http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com Uncle Fatty and his Amazing Unstoppable Mouth Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:10:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en ©StoneCypher 2003-2006 stonecypher@gmail.com (StoneCypher) stonecypher@gmail.com Programming 1440 programming,c++,php,erlang,homebrew,ds,wii,ajax Another Fat Rant Uncle Fatty and his Amazing Unstoppable Mouth StoneCypher StoneCypher stonecypher@gmail.com No yes http://stonecypher.net/Fatzilla144x144.png http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com 144 144 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/222 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/222#comments Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:10:03 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/?p=222 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/222/feed Seriously, if this judge is still on the bench in a month, I'll lose all faith that anyone in Canada has sense. Un fucking believable. Seriously, if this judge is still on the bench in a month, I'll lose all faith that anyone in Canada has sense. Un fucking believable. General Interest, Miscellaneous, Rants StoneCypher yes No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/220 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/220#comments Thu, 29 May 2008 02:15:28 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/?p=220 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/220/feed I had to write these for a colleague some months ago, and promptly forgot in classic fashion. Here's something to mock my inability to ... I had to write these for a colleague some months ago, and promptly forgot in classic fashion. Here's something to mock my inability to write coherent install docs for posterity: Setting Up eJabberD From Scratch. A how to, of sorts, I guess. This was written for a Centos server, but is probably accurate for most Unices (don't really know for sure.) Erlang, General Interest, Miscellaneous, Tools and Libraries, Tutorials StoneCypher yes No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/219 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/219#comments Thu, 29 May 2008 00:49:04 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/?p=219 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/219/feed I just realized I never posted my Erlang highlighter for ConTEXT. ConTEXT is a free Windows programmer's editor, and I've used it and MSVS ... I just realized I never posted my Erlang highlighter for ConTEXT. ConTEXT is a free Windows programmer's editor, and I've used it and MSVS basically exclusively for many years now. Here's my Erlang highlighter: http://sc.tri-bit.com/outgoing/Erlang.chl Erlang, Miscellaneous StoneCypher yes No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/218 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/218#comments Sat, 24 May 2008 18:54:17 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/?p=218 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/218/feed Have you ever looked at the cost of something like MaxMind with monthly updates? It's ridiculous. Tens of thousands of dollars a year. ... Have you ever looked at the cost of something like MaxMind with monthly updates? It's ridiculous. Tens of thousands of dollars a year. Makes me angry, honestly. Problem is, I went to hostip.info to get replacement free data, and one time in three it thinks I'm in Canada. (I'm not in Canada. Only Russians live in Canada.) To that end I've decided that anyone who hasn't checked (and if necessary, updated) their data in HostIP.info is officially a douche. It takes like ten seconds. C'mon. Data, Miscellaneous, Programming StoneCypher yes No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/217 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/217#comments Wed, 21 May 2008 02:57:21 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/?p=217 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/217/feed Here's what you forgot: AllowOverride All -- this probably says "none"; fix it AllowOverride All -- it's ... Here's what you forgot: AllowOverride All -- this probably says "none"; fix it AllowOverride All -- it's in two different parts of httpd.conf, so fix it again LoadModule somepath/mod_rewrite.so -- uncomment this, and check if the file's actually there Miscellaneous, Web and Web Standards StoneCypher yes No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/215 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/215#comments Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:41:26 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/215 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/215/feed I'm just posting this up here because I always forget how to fix it and because it usually takes me 15 minutes to track down ... I'm just posting this up here because I always forget how to fix it and because it usually takes me 15 minutes to track down again.  When you enable the CentOS web stack, perl is excluded - which is generally correct - except that dependencies require (currently) 5.8.8 whereas that is not provided by the base repos.  