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.

Games: Supreme Commander And Command And Conquer 3

I've just finished all the campaigns of Command And Conquer 3. I must say I am pretty impressed.

I also played a bit of Supreme Commander but I didn't really like that game and I've already uninstalled it.

Supreme Commander is good because:

• Huge maps.
• Cool units.
• Strategic zoom is really helpful.
• Multiplayer.

But bad because:

• Boring maps.
• Though you can build hundreds of units, they are all so tiny...
• Repetitive missions... always the same.

Command And Conquer has:

• Kane!
• Kaaaaaane! (Yes, he counts for two points!)
• Full-motion video is back and you can't help but love the cheesy acting.
• Nice detailed maps.
• A superb engine. The maps load incredibly fast, and there is no huge framerate drop - ever! Even with a lot of units on screen... how do they do it? (Supreme Commander takes ages to load.)
• Cool units.
• Fun multiplayer.
• Did I mention Kane?
• Spectacular effects.

It does need better patching though (especially for people without high-end systems). On my system however the game ran like a dream in 1600x1200 with all options on highest (except AA, which is level 1).

However, if you adored Total Annihilation, you will like Supreme Commander. If you loved C&C, you'll love Tiberium Wars. I liked both, but I do prefer to play a game of CC3.

"Huh?" Or "Where have my past two days gone?"

I've been kinda bored lately. I enjoy playing a game when I stop working. The problem is that lately I haven't been able to find a really good game which kept me hooked. Where are the times of those good atmospheric games like Half Life 2 (Episode 1 if you wish), Beyond Good And Evil, Psychonauts, GTA San Andreas, Fahrenheit, Dreamfall (how I loved that game), Prince Of Persia... Wait a minute... Prince Of Persia.

I decided to reinstall The Two Thrones, which I didn't finish last time I played it. (I only played for half an hour through the game and then became distracted).

While I was thinking about the fact that installing this game would certainly take a lot of my time away I was listening to some PoP-game-music. Hearing Time Only Knows and I Still Love You again enough to convince me. I inserted CD 1.

We're now two days later, it's past midnight again, and I have completed the game. I must say: what an experience. The ending was fantastic. I just can't understand why I am so hooked on that game (I always believed I wasn't the guy for platformers).

Sigh... and now I'm bored again :), but at least I have a sense of accomplishment now (if you can call it that).

Game: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Played a bit of Stalker yesterday. It's a nice first-person shooter but has some issues (don't try playing it on Vista, neither did I).

Good:

• Atmospheric: great graphics, huge maps, great architecture and maps!
• Immersive, open-ended... it seems there are 7 different endings.
• Survival - you get attacked by wild dogs.
• Horror!
• Lots to explore. Again: mapdesign is great!
  
• Lots of different factions.
  

Bad:

• Inventory system could be smoother.
• Story could be clearer.
• High system reqs.

Ugly:

• Bugs!
• Overhyped game.
• Late release.
• Don't use Vista.

Back From CeBIT

I'm back from CeBIT. And again: it was a great Messe. I'll upload pictures later when I've some spare time.

P.S.: having 'Austeller/Exhibitor' written on your ticket feels great ;).

Infographics And Animations

More interesting and cool videos.

The big brother state:


Trusted computing:


Remind me infographic:


Airport animation:


What Barry says:


Plaid - Itsu:


Google master plan:


Tried and tested method:


Questions about life:

Cool Youtube Video - The Machine Is Us

Just a quick YouTube video I found interesting.

Your Jung Typology

The Jung Typology test was on Digg today. You can test yourself here.

My result was: INTJ - "Mastermind Rational" - Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging. But some other tests describe me as Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging (INSJ).

A better description for INTJ (and other types) is here. Here is mine (bold parts emphasized by me).

To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of "definiteness", of self-confidence. This self-confidence, sometimes mistaken for simple arrogance by the less decisive, is actually of a very specific rather than a general nature; its source lies in the specialized knowledge systems that most INTJs start building at an early age. When it comes to their own areas of expertise -- and INTJs can have several -- they will be able to tell you almost immediately whether or not they can help you, and if so, how. INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don't know.

True, that.

INTJs are perfectionists, with a seemingly endless capacity for improving upon anything that takes their interest. What prevents them from becoming chronically bogged down in this pursuit of perfection is the pragmatism so characteristic of the type: INTJs apply (often ruthlessly) the criterion "Does it work?" to everything from their own research efforts to the prevailing social norms. This in turn produces an unusual independence of mind, freeing the INTJ from the constraints of authority, convention, or sentiment for its own sake.

INTJs are known as the "Systems Builders" of the types, perhaps in part because they possess the unusual trait combination of imagination and reliability. Whatever system an INTJ happens to be working on is for them the equivalent of a moral cause to an INFJ; both perfectionism and disregard for authority may come into play, as INTJs can be unsparing of both themselves and the others on the project. Anyone considered to be "slacking," including superiors, will lose their respect -- and will generally be made aware of this; INTJs have also been known to take it upon themselves to implement critical decisions without consulting their supervisors or co-workers. On the other hand, they do tend to be scrupulous and even-handed about recognizing the individual contributions that have gone into a project, and have a gift for seizing opportunities which others might not even notice.

Very flattering.

