Get a cafe.com blog widget!

Do you want to get a cafe.com widget? Just click on the button below! Cheers! -Fabrice...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

New ways of having free fun together!

More and more fun stuff on cafe.com with our new 1.3.3.27 version! We added two more games in that version!! They are still in beta but you can already play with your friends.Not one, but two new games: - Same...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Tips and Suggestions for New Cafe.com Members

www.Cafe.com is a pretty new site, so I'd like to welcome the new users with some tips. 1) Make use of the social aspect of the site. The chat boxes are there for your fun! Let people know you are...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Suit up

One of the coolest features on cafe.com is the variety of options available to the user when creating their own avatar. You are able to dress your avatar with different clothes, change their hairstyle, eye color, and even their skin...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Leveled up

Hi all, I leveled up today and earned the rank Macchiato. One of the cool features on cafe.com is the leveling system which shows how good a player is by looking at their rank. -Yuya...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Upgrades!

Remember, when playing games on Cafe.com, players have the ability to buy enhanced equipment such as better warships in Ironsides. Why play with the default ship? You can do more damage to your opponents by purchasing a superior ship like...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Boom Boom makes its volatile debut on Cafe.com!

Don't miss our new game Boom Boom! It's a complete new experience with 3D graphics where you CAN ACTUALLY PLAY WITH YOUR AVATAR inside the game, and see your friens avatars running to avoid your bombs. Bring your friends and...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Avatar 101

Avatar: an electronic image that represents and is manipulated by a computer user Your Avatar, is the representation of you, completely under your control that users see when they play with or against you in any of the cafe.com games....

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Another crazy update

Version 1.1.1.25 You know what? We added two more games in that version!! And this is only the first surprise, we also improved the UI and added lots of cool features. Not one, but two new games: - Music Connect:...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Cafe.com (open beta) is now officially out!

Folks, We are very happy and proud to announce that cafe.com (open beta) is now officially launched! If you want to know more about this great adventure, check the links below: - The official Press Release: http://www.boonty.net/news_and_blogs/2007/02/posted_february.html - A great...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

irrKlang 1.0 released, some facts and a review about it

Finally, after 12 beta and alpha releases, irrKlang, the audio library for C++, C#, VisualBasic.NET etc. is now available for download in version 1.0. It is always nice when ones software product reaches version 1.0, and this is the case with irrKlang too of course.
The library is now stable and has a lot of features: irrKlang has been downloaded now several ten thousands of times already before it has reached this 1.0 milestone. It was tested and used by hobbists, irrlicht users, indie and 'big' game developers, and even scientists and 3d engine developers, some of them have been mentioned and linked on this blog already. It is very nice for me to see that people consider irrKlang to be very useful, and that it helps these people. Of course it is also very nice that some people even buy commercial licenses of it and that it is included in products which will be available in stores in the near future. Wow, a product using irrKlang which you can actually touch, that's cool. :)
This release of version 1.0 also brings some new features and an improved documentation (irrKlang for C++, irrKlang for C#), but also something interesting for indie developers: The pricing scheme is a big more flexible now I think, which is the result of several mail discussions with customers.
Thanks to all people using irrKlang, especially to those with all the constructive feedback, I bet we'll see an even better irrKlang with more features soon. :)

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Seagate's top execs on "to Flash or not to Flash"

Seagate's a hard drive company, right? So we wondered if they have anything to say about Flash-based memories? You know, memory that doesn't require a hard drive? Turns out they do. Here's Seagate's CEO, Bill Watkins, along with Mike Wingert, executive vice president and general manager for Seagate's personal compute products and Paul Kusbel, senior [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Seagate brings us more storage

Disclaimer: Seagate is the sole sponsor of the ScobleShow. We greatly appreciate them and once in a while we meet with them to find out what they are up to. This is one of those times. Here you meet Marc Jourlait, VP of Global Marketing, and Jim Druckrey, SVP and GM of Branded Solutions at [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Palm's Awakening: Company Cancels Foleo Launch

What many (including me) had rather negatively called Palms Folly - a reference to the development and forthcoming launch of the companys Foleo may now instead turn out to be the start of something entirely new and much more...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Talking storage systems with Sun's ZFS team

The inventors of Sun Microsystems' ZFS, Jeff Bonwick, distinguished engineer and storage CTO, and Bill Moore, hardware/software architect, tell me what was behind coming up with ZFS. It's a file system. That sounds boring, right? But it's not, since this technology is used in many of the world's datacenters to keep files safely stored even [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Development Scheduling

I had planned to work off a lot of delayed Irrlicht work this week, because some of the major projects I am working on as freelancer and with my company should have been finished already, but the projects took longer than expected and planned. Fortunately I had expected this and will be able to compensate it a bit: I'll soon getting my hands on Irrlicht code again, yay. Which is just in time, because Hybrid, Bitplane and Luke already prepared and wrote a lot of cool stuff.
And my plan looks like this: Tomorrow, there will be a major new release of one of my other projects, and then I'll hopefully finally write some Irrlicht code again. I am also going to update the irrlicht.sf.net website design finally, with the new Irrlicht logo.

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

The hottest social media app company: RockYou!

