If you’ve been thinking of getting into JavaFX, Sun’s Java answer to Flash, Sun has a number of articles and tutorials on the java.sun.com site, starting with this intro article. Look on the far right for a list of other follow on articles.
Writing a 2D arcade game using Java2D API
Every now and again I get the urge to develop a game in Java, but I never get it complete. I’ve done a few prototypes modeling bouncing balls and simplified gravity on moving objects, but have never finished a game to completion (in Java at least – I wrote some simple games in Sinclair BASIC almost 20 years ago, and also a 2D side scroller variant in STOS BASIC on the Atari ST sometime in the late 80s).
Once of my main hurdles in Java has been ‘how do I get stuff on the screen?’. I’ve tried things in Applets using the Graphics Class, and also looked at very simple tile-based graphic layouts using, of all things, a GridLayout in Swing. I just found this tutorial however, which shows incredibly simply, how to the the Java2D api to write images to the screen using Buffering. This is an awesome article because it bridges the gap for me – I’ve read a few Java2D articles and skimmed through the Java2D online tutorials, and the part that seems to be missing in most is how you actually get an instance of the Graphics2D class. Now to go away and do something creative 🙂 Actually, I’m going to have a crack at a Nintendo ‘Game & Watch’ style simple game…. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes…
(I don’t know which came first, but the article mentioned above is also extended somewhat in this other article – you can see there are name changes, but it’s the same code… I get the feeling the first article came first…)
When does a Company no longer need to act like a Company?
This is a random thought. Most businesses exist primarily (unless they’re non-profit) to generate profit for their owners, either individuals or shareholders. If your company becomes as successful as, say, Microsoft, does this ‘reason for existence’ become irrelevant? For example, with Microsoft’s assets, it no longer has to provide services or new products to it’s customers, because it can remain financially viable by investing it’s assets alone.
Has there ever been a company as successful as Microsoft before, and did they at some point in their existence decide to call it a day and stop providing a service or products to it’s customers?
This post here sort of hints at the same point in the last paragraphs. At this point it’s almost irrelevant if Microsoft provides a useful product to it’s customers or not, because unless it doesn’t sustain major losses from carrying on business as normal, it doesn’t need to do anything at this point. Has Microsoft really lost it’s way?
Why I’m not going to buy Vista
For once I did not run out to buy the latest copy of Windows, Vista, as soon as it was available. In the past I’ve rushed out either on or pretty close to release day to pick up the latest incarnation, rush home and install it and wonder at how much the latest and greatest has improved over the past version.
I remember being absolutely amazed at how much Windows ’95 was a leap ahead of Windows 3.1, although at the same time curious at how similar it was in ways to OS/2 but in many ways was not as solid as OS/2, particularly in stability – OS/2 was always a rock solid OS. I also remember coming home with my first copy of Windows XP and upgrading my Windows ’95 machine and being surprised that it mostly migrated everything ok, but then later found out I had a bunch of old apps that would no longer run on XP and that there was no upgrade path from companies the software came from. Oh, and the hardware that no longer worked (scanner and printer) and that there were no upgraded drivers for XP.
I’ve been curious to how ‘Longhorn’ as it was called for a while was developing prior to the actual launch and kept track of the news over the past couple of years, but then was only disappointed to find out that the features I was really interested in were all put on the backshelf or abandoned, like WinFS – the very interesting new concept to building a next generation file system based on top of a version of SQL Server. Who knows if that will ever make it to see light of day.
I think I’ve just reminded myself why I still have not bought Microsoft Vista. I have number of older PCs in our house, and they are all running just fine as they are, and work well for what we use them for. They are mostly P3s, and a couple of P4s, and most have less than 1 GB of RAM. And here’s what most people just do not get – upgrading to Vista is not going to make your access to your web based email more efficient, neither is it going to be any faster. Neither is Vista going to be faster when writing short docs in Word. Will my old copy of Office ’97 even work on Vista (because that’s all I’ve got), who knows and who cares, because I don’t. I’ve no interest in paying upwards of $100 for an upgrade to an Operating System which doesn’t really offer any benefits to me as a user. Sure it looks prettier, but not $100 worth of pretty. It’s still not even close to the Mac OS X on my wife’s Mac Book.
In all honesty I think Microsoft have lost their way. Vista appears to be very much a knee-jerk reaction to try and catch up with what Jobs is doing over at Apple with Mac OS X. Sure, Windows still has the market share by far, but I think Balmer and Co. are finally starting to get worried by the devoted Mac users talk of how much they love working with their Macs and how much they love the software on the Mac. I’ve never heard anyone talk about Windows in the same way. I have to use Windows at work because I have to, not because I choose to. If I had my way I’d be using any flavor of Linux over Windows any day. Vista just seems to be reaction to the rest of the market, and no longer can it be seen as offering anything new. I’m not going to give Gates another $100 just to get some features that everyone else already has. Oh, and for the record, my next PC will definitely be a Mac.