by

I feel much better at the moment, lately life has just been a bit overly negative; the more things go on, the more deeply I am reminded of what it so terribly missing. The past couple weeks has felt a lot like limbo, just passing grueling time.

One of my favourite films was on tonight, The Teahouse of the August Moon. You could say, I really needed the chance to sit, enjoy, and laugh; there hasn’t been much joy in my life for a good long while now. In all honesty, I think I would take the slower way of life given the chance, hmm; what was the last time I could have seen the sun rise or set, and be at liberty to do so? The movies ending is also priceless! In a way, Sakini’s words also struck a cord:

“Pain make man think. Thought make man wise. Wisdom make life endurable.”

I find truth in it.

by

I’m kind of happy with myself at the moment. I’ve found that Visual Studio project files are about the only reliable way I can get things to compile with Visual C++’s compiler on my lone windows machine. Since i greatly prefer using a command prompt for development work, having to alt tab between programs like VCExpress/devenv and Explorer windows are not something I’ll put up with if I don’t have to lol.

Since I do require a real mans editor, I set the IDE to load gvim as the default editor for source files; soon I’ll rig it to use vim’s client-server feature (:he client-server). Like wise that made Visual C++ little more then a very big project management and build system. Some weeks ago whilst looking for cl/link (compiler/linker) switches and a reference to nmake (Microsoft’s make utility), I found the vcbuild utility; which is the “Visual C++ Project Builder – Command Line Version”. So far it seems to be very suitable, which would mean the IDE is now only needed for managing the project and solution files, right? Well, not really!

When I started using Microsoft’s development environment (this box only has the Express editions; I usually do development on my FreeBSD powered laptop!) the first thing I did was look at the .sln and .vcproj files it creates. The solution file (.sln) basically describes the bigger picture in XML format; for my present projects it does little more then reference the project files (.vcproj) that make up the solutions. The project files are also in XML, ‘‘. It defines the various details, essentially what you get in the IDEs configuration manager for a specific project, and the files in the solution explorer. I was very happy to see Visual C++ using XML files, because it means I can *read* the things before opening them with an IDE.

Since the files are XML, and the format is pretty obvious: one can modify the project file quiet easily, and adding/subtracting things like source files, include directories, and libraries is a trivial task. If it wasn’t for the use of ProjectGUID’s I might never need to run the IDE again :-/. Who knows, maybe I won’t even need that in a while lol.

Compiler errors: the art of reading Geek and laughing at your typos

by

The code, “typo”

RenderManager RManager;

The resulting compiler error

1>main.cpp
1>.Sourcemain.cpp(9) : error C2146: syntax error : missing ';' before identifier 'RManager'
1>.Sourcemain.cpp(9) : error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
1>.Sourcemain.cpp(9) : error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int

The correction

#include "RenderManager.hpp"

RenderManager RManager;

What makes me laugh: syntax error : missing ‘;’ before identifier.

The good thing: “missing type specifier – int assumed” actually hints that RenderManager is not yet a known type, as in I forgot to include the appropriate header… hehe.

Writer’s Block: Dream Vacations

by

What vacations would you most like to take in the next five years?

Live Journals Writer’s Block

0. A tropical island, toes in the sand, and not a care in the world….

1. Visit Tennessee, see them beautiful mountains again and go campin’ out in nature for a bit, then meet up with a few friends out on the lake 🙂

2. Hit the U.K. and go exploring, get lost and get a lit’ bit wild and crazy ;). Then meet up with a few e-friends made in [SAS], I’ve always had this strange picture of us in my head, of us staggering home from a pub, and singing loudly ^_^.

3. Visit Germany, maybe see if their are any English friendly tours of Berlin that show off the cities varied architecture; then visit some of the museums in/around Berlin and München. I think I would need to be 500% more fluent in the language to pull that one off though :-/.

4. Canada, women, whiskey, and fishing…. could you ask for more? Plus an old friend is from Newfoundland, and would warrant a visit!

notes 4 later today

by

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,11502,00.asp

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,9722,00.asp

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb174597(VS.85).aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb173249(VS.85).aspx

Todays personal training (SWAT 4)

by

Where; [SAS] Training Ground US

General criteria: no tactical aids permitted, other then breaching kit.

Phase I: Old Granet Hotel, stealth to first contact then high intensity clearing; round 1: success, mp5; round 2: failure, m4. Average shots per kill: 5-6/3-4, killed by a survivor of 4 5.56x45mm to the chest.

Phase II: Children of Tarrone Tenement; stealth until compromised; round 1: failure, mp5sd; round 2: failure, carsd; Average shots per kill 9 / 3; killed by the survivors of 9 9x19mm shots to the skull and 2 5.56x45mm to the skull, respectively.

Phase III: Victory Imports Auto, stealth until first contact then high intensity clearing; round 1: failure, mp5sd; round 2: failure, mp5 (was supposed to be uzisd); Average shots per kill: 4-6; Killed by the survivors of 3 shots to the chest, and a survivor of >12 shots to the body/arms/head.

I nearly threw the freakin’ MP5 at the enemy when during an ambush against would-be bush whackers took about 20 rounds to the head and 3 more to the chest!

by

So far I am getting pretty used to wearing these glasses, all in all it isn’t so bad. Whether it is a positive or negative impact on my appearance, well is beyond my immediate concern lol.

They have a tendency to slide down my noise under certain conditions, which I find irksome; makes looking UP more challenging since it causes my eyes to hit or pass the upper frames :-/. That however, I think is just a fact of living with glasses and summer time!

