Topics

126

DC Gamer Club / Constructor - 24hr giveaway on GOG

« on: January 31, 2017, 01:59 PM »

An older game I've never heard of has returned(?) to GOG and they're giving it away to anyone who claims it within the first 24 hours.

https://www.gog.com/game/constructor

127

Found Deals and Discounts / Significant Discounts on AWS Courses/Certifications

« on: January 05, 2017, 03:12 PM »

A bunch of courses and certifications are discounted until January 19th, here:

https://acloud.guru/courses

128

DC Gamer Club / Factorio - Automate All the Things!

« on: December 08, 2016, 03:28 PM »

Factorio is a game that has been in development for a few years now and as far as I can tell came to Early Access earlier this year. I feel that the trailer video doesn't give a good sense as to what gameplay is like:

So, based on that video, I've looked at the game from time to time, but I've never been intrigued enough to actually give it a try... until recently, when I saw this gameplay video:

Finally I got a better idea of what the game was about, and what it was like. My interest was piqued enough to look deeper into it instead of just dismissing it after viewing the video and remembering that it was an Early Access title. I normally avoid or ignore Early Access games, but when I saw that Factorio had a demo, I decided to give it a try.

I spent a few hours with the demo, playing through the relatively short campaign/tutorial twice. It left me wanting to explore more fully what it had to offer, so I got the full version. That was about 2 weeks ago, and I've become addicted! I've spent nearly all my free time binge-playing Factorio. I have logged almost 40 hours on one save file, trying to perfect my factory and automate all the things. And the crazy thing is that there are still large aspects of the game that I haven't yet (or have barely) touched.

The pattern I've found when playing the game goes something like this:

• See I only have about 2 hours before I should go to bed. Start up Factorio.
• Re-assess where my factory is and what I need to do next, and start working on it.
• Check clock. Cool. Still have 1:45 left until bedtime.
• Add a new production line of a new product to my factory.
• Check clock. Cool. Still have 1:30 left.
• Realize that my new production line has caused a shortage of some other basic material. Figure out what the holdup is and try to restore throughput of source materials.
• Check clock. Cool. Still have 1:00 left.
• While adding more furnaces to increase my iron/copper/steel production, realize I could make better use of the space if I arranged things differently.
• Tear down my smelting area and start rebuilding it to fit my new design.
• Get halfway done with my new design.
• Check clock. Darn. Only have 0:30 left.
• Continue working on my new design.
• Realize I did something wrong or it needs to be tweaked just slightly (OCD-esque tendencies) for "maximum efficiency" in my factory.
• Tear some down and rebuild to fit my new new design.
• Meanwhile, some research has finished and new technologies/products are available.
• Continue working on my new new design.
• Finish my new new design.
• Take a look at new technologies/products and see what products are necessary to create them.
• Create a new production line for the new products.
• Realize this new production line causes a major shortage of other products/materials.
• Figure out what's needed to fix the shortage. This often requires simply producing more of the short material, or increasing iron/copper/steel production so that both (or 3, or 4, or more) products can be produced simultaneously at the maximum frequency.
• Check the clock. Crap! It's 2 hours past bedtime. "I better wrap up this last thing I'm working on and get to bed."
• etc.
• etc.
• etc. and so forth.
• Sun comes up and I realize I've been repeatedly "wrapping up" about 50 different things that will all "only take a couple more minutes and then I am done for the night for sure."

I never would have thought that I'd enjoy dealing with the logistics so much. Dealing with inputs and outputs and coordinating the flow of one thing to another place at a certain rate. And on top of that, having to occasionally set up and maintain defenses to protect your hard work from being destroyed by the aliens (I guess technically you are the alien who crashed on their planet). And then the sweet feeling when you finally get something automated that you used to have to do manually, and that took forever to do. . .

So, again, normally I avoid/ignore Early Access titles because they're a gamble. But I've definitely gotten my money's worth already and expect to get much more out of the game in the future. Try the demo, and if you like it, I definitely recommend buying the game.

Factorio's website.
Factorio on GOG.com.
Factorio on Steam.

129

DC Gamer Club / GOG's Monstrous Winter Sale, and free Neverwinter Nights Diamond game

« on: December 01, 2016, 03:52 PM »

OK, it's a little weird that GOG is having their Winter sale only a month after their Autumn sale, and that it's not even Winter yet...

But, as part of the sale, for the next ~48 hours you can get a free copy of Neverwinter Nights Diamond on GOG.com.

The sales will last at least 7 days, as part of the promotion is that you can earn "XP" by "checking in" once a day, and checking in 7 times will earn you a badge.

