April 2007 - Posts

Intro to XNA Part 3: More Sound and adding Text
27 April 07 08:11 PM | Coding4Fun | 1 Comments   
In this article, The ZMan walks through the steps required to add some more sound effects and text output to TinyTennis, a Pong clone. The ZMan (Andy Dunn) TheZBuffer.com Difficulty: Easy Time Required: 1-3 hours Cost: Free ( Creators Club membership Read More...
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XNA Gaming Studio Express Refresh and so clean
26 April 07 10:08 AM | Coding4Fun | 0 Comments   
The developers on the XNA Gaming Studio team have just released a new version. A few of the new features are Vista support, Bitmap-based fonts, XACT 3D audio support, customizable thumbnails for the XNA Game launcher and a bunch more. You can grab the Read More...
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Tracing Rays in c#
25 April 07 11:11 AM | Coding4Fun | 1 Comments   
Luke, a member of the c# team, created a Ray Tracer in c#. What is ray tracing exactly? Well, Wikipedia explains it to be a technique to model the path taken by light by following the rays as the interact with different surfaces. Ok, in English it means Read More...
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LEGO, they do actually have real world applications
23 April 07 08:42 PM | Coding4Fun | 1 Comments   
Matthias Wandel , an engineer over at Research in Motion, came up with a clever way to test Blackberries under multiple angles and orientations by using LEGO. The device will rotate on an axis by the battery in a circle along with rotate the pager. Is Read More...
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Investigate your network with NetPing
22 April 07 10:10 PM | Coding4Fun | 1 Comments   
NetPing is an extensible utility that allows for custom display of networked Windows computers, as well as the ability to perform custom actions on these computers. Jeff Key Website Difficulty: Intermediate Time Required: Less than 1 hour Cost: Free Software: Read More...
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Visual Studio Express Orcas CTP is released
21 April 07 01:19 PM | Coding4Fun | 0 Comments   
Any good software has updates and Visual Studio isn't any different. Microsoft just released a Community Technology Preview of VSE Orcas . Orcas is the code name for the next version of Visual Studio and contains loads of new features. What is new in Read More...
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I can see through my menus!
20 April 07 02:59 PM | Coding4Fun | 1 Comments   
HARSH_JOSHI has a post over on the MSDN forums on how to create transparent menus and title bars for your applications . The article itself is written in VB.Net and is based off C++, c# and VB implementations. Adding this code into your project is relatively Read More...
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Check out this code! (Part II)
19 April 07 11:10 AM | Coding4Fun | 2 Comments   
In my last article, I discussed a reusable library for communicating with Horizon Information Portal libraries. In this column, find out how to use that library to create an application to run in your system tray to keep on top of your library books and Read More...
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Got the drive removal detection blues?
18 April 07 10:26 AM | Coding4Fun | 1 Comments   
Jan Dolinay shows over at Code Project how to detect if a removable drive was removed . It also has the ability to detect if drives are inserted as well. Why would such a task be important? If your application has its data being saved to a flash drive Read More...
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SweetSpot - The Beginnings of a Glucose Meter Downloader
17 April 07 01:44 AM | Coding4Fun | 13 Comments   
In this installment of "Some Assembly Required" column, Scott Hanselman, a Type 1 Diabetic, uses .NET to download blood sugar numbers from a Glucose Meter. Along the way he lays down the rough scaffolding for a plugin system so other meters could be added Read More...
I'm exactly 4.562 feet from the wall
16 April 07 08:58 AM | Coding4Fun | 1 Comments   
Want a cheap webcam based laser range finder ? Todd Danko did and build two different applications to do it. One is in Visual Basic 6 and the other is in Visual C++. Todd based his application off the UB Robotics project . Using some of the examples from Read More...
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Accelerometer, am I upside down?
13 April 07 01:55 PM | Coding4Fun | 0 Comments   
Travis Feirtag shows how to use an accelerometer and .Net 2.0 in 2D and 3D . To do the rendering, Travis uses GDI+ for the 2D example and Direct X for the 3D example. For an accelerometer, Travis uses the Analog Devices XL202 Evaluation Board with an Read More...
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Library fine? But I returned the Tropic of Cancer in 1971.
11 April 07 07:51 AM | Coding4Fun | 0 Comments   
Arian Kulp created a way to keep on top of what you checked out from the library and will tell you when it is due. It also allows you to search for books from the comfort of your home or starbucks. His code makes the assumption your library uses the Horizon Read More...
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Light up pillars of audio goodness
09 April 07 08:35 AM | Coding4Fun | 1 Comments   
Kevin Roach build a light grid system that uses FMod and Visual Basic 6 for his software to power the MIT disco boards . His software isn't open for source viewing but you can view his videos over at his site along with download it. For those who't aren't Read More...
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Home Server SDK available now.
06 April 07 11:34 AM | Coding4Fun | 2 Comments   
Windows Home Server now has their SDK available over at MSDN. The Home Server is build on WIndows and IIS so you get a bunch of API access for free. Setup : Reference the HomeServerExt.dll in a class library Implement the Console and Settings interfaces Read More...
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Guitar Hero on your PC?
05 April 07 03:04 PM | Coding4Fun | 1 Comments   
If you have the Xbox 360 Guitar Hero controller, you can use XInput to actually mount it as a controller exactly like an Xbox 360 USB controller. Frets on Fire already has it working with a quick control map. Here is the download link from Microsoft (32bit) Read More...
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3D environment navigation with the WiiMote
05 April 07 12:04 PM | Coding4Fun | 0 Comments   
The University of Western Australia has created a cheap way to navigate immersive 3D environments . To accomplish this task, they modify DarwiinRemote for OS X. The WiiRemote provided a low cost alternative to other controllers used for immersive environemnts. Read More...
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My hand is my mouse.
04 April 07 09:03 AM | Coding4Fun | 0 Comments   
From Neatorama, here is a MS Research technology called PodTech . It uses a camera from above to watch your desk. This differs from a multi-touch screen system that runs of total internal reflection that Jeff Han built . To run the PodTech system, you Read More...
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WiigoBot goes for the strike
03 April 07 07:10 AM | Coding4Fun | 0 Comments   
WiigoBot is a Lego NXT robot that has the unique ability to dominate WiiSport's Bowling . It throws the perfect game every time. BattleBricks even has a YouTube video of the game . Here I am still using the rubber bumpers to get my perfect game. Read More...
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Rubber Hail for April Fools
02 April 07 07:35 AM | Coding4Fun | 1 Comments   
Clint Rutkas decided it was a good idea to drop 1000 super bouncy balls onto his CTO . His rig has a Control Anything USB relay board , a slightly modified ceiling tile, and a drill. It uses the .Net SerialPort object to interface with the relayboard Read More...
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April Fool's Day with Bouncy Balls
02 April 07 05:00 AM | Coding4Fun | 4 Comments   
In this article, Clint Rutkas builds a relay application that will drop 1,000 super bouncy balls from the ceiling as an April Fools gag! Clint Rutkas Better Than Everyone Difficulty: Intermediate Time Required: 3-6 hours Cost: $100-$200 Software: Visual Read More...

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