Recent Posts

1401

DC Gamer Club / Re: Spiral Knights - a free-to-play MMOG that's fistfuls of fun...

« Last post by Edvard on July 15, 2011, 01:09 AM »

Maybe update your Java?
That's what Spiral Knights runs on, couldn't hurt.

If you're running Linux, make sure you're running the latest Sun java package, not the other stuff I forget the name of.

1402

Developer's Corner / Re: Bourne / Bash Shell Scripting Resources

« Last post by Edvard on July 15, 2011, 01:05 AM »

Ooh, I had forgotten about that site... Thanks!
My other favorite scripting resource is the most excellent Rob Van der Woude pages, even though there's no Bash love there

Still, thanks for reminding me about Shelldorado!

1403

Living Room / Re: Matrix-style tech becoming a reality?

« Last post by Edvard on July 15, 2011, 01:02 AM »

Well, actually (hehe, see what I did there?),
as the commenter said, the research as presented in the paper is not about a plug-in memory chip, but an electronically-assisted means to transfer short term memories to long-term.
So, if it could be used on humans, you'd simply plug it in while attending a lecture or cramming for the final, and turn it off after the information was no longer needed or after the info had "burned in" to long-term memory.

Not as spectacular, but equally as intriguing IMO.

1404

General Software Discussion / Re: EA has purchased PopCap

« Last post by Edvard on July 12, 2011, 08:58 PM »

Apparently PopCap's resident zombies welcome their new EA overlords:

http://kotaku.com/58...-their-brains-at-all

1405

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: N.A.N.Y. 2012 Brainstorming, Suggestions

« Last post by Edvard on July 12, 2011, 03:42 PM »

If this is a fork of Visual Pinball (which it looks like it is...) the scripting is dead-simple.
Just look through some of the other tables to get an idea how to advance a counter, pop up a new ball, flip the flippers, etc.

Damn, I wish they had a native client for Linux, I used to LOVE VP.

1406

General Software Discussion / Re: EKOPath 4 Compiler suite is now Open Source

« Last post by Edvard on July 12, 2011, 03:37 PM »

Figgered it out...
Instead of running 'pathcc' to compile, I needed to run 'pathCC', which is the C++ compiler.
Apparently, 'pathcc' is the C compiler. o_O

Silly me...

1407

Developer's Corner / Re: Bourne / Bash Shell Scripting Resources

« Last post by Edvard on July 10, 2011, 03:38 AM »

Looking around the site, came across:

  The Comprehensive List of bash Reference Documentation and Examples

which also has a "bash Software Repositories and other Resources" list.

-ewemoa (July 10, 2011, 02:48 AM)

Awesome find!! 

As I've been looking into this topic, I find myself more attracted to learning about dash or the Bourne shell.

Well, to each his own, I guess... 

1408

Living Room / Re: Downloadsquad shutting down - Another one bites the dust

« Last post by Edvard on July 09, 2011, 11:58 PM »

Hey Guyz,

What's with all the whining and resignation to the demise of a favorite site??  Let's DO something: write your congressional representatives, the president, or even better let's start an email campaign to let them know our dismay.  May not help but it couldn't hurt. Now, anyone have a suitable destination (e.g. at huffington post for our emails to be sent???  They may not realize that they're making a mistake.  This is the new electronic democracy of the internet!!    Raise your voices!

Best regards,
Chuck

-brotman (June 13, 2011, 11:57 AM)

Yeah!!
Send email to Queen Huffington; if we flood her with enough, maybe she'll change her mind.


(Nothing against you Chuck, but you can bet that trying to turn someone like Ms. Huffington will prove quite futile. My opinion of her has never been positive ever, and now it's even worse...)

1409

Developer's Corner / Re: Bourne / Bash Shell Scripting Resources

« Last post by Edvard on July 09, 2011, 11:41 PM »

The "Bash by Example" articles are excellent!
Never seen them before, thanks!
As for part 3, I think it's less about Gentoo than it is an example of how to code an entire application in bash script.
I'll have to pack those into a PDF and make a printout...

BTW - many of the online resources I cited are available as PDF, and so should be printable at home or by any freindly neighborhood printing service.
Lulu.com also has many of them available has hard and soft covers, but they're not exactly cheap.

1410

General Software Discussion / Re: EKOPath 4 Compiler suite is now Open Source

« Last post by Edvard on July 08, 2011, 12:52 PM »

Dunno.
I kinda figured Fortran was still useful, but yeah it makes sense it does better for high-end number crunching.
After all, Fortran = formula translating.

