Granted, it’s the equivalent of the Indie version, but they were offering that version of the engine for $199 USD. That’s $199 I no longer have to worry about spending if I want to use the basic engine to prototype ideas (and maybe sell them).

My intuition is telling me this is a huge deal, not just for Unity but for the industry as a whole, particularly for the hobbyist, scientific, and independent developer.

What’s a poor media mogul to do? Well, how about getting behind a new platform? Say one of those cheapie netbooks running an OS we don’t have to pay for, like, say, Google Chrome OS? … Which would you want? A netbook running Windows XP for $400 or a netbook running Chrome with every episode of Lost, you favorite newspapers and magazines for $100 and by the way a monthly subscription fee?

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010.

Okay, cool. And now Michael Arrington is masturbating over himself:

It’s hard to type a blog post when one hand is being used to pat myself on the back.Last year I wrote a post about the just launched Chrome browser titled Meet Chrome, Google’s Windows Killer.

Congrats, Michael. I guess.

Google OS is in fact an operating system. It runs hardware management off the Linux kernel and its application platform is the browser (Google Chrome). For Windows the application layer is the desktop, with the browser as another application offering but not the platform that all other applications are built off.

That difference is why I don’t think Google OS is going to be the Microsoft killer of Arrington’s fantasies, at least in the short- to medium-term, and by the long-term Microsoft will have an answer. Certainly, it will open up other opportunities for online computer usage, and it may open up “the cloud” to a more mainstream audience. But online and “the cloud” is only part of what computers are used for. What about games, business applications, embedded applications, simulations, and so on?

One issue I see is that web technology is not yet equal to desktop technology. It’s headed that direction, and great strides have been made in all verticals of web tech in the last decade, but web-based application development presents its own unique challenges that desktop application development has long since resolved. If you strip away the application platform of today and replace it with a browser so that you’re forced to work within a web-based framework, then you’re reintroducing challenges application developers have to now re-address.

For example, Google Apps, which Arrington addresses:

Don’t worry about those desktop apps you think you need. Office? Meh. You’ve got Zoho and Google Apps. You won’t miss office. Chrome plus Gears plus Google Wave plus HTML 5 and web platforms like Flash and Silverlight all combine into a single wonderful computing device. The Internet Is Everything. All the OS has to do is boot the damn computer, get me to a browser as fast as possible and then stay the hell out of the way.

How many people actually use Google Apps for their productivity applications instead of Microsoft Office (or an open source alternative)? It would be nice to see that stat, but nobody I personally know uses Google Apps for their regular document editing needs. Why not? Because it sucks. Response is slow, features are limited, and it’s in a browser.

Even if the browser is the operating system, Google Apps is not at the level of Microsoft Office. For example, I always have issues with Google Apps when formatting my document. I don’t actually know how it really looks until I make it a PDF, since there’s always a variation between the edit view of the document and the printed view. I don’t have that problem with Office.

Don’t get me wrong: Google OS is an exciting announcement that will open up another vertical in the OS market, but it isn’t a replacement for the traditional desktop OS platform. There are issues with a browser-based OS that desktop OS’s simply provide better solutions for, and for that reason Google OS will not be for everyone. ReadWriteWeb posted 10 Things We’re Dying to Know about Chrome OS that is an example of some of the challenges a browser-based OS faces. Like I said, some of these things the desktop OS is simply better at performing.

But of course with announcements like these people like Michael Arrington have to do the masturbatory dance. It keeps their egos (and paychecks) growing. I just advise against being sucked into the hype.

After watching the documentary I decided I wanted to do the same thing. How cool would it be to drive a vehicle that painted with its tires? What kind of artwork could I come up with?

Not wanting to take forever on the project, I moved quickly to create a gameplay prototype. The first problem I ran into, though, was that to reuse my existing 3D codebase would require more work than I wanted to spend on a prototype, particularly since I needed to integrate a physics engine to get the effect I wanted for the vehicle dynamics.

So, I took a look at Flash, noticed that there were a few 3D render engines and a few physics engines, and figured "why not?" Granted, I've never used Flash before, but I went to Adobe's site, downloaded the Flash 30-day trial, and went to town.

A few days later, and I have a prototype of CarPaint: http://www.gamesunplugged.net/CarPaint3D.html. If you check it out, be sure to click the Help button to see the controls and instructions.

It turns out that BMW also created an iPhone App off this idea – something I just found that out as I searched for the name of that documentary for this post. I'm going to download it and check it out. In the meantime, I'm going to let the Flash version cook for a little bit as I look at porting it over to a Windows-based application using my engine – and of course consider I'll consider the iPhone App route.

So, this is what I have so far:

• The KISS principle – Keep It Simple Stupid
• Iterate early, often
• Create Functions that fit on one screen (20-25 lines max)
• Create Classes with one role and purpose
• Usefulness first, usability later
• Plugins for extensibility when possible

It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's a start of basic principles software developers should consider. Any others?

What's so great about Xobni? Simplicity. Immediate access to information I want. Excellent search capability. Social networking tied to email.

I better be careful, or I'll sound like a Xobni-fanboy. Really though, you can't beat the price (free) and if you're a heavy Outlook user like me then this plugin may help you tame the email beast.

For the most part and at least in this area, jobs in the software industry are plentiful, companies have plans to hire more, and contracts are not drying up. But when I see articles like this, I start to wonder if the software industry really is doing okay.

At the same time, there are some noticeable changes due to the economy – much less shopping in stores, much less dining in restaurants, and – being in Central Florida – much less tourism. So something is going on out there, but perhaps the software industry isn't feeling it yet. Maybe? It's too difficult to tell with my small sample size.

So, any readers willing to help expand my little survey and let me know where you're located and what you're seeing in regards to the economy and software? Are companies still hiring? Is there still a demand in your area for software? Does anyone anticipate a downturn or is it all good times?

This is a conference I've wanted to attend for a while but never had the opportunity or timing to, so I'm looking forward to mingling with other general software industry types and learning as much as I can for a week. It will be my first non-gaming industry software related conference, surprisingly, so in a way it's a new experience for me. Nothing against the gaming industry, of course, but I need to spread my wings a bit and see what's beyond the horizon.

Plus, I really like the city of Boston and the end of October is a great time to visit. In fact, I'm extending my week a few extra days past the conference to take a short weekend vacation. Looking forward to it!

In his presentation, called "Developing Expertise: Herding Racehorses, Racing Sheep", Thomas talks about expanding people's expertise in their domains of interest by not treating them as if they all had the same knowledge and level of experience.

I'm in the process of watching the hour-long video myself, so I can't give much of a rundown yet, but it is very insightful if you are interested in your own personal growth or the growth of your peers or employees.

I also noticed a link in the video's comments section that challenges the naive application of software best practices through the Dreyfus learning model.