I recently created a website for IEWatch Software LLC. www.iewatch.com - the creators of IEWatch, a cool little addin for IE. As a beta tester, I was offered a copy of the software. Initially I kept thinking, okay, might be useful in SOME situations, but why would I waste a hundred bucks on this app.

And for the first week or two I used it, I seriosly did not think it would ever be useful for me. While I was working on another project (an ecommerce asp.net 2.0 app), I kept running into a problem where the payment processor kept returning blank values. The usual debug features were not helping, and with the 48 hour deadline approaching, I was starting to panic. This is where I finally got to REALLY use IEWatch. The data being posted by the payment processor was encrypted, but IEWatch was able to quickly help me capture the data, see where my code was wrong (Hey, even *I* make mistakes, y'know!) and thankfully made the deadline.

I highly recommend anyone working with web apps to try this baby out. Hop on over to http://www.iewatch.com and try the demo. And no, I was not paid for this endorsement. It is genuine.

The first big milestone for Nukeation Studios' retail effort.

NukeBall Express Edition Beta 1 is now finally available for the public. While not feature complete, NukeBall's powerful NukeWads feature is fully functional in this release.

Y'know what? I can't talk more. I'm just too damned excited. Just head on over to www.nukeball.com and check it out yourself!

Oh, we would really appreciate any feedback you can provide! Just drop us a line at beta [at] nukeation [dot] com.

Here's a first look at NukeControls. This is just a small piece of the whole thing - only 3 controls.

nPanel - a special "header" control
nProgress - a super cool Vista-style progressbar for .NET 2.0 with animation!
nNavigator - bi-directional navigation control

All these controls have 6 or more themes, and some like the nPanel, can be customized.

Click the image above to download a ZIP (175kb) with a VB.NET 2005 project. If you don't have VB.NET 2005, you can just run the EXE in the BIN folder.

This is an alpha build only. Expect a public beta in the coming week or two. If you run this in the IDE, do note that only a handful of events and properties have been exposed for this demo. Some themes will not function as well.

Comments are appreciated. We are also looking for people to beta test the controls suite. Beta testers get a free copy of this product! Contact us at beta [at] nukeation [dot] com.

The last couple of days I was sick. I was miserable. But this morning, I felt a lot better, and felt even better when the FedEx guy delivered two large packages. Excited out of my mind (and also tired of not being able to blog anything for many days) I finally lugged my new tripod, camera, and the kriffin' awesome Vader lightsaber (Force FX) to my roof at 2:30am (its 3:30am now) and took some shots and a couple of videos. Most of 'em turned out bad (I'm still sick I guess) so will take new ones over the weekend and post then. For now, these will have to do:

The Vader saber was surprisingly larger than I expected. It's true the Force FX is not a 100% exact replica - it was slightly enlarged to fit all the electronics. The hilt is also surprisingly solid metal (looks like chrome coated plastic from afar) and heavy (I'd say about 600g or so, not sure). You need to hold the lightsaber with both hands unless your hands are as big as David Prowse'. As soon as I put in 3 AA batteries and switched on the activator stud I was pleasently greeted by a menacing snap-hiss and then idle humming that suddenly brought back memories of watching old Ben Kenobi face Vader on the Death Star. As soon as I twisted my wrist, the (supposedly) gyroscopic motion sensors fired up and the bottom mounted speakers played very accurate lightsaber motion sounds (whrrooom, vrrrrrmmm), and when you hit the blade (tho not too hard) on something it plays a clash sound like hitting another lightsaber!!

The blade glows a bright red visible even in full sunlight! At night its a horrifying scene (to the person watching). An hour ago I scared the stuffings out of the watchman passing by my house. Looking how he hurried his pace, I almost wanted to go down and start chasing him - lightsaber blazing! I didn't. I plan to do it tomorrow when I have more strength.

Lastly, notice the fine finish (ignore my fingerprints) on the hilt. The pattern in the bottom corner is the black nozzle on top from where the blade comes out. It's just how it looks in the movies! The construction is excellent and sturdy.

