Draginol

Getting the Start menu back in Windows 8 in Personal Computing JoeUser Forums

The lack of a start button and start menu in Windows 8 has made using Microsoft’s new OS a non-starter for me and a lot of other people. I like Metro, I really do – for tablets. But as a desktop user, I need a consistent work flow that lets me have my windows together on my desktop and don’t want to be jerked out of that environment every time I want to start some new program. So here’s a free utility we put together that brings the Metro start menu onto

Friday Poll: Where to next! in Elemental Dev Journals JoeUser Forums

We’ve got N resources and M things to work on. Based on your experiences with beta 2, where would you like N to go the most? Vote here: https://www.elementalgame.com/journals

I’m not trying to dog-pile Windows 8 here… in Personal Computing JoeUser Forums

Update : We've made a Start button for Windows 8 that brings up a Start menu. Click here to sign up . <img style="background-image: none; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;" title="image" src="http://www.draginol.com/images2010/0990cb13839c_9537/image_thumb.png

Internet trolls, a study in Personal Computing JoeUser Forums

Am I the only one who has wished they could press a button when reading some trolling comment and summon the troll to their presence? Not to punch them in the nose or anything but for study. What kind of person is a troll? My personal favorite troll that I encounter is the entitled gamer. Are they an adult? Do they have a family? Do they literally live under a bridge?

Fixing Windows 8 in Personal Computing JoeUser Forums

We got a start button / start menu up and running this afternoon. http://frogboy.joeuser.com/article/418946/Windows_8_Start_button_returns I’ve already seen a lot of Microsoft fanboys complaining about how “Stardock always makes Windows look old” which is pretty ironic since it was Stardock that first introduced Windows users to the concept of ZIP files as folders, widgets, gadgets, docks (w

Windows 8 Beta is a UI nightmare in Personal Computing JoeUser Forums

Got to play around with the February beta of Windows 8. It is terrible. It is beyond terrible. It is so bad that I’m a little panicked about the future of Windows. People won’t use this. I could have teams of people working full time to develop products to fix it but we’re not in the business of making a terrible experience good. We’re in the business of making a good experience better. No sane person, will consider the user experience of this beta acceptable. Even a die hard

Notes from the field: Fixing fixing fixing in FE Sneak Peeks JoeUser Forums

So many crashes, so little time. Well, not really. Not on the time part anyway. I have a crazy amount of time. I hate to say this guys but I enjoy your crash reports. I’ve mentioned before that this is the first game I’ve been lead developer on since…I think The Corporate Machine which was like 1999. Thanks to the sale of Impulse, I can…indulge myself here. So anyway, here is why your game crashes (most of the time). Unlike with War of Magic, Fallen Enchantress

Brad’s bookshelf: February 2011 in Books JoeUser Forums

Reading is what I do while I wait for the night to be over to start the next day. I love my Kindle. 99 cent books. Anyway, here are a few books I highly highly recommend for those who dig sci-fi Excellent:

Beta 2: Gameplay Example in Elemental Dev Journals JoeUser Forums

Greetings! This is a play through of version 0.85 of the upcoming PC strategy game, Elemental: Fallen Enchantress. For Fallen Enchantress, Stardock reunited the Galactic Civilizations II team and brought in the Fall from Heaven creator, Kael to design a new strategy game that exists in the Elemental game universe. The game’s campaign is designed by Jon Shafer, the lead designer of Civilization V. Tomorrow, February 23, beta 2 of Fallen Enchantress will be unl

I murdered our retail plans today in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

Sorry gang, I decided to not allow our next two titles to be available at retail (Sins rebellion and Fallen Enchantress). The cost/benefit ratio just isn’t there at this time. It is cool to tell people your game is at the store. But as a business, until the retailers adapt, it doesn’t make sense to deal with them at this point.

Being a creature of the net in Blogging JoeUser Forums

My generation (>40 years or older) don’t often see the power of the online world. But I know lots of people are like me out there. I just enjoy the sentience of other people. You know what I mean?

It’s cheating in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

Wouldn’t you agree it’s cheating if the game doesn’t provide you with UI features that the AI has easy access to? The AI can send 8 armies from distant cities to converge on a target city at the same turn. I can’t easily do that, as a human. Therefore, I didn’t really lose. The AI cheated.

