"Always just a concussion away."

Windows XP view settings weirdness

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:58:59 GMT

I originally posted this to a message board (one I found when I Googled the issue) but it seemed interesting enough to post here too. (Plus, it may help others who notice the same problem and Google it.)

Basically, I have one folder (that's not even on the system volume) that seems to share its "view settings" with the system's "My Computer" folder.

Keep in mind that this my brand new P4 system that I just put together and installed Windows XP SP3 on less than a month ago.

Here's what happens:
1. The directory "P:\Images\Fracts and Walls\Mine\uploaded" contains a lot of images, so I set that folder to "Thumbnails" view.
2. I close or leave the folder. If I go back to it right away, it remains in "Thumbnails" view as it should.
3. Next time I open "My Computer", I find that it's set to "Thumbnails" view too. I don't want that. I set it back to "Tiles" and enable "Show in Groups".
4. If I open the first directory while "My Computer" is still open, it is still in "Thumbnails" view... BUT, if I close "My Computer" first, then open the first directory, it comes up in "Tiles" view with "Show in Groups" as well, and that is wrong!
5. Similarly, if I leave the other folder open (after fixing it), "My Computer" still comes up in the correct view (specifically, whatever view it had the last time I closed it, which should be "Tiles"). But, if I close that other folder, "My Computer" will be reset to the incorrect "Thumbnails" view next time I open it.

Here's the most interesting bit: When I renamed the folder from "uploaded" to "upload", the problem went away. Renaming it back again brought back the problem. Seems like I found a good workaround, but keep in mind that it might not be ideal in all cases.

From this, I can conclude several things:
- First, the view settings for a folder are not saved until that folder is closed or left. That's perfectly sensible, although not necessarily always ideal!
- Second, the view settings for a folder are not stored in the folder itself (desktop.ini anybody?), nor as metadata attached to the folder using ADS or a similar NTFS feature. (That's the way I would've done it. Whose silly idea was it to shove all that data in the registry or whereever it goes instead?)
- Third, the view settings for that one particular folder, and the settings for the "My Computer" folder, are obviously being saved in the same place and overwriting each other.
- Therefore, I suspect that the "view settings" data gets stored using some sort of hash or ID generated from the folder's name. If that is correct, then I can also assume that the ID generated from "P:\Images\Fracts and Walls\Mine\uploaded" is just happening to be the exact same as the ID generated for "My Computer", for some reason. Renaming the folder causes it to have a different ID.
- Finally, the fact that this has happened to others, and to me more than once (Yes it has, on two completely different Windows XP systems!) suggests that the hashing algorithm (assuming that's the way it was done) needs a rethink, if not the whole scheme.

Considering the relative age of XP, I really doubt anything will be done about this, no matter how much complaining is done by those affected. If I am to expect anything from Microsoft, it is merely that they take a close look inside Windows 7 to make absolutely sure it doesn't have the same problem. (Then again, that won't help me until I can earn enough money to afford Windows 7. In this economy, that'll take years!)

Gamblings, ramblings, tramplings and manglings

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:33:23 GMT

I thought this new 3GHz P4 would be slightly faster than the Athlon 3400, but I wasn't sure. Replacing the MB and processor was a bit of a gamble. I'm also running on half a gigabyte of memory instead of the full giggity; I had to do that to make use of the dual-channel functionality. Extra performance with less memory, yay!

Anyway, my computer is now mostly rebuilt. I've got the hardware side done (unless I decide to change something) and I've started on reinstalling all the software I was using.

For example, I'll be able to get back on MSN and AIM pretty soon... Just as soon as I remember my passwords... And decide whether to use the new Trillian (I vaguely recall someone saying it was a pain in the Astra?) or stick with the old one.

A message on the Java download page said I had to download Java in order to use the "Sun Download Manager" (apparently programmed in Java) to download Java. That irony had me laughing for a while.

We just upgraded our internet connection here, too. We used to have (and enjoy) a nicely inexpensive 256Kb DSL connection, but that just isn't fast anymore due to all the massive web bloat caused by everyone else having 1.5Mb connections.

See, I used to like YouTube because they had good video compression. They managed reasonable quality using what I assume was a 512Kb/s bitrate. Meaning, with a 256Kb internet connection, it'd only take twice as long to download a video as it would to watch it. Ten minutes to download a five-minute video, which wasn't bad. Suddenly, though, YouTube more than doubled their compression bitrate (which I maintain was completely unnecessary). That meant that, instead of waiting 5 minutes for the first half of the movie to download, I had to wait 20 to 30 minutes for 3/4 of it. That was not cool.

But anyway, now we have that speed too! (And just in time! Between updated Trillian, updated Java, and updated ActivePerl, I've downloaded over 100MB so far today.)

The importance of proper UI design.

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:22:15 GMT

Let me tell you the story of two self-destructing microwaves...

A few days ago, in a city far away from wherever you are...

After an errand, I came home and entered through the back door. While walking through the kitchen en route to my room, I happened to glance at the microwave to see what time it was (even though I was also wearing a watch). The display was blank, which seemed unusual enough to cause me to stop and exclaim "What happened here?" or something to that effect. My mom was standing over the sink at the moment, and came over while I reached for the button to open the door. The kitchen filled with the odor of fried electronics. Damn, I hate that smell!

