We have some usability changes in the works for JoeUser 2. Here are a few highlights: 1) Ignore user. A given user's posts would simply no longer show up (though their comments probably would as there'd be a significant slow down there). 2) Filter category.  Categories you're not interested could be turned off and the site would re-adjust based on that. 3) Blog Friends. You will be able to set given users as friends and be kept up to date on what they're doing on your own blog o...

It's a whole new JoeUser. The site has been completely rewritten from scratch. Some features haven't been completely re-implemented and there are bound to be some glitches. But we now have the kind of backend and application support to do all kinds of cool stuff. In the coming days, various usability tweaks will be made as we discover what key little features we've overlooked. Then, in the next few weeks, we'll start to add in new abilities and such. We hope you like the new setup. I...

Windows Vista has gotten a lot of bad press. A lot of it is unfair but as any Vista user can tell you, a lot of the bad press was avoidable. Even the finest product can be marred by a handful of minor decisions that affect the overall experience. In the case of Windows Vista, Stardock has identified these problem areas that Vista needs to resolve (either in a future SP or in Windows 7): We need an OS, not a nanny. Vista has too many nags, confirmations, and reminders. Vista is t...

What I like about the Vasari in Sins of a Solar Empire is that they are ridiculously powerful. What you're actually dealing with in the game is the remnant of their exodus fleet. The entire TEC is fighting against what is effectively like their equivalent of Battlestar Galactic, a ragtag, fugitive fleet fleeing something horrific.

One nice thing about Vista is that it requires 256x256 icons which ups the visual quality of things. This is a 128x128 thumbnail of the Sins icon.

Shipping weight is 1.5 pounds. So we can reduce the shipping costs! yay!

Plymouth MI - Stardock announced today that it will be developing The Political Machine 2008, a PC strategy game that lets gamers take a shot at running for President. The game allows players to design a candidate or choose a pre-existing one and campaign across the country against either a human opponent or a computer controlled opponent.  Candidates have many resources available at their disposal to both build themselves up and tear their opponent down including speeches, advertisi...

  Elegance selecting files in explorer. Subtle and clean.   Visual Studio (you can see where VS hard codes its own scrollbars. Tsk tsk).

Yikes!   http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2008/01/worlds-smallest.html

This week I traveled to LA to appear on TV (you can see my demo here ). Naturally, it rained on us the whole time. But we had a good time visiting gaming websites. It's a bit of a bummer that I can't hang out more with other gamers my age. Getting together with the gaming press is often the closest I get to "being with my own kind" (i.e. into PC games, and 35+ years old). Here's some pictures I took: The pigeons are really tame in LA.   The writer's strik...

Sins of a Solar Empire lets you set your game speed in detail.