Happy New Year 2015!

Happy New Year to all readers of Technological Ramblings, and be sure to have a great 2015! In 2 minutes.

In two more minutes as of the time of writing this, Spain, France, Germany, and most of Europe will enter 2015. As for me, I still have 7 hours to go!

Dell Venue 8 3830 Bugs & Issues

I am currently using a Dell Venue 8 3830 as my main tablet, and it is a fairly decent tablet, running stock Android 4.4.2, BUT there are 3 bugs that are really irritating me.

Just Do It

This year, 2014, I have published my first (and second, and third) project to the world.

Prior to this, I had released a few small games, but those were effectively demos. Yes, the two full projects I published in 2014 were also small: a stopwatch/countdown/timer, and an audio recorder. The difference is that these are real products. They need to work properly, and delight actual users. Their purpose is achieved if they improve people's workflow. I think we succeeded (and the reviews prove it), but that is a different point.

Developing a product like that is an amazing experience, and it is entirely feasible for anyone to do. Kerinova is small right now, but I am very proud of the work I am doing as part of it. That takes a lot, because I am constantly critiquing everything I do. I am working this month on two bigger software projects, and I am excitingly anticipating their release.

It is an amazing experience, and I encourage everyone and anyone who has an idea for an app or game to just do it. Learn how to program and start developing your dream app or game. It is possible, and while it may seem intimidating at first, I promise you it is very possible, and fun! There are many resources available online to learn how to code, and of course, I am available to help.

One of the aspects of the Software Industry that I love, is that it is a great equalizer. The tools and resources to begin creating, are available online for free! Anyone can create apps, from ages 6-124!

If you have any extra time this coming year, start developing your dream app or game. Just do it. Make it your New Year's Resolution for 2015!

Go forth and conquer, and such.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7" First Impressions Update

I had a rather successful Grey Thursday yesterday, in terms of shopping. I purchased a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7" for $149. That is down from the normal price of $199. Yeah, shopping on Black Friday isn't the smartest thing, or even the savviest thing for deals, but the hype caught up with me. Anyway, I now have a new tablet for Android development. Let's get into the first impressions.

Intel Galileo Gen 2 First Impressions

I have purchased the Intel Galileo Gen 2 board for use in some hardware projects, and it arrived last week. This board is Arduino compatible, has an x86 Intel Quark SoC, and can run OS's such as Linux or Windows IOT. Here are my first impressions.

Technological Ramblings- Episode 6: "7 Eight 9"

Technological Ramblings has hosts Xeon Gutierrez of IctuateAnomaly, and Sebastian Benjamin of Wall of Intellectual Nonsense, discussing various topics in the realm of technology.

Nova Recorder live on Windows Phone App Store

My new app Nova Recorder is now live on the Windows Phone Store. This is the second application Kerinova has published, after Nova Time, which is also on the Windows Phone Store.


 



What is Nova Recorder?
It is a sound recorder app. Are you surprised? I hope not.

Nova Recorder is designed from the ground up for the Windows Phone platform, and features a simple, flat, modern User Interface using the Metro design language.

Nova Recorder records high quality, stereo, dual channel, 44100hz audio, and is integrated with the Music+Videos hub.

Nova Recorder also features in-app  audio playback.

OneDrive saving support, and a Live Tile will arrive in the next major update, slated to be v1.1.








Download Nova Recorder completely free on the Windows Phone Store:

One Windows 10

The company behind OneNote, OneDrive, and the Xbox One is unveiling the next generation of Windows. One product family. One core. One platform. One unified store. Windows 10.

Nova Time WP8,WP7 Live in the Windows Phone Store!

Technological Ramblings- Episode 4: "GUI-Land"

Technological Ramblings has hosts Xeon Gutierrez of IctuateAnomaly, and Sebastian Benjamin of Wall of Intellectual Nonsense, discussing various topics in the realm of technology.

Communal Day 1 Demo 1 is now available

The Communal Day 1 Demo 1 is now available.

