I'm excited about the new iPhone 3GS. The hardware support for OpenGL ES 2.0 will make it more fun to explore advanced graphics in my projects. I have a basic 3D maze running on my iPod touch, and it would be awesome to be able to add shader programs to it.

Here's the link for info about winning an iPhone 3GS from QuickPWN

www.quickpwn.com/forums/iphone-3g-s/4177-iphone-3g-s-giveaway.html

Last month I purchased a new unibody 15" Macbook Pro. It is my first Mac in over 10 years. It's so nice owning a Mac again. I've been dabbling in iPhone development since I got it, and I have a basic OpenGL application working. My app lets me move a marble around the screen using the Macbook's accelerometer.

I used the accelerometer simulator
code.google.com/p/accelerometer-simulator/
and the unimotion program unimotion.sourceforge.net/ to accomplish this. It would be nice to have this functionality built into the iPhone simulator.

I bought a book about game physics, and I'm on my way to creating a great game. Next I will be simulating interactions between multiple marbles, and figuring out how to load level configurations.

Presenting SproutWorks 3D Digg Explorer

www.sproutworks.com/digg3d.php

I have just put SproutWorks 3D Digg Explorer online. It is my latest attempt to display textual information in an interesting way. I use JavaScript with jQuery to script the interactive elements of it. It fetches a JSON string from my server, and creates a three dimensional scene using the data from it.

www.problogger.net/archives/category/birthday-prize-giveaway/

ProBlogger is having a birthday bash with $54,000 in prizes. ProBlogger is a blog dedicated to the topic of making money with blogging. It is a tantalizing idea, but I tend to spend more time programming my site than writing on it. Still, I enjoy reading the tips about blogging, which I may actually implement someday.

I am writing this post as my entry to win 2 LG 20" USB LCD monitors provided by DisplayLink (www.displaylink.com) That would be an awesome compliment to my new 22" Viewsonic LCD.

So, everyone check out ProBlogger, it's an interesting read.

I have just added a new animation program to the logo area of this site. I have been working on variants of this system for a while. First, I wrote a JavaScript program that uses a drawing method similar to Google Maps. It uses square tile graphics, arranges them in a grid, and then moves them inside a scrolling area.

When a tile moves off the edge of the scrolling area, it is moved to the opposite side of the area. Before it is moved, the tile graphic is updated with the graphic that is appears on the opposite side that is scrolling into the scrollable area.

After I got a basic tile scrolling engine working, I made it work with several layers of tiles that can scroll at different rates. I then added the ability to make additional layers of objects that can be positioned anywhere. The animation at the top of this page uses this object layer system. I will make more interesting scenes as the engine becomes more sophisticated.

I have just optimized the performance of the Blogshares Idea Tracker's graph rendering program. The graphs are loading much faster now. The industry listing page now allows you to load the graph for any industry by clicking a button.

A few days ago I ordered a Viewsonic VG2230 22" widescreen LCD for about $300 from www.newegg.com It replaces an ancient 19" Viewsonic G790 CRT display. I also have a little 15" Gateway LCD as a secondary monitor.

So far I'm loving this new monitor. I have a lot more room to do stuff, and games look awesome on it. It is plugged into a DVI port on my Radeon x1950 Pro. I briefly ran Quake 4 and Half Life 2. I ran F.E.A.R. Combat but it insisted on running on the secondary display. I hope I can resolve this later. I still need to try Bioshock on this thing.

This monitor can swivel on its base, and it has a height adjustment that can go pretty high. It has some speakers I will never use. This monitor will improve the many, many hours I spend on my computer. Now I just need to upgrade my secondary monitor.

I have purchased a few new video games over the last month or so. Here is a little info on each of them.

I bought Bioshock for PC on it's release date, right after I got off work. Bioshock is set in 1960 in an underwater city called Rapture. Something has gone horribly wrong there, it appears to have something to do with the rampant genitic modifications performed there. The environment is really well done, it really seems to fit with the time peroid.

Bioshock plays like a first person shooter, but you can use powers from plasmids in addition to the standard weapons. You find plasmids enabling you to throw fire, ice, use telekinesis, electrocute, and many other things. There are endless ways to dispatch the mutant freaks known as slicers.

I may write more about Bioshock later, it is one of my favorite games at the moment.

I also bought Metroid Prime Corruption for the Nintendo Wii. The game makes very good use of the motion controls. I like the puzzles and the varied worlds of the the Metroid universe.

I picked up Brain Age 2 for the Nintendo DS along with Metroid. Brain Age is intended to be played daily, and it claims to train your brain. This idea seems to make sense. Each of the mini games makes you think in ways you normally don't. It tracks your progress in each game, and you can view a calendar of your results. Every day when you train your brain, you get a stamp for that day. Earning stamps unlocks more of the games. The creator of the game, Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, gives you brain tips in between games. I hope my neurons are making more synaptic connections as a result of playing Brain Age 2.

Last Saturday I bought Castlevania, Portrait of Ruin for DS. It was on sale at Walmart for $25 so I just had to get it. I have played a few of the Castlevania games, including the original, Super Castlevania, and one on the PS2. It is a great series. Portrait of Ruin stars 18 year old Jonathan Morris and his 16 year companion Charlotte Aulin. They are on a mission to vanquish the vampire Brauner from Dracula's castle, where he is up to no good. I've played through a few worlds, which you enter from magical paintings. There is a large variety of enemies and weapons. You can upgrade your characters through earning experience points and collecting items. I enjoy this game, it has the feel of a classic platformer with lots of modern additions.

I just noticed that the Blogshares Price Tracker has not been updating for a couple weeks. When I looked into it, I discovered that something happened on the server so that the include files were not being found. A Dreamhost tech pointed me to their wiki page about cron jobs, where I found I had to change the path to PHP.

After I got the updates going again, I rewrote a few key parts that were making the price tracker very slow. There were some SQL queries that were inefficient, so I rewrote those, and moved some data into different tables. Now the industry listing and details pages are much faster. I made the graphs a little faster, but they are still way too slow. The problem is that the graph script queries a table with over 10 million rows. I'll try to think of some ways to speed it up.

I got an email from Feedblitz saying that they are adding some new features to the free accounts. I have customized the appearance of the email with some graphics I had laying around. I'll try to make a more extensive email template later.