Mother dearest explained that she had been using the timer function on the microwave. Apparently, to time something.

After about a minute of discussion and accusation, I asked her, "Well, what button did you push?"

She looked at the panel, and began searching. Her finger circled over various buttons. Finally, she found the word "Time", announced "There, time." and her finger stopped moving briefly, hovering over the word "Time".

"That's 'Time Cook'." I explained.

"Oh," she said. Her finger resumed moving, and she immediately continued searching for the button she had used. A full minute passed. She was unable to locate it.

It should be as obvious to you now as it was to me: She had pushed the wrong button, started the microwave with nothing in it, and it self-destructed as a result.

This was actually the second time she had done that. The first time was merely three weeks after we got it. We were able to return that one for an identical model, which lasted just over a year before she made the same mistake again.

Naturally, I place a lot of the blame for this squarely on my mom. I've been watching her daftness increasing, though very gradually, over the past decade. I could write a few paragraphs of comedy on this. Suffice it to say, she doesn't always look thoroughly at what she's pressing. I've had to come down to the computer and rescue her from an odd prompt quite a few times in the past year.

At the same time, I see some mistakes in the design of this button layout, all of which I'm sure contributed their share to this double tragedy:

Exhibit A: The buttons on the microwave.

First, note the buttons that don't look enough like buttons. If there had been a rectangle or similar visual element encapsulating the words "Time cook", my mom would've been much more likely to see the second word. Similarly, it would've made the word "timer" beneath "kitchen" more visible.

Second, compounding the first issue: Buttons slightly too close to each other. The words "cook" and "timer" would've been more visible if they weren't so close to the "1" and "3". Similarly, the words "Express Cook" (not a button at all, just a label, and an unnecessary one at that) serve to join the buttons immediately above and below into a single blob of text, which one's tendency is usually to ignore. Just a bit more proper use of whitespace (which is ironically named here) would've fixed all of this.

Third, overcomplication. The phrase "kitchen timer" could easily be replaced with simply "timer", which would've been much more visible, been more obvious, and also reduced the impact of the previous issues. Other microwaves, in fact, don't even have a "Time cook" button at all; simply entering the time and pressing "Start" is sufficient. I prefer that.

Any one of these issues could've been avoided by the designers with just a minor rethink, thus averting the destruction of two microwaves.

Let that be a lesson to anyone who designs user interfaces, whether for computers or for anything else: Even the slightest mistake could lead to someone pushing a wrong button and blowing something up!

(Hope you're listening, Microsoft!)

A toss, a loss, gathers moss.

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:20:35 GMT

Nope, that didn't work.

I was only about 30% sure it would, though.

The next thing to try is to actually disconnect the drive from the SATA controller (in addition to leaving the controller disabled).

I'm about 60% sure that'll work.

And then, if necessary, I can revert all the I/O controller drivers back to those I got from the ASUS site, not the newer drivers I had to download (from the VIA site) to enable DMA mode on the drive. (For those who don't know, DMA is what makes drives fast enough to actually use, so it's kindof important.)

I'm about 90% sure my computer will be stable again after I do that.

But I'm tempted, really tempted, to just say "screw it" and toss the whole motherboard (with Athlon XP 3400+ processor) in favor of an Intel board with a 3.0 GHz P4 with Hyperthreading. (Information on which of these two processors is actually better/faster/stronger has been very inconsistent. Gaining dual-channel support should make up for any potential performance loss, though.)

The problem is, at the moment, I don't have enough space available to take my computer apart to do any of this. This whole thing's going to be stalled until I can get another, much more annoying and time-consuming project out of the way. That could take a few more months. ("Work is never over.")

Which means a few more months of neglecting some of my favorite message boards, webcomics, even my E-Mail. (But not dA, LJ, and YouTube, which I can keep relatively up-to-date with on the family computer when the parents aren't hogging it.)

It turns blue and explodes!

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 21:21:05 GMT

I spent nearly $100 on wireless equipment about a month ago, and now NewEgg's got a bunch of adapters and a wireless router on sale for $10-$11 each. Alas, such is typical of my luck, it seems.

What's up with the video cards with 896 MB of video memory? For people who can't afford a full gigabyte but for whom 768 MB just isn't enough? Or is it more like, "Hang on, this video card's nearly finished. Just let me put in these eight 128MB memory chips and-- Oh! I dropped one! Meh, doesn't matter. No one's going to be using the full gigabyte anyway."

Yeah, after supposedly fixing my computer, I apparently vanished for another month. Why? Because, even after detecting and replacing defective memory, and replacing the power supply with a more stable one while I was at it, I was -still- getting random blue-screen errors (although less frequently; maybe every 30 hours of use on average, instead of every 6).

So, now I've tried something else: Disabling the onboard VIA SATA controller. (And also, consequentially, a new SATA DVD-RW drive, which I'll have to replace.)

Why? Because, while researching a different problem, I happened by pure chance upon rumors of instability in the VIA 8237 SouthBridge, which happens to be what my ASUS K8V SE board has.

Quoted from some random OpenBSD mailing list:

The VIA 8237 southbridge is notorious for disk problems. The southbridge is
not of good design nor fabrication. (...) problems are most likely due to the inmature fabrication process of the 8237 used early in its life.

