Topics

26

Living Room / DC Weekly Tech News HAS RETURNED! [Episode 2 Linked Within!]

« on: September 24, 2020, 05:59 PM »

The long-missing DC Weekly Tech News Roundup has returned...IN THE FORM OF A PODCAST!



I have decided to reboot the weekly DC Tech News as "Kynlos Tech News", as a podcast available on the link below:
https://anchor.fm/kynlostechnews

The SECOND episode is LIVE right now!.

Any suggestions, comments, feedback etc is greatly appreciated.

If anybody would be interested in me posting a transcript for each episode, then please let me know!

On Spotify: https://open.spotify...HLM6AH29OUrbpezqrdhW

Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/7uy99jzv

Breaker: https://www.breaker....o/p/kynlos-tech-news

Castbox: https://castbox.fm/channel/id3360080

Radio Public: https://radiopublic....los-tech-news-GEov0K

Google Podcasts: https://www.google.c...MC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==

Overcast: https://overcast.fm/...150/kynlos-tech-news

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.app...podcast/id1533370150

Castro: https://castro.fm/itunes/1533370150

iTunes: itpc://anchor.fm/s/386ec250/podcast/rss

RSS Feed: https://anchor.fm/s/386ec250/podcast/rss



Thanks,

Stephen!


Latest Episode Outline:

Episode 2 - Oct 4th 2020

A brief look at this week's Tech News.  Brought to you by Donationcoder.com

In this weeks episode, we discuss the Jet Pack Paramedics & Amazon Prime Day. We also take a look at the latest discovery of water on Mars and the upcoming Amazon Luna Cloud Gaming Service. We then finally discuss Among Us and the Farewell of Farmville!

Links:

Jetpack Paramedics: https://edition.cnn....-intl-gbr/index.html

Amazon Prime Day: https://gadgets.ndtv...ctober-13-14-2302471

----

Water on Mars: https://www.nature.c...s/d41586-020-02751-1

---

Amazon Luna: https://www.bbc.co.u...live-reporting-story

Among Us: https://kotaku.com/a...g-problem-1845256959

Farmville: https://www.bbc.co.u.../technology-54339972

--------

Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kynlostechnews
Our Discord: https://discord.io/kynlostechnews
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kynlostechnews

27

Coding Snack Guidelines / MOVED: Windows Clipboard Manager - ^c ^c ^c ^v ^v ^v

« on: June 13, 2020, 03:39 PM »

This topic has been moved to Post New Requests Here.

https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=50014.0

28

Living Room / Free learning resources for you and your kids during the pandemic.

« on: March 21, 2020, 10:45 AM »

Rosetta Stone (Language Learning) free for Students during the C19 issue.

Note: This actually works for everybody - it doesn't even confirm your email address or school, so if you have been wanting to learn a new language and/or check out Rosetta Stone, now is your chance to do so (Account is valid for 3 months...unknown what happens after that time)

Note 2: This also gives you full access to the Android (and iOS one if that have it) App so you can learn on the go!

https://www.rosettas...com/freeforstudents/



--------


For anybody trying to keep their kids amused whilst all the schools are closed for the foreseeable future (and, anybody learning languages or just likes audiobooks), Audible just opened a LOT of books to everybody, for free...no login, no credit cards, no messing around...just click..look...listen!

Note: This is mainly children's stories, but there are also classic literature ones and there are books available in multiple languages.

https://stories.audible.com/discovery



If anybody else finds some great resources, feel free to post them in here!

29

General Software Discussion / MOVED: Red Box Capture Mode Error

« on: February 02, 2020, 03:04 AM »

This topic has been moved to Screenshot Captor.

https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=49491.0

30

Living Room / A Rogue Goose...for your Desktop....

« on: January 31, 2020, 03:08 PM »

I don't even care...I must have this!

HONK HONK, HEAR YE. I have created a goose for your desktop.

