Thoughts on Sandy Bridge’s HD 3000 IGP

2010-12-28 less than 1 minute read

Sandy Bridge is Intel’s new microarchitecture, slated for release in January of 2011. Sandy Bridge processors will effectively phase-out the current lineup of processors, based on the LGA 1366 socket, with processors fitting a brand new socket, LGA 2011.

While I understand the need for technology to move forward, and am an avid user of Intel CPUs myself, I can’t help but feel underwhelmed by the reviews, especially on the IGP (integrated graphics processor) front, the part that concerns me greatly.

The tech that Intel chose to use on the die is the HD 3000, and it’s little brother the HD 2000. Let’s hope it’s nothing like the GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) X3000 and family, the scourge of the entire IGP world. Please, Intel, please.

Note: the continued body of this blog post was not archived, and is thus lost to the ages.

Creating a Window Wrapper Class: Redux

2010-09-13 4 minute read

Okay, so I know you’re probably here because you searched for “window wrapper class” or something similar and expected the article that I use to host on Scriptionary that threw a bunch of C++ code at you for you to copy and paste. I regret to inform you that the article you were looking for has ceased to exist.

Sorry about that.

However, in its place I have for you this very post which will teach you how to accomplish creating such a wrapper all by yourself. I hope that is okay since all you really need to know is the how to create a window procedure that you can use with your custom class.

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A High-Resolution Timer for Win32

2010-09-10 2 minute read

This post lists the code for creating a high resolution timer for the Microsoft Windows platform. High resolution timers are often used in multimedia and entertainment applications for timing events up to the microsecond.

This is a heavily modified re-post of the article that used to be on the Scriptionary.com website before the change to the blog, read the source code for details.

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WebGL: OpenGL ES 2.0 for the Web

2010-09-09 2 minute read

As an OpenGL junkie I just have to dedicate at least one post to this topic.

By now you’ve undoubtedly heard of OpenGL ES, the OpenGL based library used on embedded devices such as cell phones and gaming consoles. OpenGL ES is what gives many Android based phones and iPhones their 3D gaming capabilities that rival the desktop machines of only a few years ago in terms of power. It seems like these days we’re all carrying a little computer in our pocket.

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Counting Processor Cores and Threads

2010-09-01 5 minute read

Here’s a little snippet I’d like to share with you since there really isn’t a good example online that shows you how to count the processor cores and threads on Microsoft Windows using the Windows API through C++.

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First Public Larrabee Demo

2009-09-23 less than 1 minute read

Intel demoed Larrabee for the first time to the public at the IDF (Intel Developer Forum), according to PC Pro.

The attached screenshot is a bit underwhelming but maybe we’ll see some impressive examples soon. In any case, if the demo is at the IDF now, the public release couldn’t be far off.

Edit (2010)

In case you haven’t heard — it seems like Larrabee was cancelled for good.

DirectX Developer Blog

2009-09-16 less than 1 minute read

Apparently, the DirectX team has had a blog since late April of this year it’s just not very popular I guess.

They’ve posted a shipload of information over the last couple of months, so if you’re like me and had no idea this existed, you’ll have quite some reading to catch up to. It’s mostly about Windows 7 and the new graphics APIs (Direct2D, DirectWrite, etc.) but it’s interesting nonetheless.

August 2009 DirectX SDK

2009-09-10 less than 1 minute read

Today the August 2009 DirectX SDK was released on MSDN, strangely enough the August SDK was released in September.

This release contains the first official release of Direct3D 11 (RTM), which was previously only a technical preview. According to the release notes, this version of Direct3D 11 will only work on the RTM version of Windows 7, not on the RC and Beta versions. So I guess only vendors and MSDN subscribers will be able to develop software until Windows 7 hits the retail market.

There’s also the issue of pure Direct3D 11 hardware not being sold yet but that should be right around the corner if the SDK is here.

Thick clients? Gimme a break.

2009-01-30 1 minute read

Neil McAllister of InfoWorld recently made his case against web-based applications. He gives five reasons for companies not to use web based technologies.

Having developed for both platforms (desktop and web) professionally, I can say with all certainty that Neil McAllister is wrong in his assertions.

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Hungarian Notation: What to do?

2009-01-21 1 minute read

Edit: FYI, by Hungarian notation, I mean Systems Hungarian such as bIsSucky.

It seems I’m in some kind of pickle. For some reason, two of the programmers at the company I work for still use Hungarian notation.

In case you don’t know what that is, in short: Hungarian notation prefixes an abbreviation of either the data type or purpose of the variable to its name. For example, Microsoft’s WINAPI still uses it, hence we have things such as hInstance, nShow, szCompany, etc. So it’s quite ugly and confusing to the programmer.

Yet these two programmers still cling to their old ways and refuse to give up on this ancient method. Even in VB.NET. One of these programmers happens to be Joe the Programmer mentioned before, go figure.

I was asked by one of them “Why not use Hungarian notation?” In case you dind’t know, dear reader, the name of the variable should give away the data type, use UpperCamelCase and logic for your naming conventions. Turns out, UpperCamelCase is a programming convention in this company, so why we were arguing, I don’t know. Now if only logic were a convention, we’d be set.

But it was like pissing against the wind as neither them nor I were persuaded in the end. How would you persuade a person to switch to a different methodology? By them using Hungarian notation, people who will eventually take over their source code will want to shoot themselves.