RockYou is one of the largest social media application developers around. Millions of people use their apps on MySpace and Facebook. Here, we meet Jia Shen, CTO and co-founder of RockYou, where we talk about RockYou's plans. Yes, mostly we talk about the impact of Facebook on his business.Tags: RockYou, social media, Jia Shen

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Treo Cases by Tumi

Last year Palm and Tumi the leading international brand of luxury travel, business and lifestyle accessories worked together to produce the first pair of Treo Cases. The result of this collaboration was the Tumi Leather Treo Case (above...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Palm Centro Euro Launch Sept 12?

Heres a surprise Although the latest official Palm Centro image a week ago was clearly branded for Sprint thus leading us to believe that this latest Palm smartphone would be launched first in the US a new promotional...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Talking about U.S. computer science university enrollment trends

A short talk on computer science enrollment trends with Mehran Sahami, associate chairman of undergraduate education at Stanford University.Tags: computer science, Mehran Sahami

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Treo 680-750 Seidio 1600mAh Extended Battery

Although the Treo 680 and the Treo 750 share a form factor that is virtually identical to the Treo 755p for some reason Palm decided to fit the first two with a standard 1200mAh battery while the last one benefits...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Palm Centro Smartphone Coming To Sprint

UPDATE August 26: See the latest Palm Centro Official Image Just a week ago the image below was still purported to be that of a next-generation Treo 800p but we now discover via an official and welcome Palm pre-annoucement that...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Irrlicht Engine Wiki Spammed

The Irrlicht Engine Wiki is now filled with content, thanks to all people helping with this. The development team is also using the wiki a bit for communication and planning, so it is a very helpful tool. Unfortunately, now also spammers start to like it, so I password protected the wiki. The password is written on the bottom of first page of the wiki anyway, but I think currently we are only struggling with spam bots. If the password doesn't help, I'm going to add a Captcha or similar later.

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

The guy who runs Stanford's undergraduate computer science department

Mehran Sahami is the associate chairman of undergraduate education. What does that mean? He runs probably the most important computer science undergraduate department in the world. This is the department that gave birth to Google, after all (and a bunch of other companies). This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for me to sit down and learn [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Building robotic cars at Stanford University

Mike Montemerlo is the artificial intelligence guy on Stanford University's DARPA challenge team. Basically, they are building a robotic car that'll be able to negotiate a course without humans being involved. He also thinks about the act of driving in a much different way than you or I do. This is a fascinating discussion where [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Treo 750 Windows Mobile 6 Update Available (In Europe)

Although a Cingular/AT&T Treo 750 Windows Mobile 6 Professional Update is still not available in the US, Palm has now made a free upgrade to WM6 available for Treonauts in Europe on Vodafone UK, Ireland and Netherlands and the Unlocked...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Jabra JX10 Series II Review

After nearly two years on the market the Jabra JX10 remains not only one of the best designed, smallest and lightest bluetooth headsets available today but also consistently one of the top 3 bestselling models. The new Jabra JX10 Series...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Sony Rootkits, Bioshock Protection

From time to time I read the weblog of f-secure, the anti virus company. The blog is always very interesting and keeps you up to date with the latest development in the malware area. This week, for example, they wrote about a new sony rootkit they discovered, wow. Interesting is also that before blogging about this, they say they contacted Sony, but did not get a reply from them. Doesn't look like Sony will every learn.
They also shortly mention Bioshock, confirming that that game doesn't include a rootkit, it only includes the already known restrictive copyright protection software. Which is the reason why I won't buy that game, btw, HL2 already teached me: I'm not going to spend money for a product which I don't have control over where and when I want to install or play it. Not even if the developer says the restriction will reduced maybe somewhere in the future.
Now, I'm going to play some Progress Quest again instead. :)

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Enterprises: follow the blog conversation about you

Here, you can see how Visible Technologies makes it possible for big enterprises to follow and participate in online conversations about them. Blake Cahill, VP of Marketing, and Miles Ward, practice lead, community intelligence, of Visible Technologies, gives us a tour and tells us about Visible Technologies.Tags: Visible Technologies, Blake Cahill

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

New mobile UI with ZenZui

ZenZui has a new "zoomable" UI for mobile phones that's quite unique and fun to use. Come along as John SanGiovanni, co-founder and VP of products and services at ZenZui, tells me about his company's plans and shows me how to use ZenZui to get around your mobile phone in a new way.Tags: ZenZui, John [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

irrEdit as Logo Tool

Did you notice the new banner on top of this blog? It was time again to change it, because I couldn't see the old ugly one anymore. The new image shows a 3D scene made orginally by RABCAT Computer Graphics (already blogged about it, a scene which I use for some Irrlicht work), with some added signpost model, created by me using anim8or, both placed together and lightmapped using irrEdit. Here is the proof:

See the yellow background of the lightmap selected in the property window? Obviously I used the debug version of irrEdit to calculate the lighting, irrEdit uses yellow there instead of a black as background to be able to test the lightmap placement more easily. And I was already wondering why the editor needed more than 10 seconds to light that scene. In release mode, it would only take one or two seconds.

