Today, I was thinking about C# code visualization. I got idea about “flickring” code :)

Bellow it is simple Silverlight 3.0 Application for C# code visualization using Filckr as icon source.

I want to create Visual Studio add-in for C# visualization using icons for all C# keywords ;)

My source code visualization for Flicsharp:

Presentations

I’m after 2 big public presentations of Kodu(4 Developers, Smaki programowania 2 (Taste of coding 2)) and 2 private presentations in schools (just for teachers). After presentations I have more than 4 different schools who are asking for Kodu! One of these schools is our children school.

Every presentation has big success and I hear a lot of positive feedback after presentations.

I think this is because of easy and fast development, and a lot of powerful objects inside Kodu.

In each presentation I show few simple “real” problems which can be solved by children, like:

1. Visualization
   • Behavior of many people in different situations (like fire in school etc.)
   • Teach how animals are organizing
2. Programming
   • How to write programs with recurrence
   • How to create multiple objects (and what are objects and methods)
3. How to write games :)

Visual Studio

I think Kodu have good idea for fast Object Oriented programming using any controller (not only Xbox controller, but also keyboard and mouse). It would be great if this kind of programming will be implemented in… VISUAL STUDIO :) ReSharper and Devexpress is coming close to this idea, but in not so easy way.

I’m surprised that radial popups with multiple levels are so nice and fast in development! I’m addicted to Kodu ;)

I love Xbox 360 when we talking about:

1) XNA - great free tool for game developers

2) Boku/Kodu – great visual game language system

3) Games – plenty good games awesome Xbox Live

4) X360 Prize – not too expensive and good quality (now… http://gizmodo.com/5099721/new-xbox-360-motherboard-leaked-has-256mb-flash-memory)

I hate and it’s drive me crazy when we talk about X360:

1) XNA – free tool but it’s not available in Poland! No Xbox Live…

2) Boku/Kodu – I made Polish translation for Kodu and I show it on several public meetings/conferences. I have 2 schools really interested in this language. One of them wrote email to Microsoft Poland for support. No Xbox Live…

3) Games – plenty good games with nice Polish translation. Nice translation of dashboard. No Xbox Live. See petition for Polish Xbox Live (3529 Total Signatures http://www.petitiononline.com/plxbl/petition.html)

4) X360 Prize - not too expensive, but… PS3 has Polish “PS3 live – PSN with shop and free games and live gaming”, and that’s why PS3 has in Poland 52% of market share.

This situation is not new. I try to spoke to Microsoft in Poland, in UK and in USA. I try to spoke with XNA team, with Entertainment Department in Microsoft and with Steve Ballmer. Without response with any good information (one response about that there is no Xbox Live in Poland :)).

Steve Ballmer told me to write him email (I meet him in Warsaw in MVP meeting). He never ever answer… so I wrote my last email as XNA MVP:

Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 12:01 PM
To: 'steveXXXX…'
Cc: 'rbaXXXX'; 'ssionfsXXXX'; 'jallarXXXX'; 'billXXXX'; 'ericsXXXX'; 'XXXX'
Subject: MVP: Steve are you liarer? Polish Xbox Live and Windows Live I'm still waiting for any response
Importance: High

Hi Steve!

This is my third email… Probably third email to You (Steve Ballmer) without any response (“Give me email I will respond”…).

Problems:

Our problems without Xbox Live & Games for Windows Live, are still this same:

1) All XNA programmers in Poland using accounts from USA and UK. There is no other way! We CAN’T use polish account for game development. This is also big problem for me. I have a lot of questions form Polish students, game developers after my XNA/Silverlight presentations about this. Every one asking about how to avoid warranty problems (we are using different account then place of purchase), problems with law, problems with XNA game distribution etc.

2) No one in Poland can use Xbox Live futures.

Yours problems:

1) Content distribution (I know – law etc. BUT SONY doesn’t have this problem! Polish Sony dashboard has full support for all live Europe content…).

2) Translation – There is no problem for Xbox Dashboard is full translated… Content – leave it in English!

3) Lawsuit – I’m still thinking - that will happen soon or later. It is possible that someone from Poland (and other countries) can sue you about delivering not fully functional hardware.

Possible solutions:

1) Content distribution – turn it off for us. We need on line gamming, XNA games, XNA programming – this is most important for us. Content? It is nice to have it but not so important!

2) Translation – leave content in English – we are using it in English more than 2 years so this is no big problem now.

What I expect?

Simple solution for XNA programming and on line gamming using polish accounts. Just allow us to use these accounts and pay for XNA development…

Latest Newspaper Facts:

Free Windows Live games:

http://www.valhalla.pl/news10619-Games-for-Windows-Live-stalo-sie-darmowe.html - translation: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.valhalla.pl%2Fnews10619-Games-for-Windows-Live-stalo-sie-darmowe.html&hl=pl&ie=UTF8&sl=pl&tl=en

Making money for Xbox Live:

http://www.valhalla.pl/news10622-Zarabiaj-na-Xbox-Live.html  - translation: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.valhalla.pl%2Fnews10622-Zarabiaj-na-Xbox-Live.html++&hl=pl&ie=UTF8&sl=pl&tl=en

Support for Xbox Live (With official support from Microsoft Poland):

http://xboxonline.pl/newsy,o_polskim_live_,7183.html – translation: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fxboxonline.pl%2Fnewsy%2Co_polskim_live_%2C7183.html&hl=pl&ie=UTF8&sl=pl&tl=en

In short:

“When will be available Polish Live?... On Xbox Fun Day in Niedzica city?

