etc. This would already fall in line with the Xbox Live Network. Xbox is named as such because it was originally called the DirectX Box, and DX has built itself it's own niche with products like Direct3D and DirectSound conforming to it's brand name.

Back to Live Studio. Microsoft is so intent on capturing developers, it's even giving away Visual Studio and related products with an attached "Express Edition" name to lure developers to make applications for Windows, the only thing going for it at this time. So if MS is so intent on making websites conform to IE7, why not give them an easier way to do it? An application that automatically sets up design elements, XML, HTML, CSS, and even Java/Ajax would make any web developer's day.

I'd make a Live Terminal program, which is essentially a Windows program that takes news, friends' Space posts, etc., and displays it across the top of the screen like a ticker, and when you click a headline a new tab would open up in IE.

Another inconsistency is the Menu Bar in Windows Vista. In some apps it's there, in others it's not. Then pressing Alt brings it back. That bar was really useful, so I'd bring it back if it was possible. If it's not, make another graphic bar along the lines of IE7 with at least these commands: New [Whatever], Save, Save As, Copy, Cut, Paste, and Help all with consistent, glossy graphics, with a check-list option of removing any one you want.

I'd also rebrand Visual Studio and .NET. As I've said, Visual Studio would become Windows Studio, and it would include C++, J#, C#, VB#, etc. Basically, anything ".NET" is now "Sharp". ".NET" is bad because it's also a generic top-level domain name, which could lead to confusion, and adding a period to the beggining of anything, (and capitalizing it), is horribly outdated.

Touching on VS, MSDN needs a Web 2.0 upgrade like no other website I've ever seen. It's that bad. Searching for a specific method or video can take hours. I'd decide how to design it when I got there, but there would be some sort of side-bar for each language under the two headers Live Studio and Windows Studio. From there, a sub-system would open for Downloads, Tutorials, Videos, FAQ, Language Specs, etc. in line with the Windows hierarchy. MSDN might not have to be renamed, but if I did it, it would be called the "Windows + Live Developers Network".

Lastly, I'd completely transform the way Zune operates. It's hardware is great. It's PC software... isn't. I'd completely ditch the Zune Software and Marketplace, instead integrating a "Zune" tab into Windows Media Player, and opening up a "Live Store". The Live Store would be the place to download movies, music, and Xbox 360/Zune Demos/Arcade games. What I mean by the last part is that some Arcade games, like Uno, would be perfect for the Zune, because it can connect through Wi-Fi to the internet for some portable, online card-game fun. Zune already has a D-Pad and three buttons, (Back would be Start, the center button would be A, Play/Pause would be B), so some casual games-on-the-go would surely net MS some more of the cash it dearly desires. I'd make accessing the store via Zune's built-in Wi-Fi a main feature. Finally, I'd port some version of Sharp to the Zune and add a "Games and Applications" folder to the interface so some aspiring developers, (which we've confirmed Microsoft has a hard-on for), can make awesome games and apps like the calculator community already does. To further compete with Apple's iPhone, a small microphone periphiral would be released that plugs into the bottom and includes some bunled VOIP. It's not a perfect solution, and future models would have that and a touch-screen built-in, but at least combined the Zune and microphone wouldn't cost $500, and it would still have all that nice space. =)

So after my month, Microsoft's products would be divided into these categories:
-Windows OSs (Vista, Longhorn Server, Vienna)
-Windows Applications (Windows Media Player, Windows Studio, Windows Word)
-Live Network (Live Spaces, Live Store, Live Network)
-Live Applications (Live Studio)
-Zune (WMP Zune Tab, Zune Sharp, Zune Games)

Basically, unifying Microsoft on three fronts: Desktop (Windows), Internet (Live), Hardware (Direct_), and Portable (Zune). I haven't included their PDA market because it's fine. Windows Mobile needs the Start Button and program tray mapped to the bottom, a desktop with icons to play around with, and some sort of Vista Sidebar-esque updater, but for business stuff, but it's OK as-is. Hopefully MS will take some hints and unify itself, because having to remember three dozen frickin' brand names for their products is confusing as the chicken and the egg for most of their users and install base. Don't get me wrong. I love Microsoft. I want to see these changes. I want Microsoft to have a familiar brand like Apple, YouTube, and Google do. I don't want to see them end up like AOL. So that is precisely why I wrote this, to maybe have a 0.00000000000000001% impact, if even that. But any changes like these are a step in the right direction, in opinion. What's yours?