In the broadest terms, what INTJs "do" tends to be what they "know". Typical INTJ career choices are in the sciences and engineering, but they can be found wherever a combination of intellect and incisiveness are required (e.g., law, some areas of academia). INTJs can rise to management positions when they are willing to invest time in marketing their abilities as well as enhancing them, and (whether for the sake of ambition or the desire for privacy) many also find it useful to learn to simulate some degree of surface conformism in order to mask their inherent unconventionality.

Watch out now:

Personal relationships, particularly romantic ones, can be the INTJ's Achilles heel. While they are capable of caring deeply for others (usually a select few), and are willing to spend a great deal of time and effort on a relationship, the knowledge and self-confidence that make them so successful in other areas can suddenly abandon or mislead them in interpersonal situations.

This happens in part because many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals; for instance, they tend to have little patience and less understanding of such things as small talk and flirtation (which most types consider half the fun of a relationship). To complicate matters, INTJs are usually extremely private people, and can often be naturally impassive as well, which makes them easy to misread and misunderstand. Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense. :-) This sometimes results in a peculiar naivete', paralleling that of many Fs -- only instead of expecting inexhaustible affection and empathy from a romantic relationship, the INTJ will expect inexhaustible reasonability and directness.

Now this description is just spooky! It is completely true.

Probably the strongest INTJ assets in the interpersonal area are their intuitive abilities and their willingness to "work at" a relationship. Although as Ts they do not always have the kind of natural empathy that many Fs do, the Intuitive function can often act as a good substitute by synthesizing the probable meanings behind such things as tone of voice, turn of phrase, and facial expression. This ability can then be honed and directed by consistent, repeated efforts to understand and support those they care about, and those relationships which ultimately do become established with an INTJ tend to be characterized by their robustness, stability, and good communications.

There is still hope :). This really is a good description of my personality.

The ISTJ is also a nice description but I think INTJ fits me better. It was also the first result I got.

Smashing Magazine...

...has released an enormous overview of 53 CSS-Techniques You Couldn't Live Without. It has Tabs, Bar Graphs, Round Corners, Diagrams, Image Maps, Calendars, CSS Based Forms, Percent Bars, Piecharts, and more! A great collection I certainly must keep in mind!

More Links, Tools, And Sites...

I continue - I'm in a posting mood.

JDarkRoom - simple text editor: written in Java, full screen (!), and you can choose colours. Strange stuff, but it is actually cool to use.

Pictures of illegal brands. Quite funny.

Table of equivalents. A huge (very huge) list of open source software alternatives. Even had names I didn't now about before. Be sure to check it out.

Pirates of Silicon Valley - see the full documentary online. If you want to know what the Apple vs. Microsoft battle was all about, then don't miss it. Also: I was surprised to see that Steve was such a douche. Bill looked much more charismatic, also towards his company (but still stole a GUI).

Interesting article about conciousness.

13 things I wish I learned in college. Nice post.

Towers 2 Flash Game

My link dump/blog update continues... Very addictive game! Check out Towers 2. I couldn't stop playing for days! It's based upon Warcraft III. You build various kinds of towers to stop the monsters from invading. Give it a try. Now that Flash 9 final is out for Linux, nothing should stop you ;).

Savage Released For Free!

That's right, S2 Games has released Savage 1 for free! It's a great multiplayer game - a mix between FPS and RTS. Two sides (Beast and Human) fight to take control of the map while the Commander of both sides is giving orders and building structures and controlling the players just like an RTS game.

It's easy to learn pick up. But hard to... aim :).

And the best part is: for Linux too.

Some Links

Via Kottke: find out the sex of your brain. I'm a perfect average male. Also: take a look at these 10 kick ass opening sequences.

Another fun test: the super hero and super villain test. I'm Dr. Doom. (Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.) And Green Lantarn. (Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.)

Gmail

What's up with Google the last few days? First, a glitch was reported about users getting their mails deleted. This glitch is now (luckily) fixed.

Then that hack about your contact list getting stolen, try logging into Gmail and go to one of the following links:

http://docs.google.com/data/contacts?out=js&show=ALL&psort=Affinity&callback=google&max=99999

http://video.google.com/data/contacts?out=js&max=500&psort=Affinity&callback=getContacts

All your contacts in JSON format! Accessible to any website which uses this as a src in a script-tag.

Solutions? Referrer-checking (not that good: can be spoofed). Better: using unique keys in each request. They probably used a combination of solutions.

It seems to be already fixed now, the only thing it returns for me now is:
google ({ Success: false, Errors: []})

But the XML output is still accessible though: http://docs.google.com/data/contacts?out=xml&show=ALL&psort=Affinity&callback=google&max=999999.

I tried hacking up a little piece of code, but alas: loading the XML into the frame and then trying to do a frames['the_frame'].document.getElementsByTagName('Email'); does not work. Both Firefox and IE prevent stealing content from frames across domains.

Maybe we should use an XMLHTTPRequest solution, then? Also doesn't work in Firefox, even when trying to netscape.security.PrivilegeManager.enablePrivilege("UniversalBrowserRead"); it will fail. Internet Explorer (tested in 7) will bitch about ActiveX objects being used.

So is this still a security issue? I would say no. Locally (trusted zone): Firefox doesn't allow the described actions, and IE at least warns the user. When surfing on the Internet (untrusted zone): the objects were blocked by default (my IE and Firefox were set up in such a way that when I tried to run this script from the web: they would block the cross-domain XMLHTTPRequest by default without asking). Maybe IE6 is a bit more unsecure.

For the people who want to try it out: example html here (use IE, allow Blocked ActiveX content for it to work).

