New Year's Resolution

Among the other resolutions I've made again and again, such as losing weight or exercising more, I added a new one this year:

By the end of the year, I would like to create a piece of software outside of TrainMaster.

This resolution is not for profit. I'm not looking to turn a buck on the side. My goal is not to pad my resume, although creating something on the side won't hurt the resume either. The one thing I'm after is stretching myself, putting myself to a challenge I hadn't encountered before.

When I started fostering this idea last year, I looked at a couple of different technologies. Microsoft has recently released XNA, it's development platform for the Xbox360. The technology looks sound. Many homebrew developers are already publishing on the platform and making notable amounts of money. While the publishing mechanism seems straight forward, I lack a few key elements in the development process. Namely, an HDTV and an Xbox360. Maybe next year.

Another technology I looked at was the Facebook platform. I like the social interaction that Facebook brings to the Internet. This option was more appealing because it offered more new languages to develop in and new challenges in deployment. Items I still need to publishing on this platform includes setting up a directory for web serving and perhaps an extra charge for a stable IP address and a domain name.

Of course my dream platform is the impressive WiiWare. I've always loved Nintendo products and attempted to get a development kit from them for my high school programming independent study. I was shot down then and told that development kits only go out to recognized developers. While the concept of WiiWare would seem to denote a shift to the small guy like 2D Boy and Semnat Studios, one must still go through Nintendo to get the development kit. Looks like I'll have to put this one on the future list.

While console development stays a dream and goal of mine, I think I will spend this year focused on the Facebook platform. So I will end this post with some questions for the Facebook users out there to answer.

1. What do you like most in an application?
2. What are some things you don't like about some applications you've tried?
3. When you play a game on Facebook, how long do you perfer each session to last: several clicks, several minutes, or more?
4. Do you prefer direct or delayed interaction?
5. Should your interaction be limited by your friend list, or do you like to interact with new people?

I thank you for your input, your opinion is valuable to me.

About my title...

I guess it is time to explain the title of my blog. When I was in elementary school, some of the hottest toys (at least in my mind) were Tyco's SpyTech line.


These toys, along with the monthly new code in Boys' Life magazine, awoke the inner secret agent in me. I wanted to be a spy when I grew up, and practice make perfect. So I would sneak up and down the halls of where ever I was, especially around the Church building when the grownups were having meetings. At this age, my mother still bought all my clothes, and would make very convincing suggestions about what I should where to Church. One piece of clothing I particularly loathed was a pair of dirt brown corduroy pants. The reason I hated these pants so much was the fact that they made a sound while I walked. Every step brought a little friction noise that I was certain gave me away while I was sneaking around in dark hallways. This lead to one of my first statements of independence, when I declared to my mother, "I don't want to wear these pants anymore, because spies don't wear corduroy!"

Starting a blog

Hello World!

Welcome to my new blog. My name is Benjamin J Hobbs and I am the Lead Programmer on TrainMaster Train Simulator. I have a lovely wife, Jenny. I'm surrounded by a loving family. I attend a terrific Church. I have decided to join the Blogosphere to share funny and interesting stories from my life. I don't plan on writing anything inflammitory nor do I plan on being derogitory. I hope you make a habit of reading my thoughts. Here is the first:

I decided to begin this blog to commerate a milestone in my short 25 years on Earth. Today, I bought a house. After a brief two months of looking, Jenny and I placed an offer on a nice little two story in South Lansing. The offer was accepted and we went smoothly through the loan process. And today, we signed the papers that transfered that property into our possession. We are tremendously excited and hope to show off the house over and over. Tonight, we will be camping out on our air matress, and tomorrow, we will be back in our own bed. To understand how much that makes us happy, you can spend nearly three weeks on your sister-in-law's futon in the basement at your in-law's house. Not that I didn't enjoy my time with them, I am just relieved that I'll have my own space again.

Tune in again for moving annecdotes from tomorrow.