Apparently Fortran 2003 includes support for Object-Oriented programming and interoperability with C.
If I weren't already getting ankle-deep in learning C++, I'd give it a go just because.

Either way, I still can't get this darn thing to compile anything.
I'm probably doing a whole lot wrong, but community support is so new, and the documentation so sparse (or maybe just unfamiliar), there's nothing I can find as to what the problem might be.
Apparently the IRC channel has been hopping lately (as can be expected with a newly-opened piece of juicy software) so maybe I'll hop in there this weekend.

1411

General Software Discussion / Re: EKOPath 4 Compiler suite is now Open Source

« Last post by Edvard on July 08, 2011, 04:30 AM »

Yeah, I've always wondered why fortran is still so widely supported.
Is there THAT much software still done with it?
Does it have features that simply trump similar sets in other, more commonly used languages?
What gives?

1412

General Software Discussion / Re: EKOPath 4 Compiler suite is now Open Source

« Last post by Edvard on July 08, 2011, 01:03 AM »

Hrm... can't get the damn thing to compile "hello world"...
Guess I got some learnin' to do... 

1413

Finished Programs / Re: wav player without any gui

« Last post by Edvard on July 08, 2011, 12:48 AM »

Also, to the original poster, is there any reason for the /quit switch?

I know I'm not the original poster, but other command-line audio players (like MPD or dbPowerAmp Renaissance) act as background media servers that are controlled via command line; e.g. you start it up then tell it what to do via typed-in commands, telling it what file to play, load a playlist, quit/restart, etc.
So a /exit switch would tell it to start up, play the file and exit without hanging out waiting for more instructions.

1414

General Software Discussion / EKOPath 4 Compiler suite is now Open Source

« Last post by Edvard on July 06, 2011, 11:57 AM »

Looks like good 'ol GCC and pals are getting some good ol' fashion comp-o-tition...

EKOPath 4 Compiler Suite going open source with support available
Wilmington, Delaware June 13th, 2011

PathScale announced today that the EKOPath 4 Compiler Suite is now available as an open source project and free download for Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris. This release includes documentation and the complete development stack, including compiler, debugger, assembler, runtimes and standard libraries. EKOPath is the product of years of ongoing development, representing one of the industries highest performance Intel 64 and AMD C, C++ and Fortran compilers.
...

http://pathscale.com...opath-compiler-suite

So what is it?

http://www.phoronix....path4_open&num=1

EKOPath 4 is a high-performance compiler that up until now has been proprietary and costs nearly $2000 USD per license, but now it's open-source and can sharply outperform GCC in many computationally-intense workloads.
...
EKOPath 4 carries full support for the SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, SSE4A, and AVX instruction sets. The run-time is GNU compatible and with the GCC tool-chain, provides optimized C/C++ debugging, excellent multi-core support, provides the PathDB debugger, a PathAS assembler, and supports OpenMP 2.5. The PathDB debugger was previously open-sourced and ported to FreeBSD on GitHub as the Path64 debugger.

So, what does it all mean?
Not sure at the moment.
I DO know that it means a previously very expensive compiler suite targeted to supercomputer environments will now be freely available for the average Linux/BSD/Solaris user to play with, that has been touted as a "CUDA Killer" for GPU code crunching, is blazingly fast, and produces optimized executables that in many (not all) cases run more efficiently and faster.

Discussion here:
http://phoronix.com/...th-4-Compiler-Suite/

Download here (nightly build):
http://www.pathscale...opath-compiler-suite

For now, it's only available for 64-bit Linux/BSD/Solaris environments.
However, the download page says Windows and Mac Betas will be available "Q1 2011"; any idea when that is?

* Edvard downloading now...

from Phoronix.com

1415

Developer's Corner / Re: Bourne / Bash Shell Scripting Resources

« Last post by Edvard on July 06, 2011, 05:44 AM »

Start small, work your way up.
The last two links I have printed hard copies of:

Getting Started with BASH by Scott Rippee:
http://www.hypexr.org/bash_tutorial.php

BASH Programming - Introduction by Mike G
http://tldp.org/HOWT...rog-Intro-HOWTO.html

Advanced BASH Scripting by Mendel Leo Cooper:
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/

BASH Reference Manual by Chet Ramey and Brian Fox:
http://tiswww.case.e...et/bash/bashref.html

 

1416

Living Room / Re: What annoys you to no end?