Another sad message: Gmail's storage has stopped increasing... Mine has also stopped at 2800MB... Why?

There is a little bit of good news too: the calculator works again...

01.01.2007

That means happy new year everyone!

Had a great party last night and a hangover now? Check out The 86 Rules of Boozing (via Digg).

9. Get the bartender's attention with eye contact and a smile.

22. Never talk to someone in the restroom unless you're doing the same thing—urinating, waiting in line or washing your hands.

24. After your sixth drink, do not look at yourself in the mirror. It will shake your confidence.

35. Learn to appreciate hangovers. If it was all good times every jackass would be doing it.

39. Never tip with coins that have touched you. If your change is $1.50, you can tell the barmaid to keep the change, but once she has handed it to you, you cannot give it back. To a bartender or cocktail waitress, small change has no
value.

43. A bar is a college, not a nursery. If you spill a beer, clean it up. If you break a glass, wait for a staff member to clean it up, then blame it on someone else.

54. Never lie in a bar. You may, however, grossly exaggerate and lean.

65. Before you die, single-handedly make one decent martini.

69. If there is ever any confusion, the fuller beer is yours.

80. Anyone with three or more drinks in his hands has the right of way.

I wish you all the best for 2007!

Game: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade

I've playing a bit of W40k-DoW-DC over the past few days. It's still a great game with fast-paced action. It's especially enjoyable when playing quick skirmish or multiplayer battles. ("Okay... one more game.") But the single player campaign is nice too.


If you've picked up the original and the first expansion, I suggest you definitely buy this one too. It is a stand-alone expansion though: so you can play it without the previous ones...

I still need to try Company Of Heroes. And I can't wait for Supreme Commander too.

Been A While

It's been a while I know, but it's been busy busy busy... And in the weekends I was playing Neverwinter Nights 2 far too much.

I have to restate some of my opinions about the game: the story turned out to be quite good. Also: some of the henchmen are marvelous (Sand! Ammon Jerro!) while others are boring in their own roleplayed way (Cassavir... Qara...).

I'm chill-replaying the game now with a sorcerer (quick casting rules). Then: I'll try to toy around a bit with the toolset.

More later...

Game: Neverwinter Nights 2

I finally found some time to spend some time on the sequel of what was a fantastic game: Neverwinter Nights...

People who played the first game will not feel right at home immediatly, lucky there's a friendly tutorial to make you feel at home. The story is nice so far (I only played a few hours). The graphics are nice too, but I don't understand why the system requirements are so high, the game isn't that advanced, so I'm forced to play at 1024x768.

In short:

+ Plot.
+ Many classes.
+ Many side-quests.
+ Interesting companions.
+ Toolset!
+ Great multiplayer opportunities.
+ Sound and music.
+ Graphics are nice (especially spells).
- Other graphics are less nice.
- Also: high system requirements.
- Interface could be better.
- AI is sometimes stupid.
- Camera could be better.

Personality Disorder Test

I've been doing a fun little personality disorder test. What strange results I get...

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid Personality Disorder:	High
Schizoid Personality Disorder:	Moderate
Schizotypal Personality Disorder:	Very High
Antisocial Personality Disorder:	High
Borderline Personality Disorder:	Moderate
Histrionic Personality Disorder:	High
Narcissistic Personality Disorder:	High
Avoidant Personality Disorder:	Moderate
Dependent Personality Disorder:	Low
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:	High

Game: Sid Meier's Railroads And Trackmania Sunrise Extreme

I picked up two games recently: Sid Meier's Railroads and Trackmania Sunrise Extreme edition too. Trackmania is a nice game but quickly gets boring in my opinion: you have to play the tracks over and over again to unlock new ones. Multiplayer and the editor are fun, though.

I'm still going to get Need For Speed: Carbon though and see how that turns out...

Also: I've been spending a lot of time with Sid Meier's Railroads lately. The game itself is simple to learn but - typically Sid - hard to master. You build railroads and stations and connect cities and industries, then you buy trains and let them travel between them. Seems simple, but you have to watch out for your rivals, finances and economy. You buy patents and better trains over time. This is another great Sid Meier game. Nothing special, but it will keep you entertained until the late hours of the night if it's your kind of game.

Few Things

Beautiful CG water by Scanline Flowline VFX:



Converting Pi to binary: do not do it.


On the Edge of Blade Runner: documentary.

Finished

Just updated to Edgy and installed Beryl following these instructions.

Added these to my sources:

deb http://www.beerorkid.com/compiz edgy main-edgy
deb http://media.blutkind.org/xgl/ edgy main-edgy
deb http://compiz-mirror.lupine.me.uk/ edgy main-edgy
deb http://ubuntu.compiz.net/ edgy main-edgy

Then:

sudo apt-get update

Since I use an Intel card:

Add to Section "Device":

Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" "true"

And at the end of the file:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "true"
EndSection

In /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

Then install Beryl:

sudo apt-get install beryl-core beryl-plugins beryl-plugins-data emerald beryl-settings beryl-manager beryl beryl-dev emerald-themes

Then just start with beryl-manager.

Works like a charm, and quite fast too after tinkering with some effects and themes.

Oki Printers In Ubuntu

Just wanted to share this quick story: recently I had to install Oki C5700 drivers on an Ubuntu machine. A quick look at the web panel revealed that it was not supporting ipp (Cups). So you have to set it up as a Unix Printer (LPR).

After that it seems to work fine. (It is a great laser printer by the way.)

