Yup. I did it. I just ordered me a Force FX vader lightsaber and a scaled replica of the Dooku's saber.

The Vader Lightsaber (on top, for the ignorant types - seriously, how could you not know the Dark Lord's blade?) has a red blade. Now all I need is one of those Vader masks to transmogrify my voice, and then a black cape. I will haunt the streets at night, waving a red lightsaber and scaring the stuffings out of the public!

Okay, so I'll just eagerly show it to friends and display it proudly in my office (along with the 80s authentic Snow Speeder model, the Delta-38 helmet I'm gonna make soon, and my almost half dozen Golden Web Awards ).

So, the statistics are:

~185 novels

~219 comics

~15 games

~2 lightsabers

~0 costumes (can't join the 501st yet, but that's a topic for another blog post)

Does this make me a freak? Hmmm. Be careful of your answer. Say the wrong thing and you just might have a red lightsaber'd phantom menace on your ass!! I may not control the Force, but I can sure kick your behind with an aluminum lightsaber!

The expensive replicas are next, but a bit farther into the future. My psychiatrist has suggested I start spending my money on food and clothes. Oh well.

Do note, my comments are only to inflame my C# opponent. I really don't hate C# nor do I seriously mean the stuff I say. Our friend "MC C#" keeps saying anti-VB/pro-C# stuff every hour on the hour. Suddenly, while I'm working, I get a message:

MC C# says: if there was a soccer match between vb team & C# team who will win?

Dax says: C#

<MC C# is presumably shocked by my reply>

Dax says: coz VB programmers are serious programers, they dont know how to play sports

Matt Stawicki of DragonLance art fame, (www.mattstawicki.com) is having his site done as I mentioned earlier. I noticed this image (which I hadn't seen before) on Margaret Weis' site and I had to blog it. It's by Matt (of whom I'm a HUGE fan).

"Ashes and Amber" by Matt Stawicki

Notice the hand of God moving the Khas piece!

I've finished Matt's site and have sent it to him for review. When its done, you will be able to see many new paintings of his. I for one can't wait. I'm drooling already. Matt rates #1 in my book, along with Masamune Shirow.

Talking to a C# fan(atic) on MSN, I just realized something... I have been using BASIC in one form or the other since 1987 - NINETEEN YEARS! I'm kriffin' OLD! OMG!

I started with a British machine called Sinclair ZXSpectrum with 48kb of RAM, then ZXSpectrum+ 128(kb)RAM. I remember coding silly little programs in 128BASIC where you make a small 8x8 pixel "spider" and it drops from the top of the screen to the "floor" and creeps away to the right. Oh man! That brings back memories. I used VB 1 through 3, but not that seriously. I started into the Visual world seriously with VB4, professionally with VB5 and onwards.

So I guess this makes me a (V)B Veteran. Okay, the next person to say "dude, use C#" is gonna get slugged.

You know stress is getting the better of you when you start talking to your toilet like Palpy. So I am going (finally) on a vacation sometime in late-february. Nukeation will not be taking new projects, so less worries there. My designers will be able to handle the few remaining projects without me. And I will get 7 whole days of carefree... carefree... uh, I don't know ... I will figure out what to do. Or not do anything at all. Just lounge around (note to self: buy lounge music CD) or play video games. As much as I love code, I don't want to see a single angle bracket. I might even get time to finish my series of paintings I started, and eventually get around to updating Digital Exile as well! I just might end up working my ass of instead of all this, but hey, I can dream can't I?

It's 3:23am. I have to stay up about 6 more hours. I have to finish a project that has a severe deadline. I have a Skype conference scheduled with another client in 2 hours. I'm wasting valuable time I should be spending on debugging and testing on blogging!

Usually I can't sleep (I'm a very light sleeper, being an avid depressed pessimist and all, y'know) and today when I need to keep awake, I keep eyeing my bed (I work from a home office most of the time). There's a good movie on (Bicentennial Man) which I can't see because I'm working (heh, blogging more like). I have 11 Ghost in the Shell manga I picked up that I haven't read. I have The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal installed, but haven't played. I have 6 articles I need to write that I haven't written. I have this cut on my left ring finger which stings like hell sometimes. I have a wireless keyboard that needs new batteries which I'm too lazy to go out and pick up (besides, everything is closed at 3:30 in the morning). And if you haven't noticed, I have lost the point I was trying to make or maybe I did make it and then kept on rambling. The crux of the matter is, usually I can't sleep (I'm a very light sleeper, being an avid depressed pessimist and all, y'know) and today when I need to keep awake, I keep eying my bed (I work from a home office most of the time). What did you say? Short term memory loss? Nope. I don't have it. Uhh... not that I can remember. Hmm.