He'll nab your mouse, track mud on your screen...  leave you a message, deliver you memes?

Play video games with a desktop buddy who will attack you if you poke him.

Fill out spreadsheets while your screen fills up with instances of Goose Notepad.

http://samperson.itch.io/desktop-goose

31

Living Room / Looking for Video Content Ideas [For DC Related Videos]

« on: January 16, 2020, 12:00 PM »

Hey guys,

I'm looking for inspiration for some video content to create for DC.  The intention is for them to go up on YouTube and here on the site and I want them to run about 20minutes long per episode.

The issue I'm having is that the only thing I can think of to shoot content for is Software Reviews, which, after watching almost a full day of watching those types of videos on YouTube and subsequently seriously considering taking up alcoholism as a career path just to forget about that day...please don't recommend that I do these...they are seemingly impossible to make interesting at all!

So, shoot me some ideas and let's see what we can come up with!

(Also if anybody wants to volunteer to help with music/editing/writing/anything...then please PLEASE do!)

Cheers!

-Stephen

32

N.A.N.Y. 2020 / Only 2 Weeks (appx) Remaining!

« on: December 13, 2019, 09:20 PM »

This is a casual reminder that there are only roughly 2 weeks left to post your NANY 2020 Submissions!

Remember, NANY software doesn't need to be huge, it just needs to work!  If you have any idea, big or small, then now is the time to get posting!

To get inspired, why not check out the previous NANY entries?! You can find them here: https://www.donation...pps-for-the-new-year

Also, don't forget that everybody who submits something will receive their very own NANY participant mug!


Let's see what you have got!

-Stephen

33

DC Gamer Club / Chronicles of Elyria

« on: April 15, 2019, 12:08 PM »

<Shameless Post To Recruit Community Members>

Chronicles of Elyria is an upcoming MMORPG[2][3][4] also commonly referred to as a MEOW (Multiplayer Evolving Online World), developed by Soulbound Studios for Microsoft Windows. Development of the game began in 2000 (see Development section below). Production started in 2016 with the majority of financing coming in the way of a large crowdfunding campaign. The game was originally planned for an estimated December 2017 release,[5] but delays in production due to slow acquiring of staff as well as over-engagement with the game's community led to postponement until the end of 2019.[6] In 2016, Soulbound Studios partnered with Improbable[7][8] to use SpatialOS for handling the server technology[9] of Chronicles of Elyria. However, in January 2018 the company announced[10] they were no longer using SpatialOS due to Improbable announcing [11] that SpatialOS had deprecated support for JavaScript SDK among other issues. As such they have instead incorporated piecemeal solutions such as Docker Swarm and RabbitMQ for server technology onto their own Soulborn Engine. Prologue: The Awakening, which will be able to be played both as a single-player and multiplayer game set in the same universe as Chronicles of Elyria (CoE), is also being developed. It will be free to download and play as a solo experience. For multi-player, only the GM will need to purchase an Adventure Toolkit which is used to build your own adventure.[12]

https://en.wikipedia...Chronicles_of_Elyria






https://www.chroniclesofelyria.com

------------------------------

OK Now the main info is out of the way - Our County (Vesenia) is looking for new players to join our community!  We offer massive perks that most counties won't offer you (free land, equipment, low taxes and such), and also a Discord Bot (coded by yours truly) that can answer any question you have about CoE!

If you're interested, why not come say hi to us on our discord?
https://discord.gg/2N4E7p9

My Friend Code (Referral): F577DB
(this is optional if you wanna enter it!)

-Stephen!

34

Post New Requests Here / [Request] - Multilingual Word Counter / Spoken Word Timer [Tray Utility]

« on: April 01, 2019, 07:15 PM »

Request:

A multilingual word counter and spoken word timer.