Edgy Tomorrow!

Ah the suspense: Edgy Eft is coming out tomorrow (if all goes well).

Here are the update instructions once more:

• (Backup.)
• gksu "update-manager -c -d" for the masses: quick and easy.
• Or replace dapper with edgy in /etc/apt/sources.list and do a sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade.
• Make sure everything is ok:
  sudo apt-get -f install
  sudo dpkg --configure -a

Of course, this is all over Digg and others. But I just couldn't help sharing this. It'll be a tense day tomorrow...

A Linkdump

Here are some links I found to be interesting the past few days:

• Google acquires YouTube. This didn't exactly came as a surprise.
• "Insults - they just don't make them as they used to" - via Reluctant Nomad, a great post with - indeed - some great "insults". For example:
  "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts...for support rather than illumination." -- Andrew Lang
• "How to create professional HDR images" - via Backing Winds.
• No silver bullet, by Brooks. I had to read this last year in an "informatics" class and saw it mentioned on Delicious. It still is a good read.
• 10 Windows Explorer alternatives compared and reviewed. I know that a lot of people I know love Total Commander.
• Hacking Web 2.0 applications with Firefox.
• Lifehacker special: Practice your personal Kaizen.
• The 7 worst fonts. I fully agree. Especially with number one.
• Kevin Tiell photographs pinball games.
• Social bookmarking icons. So that's where you found them! A great list.
• Have some fun with these Unicode block elements. Or even better: use this.
• A Javascript web spider...
• 3 easy steps to avoid Javascript memory leaks.
• Adventures in Javascript testing.
• Lazarus review. (Also: an Ubuntu .deb of Lazarus in multi/uni-verse would be really nice... pretty please?)
• How the immune system avoids attacking itself.
• Software startup myths debunked.
• Samsung is doing very well these days and is about to release a 10 Megapixel phone.
• Free classical music.
• The top 100 NES games - ever.
• A woman drawn from inside out. A well-done animation.
• 10 techniques to get more comments on your blog.
• What happens if you stop smoking now?
• Warhammer RPG article (in German).
• Original Transformers movie, with original adverts too.
• Google Docs & Spreadsheets launches, completing the integration between Writely and Spreadsheets. A few days before, I was wondering when this would happen.

Enjoy, I'm out. Stay tuned for more posts.

Game: Scarface

I've finally figured out what was causing the error-on-startup in Scarface, Just Cause, and probably F.E.A.R.: Combat. The cause: Securom 7.

(If you experience a crash after the game actually started, e.g.: after the intro, then it's probably your sound drivers, update OpenAL and others...)

You see, I don't know why Securom 7 doesn't like my computer, but it probably has something to do with Daemon Tools. I don't know for you, but I for one does not like to swap CDs every hour of the day, so I make images and it's damn handy.

Yesterday I downloaded a no-cd crack for the game, it was my last hope to get it running. And what'd ya know: it starts... Sigh, this brings back memories of Starforce (anyone else remember that piece of...?), if this trend continues, I will be better of pirating all my games because then it'll at least work!

Anyway, the game itself isn't that special, the storyline and atmosphere are very GTA: Vice City-like, but that's a good thing. The controls on the other hand are just terrible, the game suffers from the much-too-common consolitas disease, what a pity.

If you have a console: just buy it for your PS2 or Xbox, you'll be much better of. If the controls could be patched (make them customizable and more responsive), then I would be happy to give this game another chance (the dialogue with all the swearing is funny as hell).

And then the cars: why do they drive like bricks? This driving reminds me of that other game... (Damn, I can't remember the name.)

So dear developers: fix controls and driving. Thanks.

Maybe I'll search for a crack for Just Cause too, which is lying here somewhere still uninstalled...

Google Code Search (And Other) Fun

Google Code Search has been providing bloggers with a lot of searching-fun. Most talked about? Winzip key generation code. There are also a lot of passwords floating around. Just as potential buffer overflows. Some geek jokes and a lot of things which need to be fixed or need to be done.

On a side note: be sure to watch the South Park World Of Warcraft episode ;).

Defcon Is Out

A few weeks ago I posted a little something about Introversion's upcoming game: Defcon. The Windows version has been released and I've been playing the demo for a bit. The game itself is nothing breathtakingly special but it is a really nice game to play between the hours (in fact, I've been saying "just one more round" in the middle of the night). It's a game you play in a window at the office when no-one's watching (in fact: the game does have an "office"-mode where you can quickly use a boss-key).

I suggest you go download the demo and buy it when you like it: these guys really deserve it.

A Mac and Linux version will be out later, but in fact I could run this game very smoothly in Wine in Linux (only one crash but I'm not sure that was Wine/Defcon-related). Since the game is programmed using OpenGL, what would you expect? (Maybe I'll post a screenshot of Wine running Defcon later.) So porting it to Linux should go without problems.

Conclusion: nice game for when you don't want to spend a whole evening playing a game ("just a quickie") or when you liked the movie "Wargames" or when you love planning strategies, because the multiplayer aspect really makes this game fun!

Another hit in the shops? Probably not. A cult classic: probably yes.

Via Digg: Cool Spyware Video

This just made the frontpage and is just too 'awesome' to miss. A video of a Windows installation becoming infected with spyware. Remember: update often, update early, or/and use Firefox/Opera.