130

DC Gamer Club / GOG's Monstrous Fall Sale, and free Little Big Adventure 2 game

« on: November 03, 2016, 02:50 PM »

As part of GOG.com's Monstrous Fall Sale, they're giving away Little Big Adventure 2 if you claim it within the next ~39 hours from the time of this post.

I can't say for sure whether or not LBA2 is any good. But free is free.

131

General Software Discussion / Articy:Draft SE -- Experience or Opinions?

« on: October 09, 2016, 11:40 PM »

Have any of our DC writers here heard of or used Articy:Draft SE? More info about what it is here:

http://store.steampo...ered.com/app/230780/

The best that I can tell, it looks like it's pretty much just some flowchart software. I'm trying to see the point/appeal over some other FOSS alternatives. But I have to admit, the marketing has me wanting it even if I'm not exactly sure what supposedly makes it so good.

So I'd love to hear any thoughts, opinions, especially about personal experience with A:D SE, or suggestions for alternatives and how/why they're better than A:D SE.

Thanks!

132

Living Room / MOVED: Code Highlighting Tags Broken

« on: October 04, 2016, 10:33 PM »

This topic has been moved to Site/Forum Features.

https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=43071.0

133

Living Room / Raspberry Pi (and other SBC) projects

« on: September 27, 2016, 03:39 PM »

The tech geek in my really likes the idea of SBCs like the Raspberry Pi and Odroid, but as cool as the tech is, I have been unable to come up with a real-world use for my Odroid-C1 I bought last year.

Lets use this thread to post about interesting projects that use these little computers, whether they are projects you are personally doing or just cool projects you found online. I'll start with this Smart Mirror:

The gist of it is to buy a 2-way mirror (Acrylic See-Through Mirror), build a frame and put a monitor/TV and SBC in it. Now you can see the time, weather, and latest headlines in your mirror.

134

Living Room / Yahoo! accounts hacked... two years ago!

« on: September 23, 2016, 01:40 PM »

Yahoo just announced yesterday about this hack that took place 2 years ago:

Yahoo announced on Thursday that the account information of at least 500 million users was stolen by hackers two years ago, in the biggest known intrusion of one company’s computer network.

In a statement, Yahoo said user information — including names, email addresses, telephone numbers, birth dates, encrypted passwords and, in some cases, security questions — was compromised in 2014 by what it believed was a “state-sponsored actor.”

-http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/technology/yahoo-hackers.html

from New York Times

135

General Software Discussion / No video after resuming from sleep - Windows 10 Anniversary Edition

« on: September 03, 2016, 03:16 PM »

Hi folks,

Shortly after I updated to the Anniversary Edition of Windows 10 Pro x64 I noticed that my primary display no longer gets any video signal after waking my PC from sleep.

I never had this issue before the update. Sometimes I can "fix" it (work around it) by remoting into my PC and logging in. Then the monitor gets a signal and things start working again. But today, when it happened again, even that workaround didn't work for me.

I haven't been able to find anything relevant in my searches for solutions. The closest thing I've found is people complaining about their lock/login screen being black after resuming from sleep. But that's just the background image they're talking about. Other UI elements and the mouse and everything still seems to work IIUC.

Does anyone have any solutions or troubleshooting suggestions?



More info that might be pertinent:

My GPU is an AMD Radeon HD 6870. I have a dual-monitor setup. The primary monitor just flashes the LED at me like it does when it is sleeping due to no signal. The secondary monitor appears to wake up properly, but just displays a black screen since it's normally black/blank on the lock screen anyway. If I move my mouse around, sometimes I see it on the secondary monitor, but it kind of comes and goes over the course of a few seconds.

136

DC Gamer Club / Faeria is free (to keep) for 24 hours!

« on: August 09, 2016, 07:38 PM »

Faeria combines the core values of Strategy Card Games together with a Living Board, giving you the ability to shape the board as you play to create mind-blowing strategies. Each game of Faeria is not only unique, beautiful and fast-paced but also highly competitive.

-http://store.steampowered.com/app/397060/

http://store.steampo...ered.com/app/397060/

137

Living Room / Upgrade your PC or build a new one with Logical Increments

« on: August 04, 2016, 06:57 PM »

Hi all,

I recently came across this site which gives detailed information about components, with charts and tables making it easy to compare performance and price of certain builds. So the next time you're looking to upgrade your PC or want to build a new one, it may be worthwhile to check out Logical Increments.

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

138

Living Room / MOVED: Screenshot of expanded dropdown menu with cursor--how to???

« on: July 12, 2016, 01:31 PM »

This topic has been moved to Screenshot Captor.

https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=42194.0

139

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Cubiq - A Match-Three Game for Android

« on: July 09, 2016, 05:38 PM »

Hi folks,

I've been working on an Android game called Cubiq with a small team (one other coder and one artist, totaling three of us) and the game is just about ready for a full launch. But since we're such a small team we figured it would be a good idea to start with a limited public beta first, to help us find any bugs or other issues that we may have missed.