The second package has the .45 (45%) scaled down model of Darth Tyranus (Count Dooku) replica lightsaber. This is EXACTLY scaled. 100% of what was in the movie (just half the size). It's usually about $35, but I got it free with my FX saber. I intend to order ALL the .45 ones ... not yet. Food first. Sabers second. Food first. Sabers second. Sigh.

As I look at the curved lightsaber, I have half a mind to order two full-scale replicas and see if I can modify my motorbike's handlebars with this. Hmmm. The blade gaurd at the tip of the saber is just so cool.

The detailing is fantastic. Simple excellent craftsmanship. The certificate that came with this said this is a hand crafted model. And this 4"-5" model is also surprisingly heavy. 100g at least. It has a great feel when you hold it - even if its .45 sized.

The rubber grips around the hilt are also very nice. This lightsaber is a lot more comfortable than the Vader saber. The Vader saber has large vertical hard rubber strips that serve as a cleaving grip. Seriously - it bites into your flesh if you hold it too tight! After 3 hours of playing around with the saber, I finally found a comfortable grip. Also, the Dooku saber has a metal "spine" in the under curve that can be uncomfortable if held improperly. You must remember, these were Dark Lords of the Sith. They CHOSE pain. Frustration can fuel their rage.

Oh hey ... I hear the neighborhood watchman making his rounds again. BRB

These are coming out as soon as I find some time to iron out some bugs:

First is NukeControls - which has had some additions and some removals. More on that soon.

Second is a tool I wanted Microsoft to give, but they didn't. A visual editor for .sitemap files. When Beta 2 was going to come out (or had come out, I don't remember exactly) I had asked Scott Guthrie when he was on .NET Rocks! if Microsoft planned to add such a designer in the RTM version. Unfortunately, they couldn't. Scott said they would do it in the next version probably. If you are managing a site with more than 10 pages and 3 levels, you know it can be gruesome going through all that XML code by hand. In comes Nukeation Mapee™ a cool visual editor. I've used this tool for my own work, but I want it to be more easy. Right now it's external. You can configure Visual Studio to open .sitemap via Mapee. Right now it uses a standard TreeView for the visualization. I'm thinking of either writing my own UML style graphically editable UI, or get some 3rd party control. If not too much trouble, I will turn it into an actual Visual Studio designer (a bona fide add-in). I also want to add auto-recognition - it scans the web app directory and makes a full sitemap by itself.

Mapee 1.0, the one using TreeView should be released this coming week along with nukeControls 0.8.

http://www.hanselminutes.com/

Go check it out! Very cool premiere episode.

So today I *finally* got the delivery of my new Samsung 997DF 19" monitor. The dinky little 17" looks so small next to it. I got tired of waiting for the 23" inch TFT's prices to go down, and just got the 19" CRT. It will do me good until they start shipping Athens PCs.

Now all I need to do is figure out how (and if) I can get my on-board AGP working side-by-side with my 128MB GeForce FX. Or just get an extra graphics card if that doesn't work. Then I will have THREE monitors.

Recently I made a small app called "Pixel Counter" and let it loose on all the images Nukeation Studios has published. Each image's pxiels (height x width) were counted. The result came down to over 78 billion! That's 78 followed by 9 zeroes, ie, 78,000,000,000. If put in a straight strip with a height of 1 inch, this would go on for more than 390,000,000 inches - that's 32,500,000 feet!

To celebrate this, a cool, custom made Nukeation T-shirt is available here. Usually a price markup is added, but this shirt is available at the base price (we don't make a single penny on it).

 

Get yours now! Free shipping is available until Dec 6th!! Enter coupon "FreeShip".

I've been wanting to make my own hand-crafted lightsaber for a long time. That time is coming near. After successfully defeating Tavion and the spirit of Marka Ragnos on Korriban, I think I am finally ready for my own ligthsaber. This blue-bladed "adept" lightsaber will complete my training as a Knight.

All I need now is a Sith lord to chop up!

This is a cool tool for Web Developers from Microsoft! Couple this with IE7's tabs and you have yourself an extra arsenal.

Overview (from the link above)

The IE Developer Toolbar provides several features for deeply exploring and understanding Web pages.