It has happened before and before that too, and it is happening again. There's something about the toilet and Star Wars (uh oh, I just gave SW-haters an opening)... anyway, I am... uhh... y'know, doing the thing and suddenly the flush won't work. So, what do I do? I pull up my hood (I was wearing a hoody, coincidentaly... a black one that hid my face) and point to the flush handle and say:

"I know you want to. Flush it down and fulfill your destiny."

Nothing happened.

"Your feelings betray you. You hate the smell too. Do it!"

Nothing still. But I can sense a change. The impatience.

"Only I have the power to save Padmé."

Padmé? Padmé! What the fierfek...? As realization set in that I was mumbling Palpy's dialogs, I could feel the flush handle look at me quizically. I called the full power of the Dark Side, felt it swarm my very being, and I yelled UHHHNNN-LIHMITED POWWWWERRRR!! and slapped the handle again hard - and it flushed.

About 4 hours ago someone came to the blog with the following search on Google:

"images of cool dax" ... and apparently I have high listings in Google!

In an effort to better educate myself, I went blog-hopping to find some serious info about using WPF. Well, I couldn't find any in the 32 blogs I sifted. Everybody's still into animating the color of an ellipse or rotating a spline! I thought of picking up one of those book on WPF based on the old code, but thought better of it. Microsoft changed a lot of stuff in the past few revisions. The best way to learn, imho, is to get all the info you can and then make something yourself.

So, this weekend, I'm gonna spend my 6-hours of peace like I did last week. This time, I'm not experimenting. I've done 20 people's share of experimenting. I'm now a self-proclaimed expert on WPF (who had over 90 errors in his latest WPF app). While I will let the people who read this decide how smart I am (about WPF, off-topic smartness ratings - especially negative ones - will be ignored), I do intend to write a small application - with a companion walkthrough narrative - that shows how to REALLY use the animation capabilities of WPF to animate and reanimated controls to adjust according to the data, when switching between Views, and so on.

Hopefully, and work permitting, I will be able to complete it over the weekend itself.

This is a tentative list of WPF related examples I will be making soon. If anyone wants to see anything else, please drop me a line and I'll do my best to write about it.

1. Browser apps with WPF
2. Walkthrough: Themeing your application
3. Real-world applications with WPF 3D
4. Working with Brushes
5. Bitmap Effects
6. Serious and practical uses of the animation model (aka Abusing the Timeline)
7. Using audio and video in WPF applications
8. EID 101

 

Over a quick dinner, I was going through the blog's logs (hey, that rhymes!) and here are the top 3 topics (not exact search strings) people google and stumble on my blog:

3: Star Wars / Philosophy about the Force

2: Avalon / WPF / WPF-E / WPF e-applications / WinFX

1: Republic Commando / Delta-38 & 07 & 40 & 62 / Vode An / Shadow Warriors / Fierfek (fyi, that's the Star Wars equivalent to the F word) / and the like

This apparently this would lead one to believe I'm more interested in the Deltas, Mando'a, and Katarn Armor than WPF. Don't let it fool you! WPF and the Deltas have an equal place in my heart. Unless Microsoft adds a knuckle-sheathed vibroblade - then WPF takes the #1 spot!! :D

Everything is now moved properly. I hope.

New blog format, "hub" design for the blog, new WinFX stuff, Labs, and more coming up next week. For now, I have to get back to work. I'm pushing 4 deadlines and they're killing me!!

This blog and any corresponding files will be unavailable within the next few hours as I switch servers. This is now being fused with Nukeation Labs. It will be back online within the next 24 hours at most.

I've had plans for a long time to create a special bridge website where me and the boys (and girl) at Nukeation Studios get to show off code, tools, and other cool stuff to our peers (and give it away for free). I started doing that on a miniscule level on this blog, but I'm not your traditional blogger. I can't keep my normal slapstick out of this blog, nor do I have time to manage two blogs (and frankly, I don't think anyone would read my slapstick-only blog anymore).