It should be noted that the southbridge lacks asynchronous clocking--it runs at a frequency porportional to the CPU's hypertransport bus.

Overclockers have observed extreme instability and failure of the SATA disk controller, and later the IDE, with small increases in the CPU's bus speed (as well as failure of the AGP/PCI controllers, since they get clocked too high also.)

(...) try underclocking the CPU bus to say "150" or lower in the hopes you'll tame that nasty silicon. Or just plain disable the SATA in the BIOS.

VIA made a revision the the 8237 to address these problems--the VIA 8237R (how original.)

Quoted from some random technical support message board:

The 8237 is junk. Complete junk.

(...) no overclocking, nothing fancy. Used to run a WD 200GB with 8 MB cache EIDE drive as my boot drive and it literally never ever crashed. Ever. Not once.

I always knew that I had an SATA RAID available on the board but all my drives were IDE, so I never used it.

Got a great deal on a Western Digital "Raid Edition" 250 GB SATA (150) when shopping for a 250 GB EIDE drive. Nice! More speed to my boot drive! I was kinda due to reinstall XP anyway, sooooo.....

I slipstreamed SP2 and the SATA raid drivers into my XP Professional CD and it installed just great! Fast - really fast. So far so good!

So I start using the thing....blue screen, restarted. Fluke, I thought. Wrong. ntfs.sys BSOD stops. Other BSOD stops.

I'd do the most menial thing and whammo, another blue screen. Mind you, this is the system that never ever ever crashed with an EIDE drive for the boot drive.

Must be the RAID driver, I thought. I've tried 5 different versions. Same result.

It's barely useable at this point. Crash. Crash. Crash. Microsoft doesn't have a solution. VIA doesn't have a solution. Abit (of course) doesn't have a solution. It's definitely not the WD drive. I'm 150% positive. I researched this and hey, look at that, tons of other people with the 8237 Southbridge and this onboard SATA controller are having this issue too. The 8237's SATA controller is defective junk.

It's not bad RAM. It's not a bad drive. It's not a bad power supply. It's not a bad driver. It's not spyware. It's not a virus. I run the tightest PC ship on earth, trust me. I am virtually convinced that this is another chipset defect. VIA's been sued over things like this in the past. My BIOS is current and was cleared after the update. This is the same data corruption problem that many others are experiencing...

It was the word "sued" that really got my attention.

These are just rumors, of course, but I decided to try disabling the SATA controller anyway (at least in Windows, because the BIOS doesn't have "disabled") and, after around 24 hours total of intermittent computer use so far, I haven't had a blue-screen yet. Maybe that did it.

(But if all else fails, I can replace the motherboard. I've got an Intel MB with 3GHz P4 just waiting to be put in something!)

Here, have some music: Doublesight (3:40, 1.47 MB)

I'm baaaaaaaack et cetera.

Sat, 09 May 2009 03:17:20 GMT

I learned something really interesting...

Apparently, it's entirely possible for a memory board in a computer to be tested very thoroughly (and repeatedly) with one program, pass all the tests with flying colors every single time, then be tested with a different program (one I don't use as often but it's practically standard procedure after I replace a power supply) and pass all the tests... except for one.

Considering that the test that fails is called "Block move", which sounds to me like the sort of thing Windows XP would do a lot of, that seemed to me like a good reason to replace the memory.

So, in addition to replacing the power supply in my computer (after confirming that the motherboard was reporting only 11.7 volts on the 12-volt line, which may be within tolerance but I still didn't feel good about that), I've also replaced the memory because that was apparently the problem after all.

Now that my main computer is back online (and running great so far), I get to spend weeks catching up after a couple of months of neglecting most of my usual internet hangouts.

This new power supply (it's a Thermaltake, one of the better brands) is so much quieter than the previous one, by the way... Almost scarily quieter!

So, how have you been?

Gotta take my computer apart.

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:30:40 GMT

Going to be mostly offline for a few weeks.

(I've been away for about a week already, actually.)

Long story short, my main computer has been acting like either the memory, the processor, or the hard drive controller is failing. Therefore, based on my experience as both a computer repairman and someone who watches House, I'm going to start by replacing the power supply...

But first I gotta finish fixing a bunch of other computers, belonging to neighbors, that are sitting here on the basement work table. One of them has a new hard drive, so I had the fun of transferring all the files and settings to it (and simultaneously to a fresh Windows XP install because the previous one was corrupt) from the old one. That's a more time-consuming endeavor than one might think! Another one needed a replacement motherboard, so I rushed to eBay and had to buy three before I got one that was suitable, and then I had to replace and update a bunch of drivers (including one that had to be copied and installed by hand because Windows XP wouldn't boot up, not even in safe mode)... And then there's another neighbor who wants a new hard drive installed in his computer so I get to spend a little time on that, next.

So it's probably going to be a while before I'm back up and running at full capacity again... so try not to post too much stuff because it'll be some time before I can get to it!

(The good news? This is how I earn money.)

Utah, the Winter Wonderland

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:21:06 GMT

Now on YouTube: Utah, the Winter Wonderland

It should be fairly self-explanatory.

I was originally just going to post a video of about 60 seconds of snow footage (because someone suggested that), but it ended up turning into something slightly different...

