Brad Wardell's Blog

Left Wing Kook alert: Linda Rondstadt

Published on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 By Brad Wardell In Current Events

I have friends that claim that the right is just as bad as the left when it comes to kooks.  Yet, when asked for specifics they vaguely allude to Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter or when really desperate some Christian religious zealot (as if being religious makes you right wing).

Yet time and time again we end up hearing left wingers singing the same hateful crap: Those of us who voted for Bush are stupid, moronic, unenligthened, and ignorant.

Today's example comes from Linda Rondstadt:

“People don’t realize that by voting Republican, they voted against themselves,” she says. Of Iraq in particular, she adds, “I worry that some people are entertained by the idea of this war. They don’t know anything about the Iraqis, but they’re angry and frustrated in their own lives. It’s like Germany, before Hitler took over. The economy was bad and people felt kicked around. They looked for a scapegoat. Now we’ve got a new bunch of Hitlers.”

So I got an XBox

Published on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 By Brad Wardell In Console Games

I finally broke down and got an Xbox. I have a Game Cube already but I'm mostly a PC games person.  I've been playing some World of Warcraft, Kohan 2, The Sims 2, and a few others games that recently came out.

No, I'm not playing Half-Life 2. Indeed. I'm waiting for my new mega machine to arrive. Only then will I begin playing it.

But in the meantime, I wanted to see the hub-bub about Halo 2 was.  So I went out and got the XBox and Halo 2. The XBox came with a pretty decent football game and a pretty lousy tennis game.  Played those for a bit but mostly I tried out Halo 2.

And it's a great game. I can tell a great game even if I'm not personally enjoying myself.  I think I waited too long. The XBox controller takes some time to get used to and I'm just not used to it.  I like my keyboard and mouse interface for FPS.  My friends tell me that "once you get used to it it's great".  But that's easy to say if you've been playing with an XBox on other games for a year.  I haven't really done fast action with a game controller..since..well ever.  I had an Atari 2600 and a C-64 and after that I was all PC guy.  No Nintendo until I got the Gamecube and I only got that because Nintendo gave me one as a gift because of a project I worked on with them.

As for the other qualities of the XBox, I actually prefer the Gamecube. First off, the Gamecube is much smaller. Which makes it more portable.  Secondly, I like the Gamecube's mini-DVDs. The lack of hard drive in the GameCube is an advantage I think. It seems to put more discipline into the Gamecube developers or something because games on the Xbox seem to take a lot longer to load than any of the Gamecube games I have.

It also annoyed me that the XBox won't play regular DVDs. Why use the DVD size if you're not going to allow the user to play their DVD movies without an extra option?  Sure, it's only $40 for the controller to enable DVD movies but that makes the XBox even less portable if I have some thing hooked into a controller port.

I'm not saying the XBox is bad. I liked Halo 2 and am happy with my purchase. But the real test for me is going to be Knights of the Old Republic II. That's what I really purchased it for and I'm looking forward to getting that this holiday season.

Resume

Published on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 By Brad Wardell In Life Journals

Executive Summary: I'm the President & CEO of Stardock Corp. Beyond the usual strategic management work, I am also directly involved with the day to day operations of several of our key projects.

I also do a lot of writing, skinning and programming. Below is a partial summary of my background.

Most Important Talent: Really really fast typer.

Education

Graduated in 1994 with a degree in Electrical Engineering with specialty of Computer Engineering.

Taught Electrical Engineering lab classes and substituted for professors during lecture hours. Specifically EE 250 (Digital Logic) and EE 255 (Digital Systems/Assembly Language).

Hardware

  • Designed basic CMOS Random Access Memory using "MAGIC" visual design system (class project).
  • Developed a hardware interface to interact with AGV's (Automated Guided Vehicles) along with software to design programs for the AGVs.
  • Built customized personal computers from components. Familiarity with most types of PC architecture and technology trends on the PC.
  • Managed Western Michigan University's Macintosh Lab as an under graduate (1991-1994). This involved upgrading and repairing 68k based Macintoshes and later early PowerMac's. As well as maintaining System 6.x and System 7.x.
  • Programmed Intel based Micro-Controllers along with Motorola HC11 micro controllers.
  • Own an Altera kit for use with Programmable Logic Devices.
  • Part of both nVidia and ATI external early driver testing teams.
  • General familiarity with most modern PC based technologies.

