Writing blog posts just keeps jumping down the list. I think I need to realize that regular blogging is just not in me. I have some posts in the works that will be finished at some point. In the meantime I'll just rehash some of my previous literary gems.
Visual Foos 2005
http://blogs.msdn.com/coding4fun/archive/2006/10/31/910302.aspx
Sadly this is probably the most innovative thing I've ever built. My masterpiece. While others have built things like Facebook to change the course of social networking, I built a scoreboard for foosball. Amazing what drunken brainstorming will do for you. Easily my favorite article not so much content-wise, I just love that foosball table. I'm like a proud papa when I give a tour of the office and I get to show them the foosball table <tear>. I don't think I can ever top the Clarity SkyCam - I mean it's instant replay of any goal scored.
Since the article was written I've made a bunch of enhancements.
Web Interface
View Game Log of every game played. You can also drill into any game and see every goal scored and watch a replay of that goal.
Ability to upload sound files which are randomly played when you score a goal.
Full list of sortable stats - tracks everything from RPI to Offensive Value of Replacement Player (OVORP) to win streaks. It's a pretty comprehensive measure of your foos skill.
The Swami
The Swami is my massive stored proc that makes pre-game predictions. Currently it predicts the winner 65% of the time. Not superb, but in the Swami's defense, that takes into account random guest players. It gets the team score correct 15% of the time which I think is pretty solid. 28% of the time it gets the final score within +/- 1 goal. It's eerie when the Swami announces a 12-10 upset before the game starts and it's right.
In-Game Crowd Noise
Based on the flow of the game different crowd noises will play in the background. If the game has a scoring draught the crowd gets progressively more belligerent. Some "Bull$hit" chants. Or maybe some rally music from the organ when a team starts to come from behind.
In-Game Commentary
The virtual announcers will do some talking in the game. Like pointing out how a team has won their past 8 games or their win percentage in a certain formation. Right now it's still somewhat simple commentary. We have SQL Analysis Services running on the database to provide more in-depth analysis like "Team A wins 80% of the time when they take a 5-3 lead" This isn't fully implemented yet but it'll be there in Visual Foos 2009. Or maybe 2010. It generates the data, the announcers just need to be configured to translate the results into speech.
Player Awards
When the game starts it'll announce special awards like Brick Wall for best overall defensive player or a Juggernaut for best overall offensive player. If your lucky enough to play with the best, you'll know by the special icons that appear next to their names.
Rally Monkey / Shutout Monkey
Two different animated monkeys appear if you are on the verge of a shutout or in the process of a massive comeback.
Bio-metric Authentication
Partially implemented. Uses a finger-print scanner to select your player. Still need to build the application for everyone to actually register their fingerprints.
Email Pregame Setup
The idea is that you can schedule a meeting with the table at a certain time and it'll log in for all those players so the game is ready to play when you get there. It's still in dev and may not make it until VF 2009.
At some point I'd like to rebuild a whole new version, but then again Michelangelo never made another David :)
WPF Dartboard Scoring Application
http://blogs.msdn.com/coding4fun/archive/2007/06/20/3425360.aspx
Technically I didn't write the article, but I did build the app. This article completed by ".NET Game Scoreboard" phase. It was my first attempt at WPF development. Code is kind of scary. I should have read Adam Nathan's WPF book before writing the app. Some people write "Hello World" apps, I build apps to track scores and stats for barroom games. The bullseye animation with synchronized sound and particle physics is probably one of my favorite things I've ever built.
Collecting Outlook 2007 Stats Using VSTO 2005
http://blogs.msdn.com/coding4fun/archive/2006/11/20/1111248.aspx
Part of my career called the "Office Add-in" phase. Much like Picasso's Blue Period it was short lived while I explored the world of managed code in Office. Anyone seen Xobni? Yeah, you probably could have taken this code 1.5 years ago and built Xobni and gotten a few $$ in VC funding. Maybe combine it with the Facebook Outlook Add-in below and build a Xobni killer. Not that Xobni needs a Xobni killer - it does a pretty good job of killing itself when it pounds Outlook into Application Not Responding submission.
Facebook Outlook Add-in
http://blogs.msdn.com/coding4fun/archive/2007/08/30/4660479.aspx
I actually thought this was cool. Most of the development community didn't seem to share my opinion :) Not one of my most read Coding4Fun posts. My co-workers article about Silverlight 8-ball had about 10x the read count. I mean what's not to love - the power of Outlook and Facebook merged into one Frankenstein-ish app. Effectively ended the "Office Add-in" phase.
If anyone has any future app ideas they'd like to see on Coding4Fun, I'm open to suggestions. I have some partially finished projects like a Conference Room sign that pulls meeting schedules from Exchange, responds to voice commands to display other items like the weather forecast, company photos, headlines and random lunch options. That needs a WPF UI face-lift. I've also thought about a virtual aquarium in WPF. Or maybe an automated drink delivery system using a Roomba.