Topics

151

General Software Discussion / Advice PLS: New drive in my laptop and FirstDefense-ISR trial edition

« on: September 29, 2007, 01:57 PM »

My 80GB drive in my laptop has been completely filled up. I have also been wanting to create separate environments for programming, game playing, etc. Additionally I have been watching the threads on FirstDefence ISR and the discount and thinking about giving it a try.

So this morning I purchased a new 250GB drive for my laptop, swaped out the 80GB drive, put the 80GB drive in an external enclosure, installed a fresh copy of WinXP Pro w/ SP2 on the new drive and immediately installed the trial version of FirstDefense-ISR and made a Primary and Secondary snapshot using the Getting Started wizard.

Now I ponder the possibilities and look to the DC community to help me decide how to proceed. I few random thoughts I have at this point.:

• How well does FD-ISR get along with Acronis True Image (Home v. 9) and how best to set them up to work together properly?
• I also like to use VMWare virtual machines for various reasons. How well does FD-ISR work with virtual machines.
• Does FD-ISR play well with disk defragmenters and disk repartitioners?[\li]
  

I am now off to read the user manual for FD-ISR.

152

Developer's Corner / Today I Learned Of The Existance of MindTouch Deki Wiki "Hayes"

« on: September 27, 2007, 10:44 AM »

I am just starting to look at what it can do, but it is interesting enough that I am sure some of the folks around here (hello Veign) would be interested in checking it out as well.

My summary is open source web application framework similar to Drupal, Joomla, etc. but wiki-centric and focusing on consuming web services.

Deki Wiki
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Video Demo available.

153

Living Room / Help Me Find My Memory Leak

« on: September 26, 2007, 10:46 AM »

I want to find the memory leak that plagues my laptop. Explorer.exe will grow to nearly 1GB. I am almost positive it is a shell extension, but I don't know how to determine which one it is except to selectively turn them on and off. Using Sysinternals/Microsoft Autoruns I can see which shell extensions are loaded and I can selectively turn them on and off.

However, I know there are several gurus around here than love the low level stuff and would like to solicit their advice on how I should go about going all CSI on this thing.

How do I find out what is leaking? Is there some trick I can use via OllyDbg? Show me the way to enlightenment.

154

General Software Discussion / Reminder: Tell Them You "Learned About It On DonationCoder.com"

« on: September 25, 2007, 05:30 PM »

Just a quick post to remind you folks that you can help out yourselves by helping to promote DonationCoder. When you order a product or service that you learned about through DonationCoder, mention that when you place your order. Often there is a field to note this on the order form, or if not, use the comments or "special instructions" memo field to mention DonationCoder. Or if you make a donation to some cause, website, or open source software you learned about in these forums add a comment about how you read about it on the DonationCoder forums. (Often an option when you are paying via PayPal.) If no such opportunity presents itself when ordering, send a short polite email to them after your order is complete.

Why?

Because the more people hear about DonationCoder, and the publicity and orders it mobilizes, the more "they" will come to DonationCoder and offer discounts, extras, or freebies. Then they will look at the forums and see an opportunity to speak directly with informed members about their products and services. And yes, some will try to use marketing speak and sell vaporware, but that is where the members of these forums excel! We will quickly sort the wheat from the chaff and the cream will rise to the top (and Tinjaw will use more clichés!).

So remember to tell them, "I learned about you via DonationCoder.com".

155

General Software Discussion / Looking For Online HTML Page Creator

« on: September 25, 2007, 01:16 PM »

I find myself today looking for something that must exist. I need to create a very simple HTML page on a computer where I cannot install software. Yes, I can use MS Word and get a bunch of extra crap in the file, or Notepad and code it by hand. I also know of things like XStandard and Xinha, but those (in their raw state) don't allow me to create a page, and save it off to my local disk as index.html so I can hang it on a webserver. I basically am looking for something like and online version of NVU.

156

Developer's Corner / Association of Shareware Professionals

« on: September 23, 2007, 08:03 AM »

Is anybody here a member of the ASP? I am wondering if I should join. What has been your experience with them?

157

Developer's Corner / Software Copy Protection Questions

« on: September 22, 2007, 05:17 PM »

I am currently talking with a company that has a popular comic book and may be working with them on a PC game. I will have to use DRM to protect the art assets, etc. that are used in the game. I am just starting to explore this area as it is something I have yet to require. Any hints and tips from  DCers experienced in this area would be appreciated.