Eventually, the idea of Nukeation Labs (did you know Nukeation Studios was known as Nukeation Labs before it was legally made into a business entity?) became a bit more. Nukeation will be soon be making a new full fledged dive into Professional Tools development. We will be focusing on two audiences: graphics designers and software developers. With our new tools being planned for WinFX, both these will overlap at some point.

So, my goals (yes, I'll be managing the site singlehandedly at the moment) with Nukeation Labs are:

• Provide technical insight into tools and other projects we are doing
• Provide free source code samples for .NET, Web developement, and Windows Presentation Foundation (and WPF/E whenever that gets here)
• Provide free (and commercial) tools for software and graphics professionals
• Publicly discuss alpha projects that often never see the light of day, but might make for fun discussions.
• And more ... once I find someone to start managing the site. :)

Nukeation Labs will be available in a couple of weeks as soon as I move this blog to a new server. Nukeation Labs will be available at http://labs.nukeation.net/ - that is, once I move this on to a new server.

Microsoft, as far as I can tell, does not support Additive and Subtractive blend modes in Avalon. One performance hungry way to do this (Additive only) is to make your object 3D and then apply a EMMISSIVE shader to it. Works better if its a bitmap.

Nathan Dunlap told me he was able to simulate bled modes with the help of DirectX Filters. I think if it can be made into a simple reusable model, it would be perfect. Will experiment on it after February 10th.

Carrying on with the control editing theme for the moment, there are two essential ways a control can be customized. Like with ASP.net 2.0, you get an option "Edit Template" for many webcontrols. Likewise, EID gives you that option too. You can either a) edit the template - the actual vectors used to build the control, b) create a copy of the template to edit, or c) create a new template from scratch. With the buttons in FXBesh and FXCresh, I went with C. With the Expander and ProgressBar, I went with B.

Comparing to Flash or 3D Studio MAX on any other animation package out there, there is a big difference in hierarchy:

In Flash its Scene > Timeline > Layers/Objects with keyframes, with SCENE being the root of it all, and _ROOT being the root of the scenes.

In EID/WPF its different - and more dynamic - Scene > Objects. Notice that I did not put Timeline in this hierarchy - well, that's because timelines exist as resources which are attached to events. A timeline has one or more triggers which are attached to one or more objects' events. So you end up reusing a timeline for multiple events. And you can also specify in the trigger whether you want the timeline to start, stop, pause, etc. in a particular event.

And you can "animate" just about anything - ie, properties, values, shapes, etc. So each thing has its own part in the timeline.

Unlike Flash, you don't have to manage groups, layers, etc manually. They come in their own hierarchy.

Here is another app FXDorn - a 3D performance test. There are various triggers bound to different things. The 3D world contains a 3D object with the Play icon as it's shader material. The shader type is emissive therefore uses ADDITIVE blend mode. There are modifications to the default lighting.

FXDorn.zip (25.54 KB)

FXCresh is my next app made with EID. This time, we have Ball buttons based on the BallButton template, a customized gradient progressbar, and a custom-themed Expander control.

FXCresh.zip (51.79 KB) - Full source code is included. The built EXE is also there if you just want to see the app. Again, you will need the JanCTP of the WinFX Runtime. Also, if you run this in VPC, you will get only 20% of the performance.

I finally have my weekly 6 hours of peace. I will get back to work soon nuff, but I need to sink my teeth properly in EI/Sparkle. I thought it might be cool if I kept my blog open and kept scribbling as I went through the app. So this is gonna be a real log-style thing. <PicardVoice>Captain's log, stardate 24871.4.</PicardVoice>

I decided earlier (after dissecting the samples that come with EI) that the only way to get going with this deceptively small-sized package was to get my hands dirty. So I have a few applications planned:

FXAurek - customized styles on common controls. This is ByFar (or ByRef) gonna be the most used thing in Avalon, methinks. Skinning WinForms can often be like skinning a dragon (or do you scale a dragon? I don't know. I gave up dragonmeat after watching DragonHeart). Here, with a few simple lines of code, you can quickly create an app-wide skin - much like what Yahoo! has done with their Messenger. So that's the first project. Let's see how it goes.

Pro: The Worspace Zoom is fantastic! The flexibility is greatly helpful when you're working on 1600x1200 or higher.

[Going to code now]

Con: The tools (especially the "create" tools) don't switch back to the Pointer tool - quite annoying.

Pro: As I make the template (no code writen yet - all GUI!!) for the skin, I am finding the instant binding (see image below)...

