The primary focus of this particular iteration of Windows Live Messenger appears to be on integrating with social networking sites. Users can now attach their Windows Live accounts to popular sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Last.fm, flickr, etc. I even managed to connect to my WordPress-powered blog (this website).

Full View (bonus points if you can spot the advertisement)

The first thing I noticed when the client window opened was that it’s significantly larger than usual. More than half the client window is dedicated to social networking stuff (your contacts’ updates to Facebook, blogs, etc.). Personally, I don’t really use social networking sites so the change seems like a complete waste of space to me. Thankfully, antisocial users like myself are given the option of switching back to the old “compact” view. If you’re not fond of advertisements, you probably won’t like the full view, which displays a large ad below the contact list.

Your nickname can no longer be changed from the options window and after a bit of investigation, it seems that it can only be changed via your profile on live.com. This is probably to eliminate the hassle of setting up your name across multiple Live services. Other than that, the compact view looks virtually the same as the previous version.

Moving on to the conversation window, another large advertisement presents itself at the bottom of the window, pushing the input textbox up by about 50 pixels, which is pretty damn invasive. Fortunately, this ad can be collapsed and fully disabled within the options window, but in my opinion it has no business being there to begin with.

A typical conversation

One of the major changes to the conversation window is that all of the tools and options have been moved to the bottom of the window and tabs have been added to the top. “What kind of tabs?”, I hear you say. By default, conversations in the 2010 version of Messenger are all amalgamated into a single tabbed window, much like modern web browsers. This seems to be a much neater experience as opposed to having multiple conversation windows spread all over the desktop, but there is a certain level of utility in being able to have conversations in their own windows. You can switch back to the old system in the options window, but what would be really nice is the ability to drag a tabbed conversation out to form its own window, much like you can in Visual Studio.

Photo sharing has been polished, but I still think it should be an optional feature as it makes sending image files a frustrating experience. The character limit on messages appears to be increased which is a good thing.

All of the emoticons have been remade and a bunch of new ones have been added. There seems to be more animated emoticons now as well, so keep that in mind when looking at the screenshot.

For Windows 7 users, they’ve taken the status shortcuts out of the jump list and moved them into the thumbnail preview for the client window, similar to the playlist controls on the Windows Media Player thumbnail.

Overall, there’s some nice features that have been added but unless you’re a social network user (and statistics say you are), you’re probably not going to see a significant difference between 2010 and the current version; it’s still in beta though, so there could be more features on the way but I think that’s unlikely.

Since its release, Windows 7 has had a very strong uptake with consumers across the globe (that is, in comparison with other operating systems in the past). This should come as no surprise to anyone, as Windows 7 is pretty awesome.

Windows 7 introduces tons of new features which are pretty cool individually, but together add up to a huge improvement over its predecessors. One of the coolest of these features – or at least the one that had the most media attention – is the new task bar.

There are a lot of new components introduced with the new taskbar, but for the purposes of this article, I’m only going to focus on Jump Lists; further on I plan to talk about progress bars in taskbar buttons, and image overlays on taskbar buttons, but those will be in future posts. These features are particularly handy for 3rd party developers and I’ve noticed a lot of people looking for ways to access them in the .Net environment.

There are two primary approaches to this problem; since both have their merits, I’ll focus on one, then the other.

Since the current version of .Net (at the time I wrote this, version 3.5) has been around well before the release of Windows 7, it’s certainly no surprise that these features are not directly supported by the .Net Framework. However, luckily for us, Microsoft has provided a library for accessing these features in .Net, which is basically a wrapper for part of the new Windows API. You can download the latest version here:

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/WindowsAPICodePack

Just in case that link breaks in the future, I’ve also uploaded version 1.0.1 of the code pack here:

http://files.nacimota.com/WindowsAPICodePack101.zip

The code pack is actually distributed as source code instead of binaries. While we could include the source in our solution, I find it much simpler and cleaner to build the DLLs then use them as references in our project, so let’s do that.