-- Explore and modify the document object model (DOM) of a web page.
-- Locate and select specific elements on a web page through a variety of techniques.
-- Selectively disable Internet Explorer settings.
-- View HTML object class names, ID's, and details such as link paths, tab index values, and access keys.
-- Outline tables, table cells, images, or selected tags.
-- Validate HTML, CSS, WAI, and RSS web feed links.
-- Display image dimensions, file sizes, path information, and alternate (ALT) text.
-- Immediately resize the browser window to 800x600 or a custom size.
-- Selectively clear the browser cache and saved cookies. Choose from all objects or those associated with a given domain.
-- Choose direct links to W3C specification references, the Internet Explorer team weblog (blog), and other resources.
-- Display a fully featured design ruler to help accurately align objects on your pages.

Just found this on the net and couldn't resist.

My desktop was lonely so I made a nice little Delta-62 "Scorch" (Republic Commando) wallpaper. It's 1280x1024 - "Center" with Black backdrop works best for both 1280x1024 and 1024x768. Enjoy. Feel free to pass on to friends.

RC01.jpg (53.92 KB)

It's been a while since I blogged. So here's a roundup of the main events that probably 2 and a half people care about!

DigitalExile.net is live!

My long planned personal site (after the demise of after-images.net) is now finally live. www.digitalexile.net

There are lots of new photographs available (for licensing, too), and my art collection and written works will be added soon. There's also a download section with small apps, wallpapers, and some random stuff available for download. Or will be soon.

My Blog rates #1 in searches

A pleasent surprise - I saw a referer tag in my server log for this blog (hey, that rhymes!) - for someone searching for "Pandhi" (my last name, you dumbass!). I decided to follow that search link on Yahoo and voila - the #1 (and many subsequent links) are for this very blog as well as my corporate site www.nukeation.com! The same is on Google. But there, my corporate site is first, and the blog after that. Needless to say I like Yahoo! better than Google. The blog is at #1 even if you search for Dr. JJ Rawal

Republic Commando still the best!

I play an hour of Republic Commando every night before I go to bed with Gratu'acuun ringing in my ears. This is better than Half-Life (1 or 2) and Doom combined. They're great games, but this just ROCKS MY WORLD!

Radio Acting Debut

A few weeks ago, I made my recording debut as the "Human Resources Executive of IBM" on the comedy online radio show MONDAYS (Episode 25) - download it! No, no. No autographs. You get a free autograph when you sign up for the Dax Pandhi Official Fanclub.

A GIG goes a long way

I finally added a gig of RAM to my 1GB system. Needless to say it works better. Though it generates more heat, I love the tradeoff.

Jungle Coast, Costa Rica

I'm helping out with the branding and e-solutions for a dear, dear friend Cynthia Najim's new real estate business. This is one of those fun projects I rarely get anymore (if you're a client of mine, no I didn't mean it like that - your projects are just important - this is just different coz there's unreal amounts of creative energy tingling it up). If you're looking for nice, affordable, and beautiful villas, cottages, or even farms - these are the people to call. Will post their website URL as soon as I finish it.

Am planning on going to Costa Rica next year, maybe.

Wiping the blood and grime off my helmet, I look towards the bridge. Kachirho's lights shine in the distance. As the smoke clears, and the deafening explosions stop, I can see the blurred forms of my brothers holding off the enemy, giving me cover fire so I can help our fallen brother. I hear Four-Oh's heavy breathing and soft groans under me. I realize I am standing on top of Delta-40, his white and green armor dented and splattered with blood - not his own. I get him up and send him to heal up at the near by bacta dispenser.

Delta-07 - Sev - snipes the onslaught of SBD's - their grey headless bodies seemingly immune to the plasma shots. Scorch - Delta-62, makes a joke, easing the pain as always. Advisor's voice echoes in my helmet - "Delta 38, we need to destroy that bridge now!"

The battle for the Wookies' freedom rests upon us - four lone commandos against an endless supply of Battle Droids, Super Battle Droids, and Trandoshan slavers. I remember a trooper's remarks - "Look! Commandos! If they're as good as I hear they are, they can win the war all by themselves." I hope that's true.

