Sat, Apr 10, 2004 Check out the trailer for Peasant's Quest! You are Rather Dashing, a peasant whose life is destroyed when Trogdor, the Burinator, destroys your thatched hut.  How much would you pay for this game?  $100? $50? $0.50?  Don't spend any money because it is free. See if you can complete it with all 150 points!  I was able to finish the game on my own but couldn't get all of the points without finding a walkthrough.

Wed, Apr 7, 2004 I'd like to point to and recognize Kevin Lindsey for his great comments, feedback and bug reports on graphics in Avalon.  Comments and feedback like this is one of the reasons that we gave out the PDC build so early.  Thanks Kevin!

Wed, Apr 7, 2004

In case you haven't seen it, part of my interview that I did with Scoble is up at Channel9.  [BTW, big congrats to the Channel9 guys.  The site looks great and it survived being slashdotted on its first day.  How many dynamic sites do you know can handle a load like that so soon after launch?]

I did a long interview with Scoble and he asked me a lot of questions. It is interesting that he the topic of "Is Avalon a way to take over the Web" is the first that they put up there.  I'm glad that it is though as this is definately a hot button topic.  I'll be sure to keep an eye on the comments on the video and answer any questions that you guys have.

A little background on me: I joined the IE group at Microsoft in the middle of 1997 right out of college.  I'd interned twice -- once on a forgotten product called TeamManager and the second time on the OpenGL inside of Windows.  When working on IE, I was responsible for, mostly, the data model for how we stored HTML in memory for processing and rendering.  I touched a lot of other code, but my original nickname was "Tree Boy" (to Eric Vasilik's "Tree Man" :)  If you have questions on IMarkupServices, I can probably answer them for you.

A couple of years ago, I moved over to the then (very newly) formed Avalon Media Integration Layer and helped define the early vision of what we were going to do with 2D UI level graphics in Longhorn. (The DX team is all over 3D and games!)  At one point all we knew that we wanted was CFS, which stood for "Cool Flying Stuff".  We upgraded thaet to "Clickable Flying Stuff" and the graphics strategy for Avalon was born.  Since then I've been hard at work helping to define and implement a lot of the graphics functionality in Longhorn.  Seriously, I think that we are making a huge leap ahead for Windows and look forward to helping everyone understand what we are about.  I'm also interested in hearing comments, suggestions and bug reports.

Wed, Apr 7, 2004

I had a rant here wrt RSS history, but considering the fact that it really doesn't matter and it is always best to stay positive, I'll withold comment :).

Onward and upward with Avalon!

Tue, Apr 6, 2004

Channel9 is up and running.  Scoble interviewed me for this a while ago.  We'll see if and when it shows up!

Mon, Mar 29, 2004

Never underestimate the throughput of a pigeon. 

While in New Zealand, we went on a caving trip that included a 100 meter abseil (rappel) into a cave and then climbed back out.  One of the tour guides had a digital camera in a waterproof housing anchored to his harness.  He took some pictures of us on the way down and when we got to the bottom. 

The tour operator (Waitomo Adventures) wanted pictures from the adventrue to be ready by the time that we returned so that we could buy them.  To do this they took the sony memory stick out of the camera and put in in to a little backpack on a carrier pigeon.  They then let the pigeon go and yelled instructions to it on how to get back to the tour office.  I think that the pigeon already knew the way, though.

When we got back (a 20-25 minute trip in a van) the pigeon had arrived and the staff back at the office were busy printing out our pictures.

We bought the pictures on CD also, but I don't have those with me right now.  I'll post those soon so you can see the fruit of the little pigeon's labor.

Wed, Mar 24, 2004

Somebody named Cash posted a comment asking about my DIY HT Screen.  Here is what I did:

1. Built a 2"x4" frame the size of my screen.  It is a simple rectangle with a supporting member in the middle.  I used some screws and metal "fasteners" to make all of the right angles.
2. A friend came over and helped me mount it to the wall.  I did this by securing a 2"x4" in to studs in the wall.  I then put small blocks screwed to the back of my frame.  The small blocks were then set on top of the 2"x4" on the wall and shimmed until the frame was level on the wall.  I also put some blocks of wood in the bottom corners to support the bottom.
3. Once the frame was level and where I wanted it on the wall I screwed it in to the 2"x4" that was already attached to the wall.
4. I then put a piece of hardboard (cut by Home Depot) on top of the frame.  This is essentially pegboard without the holes.  It is smooth enough and works pretty well.  I screwed this around the edges.
5. I then primed and painted the hardboard screen.  2 coats of primer and 2 coats of matte "Misty Evening."  This is a color suggested by avsforum.com.  I used a small can of "Evermore Interior Latex Flat" paint.  The label has code "30BG 64/036" next to the Misty Evening name, if that helps.  This was all applied with a very fine roller and let dry.
6. I then built a mitered frame out of good quality (no warping) 1"x4"s.  We wrapped these in black material  and stapled it on the back.  I used black felt, but I think that black velvet would be better if you can find a cheap source.  I then used finish nails to secure this around the edge of the screen and hide all of the screw heads.  I punched the nails in and they are now hidden behind the fabric.

The result is probably overbuilt and not as great as a grayhawk screen, but the price can't be beat and it looks pretty darn professional.  The black border really helps.

Let me know if you have any questions or want any pictures!  I don't want to take it apart or anything :)

Wed, Mar 24, 2004

I'm back home and doing laundary and catching up on the Sopranos.  Here is another pano:

Image near Omapera, NZ, consisting of a 3 by 3 image stitch. Copyright © 2004, Joe Beda.  All Rights Reserved.

I'm going to try to get together a bunch of photos to get printed as West Coast Imaging is having a special on smaller prints that ends April 7th.  They have a cool printer that uses LEDs to light up regular old photo paper that is developed in traditional chemistry.  The whole thing is color profile savvy so you can be sure that you'll at least get within spitting distance of good color.  I've done prints with them before and been happy with the results.

Wed, Mar 17, 2004

I'm having a blast in New Zealand.  We've been touring around by car and doing some amazing things.  The highlight so far was a 100m abseil (what they call rappelling down here) into a cave and then climbing back out.

I've also gotten some great images.  Here are some thumbnails:

 
Image near Raglan, NZ, consisting of a 5 image stitch.  Copyright © 2004, Joe Beda.  All Rights Reserved.

 
Image near Raglan, NZ, consisting of a 7 image stitch.  Copyright © 2004, Joe Beda.  All Rights Reserved.

(I think that setting the timezone on my laptop exposed some timezone bugs in my blogging engine as it is publishing everything!)

Fri, Mar 12, 2004

I'm off to New Zealand for a vacation with my brother-in-law (my sister's husband).  We are going to get to Auckland, pick up our car rental and then wing it.  I have some guide books to read on the (long) flight over there.  I should be back sometime the week after next with some great pictures and experiences.

When I get back I plan on writing more on what is going on with Avalon graphics.  Just yesterday I did a short interview video thingy for Scoble.  I'm not sure when and how this will hit the web, but stay tuned.