After extracting everything in the ZIP archive to a folder of your choice, enter the WindowsAPICodePack folder and open WindowsAPICodePack.sln in either Visual C# Express 2008 or Visual Studio 2008 (you can open it in future versions but you will be required to upgrade the solution first).

Once the solution is open, click Build > Build Solution. Binaries for each project in the solution should have been compiled and can now be found in the \bin\Debug subdirectory of each project directory in the code pack.

You can now close the solution and open/create your own project. I’m going to create a .Net 3.5 Windows Forms application in Visual C# Express; I’ve called it Taskbar Fun.

In the Solution Explorer, right click on References and select Add Reference…

Since Visual Studio isn’t yet aware of the libraries we want to reference, we need to select the browse tab and locate them manually. Browse to the directory where you extracted the code pack and select the following binaries from WindowsAPICodePack\Shell\bin\Debug:

Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.dll
Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Shell.dll

Then click OK to add references to those binaries.

Next, head over to the code for our default form (by default, it should be called Form1.cs), since this is where we will add our Windows 7 magic. Add the following directives to the top of the file so we can access the namespaces in the libraries without typing them over and over:

using Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack;
using Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Shell;
using Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Taskbar;

You can also rename the file and class to something more appropriate if it pleases you. I’m just going to call mine MainForm.

Create a JumpList object at the start of the class. We’ll initialize our JumpList in the form’s Shown event, so create that event and the necessary handler now.

namespace TaskbarFun
{
    public partial class MainForm : Form
    {
        private JumpList jumplist;
        public MainForm()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            this.Shown += new EventHandler(MainForm_Shown);
        }

        void MainForm_Shown(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            // stuff goes here
        }
    }
}

Inside our event handler, set the value of the JumpList object to JumpList.CreateJumpList(). This does some basic initialization stuff with our JumpList like associating it with our application. Before we can actually see our jump list, we’re obviously going to have to add some items. Let’s start with a JumpListLink, which is essentially just a windows shortcut. For my JumpListLink, I’m going to create a shortcut to Notepad. The constructor of the JumpListLink class demands a path and a title. Notepad is located in system32 directory; the title is completely arbitrary.

void MainForm_Shown(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    jumplist = JumpList.CreateJumpList();
    JumpListLink notepadlink = new JumpListLink("C:\\Windows\\system32\\notepad.exe", "Open Notepad");
}

Next, we need to add our JumpListLink object to our JumpList, then update taskbar so that our changes are visible. Items are added to a JumpList using the JumpList.AddUserTasks() method. To update the actual jump list in the tasbar using our JumpList object, call the JumpList .Refresh() method.

void MainForm_Shown(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    jumplist = JumpList.CreateJumpList();
    JumpListLink notepadlink = new JumpListLink("C:\\Windows\\system32\\notepad.exe", "Open Notepad");
    jumplist.AddUserTasks(notepadlink);
    jumplist.Refresh();
}

If you build your solution now you will see that the jump list works and we have our Open Notepad link. You’ll see the process is listed as vshost.exe instead of whatever your project name is; this is normal, of course.

You can also add separators by creating JumpListSeparator objects and adding them with the same method:

void MainForm_Shown(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    jumplist = JumpList.CreateJumpList();
    JumpListLink notepadlink = new JumpListLink("C:\\Windows\\system32\\notepad.exe", "Open Notepad");
    JumpListSeparator separator = new JumpListSeparator();
    JumpListLink paintlink = new JumpListLink("C:\\Windows\\system32\\mspaint.exe", "Open Paint");
    jumplist.AddUserTasks(notepadlink, separator, paintlink);
    jumplist.Refresh();
}

I’ll be focusing on other features like progress bars and icon overlays in future posts.

In other news, E3 just passed and unfortunately, there wasn’t much to look at this year. The centrepiece of the expo, Microsoft Kinect (formerly known by its working name, Project Natal), was revealed via interpretive dance performed by Cirque du Soleil (I wish I was joking). The Sony EyeToy Microsoft Kinect promises to revolutionize the console gaming experience. Personally, I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

On the other hand, Valve showed off Portal 2 at E3 and my god, it is beautiful. Pushing aside the new features they’ve added to Portal’s already innovative gameplay, there appear to have been some drastic changes to Source’s lighting engine. The videos show off some complex and rather beautiful dynamic lighting which look completely unlike what the current release of the source engine is capable of. Portal 2 is due for release in 2011. I’ll leave you with IGN’s Portal 2 walkthrough videos from E3.

