Free City Wide Wi-Fi

City wide Wi-Fi networks are starting to pop up all over the place. Google’s Mountain View, California (where their headquarters is located) Wi-Fi network has been going strong for a while now. Norfolk County in the UK has also started a Wi-Fi network. Concentrated in the city center of Norwich it provides residents with a lower end wireless connection than most local commercial hotspots. The group in charge of the Norfolk project claims that they don’t want to compete with existing Wi-Fi providers.

The Norfolk group seems to have the right idea by attempting to appease the local commercial providers. Google’s network suffers from the occasional dead spot so those are places where commercial ventures could snap up some service. Although I’m not sure if their plan is as friendly as Norfolk’s in regards to commercial ventures. Of course the difference between these is that Norfolk is being done as a government service and Google is doing it as a “good company” PR move.

Why it is that lower speed broadband connections haven’t popped up for free in every city is a mystery to me. Consumers are too quick to pay for service at local hotspots is the most likely answer. Panera provides free wireless at a majority of their locations. It is incredibly easy to connect to and hassle free. You don’t have to log in or download any special software, just authenticate in your browser and you’re off. Starbucks on the other hand is charging, through Verizon, in most cities (if not all) for their wireless service. Considering the number of credit card wielding upper middle class Americans that frequent Starbucks this is the biggest stumbling block for free citywide wireless.

One can hope that cell phone networks will eventually evolve to the point that their infrastructure can be easily converted to a city wide Wi-Fi network. I think it is just a matter of time before these massive growing infrastructures start to bring companies to their knees. At this point it is up to city and state governments to jump in and offer subsidies in exchange for a free low speed broadband connection for their residents. However, as long as Starbucks patrons, and their ilk, continue to hand their money away citywide free Wi-Fi is a distant dream.

later,
-junc

Microsoft XNA Express

I can’t say I’m incredibly impressed with Microsoft’s new release. After installing I tried to run their “First program in 60 seconds” tutorial and it failed to compile.

Awesome.

For something that is supposed to be for the “amateur” I don’t think that is a good thing. If it weren’t for Microsoft pushing the software based on that idea I wouldn’t be so critical. The truth of the matter is though that XNA Express is not for someone just interested in getting into making games. We’re not talking about a WYSIWYG development interface for the latest FPS here. This is C# programming with some extras. I can’t comment on the “extras” because I obviously didn’t delve that far into things.

I don’t think Microsoft is completely at fault for pushing XNA Express as a “amateur” tool though. I think the media has been widely responsible for promoting this and failing to mention that you have to know C# in order to do anything with it.

I’m also a little concerned about the idea of developing games with languages like C#. I mean, Java, Visual Basic, and C# and three of the last languages that come to mind when you talk about serious game development. C++ doesn’t seem to get the love it once did, but at the end of the day it is C++ and Assembly that drive nearly every successful game on the market.

What XNA Express should be promoted as is a great way for someone who is interested in game development to get into programming. C# would be an excellent language to learn game development on. It appears that the tutorials and examples that XNA Express comes bundled with would be great for a beginning programmer to feel like they are really making progress right away. However, if you already know how to program in C# or C++ then using anything with “Express” attached to it is probably not of much interest to you.

later,
-junc

Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express!

Microsoft has released Game Studio Express. The blurb from their site:

"The XNA Team is proud to present the beta release of XNA Game Studio Express. XNA Game Studio Express is targeted at students and hobbyists for game development, and is based on Visual C# Express 2005. This release of XNA Game Studio Express also contains the "Spacewar" game to help you get started learning game development.

It requires the Visual C# 2005 Express Edition to be installed on your system, so download that first.

I will check it out and post a brief review later. Although I honestly doubt there will be much to review.

later,
-junc

Wii Rumors!

Rumors about the Wii have been flying lately. I read one that claimed that Nintendo was going to pull one over on us and release a game system with a much more powerful processor than they originally claimed. Personally, I think that is a bunch of fan boys getting carried away. Along the same lines I read that the PS3 may not have the processing power that it once claimed. Once again, I think this is Nintendo fan boys gone bad. The other rumor is a release date of September 14th. I also doubt this one. There is a conference scheduled where it has been rumored for a while that the release date will be announced. I have a feeling that this is much more likely. I’m still sticking with the idea of a November release date. Until I see something that convinces me otherwise.

later,
-junc

Vista Date and Prices and DRM News

The story circulating around about Google entering the software market seems a little taken out of context to me. From what I can tell the software will be the same, but in some versions be run on someone else's server. While this impacts businesses, because they are able to control the dependability of their applications, it is of little use to the home user. Google has a pretty strong backbone. I very rarely experience any interruptions in my use of the Google site. That particular article starts off making things sound like Google will have stand alone applications. Which isn't the case at all. If Google decided to start packaging their tools in offline clients then Microsoft might have something to worry about. However, the strength of Microsoft Office is pretty amazing. People still spend hundreds of dollars on Office when they would get just as much out of OpenOffice.

