here it is

Many, many people, when starting out with DirectX or other Microsoft technologies, go and look for a simple book on the topic.

Many newbies do not know about MSDN. Or, if they do know about MSDN, they don’t know just HOW GOOD and complete it is, simply because they’ve never tried to use it before.

The MSDN documentation CAN BE a bit annoying, simply because its so damn huge.

It is very well organized though, and if you browse through the tree hierarchy on the left (once you’ve got a good starting point!), then its very useful indeed.

The search tool doesn’t always find you the article you’re looking for though, so sometimes trying different search strings can help. Just because a bunch of weird irrelevant stuff turns up in an MSDN search, doesn’t mean that MSDN doesn’t have what you’re looking for!

IN FACT, MOST OF THE BOOKS out there on DirectX SIMPLY ADAPT OR EXPAND ON THE MSDN DOCUMENTATION. A LOT of the time, the book just provides you a subset of what MSDN provides, while not making the material all that much clearer. SOME of the books on DirectX out there are like drinking from a murky pond, while the clearer (not 100% clear, though) lake is right next to it.

As I mentioned, it can be a TAD annoying to have to LOOK FOR the appropriate MSDN article.

So here’s a pageful of links:

MAIN LINK TO DirectX SDK DOCUMENTATION, (NOVEMBER 2007) C++

The rest of these links you can find by simply following the above DirectX links, but I’m including them here for convenience.

MSDN docs on DirectInput

MSDN docs on DirectSound

More interesting stuff from MS. . .

Microsoft XNA presentations – has stuff from Gamefest, SIGGRAPH, and GDC (near the bottom of the page)

Exposure is really just being able to say “I’ve heard of that.” Exposure to ideas, exposure to available technologies, exposure to culture are all extremely important.

I think its being “exposed” that really makes a person seem mature, intelligent, and experienced. Staying exposed all the time is quite hard, so I suppose you have to be mature, intelligent and experienced to be exposed.

Some people will hide their sources of exposure. They do this so that they can maintain their lead by keeping others NOT on the same page as they are. They can then update others and in that process, they remain superior.

Isn’t exposure really experience? I don’t know.

Just a thought.

what kind of cpu do i have?

have you wondered about the details of your cpu?

use cpu-z to find out

Let me also add

How do I measure the temperature of my CPU?

CoreTemp!

open source hardware!

The definitive “tom’s hardware” website (check out their CPU/GPU comparison charts)

I like looking at this NVIDIA GPU’s comparison chart on wikipedia

Similar list for ATI GPU’s

newegg.com for all your hardware browsing and bargain finding needs

article on nvidia’s 7900, also talks about how NVIDIA doesn’t manufacture their own stuff, instead companies like BFG, XFX, PNY and eVGA do it.

This is sort of like a survey question, sparked by a curious discussion.

I don’t expect very many people to actually answer it — but it would be interesting if people did.

But it came to me, so I thought I’d post it nonetheless.

1. Best friend, same sex
2. Best friend, opposite sex
3. Any friend, same sex
4. Any friend, opposite sex
5. Mother
6. Father
7. Sibling (brother)
8. Sibling (sister)
9. Anyone really (No restrictions)

No, its not a joke!

Open Inventor

I didn’t know that

Ha ha ha. Check out the Google trends for “jobs.”

Drops during the Christmas season, then goes back up to normal level.

Look at the Google trends for “winners” (the store):

People search for bargain styles right after the holiday break, going into spring, when their old styles aren’t good enough anymore, but they haven’t the money to spend on anything really good.

some very cool cg stuff

wild assortment of artistic cg tutorials

CG References & Tutorials