Hi there, reader

It’s been awhile since I posted this, but if you’d like to have a website provider that I’ve been using for this website since 2006, you can use my referral code.

Use this link:
dreamhost.com

or use me as a referrer:
rosicrux@gmail.com

or for a bit of discount use the promo code:
GRUE

If you have iPhone (3GS or newer) or iPad, this demo of Epic technology is stunning running on the IOS platform.

iTunes Link:  Epic Citadel

source: http://toucharcade.com/2010/09/01/unreal-engine-3-tech-demo-epic-citadel-available-for-free/

(if you don’t have one of the devices, you can view the video of it below.)

If anything goes wonky, let me know…

Everyone who uses Firefox regularly has a core of extensions that they have grown to use so much as to make them necessary to browsing.  One of the most tedious parts of browsing and then posting material is the saving and organizing of large amounts of pictures.  I fully use 4 extensions every day for this task, and have several others that I use at least weekly.

One of the most useful of these extensions was Bazzacuda Image Saver.  I loved this app because it could detect images in tabs, save them to a predefined folder, and close those tabs, all in one step.  Plus it has the separate ability to find the largest image on a page opened in the current tab, and will save that image and close the tab.

Upgrading to new Firefox versions takes a little bit of finding, updating,  and re-installing of extensions.  For the most part, everything works at least the same as before, but with each new version, we all lose a few extensions that were orphaned by their developers.  I lost Bazzacuda when I upgraded to Firefox 3.0.  The extension would work every so often, but for the most part gave a very generic error and did nothing.  I tried to find other extensions to replace it, hoping that eventually the developer would fix the extension.  I was let down on both counts.  No other extension (or combination thereof) would replace it, and the developer website is now redirected to something completely unrelated.  Despite many comments asking for updates, the developer has been silent on the Mozilla Addons page.

So, a few days ago, I set out to see if it would be a simple change to fix it.  I had already overriden the version number to allow it to install, and unpacked the code to take a look.  Unfortunately it wasn’t something simple to find, but I eventually found it and fixed the problem and the little cascade of other problems it caused.

So, since it wasn’t something superficial, I am releasing the modified code.  I changed the name to be generic, just in case the original developer decides to release more versions of his own program.  This updated for Firefox version 3.0.2 extension is called simply Image Saver. Both the original extension and my updated version are under MPL/GPL licensing, so it should be no problem.

I also wish to add-on functionality in the future, such as more folders and more hotkeys.  So renaming it now seemed best.

Download it from the Image Saver Project Page.

update 10/9/08: If you are one of the people that downloaded this yesterday, please redownload it and install again.  A bug not allowing the default folder location to be saved has been fixed. Eventually I’ll put automatic updates in.

In fact, I am posting from it now.

I was skeptical, and I wasn’t alone in that feeling, but I only had one day to be skeptical because they only announced this thing yesterday!  (Kudos for keeping it under wraps).

Google Chrome is a web browser built on WebKit, which powers other well known browsers such as Apple’s safari and KDE’s Konqueror.  Google included a cute online comic book to explain the technology here.  The gist being that the web browser uses entirely separate processes to load each separate tab.  This goes beyond simple multi-threading, and gets into OS territory.  They want to do this to eliminate browser hangups from ultiple tasks needing to use the same process.  While this can and will usitilize more memory and processor power, it also allows one to regulate it easier, especially memory-wise.  Plug-ins (when they appear) will also use separate processes.

The comic gets into computer science territory when they explain how they built their V8 from Webkit.  It streamlines object manipulization and pointer calls and other things you can read about there.

I’m impressed.  First off at the ease of slipping into it right from Firefox.  It handles the same keyboard commands I’m used to, and tabs behave much the same.  Two things it does not have that firefox has:

• Memory munching.  Yes, it uses a spearate process and memory space for each tab, but these are confined spaces, unlike Firefox which could eat all my memory if I let it.
• Addons. none. Zilch.  Yeah, it’s a beta, but man I need my add-ons.