This new headset cost about $45 but so far seems to be worth it. The MP5 in SWAT 4 sounds like a proper machinegun rather then a ‘pop gun’, and the weapons in RvS sound much better. The depth of hearing music is much greater, kind of like listening to a Stereo system. I also like that the padding effectively creates ‘cups’ around my ears xD.

by

It hasn’t been a very comfortable day… to say the least of it. I woke up a bit after 0600Q with a toothache and no luck gettin’ back to sleep. I remembered something a friend once said about using a moistened tablet of paracetamol (acetaminophen) to rub along the site (and iirc, push in the “hole” if such was the case). Finding a bottle of tylenol here being slightly harder >_>.

Since yesterday the phone rang, and I stupidly left my headset on the chair instead of the desk – I sat down with a crunch! So today I had to get a new headset. I can care less about the Live! related features, as long as it is decent quality and durable (even if not 160lb of ass worth, lol). In installing it, I had quiet a bit of a monkey fight to get everything working; seems that the driver disk really likes Live Call / Messenger—and lacks a required USB Audio driver for Windows XP SP3. Ok, I was saved by that annoying hardware detection dialog but at least XP no longer thinks the headset is a mass storage device! Sound quality is totally different, gunfire in RvS and SWAT 4 reminds me of listening to Call of Duty on my brothers (costly) speaker system once upon a time.

Spent a bit of time playing OpenArena, set up a skirmish on my favorite map with 3 bots for help against 4 bots. I scored nearly 70 frags, at least a dozen of which involved the “Buzzsaw”. I couldn’t get ahold of any decent weapons but the starting kit, so I decided to start chasing the pricks with a Buzzsaw, racked up a screen full of kill-icon things with it before finally getting a proper kit. I’ve also started to get better with rocket-placement – even scoring several direct hits as well as the usual splash-damage SOP.

Tried to take some time to write code but no one in this rat-fucking place would let me get work done. Combine with a nasty headache, and I said fuck it all—and just took a nap.

I feel much better now but absolutely nothing has gotten done. I have all of about 2 useful lines of documentation for the library I wanted to get done, LAST WEEK.

My first pair of glasses

by

Yesterday my glasses were ready for pick up, but eh, who wants to go right back out after they get home for work? So we picked them up today on the way home; it’s only a few miles in a perpendicular direction .(^_^)/./

When they had me try them on, it was like, in the words of Clark Griswald: hallelujah and holy shit! I found it initially very unstabling to turn my head and gaze about like normal, but I reckon that is normal at first. The difference however in vision, is tremendous. I’ve spent most of the day wearing them, and now they are fairly comfortable, more so then naked eyes lol. I only worry how wearing glasses regularly will impact my un-aided eye sight in the long run. I can see very crisp and clear, it is like someone jacked up the resolution a few orders of magnitude! On the way home, I could see license plates and street signs clear; hell I could see the specks of dirt on the road instead of just the dirt!!! Coming home it felt almost like the ground was under a microscope, so much finer detail. It’s like I could count the hairs on the dogs back, leaves on a tree at 30ft, and can see the crap between the individual blades of grass! Just walking into the apartment it was unsettling, I can now see the carpet so finely, that it’s better then when I used to sit on the carpet as a kid with action figures littered all over :-/. It’s a huge detail hack, man I think I could even read the little-bitty display on the VCR across the room, if the clock was set, ha!

Up real close things are a bit blurry with the glasses on, perhaps I need bifocals for that lol; I’m just happy with the current improvement. And really, the choice of lifting my glasses up or moving my head back a little is not a bother. So far the only irksome issue, often whenever I yawn I tend to get a bit teary eyed (always have), but now obviously I have to remove my glasses to wipe it away, so I can see clearly again lol. Even on the computer, it’s very different. I run my 19″ monitor at 1600×1200 and a custom DPI setting of 144dpi (150% winsucks normal). Most things are set to fairly large fonts because I find that Google Chrome renders fonts a hell of a lot smaller then Mozilla does; the difference being defaults in Fx have always been fine, but in Chrome I have things set to like 22pt rather then a more normal size. With my glasses I can see to read the mouse type things render on daemonforums, with chrome+my monitor. Without, I had to increase the size to be able to read it without zooming my head into the screen -> which I *hate* doing. Right now it’s become very easy to read even my LJ without jacking the font size! sasclan.org and facebook only need 1 increment of the size rather then 3 or 4; and then only in order to be read ‘at length’ rather then momentarily. Just now, I’ve tested changes to Chromes settings. I can set the fonts as low as 9 or 8 pt and be able to see them excellently in most fonts; and very comfortably around 11-12 pt period. The problem is, that results in microscopic text compared to the rest of my windows desktop – like looking at 5pt text instead of 12pt text. So I have Chrome set to 24pt now, and am reading the text in LJ’s text area – at what appears to be “9pt” text when judged against how fonts render in Chromes selection dialog.

I was playing SWAT 4 today, and found it easier to read the texts, usually I have to be careful of my cam placement in order to read team messages; grey on grey/white/black mixtures suck. The big shocker though, was it felt like I could see the threads on the enemies hoods :-/. With RvS, I’ve had a problem reading chats since I started with this 19 inch monitor; the texts far away. Now, maybe I can start reading it again like I used to on the old 15″, instead of having to stop and open the console xD.

My word, if this is what normal vision is like—what have I been seeing all these years!? Oh, in case I forgot to mention it, they are really thick-ass lenses lol.

This is rich

by

As a side note, you may be wondering if it is a security risk that applications can add and remove applications from the exceptions list any user intervention, or perhaps you think that the bigger risk is that applications can disable the firewall altogether. To perform these feats, the application must have administrator privledges. If you have malicious code running in administrator mode on your system, the game is already over and the hacker has already won. The hacker’s ability to disable the firewall would merit little more than a footnote.

What it fails to mention is many millions of Windows XP installations are run with administrator privileges on the users regular account, I practically ROFL’d lol.