Looking Forward (To October)

I'm really looking forward to the end of October. Since I will then be able to update my Dapper laptop to Edgy Eft which will have AIGLX built in. Then I can install Beryl (a compiz-quinnstorm fork). I will not install beta software however, since I use that laptop for work etc... So the 'how I did it'-guide will have to wait.

If you can't wait however, this LiveCD could help. (Boot with "sabayon aiglx".)

(From the announcement.) Beryl is a fork of compiz, and a collection of other tools to go along with it. CSM has become Beryl Settings Manager (beryl-settings). CGWD has become Emerald, with its companion emerald-theme-manager.

What A Day(s)

Warning: the following post will probably contain swearing and profanity, this is because I am very mad at the moment... sorry.

The day before yesterday, around 2 a.m.: I stop working for that day and shut down my PC.
Yesterday: I start that PC (it's my Windows machine: be prepared for anything) and see 'One of your drives has to be checked for consistency...' yadda yadda. I am not woried, this has happened before, so I think: 'A check can't be bad.'.

Yeah, right, around 50% of the first check: chkdsk hangs... I wait... I wait some more... I start looking on the Internet for some support... This is gonna be bad... I think, and I restart.

I restart and restart and restart and the check keeps locking up. So I try to cancel it and start Windows.

STOP: VOLUME_NOT_MOUNTABLE or something like that... What the fuck! Again! Windows loads this time, but the system is remarkable slow. This is bad.

I grab an XP install disk and throw it in the drive... recovery console... trying to remember that !"£$ administrator password and running checkdisk as if there's no tomorrow...

Chkdsk is performing additional checks and fixes...
Chkdsk is performing additional checks and fixes...
Chkdsk is performing additional checks and fixes...

BSOD! A BSOD for god's sake! In a setup environment! How bad can things get? UNEXPECTED_CHECK_EXCEPTION what the!

Okay: let's search for tools and trials for NTFS file checking. Back in the day, we had Norton. Then: Norton was still a friend for sysadmins. But back in the day, we also had FAT32, which was more open and more known than NTFS... (Did you know that 'NTFS Recovery' in Norton Tools today actually means: chkdsk /r /f?)

Iolo Drivemedic Stuff Thingy Trial. I install quickly before Windows locks up again.

Iolo shit has performed an illegal operation and has to... goddammit! Is this a tool or what, it doesn't even work (Windows 64 bit maybe?) After scrutinizing the install maps I find the image for a boot disk 'Which will fix every error you see and do your laundry too!', or so it says above the 'BUY ME!' button on their site.

Turns out that boot floppy (Who has floppy's lying around the house? I'm glad I had.) is the result of a night filled with passion between MSDOS and FREEDOS: crappy mouse drivers are the result.

I try navigating my way through the screens with my arrow keys, but when the second screen shows some nice circles to select the drive I want to check, Tab, Space, Enter, Arrows and all the other keys don't work! Who makes this crap? Esc: exit application. I could cry. So I search for a PS/2 mouse, and plug it in. Of course you have to restart, because the ctmouse.exe crap refuses to believe that there is a mouse (apart from the one it made up at COM1). Now the mouse works (and believe it or not, both the USB and the PS/2 mouses (or mice) work now, I don't get this). I click my drive and I am happy this problem will be solved.

( ) Fix MBR.
( ) Fix Partition Table.

No shit Sherlock. All this trouble for this? Crap Iolo tools! I have news: the only tool which is a little bit fucking usable for fixing NTFS partitions is... chkdsk. That's right, MS had kept NTFS as their little dirty closed secret and now nobody can play with it. ntfsfix on Linux tries to give a little help, but doesn't do anything either. How bad is that? So chkdsk again... now from another install CD (you never know). After spinning and crunching the drive, it spits out:

The drive has one or more unrecoverable errors...

Oh really? Time to backup stuff then. But don't try this in Windows. You see, when you drag and drop some files, 10 files for example, and number 5 can't get copied for some reason, then it drops all the next 5 too, so you can spend some hours figuring out which file is giving you problems.

Luckily there is XCOPY, with it's /c flag (if i remember correctly) to continue copying if an error occurs, CLI tools still are the best tools. The only thing is that when there was an error: the whole fucking OS just crashed or froze. Great.

But never I will give up my 9GB of important documents and data!

I turn every CD and DVD I can find around: Knoppix 4.something, yes!

I boot Knoppix (lovely DVD that is) and prepare for some copying. Of course, you can't write to other NTFS files, so I had to copy my files over the network to my laptop. I boot up SSH server and in Knoppix I try:

scp -rpv /mnt/sda1/Documents\ and\ Settings/Yaddayaddayadda myuser@192.168.111.5:/home/myuser/backup

Which works. On some file I get an output/input error but at least it doesn't crash and saves what it can...

Until... a large file came up... '- STALLED -'. What does that mean? The network isn't down, is it? I try a quick ifconfig on Knoppix: only lo? Where has eth0 gone?

Turns out, if you use a nForce motherboard, it causes scp and sftp to crap out (or the other way around?). You have to turn your PC off and then turn it on again to recognize the eth0 again. (Restart? Forget it!)

A Windows Share, then, I start Samba (which is easy in Knoppix) and connect with my Laptop. I successfully copy the remaining files... (That was a few hours ago.)

Now I really want to know what has caused this behaviour. Since Scandisk Surface Scan isn't around anymore and replace with chkdsk over there, I try
badblocks -c 16000 -s -v -o ./out /dev/sda1

Holy cow: are all these bad blocks? This drive is only three (3!) years old! Name to blame: Maxtor. I hope it's still under warranty. Never I will buy their shitty drives again, never! So at the end: it wasn't really Windows' fault, but they could've made my job a lot easier.

