Recent Posts

226

Living Room / Re: Why Linux is better

« Last post by gjehle on April 12, 2007, 04:27 PM »

blatantly quoting myself:

well i did say good bye to windows over 4 years ago
been using linux for even longer than that

i'm running gentoo and i'm totally happy

of course:

hardcore gamers will be disappointed
if you want to play games, stick to windows, nobody's forcing you

gimp is not photoshop
why do i keep hearing that over and over again
photoshop = $$$ // gimp = free
and if you really want to, there's vmware

comparing different operating systems is like comparing apples and pears
get over it
linux is not windows, windows is not mac, ... i could go on ad infinitum

i'd say: if you REALLY want to use linux (not just because it's cool, and everybody does it right now) you might find something you like
but if you're going to be like "let's just try this for 30 days" it's going to fail
since it takes a LOT longer to customize everything for the first time till it's the way you're comfortable with it
it's more like a constant process

anyways, enough ranting
if you don't like it, stick to somthing else
nobody's forcing anyone

and whoever says A is better than B should be shot in the face :p

stop comparing, start using

-- https://www.donation...11.msg56776#msg56776

227

Living Room / Re: What Programs Run In Your System Tray?

« Last post by gjehle on April 12, 2007, 04:25 PM »

mmm
systray
yes, i do have that here, even tho it's not windoze

Azureus - uhm, you know the drill
KMail - obvious
amaroK - bestestest audio player ever
KOrganizer Reminder Daemon - Tasks & Schedules need to be taken care of
XChat2 - serious chatroom addiction
Skype - *curses skype to only have a stone-age-old version for linux*

usually hidden:
KMix - volume control
Beryl Manager - OSX/Vista style eye-candy for your linux desktop long before vista had it ;-)
KDE Keyboard Tool - for the rare moments in live where i need german keyboard layout
KGpg - mmmmmmm crypto
Klipper - clipboard manager, never used it :x

228

Living Room / Re: WordSpy: Devoted to lexpionage, the sleuthing of new words and phrases

« Last post by gjehle on April 12, 2007, 04:14 PM »

nice one
wonder if 'all your base are belong to us' will ever make it to webster's
would be a black day in history tho

229

Living Room / Typeworkshop - Great page for all you typographically challanged out there!

« Last post by gjehle on April 12, 2007, 04:04 PM »

I just found this very nice page that explains all the basics about fonts and typography you (n)ever wanted to know.
Having had three years of design school myself I can say this is quite a nice page.
Make sure to check it out and you might find yourself appreciating well made fonts a bit more.

type basics
100% practical. Sketches have been made to explain some basic issues in type design during the workshops.
They get used to point out some problems which raise while creating a new typeface.
Only some foundations are shown, no deep sophisticated details.

http://www.typeworks....php?id1=type-basics

from StumbleUpon

230

Mircryption / Re: Mircryption - LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - v1.19.01 - April 09, 2007

« Last post by gjehle on April 09, 2007, 04:25 PM »

hey there mircryption/xchat users.

if you find any bugs or have any (reasonable) feature suggestions, come tell me!
i'll make sure to add it to the todo list (which can be found in mircryption/src/xchat/mircryption.cpp)

since i'm actively using the plugin for years now i decided to gradually add all the features i've been missing from the mirc version and in general.

post your ideas and suggestions in this forum, mail me <[email protected]> or hop on #mircryption on efnet (you'll find out who i am (if i'm there))

231

Living Room / Re: Drawing with 2 mice

« Last post by gjehle on April 07, 2007, 05:25 AM »

well, the thing is, right now it wouldn't work with any operating system
just because of the whole way the mouse handling is programmed (many devices controlling the same cursor, aka, all are one)

it's the same problem with those nifty looking multi-touch displays of which there are videos all over the web

what most people don't see is, that this is the exact same problem
you wont see these used on your off-the-mill computer running whatever-operating-system that got ANY marketshare in the next say.. 5 to 10 years.
it's just not feasible to re-implement the whole concept of how to interact with an interface from ground up.

sad but true.

just give it 1 minute of thought
think of any program you're using right now, ANYTHING, that could be effectively used with 2 pointing devices (2 independent mice, multitouch).
might be just me, but i can't think of any ;-)

it's a nice problem to work on tho
i just don't see it happening anywhere outside academic institutions or companies able to afford such an investment (custom programs, custom hardware, for stuff that is already there for single-pointer devices)

