Using the latest version of FSUIPC and a few tweaks in my code, AAVOnline is ready for FSX. I'm going to sign up a few beta testers (FS9 and FSX) to make sure it works, then it will be released as v1.3.8.

My futures trading blog has moved to:

http://360.yahoo.com/wormaninc

Thanks Jer for introducing me to blogging. You have a great website!

v1.3.6

• Fixed "Key cannot be null" error introduced in v1.3.0

v1.3.4

• Fundamentally changed the way pilot data is stored in memory, this will lay the foundation for powerful new features in future versions
• Progress bar added to splash screen
• Flight tracking threads now properly started at the right time
• Improved stability and thread safety across the board
• Improved logging
• Fixed a couple fatal exceptions
• Number of pilots online now shown in titlebar
• Updated About screen
• Downloading of pilot data now uses less bandwith
• Gaps in pilot tracks happen less often
• Added support for more plane types (based off of May 06 Oneworld and AA timetables)

v1.3.2

• Fixes fatal error when updating pilot list display

v1.3.0

• Optimized memory usage and performance
• New splashscreen on startup
• Streamlined user interface
• Improved messaging interface
• Ability to reply to messages
• Audio alerts for new messages (sound can be changed in "Config")
• Integration with AAV forums
• Forum avatar displayed for each pilot
• FREQ is now shown when starting a flight
• Support for new oneworld aircraft in online timetable
• Timetable can be filtered by rank(s)
• Fixed fsuipc bug with unregistered versions of fsuipc
• Heading information added to pilot details

I recently needed to add some custom code to a couple autogenerated classes that were created by xsd.exe. Unfortunatly, anytime you make changes to the XSD, xsd.exe overwrites changes made to the class. To insulate a custom code from xsd.exe, create a new class that simply inherits from the generated class, then add the custom code, methods, properties, etc to the inherited class and use it for all accesses to the data.

In order to standardize how releases and development builds are versioned I came up with a scheme for AAVOnline that I have been using since v1.0.0. The version number can be broken up into four parts, Major, Minor, Revision, and Build. The Visual Studio .NET does a decent job of automatically creating and incrementing these numbers if I allow it to, however, I prefer to do it on my own.

Major

The major version will only be changed whenever I make a large sweeping architectural change to the program. As is the case with most software, this number is rarely changed and in AAVOnline's case will probably remain at 1. At this time I only see a large change when I move to .NET 2.0 or possibly straight Visual C++.

Minor

I use the minor version number to introduce new features to AAVOnline. For example, v1.1 added an online timetable to v1.0 and v1.2 added semi-instant messaging.

Revision

The revision number exists so I can release bug fixes and minor enhancements to an existing version. When automatic flight reporting was having problems, updates to it were released under the same minor version but different revision version.

Build

The build number is use solely for development versions. This is incremented with each intermediate development version that gets sent to beta tester(s).

Release Versioning

Following a similar model as the open source community, stable releases will only be versioned with an even numbered revision. Development versions will have an odd numbered revision and possibly a build number. For example, I am currently working on v1.3 of AAVOnline so my development builds have been given numbers like v1.2.5.4. Once it is ready for primetime, it will be reversioned v1.3.0.0 and sent out. An subsequent stable release will get v1.3.2.0.

AAVOnline has been an excellent learning experience for me. I have been able to extend what I learned from EZFrep about .NET into AAVOnline and feel quite comfortable. The next big thing for AAVOnline will be what I call AAVOnline2. As of this writing I will not be using the .NET framework and instead be using MFC. This, obviously, has its advantages and disadvantages. One major disadvantage is that I will be losing the power of .NET and the ease with which I could implement higher level features. However, I have realized that AAVOnline2 should not be such a resource hog as I have found it to be using .NET. Using MFC I will be able to use a lot less memory, maintain greater compability with users, and use fewer precious cycles.

This probably sounds like a step backwards and I can agree with that, but if I expect people to run this program while Flight Simulator is running, I should probably be courteous with the resources AAVOnline uses.

I have been able to demonstrate a portion of the core functionality found in AAVOnline. I have written a small console based program which simply downloads the XML data from the web service, parses it, and creates the appropriate data structures in memory. Being able to download from my web service and parse the XML are two of the major hurdles I needed to get over before I could move ahead with this idea (as crazy as it sounds). The 3d globe will not be an issue since my OpenGL experience is primarily with C++ not C#.

On April Fools, Meagan and I decided to play a little joke on our friends and posted away messages that read: "Anybody know any good baby names?" Well, the responses we received were quite funny. Only three of them contained actual names, all of which were the same names as the person who responded (Wade, Jeff, and Aaron).

Here are the responses:

PG: are you kidding?
BT: is meagan pregnant????!!!!!!!
JD: Tell me that's an april fools joke.
JD: Name it after me.
JD: and by that i mean name it "Cool"
JK: becca fell for it. she just imed me. and asked if meagan was pregnant. and told me to check your away message. it was great. that was a good one. but you failed to get the bestman
JB: is there a reason why you both want baby names ????
M: whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat
M: stop it
MN: why?
MN: you are dumb. it is April Fool's and that is not funny. You are dumb. Thank it all. - The Managment
NG: are you serious!?!?!?!?!?
W: "Wade" is a very nice name, just fyi

The next day we posted an away message: "We decided to name the baby April.... April Fools."

NG: you guys are bad!!!
NG: and i'm dumb!
SP: oh my gosh!!! that was such a good april fools joke!!

I have started moving Jalbrant.com to its new theme which will be strongly based on the SpreadFirefox theme. During this time the site may experience minor hiccups.

I was using Manji, but unfortunatly it's 2 column design did not work well with what I wanted to do. It is a great theme and I encourage everyone to give it a shot.

Well we're back from Padres Spring Training in Peoria, Arizona. We had a great time. This time Meagan came along and I think enjoyed baseball for once! I brought all my cameras and Jared brought his, right now we're working on putting together a DVD to remember the trip by.

Final scores for the games we went to:

Rangers 2 Padres 4 in Peoria, AZ
Padres 6 Giants 4 in Scottsdale, AZ
DiamondBacks 9 Padres 17 in Yuma, AZ

This year, we had the opportunity to eat at Oreganos not once, but twice! If you've never been there, I suggest stopping by the next time you're in the Phoenix area. They have long waits but the service is extraordinary, food is great, environment is unique, and prices are reasonable.