Michael Valverde's Blog

As a professional software developer for over 15 years now, I have had a  love-hate relationship with Microsoft. On one hand, I've always loved the Windows OS platform.  Windows has always been the most consistent and best overall user experience of the OSes I've used - even if at times I had to work around nasty bugs and wait on well overdue service packs(the hating part)! I've used a lot of different OSes in my lifetime, going back to a Coleco Adam SmartOS, C64, AmigaOS, different Linux distributions, Mac OSX, DOS, OS/2 Warp and every flavor of Windows except ME -I never used ME, so I can't speak about that potential heartbreaking affair - but Vista 64-bit had a lot of issues too! When I used a MacBook with OSX for work- it came with some nice features, but I just can't get over the premium cost of hardware and lack of really great gaming experience I get on Windows.  Also, Xcode is not Visual Studio and unfortunately never will be. Linux has some awesome

Well, I did it - I signed up for the assault on Mt. Marion bike ride for next May! You can read more about this bike challenge here . I have a LOT of training to do, but that is the whole point isn't? Well, in a few hours I am doing a training ride in Chesterfield - riding an old route that I use to hammer through in my youth. It is going to be a lot of fun!

Well, I finally got all the parts in for my new server. I am building the follow: MSI Mobo AMD LLano 2.7 GHZ Quad Core Processor 32GB of DDR3 RAM 64GB SSD - for the host OS 1 TB 7200RPM SATA drive for Virtual HDs 2 U Server Case 350 Watt PSU Well, I realize the BEST virtualization host software out there is VMWare's ESXi - unfortunately the 64-bit version is not free - so I have to pass. Microsoft's HyperV is free - but it doesn't like my hardware - couldn't find the network card. Citrix Xen wouldn't even load. So now I am about to install Fedora 16 XFCE and just use Virtual Box. I use Virtual Box on windows and runs great, so I am not concerned as long as I can Virtual Box to install. My Linux skills have really deteriorated since Windows 7 came out. I'll give an update once I get the server up and running!

Well, the project from hell is finally winding down. We've done a tremendous amount of code in just a few short(but felt very long!) weeks. I know more C++ now than ever - and actually gotten use to coding in C++. The only thing I come to realize is Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler leaves a lot to be desired. Anyone who has done a large project (well over 20K lines of code) in C++ is probably well to familiar with the requirement to clean before every compile and after a few hours, you have to delete the obj folder because it just won't clean anymore. Of course a daily reboot is required too. With .NET I'd have to reboot about once a month!!! Of course, we just heard the vendor is changing the product platform from Windows CE to Linux in the next firmware version, so I am looking forward to getting to use GNU gcc compiler! Oh well, hopefully things will get back to normal this week and I can actually spend sometime at home doing all the things I've been negle

Well, with the project from hell going on at work (working 7 days a week is getting old!), I at least came across something to help my eyes after hours and hours of coding. Studio Styles to the rescue! Check them out! It is a great place to get a Visual Studio Editor Templates. They support 2005, 2008 and 2010. I am sure 2011 support is just around the corner! I've personally gone with Son of Obsidian here. Its easy on the eyes and really helps keep the fatigue down.

Well, I've always wanted to create a video game. The first time I ever wrote the famous Hello World, I was in the fourth grade. My parents had Santa deliver a Coleco Adam computer. Originally for my sister Nikki, but in few short weeks she tired of me wanting to be in her room to play on it - it was moved to my room. I don't think my parents realized just how much I would naturally take to computers. Yeah, we had an Atari 2600 that I had about worn out playing, but to their surprise I was printing and writing programs that printed things almost immediatly. I discovered magazines like Family Computing and Compute that would publish programs in pring and I'd tirelessly type them in and run them! I taught myself how to store data sequentially and create a program to catalog my 8 or 9 records. I create a program to print me a checklist for my baseball cards. I even wrote a little drawing program that I took to school and showed off to one of my teachers. Computers bec