I was feeling a little better since my last post. Mainly because ScamInformation.com was no longer being listed for $1,495.00. But $500 is still enough to make me whimper. I just checked it again and it's back up to $1,495.00. I still shake my head in shame when I see a domain i used to own being up for sale at that price. Especially because I know better then to just simply drop a domain like that.

Anyway I have moved my resume and about me info onto there own pages. You can now find them under the Home link.

I have also started an account over at http://www.helium.com/. If you enjoy writing you should go check them out.

I also just got a new laptop yesterday! It's an HP nx9420. I have to try and remember to post some pictures of it latter on. Also while on the topic of pictures I am almost done modifying and writing a proper image gallery page so that all I have to do is upload pictures to my site and the gallery code does the rest for me.

OMFG!!! WHY! WHY! *sob* WHY DID I NOT RENEW!!! *crying*

Let this be a lesson to whom ever reads this. I used to own the ScamInformation.com domain name about a year ago, after getting frustrated over online auction scamers trying to scam me. My intention was to setup a simple website about how to identify and avoid online scams. I just did a check to see if anyone else had taken the domain and you betcha it's taken. But that's not the worst part. It's being offered for $1,495.00.  *sob* *sob* whaaaa hahahaaaaaaaa....... omg this sucks! No, it really, sucks!

Now if you don't mind, I think I'm going to go curl up in a corner and cry myself to sleep ...

I have just uploaded the third release of my still in progress Zider game engine for XNA. You can find the download on the Zider page.

Features or changes for R3

• Updated the xGameConsoleXNA library so commands now have an array of string arguments and a new "usedAsFunction" boolean parameter. usedAsFunction when set to true means that the command is being used as a function and allows the command logic to be aware of that.
• Added Actor support
• Added a SceneManager to the
• Added an abstracted "UserInputService" service (Work in progress)
  
• Full 360 controller support added. So virtually everything can be done using just a gamepad controller.
• Added layering support, so a map can have multiple layers.
• The zider project is no longer a standalong exe, it has been change into a class library.
• Added SMLOP: Heroes which is a game that is being developed by me that uses the zider engine to run it.
• The engine now makes use of the content pipeline for loading game files

I have ported over some more of my old content from the previous incarnations of the createdbyx.com website.

• Bubble Sort - Simple example and info about the bubble sort algorithim.
• Cures Equal Bankrupcy - A short article on the reasons drug companies are incapable of selling cures.
• Banking - The first 2 pages from the book titled "And the truth shall set you free" that describes the current banking system.
  
• Die Book Man Die - Just a rant about books and reading.
• Quote list - Added a quote list to the articles page.
• Setup what map the player will enter into next - A quick warcraft 3 tutorial on setting up what map the player will enter into next.
• Secret Power - A custom Warcraft 3 Map created by me

I have also decided to re upload the numerous incarnations of my old websites. You can find some of them listed here ...

• http://www.createdbyx.com/oldsites/version1/
• http://www.createdbyx.com/oldsites/FF2D/
• http://www.createdbyx.com/oldsites/prevweb/
• http://www.createdbyx.com/oldsites/oldweb/
  

The contact page can now be found by hovering your mouse over the Home link at the top of the site.

Also fixed some minor spelling mistakes and formatting on various pages. A new XNA example project wa added as well called HealthBarProject. HealthBarProject demonstrates one way to display a health bar that floats above a desired object using the Viewport.Project method and 2D sprites rendered with a SpriteBatch object. The health bar also scales itself depending on the distance from the camera's position. View Screenshot

I have fixed the link to the XMLDOCContentProcessor content processor tool. It was giving a strange no access allowed error.

I also posted a new content pipeline tool called StringBuilderContentProcessors.

It seems XNA and GSE (Game Studio Express) does not ship with a simple string importer and/or processors, so you can use text files as a game asset. The TextFileContentProcessor library allows XNA developers to use regular text files as game assets using the xna content pipeline, and returns a StringBuilder object containing the text data.

I called the project TextFileContentProcessors because I intended to include StringCollection and string[] array support in subsequent releases.

I have also added a new game project I am working on called Kabombulator. It's still kind of in the prototyping phase.

Yet another xna based project that I have added to the XNA page is the XNAContentCode pre-build utility.

I am still working on release 3 of my Zider Game Engine. I have not written any code for it lately because I am taking time to think about how to proceed further with it's design and functionality, as well as taking some time to do some code refactoring.