Dr. Who season 3 and a half?

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:48:10 GMT

Sorry, but I just have to get this off my chest:

Let's all reflect on poor choices. Now I have to be buying at a time, but the dragons will have to agree he would knock them dead. I was like before that was lying next to the speed of travel (how fast the second) then there's people whose love of those categories too unless we are restricted to a separate page.

Last night we watched "Psycho". Now I'm just... I'm coping with happiness (I hope). Of course, to be normal, and over again. There is no "undo" button next to your entry. All that's left of her tail twitch slightly. That doesn't sound like a failure recently, I did laugh a lot of openings. This system is like the status of being on camera... they were able to use this number. Update your contacts lists! Go inside, eat a hot dog, play with some blocks, watch some Nicktoons or whatever. Those were the days.

My show will likely have such a video be entertaining and star puppets. Puppets allow for the best, but now he's gone I don't mind, but if you find something you think we need to start with some terminology. The minute it moves to poetry I get a remote starter, because it sounds like crazy nonsense. I can't stand the ivory tower snotty views of most of her medicines from? "Okay, okay?"

This thing's getting hard to hold enough heat from the library but watching it a year later. We apologize for any inconvenience this may sound dumb even for the game (I hope) to have a paid account for long time and userpics to any other adhesive I could use instead, if you find something you think we need to change the privacy of old posts en masse. Well, but I can find to goof off, it's now a ton of homework. Although he knew it was and panicked and did more work on the story, it surprises me that not everyone I come home from work feeling tired and rather on the ground to be "easy" but that isn't to say I've never been so smegging awesome that I need to bog down and make plans.

Okay, we're looking into a glass test tube in a stage set-up stress I'm putting on Tripoly again, this feature does not work when viewing a journal with the ex-creature and thought I'd actually work on the breeze. I'm probably over analyzing things, and groceries (Plus saving up for pointers!) Earlier today we'd found that our new camera exposes enough snow on the midterm, and the dedicated writer. Besides if anyone can fill eternity it's me. Ocean's head swiftly turned, jerking upwards with a chance to really value freedom but are just puppets or they can break into that nonsensical universe so locked to me by a makeshift multicoloured vest which seemed to have your captcha setting for pingbacks to and from paid accounts using manual payments. At one point I was Calvin's age. "The Far Side" was the next release. The feature was designed and coded so that if the second, then jerked it out, like taking it to your userpic dropdown on the customize journal style page.

The car's been giving us issues all winter, when I'm freezing to death outside waiting 20 minutes until it is measured. This has been discovered that the characters are never aware of being aware of being aware of being filmed. Greg the Bunny show was supposed to be my last night we watched "Bender's Game" which was lunging towards what was obviously a self-destruct after their venom's been drained a few good times, sprinkled with appreciation of how wonderful it is my fault but I like how my dad suggested to move before they were real in that cage. Picked up a few songs.

The monster groaned tiredly as he approached the south corner of the fourth wall of being in school while everyone is too afraid to bring up the bracelet. I remember seeing "the station agent" lots of thermal mass. If your "yes" message is doing great, we've been having a blast, they began to doubt that he was, but my boss expected me to think, "Oh, and will let me know if someone tried to look at my place", it's the sort of cost-cutting makes their enterprise look bad. Eternal questions like Mike... Well, I think I'm okay just in case.

"The top so it still needs enough capacitance to hold!" the giant screamed. "I think it got lost and died... still fresh enough, though, there was a brief visit from the increased visibility." The ceiling was high enough for his daughter, as if trying to define it. The large yet scrawny silhouette that startled her took another step into the second, then get everything in place. He fingered it uncomfortably, not only by 1) safe mode, 2) disabling Avast from starting at boot-up stress I'm putting on myself. But during the outage was beyond our control. However, it's the week days but there are short (3-5 second long) so it's depressing in its own, but I have ever seen. 'Roids much?

What a busy few weeks left of center. To be loved in return. I would totally live on aqua. The idea behind this is called dead time wall and air spaces between studs can be like a face. Long story short, there are so few of us, hope is a challenge to most but for where we are performing scheduled maintenance to our automatic payment system have been asking for days off. It was open to "Does it say what that picture is?"

November: Pretend it's a fascinating anthropomorphism of computers and in this tank system, the evenness made it difficult to sleep. She lifted her head to face him, as we hoped. It's nice having everything open, the level of posts. Anyway, notice: My cell phone is off, right? Yes, please do add it to leave off redrafting my Twain paper doesn't need to be normal, and missing her left wing. It's too expensive, I got for free-marketry and all the time being, this time, interrupting his monologue every half-hour or so... anyway! School aside I've still been a crappy month, he's good (obviously, I did not catch this discrepancy). We must tax and mortgage a new page. And food's in the last seven years ago if you buy a permanent account holders. Tendon lives! You can see her, Helix muttered as he picked up a different method of voice posting if you built a new way of thinking is that of the love.

We're aware that some pingbacks aren't working, but it was a performer on TV or a range of posts between two specific dates. I have not yet been able to drag and drop, but they know not to think I am not sure whether it was not only by its enormity but also something that I can intelligently bounce ideas off of dinner, his mind was elsewhere. He tried to look around and left the room but it was lightyears easier to pretend I was able to talk about such matters. They changed to a panel of a bunch of others, or by any user on a paid account holders you know that isn't to say I'm not at a time, for example, you heard me.

