Assembly Component {303994BA-6487-47AE-AF1D-7AF6088EEBDB}

I recently tried to install the Nokia Software Updater, but it gave me this error:

Error 1935. An error occured during the installation of assembly component{303994BA-6487-47AE-AF1D-7AF6088EEBDB}.

Quick research showed that this had something to do with MSXML 4.0. So I quickly went here and downloaded the msi installer. Which gave me the same error.

Apparently you have to force an uninstall of MSXML 4.0 SP0 or SP1, open a cmd-window and enter the following two lines:

msiexec /qn /x {35343FF7-939B-401A-87B3-FF90A5123D88} msiexec /qn /x {2AEBE10C-D819-4EBF-BC60-03BF2327D340}

Close and restart. Yes: you must restart (I hate it as much as you do).

Now install the msi. Then install the Nokia software. Everything works fine now.

Javascript browser detection using DOM capabilities

Just found this, pretty handy!

// browser detection

var isIE = document.all;
var isIE7 = isIE && window.XMLHttpRequest && window.ActiveXObject;
var isIE6 = isIE && document.implementation;
var isgteIE6 = isIE7 isIE6;
var isIE5 = isIE && window.print && !isgteIE6;
var isIEDOM2 = isIE5 isgteIE6;
var isIE4 = isIE && !isIEDOM2 && navigator.cookieEnabled;
var isIE3 = isIE && !isIE4 && !isIEDOM2;
var isNS = navigator.mimeTypes && !isIE;
var isNS3 = isNS && !navigator.language;
var isNS4 = document.layers;
var isNS6 = document.getElementById && !isIE;
var isNS7 = isNS6;
var isNS71 = document.designMode;
var isNSDOM2 = isNS6;
var isDOM2 = isIEDOM2 isNSDOM2;

Game: Portal

Man, what a surprise this game was!

This is a great puzzle game, which you should also play multiple times (once with the commentaries).

You're a woman who wakes up in a cell inside a lab and presented with a portal that lets you walk out of the room and into another. With this gun you must solve lots of puzzles which get gradually harder.

Along the way, GlaDOS, an AI with a computerized female voice, guides you. GlaDOS is incredibly funny, and gets even funnier at the end. The whole game is actually hilarious, in a good way! The scripts and characters are wonderfully designed. The game is minimalistic in nature and all these little extras are just the topping of the... cake.

GlaDOS will lie to you, cute turrets who'll say "Where are you?" everytime you go into hiding, an amazing weighted companion cube, and cake. This game is full of little surprises. You just have to play it and experience its awesomeness!

"Cake, and grief counseling will be available at the conclusion of the test.
Thank you for helping us help you help us all."

Pros:

• FPS puzzle game, with portals!
• Great ending song.
• Hilarious humor.
• Unforgettable characters.
• Minimalistic and focused nature, without ever becoming boring.
• Where's my sequel?

Cons:

• A tad short.

Now only Company Of Heroes: Opposing Fronts and Quake Wars remain on my list of games-to-play. But that's for later.

Game: Half Life 2 - Episode 2

Wow.

Half Life blew me away, again. I finished the game in one big long marathon session. Twice. The second time with the developers' commentary enabled - which I still love.

I'm not going to spoil anything, but I found the ending completely unexpected and fantastic. Also, Merle Dandridge's voice acting (Alyx) was incredible. When the credits rolled over my screen I just wanted to play Ep. 3 immediately. The game itself was great, with the return of old friends, and the introduction of new friends - and new enemies.

Just like episode 1, the game provides you with a companion (either Alyx or a Vortigaunt) most of the time.

Maybe I'll play Half Life 2, Ep. 1 and Ep. 2 in one big sitting soon...

Pros:

• Story is great!
• Characters to love.
• Great voice acting.
• Graphics are enhanced and still look amazing.
• Cinematic physics - so cool.
• Longer than the first episode.
• Great sound track.

