Randum Thoughts

Development's ups and downs

2011-10-27T22:23:00.003+01:00

Game development is sometimes testing! You get stuck on things, you go through boring phases, you wonder if you are going in the right direction. Often you have to fight though it to get that little reward that keeps you going.

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another. - Walter Elliott

I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature. - John D. Rockefeller

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places. - Author Unknown

It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer. - Albert Einstein

And I guess now I ought to stop reading quotes and do some work. :o)

UI for Allegro 5

2011-10-11T19:55:00.001+01:00

I found a nice UI system called Gwen. It has lots of advanced features and is very easy to embed. It very nicely sits on top of your application and can just be wired into its resources, to save competing systems, e.g. input or texture management.

Example of Gwen UI from the Gwen site.

I ported it to Allegro 5, which was quite easy as the renderer and input abstractions are well designed. I did it on the Mac, but it also works just fine on my old Windows XP laptop. Gwen also provides rendering backends for OpenGL, DirectX, SFML, and Windows GDI.

If you have used Delphi, or Windows Forms you'll probably find it quite easy to pick up. There are unit test examples from which to learn, but other than that you have to plough through the code at the moment. Hopefully more docs and comments will appear soon to ease the learning curve. There is a small tutorial on doing layout with docking.

One of the things that is really nice about Gwen is the skinning system. It is all laid out in one bitmap, along with the colour scheme at the bottom.

The default skin for Gwen.

Notes on using Allegro 5 on Mac

2011-07-09T11:35:00.002+01:00

This is some notes I made whilst setting up Allegro for use on my Mac. I'm fairly new to Mac, having been a Windows programmer for a long time, so these notes may change as I learn more about the correct way to do things on the Mac.

Libraries

Get all the dependencies from Macport. This saves a lot of time. Very nice system.

sudo port install zlib freetype jpeg libogg libvorbis libpng physfs +universal

If you have libraries installed that aren't 32 bit, and you get the "different system not i386" link error, they need to be recompiled as "universal" (i.e. i386 and x86_64).

sudo port upgrade --enforce-variants XXXX +universal

Install

Easiest is to avoid frameworks. Unpack the Allegro source and in that directory:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=i386 ..
make
sudo make install

cmake should have been installed by port, but if not "sudo install cmake". Add "-DWANT_FRAMEWORKS=1" to cmake if you want frameworks (although I can't see an advantage to this). "-DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=i386" is important as OSX 10.6 compiles 64 bit default and we want 32 bit.

Project

Don't use Xcode 4.0, it isn't ready. Use Xcode 4.1 or Xcode 3.2.

I create a Cocoa application and removed what I didn't want.

Add "/usr/local/include" to header search paths.
Drag in the Allegro libraries that you want to link to in "/usr/local/lib".
Go into Interface Builder and delete the default Application and Window. Allegro supplies these.

The following error means you have the wrong "main" declaration:

dyld: Symbol not found: __al_mangled_main

Referenced from: /usr/local/lib/liballegro_main.5.0.dylib

Expected in: flat namespace

in /usr/local/lib/liballegro_main.5.0.dylib

It should be:

int main(int argc, char **argv)

[16-Jul-11] Note about Xcode 4.0.
[27-Oct-11] Xcode 4.1 is fine. It doesn't crash and is faster than Xcode 3.2.

iMac 2011 Buying Decision

2011-05-03T22:12:00.075+01:00

This is not a full review of the iMac 2011 refresh, rather some comments on my decision making process for buying one.

There are no cosmetic changes, just a bump in spec, although the increase in power looks quite impressive, especially in the high end 27" iMac's graphics.

New features are:

Thunderbolt - high speed video/data connect. Peripherals won't be cheap. :(
"iMac displays feature "in-plane switching," or IPS. Originally designed by Hitachi in 1996, IPS improves color and contrast at sharp viewing angles." (source)

Things improved:

CPU (faster).
GPU (faster).
Camera (quality).
Screen (quality).

