Well, not really an easter egg, but it is fun to find.

Carl was taking pictures to use in the first show and the intro. He started messing around with his guitar and took a photo and sent it to me to clean it up. I was waiting for 7GB worth of video to be rendered (which obviously takes a LONG time) so I had time on my hands. Carl came back and asked if I was able to clean it up. Here is what he got:

dnrTV.com is now online with the premiere episode featuring Miguel Castro. This a must-see for anyone interested in web controls or ASP.net in general! (I got a sneak peek yesterday).

The Flash animations (Intro etc.) were done by Nukeation, as well as the site design and some minor stuff in the actual show animations. And if anyone finds the show too large in terms of bytes, count your blessings. Carl and I have slammed literally GIGABYTES of data into this few MBs.

We'd love your feedback! See the contact page on the site, or mail me.

And this is just the beginning. Expect some super cool shows and more.

Okay, not really zero hour, but it's zero day. dnrTV is gonna be launched at midnight EST, from the Pwop HQ in New London. Keep watching dnrTV.com for more info. Everyone has been working their ass off the past few days, and the result will be fantastic!!

I just might end up having dnrTV as a case study on Nukeation. There's some extensive Flash stuff involved here. Fingers crossed.

Here's what I plan to read this month and possibly into the next:

DragonLance

~ Chronicles Trilogy

(read) Dragons of Autumn Twilight

(reading) Dragons of Winter Night

Dragons of Spring Dawning

~ Legends Trilogy

Time of the Twins

War of the Twins

Test of the Twins

~ War of Souls Trilogy

Dragons of a Fallen Sun

Dragons of a Lost Star

Dragons of a Vanished Moon

Star Wars

Path to Truth

Dangerous Games

The Master of Disguise

The School of Fear

The Shadow Trap

~

The Fight to Survive

Legacy of the Jedi

Secrets of the Jedi

Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader

~

The Unseen Queen

------------------------------------

A rare occurance here is that I've put off reading the Star Wars books (and not just books I'm re-reading, these are NEW BOOKS!) until I've read the Chronicles, Legends, and War of Souls books. And the 2/3 of these I've already read! I just can't get enough of Raistlin!! :D

http://www.hanselminutes.com/

Go check it out! Very cool premiere episode.

After 6 months and 10 days of slaving over 23 designs (will post the process here later) Nukeation.com has finally been updated. This is version 19 (if you count the officially published versions) based on the layout codenamed "REGENERATE".

HanselMinutes, dnrTV and the other new shows are not yet in the portfolio. They will be added as soon as the sites go live.

Please feel free to visit www.nukeation.com and check out our new services including: Blog Design, WinFX/WPF consulting, Multimedia Services, and more. We've also added a PROCESS page where we show you how projects are done and what it is like working with us.

Feel free to mail (or comment here) any comments, questions, suggestions, or critisizms.

A thought provoking (or not) email conversation I just had with a friend.

Dax: My brain is dual-core – and both are unstable.

Andy: dual core?  Hmm,, I have 40000000000000000000 gig of brain power, just no refresh cycle.  you get 1hz of processing power, then all the knowledge is gone.

Dax: Wanna trade?

Andy: Trade what?

This week is gonna be great. We have so many sites being launched in this week and possibly the next as well. Here's a partial list:

.NET Rocks - version 3 (2nd version after Pwop hired Nukeation)

Franklins.net - Carl Franklin's training company and the creator/sponsor of DNR

dnrTV (premiere show is with Miguel Castro about WebControls)

HanselMinutes (too "large" to explain, just wait and see)

Mondays - version 3 (same as DNR)

ThatIndigoGirl - Michele Leroux Bustamante's new blog about Windows Communication Foundation - a sister site to www.DasBlonde.net

MattStawicki.com (may be delayed to next week or so)

DigitalExile.net - I finally get to update my painting and photo galleries.

And last but not least, NUKEATION.com - yes, the big update I've been threatening to upload!

