Recent Posts

2226

Living Room / Linux hardware support is about to get much better

« Last post by Edvard on June 10, 2008, 12:22 PM »

I can't believe I missed this. Can I get a w00t!?

For years, device and peripheral builders could get away with ignoring the Linux desktop market. It was too small to matter, they would say.
Things have changed...

...To be precise, the companies announced during the meeting that they would start including wording in their hardware procurement processes to "strongly encourage" the delivery of open source drivers. Off the record, several of the PC makers said that they would be going further still. In their next round of OEM contracts, they intend to insert language that will require OEMs to deliver equipment either with Linux drivers or with open APIs (application programming interfaces) so it will be easy to build Linux drivers.

 

http://www.linux.com/feature/134125

from Linux.com

2227

Living Room / Re: Why are computers getting slower (and what we can do about it)?

« Last post by Edvard on June 10, 2008, 10:55 AM »

It's not that we need assembly programmed games, we just need programmers that care a bitmore about what they do... and management that isn't so obsessed with time-to-market.

Yeah, that was my point, actually... 

Btw, kkrieger is C++, not assembly (well, for the main part, anyway).

Oh.

f0dder points to an unpopular trend: OpenOffice is slower by the version. Better, but slower.

2228

General Software Discussion / Re: Media Player Linux Distro Available?

« Last post by Edvard on June 09, 2008, 11:08 AM »

http://www.dynebolic.org/ 
http://www.debianadm...ux-distribution.html

2229

Living Room / Re: Why are computers getting slower (and what we can do about it)?

« Last post by Edvard on June 09, 2008, 11:05 AM »

I am in agreement with most on this thread.
I remember my 386 with Windows 95 was quicker than my PII with 98SE!

I think it falls to the same justification for App's "snailware" website.
Back in the old days, with computing power and memory at a premium, most coders were very concerned about the size and efficiency of their programs. Hence, even with limited capacity, the best applications were so tightly coded that of course they ran well (and downloaded in reasonable time over a dial-up line...).
Nowadays with broadband internet, multi-core processors, terabyte hard drives and gigabytes of memory capacity being the norm, even the most sloppily coded java app will run reasonably well, even though it is chowing through the gigaflops like sharks in a kiddie pool...
Really, is it surprising that an assembly coded 3D game fits in such a small size and runs so well?

Personally, I think the biggest hit - not counting rich multimedia files - is the visuals.

Which is why dial-up is getting slower every day as well...

2230

Living Room / Re: The 10 most annoying programs on the Internet

« Last post by Edvard on June 03, 2008, 10:29 AM »

...but have you ever tried using it behind a firewall that blocks flash, or on a cell phone, or in a plethora of other locations?

Like a dial-up connection?
 
 

2231

Living Room / Re: The 10 most annoying programs on the Internet

« Last post by Edvard on June 02, 2008, 04:37 PM »

AR is NOT just a simple reader. It's a platform for document control.

Let me quickly repeat that... PLATFORM!!!

So make Adobe quit calling it READER fer pete's sake.
While we're at it, let's have 3 Adobe pdf products:
Adobe Acrobat for the rich folks who want to make pdf's
Adobe Platform for those who need a platform for document control
Adobe Reader for us average folks who JUST WANT TO OPEN THE !@#$%^&* PDF FILE!!

Otherwise I agree with the rest of the article. Completeley.
But I must say, Realplayer on Linux is refreshingly sterile. 

2232

Living Room / Re: This might take some of you back - IBM laptop, can anyone give me some info?

« Last post by Edvard on May 30, 2008, 12:13 PM »

1993?
You could probably install anything from DOS to Win 95 or so, but without a floppy?... 

2233

Living Room / Re: Flash Game of the Week: Robokill

« Last post by Edvard on May 29, 2008, 04:40 PM »

Very nice 

You had me with "Reminiscent of the arcade game Robotron", so I had to try it.
One question... I was playing level 1 and the second room I just ran around the room perimeter shooting the robots in the middle. More robots spawned than I could keep up with, and so eventually I just crashed into the crowd and died. Is there a more effective way?

