WritingI have been working hard on an article for the last week or so. It's been a while since my last article, and I had forgotten how much I enjoy the writing process. Not only is the subject matter very interesting to me, but getting it down on paper in the way that you think will help explain it the best way is just as much of a challenge. It's good fun, and I recommend it to everyone as a means of relaxation.
OpenGLFor most of my development career, I have been a disciple of DirectX. My entire engine is built on it, and it has served me quite well. However, I have a project that I want to work on with MFC, and my engine is not really suited to the whole multiple rendering panes required for MFC work. So I'm going to give OpenGL a shot and build a small engine around it. It's going to be pretty simple, likely with only fixed function graphics. I did a project last year in OpenGL for school, and found the basic syntax pretty easy to work with - so we'll see how it goes. I'm checking out the NeHe tutorials, but does anyone have book recommendations?
CoffeeI was talking yesterday with a friend of mine at work, and he mentioned that his wife does a blog about sustainable coffee growing. I figured most programmers drink unusual amounts of coffee (me included) so I wanted to post about it here. Here is the link:

Coffee and Conversation

You wouldn't believe the amount of damage that is done to the environment by certain coffee companies. If you are into preventing this sort of thing, or just want to know a little more about how coffee is produced and what impacts it has on the local areas, check it out.