Cons:

• Err, none?
• Okay, maybe still too short ;).
• Also: no new real weapons, I would love to handle a sniper myself (instead of the crossbow).
• You might lose some sleep.

Game: The Settlers: Rise Of An Empire

Another quick review for this one. Not much to say about this game, I mean: it's Settlers. It's back, and it's 3d and cuter than ever :).

Pros:

• Settler's back!
• Game looks very nice.
• Long and entertaining missions.
• Happy atmosphere.

Cons:

• Few bugs still around.
• Needs quite a bit of system resources.

Game: Medal Of Honor: Airborne

I've been playing some games last weekend, Medal Of Honor: Airborne being one of them.

Basically it's just another WW2 FPS with nothing special. The drops at the beginning of each mission are pretty nice, and the levels aren't badly designed either.

The graphics look nice but were somewhat sluggish, how come this game needs so much resources when Half Life runs so nice in all its glory without a peep?

So quickly: pros:

• The WW2 hype is almost over, so this game is nice if you just can't get enough WW-action.
• Graphics look fine.
• Level design.
• Airborne-theme.
• Non-linear misions.

Cons:

• High system requirements.
• Your weapons are difficult to handle, while the AI has no problems hitting you.
• Gets boring quickly.
• Not a real story.

Some Articles

• Tips for faster PHP scripts
• More Tips for faster PHP scripts
• 7 reasons I switched back to PHP after 2 years on Rails
  

  #5 - IT’S BUILT TO MY TASTES
  I don’t need to adapt my ways to Rails. I tell PHP exactly what I want to do, the way I want to do it, and it doesn’t complain.

  #6 - I LOVE SQL
  Speaking of tastes: tiny but important thing: I love SQL. I dream in queries. I think in tables. I was always fighting against Rails and its migrations hiding my beloved SQL from me.

SQL: Check Existing Rows Matching A Condition

Instead of this:

IF (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Table1 WHERE ... ) > 0

use this:

IF EXISTS(SELECT * FROM Table1 WHERE ...)

Great tip provided by this article.

Programming Can Ruin Your Life

The application of programming specific processes and habits to the everyday is where peril lies. The same traits that make you a great programmer can make you an awkward, misunderstood and miserable human being.

Amazingly good read.

Game: Bioshock

I finished Bioshock a few moments ago. There's not much I will say about this game because it has been reviewed and analyzed to dead at other sites and by other people.

I can say though that this game is fantastic, both story- and graphic-wise. Also: it often scared the hell out of me.

There is one big downside with this game: the constant crashing. Maybe my configuration is getting old, but this game is actually running quite fine when it's not crashing.

It also could have something to do with Windows Vista. Here's how a typical game session goes for me.

1. After a while it became clear that I have to disable high detail shaders. This will cause the game to crash less with certain video cards.
2. Start Bioshock. "Bioshock.exe has stopped working and has to close." Start Bioshock. "Bioshock.exe has stopped working and has to close." (Repeat this one to ten times.) Finally I see the splash screen and the game loads (strange).
3. Play and enjoy.
4. A new area is coming up, save right before going to the next level. Exit.
5. Edit Default.ini (toy with the audiodevice, add a new D3DDrv, comment out FMOD):

;AudioDevice=FMODAudio.FMODAudioSubsystem
AudioDevice=D3DDrv.D3DAudioDevice

6. Start game again (don't forget to repeat step 2 a few times). Load my save. Go to next area.
7. Wait until area finished loading. When I don't use step 5, my whole system locks up slowly and the area never loads. Save. Exit again.
8. Edit Default.ini again, otherwise I have no in-game sound:

AudioDevice=FMODAudio.FMODAudioSubsystem
;AudioDevice=D3DDrv.D3DAudioDevice

9. Start again, load save, loads fine, continue from step 3.

But still, the game is awesome (but release a patch, quick!).

Also I want you to see the cinematic trailer if you haven't. Don't forget to pick up all the audio diaries in the game and listen to them, the story and characters are so great.

