Dust busting your systems, Windows Mobile, 3D graphics APIs, and keeping in shape

I want to briefly take the beginning of this blog post to specify why I've started blogging again. It really doesn't have a specific audience in mind. It's simply so that I can practice writing and improve my general communications skills. When I wrote regularly in the past, I found that my language skills significantly improved, and not just writiing but also spoken language. As I've written these past few posts, I've noticed that they stink pretty badly, at least by my standards. They're boring, not by topic but by the presentation of the language itself (i.e. word choice, comma usage, sentence structure, tone, etc). However, as I write more and more it'll improve over time. That's my aim all along and as such I'm going to try to blog about anything I can at least once a week.

I strongly recommend you guys clean the dust out of your systems at least once a month. When you do this, it helps air flow inside the computer, as well as extend the life of whatever fans that are installed. I hadn't cleaned my system in a while, and so a rear fan was having issues. I finally decided to shut it down, pull out the main unit, and blow it out. I almost choked on all of the dust that came out. Plus on top of that the fan was making grating noises, which is a major indication that the ball bearing is going out, so I had to oil that too. The system is running nice and smoothly now, but yeah, it took about an hour for me to clean all of it up. What a pain in the neck.

So I've been using Windows Mobile regularly for the last few years. My opinion so far is that it's great for developer, but the user experience leaves a bit to be desired. Microsoft kept the user experience too close to the desktop experience, despite the workflow and core audience being different in terms of device usage. This is hurting them more than helping them and was the wrong tradeoff to make. The iPhone delivers quite well on the user experience, but it's tied to a carrier that is having network issues in addition to the development process not being conducive to developers. Windows Mobile has been a pretty easy platform for which to develop, especially considering that the devices in the marketplace are not locked down. On the flip side, there isn't a rigid hardware specification for it and so application need to take that into account when being developed, although .NET helps quite a bit on this front. Android is very promising since it's OSS, it uses the Java toolchain, and it's free (as in beer). This topic will have a post dedicated to it later, once I finish taking notes on it.

Finally, I read this blog post recently. In a nutshell, it's promoting OpenGL over Direct3D. The quick run-down is that OpenGL is a 3D graphics API that was created by SGI in the early 90s and is still used today, the specification for which is formed via a committee process. The 3D graphics API from Microsoft is called Direct3D, and it was released in the mid 90s. It's dictated by Microsoft, which means there is a single entity which releases the specification. Microsoft has the added advantage of using their clout to force graphics card manufacturers to pass WHQL tests before being Microsoft certified. OpenGL vs. Direct3D has been a holy war for nerds for quite some time, in the same vein as emacs vs. vi. I started on OpenGL, and then moved to Direct3D. Both have their pros and cons, but for my own uses, Direct3D (and XNA) fit the best. It's mostly a moot point these days anyway, since the amount of code that directly interface with these APIs are pretty slim in a modern day engine.

On another note, I've been keeping to my diet & fitness routine. It consists of blending a 55oz-60oz in the morning, and drinking it 2-3 times throughout the day. It has about 80g-85g of protein along with a banana, a cup of blueberries, and a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter. It's more than enough to keep my amino levels up and keep the blood sugar stable in conjunction with my daily meals, of which I try to eat four to five. In addition to this, I'm working my way up to doing 500 proper push-ups, 500 elevated crunches, and 500 body squats. This should condition my muscles and get me ready for resistance training. I'm also aiming to work the smaller stabilizer muscles, which are more important for me anyway. Mainly, the rotator cuff for me given my shoulder injury.