CPU

All of the iMacs are now quad-core (i.e. i5). The higher models can be bumped up to i7, which has hyper-threading (i.e. 8 hardware threads on 4 cores, 2 on each).

This thread contains lots of information comparing the 2010 and 2011 models.

Comparison of iMac 2011 processors.

The i7 3.4 Ghz vs i5 3.1 GHz appears to be (from CPU performance comparison, not real world):

~25% faster transcoding in Handbrake.
~10% faster at Photoshop.
~10% faster at image rendering in 3DS Max 2010.

The i7 is £160 extra in the 27" top model. So it's about a 10% increase in price (of the whole iMac) for ~10% increase in performance. If you do a lot of video transcoding then it's a ~25% increase in performance for 10% extra, which looks like better value for money.

Initial Benchmarks

Initial iTechVision initial Geekbench tests:

Geekbench:

i7 3.4 Ghz in 32 bit OSX: ~11750, in 64 bit OSX: ~12700 (8% increase).
i5 3.1 Ghz in 32 bit OSX: ~8400 (~71% of i7). Approx 9500 if 13% increase.

i7 ~20% faster than MBPs with i7.
i7 the same performance as MPs from 2009-10.

For comparison (32/64 bit) from Mac Geekbench:

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2009) Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53 GHz (2 cores) = 3510/3851.
MacBook Pro (17-inch Early 2011) Intel Core i7-2820QM 2.3 GHz (4 cores) = 10383/11179.
iMac (27-inch Mid 2010) Intel Core i5 680 3.6 GHz (2 cores) = 6829/7745.
iMac (27-inch Late 2009) Intel Core i7 860 2.8 GHz (4 cores) = 8328/9712.
iMac (27-inch Mid 2010) Intel Core i7 870 2.93 GHz (4 cores) = 9122/10544.
Mac Pro (Mid 2010) Intel Xeon E5620 2.4 GHz (8 cores) = 12722/14083.

i5 3.1 GHz is:

same performance as i7 2.93 Ghz from last year.
~86% the performance of MacPro Xeon 3.33 Ghz 2010: 6 core and costs £3400!

The difference between 32 and 64 bit OS appears to be around 8-9% on Macbook Pros and around 12-15% on iMacs.

Graphics

There appear to be some people who are discontent that Apple uses mobile graphics devices in their iMacs, but this has always been the case. Some modern graphics cards make stupid amounts of noise, and if you are editing music, or trying to concentrate then it can be very off putting. The mobile cards create far less heat, and therefore need less cooling, and are quieter.

This table shows the previous graphics cards used in iMacs:

Comparison of past and present iMac graphics cards.

The Radeon HD 6970M, in the high end 27" iMac has a much higher spec than the other cards, and appears to be about 70% faster than the HD 6770M found in the lower spec iMac. There is £250 difference between the two models (which also includes a faster processor and more VRAM on the graphics card). The HD 6990M card can also be upgraded to 2 GB VRAM for £80.

HD 6970M
This review compares the Radeon HD 6950 1 GB and 2 GB models, and the GeForce GTX 560 Ti. This is interesting because the iMac uses the HD 6970M and has 1 and 2 GB options. The review is not for the mobile version (i.e. the 6950M) but it does show what effect adding VRAM has. The conclusion is that adding VRAM doesn't necessarily speed up the framerate, but it does allow higher quality AA and higher screen resolutions (and the iMac has a massive screen!). The HD 6970 looks to be about 10% more powerful than the 6950.

RAM

Apple's RAM costs are very expensive. I don't know how they justify it. The iMacs come with 4GB of RAM. This comes as 2 x 2GB sticks, which live in 2 of 4 slots, so more can be added easily and cheaply from a third party.

RAM specification from Apple.

4GB supplied.
Maximum possible: 16GB (4GB in each slot).
2 or 4 GB may be used in each slot.