Languages:

  • Intel x86 Assembly Language
  • Motorola 68000 series Assembly Language
  • Pascal
  • C/C++

Software (Programming)

Software (Design/Management)

  • Wrote Truth in Lending application for Ford Credit in 1994.
  • Software Co-Designer of Object Desktop for OS/2 in 1995.
  • Product Manager: Process Commander for OS/2 in 1996
  • Product Manager: Avarice in 1996
  • Product Manager: Trials of Battle 1996
  • Product Manager: PMINews Reader in 1997
  • Helped design IBM's OS/2 Warp 4 Desktop Interface.
  • Product Manager: Links Golf Port to OS/2 in 1997
  • Product Manager: Stellar Frontier for OS/2 & Windows
  • Software Designer of Object Desktop for Windows in 1997
  • Product Manager: WindowBlinds (current)
  • Product Manager: DesktopX (current)
  • Product Manager: ObjectBar (current)
  • Product Manager: SkinStudio (current)
  • Software Designer of Drengin.net game network
  • Product Manager: WinStyles (current)
  • Product Manager: WinCustomize Skin Browser (current)
  • Project Manager: The Political Machine (2004).
  • Designer: Galactic Civilizations
  • Designer: Galactic Civilizations II
  • Designer: The Political Machine

Web (Development)

All current:

Web Management

Lead Administrator of WinCustomize.com (2 million unique visitors per month) (current)

Graphics Design Software (As a user)

Expert familiarity with:

  • Corel Draw
  • Corel Photopaint
  • Adobe Photoshop

Business Management

President & CEO of Stardock Corporation.

Awards

Finalist for Ernst & Young Michigan Entrepreneur of the Year (2002).
Finalist for Ernst & Young Michigan Entrepreneur of the Year (2003).
Finalist for Ernst & Young Michigan Entrepreneur of the Year (2004).
Winner of Crain's 2003 "40 under 40" award (2003).
Winner of OS/2 Professional's "Corporate Commitment" (1996).
Software Projects Winners of numerous awards.

Writing

  • Founder/Editor of Burnham Gazette (college magazine)
  • Columnist for Avault on the Game Industry
  • Columnist for Quarter to Three
  • Former writer for Gamepen
  • Editor/Writer for WinCustomize Magazine
  • Author of "Gamer's Eye View" of E3 conference
  • Author of OS Wars series of articles
  • Regular columns on JoeUser.com.
  • Articles for Game Developer Magazine / Gamasutra
  • Misc articles.

Skinning

Have created dozens of WindowBlinds, DesktopX, ObjectBar and other types of themes. Full listing is available here.

Misc

  • Judge for The Independent Games Festival (Game Developer's Conference)
  • Panelist at 2002 Intellectual Property Conference in Washington D.C.
  • Have appeared on The Nightly Business Report, TechTV, FOX News.
  • Featured in (partial list): Entrepreneur Magazine, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Infoworld, eWeek, Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Craine's, Computer Gaming World, PC Gamer.

Hobbies

General History, Military History, Creative Writing, Basketball, Video editing, Writing, Politics and political philosophy, PC based technology, Business Economics.  And being a good dad!

From a trip to Washington DC

Getting used to the new system..

Published on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 By Brad Wardell In Life Journals

If you think the coolest ASP.NET projects are being done by Microsoft, you'd be wrong.

The whole new WC2K5 project is doing some amazing things with ASP.NET. Things that I suspect most developers don't make use of but I suspect the development team at Microsoft hoped someone would make use of.  The caching features, the threading, and other goodies are being used to great effect.

But it's taking me time to get used to it.  You see, I'm writing this from my WinCustomize.com home page: http://frogboy.wincustomize.com. But it gets syndicated out to other sites depending on what topic it is.  If I were using Blog Navigator (which I will as soon as WC2K5's RSS is completed like it is on JoeUser.com) then I could just write it from that program and the underlying ASP.NET on the master site takes care of the rest.

So like I was saying, depending on what category I choose to write on, the article gets syndicated to various Stardock.NET sites.  If I were to write about PC Games, it would get sent out to JoeUser.com and TotalGaming.net.  If I were to write about Galactic Civilizatiosn projects it would get syndicated out to JoeUser.com, TotalGaming.net and GalCiv2.com.  If it were on Politics, it would get sent out to JoeUser.com, and PoliticalMachine.com.  And if I wrote on Personal Computing or OS Customization, it will end up being in the WinCustomize.com's main articles area and JoeUser.com.

