floc.net or ASP.net?

Lately, I've been playing online Diplomacy again. Diplomacy is a 7-player board game where players each control a European great power at the turn of the last century. The actual movement rules of armies and fleets are really quite simple -- the complexity of the game lies in the negotiations between the players. For such a simple game, it can be surprisingly emotionally exhausting in its highs and its lows. I first played this game when I was a university student, and have played it on and off (a lot more off than on) since then. Due to the responsibilities of adult life, it's rare indeed when I can find 6 friends who are all simultaneously interested in playing a game of Diplomacy until 3:00am (because no matter what time you start a game, it lasts until 3:00am).

But, due to the magic of the internet, I can play Diplomacy by e-mail with friends and strangers from all over the world. One such site that provides this free service is the "DP Judge" at floc.net.

By the way, if you've never played Diplomacy, I have one word of advice: Don't. I mean, one of the following will likely happen:

• You'll love it, and spend (nay, waste) countless hours on game that can, potentially bring out the worst in people.
• You'll won't like it.

I suppose there's another possibility:

• You'll think it's a game like any other. Amusing, interesting, but you can take it or leave it.

This last option might be least likely, but let me know what you think.

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For the second part of this post (perhaps the good angel on my other shoulder, to use an illustration) I think it would be interesting and potentially useful in the career maintenence sense of the word to learn ASP.NET. As the web page says, "ASP.NET makes building real world Web applications dramatically easier." Despite working as a professional software developer for many years, I've most recently been working on what could be called the server side. If I wanted to make a web application such as the one I am using to type in this message, I wouldn't really know where to begin. Surely, the ".Net Framework" isn't the answer for every project, but it seems like it's as good a place to start as any.

I've downloaded the Web Matrix development tool, and written a simple "Hello World!" application. Web Matrix seems cool for free, but I'm sure that if I want something better, I can send Bill Gates some money, and he'll ship me the latest. As of now, I don't know what I'm missing, so it's good enough for me.

Watch this space for product and application announcements. But not any time soon.

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To sum up this post,
or , that is the question.