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Plaxo to ship online identity aggregator based on microformats

Here, Joseph Smarr, Plaxo's architect, and John McCrea, VP of marketing, introduce me to Plaxo's new offices, talk about a new feature, to be released on Wednesday, which is an "online identity aggregator," and explain how it works and why you'll want to try it out.Tags: Joseph Smarr, Plaxo, John McCrea

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Palm Air Case with Holster for Treo

The recently released Palm Air Case with Holster (for Treo 680, 755p, 750) has rapidly become the most popular Treo hard case thanks to its appealing design, the robust protection that it offers and excellent value combining not only a...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Video of AMELIA in action

For those who didn't notice: Quantum_Leap posted a link to a video of AMELIA in action. AMELIA is the Atlas Detector of CERN project which uses Irrlicht and irrKlang, about which I blogged last time. The video is quite big in size, but shows the cool GUI and the impressive detector.

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Republic of Ideas

Just discovered in Republic of Ideas, a website which will launch in about a week. There is a nice mysterious intro video available, though. They are also listed in the Museum of Modern Betas, a nice idea: Listing upcoming web 2.0 / social networking / ajax / whatever betas. :)

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Palm Centro Official Image

Following all the negative comments that the previous images of the Palm Centro (Treo 800p) had garnered here and elsewhere I am rather delighted to see that the latest leaked official image (below) has managed to rapidly change the minds...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Overlay your stuff on top of video with Overcast

Are you a director who wants to overlay your commentary on top of your video? Sort of like when you get a DVD? Or, are you a critic that wants to point out mistakes in the film? Now you can, with Overcast Media. Here, Rich Staokley, founder and CEO, shows off what his system can [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Irrlicht, irrKlang and Particle Physics

Amelia (ATLAS Multimedia Educational Lab for Interactive Analysis) is a project for High-Energy physics featuring the ATLAS detector at CERN, the world's largest particle physics lab. The application looks like this:

Using the Irrlicht engine and irrKlang, AMELIA integrates event analysis and contextual media in a 3D interface. The project is open source and IMO one of the more impressive (maybe also because I have don't know anything about those physics ) non-game projects made with these libraries.

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Palm - Where is the Love Gone?

Its no secret that a company can claim the love of its customers and succeed in the market once it is able to meet the needs of these customers a tenet which may help explain Palms fall from grace...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Joe Hewitt, author of my favorite iPhone apps

On Sunday, at the HP Garage, we met Joe Hewitt, the author of Facebook's iPhone application. We just had a short chat with him, mostly to say thanks for building a cool app. There's a longer audio conversation with Joe on TechCrunch today.Tags: HP, Joe Hewitt, Facebook, iPhone application

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Demo of the easiest Wiki service: WetPaint

WetPaint is my favorite Wiki service. A Wiki is a page where a group of people can collaboratively work together to update the page. Sign in, click "edit" and away you go. But there's a lot more to WetPaint than just that, and CEO Ben Elowitz gives us a tour.Tags: WetPaint, Wiki, Ben Elowitz

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Palm Treo GPS Smartphone Edition 3 Offer

Yesterday I came across a terrific offer on Palms website which I thought was too good to miss since it offers the latest Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition 3 reduced to only $169 from $249 a saving of $80...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Irrlicht, irrKlang and Particle Physics

Amelia (ATLAS Multimedia Educational Lab for Interactive Analysis) is a project for High-Energy physics featuring the ATLAS detector at CERN, the the world's largest particle physics lab. The application looks like this:

Using the Irrlicht engine and irrKlang, AMELIA integrates event analysis and contextual media in a 3D interface. The project is open source and IMO one of the more impressive (maybe also because I have don't know anything about those physics ) non-game projects made with these libraries.

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Visiting "Birthplace of Silicon Valley:" HP Garage during BarCampBlock

I've lived in Silicon Valley most of my life and, while I've been to the HP Garage several times, I've never gotten to actually visit it. HP was gracious enough to open the garage for me and a few of my friends who have added me as a Facebook friend and we visit the garage [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Free Palm GPS Navigator With Select Treo Smartphones

Two weeks ago I posted news of Palms excellent Treo GPS Smartphone Edition 3 Offer which reduced the price of this handheld GPS solution to only $169 and that like me a great many Treonauts found just too good to...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Unlocked Treo 680 Weekend Offer

Because I travel internationally throughout the year my smartphone of choice is the Unlocked Treo 680 a device which I can use on any GSM network globally and with any local prepaid SIM card which saves me a bundle...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Palm Centro Smartphone Coming To Sprint

Just a week ago the image below was still purported to be that of a next-generation Treo 800p but we now discover via an official and welcome Palm pre-annoucement that this device is actually the Palm Centro from Sprint The...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Sensobots

Sensobots is a GPL linux arcade shooter by Andreas Sensen. Do I have to mention that it uses Irrlicht for graphics and irrKlang for sound output? :)
The gameplay looks like a game which I liked to play a lot back in the times when LAN was cool. Unfortunately I had no time to try it out myself yet. Too much work, deadlines too close. That's also the reason why this blog entry is so short. Sorry. :)

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

The "unwiki" wiki: WetPaint

Here we talk with Ben Elowitz, CEO of WetPaint, about WetPaint's collaborative Web service, which is an easy-to-use collaborative Web page design and editing tool. Er, a wiki that's not quite a wiki. Why isn't it a wiki? Because it doesn't force you to learn geeky "wiki codes" to use it. Although it basically does [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Free Palm GPS Navigator With Select Treo Smartphones