I leave you with some marketing (but still true) text in relation to tomorrow's update:

Our marketing is centered on our big milestone - the 78 billion pixels. Here's some extra info to awe you into giving us a new project or two...

Calculating at 96dpi, the average resolution of a monitor - 78,000,000,000 pixels (rounded off for convenience) equals 67,708,333.33 feet (excluding socks) which equals to 20,637.49 kilometers - which is MORE than THREE TIMES THE RADIUS OF THE EARTH! FYI, that's 19,134.405km at the equator according to Wikipedia. The base calculation is of a "strip" that has 96 pixels in one inch of.

Being responsible for a big (79%) piece of that pixel pie, I am suddenly feeling tired looking at those numbers. Excuse me, I need a nap.

PS. Big shout out to Jessica Pletcher. She may not have her own website for me to link to :P but she is responsible for almost 12% of these pixels!

I got this in my junk mail folder. Its nice to see people sending jokes in spam now.

---

Dear Intending partner,

This mail may not be surprising to you if you have been following current events in the international media with reference to the Middle East and Palestine in particular.

I am Mrs. SUHA ARAFAT, the wife of YASSER ARAFAT, the Palestinian leader who died recently in Paris. Since his death and even prior to the announcement, I have been thrown into a state of antagonism, confusion, humiliation, frustration and hopelessness by the present leadership of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the new Prime Minister. I have even been subjected to physical and psychological torture. As a widow that is so traumatized, I have lost confidence with everybody in the country at the moment.

You must have heard over the media reports and the Internet on the discovery of some fund in my husband secret bank account and companies and the allegations of some huge sums of money deposited by my husband in my name of which I have refuses to disclose or give up to the corrupt Palestine Government. In fact the total sum allegedly discovered by the Government so far is in the tune of about $6.5 Billion Dollars. And they are not relenting on their effort to make me poor for life. As you know, the my community has no regards for woman, hence my desire for a foreign assistance. You can visit the BBC news broadcast below for better understanding of what I am talking about; [URL ripped out]

I have deposited the sum of 20 million dollars with a private security firm abroad whose name is withheld for now until we open communication. I shall be grateful if you could receive this fund into your bank account for safe keeping and any Investment opportunity.

This arrangement is known to you and my personal Attorney. He might be dealing with you directly for security reasons as the case may be.In view of the above, if you are willing to assist for our mutual benefits, we will have to negotiate on your Percentage share of the $20,000,000 that will be kept in your position for a while and invested in your name for my trust pending when my Daughter, Zahra, will come off age and take full responsibility of her Family Estate/inheritance.

Please note that this is a golden opportunity that comes once in life time and more so, if you are honest, I am going to entrust more funds in your care as this is one of the legacy we keep for our children.

In case you don't accept please do not let me out to the security and international media as I am giving you this information in total trust and confidence I will greatly appreciate if you accept my proposal in good faith. Please expedite action and all response to my email address below. NB / Please reply to : suha_arafat7@myway.com

Yours sincerely,

Mrs. Suha Arafat

---

Of course, if any of you want to try, please feel free. :)

Working day and night (almost literally) I have come to realize that Earth has very few hours in a day. The noise people make around my house when I sleep during the day is an extra nuisance. I mean, I don't yell "C'mon, kids get ready for school" 20 minutes after they go to bed.

Working on a new blog layout, a new version of www.DigitalExile.net, a new version of Nukeation.com that I've been threatening to upload since August, and what not. Of course, top priority goes to my clients and especially Carl's new shows releasing during the next week.

NukeBall is now at a stand-still until we get all this done. It's not something I can leave completely to subordinates (sorry, guys, but you know its true). Thankfully, a couple of nice people have agreed to use a pre-beta of NukeBall and help me out with testing and usability. We're NOT going to release this software until we make sure you're going to get a product which is worth at least twice as much for each cent you pay for it!

So if I can only think of a way to create a good living environment on Mars, and avoid the little green men while at it, and find a good renewable fuel source so I can come back to Earth for meetings every once in a while, I will definetely move to Mars.