... to be quite helpful. You just select the property, you get a menu, select TemplateBinding > [property-to-bind] and the object (a rectangle shape object in this case) gets its property value (height) from the control's property. Zero code still. Well, handwritten anyways. As far as I have seen, this kind of binding is available on all properties which can accept binding of any sort.

I have now created the metallic button with th Silver XP style colors (suggestion for Microsoft: Allow selection of SystemColors in the gradients et al.) and all that's left is create the animations for OnHover OnLeave and a ContentPresenter where the text will be shown.

[Back to coding...uhh, designing]

Okay, now I have two timelines that animate the gradient of the rectangle, and I've added the event-analogs of timelines - "triggers" - to each timeline (ie, MouseEnter and MouseLeave). Eventually we will need MouseDown and MouseUp too.

fxbesh_1.zip (6.54 KB) - I botched up in he gradient animation. I moved the GradientStops. I should've changed their colors!! You can see the stuff I've made so far by running this EXE in the zip. You will need the JanCTP of WinFX Runtime installed. It's about 16MB and can be found here.

Another suggestion for MS: Middle-click/mouse-scroll zoom/pan functionality is BADLY needed.

Con: <DataVoice>Captain, sensors show an anomaly.</DataVoice> A warning to all you Visual Studio devs trying your hand at EID: The "Library" (toolbox-analog) DOES NOT SUPPORT DRAGGING, nor does it create a control if you select it and click on the design surface. You have to draw manually.

Pro: Wanna see how scary a design workspace can be? Check out my personalized workspace in EID here. This is where the flexibility of EID's UI shines! Auto-collapse, auto-sizing. Wonderful. Just plain wonderful!!

I'm having a bit of trouble adding a ContentPresenter. It keeps wiping out the Rectangle I made. I've added the code manually. In hindsight, I think this was because there was no container control. Recommendation: Add a Grid or Canvas or something to the base of the ControlTemplate and put graphics and sub-controls on that. That should solve this problem.

Now I'm gonna bind the content presenter ... which in code looks like this:

<ContentPresenter Content="{TemplateBinding Content}"  />

Even in code, this is a quick and easy job!

Con: EID does not have IntelliSense and code coloring/formatting - YET. It does have basic coloring when you enter Code mode for VB or C#.

Beta-thing: Even when you make a VB project, the project icon has a green # on it. Guess MS still hasn't gotten all the icons decided yet. :P

Btw, in EID, when you highlight text anywhere, even the highlight is a gradient, rounded-corner rectangle! Is this sweet or what?!

Okay, going back to position the ContentPresenter.

[15 minutes later] ContentPresenter is now done. All properties are bound. Works like a charm. I changed the gradient to a more better looking one. The animation looks MUCH better now. It's still a bit chunky, but good enough for this exercise.

While making the skin for our second button, a ControlTemplate by the supercool name of "ButtonControlTemplate1" was created. It is part of the "Form"'s resources. So now, if you add a new button and select ButtonControlTemplate1 as it's template, voila - it will inherit that template. In the zip below you will find one more button in the app and it uses that template as well. The full XAML code and EID project is included. Click here to download it. Btw, I remembered I already had a project called FXAurek, so this one is now FXBesh.

Next: Messing with a List control - custom styles, custom formatting, and other cool stuff.

<WorfVoice>Q'pla!</WorfVoice>

WARNING: The code and downloads presented in this blog post are released under IDGAD License (I-Don't-Give-A-Damn). Feel free to use it anywhere you want.

This is my vision for the next Star Wars game. I doubt anyone at LucasArts is listening, but what the hell.

Based on either the new Unreal engine or the Doom 3 engine, or perhaps the The Elder Scrolls IV technology, a dark Imperial game called VADER. Looking at the world through rose-colored glasses has a whole new meaning. You see nothing but red. You feel nothing but emptiness and rage.