158

Developer's Corner / What Are My Options To Test On Mac OS X?

« on: September 18, 2007, 03:36 PM »

Torque Game Builder allows me to build my game for OS X. I don't own a Mac or OS X. I would like to find a very low cost way of testing games that I build to be able to sell them to OS X users.

1) Does Apple have a program for developers for me to get a cheap copy of OS X to develop against?
2) Could I run OS X in a virtual machine on VMware Server? If not, what about the latest version of VMware Workstation?
3) Does anybody here have experience doing this sort of thing?
4) Is there a list of hints and tips available for doing this?

My Google search begins.... now

159

Developer's Corner / Scythe Physics Editor Goes Open Source

« on: September 13, 2007, 08:48 AM »

Scythe Physics Engine
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From the project's home page:

[11.09.07] Scythe is going open-source!
Scythe is now an open-source project. Sometime this week it will appear on sourceforge and be available by CVS. I can no longer afford to spend much time on Scythe and am moving onto a game project, so I am handing its future to the community.

[11.09.07] Scythe 1.14 update
Small update. Most notably removes the requirement to save scenes in the root directory, and all features are now free to all users.

160

Living Room / Flash Game of the Day: Gravity Pods

« on: September 10, 2007, 05:24 PM »

A very well made Phun-Wiph-Physics type game. No directions are given, but you can easily get going. Just use the spacebar and the up and down arrow keys.

Gravity Pods
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161

Living Room / CoScripter: Control Firefox Through Scripting

« on: September 06, 2007, 11:21 AM »

IBM has released some cool technology. This can be very useful for web-based app developers and site administrators among other things.

Simplifying web-based processes.

CoScripter is a system for recording, automating, and sharing processes performed in a web browser such as printing photos online, requesting a vacation hold for postal mail, or checking bank account information. Instructions for processes are recorded and stored in easy-to-read text here on the CoScripter web site, so anyone can make use of them. If you are having trouble with a web-based process, check to see if someone has written a CoScript for it!

CoScripter
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162

Living Room / Not Just Free Games

« on: September 06, 2007, 07:40 AM »

Greg Costikyan, CEO and co-founder of Manifesto Games, and this year's recipient of the International Game Developer's Association Maverick Award, has opened a new website, Play This Thing.

Our basic idea is to feature one interesting game a day--to point you to the most interesting, creative, innovative, or just plain weird games out there. About half will be free, and about half games with some kind of free play option that you have to pay for if you want the full game--with, on Tuesdays, a tabletop game (board, roleplaying, or card game). Some of those will be free, too, as a PDF download or the like.

So it's a game review/commentary site, if you will--but since we're pointing to games we think are interesting, you won't often find negative reviews here: the point is to feature the good stuff.

read more...

-Greg Costikyan

Play This Thing
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And while your at it, check out Manifesto Games' main site.

We're here to create for games what indie music and film provide: an audience and market for creativity and individual vision, defying the big publishers' mediocrity and hype. Join the indie games revolution today!

-Greg Costikyan

Manifesto Games
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163

Developer's Corner / Sun Releases Darkstar Under GPL v2

« on: September 05, 2007, 12:35 PM »

First announced at the Game Developers Conference in March 2007, Project Darkstar source code is now available for download and free use under the GPLv2 license.

Project Darkstar is the video game industry's first enterprise grade, high performance, fault tolerant and highly scalable server technology for online, multiplayer games. Project Darkstar has been designed from the ground up to handle almost any kind of online game imaginable.

From card games to full blown MMOGs, Project Darkstar is the perfect technology to get you up and running quickly, allowing you to focus on building your game, not network technologies.

Project Darkstar
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164

Found Deals and Discounts / *OLD* (Windows) Software For The Cost Of Shipping ($4 USD)

« on: August 19, 2007, 12:59 PM »

I am cleaning out my office. I have a few pieces of software that I was going to throw away, but I figured I would offer it here first before I trash it. Most of it is outdated (not even eligible for upgrades). I also have a few games where I own the newer version or bought the "gold" version and have the original game. The only cost to you is the cost for me to ship it. In the US, that will most likely be $4, and will be USPS Priority Mail.

I will keep updating this list as I go through my stuff, so keep checking back here if you are interested.

