On the positive side I think I’ve picked up a new addiction hobby that may or may not turn into something one day: golf. I’ve realized I need a competitive outlet of some kind, and golf is one of those sports that I can compete against myself as much as I can other people. It’s a bonus that I’m turning out to be pretty decent at the game too.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with software or this blog right now. Bottom line is I’m alive and starting to get software itches again, so this blog should come back to life as well.

Within the last 24 hours I decided I was tired of paying for Typepad and moved my blog to a custom Wordpress installation. Typepad is a good product, but not good enough for me – in fact, I think it was actually detrimental to my blog posting frequency. The backend tools aren’t very responsive and user friendly to me, and the frustrations I went through made blogging a chore.

So, I’ve joined the flock and moved to Wordpress.

Personally and professionally it's been a challenging year of change, adjustment, and education. My experiences and personal studies have gained me a deeper understanding of politics, finance, and history and offered opportunities to improve softer skills like rhetoric, leadership, and organization. And of course, my never-ending search for a better way to build software has continued.

It's been an interesting year for the world, too. The United States elected an African American to president. The financial industry (and markets) collapsed. China's massive growth continued. Wars raged on. Some things changed, some things didn't.

Technology continues to change how we live and work. In my view the iPhone has had the biggest impact. Even though it wasn't introduced this year, the applications and business model it has brought is rapidly changing our world.

While we've had cell phones with internet and email access before (i.e. the Blackberry), no cell phone has made it as easily accessible as the iPhone. Full browser pages and simple touch-screen navigation really separate it from the mobile webpage and trackball/keyboard navigation systems of the past. As evidence of the iPhone's impact on mobile navigation, the Google Android and the Blackberry Storm have come out in the last 6 months.

But to me the real key to the iPhone's impact is in bringing our world ever-closer. The ability to access information at a moment's notice, including to download applications, music, and videos, has revolutionized our communication and information mechanisms. Just years ago the laptop was the best mobile information and communication platform. Today it's the mobile phone.

But the iPhone's impact doesn't stop there. The platform is ripe for small software developers to get access to millions of potential customers across the world, and the platforms level playing field allows anyone, from Joe Indie (hi David) to major publishers like EA to compete in the iPhone application market.

How many stories have you heard of the single independent developer making several hundred thousand from sales of an application they spent less than a month to develop? I've heard of at least three just in the last few weeks. It's been a long time since a platform offered this level of opportunity, and it's a great time to be a software developer with an idea.

When it comes to gaming, the iPhone is hands-down THE mobile gaming platform. I love Nintendo DS, think the PSP is cool, have enjoyed my share of games on other mobile devices, but in the end the ease of accessibility to games, the interface, and the hardware platform itself make the iPhone the best mobile gaming platform by far. And finally – a phone that makes OpenGL ES shine. Don't believe me? As evidence, EA just released SimCity for the iPhone, which is a direct replica of SimCity 3000 ported to the mobile device.

There's more I could rave on about the iPhone, but I think you get the point. If there's anything in the technology world that has caused a shift it's the iPhone. It's been a subtle shift, from the standpoint that not many realize how their habits have changed, but it's there and building momentum. A new standard has been set for mobile devices, which means our individual connectivity to the world will forever be changed.

So for 2009 and beyond? I don't typically make predictions, but this year I'm going to make an attempt.

I see continued movement towards this individual freedom in connectivity that the iPhone has introduced. I see more opportunities for software developers of all kinds in expanding on these mobile platforms. Netbooks – smaller, scaled down laptops – will become even more popular (check out their holiday sales). They are already outselling the iPhone.

In the gaming world, as the cost to develop AAA titles continues to skyrocket, the role of the smaller, independent developer will become more important. With lower costs and less to lose, the independent developer can be more creative and take more risks, ultimately becoming the trend-setters in the gaming industry. Evidence of this is with the Independent Games Festival's award winner World of Goo by 2D Boy (a two-man shop – great game, guys).

Of course, 2009 will continue to see economic and financial issues, but that will only put more pressure for individual innovation and mobile freedom as the economic power of large institutions wanes. Technology is enabling small innovators to sprout while reducing our dependency on innovations from the large corporation. Times are changing, and it's going to be fun.

And with that I bid 2008 adieu and look forward to the excitement of 2009. See you next year.

We hit our milestone last week – a few hours ahead of schedule actually – but crunch isn’t over for me yet. I have a few more days to go. I have to admit the 70+ hour weeks are getting a little old, though.

Of course, this crunch is a little different in that I’m preparing for a series of demonstrations showing the technology we’ve developed and coincidentally crunched for last week. I’m taking these demos seriously. It’s a real opportunity to showcase and introduce this technology we’ve been working on for a year and a half to the rest of the company, and in my opinion we have something that’s unique to the industry.

It’s not necessarily the rendering, or the physics, or the AI that makes this system great – it’s the toolset and the potential capabilities it provides. It’s exciting. I only wish I could talk more about it. We’re breaking new ground in the simulation training industry.

I’ll get back to the blogging shortly enough. This week is mine and my team’s week to showcase our talents, so that’s where my focus will lie.

The introduction won over.

So, who am I? My name is Kevin Hawkins, and I am the Software Technologies Manager at Raydon Corporation, a simulation training company in Daytona Beach, Florida. I am also one of the co-owners of GameDev.net, the leading online resource for game development. I’ve co-authored some books (OpenGL Game Programming and Beginning OpenGL Game Programming), contributed to others, and written an article or two. I’ve studied many aspects of software, practiced many more, and while I don’t presume to know everything about software, I do believe I have something to contribute to the software world.

Why do I have this blog? Well, I have a lot of notebooks filled with ideas and notes about software, and while those notebooks have served me well, they have been difficult to organize and, quite honestly, they aren’t doing much more than collecting dust so I figure at least in a public, electronic form they can be more useful – if not for me than perhaps for someone else. In addition, nearly every day and week I come across something interesting about software, and over time I’ve learned the importance communicating one’s ideas and experiences has on learning and personal growth.

There’s also the two-way communication aspect of blogging that I like, and I hope any readers (you will be out there, right?) that visit will be willing to engage in discussion about the topics I post, whether it be through comments or email.

So now that that is out of the way, it’s time to write some real posts.