Must be:
    • Silent (Sits in the tray when not being used)
    • Called from shortcut keys outside of the software
    • Multilingual

The Problem To Be Solved:

I find myself always having to pay strict attention to word counts.  I need a utility that will be able to take clipboard content (text only), and output the word count and/or spoken word timer (how long it would take to speak that amount of text, including breathing time, at a typical spoken word speed).

I won't always want to have to manually paste text into Notepad++ or Word or whatever, in order to get a word count (sometimes I need to be able to select text blocks from documents such as PDFs), so having something to universally monitor my clipboard would be super useful.

The requirement for the utility to be multilingual is because a lot of what I am checking is in English and Italian.  So with that in mind, only being able to check the spoken time in English would become rather limiting for me.

A Picture Paints A Thousand Words:





Thanks in Advance,

-Stephen

35

Living Room / Unity Engine ToS change makes cloud-based SpatialOS games illegal

« on: January 10, 2019, 01:23 PM »

Unity Engine games developed with SpatialOS' cloud-based multiplayer Game Development Kit (GDK) are now in violation of Unity's terms of service, according to SpatialOS maker Improbable. The decision imperils the operation of many in-development game projects, including some that have already been released to the public.

Since its open beta release in 2017 (in partnership with Google), SpatialOS has allowed developers to easily integrate mass-scale multiplayer into their games by running a persistent version of the game in the cloud. But Improbable now says that a recent change in Unity's terms of service means the SpatialOS is essentially blocked from working with the Unity Engine.

The newly updated clause 2.4 of the Terms of Service now specifically excludes "managed service running on cloud infrastructure" which "install or execute the Unity Runtime on the cloud or a remote server." Though the terms of service were changed on December 5, Improbable says Unity confirmed directly to them this week that the update "specifically disallow services like Improbable’s to function with their engine. This was previously freely possible in their terms, as with other major engines."

Read Full Story: https://arstechnica....ialos-games-illegal/


Unity is at it once again it seems.  Perhaps they are prepping to release their own (worse) version of SoS or something, so had to think of a way to kill off competition.  Either way, it's nice of Improbable to be giving financial assistance to developers affected by this (and other help such as porting) whilst they try to resolve the issue.

36

General Software Discussion / MOVED: Much as I hate to admit it, I am looking for help again...

« on: December 05, 2018, 09:44 PM »

This topic has been moved to Post New Requests Here.

https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=46789.0

37

Living Room / Question for any Ruby coders out there.

« on: December 03, 2018, 03:02 AM »

Quick (and hopefully basic) question:

I'm trying to find a method, that when I run an `exit` command, I can also exec l.sh in that terminal (basically, these are 2 discord bots, one using discordrb and one using discordjs.)

I need it to do the following (the discordjs can already launch the ruby one)

When discordrb bot is shutdown, it will exec `l.sh` - this launches the discordjs bot


Any help would be hugely appreciated <3

~Stephen

38

General Software Discussion / [Looking For] Free (or very cheap) Video Editing Software

« on: November 19, 2018, 11:18 AM »

Hey guys,

I am in the market for a Video Editing suite.  It needs to have at least the following features (or the majority of), and be free if possible.

• Multi-track Facilities for cutting/splicing video tracks and audio tracks
• Built-in transitions
• Decent overlay features (for adding text over video)
• Green-screen editing (Not required but would be nice)
• No stupid watermarks that show up after rendering

Thanks

~Stephen

39

Living Room / Has anybody stopped to think[...]

« on: November 16, 2018, 01:17 PM »

Has anybody stopped to think maybe...just, maybe?

40

N.A.N.Y. 2019 / NANY 2019 Promo Video

« on: November 12, 2018, 03:45 PM »

(Got bored and made this with Adobe Spark!)

And for those who don't want to listen to my stupid voice talking over it:

Got even more bored...paid for Adobe Spark, and now I can brand stuff!

Day 3:

Day 4:

41

Living Room / Scientists Develop Liquid Fuel That Can Store The Sun's Energy For Up to 18 Year

« on: November 06, 2018, 08:39 PM »

No matter how abundant or renewable, solar power has a thorn in its side. There is still no cheap and efficient long-term storage for the energy that it generates.