• ScanSoft Dragon Naturally Speaking 6 (CD, Manual, and Quick Reference Card)
• IBM ViaVoice for Windows Personal Edition - Release 8 (CD and User's Guide)
• Neverwinter Nights - Original Version (CDs, Instruction Manual, and Quick Reference Card)
• Hearts of Iron: 1936-1948 (Box, CD, and Manual)
• Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (Box, CD, and Manual)
• Neocron Online (Box, CD, Manual, Quick Reference) I am pretty sure it comes with some free time.
• Anarchy Online - Special Edition (Unopened Box) I am pretty sure it comes with some free time.
• Anarchy Online - The Notum Wars (Unopened Box) I am pretty sure it comes with some free time.
• Empire Earth (CD and Manual)
• Norton Ghost 2001 (CD and Manual)

I also have some old Franklin Covey stuff. I have four of the Bite Size Learning Library classes. Each consists of a book, a multi-media tutorial on CD-ROM, and audio CD, and a quick reference guide. There also is a registration key for the online version of the classes, but I suspect they are long gone from the web. This stuff is from about the year 2000. There is also matching software for the Palm PDA, but I don't know if it works with the new Palm OS. If you are new to the Franklin Covey system, this is a lot of great information. I would box it up and ship you the whole enchilada for only the cost of shipping. The classes I have are:

• Powerful Time Management Skills
• Creating Success
• Mastering Information Overload
• Balancing Your Life

I found an old review of the FC stuff.

165

Developer's Corner / Is Beautiful Code A Succubus

« on: August 07, 2007, 01:27 PM »

I purchased the book Beautiful Code the other day and it sits on my read-when-you-want-to-read-about-code-instead-of-coding-and-not-feel-guilty stack. Jon Udell pointed me to an interesting blog article on rejecting the notion.

{ 2007 08 02 }
Beautiful Code

O’Reilly just published Beautiful Code. I was invited to contribute, but I just could not go along with the premise. I disagree that beauty is a guiding principle of programming. Here is how I responded.

read article

-Jonathan Edwards

166

Developer's Corner / The Original Nuclex Engine (C++) - Released to Public Domain

« on: August 02, 2007, 09:45 AM »

(via gamedev.net)

Nuclex Engine Sources Released
Posted by: Nuclex Developmnt Labs at August 1, 2007 2:55:13 PM
 
Nuclex Development Labs has released the source code of their Nuclex Game Engine to the public, free of any charge. The engine has been developed in-house and was originally intended to be used for the studio's indie games business, but became obsolete when the switch to C#/XNA was made. It is based on modern programming paradigms and stands proof that Boost and Loki are very usable for game development purposes and that usage of smart pointers and a design-first approach do not lead to a bloated or badly performing game.

It is released in the hopes that other developers can learn from its code and maybe use parts of it for their own creations. Bits of interest are a complete graphical GUI system, streaming of data from .rar and .zip archives and template-based generation of optimized RGB pixel format conversion code at compile time.

Further informations and links to download the engine sources can be found here:
http://www.nuclex.or...al-nuclex-engine-cxx

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167

Living Room / Thank You To The Members Of DonationCoder.com

« on: July 29, 2007, 09:56 PM »

Once again I made the mistake of joining a forum, only to have it turn into a flamewar less than 48 hours later.  I am reminded of Benjamin Franklin's saying, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." It has only just dawned on me that there is no such childish behavior on this forum and I wanted to thank everybody, all 50K+ of you, for being civilized. Thank You.

168

Living Room / DonationCoder Mentioned on O'Reilly XML.com

« on: July 23, 2007, 08:58 AM »

DonationCoder.com has a very good Word Processor Review by Zaine Ridling, divided into three tiers: Major Word Processors (Open Office, Office 2007, Word Perfect), Second Tier Word Processors (AbiWord, EIOffice, etc.) and Online Word Processors (Google Docs, etc.) that is well worth reading for an idea of the capabilities of each. The final Pro and Con tables are handy.

169

General Software Discussion / 2007 Shareware Industry Award Winners

« on: July 19, 2007, 07:30 AM »

The winners are now up on the website:

Shareware Industry Awards
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170

Developer's Corner / Heads Up! Game::AI++ in the pipeline

« on: July 18, 2007, 09:27 AM »

Alex J. Champandard, who is the person behind AIGameDev.com has posted that his Game::AI++ library will soon be released to the public. He has real world experience writing AIs for games, including for Rockstar Games.