232

Living Room / Re: Living with Linux Ubuntu (ONLY) for 30 days

« Last post by gjehle on April 07, 2007, 05:17 AM »

well i did say good bye to windows over 4 years ago
been using linux for even longer than that

i'm running gentoo and i'm totally happy

of course:

hardcore gamers will be disappointed
if you want to play games, stick to windows, nobody's forcing you

gimp is not photoshop
why do i keep hearing that over and over again
photoshop = $$$ // gimp = free
and if you really want to, there's vmware

comparing different operating systems is like comparing apples and pears
get over it
linux is not windows, windows is not mac, ... i could go on ad infinitum

i'd say: if you REALLY want to use linux (not just because it's cool, and everybody does it right now) you might find something you like
but if you're going to be like "let's just try this for 30 days" it's going to fail
since it takes a LOT longer to customize everything for the first time till it's the way you're comfortable with it
it's more like a constant process

anyways, enough ranting
if you don't like it, stick to somthing else
nobody's forcing anyone

and whoever says A is better than B should be shot in the face :p

stop comparing, start using

233

Living Room / Re: Choosing a keyboard and a mouse

« Last post by gjehle on April 07, 2007, 04:35 AM »

well,
i'm kinda against the wireless thingy, because of the downside mouser already mentioned (i don't want that thing dieing on me in the middle of whatever)

right now i'm using a cheap ass no-name keyboard and some old logitec mouseman pro dual optical.
i'm more than happy with the mouser, but the keyboard is so-so

once i'm a little better on the cash side i think i'll go for a laptop-style keyboard
i prefer very soft and short keypresses with an almost subtle pressure point (i dont want to use any force to press down the button, it takes too much time)

but most important is the keyboard layout
here in germany the layout is total BS for coders [ and ] are altgr+8 altgr+9 all the special chars cre on top of the number row !"§$%&/()=?` or god knows where
to get to my beloved negating character ~ i even have to go as far as pressing altgr+] (us) altgr++ (de)

i think if you're giving thoughts to what hardware to buy, i'd also put some of your time into thinking if you're using a proper layout
if you're in the US you're ok already, i switched to en_US keyboard layout years ago to prevent finger-breakage while coding c/c++
works like a charm

234

Living Room / Re: how to find out if external HD uses USB 1.x or 2.x?

« Last post by gjehle on April 07, 2007, 04:24 AM »

if you have a linux computer at hand try usbview

eg, here's my host controller:

[Select]

EHCI Host Controller
Manufacturer: Linux 2.6.20-gentoo-r2 ehci_hcd
Serial Number: 0000:00:02.1
Speed: 480Mb/s (high)
Number of Ports: 10
Bandwidth allocated: 0 / 800 (0%)
Total number of interrupt requests: 0
Total number of isochronous requests: 0
USB Version:  2.00
Device Class: 09(hub  )
Device Subclass: 00
Device Protocol: 01
Maximum Default Endpoint Size: 64
Number of Configurations: 1

Config Number: 1
Number of Interfaces: 1
Attributes: e0
MaxPower Needed:   0mA

Interface Number: 0
Name: hub
Alternate Number: 0
Class: 09(hub  )
Sub Class: 0
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 1

Endpoint Address: 81
Direction: in
Attribute: 3
Type: Int.
Max Packet Size: 4
Interval: 256ms

and that's my usb harddrive:

[Select]

USB TO IDE Bridge
Manufacturer: Generic
Speed: 480Mb/s (high)
USB Version:  2.00
Device Class: 00(>ifc )
Device Subclass: 00
Device Protocol: 00
Maximum Default Endpoint Size: 64
Number of Configurations: 1
Vendor Id: 058f
Product Id: 6390
Revision Number:  1.00

Config Number: 1
Number of Interfaces: 1
Attributes: c0
MaxPower Needed: 100mA

Interface Number: 0
Name: usb-storage
Alternate Number: 0
Class: 08(stor.)
Sub Class: 6
Protocol: 50
Number of Endpoints: 2

Endpoint Address: 01
Direction: out
Attribute: 2
Type: Bulk
Max Packet Size: 512
Interval: 0ms

Endpoint Address: 82
Direction: in
Attribute: 2
Type: Bulk
Max Packet Size: 512
Interval: 0ms

and for a real information overdose, here's my old phillips 2u webcam

[Select]

Philips webcam
Serial Number: 0169000069510101
Speed: 12Mb/s (full)
USB Version:  1.10
Device Class: 00(>ifc )
Device Subclass: 00
Device Protocol: 00
Maximum Default Endpoint Size: 8
Number of Configurations: 1
Vendor Id: 0471
Product Id: 0313
Revision Number:  0.03