The solar industry has been snagged on this branch for a while, but in the past year alone, a series of four papers has ushered in an intriguing new solution.

Scientists in Sweden have developed a specialised fluid, called a solar thermal fuel, that can store energy from the sun for well over a decade.

"A solar thermal fuel is like a rechargeable battery, but instead of electricity, you put sunlight in and get heat out, triggered on demand," Jeffrey Grossman, an engineer works with these materials at MIT explained to NBC News.

The fluid is actually a molecule in liquid form that scientists from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden have been working on improving for over a year.

This molecule is composed of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, and when it is hit by sunlight, it does something unusual: the bonds between its atoms are rearranged and it turns into an energised new version of itself, called an isomer.

Like prey caught in a trap, energy from the sun is thus captured between the isomer's strong chemical bonds, and it stays there even when the molecule cools down to room temperature.

When the energy is needed - say at nighttime, or during winter - the fluid is simply drawn through a catalyst that returns the molecule to its original form, releasing energy in the form of heat.

"The energy in this isomer can now be stored for up to 18 years," says one of the team, nanomaterials scientist Kasper Moth-Poulsen from Chalmers University.

"And when we come to extract the energy and use it, we get a warmth increase which is greater than we dared hope for."

A prototype of the energy system, placed on the roof of a university building, has put the new fluid to the test, and according to the researchers, the results have caught the attention of numerous investors.

Read Full Story:  https://www.sciencea...1aR9XpJk5sEZr43DNgdc

42

N.A.N.Y. 2019 / NANY 2019 - AudioMarker: Language Learning - Pre-Release

« on: October 27, 2018, 08:21 AM »

NANY 2019 Entry Information

Application Name	AudioMarker
Version	Pre-Release (Test) - 20:14GMT - 04/11/18 (E66-193C)
Short Description	Learn languages through audio immersion
Supported OSes	Windows 10 (Only one I've tested on) - Probably 7 and 8 too. (.NET 4.6.1+)
Web Page	Here
Download Link (Portable)	Download (Google Drive): https://drive.google...PCuLBC5ps19e_f5lS5fH
Last Updated	08:36GMT - 1st November 2018
Example Word List (Italiano)	Learning.txt (38.76 kB - downloaded 565 times.) (Some words may be badly spelled as I wrote this when I first started learning!)
Example Audio File (Italiano)	Pimsleur - Italian I - Lesson 01.mp3 (11146.99 kB - downloaded 569 times.) (Legal notice at end of this post.)
Donate (Via DonationCoder)	Donate via Donationcoder
Donate (Via PayPal)	Donate via PayPal
Donation Notes	All donations will go towards buying coffee so I can be awake to add more cool stuff to AudioMarker (and I'll probably buy the mrs something for being patient whilst I code!)
System Requirements	Any Windows OS that is capable of running .NET 4.6.1 and above.
Version History	Broken Still broken Little less broken Broken but kinda working Guess it works IT WORKS!
Author	Click my name on this post

Description
I created AudioMarker by simply being a master of procrastination.  I got into learning Italian around November 2017 and me being me, decided to create some tools to help me (and subsequently spent weeks doing that instead of actually learning the language).  AudioMarker came out of the procrastination fire pit!.

This software is designed to help those who use Audio learning tools (Things like Pimsleur) keep track of their learning progress and make lists of Native/Foreign words and phrases they have learned during their journey.

