Topics

26

N.A.N.Y. Challenge 2007 / Update: MusToe (Music-Tic-Tac-Toe) V 1.10 released

« on: December 31, 2006, 08:13 AM »

HiHo all,

here is my entry for the DonationCoder N.A.N.Y. project.

A "Tic-Tac-Toe" game variant for two players with an audiophile twist. Download MusToe, unpack it, start it without any installation, select your MP3-Collection folder, find a buddy as an opponent, turn on your speakers and let's go.

A detailed manual with the rules is included in the program.

I hope, everyone has so much fun playing this game as i and my buddy Rambo have had while testing the game.

Get it from:

http://www.jotosoft.de/mustoe/

So open up your ears and have fun.

Greetings and HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL
JoTo

History

Version 1.1.0 (14.01.2007)

• Added a new gamerule, that if an orphaned (not yet owned by anybody) tile is selected and the buzzing player don't guess the title right, this tile now goes (as a penalty) to opponents ownership. This avoid players to buzz in too early or only for cheating (don't give the opponent the chance to guess).
• Added a new gamerule, that always the loosing player of a round starts the next round selecting a tile.
  
• Added more keyboard shortcuts, so that now the running game can be played without using the mouse anymore (if it is desired).
  
• Added advanced caching of the musictitles. Now MusToe remembers the state of the library and the already used titles over program sessions (exiting the program). So, if you now exits the program and play again next day, the already used titles in the last program session won't be available for guessing until all titles were used and/or the musiclibrary has changed. That avoids, if only using a small musiclibrary with few titles, that the same titles are selected for guessing again and again with every new program start.
  
• Clarified, improved and extended the game manual
  

Version 1.0.0 (01.01.2007)

• First public released Version
  

27

Living Room / The 25 Most Important Questions in the History of the Universe

« on: November 14, 2006, 02:16 AM »

Stumbled upon this today. Find it very interesting or kind of funny ... i cant stop reading all through.

Have you ever wonder:

• What Makes No. 2 Pencils So Darn Special?
• Is There One Move That’s More Likely to Win a Game of Rock-Paper-Scissors?
• Can a Pregnant Woman Drive in the Carpool Lane?
• Which Came First, the Can Opener or the Can?
• and 21 more interesting questions

Then head toward it and get the answers to the 25 most important questions in the History of the Universe. 

http://www.neatorama.com/2006/07/24/the-25-most-important-questions-in-the-history-of-the-universe

Hope you like it too
CU
JoTo

28

General Software Discussion / For those that need a System Information Tool and haven't heard of SIW

« on: November 10, 2006, 08:10 AM »

Today in the IRC Channel, Ken was in need of a System Information Tool that tells him about his installed memory a.s.o. He got "Everest" that does the trick, but is no longer freeware.

So i jumped in and told him about my favourite System Informationtool for Windows (SIW), that is very good one and free (Donationware).

After that, Ken "forced" me to post this goodie on the forum, even if i replied that SIW is a long time companion, everybody knows about it and it was surely mentioned here on DC a lot of times. But nothing helps...he insisted that i have to post.

After a forum search, i found only one thread that mentioned SIW and in a completely different context (as a revealing password tool - what SIW can do, but it is not its "general idea").

At this point i was conviced that i have to post it. :-)

Primary homepage (DOWN! a.t.m): http://www.gtopala.com/index.html
Secondary Homepage: http://www3.sympatico.ca/gtopala/siw_download.html

From the site:

SIW  performs computer configuration analysis and diagnostics. It gives detailed information about your computer properties and settings, detailed specs for:
 - Software (Operating System, Installed Programs and Hotfixes, Processes, Services, Product Keys, Serial Numbers, Users, Open Files, System Uptime, Passwords hidden behind asterisks, Installed Codecs),
 - Hardware (Motherboard, Sensors, BIOS, CPU, chipset, PCI/AGP, USB and ISA/PnP Devices, Memory, Video Card, Monitor, Disk Drives, CD/DVD Devices, SCSI Devices, S.M.A.R.T., Ports, Printers),
 - Network (Network Cards, Network Shares, currently active Network Connections),
as well as real-time monitors for CPU, Memory, Page File usage and Network Traffic.
SIW can create a report file (CSV, HTML, TXT or XML), and is able to run in batch mode.
SIW is a standalone tool that does not require installation - one less installed program on your PC as well the fact that you can run the program directly from a USB flash drive (Portable Freeware).