Apple price:

8 GB (2x4) = £160.
16 GB (4x4) = £480.

This is for 2010 iMac, but if prices are similar, options are:

6 GB (2x2 + 2) = £17 (inc VAT).
8 GB (2x2 + 4) = £34.
12 GB (2x2 + 2x4) = £67.
16 GB (4x4) = £134. Possibly get money from selling 2x2 GB.

Price Comparison

Apple are often accused of ripping their customers off. And whilst I find it really hard to see how they charge so much for RAM, bigger hard drives and SSD, the basic packages do seem quite competitive. Often, systems that are compared just aren't of the same quality. They have poorly quality screens or make loads noise, or aren't as powerful in one area.

If you look on the Dell site, at their high end gaming rigs, a roughly equivalent spec looks to be the Alienware Aurora i7-2600. It is £1300 (with £230 off). A 27" monitor, the U2711, is £839. So that totals ~£2140. This is also doesn't include software like iLife. The top end iMac is £1889 with i7 and 2GB VRAM.

Conclusion

The extra £250 to jump from the lower to the higher spec 27" iMac is worth it for the extra graphics performance, plus the faster processor.

The extra £160 for the i7 also looks quite good value if you look at the benchmarks. Superficially (according to Geekbench) it looks like you get 37% increase in power for around a 10% increase in price. Of course not all applications will get this full benefit, but you do get a faster processor and most things will run at least 10% faster.

It is also worth investing in some more RAM. Using Apple RAM is ludicrously expensive. Buy the base spec and upgrade later from a third party. 4 GB is plenty for casual use. 8-12 GB is useful for audio/video editing and multi-tasking.

For me, I'd like to play games, program, and have the computer for some time, so I think I'll go for i7 and the 2GB of VRAM option. Games are always using more VRAM, and it might be used for GPU processing. If you don't play games then you probably won't need the 2GB of VRAM. And if you don't edit video then the i5 might be good enough for you. It is still a really powerful machine.

Afterthoughts

[9-July-11] I've since bought my Mac and am very happy with the nice big screen. It is a beast as well, incredibly fast. I noticed it was a little sluggish at first, but I think this is because the CPU/motherboard is so fast that any disc access seems very slow (including any virtual memory swapping) in comparison.

I upgraded to 12GB (Crucial 2x4GB sticks + the existing 2x2GB) and this really speeds things up. Aperture was almost unusable before, but is lightening fast now. I decided not to get an internal SSD, but I can now see why you'd want one.

I am also very happy (so far) with the gaming performance. The GPU performance was worth waiting for as I think previous 27" iMacs were slightly underpowered. All the games I have tried so far run at maximum settings (everything on max/ultra), at maximum resolution without any lag at all. The CPU barely breaks into a jog as well. Starcraft 2 and Settlers 7 both have no problems at all. Looking forward to id Rage.

[4-May-11] Added initial Geekbench test results from (shop bought?) iMac i5 3.1 GHz.
[4-May-11] Added details on gfx performance and 2GB VRAM upgrade.
[9-May-11] Updated conclusion after reading more benchmarks. Added Dell comparison.
[9-July-11] Added afterthoughts.

Allegro 5.0 on Mac Snow Leopard

2011-03-06T22:09:00.111Z

I had been experimenting with Allegro 4.4, but now Allegro 5.0.0 has arrived. Apparently version 5.0 has had its API revamped and more functionality added, so I decided to give it a go. I believe it now expects hardware acceleration and has drivers for OpenGL and DirectX. Its appeal lies in its simplicity, good support, and is very cross platform, supporting Windows, Linux, OSX, iPhone, etc.

Build notes:

Dependencies

Previously I had been building libraries from their source and installing them in /usr/local using the usual UNIX build routine (i.e. download source and make). This is somewhat laborious and can be time consuming if something goes wrong (because not OSX compatible). This time round I decided to use MacPorts to do the lifting for me. This saves a lot of time. Just follow their standard installation instructions.