Config Number: 1
Number of Interfaces: 3
Attributes: a0
MaxPower Needed: 500mA

Interface Number: 0
Name: Philips webcam
Alternate Number: 0
Class: ff(vend.)
Sub Class: 0
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 2

Endpoint Address: 82
Direction: in
Attribute: 3
Type: Int.
Max Packet Size: 1
Interval: 32ms

Endpoint Address: 85
Direction: in
Attribute: 1
Type: Isoc
Max Packet Size: 0
Interval: 1ms

Interface Number: 0
Name: Philips webcam
Alternate Number: 1
Class: ff(vend.)
Sub Class: 0
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 2

Endpoint Address: 82
Direction: in
Attribute: 3
Type: Int.
Max Packet Size: 1
Interval: 32ms

Endpoint Address: 85
Direction: in
Attribute: 1
Type: Isoc
Max Packet Size: 196
Interval: 1ms

Interface Number: 0
Name: Philips webcam
Alternate Number: 2
Class: ff(vend.)
Sub Class: 0
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 2

Endpoint Address: 82
Direction: in
Attribute: 3
Type: Int.
Max Packet Size: 1
Interval: 32ms

Endpoint Address: 85
Direction: in
Attribute: 1
Type: Isoc
Max Packet Size: 292
Interval: 1ms

Interface Number: 0
Name: Philips webcam
Alternate Number: 3
Class: ff(vend.)
Sub Class: 0
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 2

Endpoint Address: 82
Direction: in
Attribute: 3
Type: Int.
Max Packet Size: 1
Interval: 32ms

Endpoint Address: 85
Direction: in
Attribute: 1
Type: Isoc
Max Packet Size: 448
Interval: 1ms

Interface Number: 0
Name: Philips webcam
Alternate Number: 4
Class: ff(vend.)
Sub Class: 0
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 2

Endpoint Address: 82
Direction: in
Attribute: 3
Type: Int.
Max Packet Size: 1
Interval: 32ms

Endpoint Address: 85
Direction: in
Attribute: 1
Type: Isoc
Max Packet Size: 592
Interval: 1ms

Interface Number: 0
Name: Philips webcam
Alternate Number: 5
Class: ff(vend.)
Sub Class: 0
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 2

Endpoint Address: 82
Direction: in
Attribute: 3
Type: Int.
Max Packet Size: 1
Interval: 32ms

Endpoint Address: 85
Direction: in
Attribute: 1
Type: Isoc
Max Packet Size: 704
Interval: 1ms

Interface Number: 0
Name: Philips webcam
Alternate Number: 6
Class: ff(vend.)
Sub Class: 0
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 2

Endpoint Address: 82
Direction: in
Attribute: 3
Type: Int.
Max Packet Size: 1
Interval: 32ms

Endpoint Address: 85
Direction: in
Attribute: 1
Type: Isoc
Max Packet Size: 776
Interval: 1ms

Interface Number: 0
Name: Philips webcam
Alternate Number: 7
Class: ff(vend.)
Sub Class: 0
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 2

Endpoint Address: 82
Direction: in
Attribute: 3
Type: Int.
Max Packet Size: 1
Interval: 32ms

Endpoint Address: 85
Direction: in
Attribute: 1
Type: Isoc
Max Packet Size: 840
Interval: 1ms

Interface Number: 0
Name: Philips webcam
Alternate Number: 8
Class: ff(vend.)
Sub Class: 0
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 2

Endpoint Address: 82
Direction: in
Attribute: 3
Type: Int.
Max Packet Size: 1
Interval: 32ms

Endpoint Address: 85
Direction: in
Attribute: 1
Type: Isoc
Max Packet Size: 896
Interval: 1ms

Interface Number: 0
Name: Philips webcam
Alternate Number: 9
Class: ff(vend.)
Sub Class: 0
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 2

Endpoint Address: 82
Direction: in
Attribute: 3
Type: Int.
Max Packet Size: 1
Interval: 32ms

Endpoint Address: 85
Direction: in
Attribute: 1
Type: Isoc
Max Packet Size: 960
Interval: 1ms

Interface Number: 0
Name: Philips webcam
Alternate Number: 10
Class: ff(vend.)
Sub Class: 0
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 2

Endpoint Address: 82
Direction: in
Attribute: 3
Type: Int.
Max Packet Size: 1
Interval: 32ms