Hope some find it still interesting...
CU
JoTo

29

Living Room / Go for a good laugh in this comparison between regular Europeans and Italian

« on: November 07, 2006, 08:12 AM »

I laughed tears...Hope you'll like it too.

http://www.febgia.com/italy.htm

CU
JoTo

30

Living Room / Have you ever been on a trampoline - NUDE! ???

« on: September 26, 2006, 02:42 AM »

If not, try it out how it would look like in the flash diversion "Nudist Trampolining".

http://www.nudisttrampolining.com/

Tsk, Tsk! There is nothing you can't find on the internet, can you? 

31

General Software Discussion / Compose your photo from many parts of others

« on: September 21, 2006, 02:26 AM »

Found today!

"Group Shot"
A free Tool from the Microsoft Research Group.

http://research.microsoft.com/projects/GroupShot/

A product of Microsoft Research’s Redmond lab, Group Shot was developed by Alex Colburn, Matt Uyttendaele, and Michael Cohen of the Interactive Visual Media group over a period of six weeks late in 2005. Group Shot has the express purpose of helping a user to improve a flawed group photo to the desired state envisioned when the picture was taken.

“Photographs are instants of time,” Colburn smiles, “but we don’t necessarily remember an instant in time. We’re actually remembering a moment, and our brains backfill in the details. For example, you don’t remember your family portrait as a moment when everyone has their eyes closed and their mouths open. You remember a moment when everyone is smiling and looks good. With a camera, it is hard to capture those perfect photos, because those moments might not have existed, or you may have just missed them.”

“What we want to do is to use multiple photos to help reconstruct a moment.”

Group Shot, available for download, makes it easy for a user to take a part of an image from one photo and replace a similar but flawed part of an image in another photo, thereby creating a composite shot better than either original and more approximating what was seen in the photographer’s mind’s eye.

Not tested yet by myself, but it sounds interesting as you not only can change persons. You can also clip out unwanted parts and/or take a photo with and one without flashlight and compose a new image from that two with any lightning level that looks best for you.

There are many more (mostly very weird) projects to download from the Microsoft Research Group under http://research.microsoft.com/research/downloads/default.aspx

Hope this post is useful to someone out there.

CU
JoTo

32

General Software Discussion / Standalone HTTP-Server running from CD/USB without installation

« on: August 04, 2006, 03:17 AM »

Hi DC-Folks,

If you are in need to distribute and/or use a full website or web application that runs offline directly from a CD or USB-Thumbdrive without installation on the local computer, there are a lot of such standalone webservers out there.

But today i stumbled upon a new "product" that was new to me and looks very interesting:

Server2Go (http://www.server2go-web.de/index.html).

Server2Go v 1.3.0 is based on WampOnCD and extends it with features that Wamp is lacking. It uses Apache 1.3.35 (there is a version for Apache 2.0.58 in experimental state too) provides access to PHP 5.1.4, SQLite and MySQL 4.1.20.

The user of the CD only needs a browser installed on the local PC. And for donators there is even a very small, simple browser available that can be put on the CD too, so nothing has to be installed on the local PC. This simple browser has no controls and no possibility to enter the url or use back/forward functionality. So you have full control over the user actions from within your application and makes the usage of your app for the user very simple.

Oh, and if i forgot to mention : Of course Server2Go is FREE for non commercial use and Donationware for commercial use and people that want to donate. Donators, the author suggests a donation of only Euro 10,00, get an user id and password for accessing some non-public pages of the site with some more programs that can be used to add more whistles and bells to Server2Go or to make it more easier to configure and build your customized version of Server2Go.

From the authors website:

What is Server2Go

Server2Go is a Webserver that runs out of box without any installation. That means it is a webserver that can run directly from cdrom, usb stick or from any folder on harddisk. Server2Go allows you to create a standalone working web site or PHP application on a CD-ROM. Server2Go was primary developed for the usage on CD-ROM but there is no problem use it from other drives too. Using a web browser, a user can run php programs as well as view html files on the CD-ROM. He only need to insert a CD with Server2Go under the supported Windows operations systems. The server starts automaticly and opens a browser with the Website of the CD-ROM.

Server2Go was build to replace a tool called WampOnCD that lacks some important features and isn't activly developed.

Server2Go supports PHP5, SQLite and MySQL.

Features

* Free! No royalties
* Complete WAMPP Server
* Runs directly from CD-ROM, USB Stick or Harddisk without installation
* Full featured webserver (based on apache)
* PHP 5.1.4 support with many extensions installed (i.e. gd)
* Supports SQLite databases
* Running on all Windows Win 98 and newer
* Support for MySQL Databases
* Supports many PHP extensions (GD-Lib, PDO...) by default
* Support for Perl 5.8

Hope this will be interesting for some of you.

