Aaron’s Head is now Movable!

So…. it took my lunchtime at work. And then maybe an hour at the house tonight looking at tutorials and code and so on. But I got it to work; now, you too can control moving my head:

www.sonartstreet.com/apps/xna/movinghead.zip

Unfortunately, I do have to lodge my first complaint with the XNA tools so far. The deployment leaves a bit to be desired still. In order to install and play my “game” you have to install the .net framework. Not a huge deal… but inconvienent. Also, on my wish list for the final product, let us export a zip file with everything set up; that’s how we’re going to be distributing the apps anyways.

So, here’s the code I wrote to move my head around (I don’t know how to make this look like real code in WordPress… I do use identations, really):

XNA Halo Effect & Tutorials

I’ve been scrounging around, observing the coming XNA halo effect of websites and products. So far I know that I’m looking at new PCs, will be purchasing a USB XBOX 360 controller, and I’ll be paying the $100 to deploy my stuff (even my simple bouncing head app) to the 360. So already, off of free tools, the PC division of Microsoft is going to be making more money off me than they have in… um… 5 years since I built my last computer and thus, a copy of Windows XP (I’ve been using Macs since I do video production).

Two site have popped up of interest for tutorials specific to XNA:

http://learnxna.com/

http://www.xnaspot.com/

So on day 2 of the XNA unveiling, it looks like Learn-XNA is going to be a great spot for information. They were working on C# tutorials before XNA was out.

I’m anticipating that XNA Spot MIGHT be a bit more of a commercial site to promote Synaptic Studios and not really a tutorial site, but that’s just because the majoirty of the content there is about Synaptic Studios. Of couse, this is day 2 and what do I know (aside from that I need more knowledge!). I don’t mind looking at images of Synaptic’s stuff if they have great tutorials, so we’ll see.
But here, here’s the site/blog I can’t wait to get rolling:

http://xnarocks.spaces.live.com/

If Krishna can deliver on the killer syllabus he’s suggesting, then maybe we can all play in our own XNA-created worlds. Krishna’s blog is the place to watch.

My First XNA Project Completed!

Hat’s off to Microsoft.

Between their free offering of Visual Studio and now the great add of XNA, programming is within a mile’s reach to the average power user. Sure, there’s tutorials to go through and real code to learn… but tonight I actually accomplished something.

I started and finished an XNA app. Most importantly, I understood what was happening and why I was coding what I was. It clicked.

And if you want to try it out, you can! It works that smooth. There’s nothing much to see here… other than basically a tech demo showing that a little app can be built. Enjoy!

http://www.sonarstreet.com/apps/xna/firstxnaapp.zip

Or… a different first project

So I might have been offered a JAVA Web App project today at work. The boss has to make sure everything gets approved first (since being a programmer isn’t actually in my job description), but he thinks he’s going to get be paired with another programmer to help me get through this first app.

It’s really nothing too complicated (just a database for some product numbers we have to assign) but it’s a touch beyond my reach (still haven’t really messed with JSPs… read about them, haven’t done anythng with them). This is exciting to me, even though most developer would find it an annoying project. Woohoo! My first paying (sort of) gig!

The First Project: Media Database

So, the first full project I’m attempting is a media database for audio recordings. The end goals are:

1) Add Media Records to database, including file upload using Amazon S3
2) Delete Media Records from database, including deleting the file
3) Ability to modify media record
4) Enable end-user to sort media files by people involved, date, and subject matter from website
5) Enable end-user to download media files from website
6) Create RSS of newly add media files
7) Create a Javascript to display the most recently uploaded media

That’s… a lot. And it’s intimidating. So, my plan is to break it down into 4 major steps:

1) Develop a Java program that can add records and display records
2) Enhance Java program to interact with a database, including file uploads to Amazon S3
3) Develop html-interface to Java progam
4) Enhance html-interface for RSS and Javascript

This is a lot for me to do; remember… this is my first project. I’ve not really done anything on my own before. I’m not giving myself an hard dates yet, except that I want to be done with step 3 by January 1st. To be honest… I don’t know if that’s being overzealous or lazy. But between now and then I’ll have also completed two MBA courses, published 2-3 comic books, and made at least 3 freelance videoes (that I already have lined up). So… it’s going to be a long 4 months!

The Story So Far…

I do things.

In the past, I was a video producer by trade. I have designed web sites and wrtitten comics. I like to learn; I’m 12 hours in on an MBA.

And then, earlier this year, I heard that Microsoft was going to release a set of tools called XNA. This set of tools was going to make use of the C# programming language to write video games. I decided, fairly qucikly, that I wanted to do this, too. I wanted to learn this, too.

So I stumbled upon a Microsoft contest – “Upgrade Your Game”. Basically… it was tutorials on how to write games in C#. And it was way too complicated for me. So I went and found other tutorials, and began trying to learn C#.

In these tutorials, we were supposed to learn how to write a C# RSS feed reader. I found that I was loving what I was doing. I offhandedly mentioned it to my boss… and found out that my place of employment was actually a JAVA house, and should learn JAVA instead. So I stopped, borrowed a book called “Head First Java,” and continued on.

In the past 8 weeks or so, I’ve now read the majority of:

Head First JAVA
Head First JSPs & Servlets
Database Design for Mere Mortals
Learning SQL
Sams Teach Yourself JAVA in 21 Days

and pieces of:

Head First Design Patterns
Java 2 Primer Plus
MySQL Cookbook
Thinking in JAVA

So I’m learning… learning the hard way. And the kink in all this knowledge?

On August 29th, a beta version of the XNA tools will be made available. So now, my mind is going to be so tempted to flow back and forth between learning JAVA for web development, and C# for game development.

So this blog is here for me to post my thoughts on the programming and learning process. Sure, I’ve read a few books… but I’ve still barely put my toe in the tub of water. I’ve yet to write a program or class that’s not in a book. I’ve not designed anything or made any startling discoveries.

I know this; I’ve enjoyed learning programming. Now if I can just find the time to do it.