The lack of add-ons will make me only piddle with Chrome when I feel like, not use it for a main browser.  For one, I have many that are hard to live without.  And two, Firefox is damn snappy without any add-ons, too, so it’s unfair to compare Chrome until it’s got the same capablities as a fully-loaded Firefox browser.

But the technology is impressive, and obviously since everything is open source, we are going to have a flood of add-ons coming very soon.

An eon in modern time ago (a year) I posted a small extrinsic blurb about the upcoming Microsoft technology dubbed Photosynth.  I thought the link explained and showed it better than I could, so no need for a further post.  But now it is released, and now it deserves the shoutout.

This is a simple “synth”. It was taken by some guy in Austin on his cameraphone. He took a few shots of the 360 bridge (a pretty noticeable landmark), just across the river from where I used to work at Origin. I think this shows the power of Photosynth. First of all, this was easy to find, I just did a Photosynth search for Austin, and it was the first choice. Second this was only a few short photos in a cameraphone. This isn’t the Taj Mahal demo with 400 shots with a $5000 DSLR camera. No, this is normal guy with possibly time on his break from work to snap a few shots through a window and upload them. You can still zoom in on them and skirt all around his view.. and it captures his view amazingly well.

That’s all I have to say, except one more thing, kudos to Microsoft to allowing embed code. Normally that wouldn’t get kudos, because every website on earth has some free embedable content on it nowadays, but kudos for finally coming around. (but an iframe? seriously?)

As the title says, not much more to say. This is a huge update with thousands of changes across the board, both on the frontend and backend… so pretty much a brand new browser. I’ve tested a few of the builds, but a couple of my extensions wouldn’t work with 3 (yet), so I haven’t used it for my main browsing.  But I love the auto-bookmark search addition, which was my favorite feature of the Flock browser.  Plus it seems alot more snappy, and less memory hogging than Firefox 2.

Mozilla is trying to get a world record for most downloads in a day off the thing. See more at SpreadFirefox.

Disable Bad Behavior in the plugins section of your site’s control panel. Apparently the blacklisting service used for Bad Behavior was giving a false positive to anyone actually using Bad Behavior, so you would be blocked from your own site.

To correct the issue after disabling, update to the newest Bad Behavior.

Get it here. But don’t expect your plugins to work! As with all Firefox betas, it’s recommended to make a separate profile while using it.

Google has changed their news a little, by allowing participants in a story, or those referenced or related to it, to post comments in reference to it.

Here’s the first example I saw.

I’m not sure how they verify people’s identities, but this is a neat idea… they are opening news up to a form of public forum.

Being bored around summertime allows me to toy with the idea of writing snippets of code to help me out. The number one hardest thing about coding and developing is finding an idea… especially an idea that someone hasn’t already done.

I’ve wanted to tackle a Firefox Extension for awhile now, mainly just to know I could do it. So far I’ve only messed with it and had it say text in the taskbar, obviously not too useful.

Today I was fed up with the fact that the only time I get my anti-virus to scan downloads automatically is if I have them go through my download manager. The problem is, so many sites have download redirecting that download managers won’t work. So I need to remember to trigger the anti-virus manually after it is downloaded. So I finally went looking for a Firefox extension to do it for any download.

I went to the add-ons site, and browser around and didn’t see anything. Then I tried the search for “virus” and still nothing. Well, could this be a new project for me? Surely someone has done this before?

And yes, they have, a Google search turned up an old extension called DownloadScan, and further searching revealed SafeDownload.

Automatically scan downloaded files for viruses. You can choose to scan immediately after the file has downloaded or wait until Firefox exits. Works well with NOD32 anti-virus.

This one is simple, you plugin your virus scanner location and any arguments you want in the options. You can actually have up to four things scan your files, so you can run a spyware checker, or whatever, along with your virus scan. One nice feature, as I do indeed use NOD32, is that it shows all the arguments for NOD32 in a popup window, along with their descriptions. I already knew these, but I remember the initial setting up of command-line NOD32 took some learning, and this will definitely help other people.

Reducing the game of checkers into a group of algorithms of movement, computer scientist Jonathan Schaeffer has developed a program called Chinook that he has proven that at the least will draw. Apparently checkers played in a perfect game will always end in a draw.