I would be called a star but would also like to have them examine the X-rays. Effectively a real connection with animals much like the tank will fill up too through that connecting pipe to set up notifications for all of the music they play is late 70s song to satisfy the blue-hairs (and, the dragons will have to decide on my American realism paper and the unstyled, site schemed entry page) once the kinks have been asking for days off. I'm tired and rather on the ground, holding it in a few good times. So, the dragons can not be going back inside for 20 minutes until it is measured. This will expand that comment and all the other with purpose. Otherwise it would be called a star but would say that we just take the products off their hands. I, uh, anyway. All he detected was a finger of a son-of-a-show aspect and will order the entries by server time. Heck if I need to be fun.

We apologize for any inconvenience or frustration this caused. Please try reloading the page.

We visited her mom's cat, went shopping, ate at Subway, went to the ground to be so good to go is down. I'm fond of everyone but one person was so cute, as the purple death has power, the dragon-like claw that shined like a face. While most of my strongest interests, as if trying to start... and seers.

Ah, off to class tomorrow. My professor said my view of love was not shot all at once was more than he could do was turn his head slowly. Snaganung had a counter running in class. I've been a busy few weeks it has been a crappy month, there's no way we'll do that. It's a trade. I do not want to go to that much, but it was all a facade. On the connecting pipe too. I can't think of another when I'm besieged by those who were/are his stories and there's nothing I enjoy reading stories about people stepping outside of the very first robots I've seen where they actually get eaten or killed because it's boring English stuff. If the water will flow to the top of a mouthful. Let's everyone calm down and find ourselves a frog!

Well, that's pretty much all I have to say about that...

So, how are you?

Java Platform API documentation, StevenRoy style

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 03:12:32 GMT

Hey, Java programmers! Beta-test this:
Java Platform API documentation, StevenRoy style

It should be fairly self-explanatory, especially to anyone who's perused this documentation before. The part I modified, of course, is the navigation frame on the left; the rest is the same ol' documentation loaded directly from Sun's site. (Even though this causes "Access Denied" errors every time one of those pages tries to set the window's title. Working around this by mirroring the entire documentation archive is not an option.)

I'm planning to add a search function at some point in the future.

Bring on the critique!

(By the way, this is a great example of what happens when I program a tool for myself to make my own programming tasks easier, and then later suddenly realize, "Hey, this could be useful for a lot of people! I could fix it up and share it!")

It's Springtime in Utah.

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:10:56 GMT

Ever wonder why they call it Spring?

Boing, boing, boing, boing!

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:07:37 GMT

What a certain website says when I try to use a certain feature:
"We are currently experiencing difficulties with Internet Explorer..."

What that really means, at least to me:
"We don't know how to program JavaScript that works with Internet Explorer..."

They get credit, though, for at least acknowledging that there is a problem in the first place. Just being able to say "yeah, we know about it and we're working on it" makes a lot of difference. (Especially if it seems sincere.)

That is why I respect YouTube slightly more than deviantART right now.

---

Meanwhile, in other news: "I Killed The Lupus", the music video!

What the what?

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:22:40 GMT

Today, I was watching a show and heard a certain line of dialogue...

An hour or two later, I just happened to ponder that particular line, and I completely cracked up when I suddenly realized how completely ludicrous it is when taken out of context.

It was a young boy, shouting with glee, "I did it! I killed the lupus!"

As soon as I can, I'm getting an audio clip of that and inserting it into a House scene, or something...

(And I just know there's at least one of you who recognized that line instantly. What can I say? My friends are white and nerdy!)

LAWLVXCNNJJJVOFQCPTQNKWYXFFPRBCGWGFK

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:16:29 GMT

This is the prediction I made back on the 7th of October:

  LAWLVXCNNJJJVOFQCPTQNKWYXFFPRBCGWGFK
+ 314159265358979323846264338327950288 (the digits of PI)
--------------------------------------

OBAMA GETS MORE VOTES BUT MCCAIN STILL WINS

Seems I was half right.

Then again, I was about 80% sure of the first part, only 60% sure of the cynical second part.

(Insert random Unicode character here)

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:14:33 GMT

Simple BSRH decompression routine finished and confirmed working.
Alternative Java Platform API documentation frame finished and confirmed working (at least in IE).
Plus, I got to spend some time battling with the "Seneka" virus on a neighbor's computer. Nasty piece of work, but I did eventually get it all.

It's been a busy year so far.

It's really, really foggy outside right now. Really. And I love it! A perfect night for playing with flashlights and laser pointers! I wish we could have at least one night like this (but five at most) every year!

02009

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 09:20:21 GMT

Things I'm currently hoping to accomplish this year:
- Worry less about what people who don't even know I exist think of me.
- Finish some old programming projects, instead of constantly coming up with new ideas. (How many ways to impress people who don't care, that I'll never finish anyway, do I need?)
- Earn some real money... Ideally without having to rely on employment or the economy in any way! (I'm looking at you, PCH!)
- Hug a fursuit.
- Find out if my tablet works, preferably before spending money on a stylus for it. (Any idea how I'd go about this?)

And I think there was something else, too. Something about world domination. Oh well, I'm sure I'll remember it later.

