So we've been actacked by spammers!! I still believe that we only should allow logged in people to comment… How do you feel about that Phil?
I really do need a new computer…
I installed XNA on my home computer today and it wouldn't run out of the box. Reason, my graphics card is too old, it doesn't support "Pixel shader 1.1". I did find a work around here, but it makes everything INCREDIBLY slow as it runs in software!
So I guess I've got to wait till January where we'll by a new computer…
In recognition of the season I've changed my icon to one of the christmas trees in tivoli gardens Copenhagen, which is the amusement park in down town Cph that inspired Walt Disney to make his Disney worlds. As with most things he did he forgot to replicate the spirit of it, but rather understood how to make money on the idea 😉
It is a very romantic place especially this time of the year…
Christmas time is upon us, and this is really the only time where I get a bit homesick. Not in the sense that I want to go home, no, then I'd probably just leave for home on Friday. My problem is the christmas food! Granted a turkey is nice, and I'd probably get that in Denmark as well, but what about the "brown'ed" potatoes, the special pickled "asier" and the red cabbage dish that follow it. Also afterwards the rise pudding ("ris a la mande") with the almond competition is missing. The dish has an almond in it and the person who gets it wins a present, funny enough somehow it is usually one of the kids that wins. After that we have marzipan sweets and speciality cakes, of which I luckily can get some in Ikea. But the night snack, pickled herring, is impossible to find.
I also find it strange why people have a christmas trees here!! Why!! Is it only there to be looked at? They don't even dance around it like we would do in Denmark. Oh, and christmas is on the 24th of December in the evening as well!
Hmn, I better stop now, or else I'll get too hungry and homesick for my own good…
In found the programming course in 2002 really easy, most of all because we were taught Delphi, and that's a language I've been programming in for years. To ensure that I learned something throughout the term I tried to set myself extra tasks and computer programming puzzles which I found in a book I bought called "Delphi for Experts". This helped me learning new advanced aspects of the delphi language and libraries which were a great help in the more advanced practicals in the class. I especially liked the practical were we had to create a SameGame game, mostly because it was a very open assignment, that allowed me to stretch programatically.
I did not find anything in the course particularly difficult. The most difficult was actually to get the assignment signed, as the labs were overcrowded! I hope the the change in lab arrangement will ease that. (It did 😉
Over christmas it is (was in 2002) my plan to start re-learning C++, as I've seen that we'll use that language next year. I programmed a bit in C++ a couple of years ago, but have really forgotten it. I think I'll make a game. (Didn't do it I enjoyed my christmas in Denmark instead! Did it in the summer break instead)
Yet again a backslash annoyance has been detected.
If somebody puts a non URL character in their name (Such as "'") then it will be backslashed under the profile owner section in the sidebar. This happens always, except when pressing the profile link where everything is ok!!!!!!
I've looked at this, and can't find the bug easily, I checked the newest elgg code, and it seems like they have found the bug already and rectified it.
I think this is yet another incentive to upgrade the code base…
I've been sick for the better part of the last week, hence my quiteness!! I'm now back in my office and hope that I'm over the nasties for this time. Would utterly hate to get sick for christmas where I've booked a holiday trip to Bologna in Italy…
I've now installed Linux as a dual boot on my system.
I've installed two different systems this morning and both of them have been succesful the first time around! The first one I did was Mandriva Free 2007, which is a free-speech free-beer distro, and therefore doesn't supply any firmware based drivers. After installation it had detected all hardware, but had not supplied drivers for the nvidia graphics card, my modem, printer or scanner. I easily installed the modem (under 5 minutes), but when I wanted to install the graphics driver I ran into problems, as the driver officially supplied from nvidia didn't support my kernel. I could not face any grievings after my XP experience yesterday, so I decided (rather un-scientific but pragmatic) to try another distribution with firmware.
As I'd already started with Mandriva, and decided to install the Mandriva One distro, which is a live distro (A Linux that will install and run directly from a CD, installation is then done after setting up hardware.) The initial boot up took a bit of time, but when I had a running system I realised that it had detected all of my hardware and furthermore automatically installed all drivers except for the printer. Unfortunately when I startedmanual installation it told me that it didn't have a driver. Further investigation showed that the Dell 725 color printer doesn't provide a Linux nor Mac driver… D*mn you Dell!! Well it was a printer we got for free when my wife boughther laptop, and we have been disgusted with it planning to buy a new one in January.
But everything else is running smoothly out of the box, even my scanner is scanning. The 3D effects provided with the xserver (gui system) is simply wicket!!
Compared to the Windows Installation process I must say that the Mandriva One installation was MUCH smoother and except for the printer it detected and installed correct drivers for all my hardware. If I'd had my old printer (A HP printer) it probably would have detected that automatically (it was on their list), but that doesn't really count. The XP installation was easier than the Mandriva Free 2007 installation, but it installed a mis-fitting driver for my ATA harddrive controller, which I'm very unimpressed by (the old XP SP1 installation did that correctly, the only good thing to say about that installation), but with the help of driveragent.com it was still a better experience…
The Mandriva Free 2007 distro was quite annoying to install, as I had to install all the firmware from the "Terminal" which by most ordinary users would be a turn off. That my kernel wasn't supported by nvidia was just the nail in the coffin!
The XP SP1 installation was by far the worst experience, as it simply did not work! I was flooded with all kind of nasties from the second I started my modem, even with proberly installed firewall and Anti virus.
I've finally managed to get a (hopefully) clean XP sp2 installation up and running on my home PC. It wasn't as smooth as I'd expect, however it was MUCH smoother than the XP sp1 installation previously mentioned. I ended up having to install it 3 times in total before arriving at this clean installation.
Conclusion: I'm not too impressed with the Windows installation, especially that it installed a wrong or mis-fitting driver for my hd controller without noticing. The device manager didn't show any problems, and it was only due to my (excellent) memory of another old computer and driveragent that I actually managed to get a smoothly running Window installation from a SP2 installation disc. That is in my opinion quite bad, because the normal user probably would have had to live with a freezing computer or get in expensive expert help!
I can't wait to do the Linux Challenge to see how that goes…
This week-end is the big one! I'll re-install XP on my less than new home computer. I've found a XP sp2 disc, so many of my previous network attacks in the form of trojan horses and other nasties should be eliminated.
My hopes are that it will go much more smoothly, and that it will detect more of my old hardware automatically.
I hope to be able to perform the Linux Challenge as well, but that all depends on the success of the former challenge 😉 There I initially believe I'll have problems with my USB based DSL modem, but I've found a guide on how to install the firmware and I've downloaded all the files needed.