Now I can go through the process of installing Windows all over again once more... I'm gonna take an aspirin now.

What have we learned?

• Backup!
• Download the newest Knoppix DVD and burn it now!
• Maxtor is shitty.
• The only tool we have for fixing NTFS files and indexes and attributes is chkdsk.
• Luckily there's Linux, and SSH.

... goddammit!

Comparing Vista UIs

Nice post on Digg: this Blog post visually compares various user interfaces (Aero Glass, Basic,...). Be sure to check it out (although the site is getting dugg at the moment).

Crappy Scanners And Linux

Recently we got a new HP Scanner. It's a good, nice one without any complaints.

However: the scanner I used before was a crappy scanner with a brand nobody knows, picked up for almost nothing at some cheapskate-store (because I very rarely need to scan something). The installation of the drivers was always a pain, copying files around, right clicking .inf files and whatnot... And then hoping that it wouldn't throw a general 'TWAIN error' at me. People who know something about this whole TWAIN thing know it's a pain. According to Wikipedia, it stands for Technology (or Toolkit or Thing) Without An (or Any) Intelligent (or Important or Interesting) Name, which is just cheesy. Hell, I even think that Microsoft's new WIA (or: Windows Imaging Acquisition) is better.

Anyway: a few weeks ago, my Windows machine gave up scanning, maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was running Windows x64, I don't know. Reinstalling drivers: no dice. Moving files around: no dice. Installing drivers for other scanners (one can try): no dice. Unplugging the damn thing and throwing it out of the window... err... no dice.

Until now. I was thinking: "Hey look, there's that stupid old scanner, maybe this will work on Linux..." So I promised myself that I would spent a few minutes (not more) trying to get this to work, before dumping it completely.

I connect the scanner to a free USB port... nothing happens. No worries, after fiddling around I find that the command is xsane (hey, go easy on me, I'm still a bit of a Linux noob).

So I try that, and get a nice bunch of error messages... perfect.

failed to open device 'artec_eplus48u:libusb:001:002': invalid argument

Really? So my crappy brand scanner is actually an Artec. Fine, after searching a bit on Google I find the following suggestions, export this:
export SANE_DEBUG_ARTEC_EPLUS48U=9

And then run again, we now get some more information:

[artec_eplus48u] Try to open firmware file: "/usr/share/sane/artec_eplus48u/Artec48.usb"
[artec_eplus48u] Cannot open firmware file "/usr/share/sane/artec_eplus48u/1200.usb"
[artec_eplus48u] download_firmware_file failed

Apparently, .usb is a Windows driver, so good luck getting it. Luckily, the drivers where still on my other machine, and I do a search for every .usb I can find. Artec48.usb gets found and copied over to the directory xsane suggests: /usr/share/sane/artec_eplus48 (had to create it).

I tried again... It frickin' works! What a piece of cake.

If you happen to have the same problem, and want the Artec48.usb driver, you may of course drop me a note (macuyiko at gmail dot com).
I'm happy, now this scanner still is a little bit of use. This is what I like about Linux: if you have a problem: continue fiddling and trying without giving up. In the end it'll work out and you'll have learned a lot of things (which is great).

Penn & Teller's Bullshit Links

Featured yesterday on Digg: it seems that there are a lot of Penn & Teller episodes of 'Bullshit' on Google Video.

I had never seen this show before and find it quite funny. Some of the episodes are really hilarious (bottled water, creationism,...). Don't think that the show itself is a great scientific program tho[1], some of the tactics they use to prove their point are based on some psychological characteristics of humans. (E.g.: certain arrangements of groups will perform better than others. E.g.: presenting items in a specific order so that people will most of the times choose the second one due to conditioning from media: first show old boring bad product A, then introducing a better newer product B.) But still: many of the topics they show are indeed: 'bullshiat'...

[1]: Except creationism: that really is complete bullshit.

My Dream App: More Contestants

It looks like My Dream App has announced all the contestants now. Let's see...

Bob: Pile o' Cards: use piles of cards with anything on them: text, media, widgets, pictures and more. Looks like this could become a handy little app.

Cameron: Atmosphere: 'a virtual outdoors for your desktop' - an enhanced weather application. This can prove handy for a lot of people but personally I wouldn't use it (since I can just look out of my window).

Dan: Blossom: 'a virtual plant that responds to productivity' - wow, this is a cool idea. Withering plants will correspond to lazy, game-playing computer sessions, thriving plants to a good productive day in Excel. Everyone will have different looking plants, awesome.

Dilon: Bookroom: reading e-books in a beautiful interface, looks good, maybe this will give some people an opportunity to read more again.

James: Destinations: the ideal app for the travellers. 'Plan vacations and trips with ease' sounds really useful to me.

Jeff: iGTD, Getting Things Done on the Mac with integration with iCal, IPod and more. Looks like this will also prove to be handy.

Josh: iGotPets: 'keep track of your pet's well-being'. A shame I don't have pets. So personally I wouldn't consider using this, but I can imagine that the 'pet-freaks' out there would love something like this.

Kevin: Hijack: Cocoa interface to browse and participate in discussion forums. Not sure what to make out of this. I'm curious how this will turn out.

Marshall: SweepIt: cleanup messy desktops with simple rules. I would love something like this (on all my machines, on all platforms). Since I spend a lot of time keeping my desktop and folders in clean, pure condition.

