Alright, i’m a slacker. But come on, those of you who know me, how surprised are you? Right, not at all. That said, another Neumont University graduating class walked in the commencement ceremony on Friday. THe graduation speaker (Akhil Gupta, VP of Johnson & Wales University) mentioned this video in his speech (which was really fantastic - I’m not a graduation speaker fan but this was really good).

Anyways, it’s an interesting video that makes you really wonder what lies ahead of us here:

View the official announcement here. Or get right at it and download it here.

Happy Video Monday, everbody. The XNA 3.0 release is just around the corner. You can feel it in the air. Very exciting. Along with the changes to the framework are some great enhancements to Xbox LIVE Marketplace and Community Games. Here’s a video from the XNA Team Blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/default.aspx) with more info:

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&#038;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:c3d65b0c-273b-4548-8e36-3fa9e56f93b5&#038;showPlaylist=true&#038;from=shared" target="_new" title="Xbox LIVE Community Games">Video: Xbox LIVE Community Games</a>

Ok, I’m a huge slacker. But come on, if you know me that’s no surprise at all. I’ve had several people tell me they read the blog and wonder where Video Monday has gone so I’m happy to announce that it’s back. I have been really swamped with the book lately. Just finished what they’re calling Quality Check 1, which is essentially the fourth time I’ve double-checked the book, but this was the first time it was actually in a book format - formatted just like an O’Reilly book. It really seems strange to see all this stuff in an O’Reilly book and realize that I wrote it.

Next up on that front is QC2 which is a second round check after they fix my changes from QC1. Hopefully XNA 3.0 will be officially released by then so we can double-check the code against the release version as well. And then the book heads to the printers. Looks like the book will be an early December release at this point. It’s been a long time coming but it’ll be worth the wait.

Tomorrow my wife and I head to Boston for a week of relaxation. I’m ready to chug some lobster and go whale watching. This is the first time we’ve gone anywhere without our kids for more than a day or two so we’re pretty pumped.

Anyways, on with it already… here’s a Video Monday for you… (Flight of the Conchords, classic best looking girl in the room… awesome. Anytime your honey is feeling down, just tell her that you’re so beautiful, you could be a waitress, or a high class prostitute… that really makes the ladies swoon…)

In honor of this week’s return of the best show on TV (The Office) here’s a summary clip of some great moments:

You can download the beta from Microsoft’s website here. The list of features is given on that page as well and best of all, I can finally install GS 3.0 on my Vista 64 machine! Sweet!

Here we go! The XNA 3.0 beta is due to arrive sometime this week. New features since the CTP include:

Zune

• Compatibility with the upcoming Zune 3.0 Firmware release. Please note that the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP will no longer work once you have upgraded your Zune device to the 3.0 firmware.
• Improved deployment stability.
• Support for Zune deployment on Windows Vista x64 Systems!
• You can now use the Remote Performance Monitor for Zune games.

Xbox 360

• Xbox 360 project templates (You will not be able to develop on the Xbox 360 until our final release. We felt this was important to include so that you could get projects converted over and look at the system, even if you are not able to run the games, yet).
• Support for the Big Button Pad.

Framework & Visual Studio Features

• Enumerate and play back media on your Windows computer or Xbox 360.
• Simple sound effect support on Windows computers and Xbox 360.
• Support for Rich Presence (lets friends know what’s going on in your game).
• Support for Invites (ask your friends to join you in a multiplayer game) and Join Session In Progress (after you see what your friends are doing, you can join their current session with just a couple of button presses, even if that’s a different game to the one you are currently playing)
• Compress your content and save space with the new content compression features!
• ClickOnce packaging support for distributing your XNA Framework games on Windows.
• Upgrade your project from XNA Game Studio 2.0 using the Project Upgrade Wizard!
• Take screen captures of your game running on Zune through the XNA Game Studio Device Center.
• Support for .NET language features like Linq
• Create multiple content projects and leverage cross project synchronization in Visual Studio.
• FBX importer improvements: read materials containing multiple textures, and export custom shader materials directly out of Max or Maya.

See the full announcement here.

Here’s a good one for you. Tina Fey returns to SNL for this skit with “Hillary.” She looks and acts so much like Palin it’s scary…

Well, I went to Michigan last weekend to see the Utes and the Wolverines kick off the football season. Utah had a great showing. The Michigan fans tailgate like nothing I’ve seen and I was amazed at how many people there were and how great their food looked (yeah, none of them were ready to share with the enemy) and how many games, parties and just fun things were going on pre-game. The Utes probably traveled around 5,000 people - would have probably brought more but the school only received 3,000 tickets from Michigan. The rest eBayed them or scalped them. But the U of U tailgate was equally awesome. Tons of Michigan fans came by saying how impressed they were with the number of Utes (and asked what in the world a Ute was) and commented on how great our setup was. Nice to see the big boys somewhat impressed with what the U is doing.

continue reading "Good times in the Big House"

Well, I’ve slacked in my posting pretty well here. I’ve always known that if there’s one thing I’m good at, its procrastination. I’ve been meaning to write something here for a while but obviously that didn’t happen. Because I missed Video Monday this week, here’s a Video Friday. This comes from Kacie Mayberry -  a good friend of mine from Neumont University. Kacie’s an Ohio State fan so you can see why he recommended this. With football in full swing and in honor of my trip to see the Utes spank (er… hang on) and beat Michigan, here you go…