A friend had recommended that I consider a new format for my newsletter, and I agreed, thinking this is more of what my audience was looking for. Therefore, I will using fewer links, but offering a bit of context about each link that I use. Let me know what you think.
Also, is there more of a specific type of content that you’d like to see?
HTML5 / JS
- HTML5 game engines and frameworks
- You know that I love JavaScript and the incredible changes that HTML5 is making on a weekly basis. Here’s a list of some excellent frameworks that you can use. Personally, I’ve made a few games in ImpactJS and continue to use BabylonJS to showcase the power of WebGL.
- Microsoft’s Spartan browser uses Chrome’s UA string
- I wrote this article to clarify some points of confusion developers may have had on the upcoming Spartan browser which is to be released by Microsoft when Windows 10 launches. I also illustrate why the UA string exists, and why developers should be using Feature Detection instead of UA sniffing to provide the best experience for their users.
- The history of the user agent string
- This goes hand-in-hand with the article above
Nerdy / Tech
- HDInsight: Intro to Hadoop on Azure
- In the coming weeks I will be giving a presentation on HDInsight, or Microsoft’s version of the open source big data tool, Hadoop, at Villanova University. We’re gathering more information than ever, but have you ever been curious as to how we collect it and what we do with it afterwards to make it useful? This video and .ppt deck explain that well.
- What’s new w/ ASP.NET 5 (video)
- I’ve been, and will continue to, tour the east coast this quarter and delivering talks on how to write ASP.NET code, as well as what is coming in ASP.NET 5, commonly referred to as vNext. This is a great overview of how simple we are making the API, at least compared to what our current offering is.
- The developer Evangelism handbook
- Christian ———-, formerly a Developer Evangelist at Firefox, and as of this week now is at Microsoft, wrote an outstanding guide for how to get started as an Evangelist. This really hits home for me, considering my current role at Microsoft.
Students
- How to get hired at Microsoft
- I spend much of my time working with many of the brightest students in the country , from schools such as Upenn, Drexel, and Penn State. A common question I receive is “How do I get hired bit a tech company?”. Microsoft recruiter Anthony Rotoli explains many of the things we are looking for in this article featured in Cosmopolitan magazine.
Gaming / Game Dev
- Former Nintendo indie guy, Dan Adelman, discusses Nintendo’s culture, third party support, and virtual console
- Dan Adelman is an industry vet who offers outstanding insight for this in-depth interview. If you are working in game development, I highly suggest reading through it.
- The simple rules for creating incredible UI (Reddit)
- My former co-worker at Comcast is someone I’ve long admired for his incredible programming knowledge and experience both in and out of the gaming industry. We continue to e-mail on a daily basis, and he recently shared a fantastic write up on what makes great UI, and how to avoid common pitfalls that designers face.
- Submit games to the Windows Store for a $10k competition
- Publish your best apps and games in the Windows and Windows Phone Stores – and have a chance to win big cash for your creative efforts – in the Windows Game Developer Contest, running now through March 20, 2015. A Microsoft panel will judge submissions based on quality (50%), creativity (30%), and technical excellence (20%), 1st: USD$10,000, 2nd: USD$5,000, and 3rd: USD$3,000. Ten Honorable Mentions will win USD$1,000 each
- Error: Your app was launched during the build phase – GameMaker and Win81 – Only one way to close!
- Looking at recent stats, and I see that there are tons of GameMaker developers out there. Fellow TE, Joe Healey, wrote about how to resolve a common issue for developers when using the tool.
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@DaveVoyles
Your audience would much prefer your RSS feed to be a full feed instead of just the first paragraph. Please pass this on to whoever thinks that page views is the only metric worth measuring… its not 1997 any more.
I liked the old format. There was enough for me to read to determine if I wanted to click the link. Now you have just created more work for me. But I shall continue to read.
Believe me, I agree.