The game should be more focused on storyline than action, but still have a good balance of both - like Republic Commando! You are often joined by a special squad of stormtroopers from the 501st in a Republic Commando style gameplay - only this time, you do less of the same things they do. You face a handful of missions:

1. THE PURGE: Follow rumors of a Jedi in hiding, find him, and eliminate him. Employ bounty hunters, bargain with crime-bosses in the exceptionally hazardeous (to the opponent) Vader-Style. And finally - face a group of Jedi Knights and Padawans and kill them. But one Jedi-Padawan team escapes, much to your disappointment.
2. MISSION FROM THE EMPEROR: Take control of a planet that has refused to let the Empire rule their planet. Vader is sent to a mid-rim system with Grand Moff Tarkin. Employing supreme manipulation skills, you bend the situation to your will. Then finally you show you hand (and yourself) and capture the local resistance leader - and of course, execute him in public.
3. DARK INTERLUDE: After a few missions, you return to Imperial Center (formerly "Coruscant") and undergo dark training under the Emperor's guidance.
4. WRATH OF THE DARK LORD: On the way to another routine mission of intimidation in the Outer Rim, Vader's shuttle is crippled by pirates who think Vader to be just a stormtrooper in black armor. Taken aboard a salvaged Acclamator class Old Republic Assault Ship (like the one that carried the clones in Episode II) you battle the pirates, take control of the ship while suddenly learning dark powers in your rage that the Emperor never taught you - Force lightning. While not able to fully employ it like the Emperor, it still is a useful Force power.
5. LOOSE ENDS: Your network of spies report sightings of the Jedi and his Padawan that escaped your grasp. Vader takes four stormtroopers to Kli-44 - an almost uninhabited planet near Hutt Space. You battle a small group of resistance fighters who were thinking of starting a galactic rebellion and were harboring Jedi. When you are ready kill all of them, the Jedi and his Padawan appear. The Jedi comes forward to duel the Dark Lord in hopes to kill him, or at least give the others time to evacuate. The horrified Padawan watches the Sith cleave his master in two. As the only Jedi here, and being responsible for the rebels, he escapes with them.
6. INTERLUDE - JEDI HUNTER: An injured Vader returns to Imperial Center to find a Force-user who calls himself a Jensaarai (from "I, Jedi" by Michael A. Stackpole), wanting employ in the Dark Lord's service. As a Jedi Hunter. Vader calls him foolish. He offers to prove himself. Without warning Vader activates his lightsaber. The young Jensaarai uses his own lightsaber to defend himself. Then gives in to his anger and starts fighting Vader in earnest. A small but four-part duel level taking place in Vader's chambers, on the balconies, in the hallways, and on the observation platform of the Imperial Palace. You obviously kill him.
7. DO NOT HESITATE, SHOW NO MERCY: Plagued by a very un-Jedi like thirst for revenge, the young Padawan trains himself for two years and with the help of the rebels he saved, gets himself to the dark lower levels of Nar Shadaa - the smuggler's moon. Vader gets a smell of this and goes to Nar Shadaa. Finding their "enemy" - the percieved only strength of the Emperor - Black Sun Vigos and Hutt crime bosses gives out silent bounties on Vader. Overconfident bounty hunters plague Vader's path. Ultimately you kill them all and find the young Padawan. Vader faces the 14 year old Jedi who has becomed an exceptional duelist, breaks his Jedi training (to stay true to the Light), breaks his will, and then with one swift stroke of his saber - breaks his body.
8. EPILOGUE: On your return, the Emperor tells you of the final steps being taken to complete the Weapon. He orders you join Tarkin aboard the Death Star.

The story, of course, needs to be fleshed out a bit. But you get the idea. You get special appearances by EU characters like Xizor, Gurdulla the Hutt, Zuckuss, Bossk, and more. You get to see Tarkin's new slave/aid - a fish-like being named Ackbar. On the second mission, you travel aboard a Star Destroyer under the command of a Captain named Dodonna and give him orders that will place the seeds of rebellion in him.

This would be a best-selling game! A story without hope, without the good guys winning - heck they get slaughtered! Become the scourge of the Jedi, the dark beacon that spreads darkness. Be the Dark Lord!

Only for a couple of months.

Starting February 10th, Nukeation Studios will accept only select (or urgent) projects. The staff will be spending their time focusing on NukeBall. Our target is Spring 2006 now. There have been too many delays. If you intend to have any new stuff done by Nukeation, please have you project started with us in the next week. Or email me and we will see if we can adjust the schedule to meet your needs.

We will resume normal work as soon as NukeBall is out the door.

Sometimes it seems that 3D Realms was completely forgotten by the gaming world - industry, press, and gamers alike - and for good reason too. Their delays with Duke Nukem Forever make Microsoft seem ahead of schedule with Vista. Well, I still am a big fan of Duke Nukem. I was in very young, too young in-fact (a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...) when I first played Duke Nukem [an M-rated game]. I was completely mesmerised. Heck, I was so in crazy about Nukes and Nukem and the Mighty Foot that I ended up naming the company Nukeation (founded just a year after I discovered Duke Nukem 3D).