If you hit that, you'll get a message along these lines: Error: Missing Dependency: perl(:MODULE_COMPAT_5.8.8) is needed by package perl-DBD-MySQL So, the way to fix that is to change the priority of CentOS Plus to 1 temporarily, yum clean all, install perl - which will get current, which is 5.8.8, put CentOS Plus back where you had it (presumably 2), and go back to what you were doing. General Interest, Miscellaneous StoneCypher no No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/214 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/214#comments Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:58:10 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/214 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/214/feed So I'm working on a quick run at 99 Lisp Problems in Erlang, because I'm a little bored of Project Euler, and I write myself ... So I'm working on a quick run at 99 Lisp Problems in Erlang, because I'm a little bored of Project Euler, and I write myself a tiny little testing rig.  run_all_tests() - TestList = lists:seq(1, ?LastQuestion), TestResults = [ { TestNum, apply( ?MODULE, list_to_atom("t" ++ integer_to_list(TestNum)), [] ) } #124;#124; TestNum - TestList ], { Pass, Fail } = lists:partition( fun({_,TestStatus}) - TestStatus end, TestResults ), { { pass, [ P #124;#124; {P,_} - Pass ] }, { fail, [ F #124;#124; {F,_} - Fail ] } }. And it occurs to me: if I had the ability to slap a name on that fun - say, strip_tuple - then its purpose would be far more obvious, and the whole block of code would suddenly be much easier to read.  I realize that the purpose of lambdas is to just write out as functions what couldn't easily be expressed otherwise and yet stay inline, which has enormous space-savings, readability and debugging benefits.  But, there's nothing in there that actually requires my inability to paste a label on it, is there? Why can't I name a lambda? Erlang StoneCypher no No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/213 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/213#comments Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:51:34 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/213 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/213/feed From Jack Thompson's new temper tantrum at Take Two: I want to bring to your attention the fact that at www.rockstargames.com anyone of any age can ... From Jack Thompson's new temper tantrum at Take Two: I want to bring to your attention the fact that at www.rockstargames.com anyone of any age can order Manhunt 2 and receive it, with no age verification whatsoever. Asking a 14-year-old if he’s 17 is not age verification, now is it? How the hell is this guy a lawyer? Not only is that legal age verification in the United States (and, in fact, has been by precedent since the 1960s, when the issue was first tested by adult telephone services,) but also the Take 2 site only takes credit cards - which are themselves acceptable forms of age verification in the US since the early 1970s. Either the Florida Bar is obscenely easy, or Jacky Boy has been taking some anti-memory pills. That he should send that phrase on to the FTC and activist groups is so deeply ignorant of the law that it's almost embarrassing to know who Jack is. Jack, I write family-friendly game titles for a living, including family licenses from children's cartoons. I want you out of my industry. You do far more damage than you prevent. Get it through your head: you're a poor lawyer, a poor activist and a poor excuse for an adult living in a representative democracy. Stop flogging the bear: you may be a media whore, but the bear's gonna turn around and bite you, soon enough. And by bear, I mean "barratry." Since you don't seem to understand the law, Jack, please look it up (the various news blogs covering this are unfortunately referring to the COPPA decision; the COPA decision I just linked is far more germane.) I greatly hope that the Take 2 lawyers will take barratry into consideration. This is the clearest case of abuse of the legal system I've seen in years, and that'd put a hell of a lot of weight behind the disbarment we all so desperately want to see. Game Design, Gaming, General Interest, Nintendo DS, Rants StoneCypher no No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/212 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/212#comments Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:54:24 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/212 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/212/feed Yay, windows media player pulled the only two things I use in the new version. Not only is the toolbar context menu that shows ... Yay, windows media player pulled the only two things I use in the new version. Not only is the toolbar context menu that shows your library from collapsed WMP gone, but there's also - get this - no way to look at your entire media library at once. Want to find a song that isn't well categorized? You're screwed. There was a time when I respected the WMP interface team. That time has passed. Rants StoneCypher no No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/211 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/211#comments Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:24:46 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/211 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/211/feed Don't ever ask AdBrite for clarifications of their terms of service.  They'll ignore repeated emails and phone calls for a month, tell you it's ok ... Don't ever ask AdBrite for clarifications of their terms of service.  They'll ignore repeated emails and phone calls for a month, tell you it's ok on the phone but that they won't say it in writing, then tell you you're being abusive by continuing to ask, and that you're risking getting your account shut down.  (There's nothing against what I want to do in the TOS; I was just trying to be a good neighbor.) I just shut my account down.  I will not deal with a company that is offended by a customer wanting to check if their idea is okay before doing it.  