Two weeks ago I posted news of Palms excellent Treo GPS Smartphone Edition 3 Offerwhich reduced the price of this handheld GPS solution to only $169 and that like me a great many Treonauts found justtoo good to miss. Palm...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Google Adsense for Video Games

Sounds like a very interesting future for indie game developers, IMO: Google Adsense for Video Games. They are planning this for flash games first, but want to move this to real (sic) games later. Just like anyone with a small webpage can earn money using adsense now, maybe any hobbyist or professional game developer can do this with their games too, soon.
(via devbump)

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Ambiera censored

Somebody told me that the website of my company, ambiera.com, seems to be blocked by the china government censor system. If this is true, can anybody confirm this?
If so, I wonder why they did this. It's just a harmless website of a company, with game development and Irrlicht related software. Strange.

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Improving education with teacher of the year

Dr. Elliot Soloway has taught some interesting people in his classroom at the University of Michigan. How about Larry Page, co-founder of Google? Among others. He's been named "Teacher of the Year," but that's not why I talked with him. What we talked about is the state of education and how he sees it being [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Thieves! Blog Thieves!

I just spotted a blog (softwaregamesnews dot blogspot dotcom) which simply copies posts of other blogs including this one, adds a lot of goggle ads and tries to earn money from this. I think it works because people are getting there using search engines, and click on the ads then. The author or bot tries to get away with this by adding a link back to the original blog.

There were blogs like this before, but usually most people copied content from this blog as service for their users. If they did it in a copy'n'past mode, without adding some own informations or value, I asked them to stop doing this, and they usually understood and stopped. But it seems this one is really on the same level as spammers. Or did I misunderstand something? Anyway, I really don't want to create a copyright infringment nofitication. Hope someone does this before me.

Update: As rainer pointed out in the comments, now even this blog post has been published there. Woha. :)

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Marc Canter gets Social

You might know Marc Canter as the founder of Macromedia but that's his past. You probably don't know what he's thinking about now as head of Broadband Mechanics, which makes social networks. We talk about that and a whole lot more. Oh, and even more fun? Marc has been saying my videos are too long [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Galactic Dream: Rage of War Released

Galactic Dream: Rage of War has just been released, a commercial realtime strategy space game using Irrlicht. I already blogged once about this game, but now it is finished and looks even a bit better than before:

Nice work, guys.

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

ListPro 5.0 Treo Software Review

Theres no doubt that I consider ListPro to be one of the best business applications for the Treo and its been at the top of my favourite software list for some time now. ListPro is extremely simple, powerful and fun...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Thieves! Blog Thieves!

I just spotted a blog (softwaregamesnews dot blogspot dotcom) which simply copies posts of other blogs including this one, adds a lot of goggle ads and tries to earn money from this. I think it works because people are getting there using search engines, and click on the ads then. The author or bot tries to get away with this by adding a link back to the original blog.

There were blogs like this before, but usually most people copied content from this blog as service for their users. If they did it in a copy'n'past mode, without adding some own informations or value, I asked them to stop doing this, and they usually understood and stopped. But it seems this one is really on the same level as spammers. Or did I misunderstand something? Anyway, I really don't want to create a copyright infringment nofitication. Hope someone does this before me.

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Palm Centro Smartphone Coming To Sprint

Just a week ago the image below was still purported to be that of a next-generation Treo 800p but we now discover via an official and welcome Palmpre-annoucement that this device is actually the Palm Centro from Sprint The what!?...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Palore soon to add value to your restaurant search

Take something like Yelp. Great local restaurant reviews. But often you need more information. Palore sits on top of the Yelp results and brings you a lot more. Here, Hanan Lifshitz, CEO and founder of Palore, tells us and shows us how it all works. Coming soon!Tags: Yelp, Palore, Hanan Lifshitz

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Community pages, video style, with Magnify.net

Steven Rosenbaum, CEO of Magnify.net, sits down with me at the AlwaysOn conference and shows me Magnify.net, which builds a community page. Say, for remote control airplanes. Including video and content from around the Internet. If you are looking for ways to improve your Web site, you should check this out.Tags: Steven Rosenbaum, Magnify.net, AlwaysOn

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Treo Accessories Offers - Case, Bluetooth, Cradle, Battery, GPS

Today youll find four absolutely fantastic offers including Treo Case + Bluetooth Headset Combos as well as some terrific Power Deals from our Treo Accessories Store (valid until 12 noon PST this Thursday, August 16) as well as one hot...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Trends in human/computer interaction from Stanford University prof

Scott Klemmer is an assistant professor in the computer science department at Stanford University. We spend an hour talking about a variety of topics. Modern software development trends that Scott is seeing from companies like Google and Yahoo (both of which started at Stanford). Mobile development. What his students are working on. What the future [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

PacAnd

PacAnd is a PacMan clone in 3D. With rockets. Created by Andrew Price, made using Irrlicht. It features dynamic lighting and very creative music and sound effects, played back by my favourite audio library. :)
It also seems to use a path finding library, but it's new to me. If anybody is interested, Andrew is willing to upload the source of the game as well.