Features

• Create lists of Native/Foreign translations of words/phrases (which link to the current audio-track time and name if you have a file active during the session).
• Translate to your chosen language directly from within the software. (Choose between Google Translate or DeepL Translate
• Handly (albeit basic) notepad for making...notes.
• YouTube (Pop-out Window) - Use YouTube fullscreen directly within AudioMarker
• DeepL Translation added as an alternative to Google Translate
• List of resources (Websites & Downloads) - List is editable but will come with a pre-installed selection (pre-installed list NOT added yet)
• Export word lists as HTML
• Export to XLS

    - Please Note:  When opening XLS files exported by AudioMarker, your spreadsheet software will ask you to choose the "separation method" - simply choose "tab" and it will all work smoothly from there.

---
More features coming soon.

Planned Features
See post below this.

Screenshots


Usage
Installation
Unzip to a folder you want to store it in.
Run: AudioMarker.exe

Using the Application
Because I designed this as a learning tool, every feature within AudioMarker has "Hover-Over" tooltips, which means anything you're not sure of, just simply hover over it and you will get handy little information tidbits about what things do!

Uninstallation
Delete the folder with AudioMarker stuff in it.

Tips
None as yet.

Known Issues
Audio files MUST be reloaded into the software after opening.  (On my "to fix" list).
Currently, you can only load one "set" of audio files at a time.  (You can load as many as you want, so long as you do them at the same time).  If you try to load more after an initial import, it will overwrite the current file list. (I am going to fix this).
Translation list will add a random empty line at the end of the imported list.  I have absolutely no idea why it does this.  It causes 0 problems though so it's pretty much at the bottom of the "fix this" list.

Known Issues (but FIXED ready for next release)



*Note for Example Audio File*

The audio file I have included is Copyrighted: © & ℗ 2011 - 2018 Simon & Schuster, Inc. Pimsleur® is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

The file itself is legally available to download from: https://www.pimsleur.com/free-lesson under their "Try Pimsleur for Free" program. - I am not affiliated with Pimsleur in any way.[/list]

43

Living Room / Warning: Do not download "Pip Cam" for Android

« on: September 15, 2018, 10:27 AM »

Pip Cam for android, on the surface, looks to be a legitimate camera app (filters and all that jazz), but actively takes over your phone system and displays invasive advertisements over every other app you are using...all of the time.

I just spent the last hour trying to work out what was making my mothers phone (Razr) unusable due to an invasion of ads, and within that hour I got shown around 150+ ads that, some of them couldn't be skipped at all (or just closed instantly).

As it transpires, after a bit of digging around to wtf she had installed, I noticed that Android had mentioned on the dtopdown bar that Pip Cam was "drawing" over other apps...not liking the sound of a camera app being able to do that, I uninstalled it...the second I did....the search icon that was glued to the screen was there no longer, and all the ads stopped instantly.

I provide the link to the Play Store listing for it purely so you can see which it is, and which you should to remove if you come across anybody else with this issue:

https://play.google....pcamera&hl=en_GB

~Stephen

44

Living Room / Learning Italian? Then here's some apps and tools that may help you!

« on: August 11, 2018, 01:37 PM »

For the last 8 months or so, I have been studying Italian.  I want to now share with you the tools I have been using!
(Negli ultimi 8 mesi ho studiato italiano. Desidero ora condividere con voi gli strumenti che ho usato!)

For those curious: I am learning it with my partner mainly for fun, but also because we plan to eventually move to Italy (Somewhere around Scalea in Calabria, Southern Italy).  It's a beautiful language with an amazing history and has dragged me so deep into the learning experience that it's pretty much all I do in my free time now!

So...on to the tools, apps, software, etc!

Rosetta Stone (Downloadable Software OR Mobile App)
Now, although this is not free (or cheap for that matter), it is one of the best tools you can find for learning a language (pretty much any language!).  I've been using this almost daily (with a few breaks here and there) and have not regretted the money I have spent on it even once.

You can choose to get the downloadable version (one price, yours forever), or the app version (subscription).  They both have their own merits and which version you want depends entirely on your own learning needs.  The downloadable version (what I use) is one static price and you keep it forever, where the app is a subscription service.  The app has the advantage of having the ability to connect with native speakers and book tutor time with them!

