I was playing Robozzle with my oldest and he was having a blast and loved that he was programming like Dad does.  (He did let me know he wants to be policeman though. :)  It’s a fun way to introduce kids to programming and reminds me a little of the little logo turtle. 

I didn’t start out programming that way – I got into programming because my Dad was too busy to start the games I wanted to play on a computer.  Funny how one things leads to another – I ended up learning how to start the games, then I wanted more games which meant I had to program them from books (basic on the TI, don’t remember the other languages).  And eventually we learned how to make the computer do stuff (little Tron games on an apple IIe that my Grandpa had, that kind of thing).  We had a lot of fun with it, and I was way ahead when I took my first programming class – so much so that I finished very early and spent the time playing various computer games (full circle :).  So I’m a big believer in teaching kids skills through games (more fun for you, too).

What games have you found that do this for programming?  What really easy programming experiences are out there?  I would love to hear what you’ve found, and recommend that you give Robozzle a try (and contribute more easy puzzles so kids have more puzzles before things get too tricky).

[re-post from my MSDN blog]

How about that - Vista's Photo Gallery (which I love) is getting an update as a Live asset.  I suppose they believe that it makes sense to have a strong web connection for that feature.  It seems like we're ending up with two versions for some features in Vista - the one that shipped with the OS, plus another version with Live in the name.  Window Mail; Windows Live Mail Desktop.  Windows Photo Gallery; Windows Live Photo Gallery.  More to come?

Other than edging into the Sentence Name area, this change includes easy photo publishing to spaces, panoramic stitching and more. :)

 Coolness. 

Quote

RELEASE: Family.Show - a free Family Geneology application based on Windows Presentation Foundation

Description taken from the web site:

"For a hobby that revolves around dead people, genealogy is remarkably popular: it's the fastest growing scene in North America. And a perfect study for Vertigo's next Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) reference application for Microsoft.

Our designers employed every trick in the WPF book– styles, resources, templates, data binding, animation, transforms– to present an innovative visualization of the classic family tree, freeing our developers to concentrate on behind-the-scenes features like XPS, P/Invoke wrapper for Windows Vista common dialogs, and ClickOnce for WPF."

A couple comments:

1)  1.63MB!  This is once again, a tiny WPF-based application at only 1.63MB in download size for Windows Vista, demonstrating once again, how application libraries are built directly into the operating system making WPF applications slim and optimal by taking advantage of the native services and functions within the OS.

2)  DRAG & DROP PHOTOS:  I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the developers designed drag & drop correctly:  All you have to do to bring in a photo into the program is drag and drop it onto the "blank" photo frame for an individual and you're finished.

3)  XML & GEDCOM EXPORT:  Geek moment here, but all data is saved in XML making it very easy to read into other applications.  And what's more, it will also export into GEDCOM format so that it can be read & displayed in basically any other geneology software.

4)  SAVE TO XPS:  Want to send your family tree to someone else to see?  Create a read-only XPS document out of it and have them view the content the way itwas meant to be viewed.

5)  BEAUTIFUL!:   This is just a gorgeous program.  The graphics are extremely scalable, the visuals and animations are smooth an appealing, and the overall program design is just so well done.  Good job, Vertigo.  Folks, if this doesn't demonstrate to you how Windows Vista is simply an awesome platform for next generation applications, I don't know what will. 

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FREE DOWNLOAD:  http://www.vertigo.com/familyshow.aspx

(This isn't the only application by Vertigo that leverages .NET and the Windows Presentation Foundation.  Check out there other creations at http://www.vertigo.com/lab.aspx)

Here's Microsoft's CES website.  There's a ton of interesting stuff on here.  The one that will probably impact me the most is Group Shot.  Not that the rest isn't incredibly cool, it's just that I have the groupshot problem a lot. :)

These two images becomes combined (source can be seen bottom left) to look like bottom right.  How cool is that for group pictures (particularly those involving small children).

[original post]

Did you know that you can print custom books now?  I can easily and cheaply create my own book with mypublisher.  It's no quark (what most real publishers use), but it's cheap, easy and good enough.  For what I want to do, it looks like the right level of flexibility.  I love products like Windows DVD Maker that give me a professional look without too much trouble so I can share great memories, without giving up my life.

I was just in the process of putting together some interesting photo stuff when this caught my eye.  I don't have any immediate plans to do something with it, but this seems like a great and inexpensive way to capture some great moments like our vacation to Europe in a way that doesn't involve a computer screen and that we can send to Grandparents and other folks who'd rather not have to sit at a computer to enjoy pictures of those that they love.

I really love the picture screensavers myself, but this is probably something that I'll use to put together a few photo albums of our own.  We may even print off the blog that we share with our family members in book format.

I've been thinking about good point and click cameras lately, and I'm a big fan of the Ricoh Caplio R4.  I've played with it myself, and enjoyed some great pictures of flowers from it.  But I was recently looking at a report of the most popular cameras on flickr, and noticed that you could see pictures taken with the different cameras. 

Because Flickr supports searching pictures taken by a particular camera, you can (as in the flowers link above) search for pictures of flowers taken by your camera.  I recommend checking a few common scenarios like longexposure, indoor, etc and compare them with a nice DSLR (I currently use a Canon Rebel XT although I really need more lenses (hint, hint family :)) - longexposure, indoor).