Mickey: Supplemental: 'Photo Booth for videos, with easy to use video logging'. If you're into videos (a lot of Mac-people are), then this could provide you with some extra help.

Mike: iSightSee: control your Mac using the iSight with hand gestures and movements. If this works (meaning: it actually does a good job at recognizing the different gestures) then this could also become a handy tool.

Raven: Telepath: push mail, news and more from your Mac via SMS. I wouldn't use this (it probably would be difficult to setup in some countries and/or it would cost a lot and my phone inbox is currently more than full), but some people might love it.

Richard: Whistler: 'ever had the urge to create a song'? With Whistler: you just tap, hum or whistle something into the app. Wow: if this works fine this would be amazing!

Rusell: Ground Control: 'Dashboard done right'. What can I say about this one? Let's see how it develops...

I think I have them all now. Again: all ideas are great and it looks like the competition will be hard! Check out MyDreamApp for more info. Nominating the contestants will be fun but difficult.

Zune

Old news really, but Microsoft has released more details about their upcoming music player, Zune, yesterday.

In my opinion, MS has done a very good job when it comes to designing this thing. Look at the brown version: it's very retro and stylish. I actually like them better than iPods (sorry Apple fans, I never liked them).

However, only time will tell if these things will be usable too. (Worst case: contains more DRM than iTunes. Or crashes with a BSOD...) Also: Microsoft still wants to get the 'Hey we are cool too!'-message out, without actually being hip. (Not that they have to in my opinion: the Zune looks very well designed.[1])

Still, at the moment I am more than happy with my Creative Vision: M music player: 30Gig and great battery live. Actually: I first wanted to get another iRiver, but since they now also use MTP[2], I decided to pick up something slimmer. The tag-based-browsing system is a pain in the shiny metal ass though, because I still have a lot of untagged MP3s, so I hope the next firmware update will contain directory/file name based browsing (please)...

Here's a video of Zune in action:


[1]: Then why is Vista so ugly?
[2]: Media Transfer Protocol...

Game: Lego Star Wars 2

I played a bit of Lego Star Wars 2 last night, I haven't gotten very far yet but it's quite an enjoyable game so far. People who've played the first one will feel right at home, since the two are almost identical in gameplay and graphics.

The game itself is - of course - very cheesy (it's Lego!). But everyone who touched the little stones in their childhood (who hasn't?) will love the little blocks and characters.

LSW2 is enjoyable in single player mode, but it becomes really fun when you press F2 (I have the PC version, of course) and a friend takes control of the other character: pure fun.

Platformers are rare these days, so LSW2 is one of the best platform-games today. together with Beyond Good And Evil, Psychonauts, and the first Lego Star Wars.

The graphics aren't next-gen, but the bright side is that you won't need a powerbox to run it.

If you've played the first one and loved it, you will love this one too. If you didn't like number one or don't like platformers in general, then you won't pick up this one.

Neverwinter Nights On My Ubuntu-Laptop

Today I finally decided to spend some time and try to install Neverwinter Nights on my laptop, since I absolutely still love that game. Of course: you could follow this howto, but since I don't have NWN Platinum or Diamond, I had to follow other instructions. I didn't want to pirate the game (I legally own the original and the two expansions, so I figured that would work too).

Instead I followed the instructions from Bioware, congrats to them for making this game available on a Linux (and Mac) platform!

Step 1: "Installing Using Downloaded Linux Client Resources"

Download the Linux Client Resources v1.29 (from BioWare). Extract this archive somewhere (e.g.: /home/user/Programs/nwn).

We will do the English install, for other languages: follow the Bioware instructions, these instructions are just narrowed down and compressed...

Also download the Linux Client 1.29 binaries (tar.gz, 5.3 MB). (Make sure you are logged in into the Bioware site, registering is free.) And also extract these into your installation folder. Make sure you overwrite all existing files - this is a rule for all further archives, unless stated otherwise.

If you have SoU and HoU, don't update to the latest version yet. And wait with playing the game ;).

Step 2: "Installing Shadows of Undrentide Expansion Pack"

Make sure step 1 completed succesfully. Since the Linux installer on the disk is broken, we will do it ourselves.

Make sure you can access the following files, they are in the CDs root folder.
Data_Shared.zip
Language_data.zip
Language_update.zip
Data_Linux.zip

Extract them into your installation folder in the above order (overwrite)!

Then delete the following files from your installation folder if they exist:

/INSTALL/data/patch.bif
/INSTALL/patch.key

And then execute the following command from a terminal:

./fixinstall

Step 3: "Installing Hordes of the Underdark Expansion Pack"

Make sure you completed steps 1 and 2.

Remove the following files if they exist:
/INSTALL/patch.key
/INSTALL/data/patch.bif
/INSTALL/ xp1patch.key
/INSTALL/data/xp1patch.bif

Again: get the following archives from the HoU CD root and unzip them into your installation folder in the following order:
Data_Shared.zip
Language_data.zip
Language_update.zip

Download nwclienthotu.tar.gz and also extract it into your nwn directory, overwriting all.

Again, run ./fixinstall from your installation directory.

Step 4: updating

Now update the game, download the patch here. To update, just overwrite-extract the archive you have downloaded in the installation map.