Edit/Update: The only available payment method now is the monthly/yearly subscription.


Learn Italian with Paul Noble (Audio Book [Audible/CD/MP3 + Accompanying PDF])
Now, I've only listened to the first 2 hours of this audiobook so far, but have read the PDF about 5 times!  It's a very VERY useful resource and has actually increased my vocabulary quite a lot and I have been recommending this audiobook to quite a few people!


Duolingo (Online/App)
Now...be warned with this...Although it IS a great free resource for learning very basic phrases/individual words, it also teaches you some things that are not actually correct, and some other things that you question if you're even awake (things like "he takes the tiger from the zoo and gives it the meat"...I mean...that's a super useful sentence right there.....OH...and there is also the super creepy moments where it asks you to translate "why do we die" and then "they are among us" right after each other).  So yeah...use it on the basis it is free, but remember that you get what you pay for...and this is free

Italian Learning and Language Server (Discord):
Super helpful community who will happily help non-natives learn the language (Speak directly to native Italians and other learners via voice or text, completely free!)

https://discord.gg/b5tqJDb

-----

Once I get an extra bit of spare time, I will also add a list of all the Android Apps I have been using (around 20 or so of them!)

In the meantime, if anybody else has any great resources to add to this, please feel free to share!!!

~Stephen

45

DC Gamer Club / PokéQuest - A Pokémon Adventure On Discord.

« on: June 30, 2018, 05:51 PM »

Update: I am now part of the Development team for PokéQuest

I'm going to shamelessly advertise a Discord Bot that is very close to me right now!

PokéQuest closely follows the original Pokémon games, but on Discord.  At the moment there are ~250 Poké's available (Gen 1 + Gen 2) with more to follow (the bot is still quite new so generations are coming out in order)

Oh...it's also very graphical! (Not just pure text based!)

In terms of the features available, there are quite a few, some of which I have listed below:

• Searching
• Fishing
• Catching
• Exploring (New feature which allows you to get bonus items)
• Trading
• PvP (Multiple modes)
• Shops
• Gambling
• Gyms
• Trainers
• Much More!

Check out some of the screenshots below!








I honestly cannot say enough good things about this bot - it's constantly being updated, bugs are always fixed, the community is fantastic and it's a very fun time-waster! (albeit very frustrating when you can't beat a gym  !!!)

Check it out on the official server: https://discord.gg/QuG4fE4
Invite it to your own private server: http://discordapp.co...095169&scope=bot



~Stephen

46

Developer's Corner / The Art of ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE PROGRAMMING

« on: April 24, 2018, 03:53 PM »

Forward Why Would Anyone Learn This Stuff?
Amazing! You're actually reading this. That puts you into one of three categories: a student who is being forced to read this stuff for a class someone who picked up this book by accident (probably because you have yet to be indoctrinated by the world at large) or one of the few who actually have an interest in learning assembly language.

Egads. What kind of book begins this way? What kind of author would begin the book with a forward like this one? Well the truth is I considered putting this stuff into the first chapter since most people never bother reading the forward. A discussion of what's right and what's wrong with assembly language is very important and sticking it into a chapter might encourage someone to read it. However I quickly found that university students can skip Chapter One as easily as they can skip a forward so this stuff wound up in a forward after all.

So why would anyone learn this stuff anyway? Well there are several reasons which come to mind:
Your major requires a course in assembly language; i.e. you're here against your will.
A programmer where you work quit. Most of the source code left behind was written in assembly language and you were elected to maintain it.
Your boss has the audacity to insist that you write your code in assembly against your strongest wishes.
Your programs run just a little too slow or are a little too large and you think assembly language might help you get your project under control.
You want to understand how computers actually work.
You're interested in learning how to write efficient code.
You want to try something new.
Well whatever the reason you're here welcome aboard. Let's take a look at the subject you're about to study.


