Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 08:42PM Lovers of fine literature (and those who read my books) will be thrilled to know that my XNA 4.0 book is half price today on the O’Reilly site. This is the latest version, that also covers Windows Phone game development and features words of wisdom from “The Great Programmer”.
Find out more here.
XNA Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 08:37PM I actually own this single on 12” vinyl. I bet it is worth a fortune now….
One of the nice things about having a Zune Pass is that I can track down old bands that I used to listen to in the old days. Like Living in a Box. I’m sure you’ve heard the title track of album and band. Good stuff. The rest of the album is 80’s synth pop, but none the worse for that.
music Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 08:28PM I’m off on my travels again next month. I’m doing sessions about Windows Phone and Kinect at TechDays in Belgium and the Netherlands and then hopping over to SIGCSE in the USA to give some sessions there too.
The plan is to develop and maybe even publish a complete Windows Phone application during one session and then play some rather silly games during the Kinect one. Should be fun.
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 08:11PM 
The students came back to lectures today. A chance to use all those great jokes that I’ve been practicing over the break.
Or something.
Life Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 08:06PM Drawing with your fingers on an iPad is fine, but not natural. The Crayola colouring pen gives you something to hold on to as you draw, which is nice. I first thought it was just a pen that works on a touch screen, but there is more to it than that. The pen does something with the connection to the screen (I think it turns it on and off quickly) that enables the software in the iPad to detect when the pen is touching it, and ignore fingers. This means that if you accidently touch the screen with your hand while drawing the program ignores this. If you (or a very small friend) want to get to grips with colouring and free hand drawing the program is worth a look. The pen works fairly reliably, although I had to press quite hard to make it work sometimes.
The pen comes with a colouring and drawing application with pictures you can colour in which are quite fun. It has a really nice option you can set. I’ve always wanted something that helps me stay inside the lines..
Gadgets 