Devlog: Communal: Creating a means of creation

                Today, August 3^rd, I began a new project, as I have a tendency to do. The idea for this project sprouted from May, during one of my and Sebastian’s brainstorming walks. We built on my earlier idea of creating an educational programming tool, and decided to make a programming language with the syntax of the English language. It would be open source, interpreted, and accessible to everyone on every device.

The project’s name is: Communal.

                Today I implemented basic support for what would in C# be WriteLine, got some rudimentary voice control support on Windows, and began work on variables. Considering this will soon become an Open Source project, (Licensed under the GPL v3) I am going to be more open with early development, and will release an interactive demo of the product very soon. How soon? As soon as I have integer variables working.

                There is so much I want to say about this project. I have a lot of neat features planned that I will reveal at a later date.

                The repo can eventually be found at: https://github.com/kerinova/Communal

                You can find out more about Communal at: www.kerinova.com/kn/code

                Goodnight.

Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 live on developer preview

The Windows Phone 8.1 Update has gone live across the developer preview today. More good news? You do not have to be a developer to sign up.

Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1- Preview, Features, and Release Date

On the left, a Start Screen Folder, on the right, an expanded folder

Nearly 4 months after the unveiling of Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Update (1), Microsoft has announced the Windows Phone 8.1 Update (1). Today in an event in China, Joe Belfiore announced the latest Windows Phone update. Relative to the previous GDR updates, this update seems rather sizeable, so let’s get into the details.

Historical Ramblings of Computer Science Episode 1 is LIVE!

There is some news on the Kerinova Studios front. Kerinova has released the first episode of Historical Ramblings (Computer Science).

What is Historical Ramblings?

Historical Ramblings is a series of YouTube videos to 'educatain' viewers on the history of Computer Science.

The first episode is on early 'computers' in the late 1800's.

The first episode can be found on Kerinova's Historical Ramblings playlist, or embedded below:

Lumia Android- Why Windows Phone might be doomed

On July 6, popular leaker @evleaks tweeted that an Android-powered Lumia is incoming, from Nokia by Microsoft. (The horrible Microsoft naming conventions strike back.)

Assuming that, this rumor is true, I find this to be very concerning for Windows Phone as a whole.

Personally, I would probably just cease developing for Windows Phone entirely, and just switch my focus to Android, if this rumor is true.

Kerinova Studios Website/Blog/Forums Beta is LIVE!

After a good 10 hours of work, www.kerinova.com is now in a state that I am comfortable calling a public beta. There's still some work to do, but eh, isn't there always?

Windows Phone 8.1 Review: The Reset and Restore Data Process-

Spinning Gears

About three months ago, my HTC 8X started randomly rebooting throughout the day. As you might expect, this is a HORRIBLE fate for a PHONE. My phone became the Schrödinger's Cat of the cellular device world. It could be receiving calls, or it could have turned off, and
by the time I open the phone to find out, it is already too late.

Today I figured I would just bite the metaphorical bullet, and hard reset the phone.

How To: Backup, Reset, and Restore Data on Windows Phone 8.1

I recently had to factory reset my HTC 8X due to an issue that popped up over the last three months.
Luckily my phone was running Windows Phone 8.1, which made resetting and restoring my data easy.

Technological Ramblings- Episode 3: "MACetshare"

Technological Ramblings has hosts Xeon Gutierrez of IctuateAnomaly, and Sebastian Benjamin of Wall of Intellectual Nonsense, discussing various topics in the realm of technology.

Technological Ramblings- Episode 2: "I stare deep into your data"

Technological Ramblings has hosts Xeon Gutierrez of IctuateAnomaly, and Sebastian Benjamin of Wall of Intellectual Nonsense, discussing various topics in the realm of technology.

Technological Ramblings Podcast- Episode 1: "Pilot"

Technological Ramblings has hosts Xeon Gutierrez of IctuateAnomaly, and Sebastian Benjamin of Wall of Intellectual Nonsense, discussing various topics in the realm of technology.

What I Use- May 2014

It has been a while since I updated the list of devices I use. In fact, I haven't updated it since February. A lot has changed since then in terms of my devices, and also in terms of the format of this post. Let's begin with the May Edition of What I Use.