Greetings
JoTo

33

Developer's Corner / PHP Compilers to make standalone PHP-Exes

« on: July 10, 2006, 04:05 AM »

Hi DCs,

our great mouser found another free PHP-Compiler to achieve standalone executables from php scripts. As he is in deep meditation now about the new blog portal feature of our great site, he wished, as he knows that i am interested in this sort of programs, that i'll do the job of looking at them and post about my very first opinion and experiences.

mouser found (so far) the following alternatives:

- Roadsend PHP Compiler
seems to be the best and completest, but it is commercial and very expensive (about $139 for a personal licence) (see: http://www.roadsend.com)

- phc-win
A compiler that goes together with winbinder (see: http://winbinder.org/), a windows api binding for PHP. (See: http://winbinder.org.../viewtopic.php?t=282)
It confuses me a little, at the first look, but it sounds interesting. And its free. Cons: It needs beside the application exe at least some extra dlls in the appdir (a php-dll and the winbinder.dll). So you have not really a single, stand-alone application. But there is no need to install sth. Just deliver the dlls with your app and you're set.

- bambalam PHP Compiler
Another free PHP Compiler that sounds interesting. It is based on PHP 4.4.x (5.x will come as the author states) and has some php-libs statically linked within the "core". It creates a really single, stand-alone file of your app that dont need any further files. If you need php-extensions, you have to have a own php.ini with the php-extensions variable set with relative paths and the neccessary php-files in the app dir too. Then bambalam claims, that it can compile a single file exe, (including php.ini and the extension libs) that can access these extensions like the builtin ones. Exes can be compressed automatically (via a commanline option) with upx to get smaller results.
(see: http://www.bambalam.se/bamcompile/)

Both free compilers can compile multi-script applications. You can compile a whole directory of php-scripts of an application together in one executable. Then you have to tell the compiler which script is the main/startscript.

I have quick-tested both free compilers only with a single phpinfo-script yet. Both worked for me. Pro for bambalam over PHC, it was really only a single EXE-file, while phc needs more "helperfiles" (dlls). Not tested Roadsend, because i feel it is too expensive to purchase when there are free alternatives.

As i said earlier: Have not tested very much and have not digged in very deep in both free compilers so far. But i will test both more deeply in future and report.

Maybe there are more experiences with this by other users who will contribute with informations. If there are more free PHP-Compilers out there, this will be a helpful information too.

CU
JoTo

34

Developer's Corner / Can you read and understand C? :-))

« on: May 02, 2006, 09:30 AM »

Hi,

13 Years ago in 1993 there was a special programmers contest. The goal was to write the obfuscated C-code ever written. At that time i downloaded the winner code from the contest page.

If you want to have fun, look (like me) at the code and try to understand. I am willing to admit, that until today i never have understand that pointerstew. 

But i promise the following:

- The program can be compiled unmodified (at least the core functionality - maybe you have to adjust some compiler instructions and/or includefiles) with a normal C-Compiler with no errors and only one ignorable warning. A "ready to build" Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2003 solution is included in the ZIPfile.

- The program creates an understandable output in the console window. (Its a console app, so open a commandprompt window first and start it from there). I will not reveal the output, try it by yourself. 

Click me to see the code

[Select]

// Code93.cpp

#include "stdafx.h"

rmain(int t,int _,char* a)
{
return!

0<t?
t<3?

rmain(-79,-13,a+
rmain(-87,1-_,
rmain(-86, 0, a+1 )


+a)):

1,
t<_?
rmain(t+1, _, a )
:3,

rmain ( -94, -27+t, a )
&&t == 2 ?_
<13 ?

rmain ( 2, _+1, "%s %d %d\n" )

:9:16:
t<0?
t<-72?
rmain( _, t,
"@n'+,#'/*{}w+/w#cdnr/+,{}r/*de}+,/*{*+,/w{%+,/w#q#n+,/#{l,+,/n{n+,/+#n+,/#;\
#q#n+,/+k#;*+,/'r :'d*'3,}{w+K w'K:'+}e#';dq#'l q#'+d'K#!/+k#;\
q#'r}eKK#}w'r}eKK{nl]'/#;#q#n'){)#}w'){){nl]'/+#n';d}rw' i;# ){nl]!/n{n#'; \
r{#w'r nc{nl]'/#{l,+'K {rw' iK{;[{nl]'/w#q#\
\
n'wk nw' iwk{KK{nl]!/w{%'l##w#' i; :{nl]'/*{q#'ld;r'}{nlwb!/*de}'c ;;\
{nl'-{}rw]'/+,}##'*}#nc,',#nw]'/+kd'+e}+;\
#'rdq#w! nr'/ ') }+}{rl#'{n' ')# }'+}##(!!/")
:
t<-50?
_==*a ?
putchar(31[a]):

rmain(-65,_,a+1)
:
rmain((*a == '/') + t, _, a + 1 )
:

0<t?

rmain ( 2, 2 , "%s")
:*a=='/'||

rmain(0,

rmain(-61,*a, "!ek;dc i@bK'(q)-[w]*%n+r3#l,{}:\nuwloca-O;m .vpbks,fxntdCeghiry")

,a+1);}

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[]){

rmain(1,

0,NULL

); return 0;
}

For those that don't want or can't compile the code itself, i upload a ready to run compiled windows exe too.

Have fun!
CU
JoTo

35

Finished Programs / DONE: Finding Mousepointer Utility

« on: March 19, 2006, 09:11 AM »

Dear Community,

as a visually impaired i really miss a feature that i have had in earlier versions of Matrox-PowerTools (the graphicdriver-suite from Matrox).

There was the possibility to activate with a Hotkey a blinking circle around the mousepointer with arrows pointing to the mousepointer. I used this feature a lot if i have my mousepointer lose out of the eyes or if it is positioned on a color i cant recognize it very well. So i pressed the Hotkey and Voila! i know again where my mousepointer is sitting.

In the new version this feature is missing. *SNIFF*

My Logitech Software has such a feature, but i have a problem with this. If i press the Hotkey, only a one-shot circle is moving from big to small to the middle of the mousepointer. There are two problems: 1. The circle is too thin for me to see and 2. as it is a one-shot and very fast, i cant see it also.

What i wish to have is a utility that when a (customizable) Hotkey is pressed draws a thick circle around the mousepointer position in a small distance.

Extensions (if possible it would be GREAT!!!!):

- A blinking circle with two switching colors would be a big help. So the cursor can be easily seen on different background colors.

- It would be nice if the thickness, blinking colors and diameter of the circle could be adjusted.

- Wonderful will be, if the circle could blink until the hotkey is released and move together with the mousepointer when the mouse is moved. So i can track the mousepointer to get to a certain control where i want to click i.E.

I think it is not an easy to realize wishlist. But if someone knows a freeware or a reasonable priced shareware util that do that, or can implement/create such a util i will have luck tears in my eyes. You can't imagine what this will mean to me and how it will make my life easier in private and in my job.

If you have any suggestions, please help.

Very thankful in advance...
JoTo

36

Mini-Reviews by Members / PageSpy - A swiss army knife for web-developers

« on: March 17, 2006, 04:15 AM »

Hi DC-Community,

Foreword:
First, please keep in mind, that this is my very first review at all and
english is not my native language. So if you don't like something, find
some mistakes or have some hints to improve future reviews from me, please
don't hesitate to comment what i can do better next time.

Second, please excuse the strange colors of my screenshots. As a visually
impaired person i must use a black background with bright foreground colors.
But PageSpy is so flexible, that it works with all color combinations and
the syntax coloring is customizable too. So please look at my screenshots
but imagine, that they look on your computer just like you expect it they
should do.

But now let's go for the main thing. The mini-Review!

Introduction:

I am developing a web application (a game) that use partially page updates
via the asynchronous AJAX technology. The problem was, that this kind of
software is not easy to debug and troubleshoot. The page content will
change only in parts without reloading the full page. And if something went
wrong, you don't easy know what and why it fails. If you reload the whole
page, you can use the "View Source" feature of your browser. But this won't
work with this kind of technology. You ever only see the initial loaded
source of the page and not the actual updated state of the objects in it.

This was the main reason for my interest in PageSpy, when i stumbled over
this program on the DonationCoder DiscountPage (https://www.donationcoder.com/Discounts/index.html).
So i don't think a long time, went to the homepage (http://www.sembel.net),
downloaded the trial version, installed it and ... was impressed how handy,
also in other aspects, this program is.

So what in detail can PageSpy do for you?

DHTML and HTML View:
As i said earlier, PageSpy is able to give you many different and very
clearly organized views of any HTML-Page showing up in your browser.

PageSpy integrates in the contextmenu of your browser. So you activate it
with a right mouseclick on the page or object your are interested in, and
selecting the PageSpy-Entry. As you rightclicked somewhere on the page,
PageSpy remembers on which object you've clicked. So in the DHTML-View the
corresponding lines in the code is automatically highlighted for quick
finding.

