Personal Page 13

These tutorials focus mainly on OpenGL, Win32 programming and the ODE physics engine. OpenGL has moved on to great heights and I don't cover the newest features but cover all of the basic concepts you will need with working example programs.

Working with the Win32 API is a great way to get to the heart of Windows and is just as relevant today as ever before. Whereas ODE has been marginalized as hardware accelerated physics becomes more common.

Games and graphics utilities can be made quickly and easily using game engines like Unity so this and Linux development in general will be the focus of my next tutorials.

To the Children of the Modern Age and Beyond

By Alan Baylis

Generally, we in the developed countries are already rich.

An Egyptian king (from biblical times) would have given up his kingdom for what we have in the average western home. Yet we are lead to believe that what we own should be the newest and best of its kind. But does a cup really loose its functionality when slightly chipped or a sofa become useless if stained? Is a person who owns these things poor or just doing the right thing for his children and his grandchildren to come? Every time a dinner set is thrown out because a few pieces became broken or chipped, the resources and energy of this planet is depleted to replace it. This behavior becomes catastrophic when multiplied by the billions of people aspiring to be seen as rich and successful.

The companies see little profit in using the Earth's resources wisely. A while ago they realized that when they made products so well that they could last a lifetime, the customers didn't come back and spend money with the company again. The companies then began a plan to make their products in such a way as to limit their life-span. This planned obsolescence works by making some necessary part of the product weaker than the company could actually have made it. The part is usually the main moving parts, such as the hinges of a walkman, and when the part fails the product is either unusable or disfigured enough to make the consumer return to the stores for another one.

This state of affairs has grown to the point where stereos and cars are seen as disposable items with a two year life-span. This of course only benefits the companies who have guaranteed repeat business while customers watch everything they paid for fall apart. This also leads people to complain about the lack of control and frustration in their lives; and is the catalyst for a lot of family tension.

A working fridge or washing machine, even if they do make a lot of noise or look old, are a real asset compared with what our ancestors used to live with, and owning any car surpasses our great grandparents wildest dreams, yet people are miserable because they haven't got this years model. We can't rely on the governments to kindly remind us of these points because they too are monetarily driven and are watching out for their party's funds, which happen to come mostly from businesses.

Everything we need to live, while raising healthy, happy and educated children is around us, everything else is vanity.

The quality of our relationships, and not our belongings, are far more important in the long run. It's in the Bible.