Windows 8.1 Update 1 Review

The Windows 8.1 Update 1 Start Menu-Taskbar and all

Windows 8.1 Update (1), or the Windows 8.1 Spring Update, or just the Windows 8.1 Update (Microsoft has lots of ways to refer to it) began rolling out to the general public yesterday, April 8th, through Windows Update.

PSA- WP8 Emulator Start Bug

Some of you may be getting an error when trying to start the Windows Phone 8 Emulator.

The Windows Phone Emulator couldn't start because they hypervisor isn't running. The likely cause is that the hardware-assisted virtualization isn't turned on.

Developer Log- Are we clear? No, we're opauqe

So I wrote an interesting little hack today to fix an issue while working on Project: Howland.

Two Minutes Hate- "X Open Source Project is dead!"

No it's not. You are a programmer, so program. Download the source and bring the project back.

App Development Liveblog: Project Futana (3/23/14)

The Liveblog is a live blog of my work. I re-publish every time I add something, so keep checking back.

What I Use- March & April 2014

I do not anticipate the devices I currently employ to change between now and the beginning of April, so the most up to date version of "What I Use" will be the February one, at least until May.

Kerinova.com is now LIVE!

This is a PSA that the Kerinova Studios official site is now live! You can find it at www.kerinova.com. Product announcements, and other Kerinova announcements and news will occur there.

The Kerinova Site also has a forum and blog, and will be finished soon, as it is in an early access state.

I hope to put my web games there eventually, like Project: AA.

Game Dev Livelog (3/9/14)

The Livelog is a live blog of my work. I re-publish every time I add something, so keep checking back.

Today is going to be a full day of development, so there has never been a better time to begin the Livelog series. I plan to work on Project: AA (fixing shooting bugs, and implementing telemetry) and Project: Futana (adding the menus).

Two Minutes Hate- Why Are We Learning This?!

Students tend to ask the question: "Why do we need to learn this?!" upon being taught many different subjects, usually advanced math topics.

Two Minutes Hate- "Programmers"

I tend to have to deal with these people a lot, and they seriously annoy me. I am talking about the "Programmers".

Developer Log: Cut out the middleman && unmanaged+managed=harmony

For those of you who do not know, I have been having issues regarding my menu implementation in Project: AA recently. Today I learned that sometimes it is best to cut out the middleman, and just go straight to the hardware, and that calling unmanaged code inside of managed code works rather well.

Two Minutes Hate- The Android Emulator is SO SLOW

I do not know if anyone else is having this issue, but the Android Emulator, at least on my PC, is ridiculously slow, and of very bad quality.

Developer Log: You cant bool hack your way out of this one

For those who don't follow my Twitter (you really should ;), I have been having issues with the various screens on Project: AA since the beginning of time.

Changing the system around a bug

So, I was having an interesting (to say the least) bug in Project: AA today.

If Microsoft employees piloted an airplane

This is what would happen if the Microsoft file system creators were to pilot an airplane. (Video after the break)

My computer is fixed and the WP7 XNA workaround

So, after two days I finally fixed my computer and reinstalled my development tools on it. The computer whose hard disk broke down was my development computer. The lesson learned here is, "backup early, backup often." Whatever the case, in order to get XNA working again, I had to use an interesting workaround.

Tutorial: Porting and Deploying to Windows 8/RT with MonoGame- Death Plot

The second in our series of MonoGame tutorials is porting to Windows 8/Windows RT. In my opinion, this is by far the easiest of the many ports you can do with MonoGame.
This is a tutorial and walkthrough of me porting my Mini Ludum Dare 48 game: Death Plot, to Windows 8/8.1/RT

Tutorial:Porting and Deploying an XNA game to Windows Phone 7

With XNA you can deploy to Windows, Windows Phone 7, and the Xbox 360. If you port your XNA game to MonoGame, you gain access to many more platforms. Today, we are going to look at how to deploy your game to Windows Phone 7 using XNA.