1. WHAT'S WRONG WITH ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE   
Top

Assembly language has a pretty bad reputation. The common impression about assembly language programmers today is that they are all hackers or misguided individuals who need enlightenment. Here are the reasons people give for not using assembly:
Assembly is hard to learn.
Assembly is hard to read and understand.
Assembly is hard to debug.
Assembly is hard to maintain.
Assembly is hard to write.
Assembly language programming is time consuming.
Improved compiler technology has eliminated the need for assembly language.
Today machines are so fast that we no longer need to use assembly.
If you need more speed you should use a better algorithm rather than switch to assembly language.
Machines have so much memory today saving space using assembly is not important.
Assembly language is not portable.

Potato Sauce: http://www.oopweb.co...mbly/Volume/toc.html

47

Developer's Corner / Skulpt: An entirely in-browser implementation of Python.

« on: April 24, 2018, 03:13 PM »

Python. Client side.
Skulpt is an entirely in-browser implementation of Python.

No preprocessing, plugins, or server-side support required, just write Python and reload.

Demo
The code is run entirely in your browser, so don't feel obligated to "crash the server", you'll only stub your toe. Help, or examples: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. Ctrl-Enter to run.

Sexy Sauce: http://www.skulpt.org
GIT Sauce: https://github.com/skulpt/

48

Developer's Corner / x86 Assembly Guide

« on: April 24, 2018, 02:37 PM »

This is a version adapted by Quentin Carbonneaux from David Evans' original document. The syntax was changed from Intel to AT&T, the standard syntax on UNIX systems, and the HTML code was purified.

This guide describes the basics of 32-bit x86 assembly language programming, covering a small but useful subset of the available instructions and assembler directives. There are several different assembly languages for generating x86 machine code. The one we will use in CS421 is the GNU Assembler (gas) assembler. We will uses the standard AT&T syntax for writing x86 assembly code.

The full x86 instruction set is large and complex (Intel's x86 instruction set manuals comprise over 2900 pages), and we do not cover it all in this guide. For example, there is a 16-bit subset of the x86 instruction set. Using the 16-bit programming model can be quite complex. It has a segmented memory model, more restrictions on register usage, and so on. In this guide, we will limit our attention to more modern aspects of x86 programming, and delve into the instruction set only in enough detail to get a basic feel for x86 programming.

Registers
Modern (i.e 386 and beyond) x86 processors have eight 32-bit general purpose registers, as depicted in Figure 1. The register names are mostly historical. For example, EAX used to be called the accumulator since it was used by a number of arithmetic operations, and ECX was known as the counter since it was used to hold a loop index. Whereas most of the registers have lost their special purposes in the modern instruction set, by convention, two are reserved for special purposes — the stack pointer (ESP) and the base pointer (EBP).

For the EAX, EBX, ECX, and EDX registers, subsections may be used. For example, the least significant 2 bytes of EAX can be treated as a 16-bit register called AX. The least significant byte of AX can be used as a single 8-bit register called AL, while the most significant byte of AX can be used as a single 8-bit register called AH. These names refer to the same physical register. When a two-byte quantity is placed into DX, the update affects the value of DH, DL, and EDX. These sub-registers are mainly hold-overs from older, 16-bit versions of the instruction set. However, they are sometimes convenient when dealing with data that are smaller than 32-bits (e.g. 1-byte ASCII characters).

Hot Sauce: http://flint.cs.yale...ers/x86-asm/asm.html

49

Developer's Corner / PyBrain: Modular Machine Learning Library for Python

« on: April 21, 2018, 08:10 PM »

Welcome to PyBrain
PyBrain is a modular Machine Learning Library for Python. Its goal is to offer flexible, easy-to-use yet still powerful algorithms for Machine Learning Tasks and a variety of predefined environments to test and compare your algorithms.

PyBrain is short for Python-Based Reinforcement Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Neural Network Library. In fact, we came up with the name first and later reverse-engineered this quite descriptive "Backronym".