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

A short tour of Stanford's Computer Science building

David Orenstein, Communications and PR Manager, and Ian Hsu, director of Internet Media Outreach at Stanford University, greet me and show me around the "Gates building," aka the Computer Science building. We were there to interview Scott Klemmer, assistant professor in the computer science department.Tags: David Orenstein, Ian Hsu, Internet Media Outreach, Stanford, Gates building, [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

A hour with IBM's top intellectual property lawyer

Ever want to spend an hour talking with one of IBM's top intellectual property lawyers? Well, generally you don't because that means he's getting involved in your life. So, I did it for you and we have an interesting conversation about all sorts of legal things with David Kappos, IBM vice president and assistant general [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Back From the Desert

Finally I'm back from holidays, and ineffective Irrlicht promotion tour - unfortunately, the grains of sand weren't that interested in my brand new Irrlicht shirt:

But at least it attracted the attention of a few younger hotel guests - I guess because it looks like a web 2.0 logo. (It's actually a bit shinier than looking on that picture, lots of people already asked me if they can get one for free after seeing me wearing it) :)
Now I have to work down the mountain of mail waiting in my inbox and read the news, blogs and forums - as I've heard for example DirectX 10 has become obsolete already during my holiday. :)

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

New ALP Screenshots (ACCESS Linux Platform)

To coincide with the LinuxWorld conference taking place in San Francisco, ACCESS launched a new website and also some screenshots of its ACCESS Linux Platform (ALP) which helps to give us an indication as to what the future of Palms...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Unlocked Treo 680 Weekend Offer

Because I travel internationally throughout the year my smartphone of choice is the Unlocked Treo 680 a device which I can use on any GSM network globally and with any local prepaid SIM card which saves me a bundle in...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Part III of conversations with Tom Rolander

You've heard how Digital Research flubbed the operating system deal with IBM. You've heard lots of old-time industry stories in our previous two conversations with Tom Rolander who was Gary Kildall's best friend and operating system pioneer at Digital Research. But now let's take a walking tour around Pacific Grove where you get a look [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

The AlwaysOn Pitch: 411 Sync

I get pitched all the time in the hallways at conferences and I thought it would be interesting to share one of these pitches with you. Here's 411Sync's CEO and founder Anurag Nigam showing us his service, 411sync which brings your favorite Web sites onto your cell phone.Tags: Anurag Nigam, 411sync

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Help your friends and family with Crossloop

Crossloop is a great free way to take control of a friend's computer and help them out. Here Tom Rolander, CTO of Crossloop, demonstrates how it can be used to help your friends and family get over their computer troubles. Tom started the company after his mom had trouble due to Alzheimers disease.Tags: Crossloop, Tom [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Part 2 of conversations with Tom Rolander

In the second part of Tom Rolander's conversations with us about early computer industry history we head to a restaurant in Pacific Grove (near Monterey, CA) and hear more stories about industry history. Buzz Bruggeman, CEO of Activewords, gets involved too along with Mrinal Desai, VP of Sales and business development at Crossloop, Tom's new [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Palm Treo GPS Smartphone Edition 3 Offer

Yesterday I came across a terrific offer on Palms website which I thought was too good to miss since it offers the latest Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition 3reduced to only $169 from $249 a saving of $80 (after instant...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

This isn't your father's Web development tool

Matthias Henze, founder, demonstrates how to use JimDo to make Web sites. Sounds boring, but this service is very popular in Europe and is worth considering for your next Web project.Tags: Matthias Henze, JimDo

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Talking emotional software design in games and iPhone

I went to the iPhoneDevCamp, where I met Nicole Lazzaro, founder of XEODesign, who helps video game designers make their games more fun to use. While at the iPhoneDevCamp (by the way, you can check out another video up from here) she tells me why the iPhone is fun to use and how you can [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

First look at Velvet Puffin, IM and social network for the Web

Velvet Puffin is a new Web-based IM and social networking client with a twist: it keeps running after you close your browser. Here, R. Chandrasekar demonstrates it for me and you.Tags: Velvet Puffin, social networking, Chandrasekar

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Lost Video Game Trailer Available - using CryEngine

As Lost fan there is no way around blogging this: An ingame video of the game based on the television series Lost has just been released - and it looks like they are really using the CryEngine 3d Engine (Crytek/Farcry):

I know, movie and tv based games usually suck. And maybe this one will too. But in my opinion the Cryengine is a very good choice for this game which was specially written for this kind of scenes, so maybe the game developers had some time to create a nice game play too. The game is planned to be released in q1 2008.