With Four-Oh - Fixer - at 100%, I move to take Six-Two's position. "Scorch, I need some radical restructuring." I can feel his eyes light up even behind his plasteel faceplate. "Roger that, Boss."

I lob a EM grenade hoping to slow down the SBDs. Damn. They're too tough. "Four-Oh, man that turret." Maybe he can take out a few more of them with some heavy fire power. "Turret. Got it, Delta Lead."

Delta-62 fixes a large explosive to the ammo crates lying on the bridge the Seperatists require for their occupation of Kashyyyk. "Boss, we better get off this bridge before we blow it up." But we're surrounded. There is no time to waste. The only way out is to destroy the Droid dispensers.

I relenquish my cover and order some cover fire. Dodging the twig-legged droids, knocking some out with my vibro-blade, I move in. I hear Sev taking some shrapnel. I set up an explosive on the dispenser, and start to set the timer. The large bay door opens. A spider droid. Fifteen tons of pure armor and firepower.

The bridge and dispensers primed for an explosive finish, we prepare for what we've been trained to do: die for the Republic.

"We'll make 'em remember the day they tried to blow up Delta Squad."

---

Never before have I seen such a perfect fusion of action, military tactics, breathtaking graphics, superb AI, and war chants that makes you want to die for your cause. STAR WARS: REPUBLIC COMMANDO is one of the BEST GAMES ever! It certainly knocked DOOM3 from first place on my list. Instead of the "lofty perspective of the Jedi", this games takes you into the trenches as you command 3 elite Clone Commandos - DELTA SQUAD - in 3 dangerous missions - Clone Wars: Zero Hour on Geonosis, repelling an invasion on the Republic Assault Ship PROSECUTOR in space, and a special mission on Kashyyyk that would end the Clone Wars. And while you play, whenever the going gets tough, the music keeps your spirits high. This is THE best game to come out from LucasArts (yes, they made this in-house - no outsourcing) EVER!

Baritone voices sing old Mandalorian war songs: (all songs are available for download at the site. I recommend VODE AN, RAGE OF THE SHADOW WARRIORS, and GRAT'UA CUUN, as well as the ambient tunes THE JUNGLE FLOOR, COMM INTERFERENCE, and KACHIRHO BY NIGHTVISION)

Kandosii sa ka'rta, Vode an.

(One indomitable heart, Brothers all.)

Coruscanta a'den mhi, Vode an.

(We, the wrath of Coruscant, Brothers all.)

Bal kote, darasuum kote, Jorso'ran kando a tome.

(And glory, eternal glory, We shall bear its weight together.)

Sa kyr'am Nau tracyn kad, Vode An.

(Forged like the saber in the fires of death, Brothers all.)

This music can literally set your blood on fire as you play the game and immerses you into the world of the Commando. It's the BEST soundtrack a game ever had. PERIOD!

You fight hand-to-hand as well as with your DC-17 modified blaster. Every close hit is rewarded with a generous splatter of sickly yellow geonosian blood on your face, which your helmet visor wipes with a laser wiper.

 Delta-38 "Boss" - Delta Leader

 Delta-07 "Sev" - Sniper / Weapons

 Delta-62 "Scorch" - Demolitions

 Delta-40 "Fixer" - Slicer (Hacker) / Tech

You issue commands to your 3 brothers - Delta 07, Delta 40, and Delta 62. Each has a distinct personality and voice (just coz you're clones don't mean you can't have a different accent - which are picked up from their respective instructors). You have the voice of Jango Fett - which was marvelously voiced by Temeura Morrison himself.

The missions are fast paced, dangerous, and set in breathtaking environments. And when you set NIGHT VISION on, it feels more real than a movie. The visuals look as if it is REAL. Just plain real. Mind boggling.

The game is based on the Unreal II engine (modified, of course). It shames the graphics of Unreal II. Then again, Unreal II was shameful in many ways. But the engine is, in fact, quite cool. Republic Commando shows its power very nicely.

The whole game often doesn't feel like a Star Wars game. The credits music is high-pitched rock music. The soundtrack is Mandalorian war chants. And the only time you see a lightsaber is when you see a deadbody of a Clone trooper who tried to use it. That's when your character says "An elegant weapon for a more civilized time. Well, guess what ... times have changed!"