One final note: if you were wondering, I saved all the Little Sisters. After being presented with the first choose to either harvest or rescue them I was too moved not to save them (it was just a sad sight). So I got the 'good' ending. I was happy I did, I would've felt very guilty otherwise, especially after seeing the 'bad' ending (look on Youtube or play the Bink vids).

Pros:

• Amazing story.
• Great atmosphere.
• Possibly best graphics seen in a game up to date.
• Can be real creepy at times.
• The music (both the grammophone music and the orchestral score are great).
• Nice set of weapons, plasmids, hacks and more.

Cons:

• You'll need a very high-end PC.
• Game loves to crash.
• The activation system-slash-copyright protection is a royal pain.
• No multiplayer (not a real downside for me, but might be a pity for some).
• The story is just a tad predictable at times.

And now I'm going to rip the music out of the fmod files :).

Scrolling Unfocused Windows

I've been looking for a way to do this for some time now: scrolling unfocused windows, in Windows. You can do it with a Mac (movie here) and on Linux. I became accustomed to it after prolonged Ubuntu-use on my laptop. (It's incredibly handy on lower resolutions too.)

So I posted a note (with replies) on Pownce...

So I'm using KatMouse now. Program is working perfectly fine, and was exactly what I had in mind.

Also: I'm beginning to like Pownce (much more than Twitter anyway).

Simulating LIMIT with offsets in SQL

How can you do this (x is number of rows to fetch, y is offset):

SELECT * FROM my_table LIMIT x, y

(Mysql)

or this:

SELECT * FROM my_table LIMIT x OFFSET y

(PostgreSQL)

in a DBMS that doesn't support LIMIT statements (take Oracle for example).

In Oracle, you can use ROWNUM, which holds the current row number:

SELECT * FROM
(SELECT ROWNUM limit, * FROM my_table ORDER BY order_field)
WHERE limit BETWEEN x AND y

In SQL Server (>2005), you can use a similar trick, using the ROW_NUMBER function:

WITH ordered AS (
SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY order_field) AS limit, *
FROM my_table)
SELECT *
FROM ordered
WHERE limit BETWEEN x AND y

When using another database (Access for example), you can use TOP when available:

SELECT * FROM
(SELECT TOP x * FROM
(SELECT TOP x+y * FROM my_table ORDER BY order_field)
AS innerT
ORDER BY order_field DESC) AS outerT
ORDER BY order_field

Or, another option:

SELECT TOP x * FROM my_table
WHERE order_field NOT IN
(SELECT TOP y * FROM my_table ORDER BY order_field)

Some databases don't allow TOP in subselects, so we have to use yet another method:

SELECT * FROM my_table outerT
WHERE
(SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM my_table innerT
WHERE innerT.order_field <= outerT.order_field)
BETWEEN y+1 AND x+y
ORDER BY outerT.order_field ASC;

Should that fail too, you can always do:

SELECT TOP x * FROM my_table WHERE order_field > z

with z the last fetched order_field value from the previous page.

You can also find a handy article on the IBM site describing how you can simulate row numbers.

Game: Jade Empire - Special Edition

So I picked up Jade Empire for the PC a few days ago. I was astonished because I didn't even know it was released for the PC. (I've been jealous of console owners who could play the game and then I even miss the PC release!)

So after I quick install I was ready to go. I was more than happy to experience a new Bioware-experience. As coincidence would have it, I had been playing a few Neverwinter Nights premium modules the days before just because I wanted a Bioware experience. (And no, KotOR 2 and NWN 2 just aren't the same.)

And the game didn't disappoint. I you haven't played it yet: you should. The whole story was fantastic. The characters were well though out, and the combat was fun without being frustrating (I didn't die a single time on the easiest difficulty level).

If you are a hardcore PC RPG gamer you will notice that this game is a tad linear. Of course there are quite a lot of side quests but you can't roam very freely. This seems to be a typical characteristic of more 'modern' RPGs, like Fable, or even Overlord. On the other hand, this also has pros: at least you don't get lost or distracted. Also: Fable could learn a few things from Jade Empire, this is how a console RPG should be done: it's all about the story and the atmosphere. The game is fun, quick to pick up and you don't have to manage your inventory and character every two steps while still keeping enough numbers, statistics and options for you to look at.