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

The guys behind Maker Faire

Here, you get to meet Make Magazine Senior Editor Philip Torrone and Maker Faire Founder Dale Dougherty. They talk about what makes the Maker Faire special, and talk about their future plans — the next Maker Faire will be in Austin, Texas, on October 20-21.Tags: Make Magazine, Philip Torrone, Maker Faire, Dale Dougherty

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

The view from a long-time media exec at CNET

Last week at the Internet Strategy Forum Summit, I met with longtime CNET executive Erik Kokkonen, vice president of global publishing services. He's seen a lot happen in online media and in this 17-minute interview, we cover quite a bit about what's happening in online media.Tags: Internet Strategy Forum Summit, CNET, Erik Kokkonen, online media

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Talking about Web site creation with founder of JimDo

Making Web sites is much easier today than when I started. Theres a new set of online tools and JimDo is one of the nicest Ive seen. Here you meet founder Matthia Henze who tells us whats going on in the Web creation space. Then we talk about whats happening in Europe since he lives [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Inspirational teenager

When I met Daniel Brusilovsky he impressed me. Why? I cant exactly say, but everyone who watches this video so far around the office says wow. Daniels 14, has an IT job and an Apple-focused podcast and we have a neat discussion about lots of things including what social networks hes on and how he [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Demo of sharing service AllPeers

Matthew Gertner, CTO of AllPeers, shows me how easy it is to share music and files with my friends using AllPeers.Tags: Matthew Gertner, AllPeers

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

New Irrlicht Test Data Source

Although Irrlicht now supports the direct import of about 15 3D file formats, one of the problems for Irrlicht users is to choose the right one for them. This week, I started to do something about this, and the first step was to get some test data. Fortunately, I've a new source for realistic real world 3D test data. Details will be announced in the near future, they've been kindly provided by RABCAT Computer Graphics with cool looking game resources.
The original mesh data wasn't in an Irrlicht Engine supported format, so I had to write an importer for this. I quickly hacked down an irrEdit plugin to import it, and this took me only about 15 minutes.

The lighting and shadows were calculated by irrEdit's built-in lightmapper afterwards. The scene contains about 100 different materials and a huge amount of polygons, but irrEdit was able light this within just a few seconds, nice.

I'm not an artist, but I really like the result. More about this soon, but unfortunately not too soon: See next blog post.

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Blog Silence

This blog will be a bit more silent next week, because I'm on vacation starting with tomorrow. Also I'm probably not able to answer mails until then. Happy next week :)

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Sound ID SM100 EarModule Bluetooth Headset Review

Since its release last week, the new Sound ID SM100 EarModule Bluetooth Headset has rapidly climbed to claim the #6 bestselling position and I was naturally curious to take it for a test and discover the reasons why it has...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

There is no Win32 API function to create a blue screen

This cannot be said often enough: There is no Win32 API function to create a Blue Screen of Death. And if there is one, we are not using it. What I am talking about here:
The problem is that some people with special hardware or drivers, playing 3D games or using 3D engines such as Irrlicht sometimes discover unusual behavior of their system: freezes, blue screens or resets. Sometimes it's a bit better, for example the Irrlicht application slowing incredibly down when drawing graphics in D3D mode or using a special feature. And it's not the fault of the game, not the fault of Irrlicht, and in most cases not the fault of your hardware. The reason for this is usually a badly written video driver. A normal program such as a game or an Irrlicht application is not able to cause bad failures such as system freezes. Only the driver can do this. The guys at NVidia or ATI just did a mistake when writing their driver. The only thing you can do about this is report the bug to ATI or NVidia, and update or downgrade to another driver version.
This is a problem that every game using graphics, every 3D engine, and of course also Irrlicht has to struggle with. I had some more questions like this one in my inbox recently, so I thought it would be a good idea to write about this again. I've heard with the new driver model of Vista the part with the freezes and resets has become better, but I don't have any first hand exprience with this yet.

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Demo of MyGame.com, custom games on the Web

You've played games on the Web before, but have you made your own game? Robert Norton, VP of Business Development, shows me how easy and fun it is.Tags: Robert Norton

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Talking about Velvet Puffin, IM in the Web (and out)

R. Chandrasekar, CEO and co-founder of Velvet Puffin, shows me a new Web-based IM and social networking client with a twist: it'll keep running after the browser gets closed. We talk about his new company here and what Velvet Puffin is trying to do.Tags: Chandrasekar, Velvet Puffin, social networking

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Tips and Suggestions for New Cafe.com Members

www.Cafe.com is a pretty new site, so I'd like to welcome the new users with some tips. 1) Make use of the social aspect of the site. The chat boxes are there for your fun! Let people know you are...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Talking about mobile-phone media with Buzzwire

Andrew MacFarlane, CEO of Buzzwire, dropped by to discuss Buzzwire's new service, opening Monday, that will let you watch or listen to a number of video and audio shows — all from your cell phone.Tags: Andrew MacFarlane, Buzzwire, video, audio, cell phone

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Your Truman Show brings innovative video storyline

Arturo Artom, CEO of Your Truman Show, talks to me about why telling stories with video is interesting and shows me his innovative video storyline capabilities in Your Truman Show.Tags: Arturo Artom, Your Truman Show

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Getting more great content on your cell phone with Buzzwire

Andrew MacFarlane, CEO of Buzzwire, demonstrates the company's new content service, which lets you build new kinds of video and audio shows for your cell phone.Tags: Andrew MacFarlane, Buzzwire, video, audio

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Spiderpig!

Just returned from the simpsons movie austrian premiere. We had VIP tickets (a totally different story) and so we were invited to the after-party, where donuts and beer was free. Totally distastrous. But the movie was brilliant.