The "Dark Vista" blog theme I made is giving me too many headaches. I'm switching back to "Regenerate" until I can properly make a new theme (all white, I'm giving a up black...*sniff*... for the moment).

Do note that the "my.Statistics" on the right are completely old. For those of you who care (really?!) here's the latest:

Listening: EvilDoers, Lord of the Rings OST, John Williams and the Skywalker Symphony special edition disc, or Franklin Brothers (and a couple of songs by Rory Blyth). Depends on what I'm doing. Instrumental soundtracks are best while making designs or doing heavy code. Rory's ode to Chris Sells works ten times better than black coffee.

Writing: NukeBall Helpfile, that's it

Reading: Ava...uhh WPF reference in MSDN ... and hating every second of it

Playing: Was playing Knights of the Old Republic for a while, but completing the game 6 times in a row can make it lose it's magic ... will revert to Republic Commando this weekend if I get time from work

Coding: DNR Family of websites, a few blogs (except my own), three client software projects, nukeation.com revamp, NukeBall, Nukeation PixelSpread(tm), Nukeation XCOPY(tm), and NukeControls.

Dax != Sleeping == true; .... I know, no wonder I get lost in C#

Awaiting: Republic Commando 2, KOTOR3, TES IV: Oblivion, Windows Vista, Half-Life 3, WPF and CIDER's next build, and breakfast. It's 6am and I need to get some sleep!!!

If you don't know, DragonLance is a part of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. It exists as RPG but my interest in it has been for two different reasons: the first is, or rather are, the books written by Margeret Weis and Tracy Hickman set in this fantastical world. If you like Lord of the Rings you would like this. It's a bit more "hands-on" than LOTR, and you get to see more "magic".

There are many books and I've lost touch with it. But the main essence is built on three trilogies. The first trilogy, The Chronicles, is about the "Return of the Gods". The second triogy, Legends, is about two main characters from the first trilogy - the Majere Twins.

The third trilogy, The War of Souls is something I have not read. I was looking for some stuff on Rediff Shopping and stumbled on a gift set of th War of Souls trilogy - all three books (NOT trade paperback) for just $15! I ordered it immediately and hope to recieve it within the next few days. After 200+ comics and 130+ novels of Star Wars, I think a short break would do me good. I already read a good book called BLEACHERS by John Grisham.

I mentioned two reasons for liking DragonLance. The second is Matt Stawicki. The first two trilogies are about a couple of decades old. The old artwork for the books was terrible to say the least. In the 90s the Wizards of the Coast, publisher of DragonLance, hired this amazing artist to redo the covers of the old books and a lot of artwork for the new books as well as trading cards and stuff I don't know about. In 2001, I had the honor of doing Matt's website. I'm a big fan of his. I have five of his autographed paintings on my office wall. In the next few weeks I'll be updating Matt's website with all new artwork. Be sure to check out his work at http://www.mattstawicki.com. One painting in particular is my (and coincidentally Matt's) favorite - Time of the Twins. I'll post a hi-res photo of this painting later.

The War of Souls features his artwork too, of course. And I can't wait to get my hands on it!

And I'm still gonna keep quite!

I saw a wonderful quote on Nathan Dunlap's blog:

Here is a great quote from Bill Buxton:

"My sense is that Microsoft is in transition from an engineering-led company to...a design-led company," he said. "There are more designers at Microsoft on any single team as there were, not too long ago, in the entire company. It's a wonderful change."

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6001234.html

I for one couldn't be happier. It's the design revolution!! The streets will be colored in Window.Resource and often ignored lowly designers will make the face of the software industry. Go pixel pushers!

Yes, I know. This new "look" is not all I thought it would be. It's a pain to read online as some have mentioned, and I messed up some CSS so the admin pages are pretty messed up.

I intend to clean it up with a nice non-black look over the weekend if I have time. I have a dozen sites to do including the new family of DNR/Pwop shows, not to mention get my own business site up with all the new services we have announced and an updated portfolio.