Endpoint Address: 85
Direction: in
Attribute: 1
Type: Isoc
Max Packet Size: 960
Interval: 1ms

Interface Number: 1
Name: (none)
Alternate Number: 0
Class: 01(audio)
Sub Class: 1
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 0

Interface Number: 2
Name: (none)
Alternate Number: 0
Class: 01(audio)
Sub Class: 2
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 0

Interface Number: 2
Name: (none)
Alternate Number: 1
Class: 01(audio)
Sub Class: 2
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 1

Endpoint Address: 84
Direction: in
Attribute: 1
Type: Isoc
Max Packet Size: 90
Interval: 1ms

Interface Number: 2
Name: (none)
Alternate Number: 2
Class: 01(audio)
Sub Class: 2
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 1

Endpoint Address: 84
Direction: in
Attribute: 1
Type: Isoc
Max Packet Size: 46
Interval: 1ms

Interface Number: 2
Name: (none)
Alternate Number: 3
Class: 01(audio)
Sub Class: 2
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 1

Endpoint Address: 84
Direction: in
Attribute: 1
Type: Isoc
Max Packet Size: 25
Interval: 1ms

Interface Number: 2
Name: (none)
Alternate Number: 4
Class: 01(audio)
Sub Class: 2
Protocol: 0
Number of Endpoints: 1

Endpoint Address: 84
Direction: in
Attribute: 1
Type: Isoc
Max Packet Size: 16
Interval: 1ms

so if you REALLY want a crapload of information, pop in a knoppix cd/dvd and check if there's 'usbview' on it

235

General Software Discussion / Re: Is is possible to flip the display in real time?

« Last post by gjehle on April 06, 2007, 09:01 PM »

i think i remember some driver software that came with my graphics card (back in the days when i used windows) that had a switch to flip the screen.

general answer to general question: yes you can flip your screen in real time
if you want to do it in pure software it might not work tho

236

Mircryption / mircryption / xchat - new features upcoming in version 0.3.0

« Last post by gjehle on April 06, 2007, 06:53 PM »

hey to all you xchat using mircryptors!

after someone (bt) joined #mircryption on efnet, pointing out a little bug (or two, or three, ...)
i sat down and invested a couple of hours into (re)writing some of mircryption/xchat's code

now just wait for mouser to upload the latest version so you can grab it from your trusted source @ donationcoder

you can look forward to
- key migration. if someone with a encryption key set changes his/her nick, the key will stick to the new nick (the mirc version had this since the beginning)
- more flexible theme settings (still hardcoded, but more choice and hopefully easier to understand)
- we are now catching the incoming text while it's still in RAW, thus preventing xchat from accidentally hilighting your nick within the base64 string (thanks bt for pointing that one out)
- nick hilighting! yes! finally you can get nick hilighting even if the text was encrypted

quite some work went into the message-re-issue code that enables us to use xchat's native nick-hilighting facilities even if the incoming text is (was) encrypted.
thanks to zed (xchat's coder) for giving me some very helpful pointers as to what's possible and safe to do.
since it's kinda weird if you just look at the code i spent some time to document it properly using a perverted version of a sequence diagram:

(click for full size)

237

Living Room / Re: Best Freeware FTP client?

« Last post by gjehle on December 14, 2006, 04:10 PM »

graphical interfaces are overrated
ncftp ftw ;-)

238

Living Room / Re: What's better: modern built-in motherboard sound chip or old sound card?

« Last post by gjehle on November 11, 2006, 09:04 PM »

well,
if it comes to audio you will have, at some point, an analog signal
and unless you're using digital outputs, you'll have these on your soundcard (aka classic speaker/line out)

while digital electronics operate within well defined limites and are fairly well to master, what it comes down to is your digntal/analog converter.

THAT's actually the part a lot of (lower to middle end) cards have a poor (cheap) design.
a lot of cards use a simple R/C combo to smoothen the signal, that's cheap (2 pieces) and easy.
but if you want a good quality, it sucks.

also, (sorry if i'm repeating something that has already been said, i haven't read _all_ of it) on-board cards are more prone to noise, that's one reason why a lot of middle to high-end cards are not even pci(e) but firewire or usb, just to get away from all the nasty noise producing electronics inside the computer case.

if you want sound = get onboard
if you want decent sound = get a card
if you want good sound = get a external soundcard

and if you're DAC sucks (simple R/C smoother) the digital part can be as good as it gets, it'll be ruined just before it reaches your speakers.