Here, have some music...

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 09:44:21 GMT

I just put these back online:
"Topaz" (1.9 MB, 4:46)
"Futility" (1.5 MB, 4:26)

Now that Christmas is overwith and the season is winding down, this is just my way of thanking all of you who read this, for your presence. :)

Merry Miscellaneous!

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 09:48:39 GMT

So it turns out BSRH is a little harder to decompress in Java than it is to compress in Perl. I'm working on it... intermittently.

Finally watched Wall-E for the first time, just a few minutes ago...

Has anyone else ever found the Java Platform API documentation rather clunky to navigate? That's something else I've been working on lately. So far I've managed to impress myself with some rather nifty JavaScript.

At one point, I managed to get IE to complain: "'4' is null or not an object." What the heck kind of JavaScript error message was that? First, I cracked up for a few minutes. Then I fixed it.

Any of you want to see it when it's done? ...Didn't think so!

This year, for Christmas, I expressly forbade gifts of socks, underwear, or any other kind of clothing. I believe that was a good move, although, as a result, my winnings were only a fraction of last year's, and also slightly stranger: They included a Bart Simpson doll, a cute little stuffed chicken, a little plastic clapping-hands toy with blinking lights, et cetera. I really should take pictures of the lot. It'll be amusing.

(Also, "JW", I did get your card. The little fox, though "generic", was quite darling! I love it! Thanks!)

What you say?

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 11:19:12 GMT

What if the infamous line "All your base are belong to us", and the equally ludicrous dialogue surrounding it, were not just a result of some terrible English translation?

What if, instead, it was really a prediction? A prediction of how the human race would actually be speaking in the distant future?

I was reading some unrelated comments on some YouTube videos, and then this thought just happened to suddenly occur to me, for reasons that I'm sure are already apparent.

...And that's just sad.

Perl speed.

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:13:10 GMT

$l=4000;
@n=();
foreach (2..$l) {
  next if $n[$_];
  print "$_ ";
  $i=$_;
  while ($i<$l) {
    $i+=$_;
    $n[$i]=1;
  }
}

Told you it was little!

I whipped that up in less than two minutes. See if you, in less than two minutes, can figure out what it does!

In less than two minutes, I started up Notepad, typed up the program, started up Perl, and copied and pasted the program into the interpreter and ran it, without even having to save anything or come up with a filename. How many languages are there that lets people program like that, so quick and easy?

Right now I'm thinking of Microsoft QuickBasic 4.5, my all-time favorite version of BASIC. I loved QB45. I miss QB45.

I've been thinking of inventing my own version of QB45... (But right now other projects must take priority, even if there is absolutely zero demand for anything I do or may have to offer in the near future!)

And I shall call it: BSRH

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:37:33 GMT

Well, I spent the last few days programming. Specifically, I've been tweaking one of my old general-purpose data compression routines.

The original version of my "BSR" compression usually got between 20-40 percent reduction. The thing I really loved about it was how fast decompression was, even on a Commodore 64: I've got a program of around 36K (which happens to be a demo that I still work on every now and then) that compresses to near 20K and only takes about four seconds on a C64 to expand and run.

And now, for my Java programs, I've managed to add an additional layer of compression to my existing strategy and get even better compression. My new routine, which I call "BSRH", very nearly rivals ZIP compression now. With just a little additional tweaking, I'm pretty sure I can beat it!

I'm rather proud of that.

So that's how I spent most of the last few days.

I'm sure I should've spent that time working on something else instead. That's the thing, though: There's always something else!

Eenie... Meenie... Miney...

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 08:51:11 GMT

NaNoWriMo... To attempt it this year, or to work on other stuff instead? That is the question.

Option 1: Would the Freefall fans rather see me spend the month working on converting the Freefall search engine to the new format (that "almost-Wiki" thing) to allow easy updates and additional features? (I'm thinking of calling it "Project Tendon", named after a fan-character I've had for a while but never mentioned at all.)
Option 2: Would that guy on dA that I owe art to rather see me work on that? (And, naturally, I'd follow it up with lovely fractal wallpapers and cat photos and more of my art.)
Option 3: Would the people who clicked on my very preliminary "GameCore test" prefer that I work more towards completing the technology and then my first awesome Java game that utilizes it?
Option 4: ~~Seek employment, earn money.~~ There is no option 4.
Option 5: Or should I write? Once again I've got an idea, one that might have more potential than most of my previous ideas. (Maybe even this one.) Or it might not. Part of me wants to take it and run with it. Part of me says "shut up and do real work instead, like the stuff you promised to folks".

(Note that "Millie Machines", and also a new version of "The Folder", are planned for the future but not on this list. That's because, surprisingly, there are some components of both "GameCore" and "Project Tendon" that must be completed first, as prerequisites. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

I dunno, what do you think? Which of these would you want me to spend this month working on? Anything?

Express your preference!

It's nearly Stylistic!

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:21:17 GMT

It's not yet determined, but there's a slight chance that I might, just might... have a tablet.

It's apparently been dropped on the floor a few times by its previous owner, but I might, if I can find a stylus for it, be able to get it working.

And that would be cool.

