I started Illusive Studios just after college, with the intention of becoming a contender in the video game industry. Throughout the years however (even before Illusive was around), we worked on several game programming projects that never fully got off the ground. Our game ideas were usually too big in scope for the beginners that we were, and the result was usually us getting discouraged and going off to work on other things, leaving what we started behind and never coming back to finish it.

After taking a hiatus from game development, illusivestudios.com was neglected and was generally only used for the very occasional blog post. (Albeit, it wasn't called a "Blog" until that word caught on in the Internet world more recently.) You can view the previous versions of www.illusivestudios.com.

So it has been about four years since I've been "blogging" again, and that's where this brand new site redesign comes into the picture. I've learned several technologies at my current web development job; Most notably ASP.NET, C# and SQL Server. The site was originally coded in PHP with mySQL, which for me at least, I find very limiting in functionality. For example, it's far easier to set up URL Rewrites for SEO using ASP.NET than it is in PHP (you'd actually use an Apache Mod if you were using PHP). ASP.NET also has built in data caching, so with one line of code, you can cache the data from a SQL query for faster reads. There are other reasons as well, so that's why I decided to make the switch to ASP.NET.

Anyway, the site is back up now, and it will primarily be a blog for now. At some point, there may be some separate pages to house my projects, but there's nothing planned at this time. My wife and I will be moving to Korea for a few months starting in mid May, at which time I will mostly be using the blog to show you our experiences while living in Seoul. Other than that, the blog content is mostly going to coincide with my interests which are mostly coding, Windows 7, technology, gaming, anime, food, travel, and whatever else I feel like. Hopefully that's enough to keep you coming back. That said, I have an RSS feed that shows full blog posts, so feel free to subscribe.

Enjoy!
-Gordon (AKA Alphatrak)

I haven't had much time to play video games lately. Been too busy coding. But every once in a while there's a game that comes around that I know I HAVE to have. A game that you KNOW is going to give you that incredible and unforgetable experience. A game that, when you see the trailer, you nearly piss yourself with excitement as you take in the fantastic visuals and the pulse pounding soundtrack. That game is here, and it's Street Fighter 4. HADOUKEN!

Hit the jump to watch the English trailer.

Just got back from having Pho Bo (more correctly, Phở Bò) at Vietnam Cafe in downtown Kansas City. It's by far my favorite meal now. There are so many different flavors that come together in the broth, the noodles are very light, and the thin slices of beef are great.

A piccy before I scarfed it all down can be found after the jump.

Blogger Long Zheng has found and notified Microsoft about a flaw in the design of the UAC in Windows 7. His post states that...

"By default, Windows 7's UAC setting is set to "Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer" and "Don't notify me when I make changes to Windows settings". The Achilles' heel of this system is that changing UAC is also considered a "change to Windows settings", coupled with the new default UAC security level, would not prompt you if changed. Even to disable UAC entirely."

Microsoft has responded, and the response is a little shocking...

Hit the jump to see a recap on Microsoft's response, and further updates.

Download Squad is saying that some people have been experiencing crashes when installing apps or using Windows Update in Windows 7 beta, and that there is a workaround from Microsoft. Instructions are on Download Squad's post.

I've been running Windows 7 beta on two separate comps since the day after release and I still haven't come across this yet. Knock on wood.

All apps are set up on my Windows 7 laptop and everything's running smoothly, so that means it's time to spruce up the look and feel. I'm quite pleased with the freely available Tokyo Tower Windows 7 Theme. It has a nice gradient sunset over the horizon filled with purples through blues. I'm pretty sure the picture was taken from the top of Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills.

Hit the jump to see the desktop screenshot.

Everyone has a slew of apps they can't live without. I've compiled a list of apps I snag after a fresh Windows 7 install...

Hit the jump to see the list of apps and start downloading like mad. o_0

The UAC prompt takes a long time to come up on my laptop on both Windows 7 and on Vista. On my Desktop on Windows 7, it comes up pretty fast.

The issue, according to Chris Jackson at Microsoft, is that when the UAC dims the screen, it relies on the video card, and if the video card is slow to handle the dimming, then obviously you can't just get a new video card. The simple solution (in Windows 7) is to move the UAC setting down one level, such that it doesn't dim the screen. Unfortunately, I don't believe you have this kind of control in Vista.

Of course, not having the UAC dim the screen opens you up to spoofing attacks. But like anything else, hopefully your Anti-virus or Anti-spyware will catch the attack before it happens. Without the dimming, the prompt comes up instantly for me. Anti-virus/spyware isn't perfect, but there is definitely a trade-off with waiting for the prompt to come up. With dimming, it was taking a good 4 or 5 seconds for the prompt to appear, and another 4 or 5 for it to restore the screen. That's just far too long. It's a shame that the UAC prompt by default, relies so heavily on the video card (even in Vista). Fortunately, I've never come across spoofing of the UAC yet. Knock on wood. I don't want to disable the UAC prompt completely, because its saved my butt a few times, mostly from malicious ads that are on well-known, "safe" sites.

I have reported the issue to Microsoft as Windows 7 Feedback.