I wish they would've added a mission from Episode III, where they escort Obi-Wan to Utapal. 3 missions seem a bit "small" once you've played it 6 times in 4 days. But it still rocks. Especially the one-liners. "Baby wookies? Nah, too cute." or "Boss, we gotta place a charge here, and I'm not saying this 'cause I like to blow stuff up."

The end is cool too. Very military-movie like. And you get a special appearance by General Greivous and Master Yoda. George Lucas took interest in the game too. It was his idea to give colored, personalized armor to each Commando - something he was thinking of doing in Episode III.

I recommend you go see the trailer on www.swcommando.com and then listen to the music and download the demo, and then order the game!!

It runs FANTASTIC on a GeForce FX / 128MB. Though a gig of RAM didn't hurt. :) And don't be afraid of this game if you're not so good with games like Rainbow-Six and all - this is more suitable for the Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 players. Just go download the damn, demo! NOW, soldier!

Delta Squad, move out!

KACHIRHO BY NIGHTVISION

There is also a book based on this game by Karen Traviss, called STAR WARS: Republic Commando - HARD CONTACT. Cool book. Worth reading.

Following the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (which I haven't seen yet, thank you, and shut up) the Mondays gang whupped ass with a super funny Star Wars themed episode of Mondays. Your's truly had the honor of being part of it behind-the-scenes with a bunch of photoshopped (or rather PhotoPaint'd) images of ... well ... something of what Star Wars is like after the weekend. Go check out the show and find out more. Here's a sample: http://shrinkster.com/5ev

I was so busy with making these images and juggling projects (as well fencing comments about my not seeing Sith yet) that I even forgot to mention it here!!!! Check out the show here: http://mondays.pwop.com/default.aspx?showID=22 - and NO, I didn't make the Chewie & Leia image. Even *I* have some dignity. Although, I did find it on the net. :-P

I recently got hooked on to using Shrinkster.com a lot thanks to listening to .NET Rocks and Mondays

If you don't know what Shrinkster is, it's a website where you enter a large url (for example, a blog link, or a long search URL) and it shrinks it to something like http://shrinkster.com/4x9 - it's small, it's permanent, and it's free. No strings attached.

The thing is, sometimes I want to give a link to someone about something quickly and it is just a pain in the ass to open the browser, go to the site, and make the URL. So, I shrinksterized the process...

Behold... shrinksterNuke! This handy app creates a shrinkster URL from the shrinkster website automatically! You just enter the URL and boom - it's done. It even keeps history and has easy tracking built in.

You can download it at: http://shrinkster.com/5bl

It is a beta release. It has some bugs and tracking is not fully implemented. You can send feedback via the comments link here, or mail me directly. I'd love to hear what you think, and if you find it useful, share it with your friends.

A thanks to Karl Moore and his wonderful component WebZinc.net which handles the core functions for this app. Go buy his app! Now!

NOTE: ShrinksterNuke is built on Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.50215. You will need the .NET Runtime (same version) installed. It is available at: http://shrinkster.com/5bn

I've been waiting for a long time to actually show off my bike! This is where I REALLY start liking having my own blog. :)

This baby is a 150cc, 3-stroke, 5 gear Bajaj PULSAR. I call it the "Pulsar Skate", named after Mirax Terrik's cargo freighter, so the naming credit goes to Michael A. Stackpole.

The Skate still gives me about 70km per litre, and it has run just over 9000 kilometers. I don't go into town frequently. I live close to the hills, and I often go there for hiking and photography.

I've been waiting to customize it, but it keeps getting delayed. If nothing else, I'm going to put those warning stripes in the central and aft body "recesses" - the two long bevels.

The Skate weighs exactly 267 kilograms, which is about 3 average human males combined! It's a drag (no pun intended) when I have to drag it for about 12 kilometers from the hills back to town when I get a flat! It can top at about 120kmph, tho I haven't dared take it beyond 100. And that's only coz there were potholes the size of the Grand Canyon. Wait till I go on the national highway.