Well, I still hope that one day will come when suddenly everything is focused on Duke Nukem 4Ever. When we will get to kick ass (literally), blow Nukes and plasma up alien anal cavities, and well, just plain blow stuff up! My prayers are with 3D Realms.

If you are like me, waiting for 3DR to come back to life, here's something that keep you occupied for a while: http://www.3drealms.com/games.html#freeware - They've just released a bunch of games for free including a game I haven't played since DOS ruled the world - BIO MENACE!

Too much stress + too much Star Wars + (pre-existing) psychotic behaviour = dangerous.

Why? (Like you need to ask!)

Settling into my new PC ... well, half re-built old PC ... I decided to do something I haven't done since Windows 95 - name my hard drives. Now, can you guess what I named the four partitions?

Boss (C:) - Primary Drive / Windows / Programs / Websites

Scorch (D:) - Work files / graphics / animations / XAML / MSFT stuff

Sev (F:) - Windows Vista / WinFX

Fixer (G:) - Media files / downloads / Channel 9 / DNR / DNRTV / MONDAYS / etc.

And yes, I still play Republic Commando for an hour before going to bed. And yes, I have no personal life at the moment. And yes, I still am crazy about Republic Commando. And yes, of course I've earned the wrath of the unnamed someone who I was supposed to mention being crazy about (instead of a game...well, a beautifully made, exceptionally executed game - which is of Star Wars EU nonetheless!!). And yes, now I need that Katarn armor more than ever.

In the words of Scorch: "Need...bacta...now!"

For the past few days, I have been battling a mega-crisis on my main production PC. I still don't know the cause, but at the end, my beautiful 80GB SATA harddrive will be sent for replacement by Seagate. I bought a new 200GB one, transferred all the data without problem (for a change) and am now reinstalling everything to get back to work-ready status.

While I was off staring at a blank blue chkdsk screen for 12 hours in a row, two companies on which my livelihood depends on - Microsoft and Corel - pulled a fast one on me. Microsoft released Expression Interactive Designer (EID or MEID or "Sparkle"). If you don't know, Sparkle will be the heart of WPF based applications.

First of all, I must congratulate Microsoft for pulling off one hell of a job on this app! It seriously kicks Flash's ass. And its 6.8MB if you can believe it. Yup. Amazing!! The completely non-Microsoft-like UI (Black!!!) looks so sweet! The different work panels are a cross between Flash and Visual Studio - very cool.

I have a lot of work pending due to the hardware problems and all, but I will surely post a bigger review (from a dev and designer pov) over the weekend.

Corel Graphics Suite X3 (v13) is downloading as I write this. I blindly bought the upgrade, of course. PhotoPaint is a million times better than Photoshop. At least for me. I create all my websites in it. I can't wait to see what they've put in this release!! Again, more on that this weekend.

Lastly, this blog seems too confining to share snippets of code and .net (and xaml) stuff I want to give away freely. Some of my cohorts at Nukeation agree. So we're starting up (or rather, RE-starting) NUKEATION LABS. It will be 100% free, 100% managed, and on a seperate domain, of course. I'm almost finished with Nukeation Mapee 1.0, nukeControls 1.0, and more. All will be put up for public download very soon. The site will be up by the end of the week. The url is yet to be decided.

[Spoiler warning!]

Tired to death of countless lines of code, tons of paperwork, and stress, I decided it was time to put on the T-visor helmet again. It was time to become Delta-38 again.

As soon as I selected my personalized command profile "Jango", I was transported back to Geonosis. Black smoke and red dust was everywhere. Clone gunships ferried troopers into the arena. In the distance, I could see Republic walkers challenge the spider droids. The GAR [Grand Army of the Republic] knew no fear. Intestines (or whatever passed for those in bugs) and broken carapaces were scattered on the ground. Green, sticky blood made it slippery. Checking my DC-17 I dropped into the trenches and followed the guidance system in my HUD. The core of the mission was simple. Extremely simple. Kill.

Never before have I seen such replay value! I just can't get over how cool this game is. Kicking ass to Mandalorian war chants is the best! Bug-eyed Geonosians, droids, trandoshan slavers, and even General Grievous. Knowing that if you catch one in the gut, your brothers will revive you. Knowing that they have your back (unlike those punks on the game servers). Knowing that when you throw that electromag charge right between the jumble of droids, your Katarn-armor vibroblade will give you the satisfying of slicing and dicing the enemy in a way that is more up close and personal than a lightsaber.