Step 5: fixing

I got the following error when starting Neverwinter with the ./nwn command:
mcop warning: user defined signal handler found for SIG_PIPE, overriding
Creating link /home/username/.kde/socket-hostname.
can't create mcop directory

To fix this, I executed:
mkdir ~/.kde/socket-hostname
Replace hostname with your own hostname, of course (it is mentioned in the error).

Then everything worked perfectly fine: NWN starts and I can enter my CD keys, the game doesn't run like it does on my gaming machine, but I'm satisfied that it runs at all with such a small Thinkpad X60 with quite a crappy graphics chip.

Again: thanks to Bioware for making this available (which other game company would host a one-gigabyte file on their servers?).

Happy adventuring!

Playstation 3 European Ad

It seems Sony is taking their advertisement campains seriously, the first European Playstation... oops I mean PLAYSTATION 3 ad hit the internet about yesterday. It seems that Sony doen't worry about the costs: the ad is more than 3 minutes long and more will follow.

My Dream App finalists...

My Dream App - "Idol 2006" for Mac developers, has begun announcing finalists with - at this moment - still 15 people to go.

All the ideas are looking pretty neat at the moment:

Anders - Stick-It: 'A modernized sticky solution that lets people use virtual stickies just as they do in real life.' Sounds really cool and handy, but I think this app will have a hard time to compete with existing or comparable apps.

Andrew - Desktop Wars: an RTS game played on your desktop. As a matter of fact, I once tried to make a similar game when I was younger and when I had almost no programming experience. I never completed it. So I'm pretty exited about this idea.

Bogumil - Herald: a virtual newspaper app, using RSS and other technologies. Looks promising and it would be a great app if it can introduce the concept of RSS to more people.

Farzad - Portal: 'File syncing from the future.' I almost never use file-syncing apps (mostly because most of them are a pain to use). So if this app works out, it will make a lot of people happy!

Joe - Puppet Constructor: Flash for beginners: manipulate and animate 'puppets' with the ease of a toy. This is great, everyone who starts working with a complex app like Flash, or Photoshop or a 3d animation program wants to imitate 'all that cool stuff' they saw online or in magazines, only to be dissapointed with the steep learning curve. This app will probably provide hours of fun.

Michael - Chatboard: a virtual whiteboard. Has the potential to turn into a great collaboration tool, but it will again be a challenge to compete with other products in my opinion.

Michael - Cookbook: a lovely idea. Of course there already are cookbook applications, but this one will do online shopping, voiceovers, sharing, and more, the concept screenshot looks really neat.

Peter - Bubble Fish: 'Bubble Fish is the friend who knows everything, but without the annoyance factor.' With the abily to search on Flickr, Google and Wikipedia, this could turn out as a very handy little research tool.

Windy - iStyleIt: a 'virtual closet for your Mac', pick out, arrange and rate clothes and combinations. Sounds like a silly idea? Not really when you think about it. Share combinations with friends and save time in the morning when choosing what to wear. Even me (a guy!) like this idea... a modern life-app.

Be sure to check out mydreamapp.com, this whole 'contest-concept' is very entertaining and I will surely keep an eye on further development.

The only downside? Mac only, but it's better than Windows-only (now maybe some apps have the chance to get ported to Linux, one can hope).

See you next time!

Bravia The Second Advert

If there's one thing (and possibly the only thing) that Sony seems to do alright these days it must be their ads.

Remember the colored-balls Bravia ad? Of course you do.

It seems their second ad (again: with lots of color) is almost finished. Watch a cool production movie here. And see more images on the Bravia ad site.

Isn't it cool when there is so much advertising about an... ad? Absolutely lovely idea.

Also, I absolutely crave the "like. no. other." logo at the end, it makes me want to buy Sony products, a lot of them. If only the rootkit-scandal didn't happen.

Grinding Windows (To A Halt?)

Some of you have probably read this post on Digg. Someone apperantly made a video about Edgy Eft running 40 processes without crashing.

Some people basically replied "Windows [and Linux] can do this for ages!" or like "This is really neat!".

It is really cool though that the Ubuntu team has managed to quickly open Openoffice (around 3 seconds now), I am really looking forward to see that running on my laptop.

However, I wanted to prove that Windows will also not crash when doing this (not a recent version that is). So here it is: my video response, using the following amazing batch script:

:loopit
start sol
start mspaint
start calc
start notepad
goto loopit

It's the loop of doom! Sorry for the bad quality, but it's better than YouTube. When I close the command line window, Windows was running around 140 instances of Notepad
, Paint, Solitaire and Calculator each (screenshots maybe later). However: during all this, it did slow down, but is was still quite manageable afterwards. I had to stop the loop because Paint was starting to spit out error messages (as you can see in the video).

Then, I closed the four groups from the taskbar. Windows seems to have a bug here: it doesn't close all programs and some had to be closed manually (ah the fun!).

On which system was all this done: on my main Desktop/beast machine: two Opterons and 4GB of RAM, so I agree that this is in fact not really fair towards that first Linux-video, but it was a fun thing to do (I was surprised that Camtasia could survive the heavy load).

In conclusion: I do not want to flame Ubuntu or Linux in general (I am running it myself so...), but running 40 processes at once is not such a formidable feat. Also: Windows is more stable than Mac/Linux/Whatever-zealots tend to believe[1].

A, those lazy Sundays...

[1]: Except for Windows 3.1. And 95. And 98. 98SE too, a little. And ME. Especially ME. Stay away from ME... 2000 might work I think. Windows XP 32 bit too (I was running 64bit). And 2003 probably too.