On other Xbox meeting? In short answer: no… no this year…”

Kind regards from Poland

Mateusz Kierepka

IT Manager in IGLOO/IGLOONET

XNA MVP (2007;2008)

tel. ++48 665 991 361, ++48 14 662 19 13

ps. See also this:

http://www.petitiononline.com/plxbl/petition.html

“PETITION FOR POLISH XBOX LIVE SUPPORT

Since the launch of the Xbox 360 in 2006, the Poland Xbox 360 community has developed a strong presence on the Xbox Live service. There are already several thousand local Xbox Live users, including many people who imported their Xbox 360s before the local launch.

Sadly, the fact that Xbox Live is not officially supported for local users means that most of us have needed to resort to workarounds such as registering as Xbox Live users in countries such as the US and UK with the apparent approval of Microsoft Poland.

Many users are forced to obtain memberships and gamerpoint cards via online auctions such as ebay.pl or international sites, usually paying a premium price for them.

We, the undersigned, therefore appeal to Microsoft to:

*Issue an official statement that clarifies the status of the Xbox Live launch for Poland and put all the rumours currently circulating to rest;

*Set up local billing facilities and pricing models as soon as possible to encourage the growth of the local Xbox 360 community; and

*Allow existing Polish users registered in other countries to easily migrate their profiles from other countries to the local Xbox Live service.

We believe that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 brand will benefit as much as the Xbox 360 community if these steps are taken. The Xbox Live service is a major competitive differentiator for the Xbox 360 and one of the console’s most important features, and we would love to play games like Halo 3 and Gears of War on Xbox Live.

Polish customers deserve the same level of service and support as gamers in the rest of the world, especially given the loyalty that has been exhibited by the Polish community since the local launch of the Xbox 360 platform.

Sincerely,

THE POLISH XBOX 360 COMMUNITY

Sincerely,”

I think that this situation is getting to be crazy. For example new price for Red Xbox 360 in Poland is 1499 PLN (this is 326 Euro) and will contain:

1. Red/Black Xbox 360
2. Resident Evil 5
3. … THAT’S ALL but wait in UK, USA and other countries there is also: Super Street Fighter II, Turbo HD Remix, and special skin for Xbox dashboard… So why there is no such a thing in Poland? Because of no Xbox Live in Poland!
4. This same Xbox in other EU countries (with all futures) costs 310 Euro… (http://www.gry-online.pl/S013.asp?ID=45546)

That’s why I hate when someone in Poland ask me about Xbox 360, my favorite gaming platform…

ETICS: Is it ethic that companies like Microsoft and Apple selling products which are not ready? Conclusion for Xbox360 and iPhone 3G – it was that clear that selling not fully tested products was not ethic at all. Apple for me was more dishonest than Microsoft. Anyway both companies make great profits and take big part of market.

Microeconomics: Oligopoly, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 as duopoly in seventh generation consoles. Some analysis, calculations, statistics and data from NPD. Currently it seems that if there is Duopoly in this market best market share will be with $342,4964 price for console ;) Anyway I’m still working on this (too many variants).

Is the user interface moving in the direction of the physics engine?

Introduction

For some time we are looking with interest to those who connecting physics with a user interface. BumpTop is one of the most interesting for me. It seems to me that the addition of physics to the user interface when using touch screens can significantly improve the quality of user interaction with the program.

I have to create a program which will create the organizational structure on a spider plant. The principle of the creation of such charts Gareth Morgan suggested in his book "Organizational behavior". I really like these structures.

From the time I sow spider plant structures I thought I can make such a program for creating graphs (something like Visio / Dia). I asked Professor Michał Jasienski about that instead of the making analysis on the Behavior Organizing I would like to write a program that will create such graphs. I received agreement and I immediately start to write program.

In the first approach I made "normal" Windows application. After the presentation I received a number of minor comments, which resulted in that I had to change the approach to the creation of the charts. Since I had experience in creating graphics using the game engines I decided to use it to meet the new requirements.

Program should work also on Apple computers so, I chose Silverlight. The first presentation for a friend allowed me to know that everything is ok, but ... This is yet another program to create diagrams and something similar could be accessed by other programs ( "not so easily, but why install another? “).

Here, after more tests (more than a week), and presented the next version and comments were very positive! Minor observations (lack of removal of objects, undo operation, etc.). I received a number of examples of charts, some very nice comments and opinions about the program.

How I made this program?

The look and feel I made in the Microsoft Expression Blend 2, then started to work on the application in Visual Studio 2008. After designing the core of application, the Farseer physics engine was chosen. In 5 days I made all stuff (I have few problems with physics and some problems with storing data, printing, saving screenshots etc).

The effect of work you can see on the page http://kierepka.pl/silverspider/.