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Windows Mobile 6 (WM6) Unofficial Update For Treo 750

Back in March of this year both Microsoft and Palm had confirmed that a Windows Mobile 6 upgrade would at some point become available for the Cingular/ATT Treo 750 but many moons have passed and the official carrier update has...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Another crazy update

Version 1.1.1.25 You know what? We added two more games in that version!! And this is only the first surprise, we also improved the UI and added lots of cool features. Not one, but two new games: - Music Connect:...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Meeting IBM Ventures

It's not everyday I get to sit down with a guy who runs corporate strategy for the biggest and best known software company in history: IBM. Here you meet Drew Clark, co-founder of IBM Venture Capital. We spend 56 minutes learning a lot about Drew and what IBM's business is, and will be.Tags: corporate strategy, [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

New ways of having free fun together!

More and more fun stuff on cafe.com with our new 1.3.3.27 version! We added two more games in that version!! They are still in beta but you can already play with your friends.Not one, but two new games: - Same...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Photowalking 10: Maker Faire

We walk around with Flickr-famous photographer (he's also CEO of competitor Zooomr) Thomas Hawk at the second Maker Faire. If you've never been to a Maker Faire, this is a good chance to get a look at some of what goes on there. Thousands of people who make things from crafts to computers and lots [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Leveled up

Hi all, I leveled up today and earned the rank Macchiato. One of the cool features on cafe.com is the leveling system which shows how good a player is by looking at their rank. -Yuya...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Talking about mobile services with Plazes' founder Felix Petersen

Plazes.com is one of the favorite of a group of apps designed to help you share your location with others. Now, that might sound sort of weird, but Felix Petersen, founder of Plazes, sees a lot of value in sharing where you'll be, or where you are. Here, we talk about his mobile service vision [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Some Stripped Technical Details From the Unreal Engine 3 Lawsuit

Now that I run my own game development related company, I'm more interested in reading business related game news than I was already before. Especially when it is about middleware licensing, which I do now as well. The legal dispute between Epic Games and Silicon Knights over the Unreal Engine 3 [my favourite 3D engine by the way, except Irrlicht of course ] caught my attention recently, because the whole 54 pages of the lawsuit are available online as .pdf file:

Silicon Knights is complaining in there about missed deadlines of the XBox360 and PS3 ports, missing promised technical features and according to Silicon Knights, Epic was more interested in their own products (UT2007 and Gears of War) instead of providing their clients with new UE3 versions. The document reveals some few technical details of the Unreal Engine 3: Silicon Knights wanted multithreading support, but Epic didn't deliver this according to SK. They also claim to have discovered non expected huge memory usage and long loading times. Interesting: They talk about the Unreal Engine doing garbage collection. But I think they simply mean something like a cache freeing long unused media like textures or similar: "Upon information and belief, the target for garbage collection in the Engine is that that it will run for 5 milliseconds every 30 seconds to 2 minutes." But they had to run it "every 25 seconds for 30 to 50 milliseconds". Also, according to them, UE3 seemed not to be able to meet the start up time requirement demanded by the Microsoft TCR. They write that UE3 usually does dynamic memory based particle systems but that for Epic's game it uses particle pools which pissed off Silicon Knights. Maybe an idea to extend Irrlicht into that direction, by the way. They also didn't like that UE3 wasn't able to draw terrain although promised according to them. (As far as I know, UE was never able to do terrain until now, if you have seen terrain in an UE based game, it was a static mesh). And there are some details about the lighting model: According to Silicon Knights, lighting in UE3 was planned to be possible with 3 or 4 lights affecting each model, with some very low amount of precomputation for static lights. But then, according to Silicon Knights, "the prescribed lighting model for the Engine was to pre-calculate as much of the scene as possible and consolidate the light effects into three light vectors per vertex while lighting the character from a single point light that approximates the overall scene lighting..". Which is not that impressive, in my opinion.

The document is long but interesting to read, and if you can read between the lines, it sounds like a normal game project with the usual software problems mixed with some bad communication between both parties. But because now other developers start to complain anonymously too, maybe there is more behind this. I hope we'll see a nice UT2007 anyway soon.

Fortunately, until now I had no problems with licensing issues like that with my company yet, all clients seem to be very happy and I try to keep it that way and hope it will stay like that. :)

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

CAPTCHA for Java Programmers

The IKVM blog has a very efficient CAPTCHA. If you want to post a comment, you'll have to answer this question first:

What method on java.lang.System returns an object's original hashcode (i.e. the one that would be returned by java.lang.Object.hashCode() if it wasn't overridden)? (case is significant)

Maybe we should add something like this here too? Like "How many constant registers has Pixel Shader Version 1.2?" :) But until now, it works well without CAPTCHAs here :)

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Red Jawbone Noise Shield Bluetooth Headset Review

The best just keeps getting better now that all three colors of my top rated Jawbone Noise ShieldBluetooth Headsetare finally available in our Treo Accessories Store thanks to the recent introduction of the Aliph Jawbone in Red. Like the Black...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Talking with long-time IBM'er

Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger just retired from a long and decorated IBM career of 37 years. He's seen it all and here we talk about the future of virtual worlds with him. Also interviewing him is Larry Magid of PodTech and CBS News.Tags: Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM, Larry