How is PyBrain different?
While there are a few machine learning libraries out there, PyBrain aims to be a very easy-to-use modular library that can be used by entry-level students but still offers the flexibility and algorithms for state-of-the-art research. We are constantly working on more and faster algorithms, developing new environments and improving usability.
What PyBrain can do
PyBrain, as its written-out name already suggests, contains algorithms for neural networks, for reinforcement learning (and the combination of the two), for unsupervised learning, and evolution. Since most of the current problems deal with continuous state and action spaces, function approximators (like neural networks) must be used to cope with the large dimensionality. Our library is built around neural networks in the kernel and all of the training methods accept a neural network as the to-be-trained instance. This makes PyBrain a powerful tool for real-life tasks.
Using PyBrain
PyBrain is open source and free to use for everyone (it is licensed under the BSD Software Licence). Just download it and start using the algorithms and modules in your own project or have a look at the provided tutorials and examples. If you use PyBrain for your research, we kindly ask you to cite us in your publications. Use the reference below or import this bibtex reference.

Pickle Sauce: http://pybrain.org

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Developer's Corner / [Mini-Course] Instant Python

« on: April 21, 2018, 08:06 PM »

This is a minimal crash-course in the programming language Python. To learn more, take a look at the documentation at the Python web site, www.python.org; especially the tutorial. If you wonder why you should be interested, check out the comparison page where Python is compared to other languages.

This introduction has been translated into several languages, among them Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French, Lithuanian, Japanese, German and Greek, and is currently being translated into Norwegian, Polish, and Korean. Since this document still might undergo changes, these translations may not always be up to date.

Note: To get the examples working properly, write the programs in a text file and then run that with the interpreter; do not try to run them directly in the interactive interpreter - not all of them will work. (Please do not ask me for details on this! I get swamped with emails on the subject… Check the documentation, or send an email to [email protected]).

The Basics
To begin with, think of Python as pseudo-code. It’s almost true. Variables don’t have types, so you don’t have to declare them. They appear when you assign to them, and disappear when you don’t use them anymore. Assignment is done by the = operator. Equality is tested by the == operator. You can assign several variables at once:

x,y,z = 1,2,3

first, second = second, first

a = b = 123
Blocks are indicated through indentation, and only through indentation. (No BEGIN/END or braces.) Some common control structures are:

if x < 5 or (x > 10 and x < 20):
    print "The value is OK."

if x < 5 or 10 < x < 20:
    print "The value is OK."

for i in [1,2,3,4,5]:
    print "This is iteration number", i

x = 10
while x >= 0:
    print "x is still not negative."
    x = x-1
The first two examples are equivalent.

The index variable given in the for loop iterates through the elements of a list (written as in the example). To make an “ordinary” for loop (that is, a counting loop), use the built-in function range().

# Print out the values from 0 to 99 inclusive.
for value in range(100):
    print value
(The line beginning with “#” is a comment, and is ignored by the interpreter.)

Okay; now you know enough to (in theory) implement any algorithm in Python. Let’s add some basic user interaction. To get input from the user (from a text prompt), use the builtin function input.

x = input("Please enter a number: ")
print "The square of that number is", x*x
The input function displays the prompt given (which may be empty) and lets the user enter any valid Python value. In this case we were expecting a number — if something else (like a string) is entered, the program would crash. To avoid that we would need some error checking. I won’t go into that here; suffice it to say that if you want the user input stored verbatim as a string (so that anything can be entered), use the function raw_input instead. If you wanted to convert the input string s to an integer, you could then use int(s).

Note: If you want to input a string with input, the user has to write the quotes explicitly. In Python, strings can be enclosed in either single or double quotes.

So, we have control structures, input and output covered — now we need some snazzy data structures. The most important ones are lists and dictionaries. Lists are written with brackets, and can (naturally) be nested:

Chilli Sauce: http://hetland.org/w.../instant-python.html