I think I'm going to rest for a bit now after this marathon-gaming-session. But I think I'm going to replay the game with another character later.

Let's hope that Mass Effect comes to the PC as well.

Pros:

• Another Bioware classic.
• Amazing atmosphere.
• Great story.
• Cool styles and techniques.
• Original oriental setting of the game.
• A right amount of side quests.
• Well ported: no crashes, no control problems.
• Graphics are still good.
• Music.

Cons:

• Camera misbehaves sometimes .
• Leaves you wanting much more ;).

Game: Overlord

This game took me a little longer to finish: two days.

The game itself is actually pretty good but not that special. I had expected a bit more from it: being more evil for example.

Pros:

• Nice story.
• Minions.
• Graphics are decent.
• Sound is nice.
• Maps and environments are awesome.
• Will remind you of Dungeon Keeper (and Fable too).
  

Cons:

• Not evil enough.
• Very, very linear. No replay value, apart from the different endings (which you can watch anyway by installing RADTools).
  
• Could do with a bit more spells.
• Just needs more tweaking, Overlord 2 could be something really worth your while tho, so why not pick up this one?
  

Game: Call Of Juarez

I started playing Call of Juarez today and... wait, I just finished it too.

All in all a nice game, I only had a small problem playing it on my computer, the game started with an Exception error. Installing the latest patch didn't help either.

I was ready to blame the copy protection (since those have been bugging a lot of games lately in my experience). But the no-dvd crack didn't help either. (It seems that official technical support people are giving those cracks to people who had problems. Makes you wonder...) There were a few other people with my problem too on the forums.

So then I tried the only other thing I could think of. I set the compatibility mode of the game to 'Windows XP'. If you have the same problem and are running Windows XP 64 bit, then give it a try, because after that the game started and worked perfect.

The game itself is actually pretty nice. Two playable characters, a mediocre story, a large environment, nice graphics, very fitting music and voice acting. Only the long stealth missions and platforming with Billy (one of the characters) got on my nerves. But the fact that you can play as an ass-kicking reverend afterwards is worth it.

So: pros:

• Enjoyable action! There is slowmo.
• Great music, good voice acting.
• Two characters. Two gaming styles.
• Great graphics (especially the maps, nature and towns).
• Multiplayer is quite fun.
• Original genre (well, we had Gun before tho).

and cons:

• Doesn't really stand out.
• Long stealth and platforming missions.
• You'll need a potent machine to run it.
• Few glitches (Windows 64 bit problem, see before).
• Few map glitches (I managed to accidentally get to parts where I wasn't supposed to be - yet - and couldn't go back).

Tumblr

I've had a Tumblelog for some time now. I absolutely love its keep-it-simple style. Updated almost daily. Go check it out at:

http://macuyiko.tumblr.com/

P.S.: if you want to run your own, I recommend Bazooka.

The Number

Wow! The Internet is going crazy about some random number (and it's not 23). Apparently, typing out an hexadecimal value will get you killed / deleted / censored / jailed / destroyed / raped / ignored / access to HD-DVD content. It goes something like: 09 F9 11 02. But it also has 9D 74 E3 5B in it. Maybe D8 41 56 somewhere too. C5 63 56 may or may not have something to do with it. I will give away that it ends with 88 C0 tho. Digg is going nuts. Moderators are constantly deleting any article about this number. They are even deleting irrelevant posts to cover up their censoring tracks. However, they seem to forget that this is the Internet.

Articles about The Number (growing):

• Spread this number now. Article is deleted!
  Mirror here. Picture here and here.
  
• Slashdot does not censor the number. Thank you!
• Censorship 5. 70 diggs in 7 minutes!
• Wikipedia censors the number. You cannot create the page anymore.
• Free binary translation.
• May 1st: the day Digg died. (User got deleted.) lnxaddct made a nice remark:
  

  Is this a violation of the DMCA too?
  