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

We didn't win

The sourceforge.net community awards 2007 are over, and unfortunately we didn't win. Nevertheless, thanks to anyone who voted. The winners in the categories where Irrlicht was nominated are ScummVM and Audacity, two nice projects, I am using them as well. :) All winners can be viewed here. Although in addition to Irrlicht, Ogre and Crystal Space were nominated too, no 3D engine did win an award, too bad. I think the reason is that 3D engines have a bit smaller user base.
The all-over best project this year was 7-zip by the way, a nice piece of sofware, about which I have blogged some days ago, funnily. :)

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Ustream gets new chat and other streaming video features

Ustream.tv is one of a new set of networks that let you publish live streaming video on the Internet. Presidential candidate John Edwards, on Monday evening, used Ustream to talk with thousands of people after the CNN/YouTube debates. But today Ustream is shipping new features including a new chat application, and a new way for [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Treo Software August Special Offer

This months Treo Software Bestseller list has changed quite significantly with a strong focus on ringtones as the recently updated Ringo Pro rises two points to #2 and the new RingCare entering at #9. Additionally, the latest Kinoma Player also...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Some unrelated video link

Just to fill the summer blog hole (I know, bad translation. What is better? 'summer news vacuum'?):
Maybe you know, if you mix Mentos and Coke, you'll get a fountain. But if you do the same with Carlsberg and Mentos, something completely different will happen.

Read More...

[Source: Irrlicht3d.org]

Editor's Choice: highlights of Your Truman Show

Highlights of the interview and demo with Arturo Artom, CEO of Your Truman Show, who talks with me about this innovative video storytelling service.Tags: Arturo Artom, Your Truman Show

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

YouTube With Palm Web Video Generator Software

Until now whenever Ive wanted to watch video from YouTube while on the go Ive relied on the latest version of Kinoma Playerfor my Treo because its the only solution available that plays streaming Flash Video or streaming 3gp video...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Sharing with AllPeers

Cedric Maloux, CEO of AllPeers, and Matthew Gertner, CTO talk with me about AllPeers and the burgeoning sharing market. AllPeers is a cool tool to send stuff to your friends.Tags: Cedric Maloux, AllPeers, Matthew Gertner

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Boom Boom makes its volatile debut on Cafe.com!

Don't miss our new game Boom Boom! It's a complete new experience with 3D graphics where you CAN ACTUALLY PLAY WITH YOUR AVATAR inside the game, and see your friens avatars running to avoid your bombs. Bring your friends and...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Treo Accessories Offers: August Start Special

To celebrate the first day of Augustthe Treo Accessories Storeonce again has some terrific offers for you (valid until 12 noon PST this Thursday, August 2). Motorola H9 Bluetooth HeadsetTreonauts Offer: Only $89.95 MSRP: $99.95 Save $10.00!!! Although its not...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]

Upgrades!

Remember, when playing games on Cafe.com, players have the ability to buy enhanced equipment such as better warships in Ironsides. Why play with the default ship? You can do more damage to your opponents by purchasing a superior ship like...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Get a cafe.com blog widget!

Do you want to get a cafe.com widget? Just click on the button below! Cheers! -Fabrice...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Cafe.com (open beta) is now officially out!

Folks, We are very happy and proud to announce that cafe.com (open beta) is now officially launched! If you want to know more about this great adventure, check the links below: - The official Press Release: http://www.boonty.net/news_and_blogs/2007/02/posted_february.html - A great...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Demo of Plazes.com, mobile app to show where you are

Here, Plazes.com's founder, Felix Petersen, demonstrates what Plazes lets you do with your mobile phone, and how you might use it to improve your life.Tags: Plazes.com, Felix Petersen, mobile phone

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Avatar 101

Avatar: an electronic image that represents and is manipulated by a computer user Your Avatar, is the representation of you, completely under your control that users see when they play with or against you in any of the cafe.com games....

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

Suit up

One of the coolest features on cafe.com is the variety of options available to the user when creating their own avatar. You are able to dress your avatar with different clothes, change their hairstyle, eye color, and even their skin...

Read More...

[Source: Free Games -Cafe.com Online Game Blog]

An inside look at Twitter

You've heard the hype about Twitter. Maybe you don't understand why it's important or what it is. It's a microblogging tool that I've found very useful. It lets you send 140-character messages to the world telling them what you're doing. Last week they announced that they had received funding, so I went over there to [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Casual gaming with King.com and MyGame.com

Continuing my tour through the online gaming world, I meet with Robert Norton, VP of Business Development for King.com and MyGame.com, a new service for delivering and playing customized games on the Web. We hear his view of the gaming industry and get some insights into what King.com is investing in.Tags: online gaming, Robert Norton

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

On AIR (bus) with Adobe

Kevin Lynch, SVP and Chief Software Architect at Adobe, introduces me to the Adobe Integrated Runtime bus that's touring America now, bringing Adobe's executives and evangelists to developers where, they are showing how to use AIR. In this video, you also meet Lee Brimelow, senior design technologist at Frog Design; Mike Chambers, senior product manager [...]

Read More...

[Source: ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers]

Treo 800p First Images

This weekend further details and the first pictures of a next generation PalmOS Treo 800p have emerged. Its always hard to tell from blurry spy shots (above) what the relative proportions of the device might be but a side-by-side comparison...

Read More...

[Source: Treonauts]