Then you need to install the libraries that you will need to compile Allegro 5. These are listed on this page, but aren't quite correct. I used:

sudo port install zlib freetype jpeg libogg libvorbis

Some of these need to be compiled in "universal" mode as they are compiled in 64 bit by default (which is the default of the compiler, new on OSX 10.6):

sudo port upgrade --enforce-variants libpng +universal

sudo port upgrade --enforce-variants physfs +universal

This will take a while if you are doing this from scratch (20+ mins). After this you should have a new /opt directory, which contains a load of new libraries. You can type "port installed" to see what you have. Some libraries will have "+universal" next to them.

Now download the Allegro 5 source, or get latest from svn. You can repeat the steps from here onwards when you get new versions of Allegro.

To build Allegro you can either build libraries or a framework, and you can either use makefiles or Xcode project files. I built libraries using Xcode 3, and now frameworks using makefiles. Frameworks are more in fitting with the Mac way of doing things, so probably best to use those.

Xcode 3 - Static library

To build using Xcode: Snow Leopard GCC compiles 64-bit code by default, but Allegro is not a 64-bit library, so we want to compile everything as i386. We first generate the Xcode files and then load them in Xcode 3 and change the settings for 32 bit (i386):

cd to/allegro
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -G Xcode ..

This will do a load of scanning for the dependencies it needs and then you'll end up with an Xcode project file: ALLEGRO.xcodeproj. This can be opened using Xcode 3 or 4. Although, at the current point (July 2011) I wouldn't recommend Xcode 4, it's just not ready.

For Xcode 3: open the the project file and (in the root project at the top):

Change the Architectures to 32-bit Universal.
I chose the RelWithDebInfo configuration. I haven't tried the others.
Change the active architecture to i386. This is important as Allegro is 32-bit.
Reading this article is useful if you don't know which SDK to use.

Build the ALL_BUILD target. You can run A5teroids and some of the example to check that it all works.

Sorry, I haven't built this using the project for Xcode 4. Use the frameworks below if you can't manage it. That's what I am using.

The install will fail because the script it is trying to run needs root access. So go back to the terminal and run the install command manually:

sudo cmake -DBUILD_TYPE=RelWithDbgInfo -P cmake_install.cmake

Then the Allegro files will be installed in /usr/local and you can include and link then from the usual places.

Frameworks

OSX 10.6 switched from 32 bit to 64 bit. Allegro needs to be compiled as 32 bit (i386). So we do the following in the unpacked allegro directory:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DWANT_FRAMEWORKS=1 -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=i386 ..
make
make install

And Bob is your Auntie.

Hopefully at some point some kind person will add Allegro 5 to MacPorts to save having to do this.

New Project

The easiest way to set a new project up is to create a command-line application in Xcode. However, if we want to package all the assets, like normal Mac applications, you need to create a Cocoa application ("New Project..." > "Cocoa Application").

In the project settings, add "/usr/local/include" as a user header path. This will include the Allegro file that we just installed above. In targets, right click on your application and choose "Add..." and add existing files "/usr/local/lib/liballegro.dylib" and "/usr/local/lib/liballegro_main.dylib". Now, you should be able to build and run your application. However, two windows will appear! This is because the liballegro_main stub will create a window as well as your default application having one (in the .xib).

To remove the default app window (because we want the Allegro one) look in the "resources" folder and open "MainMenu.xib". This brings up the interface designer. In the list of objects, delete the NSWindow object, this will stop two windows being created when the application starts. We also don't need the auto-generated stub code for the application either, so you delete the "main.m" and "app delegate.m" files. You can also delete items from the menu you don't want by dragging them onto the desktop (and they disappear in a puff of smoke). If you build and run you should have one window now.

There is a tutorial on Allegro 5 on the wiki. The API looks a bit more tidy and better namespaced now.

[6-Mar-11] - Updated for Allegro 5.0.0. Notes were previously for the release candidates.
[25-Mar-11] - Added missing libvorbis to port install.
[26-Apr-11] - Using Xcode 3 for building. Xcode 4 wasn't available when this was written.
[7-Jul-11] - Notes for building with frameworks and Macports 32-bit builds.

What motivates us?