2234

Living Room / Re: It is pitch dark...

« Last post by Edvard on May 28, 2008, 10:46 AM »

The text adventure scene is still pretty active with the inform interpreter still being used and the new TADS interpreter. There is a lot of great home-brew text adventures out there. You can get most of them here ifArchive.org

DEFINITELY going to check that out... Thanks for the tip!
There is one game I would be interested in that I can't find on Google either. It was a text adventure written to take advantage of Apple II's split-screen graphics mode (top half of the screen was graphic mode and the bottom would display 5 or 6 lines of text) I think it was called "Cliffhanger" or some such, but my memory fails me.
Which is probably why I can't find it...

If anyone is interested I added text-to-speech to the WinFrotz interpreter to help blind gamers play the old text adventure games without the need for screen reader software,

Nice! 

If you enjoy the NerdCore stuff and MC Frontalot  check out this site

Didn't even know there was a whole genre...
Closest thing I've seen to that is a Seattle hardcore metal band called Bloodhag that writes songs about books, their authors and literacy in general. One of their albums is a book!

Text adventures were the most amazing thing I had ever seen when I was a freshman in high school just learning about computers. The first thing I learned was that I had a long way to go...

Long live IF!

2235

Living Room / Photoshop disasters

« Last post by Edvard on May 27, 2008, 04:37 PM »

Calling all photoshop pros! Looks like there are going to be some job openings soon...

Have you seen a truly awful piece of Photoshop work? Clumsy manipulation, senseless comping, lazy cloning and thoughtless retouching are our bread and butter. And yes, deep down, we love Photoshop.

http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/

Oh merciful heavens WHAT HAPPENED TO HER ARM!?!?!?
P.S. Some articles may be slightly NSFW...
from Admit-one.net

2236

Living Room / It is pitch dark...

« Last post by Edvard on May 27, 2008, 03:05 PM »

If you've never played "Zork" you might not get it...
Old school game dialog set to a hip-hop beat.

you are likely to be eaten by a grue

If this predicament seems particularly cruel

consider whose fault it could be

not a torch or a match in your inventory

http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=4nigRT2KmCE

from somewhere

2237

Living Room / Re: The last time your AntiVirus saved you!

« Last post by Edvard on May 22, 2008, 07:13 PM »

About 6 years ago.
I was looking for some software on the freeware sites, and a link to something I was interested in went to a warez site instead of a valid homepage. 

Just going to the page dropped about 20 different viruses down my pipe, all swiftly dealt with by Antivir (it was called something else back then...). This was shortly after I ditched my buggy-and-never-worked-right OEM PC-Cillin 2000 that came on the motherboard driver disk.

I trusted Antivir ever since then, but I can't recall such an attack after that either...

2238

Living Room / Re: Best Programming Jokes

« Last post by Edvard on May 20, 2008, 04:28 PM »

Make a collection, throw in one about Python, and you'll have the full monty!

-cranioscopical (May 20, 2008, 01:55 PM)

*groan*

Ok, here you go...
from "If programming languages were cars"...

Python is a great beginner's car; you can drive it without a license. Unless you want to drive really fast or on really treacherous terrain, you may never need another car.

2239

Living Room / Re: Best Programming Jokes

« Last post by Edvard on May 20, 2008, 12:35 PM »

Sorry. Clarification follows...
Peeing MySelf
 

2240

Living Room / Best Programming Jokes

« Last post by Edvard on May 20, 2008, 11:46 AM »

Perhaps you've seen these before...

A SQL query goes to a restaurant, walks up to 2 tables and says “Can I join you?”

http://www.devtopics...t-programming-jokes/

from WeirdDaily

This one sent me off my chair PMSROFLMAO

"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
very long pause….
"Java."

2241

Living Room / Re: Registry hack needed: Full date in the tray clock

« Last post by Edvard on May 19, 2008, 10:31 AM »

Ok, I've tried a few of these, and it looks like Betaclock is the winner.
Tclock worked well, but wouldn't do two lines (looks better with my setup) I tried Alfaclock and found it annoying.
Alphaclock (the original) is still here: http://www.irnis.net/soft/aclock/ but it only displays the time.
Looks nice, though.