Speaking of good ol' Mircosoft. Microsoft Windows Vista is set to ship, according to Amazon, on January 30, 2007 at the following prices:

FULL versions

• Windows Vista Ultimate $399.00
• Windows Vista Business $299.00
• Windows Vista Home Premium $239.00
• Windows Vista Home Basic $199.00

UPGRADE versions

• Windows Vista Ultimate Upgrade $259.00
• Windows Vista Business Upgrade $199.00
• Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade $159.00
• Windows Vista Home Basic Upgrade $99.95

In other great Microsoft news a program called "Fair Use for Windows Media" was recently released that circumvents their Digital Rights Management and enables users to unlock their media files. On a related note, a site called Spiralfrog has been given rights to distribute music from Vivendi Universal for free. The idea is for the site to be powered by advertisements.

There are so many things wrong with every one of these ideas. DRM is a huge problem that is quickly getting out of control. I'm glad to see things like "Fair Use for Windows Media", but it is too bad that the authors may have to martyr themselves for a fight that shouldn't have even begun. It still amazes me that people use things like iTunes and Napster. These services just keep DRM alive, encouraging record labels to continue to pursue even more control over the things you own. As for Spiralfrom.com, that is just a huge joke. A bunch of companies tried that strategy in the late 90's and it didn't work out so well for some of them. I imagine the company will probably get off the ground but quickly switch to a more capitalist business model quickly after.

later,
-junc

Game News

The Guild Wars Nightfall release date was officially announced a few days ago. We will be able to get our hands on the latest stand alone expansion pack on October 27. Some folks on the Guild Wars Guru site mentioned the possibility of a delay on the collectors edition. There may be some truth to this because Amazon has the standard version available, but not the collectors edition. However, the press release does say that the collectors edition will be available on the 27th. The addition of “Heroes” sounds incredibly exciting to me. I’m a pretty big fan of using henchmen in the game. Being able to wield some control over those will really clench this game as the best game of all time for me.

I’ve been waiting for a good RPG for the Nintendo DS. The two that exist, LostMagic and Tao’s Adventure didn’t fare all that well in a lot of reviews. While the DS appears to have a lot of RPG’s on the way one of the first great ones will most likely be Final Fantasy III DS. It is a remake of the original that wasn’t released in the United States. From what I have read it sounds promising.

There are rumors that a Unreal Tournament 2007 demo will be released soon. I have also found info claiming that Unreal 2007 will not be released until early 2007, which sort of breaks the trend of releasing the holiday season before. I would suspect that this means a demo release in the next month or two. It will be interesting to see how scalable the engine is and just how it looks on lower end machines.

later,
-junc

BlogDesk

So I believe that BlogDesk is the winner.

It doesn’t have a calendar but the trade off for that is that it is a pretty “thin” program. It has exactly what you need and no more. I will probably just use some external calendar as a reminder to post everyday.

I’m also going to revamp the website a little bit. I’ve been running google’s AdSense for some time now and haven’t made much money off of it. I will most likely do some sort of Amazon/Google combo with maybe one advert of rotating banners with freeware. In addition I might see if I can sign up for some sort of multiple advert program. I would like to make the site a little more transparent as far as stats are concerned as well.

I will also probably put together some banners of my own and put them into the rotation. I will make them available for others to download. I’m searching for a theme for the website to attract readers. While the goal is to make money I don’t expect people to come visit my site without a reason to. While I have my music and games up on the site I don’t think that is the sort of thing that brings repeat readers. If anyone has any suggestions, please post a comment and share.

later,
-junc

Blog Experiments

I’ve been trying to work some things out with how I post to the site. Basically I want something that will actually remind me to post. I attempted to set up an email account to post with but didn’t like the interface. I’m checking out Microsoft's Live Writer. I attempted to use Writely earlier in the day but wasn’t too happy with the results. A double post and kind of clunky interaction. I’m going to try a few other clients before I settle on something. Having a built in calendar is pretty important to me. So far I don’t see one in Live Writer so I most likely won’t go with it.

I’ve been reading the hell out of Questionable Content lately. Sara got me addicted to it.

later,
-junc