The HTML-View of PageSpy is the equivalent of your browsers normal
"View Source" feature. The DHTML-View is the view generated from the actual
DOM-Model objects of the page, representing the real actual state of the
page objects and not the state when the page is loaded.

On the next two screenshots you'll see my page in my AJAX project. First in
HTML-View, that represents the exact HTML-File on my webserver as it is
transmitted when first loading the page in the clients browser. Second
in the DHTML-View after AJAX has updated some single Objects in my page.
Note the differences in the img src="" tags that are "dummy" in the original
source and later updated to real URIs from AJAX.

The DHTML-Source is automatically highlighted by PageSpy in fact of my
clicked object and i have highlighted the corresponding part in the
HTML-View manually for your convinience.

Cookies:
It can show you the saved cookies for this site and the stored information
within them. In my case i use the cookie for session tracking while the game
is running.

Querystring:
It can show you the actual Query of this pageurl with all parameters and let
you change, delete and add some or all of them on the fly. As i don't use
a querystring in my AJAX-Project, i show you in the screenshot a sample
of a Google-Search page, searching for "Donationcoder".

Forms:
It show you all forms in the page with all fields in it incl. detailed
descriptions of all properties and a preview for every field. Again, as i
don't use forms in my AJAX-Project, i've taken the screenshot from another
project of mine. It contains a "Joining"-Form for a course for maritime
radio operations (GMDSS) in which i teach peoples how to use it correctly.

This:
In the "this"-Tab you can easily and quickly explore all attributes and
values, inclusive prewiew, of the actual clicked DOM-Object in the page.
It's a comfortable way to get where you want, whithout the need to browse
through the whole DOM-Tree, which is of course also possible (see below).

DOM:
Of course you can browse the whole DOM-Tree by hand beginning from
the root to every deepest object. All objects are shown with all properties
and values and their accesspath within the DOM-Tree for later use in
Javascript or whatsoever.

Images:
See a table of all images in the page with all attributes of every picture
incl. URL, width, height and preview.

CSS:
Gives you an overview for all used CSS rules in the page. It shows you a
preview of the used properties (where applicable) and if you expand a
rule in the table, the corresponding CSS-Code is shown directly under the
preview.

Collections:
Here you'll find all external and internal references and used objects in the
page. You can see if there are internal or external stylesheets, internal
or external scripts, used frames, embedded objects, the list of links in the
page or used RSS-Feeds.

Others:
PageSpy let you execute manually JavaScripts on the page content to see
what happens and has a builtin RegEx-Tester.

Last, PageSpy shows you also the client and server informations. It has
some validator-links right handy on several buttons. So you can check the
validity of the actual page in several checkers with only a mouseclick.

Summary:
The functionality of PageSpy is too big to mention it all here. And i'm sure
i have forgotten something and/or not have digged in deep enough yet. But
even so far as i use PageSpy at the moment, it has become a indespensably
tool for my web developing.

There is a fully functional 30-days trial version available from the a.m.
authors homepage if you want to try PageSpy without any risk. And then you
can purchase a key to register your installed trialware to get a full
time-unlimited version. No need to download or reinstall sth. after that.

The price is IMHO very reasonable for such a good program ($19,95 for a single
user license). And if you decide to purchase before 30th, April 2006, as a
DonationCoder member, you can still get the very generously discount of
50% from the author. Purchasing my license works like charm. Even the
discount was given without any problems. I got my licensekey about 2 minutes
after the purchase.

At the end i must say, that the author is very communicative and kind. As i
mentioned above i need special colors that the actual version of PageSpy
wasn't able to support. But a single eMail to the author with my wish for a
fully configurable syntax coloring, results in a positive answer within a day.
The author agrees to implement a customizing feature for the syntax coloring.
This feature is, while writing this review, not yet implemented in the official
version (not yet fully finished, but will come shortly, said the author),
but i got a pre-release version from the author where i can hack my colors
in (with an XML-Editor) until the comfortable GUI is finished. The custom
syntax coloring works great in this pre-version. So i can pretty good live
with this version. I really appreciate the special-care handling of my
problems from Victor Sembelidis. Thanks here again for this!

Now i must state, that i really like PageSpy and hold it worth the
money, especially when you use the DonationCoder-Discount. BUT I AM NOT
affiliated with the author in any way and i don't get any money for writing
this review or from future sales of PageSpy.

Hope this review will help some people to get their web developing done
faster and easier in the future with PageSpy.

Greetings
JoTo