« Last post by Edvard on July 05, 2011, 01:11 PM »

This is in case you "accidentally" uninstall their software.
In such cases, you would certainly immediately re-install and find to your relief that all your settings, appearances, files, etc. are still available to the "new" install...

Rather like "We cut the chain, so you're free to move about freely now. If, however you should ever wish to be enslaved again, we've left the fetters on."
 

1417

Living Room / Re: Lots of New Members

« Last post by Edvard on July 05, 2011, 12:43 PM »

You need to read more Joyce then; that'll learn yer a thinger too.. 

“Come forth, Lazarus! And he came fifth and lost the job.”

-James Joyce

1418

Living Room / Re: Firefox 5 to be released only 5 months after firefox 4 goes gold

« Last post by Edvard on June 22, 2011, 11:47 AM »

Right.
Sorry about that, that's why I put the TL;DR closer to the W3 one, but maybe a colon after would have made it more clear, and maybe a header for the first entry as well.
Edited. How's that? 

1419

Living Room / Re: Firefox 5 to be released only 5 months after firefox 4 goes gold

« Last post by Edvard on June 22, 2011, 05:02 AM »

Short answer:
http://donottrack.us/

TL;DR:
http://www.w3.org/20...-privacy/report.html

1420

Living Room / Re: Firefox 5 to be released only 5 months after firefox 4 goes gold

« Last post by Edvard on June 22, 2011, 12:49 AM »

Yep, I just upgraded today (not by choice, it did it automatically)
The only difference I noticed was the "App tabs".

Now if all my extensions would upgrade as well...

1421

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Edvard on June 20, 2011, 08:35 PM »

Marcel The Shell
The cute, it is deadly... DEADLY!

Guess what I use to tie my skis to the car?

http://www.youtube.c.../user/MARCELTHESHELL





from Dump.com

1422

Living Room / Re: A rant on religiousness about OSes

« Last post by Edvard on June 20, 2011, 09:52 AM »

I havent tried any yet - being careful! - just made a list of what is available that is from 2010-2011. Ones that caught my eye wich I hadnt heard from before (ok, twas 2004 or 2005 last time i'd looked) were "Cameo" http://cameo.binarybums.com/ (portable, very intriguing), "Emerge desktop" http://emergedesktop.org/, "bblean" http://bb4win.sourceforge.net/bblean/ (attractive since I use fluxbox on Slack but there are a zillion variants none seem all that stable), "Wez’s Evil Shell" http://evildesk.wezfurlong.org/ and "SharpEnviro" http://www.sharpenviro.com/wp

Emerge and SharpEnviro are very similar, but for Emerge, each "element" (desktop, launcher, menu) is a separate process and has it's own menu-driven configuration.
A bit confusing at first, but less confusing than trying to text-file configure Litestep.
Sharpe is similar, but configured from a central menu/dialog box; I found it to be the more polished of the two.

BBLean proper I found stable enough, and most things can be configured by ctrl-right click menu, but some digging in the text files may be necessary.
Cameo sounds like a variation of the *box shells.

Wez's Evil Shell was too evil for me... it wouldn't run.
I'll have to give it a try in my VMWare XP just to see if it was just a fluke.

1423

Living Room / Re: A rant on religiousness about OSes

« Last post by Edvard on June 19, 2011, 01:56 PM »

One reason I've stuck with Xfce as my Desktop of choice.
It just keeps getting nicer without overhauling the whole gestalt.
Menus, icons, launchers, etc. all right where you want them, doing what they're told.

BTW - I've got a few notches on my belt with Litestep, which can be VERY minimal but retain quite a bit of functionality, and Liteshell is about as minimal as you can get with a desktop right-click menu and configurable hotkeys, if you need assistance, give me a shout.
Caveat: these alternative shells and their communities aren't what they once were, and Vista/7 hasn't played nice. Be careful...

1424

Living Room / Re: Which is more important: the gadget, or the software and apps that runs it?

« Last post by Edvard on June 15, 2011, 10:00 PM »

Guns are a good example, it is the gun? or the bullet? or what happens when you point it at your head and pull the trigger?

-elvisbrown (June 13, 2011, 06:56 AM)

a canon?

-Target (June 15, 2011, 06:59 PM)

Gives me the shutters!

1425

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Angry Birds free for Chrome

« Last post by Edvard on June 12, 2011, 09:46 AM »

There are ads?