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171

Developer's Corner / It's A "Must Read" - Static Versus Dynamic Typing (A great overview)

« on: July 09, 2007, 02:23 PM »

I'm in the process of reading this, and even though I haven't finished yet, it has already proven itself as a "must read" as a great overview of the issue of static versus dynamic typing. (clarification: I finished the actual article, but I am following each link in turn and reading those as well. That is what is taking me so long. I think the article itself, along with following and reading the links, is what makes this a "must read".)

Angle Brackets and Curly Braces
Programming with "Duh" Typing
by Bill Venners
July 6, 2007

    Summary
    To what extent does the productivity of dynamic languages come from the lack of typed variables versus the reduction in "finger typing" required when you don't have to declare the types? The technique of type inferencing in static languages may shed new light on this old debate.

Over the years here at Artima we've had a number of debates and discussions about static versus dynamic typing. Here are a few:

    * Are Dynamic Languages Going to Replace Static Languages?, discussion of a weblog post by Robert C. Martin.
    * Typing: Strong vs. Weak, Static vs. Dynamic, discussion of a weblog post by Aahz.
    * Strong versus Weak Typing, discussion of an interview with Python's creator Guido van Rossum.
    * Implicit versus Explicit Dynamic Typing, discussion of a weblog post by Christopher Diggins.
    * To type or not to type, discussion of a weblog post by Jim Waldo,
    * Use the Best Tool for the Job, discussion of a short article by a younger me.

172

Found Deals and Discounts / New Books Cheaper

« on: July 09, 2007, 02:01 PM »

I know this isn't software, but I buy lots of books on software topics. (Hi Mouser!  ) Today I became aware of a brand new book published by O'Reily, Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think. I really wanted it, and it is probably worth well more than the full retail price of ~$45 USD. But then I remembered a flyer that was stuck in an order I made to Buy.com for a USB thumb drive. The flyer advertised that Buy.com has books 10% lower than Amazon.com. I decided to take a look. Sure enough, they do, and they also offered free shipping. It only cost me ~$27 USD.

I probably won't read this book for month or years, but I sure got a good deal. I imagine some of the more serious programmers on the DC forums (and I'm sure that includes many lurkers) may be interested in this book.

173

Developer's Corner / Blitz3D SDK Released

« on: July 09, 2007, 08:58 AM »

Direct from the Official Blitz Website:

Blitz3D SDK Released!

New Zealand software developers Blitz Research Ltd have today released the Blitz3D Software Development Kit for Windows game developers.

The package consists of a runtime library of over 300 commands that simplify the process of creating video games with computer languages such as Microsoft's Visual Studio Express C# or C++ editions, the free DevC++ environment from Bloodshed or alternatively languages such as PureBasic and Blitz Research's own next generation BASIC compiler BlitzMax.

Extensive documentation based on the recently published Blitz3D Programming Manual is included covering the wealth of graphics, geometry, media and input commands available in the Blitz3DSDK environment.

With a wide range of file formats built in and an ever growing array of tools, plug-ins, and success stories Blitz Research looks forward to fostering continued growth of the independent game development community with their industry proven technology and support.

About Blitz Research

Blitz Research Limited is owned and operated in New Zealand by Mark Sibly, a provider of programming tools to friends and industry for more than 25 years.

About Blitz3D

Blitz3D has been the chosen development environment for a growing user-base of imagination rich game developers since its initial release in 2001.

I have never used Blitz3D, but this sounds interesting. I doubt I will have the time to play with it, so if anybody does, please report back with your impressions. If I understand correctly, this is basically access to the technology behind the Blitz3D product. The Blitz3D product is targeted to people who aren't programmers. The Blitz3D SDK seems to be the complimentary product target at people who are programmers.

174

Screenshot Captor / [Bug] v. 2.32.02 - Button Off-screen on License Key Confirmation Dialog

« on: July 08, 2007, 11:23 AM »

I can't find Mantis. 

I just installed DcUpdater and entered a license key. The confirmation box has the button off screen.



note: I am not sure if it is relevant, but this is on my laptop that uses large fonts.

175

Found Deals and Discounts / Please List Any BitsDuJour.com Clones To This Thread. (Software Only Please)

« on: July 07, 2007, 07:23 PM »

I am aware of many clones of woot.com, so I imagine it is only a matter of time until Bits du Jour is cloned. If and when it happens, please post the details to this thread.

thanx 

Running List

• Game du Jour