More Direct X (or direct failure)

And the install of the Direct X SDK didn’t work.  Great.  Just great.  Or at least it didn’t work for C#.  Maybe I should wade back into C++.  Let’s see what happens when I install one of those suckers.

First, the typical “project out of date with your compiler” problem.  Let’s wait for that to finish…

Ok, so wow… it actually compiled and ran.  There’s some stinking progress. 

Now I just have to figure out what in the world happened to the C++ I used to know… 

Ok, it still makes a relative degree of sense, so I’m not completely lost…  Flabbergasted and behind the times by many, many years.  But I think I can read up on this and make it work.  At the very least, the sample compiles, and that’s more than I could say for the C# stuff. 

Honestly, this is why I gave up C++ in the first place.  Building frameworks gets old after a while.  Especially if you just want to test something fairly basic before spinning it into something larger.  Is that so much to ask?  Really, I don’t think it should be. 

And for me, that’s the appeal of C# and VB.  You spend a lot more time programming and a lot less time reading documentation, figuring out what variable you need to get a text box to appear.  That streamlining of certain parts makes the entire thing much more palatable.  So I guess those days are over for the most part.  Partly because Microsoft writes cruddy documentation and partly because I’d rather spend time doing want to do as opposed to hunting down every single esoteric little variable that may or may not be used and is probably not documented very well.

Search Failure

I’m on vacation after Christmas, and will be until Monday the 30^th.  Fun, fun, fun.

Anyways, I had a dream about a wacky adventure/puzzle/exploration game that I happen to be calling Spy Game at the moment.  I thought the idea was really cute in the dream.  You get several disguises and wander around a town, trying to find your way into different areas.  Because you are dressed as different things, you get different conversation responses.  And then if your disguise fails, you are kicked back out on to the street.  All it all looked kind of like Animal Crossing to me, except more at a 3d level instead of 2d.  I highly doubt I will complete the thing, but I want to at least give it a try. 

So I decided to write the whole thing in DirectX with C#.  Now, me and DirectX go back a while.  At one point, I had a fairly decent framework going in C++, but then I started trying to fix certain things and the code became unmanageable and I abandoned the entire thing.  Well, fast forward a decade or so and I decide to attack Direct X again.  Except I can’t figure out where to download the SDK. 

Now, to be fair I was searching through the MSDN website in order to find something that (should) be easily findable.  But no… all I find is the page, informing me “the Direct X SDK is implemented as part of Windows 8, and you don’t have to do anything”.  Which would be really great if I was trying to write something for Windows 8.  I’m not.  I have yet to adopt Windows 8, and am really happy with Windows 7.  Truthfully, I’d move to Windows 7 64 bit if the legacy apps I needed for work ran under it. 

Oh… and the other fun part.  I also spent a good 30 minutes searching for basic tutorials for C# and Direct X and get…  C++.   Way to go Microsoft.  Your website search sucks.  I eventually landed on a forum post that pointed out some decent introductory resources.  But as far as finding the info through the search?  HAH!

And for the SDK itself?  I gave up and searched Google.  Found it on the first search.

Now, I’m downloading the SDK and writing this, ready to jump into the world of Direct X and C#.  Maybe I’ll have something interesting to say about it all. 

Things I didn't know from years ago....

I’m going to take a step around and go towards some of the Biblical misconceptions I learned as a child.  Or maybe misconceptions I learned and have since corrected. 

So… first.  Jesus had no brothers. Secondary implication: Mary and Joseph had no other kids.  Our text for this is Matthew 12:46-50. 

⁴⁶ While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. ⁴⁷ Then one said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.”
⁴⁸ But He answered and said to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” ⁴⁹ And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! ⁵⁰ For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2012:46-50&version=NKJV

And the answer is simple.  Jesus had physical brothers.  Maybe he had sisters as well.  Daughters weren’t as important in the Bible.  But here, Jesus is saying that being a brother by birth is less important than being a brother of the works of God.  So I guess that one is solved.

Get Psyched Mix

So it’s Saturday morning and I’m eating breakfast.  And now we’re back to the “get psyched” mix.  The idea initially seems pretty stupid.  Why would you want some list of songs that gets you ready for something? 

Let me ask the question a different way.  Do you want to actively manage your mental state?  And the answer to the question should be yes.  Many different people have stated the importance of starting your day intentionally so you end up in the correct state of mind.  One of the examples given was this: do not read the news because it is depressing.  Actively avoid the news because you want to start the day on a positive, upbeat state of mind.  Hence the entire purpose of the “get psyched” mix.

So what you need is a collection of music that puts you in the right mood for success.  The main reason is to be intentional with your life and to have something ready to go to before you get drug down in to the ground.  Life is going to hit you, and there is nothing you can do about it.  The goal is to roll with the punches and take them until you get a chance to swing back. 

For a long time, I’ve been waking up to the AC/DC song “It’s a Long Way to the Top(if you wanna rock and roll)”.  There’s a reason for that.  It’s a daily reminder that there are going to be set backs, but you must persevere.  Just because it’s a long way doesn’t make the trip not worthwhile. 

Some songs have always brought me out of whatever funk I might be in.  So that’s the entire purpose of the “get psyched” mix.  Though he might be a moral scumbag some times, the character of Barney Stinson provides some decent lessons for those who are willing to watch.

humor in the highest form (of stupidity)

It took me a day, but now I’m back to mincome.  Still ridiculously laughable…, but anyways.  Let’s start breaking this down and point out stupidity where we see it.  But let’s lay down the idea first.

Every non-incarcerated adult citizen gets a check from the government.  Other safety net programs are jettisoned to pay for the mincome.  Poverty is eliminated.

So, three sentences and three different things to look at. 

First, “Every non-incarcerated adult citizen gets a check from the government.”  First, where does the government get money?  Primarily, it taxes the people and business in the country.   So let me get this straight: we are going to pay a tax to the government, who then takes that money and turns it into a giant slush fund, and then gives it back to us.   So why don’t they just eliminate the middle man and quit taxing us?  Boom! Problem solved.  Because really, if I pay in $30 out of every $100 and get back $20, then that only leaves $10 for the government to do its work and stay afloat.  Currently, the government takes about $30 and needs $70 from each person to realistically deal with its financial obligations.

But when you start taking $70 out of every $100, the working people don’t really feel the need to work as much anymore, so that income goes down.  And then you need $80 out of the $100 because people don’t like working for nothing.  Especially the productive ones that know how to turn a profit in their life.

Eh, who am I to kid?  It’s the stupidest thing in the world and people will latch on to it like the ridiculous stupidity it is, regardless of the facts.  So I’m not going to waste a long written piece on tearing down mental stupidty from people who have never worked in the private sector.

Instead, I’ll go on to look at something Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother called the “get psyched” mix.  The character of Barney, despite his ridiculous flaws, is a good character to examine.  And I think tomorrow, I will look at his “get psyched” mix.  Because I think you should have one too.