Scumbags. Anyone know of a text ad auction system other than AdBrite? General Interest StoneCypher no No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/210 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/210#comments Sat, 16 Jun 2007 18:23:24 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/210 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/210/feed Our good friends at DevKitPro want help exposing their project to a wider audience through the SourceForge Community Choice awards. DevKitPro is a deployment ... Our good friends at DevKitPro want help exposing their project to a wider audience through the SourceForge Community Choice awards. DevKitPro is a deployment of GCC meant to facilitate development for console video game systems, including the Nintendo DS, the GameBoy Advance, Playstation Portable, Sega Saturn, GP2X, GP32, Nintendo GameCube and hopefully soon the Wii. Some of you may know that I write Nintendo games commercially. DevKitPro and its antecedents were how I got my foot in the door. I’d like other people to know these tools are available, in case they have the passion too. If you’d like to see other people able to make homebrew gaming happen for their consoles, cast your vote here. Competitions, Gaming, General Interest, Miscellaneous StoneCypher no No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/209 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/209#comments Mon, 28 May 2007 19:10:44 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/209 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/209/feed Lolhax. Lolhax. General Interest, Humor, Miscellaneous StoneCypher no No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/208 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/208#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2007 08:10:03 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/208 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/208/feed So, I tried to set up ModernBill for a new business I'm starting on the side. I hit a fairly serious showstopper bug, that ... So, I tried to set up ModernBill for a new business I'm starting on the side. I hit a fairly serious showstopper bug, that prevents me from so much as adding a product. Eight days have gone by, and the staff hasn't said a single word.  Luckily, the product is only available encoded, so I can't fix whatever their random bug is myself.  I'm a quarter of the way through the product evaluation period, and I can't use the product.  I've contacted the company through email, through trouble tickets, through the forum and by thinking really, really hard at them.  Other users of theirs have expressed similar problems. Despite loudly claiming that they are a support-active company, in eight days, they have ignored every single attempt I've made at contact.  They silently closed two seperate trouble tickets without a response. I recommend against any of my readers ever doing business with ModernGigabyte in any fashion. General Interest StoneCypher no No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/205 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/205#comments Mon, 12 Feb 2007 01:05:23 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/205 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/205/feed ... which screws you nicely for a while, while you're trying to figure out what's broken in your erlang port. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem ... ... which screws you nicely for a while, while you're trying to figure out what's broken in your erlang port. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a portable solution. That said, here's what you do in unix: freopen(NULL, "wb", stdin); freopen(NULL, "wb", stdout); And, in Windows: _setmode( _fileno( stdin ) , _O_BINARY ); _setmode( _fileno( stdout ), _O_BINARY ); That should save you some pain. Erlang StoneCypher no No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/203 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/203#comments Thu, 01 Feb 2007 22:18:04 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/203 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/203/feed Normally I'd do the rant myself, but io_error did a better job than I'm likely to do. This article contains the single funniest thing ... Normally I'd do the rant myself, but io_error did a better job than I'm likely to do. This article contains the single funniest thing I've ever seen him say (the line about the governor; you'll know it when you see it.) General Interest, Miscellaneous StoneCypher no No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/201 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/201#comments Thu, 01 Feb 2007 07:21:33 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/201 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/201/feed I'm becoming ever more convinced that the answer is yes. I've been playing, a bit, a game called Project Euler, a game for programmers ... I'm becoming ever more convinced that the answer is yes. I've been playing, a bit, a game called Project Euler, a game for programmers wherein the object is to find solutions to deceptively simple problems. It's surprisingly entertaining, and your score is a result of the function of programmers which have not succeeded in a task. There are people who take long roundabout approaches to get to results like these, when instead they could be doing things like p1() - lists:sum(     [ X #124;#124; X - lists:seq(1,10),       ((X rem 3) == 0) orelse ((X rem 5) == 0) ] ). As a result, I'm starting to think that I need to start explaining things. Anyone agree or