We would appreciate feedback and especially bug reports so that our official 1.0 launch can be as smooth as possible for others.

I don't have much in the way of screenshots or videos just yet to show off the game. We were so focused on getting the game ready for the beta launch that we neglected nice looking promotional art and stuff. That will be coming over the next few days. But for now here are some small details about the game:

• It's on Android through Google Play.
• It's a match-3 game (bejeweled, candy crush, etc.)
• It features leaderboards and achievements.
• It will be free with optional ads and/or in-app purchases (IAP).

More information about the beta and how to join can be found here:

Cubiq Beta Launch

Check the official Cubiq webpage for the full changelog and a current list of known issues.

140

General Software Discussion / Paint of Persia - Tool for Rotoscoping

« on: June 30, 2016, 01:58 PM »

Inspired by the sort of rotoscoped animations seen in Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia, one game developer has built a custom tool, Paint of Persia, that developers can use to rotoscope their own pixel art animations.

It's a neat new tool designed explicitly for game developers, though Paint of Persia's simple premise (lay a customizable window with adjustable transparency, basic pixel art tools and an animation frame manager over your desktop) allows for a broad variety of uses.

-http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/276094/New_Paint_of_Persia_tool_helps_devs_rotoscope_film_into_pixel_art.php

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.gamasutra...m_into_pixel_art.php
Download Paint of Persia here: https://dunin.itch.io/ptop
Related: See more tools made for the Toolbox Jam here: https://itch.io/jam/toolbox-jam/entries

141

DC Gamer Club / LIMBO: Free (to keep) on Steam for a limited time

« on: June 21, 2016, 04:50 PM »

Steam is offering LIMBO for free, for a limited time.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/48000/

Sometimes they have "free weekends" which are more like free rentals, meaning after the promotion period ends you'll no longer have access to the game. But occasionally they have time-limited giveaways where if you claim the game within the promotion period, the game is yours forever. The wording is vague, but I believe this is a case of the latter, and that you'll own the game after the promotion ends.

142

General Software Discussion / How to Stop Windows 10 from Spying on You

« on: June 11, 2016, 02:51 PM »

I always felt people were overreacting a bit about the Windows 10 telemetry features. "Sure, it's a bit concerning," I thought, "but it's not that difficult to go into the settings to disable the most invasive stuff." Boy was I wrong!

Microsoft has released instructions on how to "manage connections from Windows operating system components to Microsoft services," and it's a doozy!

Not only is it incredibly long and complicated, but it involves a lot of registry editing and other advanced configuration.

143

DC Gamer Club / GOG Summer Sale Begins

« on: June 08, 2016, 12:26 PM »

I usually don't post about huge sales anymore, since I figure most people who are interested are probably already aware of them, but this time GOG is doing something like what you might see Steam do for a Summer sale.

First of all, and totally unlike Steam, you can get a free copy of System Shock 2 for simply visiting their site using the GOG.com Galaxy Client.

Secondly--and this is the part more like Steam--you can earn XP and badges from completing certain tasks. But again unlike Steam, this will earn you actual free games instead of just stupid wallpapers or emoticons like it would on Steam. The first one you can get, meaning the one you will most likely be able to qualify for, is Spelunky

Check this page to see your progress and ways to earn XP for free (as opposed to earning XP from buying games during the sale):

https://www.gog.com/summer_xp

144

Developer's Corner / HyperDev - A Developer Playground for Building Full-stack Web-apps, Fast!

« on: June 02, 2016, 01:51 PM »

Joel Spolsky recently announced on his blog that Fog Creek Software have just launched the public beta of HyperDev.

HyperDev is going to be the fastest way to bang out code and get it running on the internet. We want to eliminate 100% of the complicated administrative details around getting code up and running on a website. The best way to explain that is with a little tour.

Step one. You go to hyperdev.com.

Boom. Your new website is already running. You have your own private virtual machine (well, really it’s a container but you don’t have to care about that or know what that means) running on the internet at its own, custom URL which you can already give people and they can already go to it and see the simple code we started you out with.

All that happened just because you went to hyperdev.com.

Notice what you DIDN’T do.

• You didn’t make an account.
• You didn’t use Git. Or any version control, really.
• You didn’t deal with name servers.
• You didn’t sign up with a hosting provider.
• You didn’t provision a server.
• You didn’t install an operating system or a LAMP stack or Node or operating systems or anything.
• You didn’t configure the server.
• You didn’t figure out how to integrate and deploy your code.

You just went to hyperdev.com. Try it now!

