UPDATE: See this new post ~~It looks like XNA does not distribute processing across the multiple cores of the 360:~~

This is identical code (a Mandelbrot calculation of a fixed size) running with multiple threads. While my desktop machine speeds up with more threads (peaking at 3), the XBox 360 …

Sweet. Stay tuned for performance benchmarks, concurrency and GPGPU programming experiments on the 360, and maybe even some games...Maybe even a domain-specific language for writing board games.

As far as I can tell, the only mistake he made is charging way too little (\$19.99) and admitting his age. Other than that, ANTLR Studio for Eclipse looks professional as all get-out.

Microsoft has released-to-manufacture Microsoft Robotics Studio (via Dan Fernandez).

\<a href="http://www.knowing.net/images/MicrosoftRoboticStudioRTMs_BA78/image02.png"" atomicselection="true">We got a Roomba as an early Christmas present and I gotta' tell you, it's won over my extremely-skeptical wife. My least favorite chore is sweeping our long …

\<a href="http://www.knowing.net/images/WhatHappensWhenYouDrinkACoke_B318/image06.png"" atomicselection="true">John Montgomery points to this interesting article on the physical effects of Coca Cola. (Short version: you get a sugar spike, one more potent than you could stand if the taste of sugar wasn't cut by the …

Here's a scholarly, but clearly written, article on a generalized algorithm for implementing dataflow using shared memory. Dataflow is a very intuitive calculation model (think "spreadsheet"). When I saw this paper I thought "Wasn't it known that dataflow could be automatically parallelized?" but maybe not. One way or the other …

Sadly, it sounds all artsy-fartsy with the blimps moving towards sound or somesuch. Sigh. If your autonomous blimps can detect and move towards sound, at least let paint the target with a laser sighting device to instill an appropriate feeling of dread.

\<a href="http://www.knowing.net/images/Youhadmeatautonomousblimp …

Microsoft just announced that the next PDC will be held October 2 - 5 in Los Angeles. Forecast calls for lingering late-season wildfires and a chance of LINQ...

I spent about an hour last night playing with the release of XNA Game Studio. My first impression is that someone at Microsoft needs to contract me to write some tutorials! Heh heh heh.

Actually, I'm greatly looking forward to incorporating XNA into a series of articles I'm pitching on …

Alan Zeichick brands ECMA a "vendor-driven standards body" and decries "the competitive aspects of turning one company's impossible-to-implement spec into an industry standard." I'm a little more sanguine about ECMA, but only because I'm skeptical that standards (or open source) have nearly the importance they're generally accorded. (I'm well aware …