As you probably have pictured, EVERYTHING will end up on JoeUser.com pretty much. It's the catch-all for all. But as the syndication rolls out to other sites (when we have time we hope to syndicate out to Lockergnome sites for instance, Neowin, TweakXP, and elsewhere), people who are interested in a particular topic can go to that particular site and jump into it. 

What I am excited about is the seamlessness of it.  On JoeUser, everyone gets their own personal RSS feed automatically. If someone links to your article, you see who is linking. We don't have to deal with "track back" stuff. It's automated. If someone links to this article, it'll show up in the referrals.

And I can control who can even see my articles if I want. I coudl make it just for co-workers. Or I could make it for family. Or I just myself. Same is true for who can respond to my articles.  This is control that any user can hopefully appreciate.

But like I said, the syndication features are going to take a bit more effort to nail down.  I know that this article is going to show up on JoeUser.com.  But eventually we'll need to allow users to understand what will show up where.  I wrote a couple of DesktopX support articles that I forgot were going to end up showing on my JoeUser.com blog site. Doh! Fixed for future posting though.

20 days left until WinCustomize 2K5!

Published on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 By Brad Wardell In WinCustomize News

In 20 days the WinCustomize.com that you know today will be gone forever. In its place will be a whole new WinCustomize with vastly more features, faster performance, more libraries, and more content and all easier to navigate!

Meanwhile, the mid-fall WindowBlinds contest is nearly over. Only 2 weeks left for that. Here's where things stand:

 1. WindowsMAX 2 Steve Grenier 631
 2. GT3 Tiggz 608
 3. TriAX brewman 454
 4. Skies adni18 367
 5. Carillon essorant 366
 6. Jarilo essorant 352
 7. Fabre ^^Gabriel 352
 8. CyberSkin adni18 333
 9. Luster MikeB314 297
 10. M16 Dark Michael Brandt 286

The top skins in terms of downloads by subscribers will get a % of the revenue we collect from subscriptions during that corresponding time! It's not too late to get involved as a GOOD skin can quickly get into the top 10 very easily. And moreover, you can have multiple skins.

Good luck to all!

Half-Life 2 is out...

Published on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 By Brad Wardell In WinCustomize News

Half-Life 2 is out.  I'm waiting for my new machine to arrive before playing it.

But in the meantime, if anyone wants to start creating skins, themes, icons, or walls for it and submitting them, we'll highlight as much as we can here!

Democrats: Christians should not get to vote

Published on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 By Brad Wardell In Politics

Here's an interesting view point from a well known Democrat: Born again Christians shouldn't get to vote:

Following University President Don Randel’s warm introduction, the famed author, host, and wry wit of A Prairie Home Companion, started by commenting on election results.

“I am a Democrat—it’s no secret. I am a museum-quality Democrat,” Keillor said. “Last night I spent my time crouched in a fetal position, rolling around and moaning in the dark.”

Not one to shy away from speaking his mind, Keillor proposed a solution to what he deemed a fundamental problem with U.S. elections. “I’m trying to organize support for a constitutional amendment to deny voting rights to born-again Christians,” Keillor smirked. “I feel if your citizenship is in Heaven—like a born again Christian’s is—you should give up your citizenship. Sorry, but this is my new cause. If born again Christians are allowed to vote in this country, then why not Canadians?”

WinCustomize 2K5 Roll-out: Phase 3

Published on Monday, November 15, 2004 By Brad Wardell In WinCustomize News

December 7 approaches. That's the official date that WinCustomize 2K5 replaces the old WinCustomize.com.

We still have features to implement of course. But hopefully things are coming down to the final stretch. So what do we have left to do before launch? Lots of things but here are some things we're struggling with:

