Caution: Singularity Ahead

I guess I should enumerate what needs I have for a mobile device. At the very least, this will remind me what software I need to purchase and/or re-install after an upgrade. In rough priority/usage order...
Clock - I don't carry any other timekeeping devicesGoogle Calendar - bi-directional sync for agenda display and reminders - we use GCal at work; my phone tells me where to go and when.  I use OggSync currently.Contacts - my wetware is uselessPersonal Email - I use Hotmail (premium); I access it through Pocket IE and the mobile site, since sync is VERY SLOWRSS Feeds - I use Ilium Software's NewsBreak to sync about 60 feedsWeb browsing - for checking things that don't have feeds, and answering rhetorical questionsSMS/Text MessagingTelephone - yes, it's only here on the list. Google MapsToday's weather/weekly forecastCalculatorWork Email - I manually sync but only when off on vacation; I try not to take work home with me. We use IMAP.SSH client - for work use, in em…

So, right before I left the Seattle area about two and a half years ago I traded in my old dumb phone and PocketPC (Dell Axim) for an HTC Apache (Verizon XV6700). That phone was already a year old at the time, but I was lusting after the capabilities (which were pretty good at the time) and the industrial design (which I still like, even the protruding antenna). It's keyboard is excellent - nice square keys that fit tightly together to maximize space but bulge upwards so your fingers have good contact, backlight, logical layout, and so on. No number keys or Control key, but pretty much everything else you'd want.

I'm running the HTC Home plugin for the primary UI, FTouchSL for touch-scrolling, VistaHide Battery Gauge, and a nice black theme - and I'm generally happy with the device.

Time has marched on, though, and the phone is showing its age:
It's running Windows Mobile 5. WM6 came out a few years ago and WM6.1 was a significant upgrade to that. Yes, you can insta…

A game technology demo I wrote as a hobby project circa 2003-2005.



Uses FMOD for audio, GapiDraw for 2D, custom 3D software rendering engine integrated with a custom voxel terrain engine. Music is from the Halo soundtrack (by Martin O'Donnell). Weapon graphics and SFX are borrowed from the Halathon project. Sprites are adapted from photographs of Joyride toys. Custom physics engine (you can see it when a weapon is dropped or how the grunts recoil from each other).

The demo is shown running on a 400MHz HTC Apache (but it ran just fine on the 300MHz Dell Axim X5 I had during active development). I apologize for poor filming.


No, this will NEVER be released or made available for download. Halo is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

While discussing the crufty nature of the C++0x lambda function syntax over IRC at work, a co-worker commented that Perl was perhaps unfairly criticized for its syntax. My reply:

When you try an illegal program in C++, it fails to compile. When you write such an program in Perl, it becomes self aware and eats you.
(Yes, I know that C++0x must use a syntax that would be illegal in previous versions of the language, which restricts the possibilities. )

I've started using Flickr for more photos, since the tools are better. My photostream is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/inexorabletash/