  MDkgRjkgMTEgMDIgOUQgNzQgRTMgNUIgRDggNDEgNTYgQzUgNjMgNTYgODggQzA=n
  
  hint: In python, "text".decode("base64")

• Digg losing control of their site. With article.
• The number.
• Cowards.
• Freedom of speech.
• Digg is dugg.
  
• And it's growing every second...

Another article on rudd-o.

Also: Google is full with the stuff.

February 13th! Wired blog posts the key.

Reddit also seems to have no problem with the key.

Explanation about the key at Doom9.

igul222 also has a nice list about the number.

Let's see how this ends. I wonder how Mr. Rose will talk his way out of this. He'll probably will.

Update: this just in. Told ya :).

Top 10 Presentations On Scaling Websites

A great blog post listing all those great scaling presentations. I really enjoy watching those (most of them are on Youtube too).

Here's one of them (about Twitter):

Ubuntu Feisty - Second Problem

Another problem (on another machine) was that it refused booting the new kernel.

Also: the live cd didn't work either, with the same error. A lot of people have problems of this kind, and most of the times they get the following errors:

ata2 is slow to respond, please be patient
ata2 failed to respond (30 secs)
ata2: command 0xa0 timeout, stat 0xd0 host_stat 0x20

And finally it quits to an initramfs shell:

/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off

Note that this last message is normal and has nothing to do with the actual problem. This caused some confusion with some people.

So people have tried various things, here are a few suggestions, most of them came from users and developers:

• Is there a floppy in the drive? Remove it, otherwise, insert a floppy and see if that makes any difference. I didn't care much for this solution. However, it did work for some people...
• Check your IDE configuration in the BIOS, put it on Standard IDE.
• Boot with libata.ignore_hpa=0 added to boot options. (Press e to edit a menu item in the GRUB list, then go to the line which contains the kernel. Always remove quiet and splash and add the above command.) This didn't work with me.
• The solution which worked for me was the following one: add break=top to the boot parameters (see above), don't forget to delete splash and quiet. Once you boot, you will immediately break to an initramfs shell. Try the following commands.
  modprobe piix
  modprobe libata
  modprobe pata_jmicron
  modprobe ata_piix
  modprobe ahci
  modprobe ata_generic
  modprobe ide-disk
  modprobe ide-generic
  Then type exit to continue booting. You don't have to try them all at once. I first tried ide-disk and ide-generic but those didn't work, then I tried only piix, which worked! If that doesn't work, I would suggest trying piix, libata, pata_jmicron, ata_piix, ahci and ata_generic.
  Once you get it running, we must make sure these modules get loaded automatically (instead of always adding break=top). Edit the following file: /etc/initramfs-tools/modules/. E.g., type:
  sudo gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
  And add the modules which worked for you (without modprobe). In my case, I only had to add piix. Save and exit the editor, then execute the following command:
  sudo update-initramfs -u
  Done. Try to restart normally. It should work now. If it doesn't, continue checking the forums and Launchpad.

Feisty Upgrade - First Problem

We recently updated all our Ubuntu machines from Edgy to Feisty. Updating went smooth, apart from a few problems.

The first problem was that X was freezing at random intervals. Xorg log said nothing special, but the GDM log did:

Error in I830WaitLpRing(), now is 7023360, start is 7021359
pgetbl_ctl: 0x3ffc0001 pgetbl_err: 0x0
ipeir: 0 iphdr: 1810000
LP ring tail: 9b38 head: 938c len: 1f801 start 0
eir: 0 esr: 0 emr: ffff
instdone: ffc0 instpm: 0
memmode: 306 instps: f0000
hwstam: ffff ier: 0 imr: ffff iir: 0
space: 129100 wanted 131064

Fatal server error:
lockup

So I did the only thing I could think of: I removed the Videoram lines from xorg.conf. And the freezes seem to have stopped.