We’re not competitors in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

I wonder sometimes whether PC gamers realize that game developers in the PC game market don’t consider each other “competitors”. People from Valve, Blizzarrd, Bioware, all the way down to a Stardock consider ourselves on the same side. Who do you think we get to hang out other than with each other?

Tactical battle: Pure AI in FE Sneak Peeks JoeUser Forums

I’m one of those people who have traditionally disliked tactical battles because I hate having to fight all of them out. In FE, my goal is to make it so that the AI does a pretty good job of fighting the battle for you. You’ll still want to fight it out if it’s a close thing or if there are particular units you want to spare. But overall, it does a decent job. Right now, I’m still toying with the concept of having units retreat from battle to let others take their place. I’m n

We need a “Leave me the hell alone” party in Politics JoeUser Forums

Between the Nanny Statists on the left and the thumpers on the right, I just can’t get excited about politics anymore. I really don’t need anyone to tell me how to live. I also really don’t care to hear the religious beliefs of a federal candidate. Why tell me? Are you hinting that you’re going to use the power of the federal government to compel me to live by your beliefs? No? Then quit talking about them. I care as much for a Federal candidate’s religious beliefs as I

Bailey turns 1 in Pets & Nature JoeUser Forums

It’s hard to believe that our dog Bailey was just born one year ago tomorrow. Here’s how she looked 1 year ago: <img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Bailey born" border="0" alt="Bailey born" src="http://www.draginol.com/images2010/Bailey-turns-1_

Visual Studio 11 release date? in Personal Computing JoeUser Forums

Anyone know when Visual Studio 11 is supposed to come out of beta?

What if it’s not enough? in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

A lot of people who read these posts don’t know me. This post comes from my blog site ( http://draginol.joeuser.com ) but gets syndicated out through Stardock’s various forums too. I’m the President & CEO of Stardock. My day job handle on the forums is “Frogboy” (I post occasionally on WinCustomize.com and the other Stardock sites). But I never intended Stardock to be my career. I started this company to help pay for college at W

Did Apple put something in Microsoft’s water supply? in Personal Computing JoeUser Forums

Details on Windows 8 on ARM are revealed. You can read Paul Thurrott’s pretty thorough look at here . So let me make sure I am understanding this: If I want to make a Windows 8 desktop app (by far the largest market) I need to develop one way (Win32 for all practical purposes and WinRT..maybe..eventually). If I want to make a Windows 8 phone app I have to use a completel

There are 175 potential *tactical spells* in FE so far in FE Sneak Peeks JoeUser Forums

In the debugger right now working on tactical AI. And I’ve wondered just how many spells there potentially are in a given game. The current number: 175 (not counting strategic).

Without Edit and Continue this would be a nightmare in Game Development JoeUser Forums

Working on tactical AI today. So many tweaks, so many little stupid errors (typos). Thank goodness I can fix and continue.

Ugh, what is it about Star Wars “fans” in Movies & TV & Books JoeUser Forums

So I watched the most recent Star Wars: The Clone Wars (“Crisis on Naboo”) and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it enough that I decided to go over to TheForce.Net and see about conversing with others about it. Oh god. What a mistake. I didn’t even get to the posting part. I just read pages and pages of bitching about how terrible the episode was. Then I read the same thing about every episode they listed on there. Just pages and pages of ranting and complaining about ho

Get a job, kid in Personal Computing JoeUser Forums

Here’s a growing problem: College graduates who have never had a job of any kind. I get a lot of these resumes on my desk now. 4-5 years in college, living at home, never worked. No mall job. No McDonalds. No summer landscaping. Nothing. I used to not pay that close attention to that but I do now. I have to because kids who have never had a job have no idea what’s expected at a job. Basic things like getting up every day and being at work at a consistent time. 5 days a w

I hate passwords in Personal Computing JoeUser Forums

I have so many passwords. And sites keep making the requirements more and more complex. Mixed case, numbers, etc. I already use LastPass and such but still, I wish we could get to a point where there was some better way to verify identification.

So how big do you want Stardock to get? in Business JoeUser Forums

I get asked this a lot. And the answer I gave most recently was “About a third smaller than it is today.” As a statistical nut, I made a pie chart of what I spend my day doing. It was depressing. Most of my work day is spent doing business stuff. And the more “successful” (and I use that term with some derision these days) the worse it gets. Every week I can count on an hour of legal review. What kind of legal landmines do we need to watch out for now? If