I just might have to forget about sleeping this year as well. Now I know how Santa Claus feels the next morning! Where's that bourbon?

I recently described the parameters that when fulfilled would make the person pathetic.

I've heard your futile excuses about why you met the parameters but aren't really pathetic. And I know who didn't say anything but DID read it! I have a hits log, remember? Yes, I know who you are, bub!

But let me soothe your pain and help you sleep easier. If my post was code, it wouldn't compile. And if it did compile, it would not return any results.

I said "If you're reading this at midnight on the 31st...". Do note WHEN the post was actually posted. January 1, 2006. So, you're not pathetic.

Of course, if its a matter of being in a later timezone and were reading at midnight, and as we all know time is curved, and that time does not exist, however time exists simultaneously accross all time, and if the past takes place in the future, and the future has effects in the past, and the same reason applies to why John Conner can't escape his future, however box office figures dictate when and how the past or the future can be changed and inconsitencies in the fabric of the space-time continuum can be ironed out with flashy special effects, so you are, in fact, pathetic.

I wonder what my old English teacher would say about my grammar.

Check out the newly updated http://www.dasblonde.net/ featuring a blog we customized for MLB.

WARNING: We're dealing with unsupported, pre-release software and a half-assed attempt to force an installation that was explicitly denied. Don't try this on your production PC! Attempt at your own risk!

I downloaded the 1GB Windows SDK from http://msdn.microsoft.com/winfx/ with the December CTP for WinFX. I wanted to try out the new Visual Designer for XAML/Avalon codenamed "CIDER".

Anyways, I install the DecCTP runtime for WinFX. Then run the setup for SDK and it fails on me saying the Runtime version mismatches with the SDK. It is clearly not the case, since I uninstalled and reinstalled the latest runtime 3 times.

The installation went smoothly in Windows Vista and on XP SP2 on my Tablet. So I kinda manually ran the SDK installer manually. Here's what I did in case someone else has the same problem.

1. Install the Dec CTP WinFX runtime
2. Run the following installations in this specific order: (this is the SDK DVD image you can run virtually or burn to a disc)

i. msh_setup-i386.msi
ii. WinSDK-x86.msi
iii. dbg_x86.msi
(optionally also run dexplore.msi but often not required)

3. Run the VS Extensions with CIDER.

This should install everything ok. The main installer program is kinda messed up but this works a-ok. I have Cider running nicely now. I do get some errors now and then, but I think that's because its a beta/CTP.

I will start posting sourcecode of the two XAML samples I'm making - FXAurek and FXBesh.

... you need to get a life! You're pathetic. Almost as pathetic as someone writing this on his blog at midnight on the 31st. :P

It's 2006 in India. So if you're in another (late) timezone, this is a message from the future - HAPPY NEW YEAR! Tomorrow's a Sunday. Get drunk. Get a royal hangover.

I'm a VB guy. BASIC runs in my veins. I was programming in BASIC on my Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ when I was 4. But suddenly, I find myself trapped in a world of C#!

The project was a highly customized blog running the dasBlog engine for Michele Leroux Bustamante. The problem is that dasBlog is all in C# (1.1/2003!). I have done very little work in C#. And now I know why.

Just getting a simple data editing webform to work is like battling a Krayt Dragon while being blindfolded! I did manage to finish the work, but it was painful! Now I'm led to believe that one of the following is the case:

• Visual Basic users are spoilt and can't live without autocomplete and automatic code formatting
• C# is terribly unproductive
• I was drunk and I didn't know it (quite possible) or as they say in C# [quite possible]
• C# just plain sucks, while VB just plain rocks
• VB just plain ROCKS, while C# just plain sucks
• I had a terrible dream, like the one where I'm being chased by angry country singers
• {your opinion here}
• {your other opinion here}
• or as a C#'er told me, "try C++, then you will see how easy C# is"

'Nuff said.

Carefully look at the picture below. On top, marked in red, you will see the title of application. On the bottom, also marked in red, you will see an advertisement for the application itself.