Forget hoity-toity chess programs, Chinook has long ago ditched any human competition. The work since then was only to find an unbeatable game, and a proof to the algorithm that is the game of checkers. On the Chinook website is a link to the proof for verification. (I started to, but then I realized how much non-fun I had in my discrete math and program verification course, and decided to put it off until never.)

You can also play against the program, in a more dumbed-down version that is difficult, but that won’t always win.

More on this story at Scientific American

Nintendo announced WiiWare, which allows anyone with some developer moxie to produce games for the Wii.

“Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit,” said Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. “WiiWare brings new levels of creativity and value to the ever-growing population of Wii owners.”

I am getting so sick of this thorn-in-the-side, supposed copy-protection program. I really really wish software producers would not be so lazy about copy protection and find a better way rather than schluffing it off to this inept third party program.

In the last few months I have had troubles with Command and Conquer 3 in that you can’t use a Microsoft application called Process Explorer at any time before running it. If you HAVE, it will give you an error when trying to start the game, until you reboot. There is no other way to clear the error except to reboot, and not run the legitimate Microsoft application again.

I would think Microsoft would be pissed off about this. I am pissed off enough for the both of us. I hate having to reboot, especially for this arbitrariness.

This isn’t the only error, I get random other ones from Securom all the time. Either balking at other system utilities I run, or about virtual drives, or network drives, or wearing yellow feathers in a purple cap while dancing a jig.

Now I try to play the demo of Overlord, and I get the same damn message.

Googling Securom and Process Explorer shows that they’ve pissed off thousands of other people.

Please, game producers, I hate to break it to ya, but your games and apps are being copied and played despite Securom. The only thing this program does is piss off people that actually legitimately pay for these games. Even before you release your precious software, the net floods with replacement executables which are stripped of any copy protection you so diligently paid for. Oh, how do I know, you say? Because I have to use these stripped executables TO BE ABLE TO PLAY THE DAMN GAME I PAID FOR WITHOUT JUMPING THROUGH FRICKIN HOOPS!

update: While searching a bit more, I found out that a dutiful member of the Sysinternals forum (the software group that originally made Process Explorer and were bought out by Microsoft) whipped a “hider” program for Process Explorer’s services. I’ll admit I was surprised Process Explorer left a residual driver after running, which is what is detected by Securom. This worked perfectly with the Overlord demo. Thanks, throx!

This video is of a 7 year old back in 1982 talking about programming on some local access show. He demonstrates coding BASIC on an Apple ][.

This strikes a chord with me, because around the exact same time, at around the same age, I went to a summer camp for budding computer nerds in the deserts of southern California. It was the same scenario too, we were kids learning BASIC on Apple ][. Our imaginations were fueled by shows like Whiz Kids and movies like WarGames. Not to mention the explosion of science fiction novels at the time. I still have the binder I used to map out my programs and keep printouts of them some 25 years ago.

I’ve never shaken that love of computers and programming, and I’m glad I got to grow up with it. Now that computers are ubiquitous, “hackers” aren’t such special snowflakes, but I still feel the nostalgia of when it was a budding science and I was still a bud myself.

Man, this website really is turning into a blog. So be it.

WordPress has an upgrade out, and drzy has been updated to the new version. Apparently this is a pretty major release including many new features, RPC calls, and bug fixes.

As usual, let me know if any weirdness occurs.

Slipping under the radar last week, the venerable freeware image viewer IrfanView has come out with version number 4.00.

Ever since ACDSee jumped the shark and became a bloated spyware-laden clunky mess, I have been using this gem. It’s been many years and not so many updates, but IrfanView always worked well for me. Especially for organization (for which I lack the genes), it performs marvelously.

The new version seems to address some Vista compatibility, along with some feature tweaks and minor bug fixes. Honestly, I think I was using version 2.98 before this, so it can’t have been that buggy for me to use one version for so long.

Don’t forget to download the plugin pack right along with it. It isn’t necessary, but most of the plugins are super handy.