The fear and excitement of walking between countless droids in their deployment racks, just waiting to be activated by a heedless commando. Delta-68 over the comm going "I think I've found the coolant intake valve. Oh wait... it's an exhaust port." The fear of failing when all three of your brothers are down near the feet of a giant spider droid, waiting for a bacta shot. Delta-07 grabbing a droideka (while it was rolling!) and slamming down hot plasma bolts down it's CPU.

The dull numbing ache in the back of your mind when you climb onto the gunship as it takes you out of the Kashyyyk battlezone, leaving your brother in hands of the enemy - dead, or worse. Realizing as if for the first time with incredible pain that the GAR comes first, that duty comes first, as Yoda's words slowly sink in.

Nothing can beat this game. Not the fact that it will probably be a Delta who gets to execute Order-66. Not the fact that even with the fierce loyalty flowing in your blood, it will be you will help snuff the flame of the Jedi Order. Not even the fact that I've spent more than a few hundred hours playing this game over and over 50 or 60 times!

Republic Commando ROCKS!

It's happening again. Not only am I saying "What the kriff?" and "Stang!" and "May the Force be with you" all the time, my normal language is taking on Qui-Gon's tone as well. It was also pointed out that I have a Kenobi-like beard, but that's only coz I'm working [or reading] so much that I don't have time to shave.

So I'm in the bathroom while a friend kept messaging me on MSN. I came back and he asked "where the hell were you?" (of course, if I were in his shoes, I'd have said "Where in star's name were you?") and I answered, quite sagely, "I was fulfilling the sewer's destiny".

Star Wars vocubalary + toilet humor (even this is pun in this case). Now if this isn't the Dark Side, I don't know what is.

If you wonder how can WPF make for cool web apps? Here's a basic look. Check out www.macromedia.com/software/flex - FLEX (currently 1.5) gives (currently only Java) developers a Flash based front-end coupled with XML to create visually rich web apps.

For working exampes check out this page with samples.

Now, put the power of .NET and ASP.net 2.0 behind WPF/E and you have some amazing tools! Mix in some AJAX and you're golden!

FLEX 2.0 (in Alpha at the moment) will support .NET - tho not sure about 2.0, Flash 8.5, and ActionScript 3.0. It will be a powerful tool. But I doubt it can hold a handle to WPF.

Two timelines, the same mistakes. Warped mistakes, perhaps.

Yoda said it were his strict static rules that were the cause of the Jedi Order's fall. The Sith adapted for a thousand years, the Jedi did not.

Now, Luke Skywalker, decades later, decides that perhaps the "old way" was the best. "Know not, the cause of our failure, he does" Yoda might say. But it all comes back to the "spark" of the New Jedi Order - when Yoda trained Luke. Obi-Wan merely taught him the basics of the Force, he did not have a chance to do more. Yoda, despite his acknowledgement of his failings, and perhaps even against the original teachings of the Jedi, forged Luke not as an heir to the Jedi heritage, but rather as a Lightsaber. A weapon, with the sole purpose of correcting the Jedi's last mistake - Anakin Skywalker and his Sith Master.

Yoda put his faith in the Unifying Force, not Luke, to rekindle the flame of the Jedi Order. But the Living Force had other plans for Luke. It was Luke's strong strength in the Living Force that made him interrupt his training to save his friends - and even sacrifice himself to do so, and unknowingly perhaps even the Galaxy itself. It was his connection to the Living Force that saw the good in Anakin - which only Padmé's love had seen. It was his unknowing faith in the Living Force that brought out the good in Anakin, and led not only to rectify the Order's biggest failure, but to help bring peace (well, sort of) to the Galaxy - and more importantly - fulfill the Chosen One's prophecy by giving Anakin the strength to bring balance to the Force.

But with the new times came a New Jedi Order. The New Jedi Order was built on the "Light Side", but the war with Yuuzhan Vong and Jacen's experiences gave the Jedi - for the first time in millenia - a new view of the Force. Not in terms of Light and Dark, but as a whole.