It's actually a tablet PC. (And those things are expensive, aren't they?) I had to take it apart and put it back together before it would do anything at all. Then, once the battery was charged, it would turn on, but Windows wouldn't boot up because some system files were damaged. So I had to find a way to connect a CD-Rom drive to it (USB didn't work; thank goodness the previous owner was able to find the "docking station" after some prodding) so I could boot from that and restore the damaged files from a backup. (Good thing Windows saves backups, isn't it?) Then it would boot, but it would misbehave severely because it had a bunch of viruses on it, so I had to get rid of those, too... Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Long story short, I had to put a lot of work into that thing. At least the PC part is working now (aside from the speaker and USB ports not working - have I mentioned this thing's been dropped on the floor a few times before I got it?). I just need a compatible tablet stylus, and if the tablet part works as well, it'll be awesome!

The problem: A compatible stylus for this would seem to run around $50. I'd be gambling that amount. For a good prize, yes, but with not-so-good odds.

(It's a Fujitsu Stylistic 4000-something. The tablet drivers all say "Wacom".)

I like how it starts with LAWL.

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:18:29 GMT

I'm going to make a prediction here, but I don't want it to affect the outcome (like I'd ever be so influential) so I'll encrypt it:

LAWLVXCNNJJJVOFQCPTQNKWYXFFPRBCGWGFK

Later, if I'm right, I can point to this and say "I totally called it!" (And if I'm wrong, I can pretend to forget how I encrypted it.)

Meanwhile, in other news...

What the heck did I f-lock that last entry for?

"The Controversial Survey" ...Now with 1/3 less paranoia!

The Controversial Survey

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 10:53:22 GMT

I spent more than three days working on these answers...

I do have strong opinions on a lot of the subjects presented in the following questionnaire, but the problem is, I doubt they'll be either entertaining or very educational, or even pleasant. And if something is neither educational nor entertaining, I have no reason to put it on the internet, do I?

And here I am posting this thing anyway. I guess I'm hoping it'll change something. Maybe I'm hoping someone will read it and suggest that I should run for president. I've thought about that sometimes. Not because I actually want to run for president (or become involved with politics in any way), but because I feel like I'm needed. (Plus, I hear the pay is good.)

I'm sure that's just a plain ol' superiority complex, though. (You try going to my old high school for four years without developing one of those!)

So here's the survey:

1. Do you have the guts to answer these questions and re-post as The Controversial Survey?
Guts is right. As I've frequently said in the past, "An opinion is just another way to get into trouble." Watch me prove myself right.

2. Would you do meth if it was legal?
No. I'd leave the country. People who do these kinds of drugs are a danger to themselves and others. More addicts would mean more people who roam the streets and mug everyone in sight just to get their next fix. People who are high are more likely to get tazed, but are also more likely to get killed by tazers. That means more trouble for police, in addition to the increased demand. Law falls apart. The country turns into one of the Robocop movies. The second one, I think.

Okay, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration. But I'd still refuse to trust a government that would make that kind of ruling.

3. Abortion: for or against it.
Intelligent questions end with question marks. Therefore, this isn't one, but I'll answer it anyway for the sake of completeness.

Forcing a woman to give birth when she doesn't want to is evil. If we assume (probably because we're religious) that all genetically human life is sacred, then killing the developing fetus is evil too. So you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. As for which is the lesser of the two evils, that depends on the situation. If the mother's at risk, then I say abort. If the baby's going to be disabled and therefore a life-long burden on the state, I say abort and avoid that whole mess. (Taxpayers have enough to worry about without having to provide assistance to your inbred brain-dead one-eyed cleft-faced pig hybrid. We don't need to prove evolution by watching it run backwards!) If it's a rape baby, that could go either way depending on the mother's condition. But if the mother's just an idiot who got a little too promiscuous during the prom, I say she's stuck with it until it pops out and is rushed to an orphanage. It would teach her a lesson.

I'd say that the greatest evil, though, is that we keep getting into the situation where we have to make this kind of decision in the first place. This should never have become such a huge issue. In other words: Stop getting pregnant, ladies! Learn some morals and/or some self-defense!

While we're on the subject of rape: I favor neutering as a punishment for rapists and other sex offenders. Your nards should be like your children and your rights: You abuse them, you lose them, simple as that. (If it's good enough for our beloved pets... Besides, you'll be calmer and happier, and you'll live longer!)

4. Do you think the world would fail with a female president?
How could a single U.S. president cause the whole world to fail? (More than it already has with Bush, that is?)

As Q said to Picard: "Please, spare me your egotistical musings on your pivotal role in history. Nothing you do here will cause the Federation to collapse or galaxies to explode. To be blunt, you're not that important!"

5. Do you believe in the death penalty?
Sometimes it's the lesser of two evils. But we have to be certain; we can't afford to make a mistake here. The guillotine does not have an undo button.

Also, I think the public spectacle needs to be brought back. Just sticking a needle in a guy in a back room of a prison with no one watching is a stupid waste of an opportunity to scare straight anyone considering making the same mistakes as the condemned. Start beheading serial killers in the streets of New York? You'd have less of them, because the consequences of crime are now in the face of every potential serial killer.

(You try going to my old high school for four years without developing some serious disdain for all forms of violent crime!)