  • The home page. We are still worried that the home page is too busy. Too intimidating to a casual user. Should we get rid of the right column? Or left column? Should we have the newest additions be replace by a mini-thumbnail view of some recent or popular skins? Should we combine the daily shot and the featured skin together? Or is it fine as it is?
  • The Colors. We're not sold on the colors of the new site.  Tangerine for the home page? Not sure about that. Is it too bright? Maybe. But I've received zero concepts of what the site should look like.  Feel free to post your own mockup of what the home page should look like (use www.imageshack.us to upload your image and then link to it in the comments here).
  • The Gallery.  I think the new gallery tab should display thumbnails and not just the names of the skins. It's too texty I think. What do you think?
  • Newest. On the skins we think it should say things like <skin name> for <product>. Such as Royale for LogonStudio. Just because experts know what the icon represents doesn't mean the average person will. Also maybe we should list the 20 newest ones instead of 10 since we have the room? What do you think we should do on teh newest page?
  • Popular. Same sort of thing on popular. Should list the top 20 in each category. Skins should again say Project Onx for WindowBlinds.
  • Articles. This is pretty much what we want out of this. Would like to see an index list option that displays the article name, sub-header, author, and date in a nice clean way.
  • Forums. This area will need some more work. We eventually plan to put in moderator suggested bookmarks for popular sub-categories.  For instance, OS Customization would have WindowBlinds, Widgets, IconPackager, and a few other bookmarks so that people can instantly get into those areas.
  • Software. This is pretty much what we had in mind though we would like to make use of Betanews or Downlolad.com's RSS feed to display the latest/greatest stuff in those areas as part of the forum.
  • Sites. This is pretty much what we had in mind. Except it needs to have at the top a way for people who don't have a personal page to get their own personal page.
  • Store. Still is still in development.
  • Library. The Next and Last buttons should be bigger and be of the style like you see for the comments button and download button.

So what are some of the highlights? What is our goal? Well, first off, we want to get the advocacy system working. It still has some kinks (referrals from WinCustomize itself count as an advocacy point but that'll be cleared up soon enough. 

Basically the top non-Stardockian advocate each month will get some goodies sent to them. An advocate is someone who goes out onto other sites and links to one of their skins, themes, walls, articles, or whatever.  So if I go out and tell people to check out my RSS widget then every time somone goes to that link it'll give me an advocacy point. And if you click on the referral button, you can see who is linking to it.

Now what about non-skinners? No problem, you'll be able to recommend a skin.  For instance, I'm playing a lot of Halo 2 right now. So as someone who has a personal page, I can go over to TSF's Halo 2. At the bottom, I can "Recommend" the skin for users of my personal page (http://frogboy.wincustomize.com).  So now it adds it to MY recommendations page. I can then go over to the Halo 2 forums and if I happen to see  a discussion that it might make sense to bring it up, and give people this link to my personal page's recommendation link: Halo 2 WMP skin. The Skin author gets an advocacy point and I get an advocacy point. But this way, I've "advocated" the wonderful world of skinning to people who may not have ever thought of skinning their media player. 

I think the advocacy feature is going to be a big deal down the line. It also helps that skinners can actually see who is linking to their skins or their website.  If you are a WC subscriber or someone with high access, you can create your own personal page or you can just link to your own skin.

Which is another big thing we've done.  Compare THIS to THIS. Ignore the really long description. Look how much cleaner the new version is.  The old way was ugly to link to because it had too much extra junk in there.  The new site has a mcuh cleaner display.

Or check this out: Compare the way Stardock linked to a skin section: Old WindowBlinds library link. And New WindowBlinds library link. Note that on the right side you see the top authors, skins and forum activity relating to WindowBlinds.  We'll be adding tutorials per section as well shortly.

Speaking of tutorials...If you go to the articles page, you can see that there is now a tutorials area at the bottom left.  It's also one of the channels (or will be) in the Articles tab.  Users can create tutorials now on pretty much anything they want and it will get associated with the proper section. Tutorials can be on skinning or on Photoshop or whatever you want.  So hopefully we'll be able to help users a great deal mroe this way.

Speed.  Hopefully you notice the speed increase. This is all using the same hardware. The only difference is the underlying code which should be much faster.  It will actually get faster as more people use this site instead of WinCustomzie thanks to caching. The problem with caching, however, is that we can't really have per user skins of the site. We can only do it globally. We don't plan to change this in the near future. Sorry. We think speed of site is a higher priority for now.

New Sections.. We plan to add sections for several new programs in the coming weeks. We are de-highlighting certain less active categories including NextStart, ObjectBar, and Dashboard. If more activity occurs in those areas, we'll re-highlight them.  They still exist in the general gallery though, you just have to click on the more button. We currently have 19 highlighted sections. The WindowBlinds section has been renamed Visual styles.  Let us know what you think of that title change.

So that's where we're at.  We need your help in feedback. Please be constructive in any criticism since bear in mind, we are spending massive time and effort on this. Be gentle.   And have fun!
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