Some significant events have occurred over the last two months regarding Australia’s IT industry. AFACT lost their lawsuit against iiNet. AFACT appealed the decision despite the fact that judge Cowdroy explicitly stated that “… it is impossible to conclude that iiNet has authorised copyright infringement…”

Meanwhile, Michael Atkinson stepped back from the front bench, giving up his position as South Australia Attorney-General for personal reasons right after he was re-elected. The move was significant because Atkinson has been the main opponent against the introduction of an R18+ rating for video games. Australia remains the only western country without an adult’s only classification which has prevented more intense games from being sold here. A move to amend the current classification system has to be unanimously accepted by all Australia’s attorneys-general which essentially gives any one of them the power to veto such a move. Now that Atkinson has stepped back there’s much higher chance of an adults only rating being introduced.

Speaking of games, Splinter Cell Conviction is finally being released next week after being delayed countless times since its original release date of late 2007. Being a huge fan of the Splinter Cell series, I will be sure to pick up a copy either on steam, Xbox, or both. There is a demo available on Xbox Live Marketplace, which I have of course played repeatedly.

Portal 2 will also be coming out later this year which will be great fun. Valve has apparently found a way to implement cooperative multiplayer in a way that’s fun and challenging, which is fantastic. The news on the Portal sequel has sparked a renewed level of activity in the portal mapping community. I might write a Portal related Hammer tutorial soon, so stay tuned.

This has resulted in many veteran mappers adopting a viewpoint that is essentially “NEVER USE THE CARVE TOOL”, which is then passed on to new and aspiring source mappers who read those kinds of comments in tutorials and forum posts. Despite this, the carve tool remains a useful technique for quickly creating rectangular holes in a brush and shouldn’t be discarded from your mapping arsenal.

A question I’ve heard from new mappers over the years is, “if the carve tool shouldn’t be used for anything other than rectangular brushes, how do you properly create circular holes in a brush?”

The reason why the carve tool doesn’t work well with cylindrical brushes and so forth is primarily due to the simplicity of the algorithm behind it. When carving, Hammer executes multiple clips on the target brush parallel to each edge of the carve brush.

As you can see, this produces some nasty results, which can cause problems for the compiler as well as just being plain messy. What we’re going to do is follow a more complicated algorithm which, in my opinion, the carve tool should have used in the first place.

Since we’re going to be doing clips ourselves, we are of course, going to use the clipping tool. If you’ve never used the clipping tool before, now is your chance to learn.

The clipping tool is located in the toolbox between the overlay tool and the vertex tool. The way it works is simple. With the clipping tool activated, you can drag a line across a selected brush (or multiple brushes) in any of the three 2D viewports. It is along this line the selected brush will be divided. The clipping tool has three modes; the first two keep one of the divisions while removing the other and the third mode keeps both divisions. You can tell which division will be removed by looking at the outlines of the brush in the current viewport.The part outlined in red will be removed while the part outlined in white will stay. If you only see white outlines then you are using mode three, which keeps both divisions.  To cycle through clipping modes, you can click the clipping tool icon again or hit Shift+X. Make sure you’re using mode 3 before continuing.

The method we’re going to use is a five-step clipping process. Steps 1 and 2 involve dividing the target brush in such a way that our working area becomes as small as possible. Although we’re not actually using the carve tool, we’ll keep our carve brush (the cylinder) around for reference. To begin, select the target brush and activate the clipping tool (make sure you’re using mode 3 so we keep both divisions). In the 2D viewport that shows the end faces of the carve brush, drag a vertical line with the clipping tool straight through the vertex on the far left, like so:

Hit enter to execute the clip. Do the same for the vertex on the far right. Now your target brush is split into three divisions; the middle brush should be the same width as the carve brush. Proceeding to step two, select the middle brush – make sure the two side brushes are not selected – and execute horizontal clip through the top vertex. Do the same for the bottom vertex. You may notice that the result is very similar to what the carve tool would have done if we’d used a rectangular carve brush; the difference is that the centre brush would have been removed, which is why we clipped it manually.