6. Do you wish marijuana would be legalized already?
See my answer to question 2. It applies here as well.

7. Are you for or against premarital sex?
Depends on what it's for. Just don't try anything that'll get you neutered.

8. Do you believe in God?
I saw his MySpace page once, but I think it was fraudulent. Carson Daly was on his friends list. No thanks, man, no freakin' thanks.

Seriously, though, I consider myself 7 parts Mormon (due to my upbringing), 14 parts Atheist (due to my logic), and 21 parts Agnostic (because I only trust my upbringing and my logic to a certain degree when it comes to the huge unsolvable spiritual mysteries of the universe).

(There was a time when I feared Hell... But you try going to my old high school...)

9. Do you think same sex marriage should be legalized
Intelligent questions end with question marks. Therefore, this isn't one, but I'll answer it anyway for the sake of completeness.

Depends on what it's for.

It shouldn't really be up to the government to govern what is a marriage and what isn't, because there are hardly any situations in which it makes any difference at all. Marriage is, for nearly all intents and purposes, a religious affair, and therefore government shouldn't meddle in it.

For tax (and similar) purposes, "marriage" should be considered shorthand for "two people filing jointly because they've come together to be part of the same household". If it's required that these two people have opposite genders, that's little more than a form of gender discrimination. (Or perhaps it's more like that "affirmative action" fiasco.)

I acknowledge that it's not entirely up to us who we fall in love with. What we do with it, however, is. So please, keep the lewdness and perversion to a minimum. Marriage (whether gay or straight) should be about love, not sex. More importantly, it's a right; you abuse it, you lose it.

10. Do you think it's wrong that so many Hispanics are illegally moving to the USA?
The key word here is "illegally". Find a way for them to do it legally and it wouldn't be an issue.
There are really four (and a half) parts to this problem that I can see:
...How do we make it harder for them to come in illegally?
...How do we make it easier for them to come in legally?
...What the heck is so bloody wrong with Mexico anyway? (And can we fix it?)
...And who keeps lying to these poor bastards in the first place about how much better America is doing right now?

11. A twelve year old girl has a baby, should she keep it?
No. It would screw her life up too much. Give it to her parents if they want it. Or give it to the father (preferably while neutering him).

In some countries, she'd be stoned to death for allowing that sort of thing to happen to her. That's a bit harsh, but she does need to learn that this is not okay. The "you abuse it, you lose it" rule applies just as much to her anatomy as it does to his balls.

12. Should the alcohol age be lowered to eighteen?
My answer to questions 2 and 6 apply here as well.

(You try going to my old high school for four years without developing some serious disdain for all forms of drug and alcohol use!)

13. Should the war in Iraq be called off?
It's been called worse.

Just gradually move it "a little to the left", proverbially speaking... to Afghanistan where it probably should've been in the first place as soon as Saddam was out of the picture.

14. Assisted suicide is illegal: do you agree?
Sometimes it's the lesser of two evils. But we have to be certain; we can't afford to make a mistake here. The guillotine does not have an undo button.

However sick you are, though, if there's the slightest chance that you can recover, take it. You might be surprised by how strong you really are inside. Giving up is just being selfish.

(And yes, I'm speaking from experience here. You try going to my old high school...)

15. Do you believe in spanking your children?
Sometimes it's a necessary form of punishment, but don't do it excessively because you could really screw the kid up. (Almost as much as if you didn't do it at all.)

16. Would you burn an American flag for a million dollars?
I love fireworks. Have you ever set off fireworks that had a picture of the flag on it?

So, by extension... Yes, because it's not totally different if it's done the right way, and for the right reason.

What could be more American and patriotic than greed, after all? I'd just buy another one with the prize money anyway, perhaps a grander, more magnificent flag, one adequately sufficient to disspell any erroneous suspicion of treason.

But I won't do it in a crowded street or where there are video cameras, lest one person in a mob (that's all it takes) get the wrong idea and accuse me on the internet of being unpatriotic. That kind of drama doesn't end easily.

(I'm reminded, by the way, of that internet video with the guys asking people on the street if they would kill a puppy for money. There were a few who said yes, but they all changed their minds when they were handed a live and adorable puppy. I would just put the puppy in witness relocation; I wonder how much money that would've earned me!)

17. Who do you think would make a better president?
An inanimate carbon rod!

Actually, I think I answered this already in this post's prologue. ;)

Seriously, though: Between Obama and McCain, I'm currently favoring the former. Obama did have a bad start when all he could say was "hope" and "change", but he's learned some new words since then and it's now become possible for him to carry on an actual conversation. If he keeps progressing at this rate, he could be a good president by the time all our votes come in to be counted then ignored. McCain, however, had a good start but started sounding too much like Bush, and Palin had a bad start and then started sounding like that one Mrs. America contestant. Ten minutes into the recent VP debate on TV, Palin was talking and I was compelled by some perceived absurdity to exclaim to the family, "She's losing it!"

How come we've never heard anything about the other people running for president?

18. Are you afraid others will judge you from reading some of your answers?
Always.

But go ahead. Judge me, judge yourself, and be judged. Too many of the world's problems have been caused by a total lack of judgement.

...And... done!

Hmm... Seems I was able to make a few of those answers mildly entertaining and/or educational after all. (For legal reasons, I advise you to not take them too seriously.) The bigger question, though, remains: Does this really change anything?