Thanks everyone!

2242

Living Room / Re: Pirating abandoned content?

« Last post by Edvard on May 16, 2008, 06:19 PM »

Guilty as charged. Let me explain...

About 7 years ago, I received a 100MHz 486 with Windows 95 from my Mother, who had got it from someone who didn't need it anymore.

I found out I could make music with it, and scoured the (dialup) internet for freeware music software. I upgraded to a 233MHz pentium around the time I found d-Lusion who had some VERY nice drum and synth programs for download.
Here's where it gets sticky...

I wanted to purchase these products because they worked very well. Guess what?
I couldn't.
On the front page was a notice that "due to the actions of one of the developers" they were "no longer selling licenses" for their software, even though they were still up for download.
I wanted to use the software and was more than willing to pay for it, but...

I did what many before have done and Googled a serial. 
I checked back at the website every few months or so, waiting for my opportunity to pay for the time I had, in reality, stolen. But it never changed

Lo and Behold, I discovered a year or so ago that their software is now freeware, with a PayPal donate button.
I have less money than I did back then, but one day my conscience is going to have a meeting with my wallet and we are going to push that button, even though I don't use the software anymore...

Thoughts?

2243

General Software Discussion / Re: Super lite PIM? Address book?

« Last post by Edvard on May 16, 2008, 05:09 PM »

I made something much simpler in Autohotkey once called "phone", maybe I ought to dig it up and add some stuff to it, even though it works as it is, just go:

[Select]

phone add [name] [phone #]

to add a name

[Select]

phone [name]

to pull up a number

[Select]

phone list

to pull up the entire list in notepad

[Select]

phone del [name]

to delete a name.

Here it is in AHK code:

[Select]

; first put the most important command line options into variables
apb_name = %1%
apb_opt = %0%
; look to see if there is a phone file handy, if not, make one...
IfNotExist, phone.db
FileAppend,,phone.db
; figure out if there are too many options
If apb_opt >3
MsgBox,16,PhoneBook,The command you issued contains too many variables `nPlease use dashes or underscores instead of spaces `nin the Entry name.,
; this is in case you started Phone without options or from a mouse
If apb_opt < 1
InputBox,apb_name,PhoneBook,Please enter a name to find.,,300,150
; what did you say?
If apb_name = add
Gosub, add
If apb_name = del
Goto, del
If apb_name = list
Goto, list
; unless you asked for 'del' option, display info requested or info just entered
IniRead,apb_ph,phone.db,%apb_name%,phone, nonexistent
StringUpper, apb_name, apb_name, T
MsgBox,64,PhoneBook,%apb_name%'s phone number is... `n %apb_ph%,

ExitApp

; subroutine for adding names
add:
apb_name = %2%
apb_ph = %3%
IniWrite,%apb_ph%,phone.db,%apb_name%,phone
Return

; subroutine and exit after deleting names
del:
apb_name = %2%
IniDelete,phone.db,%apb_name%
; what have I done? :o
MsgBox,64,PhoneBook,All records of %apb_name% have been erased...
ExitApp

; open phone.db in Notpad
list:
Run, Notepad phone.db, C:/,,
ExitApp

Give it a shot, and I'll try to add some of your suggestions to it.
(here's the .exe to get you started...)

2244

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by Edvard on May 16, 2008, 01:55 PM »

Almost missed this one...

2245

General Software Discussion / Re: Fedora 9 out in the wild

« Last post by Edvard on May 15, 2008, 04:57 PM »

I just downloaded and took a look at the Fedora 8 Xfce spin. Looks nice, played well, but I'm still skeptical of PulseAudio and I've been burned by RPM in the past.
Until PulseAudio is complete and Yum can resolve dependencies as slick as Apt, it won't find a spot on my hard drive quite yet.

Ubuntu 8.04 has really shaped up since it's initial release, and to be truthful I haven't seen any of the problems others have reported.

