I'm currently doing that most boring of UI development tasks: making sure that the UI is rock solid for the sort of abuse that the average user is going to throw at it. This is a task not unlike childproofing your home so as I loose count of how many plugs I need to put a cover over to stop the poor user poking his fingers in and electrocuting himself my mind is turning to mush. The problem is that I'm having to think down to the level of the stupidest user I can imagine and boy does that hurt. The hardest...

So the new Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood started last night and there's two things I have to say about it. One: That lift to the pavement looks perfect for, say, fitting the TARDIS on doesn't it? Now of course that's explained in the show but I'm willing to put money on when they do finally have a crossover that's exactly where it will land for the shot of them bringing it down underground. Two: Captain Jack keeps the Doctor's severed hand in a jar. How creepy is that? Sounds a bit like a stalker to me! Other than that it was...

When I want to run an application under Mac OS I usually hit Command+Space and then start typing the application name. I then have to press down and enter to start the application. This operation takes about a second and is a lot nicer than hunting around through folders for the application. Under Vista I now start applications in the same way. I hit the windows key to bring up the start menu and then start typing. I automatically have keyboard focus in the new search field and so the application that I want is found and I can press enter...

I managed to miss this when it was posted, but here's an interesting post from the Windows Shell folks. I've never really thought about it before, but yes mines are probably really unsuitable for the game considering the problems that they cause and the efforts to ban them. Now I'm not against using them in games just because they're bad, but it's the trivialisation of them that occurs in this situation that I think I agree with. Mines are a big problem that we can safely ignore in our nice safe countries but that doesn't mean that they're not maiming and...

The weakest part of XNA is the documentation, which is understandable since it's a beta. I've pulled together some feedback based on what I've seen and been told so far. All code examples should at least compile The missing class/member documentation is annoying but excusable for a beta. The 2D tutorial is OK, but the 3D one requires that you have too much prior knowledge about 3D. This is a major barrier to actually using the 3D if you haven't come from another system such as DX. The tutorials are OK with the what to...