and why do a lot of manufactures use simple R/C ?
it's easy to build cheap digital electronics (you really dont have to care about noise that much if it's digital anyways)
but it's hard and expensive to build low-noise analog devices.
they also tend to use up quite a bit of PCB real estate

ok, that's all for my 2ct

239

Living Room / Re: Starship dimensions

« Last post by gjehle on October 26, 2006, 05:53 PM »

anyone found the easteregg? ;-)

zoomlevel: 10x
lower right, under the starship troopers bugs ;-)

240

Living Room / Re: Cool Poster of How the Domain Name System Works (and other posters)

« Last post by gjehle on September 23, 2006, 08:37 PM »

that's a pretty cool find mouser!

241

Living Room / Re: Article: How Much System Memory Is Really Enough?

« Last post by gjehle on September 06, 2006, 11:24 AM »

well, i have 2GB CL2 DDR RAM in my linux workstation running native 64bit gentoo
due to memory failure i had to run the box at times with both 512MB and 1GB
512 is far from usable, 1GB was way slower.

This might be because what linux does is taking all the memory it can get and use it as buffer for low speed IO operations.
so my whole memory is used up after using the box for an hour or two.

and since i'm using gentoo, i bought that computer with exactly this in mind.
dualcore x2 4400+ with 2gb ram and a raid mirrored pair of sata raptors
if it comes down to compiling, this box is awesome

ram alone wont help you in all cases, you have to match the other hardware too

242

Living Room / Re: "ICE" Your Cell phone

« Last post by gjehle on August 14, 2006, 03:37 AM »

basically a good idea
but given the fact that i'm paranoid and have my cellphone locked with a 5 digit keycode at all times this kind of doesn't work for me :p
nevertheless, i have an entry in my phonebook called "_HOME" which is on the very top of the list ;-) kind of does the same

243

Living Room / Re: xkcd.com - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

« Last post by gjehle on August 04, 2006, 04:14 PM »

i'm reading this comic for quite a while now, and i have to say, i really like it

244

Living Room / awesome animated long exposure pictures

« Last post by gjehle on August 03, 2006, 02:36 PM »

just.. wow
http://tochka.jp/pik...ika_in_kitijoji.html

245

General Software Discussion / Re: Scripting vs. Programming

« Last post by gjehle on July 29, 2006, 11:45 PM »

html & css = w3c conform text formatting

scripts get interpreted
java gets interpreted
c# gets interpreted
pascal gets interpreted
perl gets interpreted

well, um, per defintion calling a perl scripter not a coder also means that java is not programming, or c#

if one takes a step back and looks at the principle, it's all programming
instructing the machine to do something or instructing something that instructs the machine is just another layer of abstraction
aslong as you write something that looks like code i'd say you're a coder/programmer

246

General Software Discussion / Re: My rant against php...

« Last post by gjehle on July 28, 2006, 03:42 PM »

Any suggestions for editors that indent wrapped text?

-superboyac (July 28, 2006, 03:12 PM)

www.vim.org ;-)
yes, there is a windows version, with gui

247

General Software Discussion / Re: My rant against php...

« Last post by gjehle on July 28, 2006, 02:44 PM »

I'd rather have a WYWIWYG editor

-f0dder (July 28, 2006, 02:23 PM)

hell yes
but for now vim, imagination, and brainpower did it for me
(in most cases)

248

General Software Discussion / Re: My rant against php...

« Last post by gjehle on July 28, 2006, 01:43 PM »

wysiwyg = { x | x != dynamic }

but while you're at it
can you look out for a wysiwyg editor for c and c++
i'm in desperate need of one, kthx

249

Living Room / Re: Sensual Massager for Women that comes with Programable Software

« Last post by gjehle on July 14, 2006, 12:29 PM »

where are the man-toys
this is kinda unfair :/

250

Living Room / Re: AOL 1.0 Disk sells for $9K on ebay

« Last post by gjehle on July 14, 2006, 12:25 PM »

kinda interesting, how limited availability and age (tho the term age is to be used in a relative manner in this context) represent value.
even enough value to have people want it, just so they can have it, without the object being of actual use to them in any kind or fashion.
guess that's what you call "status symbols".

i'm not saying i'm immune to this; i'm far from that. tho... i'm glad i'm not into AOL cds
it's just... veeery interesting.

what makes it even stranger is, that it seems to work only for a certain kind of object.
but then again.. there's always a idiot to be found who collects object X