C'mon, how hard can selective/filtered advertising be? This is like a commercial of a TV show being shown WHILE THAT SHOW IS ON. I mean, that's just stupid. Where the hell is all the personalization we keep hearing about, huh?

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.

The new version of the site will be launched on 1st January along with a ton of new content - including a new MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY gallery, and the new series of paintings entitled "Liquid Carnage"

... when Dad starts imitating the Grinch ... or maybe its a natural pose. :-P

My blog has always been reflective of nukeation.com, and nukeation.com has always been reflective of my current "mood". With Vista and Aero and Avalon taking up most of my mental bandwidth, I crafted Digital Exile to look like the upcoming Nukeation.com "skin" which is reflective of Vista and the new "glass" stuff I've been experimenting with.

I also wanted to remove the clutter of the previous design. I finally added a slideshow in this upgrade. It's Flash based, and runs on XML, so I'll be updating it often.

Another addition is the ANNOUNCEMENTS panel where upcoming projects in which I'm involved are listed (and linked, if possible).

As always, please feel free to send comments about how you love or hate the new design.

Have you ever noticed that there is a very thin line between cute and creepy when it comes to children's things. For example, CLOWNS. They scare me!

Maybe it has to do with growing up watching the Joker on Batman. Then again, if you take in the 60s Batman show, well, Batman scared me more than Joker in that one.

Darth Maul, the guy who scared everyone, was inspired by conceptul artist, Ian McCaig's fears of clowns.

Forget clowns. Take any nursery rhyme. Empty the stage, add some soft hollow music, or worse a simple monotonous piece of piano music, and with just a small twist in the voice, you can make a cutesy-pie children's song into something that will haunt you for the rest of your life.

If the children are the future, and an asset we need to safeguard, then why subject them to such cruel things?! If I had a kid, I would feel much better if he or she had a Darth Vader doll and practiced force-choking people than have a clown with shiny eyes!

Excuse me, I gotta go throw away some of my niece's toys!

If you can hook up a security camera with a face recognition software and some minor hydraulics to change your normal welcome mat with one of these... hmm... it could work. Would be nice. "Selective welcome insults".

Since Beta 1, I've been trying out the cool custom control features of Visual Studio 2005. And along the way, I've made some controls for in-house applications and some other projects. Now, you know me - I'm graphical to the core. These are super sweet looking eye-candy controls, and with solid functionality (as far as I know!).

Take a look at some of the controls:

Nukeation Navigator was inspired by VISTA and Microsoft's corporate site design. It has back-next navigation in a single control with 6 different themes ("Aero Glass", "Pure Liquid", "Jungle", "Nuke" [of course], "Lava", and "Rainbow").

Nukeation Progressbar is a chunk from the upcoming software NukeBall. We use this heavily for simple progress display. Very cool looking.

Nukeation Panel is a subclassed version of the standard Panel control. But this one has a gradient background, dropshadow, and a TITLE and DESCRIPTION property - ideal for wizards or dialog headers! Supports custom colors, 6 in-built color schemes, or OS-theme.

nProgress is old (from 1.1), but was ported to 2.0 and had some new functionality added to it. This is a fixed-size progress control with some seriously cool graphics! The "downloader" of PwopCatcher created by Carl Franklin uses this very progress bar.

I'm trying to fix some problems in nRange a range meter that shows 3 different ranges (ex: blue 5-10, green 8-23). If that is done, I'll pack it in.

Uhh... pack it in to what? Well, NukeControls! A freeware pack of cool aforementioned controls for .NET 2.0!

 

These controls will be released under the "I don't give a damn what you do with it, but some credit would be appreciated" license. More on this later.

Let's start with the "symbolic" big-wig of Vista - the ROUND Start button. It seriously looks cool, and I spent a hundred clicks on it just to see it light up.

When you jump into "COMPUTER", formerly "MY COMPUTER", you are greeted by the new cool Hard Drive icons (the Flagged Drive is a leftover icon, I think, from the previous builds).