-http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2016/05/30.html

Be sure to read the rest of the blog post for more details, especially this important caveat:

Literally every change you make is instantly saved, uploaded to the server, the server is restarted with the new code, and your browser is refreshed, all within half a second.

[...]

“What if I literally type ‘DELETE * FROM USERS’ on my way to typing ‘WHERE id=9283’, do I lose all my user data?”

Erm… yes. Don’t do that. This doesn’t come up that often, to be honest, and we’re going to add the world’s simplest “branch” feature so that optionally you can have a “dev” and “live” branch, but for now, yeah, you’d be surprised at how well this works in practice even though in theory it sounds terrifying.

Announcement blog post here: http://www.joelonsof...tems/2016/05/30.html

HyperDev.com

145

DC Gamer Club / GOG Connect - DRM-free access to your Steam library

« on: June 01, 2016, 01:14 PM »

GOG just announced GOG Connect, where you can link your Steam account with your GOG account to get DRM-free access to eligible titles from your Steam library.

https://www.gog.com/connect

It seems the "eligible titles" are time-limited and will change every so often, so be sure not to procrastinate in linking your accounts.

146

Screenshot Captor / Feature request: Hold Spacebar to pan image

« on: May 18, 2016, 05:35 PM »

A nice feature found in other image editing software is the "hand" to grab and pan the image around when it doesn't all fit on one screen (whether due to being zoomed in or not being zoomed out enough). A common shortcut to enable this panning feature is the spacebar. That is, while spacebar is held, clicking and dragging the image should "grab" it to pan it around. Once the spacebar is let go, your previously selected tool should be active again.

I would love to have this hold-spacebar-to-pan feature in SC, please!

147

Developer's Corner / How do decentralized/P2P applications connect to each other?

« on: May 16, 2016, 03:21 PM »

Over the past few months my interest in P2P/decentralized systems has really been piqued.

One thing that has continued to puzzle me, however, is this: How do these applications know how to find each other without some sort of centralized server to connect to and register themselves with? And how would one prevent that single point of failure from keeping peers/nodes from connecting to each other?

148

Living Room / Custom dice for board games, etc.

« on: April 26, 2016, 10:16 PM »

Hello,

I've recently been playing with the idea of having some custom dice made, but I have some fairly specific needs that don't seem to be covered by anything I can find in my searches for companies/sites that will make custom dice. I'm wondering if anyone here knows something I've been unable to find or has suggestions for me.

Here are my needs:

• Normal, six-sided die.
• Each side of the die has a different image/design (not numbers or pips).
• Each side of the die has a different color.

And that's about it. None of the services that laser-etch the dice seem to allow for an option to make each face a different color. So that seems to leave me only with the option to buy blank dice and label each face with stickers.

I can find plenty of blank dice for sale on Amazon, but every single result for stickers are just dots (circles) instead of square stickers. If I have to resort to stickers, I'd really like to get square (preferably with rounded corners) stickers to cover as much of the face as possible. Any square stickers I find anywhere are not sized appropriately for dice, which usually seem to be 16mm³.

I'd also be glad to hear suggestions on how to make the stickers more permanent, i.e., keep them from peeling off or having the image worn away. Or if you have other ideas or suggestions for getting custom dice made other than blanks+stickers, I'd be glad to hear that as well.

Thanks!

149

Living Room / Did my Android tablet unencrypt itself?

« on: April 02, 2016, 02:12 PM »

I enabled full, system-wide encryption on my tablet about a year ago in an attempt to keep my data more secure. This has the side-effect of requiring me to enter my pattern before the device will even boot up. I don't often restart my tablet, so that never really bothered me.

But the past few times I have restarted my tablet I noticed that it didn't prompt me to enter my pattern before booting up into the OS. I dismissed it as me doing things by muscle memory and just not remembering having entered my pattern at the prompt. But after having that feeling like it wasn't asking me for the past several times, I finally decided to conscientiously restart it to find out if it was in fact asking me for my pattern to unlock the device.

It is no longer asking me for my pattern to unlock the device before it will boot into the OS. The question now is, why not? And the follow up questions: What does this mean about the device's encryption? Did it unencrypt itself? Did it just stop asking to unlock at boot because it asks again at the OS login screen?

150

General Software Discussion / Run Bash on Ubuntu on Windows

« on: April 01, 2016, 03:52 PM »

You can now run Bash scripts, Linux command-line tools like sed, awk, grep, and you can even try Linux-first tools like Ruby, Git, Python, etc. directly on Windows. You can also access your Windows filesystem from within Bash allowing you to work on the same set of files using your preferred Windows tools or Linux command-line tools

-https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2016/03/30/run-bash-on-ubuntu-on-windows/