I am keeping an eye on Fedora just in case.

2246

Living Room / Re: What's Your Favorite Smilie?

« Last post by Edvard on May 14, 2008, 11:39 AM »

well, if you're talking text, I like the one I first saw f0dder using:
>_<
and these I use every once in a while:
0.o
o_0
for a while, I was using this one as a sig (because I wear glasses):
0¿0

2247

Developer's Corner / Re: Programming in the Linux operating system: where to start?

« Last post by Edvard on May 13, 2008, 07:54 PM »

Ah f0dder, I knew I could count on you to cut through the hearsay...

Yes, that was what I heard was that MS was concentrating so much on the "new" things that not much has been added to the C++ convention, but maybe it just doesn't need that much added to it?
I would agree that it still has a lot of life left, but how long?
Just as there was slow and subtle shift away from ASM and C, there is a (slow and subtle...) shift away from C++ and Java that is happening NOW.
That doesn't mean that it won't be used or even usable beyond the foreseeable future, but the focus of activity will be elsewhere and that's what I'm attempting to look ahead to...

2248

Developer's Corner / Re: Programming in the Linux operating system: where to start?

« Last post by Edvard on May 13, 2008, 07:36 PM »

BASIC can have permanent damaging effects to innocent souls

Yours truly = living proof (I still say "string" in my head when I see the $ symbol...)

Seriously, I was just on the DC IRC channel discussing this very thing.

There's a lot of talk of people who have hit the ceiling of what C++ is capable of and where it's going (besides MS development of it slowing almost to a stop...), and the new platforms (C#, .Net, Silverlight, etc.) are pumping in fresh blood to old ideas.
C is still a big cornerstone of the foundation, and the Mac OSX crowd has adopted Objective-C as it's language of choice. Python came out the clear winner in the "most popular scripting language" category (see the link at this thread) and Perl continues to be an elephant in the parlor (see below).

But I think Housetier phrased it well: "Where do you stop starting?"
When do you stop surveying diving boards and eventually jump in the f'ing pool?

I love and know Linux and am VERY curious about lots of programming languages. I've done a bit of research on the job market for the Linux-savvy, and it looks VERY promising. I would also like a better job...

So I've come up with a game plan:
1- Read enough about C/C++ to gain a conversational knowledge of it, if not the ability to code a thing or two. I'd like to know what a "stack pointer" is before I go popping my mouth off about it, and if I learn enough, maybe I'll even contribute to an open-source project just for the street cred.
2- Learn Perl. Why? Because despite the rising popularity of Python, Perl devs are still in great demand (look on http://www.indeed.com and compare "perl" results with "python") and I have a family to feed. Besides, it's a wonderfully powerful tool (especially on Unix/BSD/Linux), it's object-oriented and massively extendable. Besides, Perl 6 is coming (albeit slowly), and it looks big.
Even though it's developed in Haskell.
3- Move to Python and Mono. I think that more "average Joe" Linux development is going to move to Python, and the Windows ex-patriates are going to be feeding at the Mono trough. That may even be where the money is going and I'd like to be ready if that wave breaks.

That's my 
 

2249

Living Room / Re: any existing collidoscope program thing...

« Last post by Edvard on May 13, 2008, 06:23 PM »

On the other hand, I've noticed a lot of X screensavers are based on Physics modeling. simulations of Colliding Galaxies, Lorenz attractors, Descartes Circle theorem demos, all kinds of stuff.
http://www.jwz.org/x...ensaver/screenshots/

2250

Living Room / Re: any existing collidoscope program thing...

« Last post by Edvard on May 13, 2008, 06:10 PM »

To reply to the original thread...

Unlike many crude screensavers which are inaccurately described as "kaleidoscopic," my screensavers are true kaleidoscope simulators: They use a two mirror "mandala" reflection system, much like the best fine-art kaleidoscopes, and they are entrancing and mesmerizing!

http://www.krazydad....windows_freebies.php

Metascope is shareware and is currently unable to grab Google images, but the rest are free!

Very nice...