2011-02-22T22:19:00.000Z

Interesting talk on what motivates us. Studies find that cognitive work is not driven by financial reward, but more by a sense of purpose.

Starcraft 2 hang on Mac 10.6.5 fix

2010-11-12T20:53:00.003Z

Been playing a lot of Starcraft 2 lately. Great game, and works okay on Macbook Pro (on low settings). Just upgraded OSX to 10.6.5 and started getting the game freezing up on the login screen. I think Apple have been doing some driver optimisation work.

You can fix this by restarting your Mac in safe mode. (23-Jan-10: There is an Apple help page). You do this by restarting your machine and holding down the shift key whilst it restarts (i.e. from power on). This apparently clears out the OS caches. This takes about 5-10 minutes and you'll see a grey loading bar under the apple on the white loading screen. Once you've got into OSX just restart your machine again (in normal mode) and everything should be fine.

You'll notice that the game is considerably faster now. Quite why the graphics drivers have been so bad for so long would be an interesting question for Apple. I can now run at full res on my second monitor and with medium texture settings. I tried medium settings for everything but the framerate was awful. It is a big visual improvement over everything on low previously.

21-Nov-2010: Another thing you might try, after restarting in safe mode, if you are still having issues, is to run the Starcarft 2 "Repair" application. You can find this in the directory: Applications/Starcraft II/Support. Not sure what this does entirely, but it should ensure that everything is up to date and correct.

(23-Jan-2010: Added link to Apple safe mode help. Thanks "Anonymous"!)

ClanLib 2.2 on Mac OSX 10.6

2010-08-02T18:27:00.001+01:00

These are just some notes on building the new version of ClanLib, 2.2, on Snow Leopard. The XCode version of ClanLib using frameworks is pretty broken and hasn't been maintained in some time. It also doesn't look the developers will fix this any time soon. To quote some of the issues:

[...] The 0.9 code base is partly based on 0.8 which already had Mac support, so most of the module are trivial to fix into compiling again. The main porting issue is clanDisplay+clanGL where the window management and AGL context management code needs to be updated. Most of that can once again be taken from 0.8 and updated from that point forward (the code might even already be in 0.9 in a broken state - haven't checked), but you might also just find it easier to rewrite parts of that platform specific code.

In general the code in ClanLib is very modular in the sense that the Win32, X11 and OSX code is usually cleanly separated so porting is mostly just a matter of finding the equivalent OS X functions. Unfortunately when I originally did the OS X port, I mainly relied on the Carbon API mixed with some posix stuff (pthreads mainly) and I hear Apple removed support for Carbon in 64 bit OS X. Having virtually no experience with Objective C or Cocoa I do not know how difficult it is to switch to the equivalent Cocoa functions.

One last issue regarding OS X support is that I personally rely on a simple program called scan.cpp that reside in the Setup/OSX directory which generates a makefile for my purposes. The reason I bring this up is because that while there exist a XCode project, it is currently out of date. It is probably just a matter of bringing the source files into sync to get that project back and operational, but I am personally so allergic to the IDE of XCode that I reverted back to my makefile generator when I ported clanCore and clanNetwork to Mac in 0.9. You are naturally free to fix this project (which officially is the way we tell users to build 0.8 for Mac), but I will have to stay on the makefile myself simply because Apple changed the XCode project file format and my ancient G4 Powerbook with OS X 10.3.9 on it cannot read it after you update it. [source]

And:

I forgot to mention that we will naturally gladly update the framework bundles for any dependency library used by ClanLib. The only problem is that I somewhat forgot how we built them and at least at the time the documentation on library framework bundles provided by Apple was somewhat limited.

Since I do not know how much experience you have with building framework bundles I'll just tell you what I know and hopefully you can use that for something.

Technically a library framework bundle is simply a normal dynamic library arranged in a certain directory structure (just like application bundles are just directories). In traditional unix environments (BSD, linux, etc.) the include files are placed in /usr/include/ClanLib-0.9 and the dynamic libraries in /usr/lib. But for a framework library those same files are placed in ~/Library/Frameworks/LibraryName/Headers and ~/Library/Frameworks/LibraryName/LibraryName.