Tutorial: Setting up and running MonoGame on MacOS X

This is an overview and guide/tutorial of the process of both installing MonoGame on Macintosh, and creating a MonoGame project that actually runs. I will be using MonoGame 3.0.1, the January 31, 2014 MonoGame source, and MacOS X 10.8.5 for the purpose of this tutorial.

What I Use- February 2014

It is the first of a new month, and you know what that means! The monthly 'What I Use' is finally here! This time I am writing this from home, so pictures and detailed specs will be included.

Death Plot 1.0.1.330 Patch Notes

I just released and uploaded version v1.0.1.330 of Death Plot, which is an ESCONET-Kerinova game. It is a fairly major bug fix patch.

Release Notes:

Features:

• Added input for WP7- untested
• Implemented Ship 2 as a laser ship.
• Made all textures smaller by 2 times.
• This makes the play area larger, as well as makes the textures look sharper
• It also seemed to fix an issue with Enemies, at least for the short-term

Bugfixes:

• Fixed Enemy Spawning underneath menu's
• Fixed Score starting before the game starts
• Fixed bullets not killing all enemies for Player 1, Possibly Player 2
• Implemented Enemy Y axis bounding

Balance:

• Changed bullet balance and speed

Death Plot: A Post-Mortem

Time for the essential conclusion to the game jam recipe; the post-mortem. It is here where we examine what went right, and wrong, with the game in question, and discuss interesting aspects of its creation. We then talk about what will be done better next time, before concluding with shameless promotion for the game.

An assortment of thoughts on the American Education System

The American education system at large is majorly flawed currently. I say this being a student with a 4.0 GPA, so, make of that, and any associated biases as you will. 
I see two major ways to fix this system. They are as follows:

Bugs and Sickness

It turns out that you cannot postpone getting a good rest forever. Much to my chagrin, I have contracted some sort of illness, and due to that, I cannot do the stream I had planned. To make matters worse, I have some updates I need to rapidly release for Death Plot, and I wont be able to do that today. I am going to rest, and hopefully I am at least well enough to program tomorrow.

Mini Ludum Dare 48: Final Day (Three) Dev Log

Screenshot of the game. Yay programmer art!

Today (technically yesterday) was the only day our team (me and Sebastian) were really productive. We got the bulk of the game today. This log will be on my perspective of today. For Sebastian's perspective on today (and the past few days) see his developer log here. Since this article is written a day later, you can download the finished game here.

Mini Ludum Dare 48: Day Two Devlog

Hello everyone, and welcome to day Two of my Ludum Dare Game Development. This is for Mini Ludum Dare 48. I am developing a game called Death Plot. You can read about it here. Anyway, today (Technically yesterday, I am writing it a day late.) was a very unproductive day. Today was the first day that I had Sebastian Benjamin in the room with me, and we both did awful.

Mini Ludum Dare 48: Day One Devlog

I did not have very much time today, much to my chagrin. I did however, manage to get some work done today. I finished my movement system, and implemented both of the player characters. I just finished attempting to get my player to shoot, and failed miserably, so I am going to sleep, and try to sort it out in the morning.

The movement system is supposed to not stop when you remove the key holding, and instead continue while ever so slightly decelerating. I want it to feel floaty and frictionless.

Anyway, a video is better at showing my progress than words are, and I am far too tired to type.
In fact, I can barely see my computer monitor.

Mini Ludum Dare 48- Death Plot- Design and About

Current Title Screen of the game

Yesterday, I posted the day zero development log of my Mini LD 48 game, Death Plot. Now I will explain the game.

Mini Ludum Dare 48: Day Zero Devlog

Alternate title for this post: "I FINALLY SQUASHED THE BUG!!!!!111!", or "I am so bad I have to resort to unconventional means".

Visual Studio 2013 and it's dropping support of WP7

Alternative title for this post: How I Spent 4 Hours Installing Windows Phone SDK's.

Project Spark, Ludum Dare, A Week In Preview 1/5-1/11

I am in the Project Spark Windows 8.1 beta, and it doesn't have an NDA. I have played for about an hour as soon as I got home, and the game is absolutely amazing. It is rather buggy, but that is to be expected seeing as it is in early beta.