The New SV

The SoftVelocity website (here) has undergone an overhaul.

Gone are the drop-down lists. Instead there’s a right sidebar. There’s a community section at the bottom, and the new branding backgrounds etc appear.

Clicking on one of the sidebar links (I picked Clarion 7) takes me to a three column page.

What was the right sidebar at the homepage is on the left. The right sidebar here is a list of links for specific "bling" points Clarion 7. In the middle is the main chunk of writing about Clarion 7, with a little top menu for Details, FAQ ..

Down the bottom of the site are the normal links for Contacting, Privacy, Home .. and the SoftVelocity Shop.

It’s good to see the movement. The change. I really like the peaceful colors, heh. Easy on the mind.

Kudos to SV for getting a new site done. Here’s to it being an integral cog in making Clarion adored and bought by the masses!

The Clarion Charter

Over the horizon gallops a lone gunman.

As he draws near, you can see the flanks of the horse foamed with sweat. A magnificent animal, silky black, corded muscles, lean hindquarters.

The rider slows as he approaches. A lone battleground, there are weapons jutting from all visible body angles, and probably a few unseen.

He hands you a piece of paper.

"This is the Charter."

Okay, that would be cool. But anyway …

Bob has posted (here) regarding the Clarion Charter for Clarion (Sharp or .Net?). It’s an early access facility. But it’s more. Training. Mentoring. Support.

The post explains what each of those three entails at this point in time. Sounds like it’ll be good if it goes ahead.

I thought Clarion# was the product, but from reading Bob’s post, Clarion .Net is the product, and Clarion# is the language. My awesome bad.

It’d be good to have a repository for showing off new apps people are going to create in Clarion .Net, helpful for newbies and oldbees alike.

Ahhh. Ha ha. I just had a stupid thought. A dev tool like WordPress has it’s "Theme Viewer", which allows the viewer to "View" or "Download" the thousands of themes stored there.

Imagine something like that with Clarion. A Clarion App viewer.

Nonsense of course. Too many crazy things to cater for. Amongst other problems.

Still, would be nice.

A Not-Rant About Snowballs and Clarion

The second of Bob’s recent postings (here) runs through a number of reasons _why_ .Net is teh awesome.

A lot of these ideas get me pretty excited. I’m sure a lot of this stuff could be argued away, that we can already do it, that blah blah blah. But you know, I’m happy for someone else to think about these things and tell me, and develop a tool that’ll do the job with relative ease for me.

That’s cool.

The bell is about to toll. It tolls for thee Grossbard!

Ahem.

What I mean is, that Bob and the rest of the team must be feeling the pressure. Obviously, with these posts, .Net is nearing some kind of release, and although it could still be a while away, we are being geared up.

This is good and bad.

Good, because movement is there. Things are happening.

Bad, because it’s still, again, half-assed. This isn’t a proper snowball. I want something big, something huge. Rolling down the mountain, taking out not just trees, but entire forests and cities, leaving destruction and chaos in it’s wake!

That’s pimping!

This new product does sound like something amazing. So where is Clarion in the world wide press? The software development blogs? The reviewing sites, news sites, other blog sites? Underground, overground, wombling free.

I know organising this kind of vehicle (the above mentioned snowball) takes time and resources. I just see it as more important than NOT.

This is, by the way, not a rant. I have the greatest respect for Bob and Bob and the rest of the team. They are doing a massive work. They are doing a work that for the most part, is battered and whined about and taken apart. The nature of making stuff with an existing audience I would think.

But this is born out of some frustration. It’s like the frustration I feel when remembering my talk at the Aussie Dev Con. You know, I got one email back (I guess that’s more than a one percent success rate, technically, heh heh). And this from a guy who doesn’t even have me on his list of clarion websites. Granted, I’m no ClarionMag, but still. Phew. Breathe. Seems to be some latent aggression building.

One of my great failings is this: If I get no results, I move on. It’s hard to continue, month in and out, when after imploring some involvement from others, there is nothing.

Of course, another great failing is my selfishness. There _are_ others doing good work in the community.

It’s just, I had so many cool plans. Even if most of them sucked in reality, it’s very frustrating that not a one of them has come to fruition.

So why am I whining? Probably because sometimes whining gets a response. But also, I’ve moved on.

As a friend once encouraged me, I’m pursuing my dreams.

Clarion Sharp, Cutting Edge?

Bob’s posted a couple of times recently (here and here).

The first post deals with the name Clarion # (read Sharp). So no more "Clarion dot Net". It’s "Clarion Sharp" for the win!

I like this. It sits better with me than "Clarion dot Net".

But you know, if they had given me the naming rights, here’s some of my better ideas ..

  • Clarionated
  • The New Clarion
  • Snickt!
  • SeeSharp
  • 2BobsCode
  • ORLY #
  • Sharper Clarion
  • Clarion The Sharp
  • SliceDiceClarion
  • Clarion Not Dot

And so on.

Yes. "Better".

Desert Post

I know, I just said the blog will be changing. But not yet.

Dan pointed me to the following sites. Warning! You may experiencing a "What The" moment in duality.

http://www.underwaterpost.com

http://www.volcanopost.com

So we have a post office underwater. And we have one at the precipice of a volcano. I’m wondering where you could go next.

The desert is an obvious choice. But not really all that cool. There are most probably Desert Postal services anyway. Scratch.

You have to think of somewhere that is a stupidly stupid place to put a postbox. Like 100 meters in the air.

The Air-Box. It’s for gliders, planes, and low-flying supermen.

I guess, next .. it’s the Underground-Box. Here you have to actually mine through the dirt to get there. Or take the cart. It’s for miners, canaries and Drow.

So we’ve covered Earth, Sea, Land and Sky. What else is there? Fire. Fire comes to mind. But the volcano took that. What else?

I guess you start wandering into wierd territory. A postbox on top of the Harbour Bridge. Not within normal walking range. One at the edge of the Grand Canyon. Just because you can.

Where next? Space is my bet. You can’t get any more braggier than that.

NASA is my postal service.

Of course, the problem with that is receiving mail. Sure, you could send it. It would leave your hand, although from there the balls in the air. But receiving. There would have to be others of like mind. Others willing to go that far.

It would work if aliens were real. Zoidberg! Where are thou?