First Windows 8 App is in the Store!

It was an intense 23 days. I decided to make a Windows 8 App. I was hoping, hoping, hoping there was a simple path from Flash to Win 8, but no, there is not. But there is a great developer program going on at www. generationapp.com. Download free Visual Studio Express...and if you're looking for visual layout, drawing, and animation tools, download Blend. Then  you choose whether you want to create your app via Blend with javascript and HTML or C# and XAML. I chose the C#/XAML path as this exposes more of the awesome Blend art and animation tools.

I hacked during the day, and read forums, blogs, and online help documents by night. Took a break to cook Thanksgiving dinner. The house was a mess. When I got stuck on the few snippets of code my design required, I spent time experimenting with Blend's animation tools. Very powerful but without the refined and deluxe feature set available in Flash. I can never say enough about how wonderful Flash is...!

Merry Mother Goose is my simple Win 8 app for 2 to 5 year olds. I wanted to get it to market in time for holiday shopping and all those new Win 8 devices arriving. I'd heard it takes up to 3 weeks to review and approve an app. The Windows Store certification and review process is pretty slick. I watched my app go through an intense, calisthenic series of local tests, required before you can even submit to the store. "Hang in there, baby!" I cheered as all it's buttons and effects were tested one by one. Great feeling when you get the results and they read "PASSED." Somehow I got in a lucky place in the queue, and by the next morning, my app was live. Guess it's time to start another one....

I'd like to write more about Win 8 app development, and game development in general as I'm having a lot of fun with it. In the meantime, check out my first review for Merry Mother Goose in Andrei Pushkin's Win8Review.com!

Tiny Chameleon Carbon Footprint

Perhaps the way to deal with scarcer resources is to become smaller and therefore require less sustenance? There are some inherent dangers with this, but then size doesn't always matter, and won't always protect one from predators. Giraffes are fodder for cats, afterall. But a tiny thing that changes appearance to look like a leaf, or a twig, or a stone, now that's intelligence. Evolve small and create the illusion that you are NOT what your predator likes to eat.

Read this fascinating research on the tiny Leaf Chameleon published today by

Frank Glaw, Jörn Köhler, Ted M. Townsend, and Miguel Vences, on Plosone.org.

JERRY HALL

Jerry Hall,

He is so small,

A rat could eat him,

Hat and all.

LITTLE HUSBAND

I had a little husband,

No bigger than my thumb;

I put him in a pint pot

And there I bade him drum.

I gave him some garters

To garter up his hose,

And a little silk handkerchief

To wipe his pretty nose.

NOTHING-AT-ALL

There was an old woman called Nothing-at-all,

who lived in a dwelling exceedingly small;

A man stretched his mouth to its utmost extent,

And down at one gulp house and old woman went.



Attacks on Egyptian Women Sparks Uproar

An informative article on today's Reuters Africa details the plight of women activists in Egypt. No one should be kicked in the belly. Stripping a muslim woman of her veil, baring her torso, exposing her bra and then beating her is an outrage on so many fronts. Given images and events like these, it is astounding that so many brave young people still march in protest. Our thoughts and best wishes are with our activists, all over the world, as they try so hard to show us a better way to live.

Punch and Judy

Fought for a pie;

Punch gave Judy

A knock in the eye.

Says Punch to Judy,

Will you have any more?

Says Judy to Punch

My eye is too sore.

OWS March to Washington D.C.

It's Happening! Brave Kids, we love you!

Robin Hood

Has gone to the wood;

He'll come back again

If we are good.

Unfair and Biased Negative Journalism Hurts our Democracy

Today's Los Angeles Times reports on a study by The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. The findings, using software developed by a Harvard University expert on Quantitative Analysis shows biased and unfair reporting on our current President. Here is the link:

Media coverage of Obama largely negative, study finds

Go to www.Whitehouse.gov if you want to see what President Obama and his strong administration are doing for our country.

I'm not surprised that the current reporting is so biased in support of Perry and other candidates and to the detriment of President Obama, but I am sad.  What would Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and all the other hero reporters with principles have to say about this?

Miss One, Two, and Three

Could never agree,

While they gossiped around

A tea-caddy.