However, it is not without danger. The Jedi's new understanding is incomplete. The Dark Side was called so for good reasons. Yoda, the Grandmaster of the Order, contrary to popular belief, did carry a darkness with him. Something lost in time. A long ago incident that made him (and perhaps other then Masters) to revise the Order's teachings. To shun teaching aspects of the Force to Padawans and apprentices that may give them an unwitting path to the Darkness within. It was, sort of, decreed that if a Master was ready to learn the higher secrets of the Force, he or she would be guided to do so by the Force itself. And many did, like Quinlan Vos, and especially the blind Jed Master Zao. They followed the authority of the Force first, not the Republic or the Jedi Order itself.

Luke's Jedi Order - which is apt to call it that since Luke is now forced to "take command" - is the Jedi in its second (?) infancy. Will they discover the mistakes of old, or will they learn from new mistakes they make themselves? Balance is there only to be tipped, and then to be restored again. Will there be a new Chosen One? Will he or she be from the blood of the earlier Chosen of the Force? Will the darkness that will inevitable threaten the Jedi come from within or from outside?

In the unending questions of fate, destiny, right, wrong, Jedi, Sith, life, death, peace, war, supernovas and blackholes, only one constant exists: The Force. And it will have its will done, one way or the other.

If you have been redirected to this site from the Franklins.net newsletter, please go to this url: Nukeation Studios.

This is my personal blog, while www.nukeation.com is the business website.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

I took a two day break from work. Was severely exhausted. I was able to finish my immediate reading list which includes the first two trilogies of DragonLance. Now I wait for that package to arrive that will have the third trilogy.

Tomorrow, I start reading the remaining two books of the Dark Nest trilogy by Troy Denning - namely, Unseen Queen, and The Swarm War. Denning is becoming one of my all time fave Star Wars writers - right up there with (in no particular order) Tim Zahn, Mike Stackpole, Aaron Allston, Matt Stover, and Karen Traviss.

Sigh. I'm addicted. I read over 2000 pages in 1 week (while working!).

Carl Franklin's www.franklins.net is now up featuring a new look designed by yours truly. Go check out his classes - you won't find a better place to learn VB2005 and ASP.net 2.0!

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.

I may have mentioned (more than once) that Devs are NOT giving attention to WPF. Well, turns out I was not talking to a large enough number of devs to get a proper statistic.

I finally got to talk to devs who are seriously focused on WPF and are just as excited as I am.

Of course, that does not negate the fact the majority of devs out there don't really care that much. But that again is not their fault. What the designer (Manuel, was it?) said in the Sparkle preview on Channel9, you have to clear your mind of the preconceptions of 3D and timelines and all.

It is entirely possible to get lost at the Microsoft site. If you know how to find information, you can see how truly immense the site is. It could surely use a better navigation system, because often some great resources are hidden from plain sight and just might miss the mark.

I accidentally stumbled on this page that I had visited long ago. It's the Microsoft Design Resource site. At first glance you can see how the design is atypical of Microsofts normal trends (barring the 30th anniversary, Research, and Innovation presentations in the Corporate site).

This site is an excellent read and has some really nice, chic even, designs. The PEOPLE section is very interesting to people who are interested in design.

Here's an example of a cool thing - the "Office of the Future" design that won Microsoft an IDEA (Industrial Design Excellence Award).

This is a UI targeted at a very wide (and curved) prototype computer Microsoft has made. It's like have three monitors, but without the breaks in between.

How developers will embrace WPF and the new vector design methods is yet to be seen. If the reactions I've seen so far are a sign of the future, I think it might take some time. While developers love the cold logic of code, computers are merging more and more into human life, and as such will need to be approached with a psychological view as well. Right now, only few software companies (most of which are giants) do such research and apply it to their products.

The role of the designer in the software industry will be a very powerful catalyst for the entire industry and how we work. The factors of psychology in relation to human-computer interaction (psychophysics I believe applies here) are very important as I've started to learn in the last few months. I only had shallow knowledge of such, but after reading a few essays and the book Emotional Design by Dr. Don Norman (www.jnd.org) I started developing a much deeper interest. My personal ideas and views conflict a bit with Dr. Norman's, but I have come to greatly appreciate his insight.

Usability might seem like a trivial thing - especially when worrying about the code you still have to write - but it is far more important than it seems. When dealing with a non-technical (or even technical) software product - a good aesthetic+psycholical influence can help you increase sales, make the product more usable, FUN, and increase productivity at the same time.

My thoughts will be continued in "The Human UX" and some other posts. I had hoped to have it published on MSDN sooner, but I will post a preview copy here as the MSDN schedule seems a bit delayed.