Geomerics is a company dedicated to computer graphics and other algorithms. They have recently unveiled their Enlighten engine which coordinates several of their software/middleware advances to provide enhanced lighting in games. The foremost of these is their real-time radiosity, which serves to compute lighting, shadows, radiosity and others at run-time and on existing hardware.

According to their site, they use studies in geometric algebra ( a kind of multi-linear algebra) to come up with new and efficient algorithms to process real-time lighting and even physics calculations.

Recently, Geomerics announced that the Enlighten engine will be used to incorporate into games that are developed for the XBOX 360.

Here is a movie demonstrating some elements of Enlighten and what scenes look like without it:

My bad karma must not have totally eclipsed my general luck, as the one time I decide not to upgrade immediately to the new version of WordPress is the time that the WordPress download site is hacked and the code modified to include a PHP exploit!

from WordPress.org:

This morning we received a note to our security mailing address about unusual and highly exploitable code in WordPress. The issue was investigated, and it appeared that the 2.1.1 download had been modified from its original code. We took the website down immediately to investigate what happened.

It was determined that a cracker had gained user-level access to one of the servers that powers wordpress.org, and had used that access to modify the download file. We have locked down that server for further forensics, but at this time it appears that the 2.1.1 download was the only thing touched by the attack. They modified two files in WP to include code that would allow for remote PHP execution.

Luckily, drzy has been sitting at version 2.0.9, due primarily to laziness, and compounded by the fact that they released a trillion versions within a week.

Is version 2.0 affected?

No downloads were altered except 2.1.1, so if you’ve downloaded any version of 2.0 you should be fine.

So, if you are one of the unlucky early adopters, click the first link and download version 2.1.2 to remedy your compromised site.

Now that the forums are at another lull, since most of us kinda dropped out of Urban Dead, I have been trying to decide what to do about the forum software.

PHPBB2 was a good product and was the top of the line free foum software for many years, but:

• the control panel has always left much to be desired
• mods are pretty difficult to accomplish and have to be redone at almost every update
• spamming is easily accomplished and the registration hurdles do virtually nothing to keep spammers out

Of course, I looked for free versions of forums. I had a friend try punBB, and while it is elegant, it is a little more simplistic than I’d like. I also checked out MyTopix and Phorum, but ended up falling for Simple Machines Forum.

It is very robust, has a pretty good converter, and is easy to update and modify. Best thing is that users are very easy to monitor and moderate.

The converter looked great but it failed in a few areas. Smilies didn’t get converted, and some people’s signatures and images had the first letter of the URL stripped off, making them just show the text of the link.

Otherwise, it seems to be working well. I’ll be tweaking it the next few days, and I already have a dark purple theme that I’m eyeing. But for now, for those that still peruse occasionally, just try it out and let me know if you see anything that isn’t working well.

The link to the forums is the same. But, I still have the old forums languishing around, so if there’s something that didn’t get ported over that you want or need, I can dig it up for ya.

Cheers!

I don’t feel bad about posting this (and going against my general theme) because it’s technically software!

I almost feel sorry for Vanilla Ice. I wonder how many pesos he got for this:

Fairly boring retailer promo for Windows 386… until the 7 minute mark when the crack gets smoked:

WordPress 2.1 codename “Ella” is out.

I usually upgrade right away, but this is a pretty major change, so I’m still trying to gauge whether all my plugins will work before I switch drzy over. Especially since I have slightly modified some of the files by hand.

edit: I took the plunge anyways. After all, backups are pretty easy to restore. The category-link merging has slightly messed up my left sidebar layout and the way I imagine the site to work. Also, pages are no longer connected to posts, so the “About” page keywords do not work. Otherwise, everything else seems to function.

Once again, let me know if you find otherwise.

The peeps at WordPress decided to to fix a php vulnerability and was couple more things with a new release of version 2.0.7. They reported that 2.0.6 would be the last release before 2.1, but I guess it was severe enough that an immediate patch was warranted.

The 2.1 release is still set for the 21st of the month, so we’ll see how that goes.

drzy has been updated. Again, if anything looks screwy, see you in St. Louis send me a message.