disagree? Erlang, Programming, Tutorials StoneCypher yes No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/198 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/198#comments Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:22:19 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/198 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/198/feed On the one hand, I love things like "10 worst" lists. They help me remember that other people out there hate things as much ... On the one hand, I love things like "10 worst" lists. They help me remember that other people out there hate things as much as I do. On the other hand, if you're going to write a Ten Worst DS Game list, you just need to read through the game list. I can tell this author didn't. How? Nowhere in his ten worst occurs Whack a Mole. Then again, IGN gives whack-a-mole a five, so I guess the stupid isn't yet monopolized. Gaming, Humor, Miscellaneous, Nintendo DS, Rants StoneCypher no No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/197 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/197#comments Sat, 13 Jan 2007 04:29:48 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/197 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/197/feed So, I'm writing a web-based game, and I would like to know how people feel about timing out people who have disconnected. The game ... So, I'm writing a web-based game, and I would like to know how people feel about timing out people who have disconnected. The game is a turn-based strategy game with moderately fast play, on the order of every 30 seconds to 1 minute, comparable to Reversi/Othello (Havannah, to be specific.) In particular, I'm not sure where to set the threshholds for a given person timing out. My plan is to have three threshholds. If you're playing a game, and someone disconnects, it's generally for one of two reasons: their connection failed, or they're quitting to avoid losing. On the one hand, I have spotty wifi at home, and I frequently lose connection for several minutes at a time, and I wouldn't want to be counted a loser and a poor sport while I waited on my DSL modem to stop sucking. On the other hand, sitting around waiting for someone you don't know is frequently the suck, and many people do quit to get out of a loss. So, I'm setting the upper threshhold at 20 minutes. No matter what, if they log off and stay gone for 20 minutes, the game is discarded, and called in favor of the person still online. However, obviously I don't want people to have to wait around for 20 minutes, so I need to set a lower threshhold. That threshhold will be the point at which someone gets to choose what to do. If I'm gone a little over the lower threshhold, the system will say to the other player "do you want to call it a tie, save it for later, or claim a disconnect win?" If it's someone who doesn't know me, they shouldn't be forced to wait, and should have the option of calling it a tie if the game isn't very far in, or if I've obviously been having connection trouble. However, they should also be able to claim a disconnect win if they smell a jerk. It would be nice if they could call a tie or a save very early, much earlier than would be appropriate for calling a quitter loss, so the other two threshholds are those two issues seperately. The lowest threshhold is the "save or tie" threshhold, and it should be fairly fast. Someone can choose to ignore it if they want. The next threshhold is the "you quit to cheat" threshhold, and it should be at least somewhat patient. At the 20 minute line, the system will call it, no matter what. So, the question is, how long should those two lower timeouts be? Twenty minutes is obviously far too long for either. On the balance, ten seconds obviously isn't long enough; most people can't reconnect that fast, and we need to be accomodating of people's computers rebooting, of modem reconnect cycles, of DSL reconnect cycles, and so on. I'm going to set a range of options. If you don't see the time you want, feel free to add it; I'll be using the distribution of answers, not just the most popular, so it'll still count. [?php jal_democracy(6); ?] [?php jal_democracy(7); ?] Game Design, Gaming, My Games, Polls StoneCypher no No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/196 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/196#comments Sun, 07 Jan 2007 00:44:58 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/196 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/196/feed That's right, it's not a dub, it's a cover. As in, they actually remade the entire episode themselves. Brace yourself for the lowest ... That's right, it's not a dub, it's a cover. As in, they actually remade the entire episode themselves. Brace yourself for the lowest budget "The Man Trap" you've ever seen. Cardboard cutout people, transporters that look like macaroni beams, girls who aren't even close to hot - it's got it all. [youtube]utqnLoDfG3Y[/youtube] Humor, Media Links, Video Links StoneCypher no No http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/195 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/195#comments Wed, 03 Jan 2007 09:26:53 +0000 stonecypher http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/195 http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/195/feed It's not the same as those pictures you already saw, even though it seems like it is. Watch it.  You'll see. [youtube]sHzdsFiBbFc[/youtube] It's not the same as those pictures you already saw, even though it seems like it is. Watch it.  You'll see. [youtube]sHzdsFiBbFc[/youtube] Humor, Media Links, Video Links StoneCypher no No