Step 3 is to split the centre brush into sections. With the centre brush selected, execute vertical clips through each or the remaining vertices. You may need to decrease the size of the grid to complete the clips accurately; you can change the grid size by pressing the square bracket keys on the keyboard or using the buttons on the toolbar. Once you’ve clipped the centre brush into vertical slices it’s time for step 4. Clip each slice along the edge of reference brush. Make sure you only have one slice selected at any one time or you may end up clipping where you’re not supposed to.

Step 5 is to remove the inner brushes. This is pretty self explanatory. Last but not least is to tie all the inside brushes to a func_detail entity for the sake of optimization; while this isn’t strictly required, I strongly recommend it.

Speaking of unfulfilled promises, that carve tool article still hasn’t been published. It is of course, my prerogative, to blame the aforementioned delay on preparing my machine for Windows 7. It should be on the site later today, so stay tuned if you’re waiting for that.

The board originally refused classification for Left 4 Dead 2 last month, which forced Valve to appeal the decision and quickly throw together a less graphic version of the game in order to meet the November release date. The three-person panel, which voted unanimously to refuse classification to Left 4 Dead 2, explained their reasoning in a press release made available today on the board’s website.

The computer game [Left 4 Dead 2] contains a level of violence which is high in impact, prolonged, repeated frequently and realistic within the context of the game.

In addition, it was the Review Board’s opinion that there was insufficient delineation between the depiction of general zombie figures and the human figures, as opposed to the clearly fictional ‘infected’ characters. This was a major consideration of the Review Board in determining the impact of this game on minors.

The decision has reignited the debate concerning Australia’s lack of an R 18+ rating for video games. Video game classification in Australia remains the strictest of all classified media due to its lack of an R 18+ rating. Valve plans to submit a modified version of the game to the board for review.

Okay so it’s been just under three months since I last posted and that has been for a variety of reasons, which I will now outline.

I was briefly sucked back into the world of MMOs, first by playing EVE Online and then World of Warcraft soon after. I managed to get a Hyperion in EVE (a battleship roughly 1.7 kilometres in length) and a level 80 Death Knight in World of Warcraft. Having achieved these goals and essentially selling two months of my life to CCP and Blizzard, I decided I was done with these games for now.

I’ve also had some web hosting and development work for various people that I’ve been dealing with and I’ve been writing a DirectAdmin skin for the guys over at Honest Networks.

On that note, I’d like to say that writing skins for DirectAdmin is a bitch. The fact that there appears to be a relatively high demand for DirectAdmin skins with very few people making them seems to reflect this. The skinning system works, but it’s unnecessarily complicated. You can read more about it over at http://www.directadmin.com/skins.html.

I’ve also been spending a lot of time on IRC as I’ve been writing an IRC bot in C#. I may or may not cover some of that in the coming weeks but who knows.

I also received a whole a bunch of messages and emails in regards to the SketchUp video I made, there seems to be a substantial amount of people who can’t find the plug-ins that are ostensibly now included with the regular SDK. Not to worry, you can still download them right here by clicking this link:

http://files.nacimota.com/sketchup_plugins.zip

Speaking of Hammer, I’ve got an article I’m planning to write covering the use of the carve tool, probably the most controversial tool in Hammer. It won’t be particularly long so that should pop up on this page soon.

I have a cold so my voice is a bit off in places. Send plugin feedback to sketchuptools@valvesoftware.com.

Speaking of games, I’ve heard whispers of a rumour that Blizzard is planning to roll out the Starcraft 2 beta within the next month or two, but I take that with a grain of salt. Should we be selected to participate, I’ll chronicle the experience in its own post. You can opt-in for the beta by creating an account at Battle.net and changing your profile settings.

Stick around, more stuff coming soon.