This weekend, I might install 5270 on my HP TC1100 Tablet. Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on how fast (and if) I can restore to my EXTREMELY customized settings. But when I do install Vista on the Tablet, the EXTRA LARGE icons will be a big blessing!

Alright, I'm too tired to go on. I need some sleep and then back to work. More soon!

PS. The customizable AERO interface is much sweeter!!

By the Force! This build rocks. The installer looks better, the startup process is looking better, the new round START button just plain rocks!

They finally added the RUN feature right into START SEARCH. I need to install Corel Capture and start taking screenshots! This is the most bloggable thing since... since... build 5231. :-P

Seriously tho, they've really improved Windows. There's still no sidebar in this build, as far as I know.

Damn... too excited to write anything. Need to get some work done. Will blog again (with screenshots) before I go to bed. Arrgh. This is too exciting for my poor ol' ticker!

13MB left ... 3 minutes...

preparing to write DVD...

feels like morphine.

Yes, I'm a big freakin' corporate monster lover who loves Microsoft and IE, and hates the underdogs like Google and Firefox (which is just plain dog than an underdog). Yes, I'm evil. Get over it.

Paul Thurrott's story AOHELL - Google Sells Soul to Stop Microsoft just made my da... night (its 1:30am).

Google is just as bad as the rest of 'em (and Firefox is not that far away either, people!). This is like politics or law. People may enter to change the world, but when they get a taste of power, or get tangled in the tangled webs they weave, heh, it's all the same. Don't get me wrong, there are good politicians (!= "W") and there are good lawyers (like mine). But there are plenty of bad dudes out there.

In any case, now you know. Google s-u-c-k-s!

"Google is not the trustworthy corporate giant that some people imagine, though the company's track record, including its close work with China's totalitarian government, should have already made that clear." -- Paul Thurrott

Yes. I have DSL this time. Build 5270 (of which I'm an official beta tester who was just given his Christmas gift 5 minutes ago) is now downloading on a 512kbps line (much better than the 64k I had the last time around). 11 hours and some minutes to go.

Or just plain go see a psychiatrist?

Today, I desiged the 234th design of Nukeation.com. Yes, 2-3-4! While we have published only 14 or 15 (I lost count) versions, I have created (and scrapped) so many other designs. No one from my team is allowed to touch the nukeation website without my supervision, and I always make the site myself.

Are these early signs of OCD? Maybe. Should I be proud that I've made over 200 designs in roughly 400 days in total? Or should I check in to the nearest psychiatric clinic?

Sigh. Well, in any case, Nukeation Studios is updating all of its network sites this 23rd - including nukeation.com and nukeball.com. Perhaps digitalExile.net too (the 3 people who see the site will be very happy).

I might even start documenting how I make these websites - might be fun to let others into the depths of my weird imagination and totally bleak mind.

...sucked!

3 Dwarves felt Happy. So Happy got up and left.

 

I didn't create this! Don't punch me!

It's 2:45am. My eyes are watering, my hands are cold (its freezing!), I still have a ton of work to do, but I haven't been this happy in a long time!

Less than 10 minutes ago, we just added complete support for Managed Visual C++ 2005 in NukeBall!! We had six VPCs running with 12 different builds and we finally got the code done.

Yes, the colors are AWFUL, but don't worry, we'll use Windows Vista based screenshots on the official site when we update it on 23rd December.

I'm happy that we will be able to give the power of NukeBall to the *ahem* "serious developers" (yup, we VB'ers just have fun, we don't do any REAL world ... hoo boy).

It's that time of the year again. Last year I started doing websites for Carl Franklin. Carl and I worked together to create a cool componentized website which sort of became an engine that was reused on many different websites including Mondays, the upcoming 64-bit Question, and many others.

Nukeation is currently working on revamping all the existing sites and upgrading to ASP.net 2.0 as well creating some brand new ones. See Carl's blog for more info.

The new year will be .netalicious! I for one can't wait to see PwopCatcher in action.

See how to achieve minute control over positioning in HTML or ASP.net pages.