To port any library to an OS X library bundle is therefore a "simple" task of simply taking the header files and the output dynamic library and place them in this directory structure. Unfortunately it seems the linker in OS X is rather dumb (at least in 10.3) and requires the dynamic library file to built directly into this directory structure. If you want more details on how to do this manually outside XCode, try take a look at the scan.cpp program that came with ClanLib.

An easier option may be to simply recreate the makefile for the dependency library in XCode. Using this strategy will ensure that the framework bundle is at least correctly built, but great care must be taken to ensure that it is the same source files and defines that are used for the build. I think the current framework bundles available on the website were built using this strategy.

Finally we might be lucky that someone else already did create an OS X framework bundle for some of our dependency libraries. Googling for that first wouldn't hurt. [same source as above]

make

There are a few compilation errors with ClanLib 2.2 out of the box for Mac since it hasn't been maintained in a while. Anything inside #ifdef __APPLE__ is a little stale. Also, as stated, there is no support for certain features, like joystick input.

XCode Project

To fix the Mac issues, the easiest way (for me anyway) is to fix the XCode project. Source code is checked into the Gameres project. Also, on the Mac it seems that OpenGL is only supported via a framework, and I'd like to use OpenGL.

Dependencies are as follows. Apologies if I make any mistakes, these are vague notes from my install. We need to make everything 32-bit as ClanLib is 32-bit (like Allegro). So when you compile the following libraries do:

./configure CFLAGS="-arch i386"
make
sudo make install
make clean

Libraries required by ClanLib. You can get these from the download page (in case you need binaries of the same versions).

libxml2: This is the XML library used by fontconfig. You'll have make this from source as the precompiled Mac binaries install as a framework.
fontconfig: I installed version 2.8.0. This required libxml2.
freetype2: I got version 2.4.1 of this font library.
libpng: I have version 1.4.3 of the PNG library. There seem to be some serious bugs with earlier versions so make sure you have 1.4.3 or later.
libjpeg: I got JPEG library version 8b (of 16-May-2010).
pcre: Regular expression library version 8.10.

Now, if installed at the default location, you should have some includes and libraries in /usr/local. I may add the binaries to Gameres at some point.

After a few hours work I managed to fix up the project and get it compiling and linking. It is currently untested and no doubt missing features.

Rapping backwards

2010-04-21T22:24:00.000+01:00

Clever rap video. Good work!

Using Allegro 4.4 on Mac

2010-04-06T01:12:00.014+01:00

Building

I have Macbook with Snow Leopard 10.6.2 installed and Allegro 4.4.1.1. I did have some hiccups with Allegro 4.4.0.1. Not sure if this was my fault or the distro as I'm still newish to the Mac and the Allegro Mac instructions are a bit dated.

I first tried building Allegro as a framework, but this doesn't work as I think it should. If you include a framework using: #include "Allegro/allegro.h", the internal Allegro files don't prefix with the framework name "Allegro". So, you end up adding the framework path, which is pointless, so you may as well just compile Allegro in /usr/local and link it from there.

Get Allegro (I used 4.4.1.1). Unzip. I have cmake 2.8. In the Allegro directory :-

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
sudo make install
make clean

Dependencies:

OpenGL - included in OS.
libpng, zlib and vorbis - These can be downloaded and installed as standard libs in /usr/local. I don't bother with fink or Macports as I don't want the clutter. I want everything to work "natively". There are some details under the pygame build instructions.

So you should now have a working copy of Allego in /usr/local/include and /usr/local/lib, with some executable utilities in /usr/local/bin.

From the mailing list it appears that you can only compile Allegro as a 32 bit library, there is no 64 bit support so any libraries or frameworks and the dependent libraries will have to be 32 bit. Leopard default is 32 bit. Snow Leopard default is 64 bit.

Creating project in Xcode

Create a new command-line C++ tool project.
Paste in the GL example.
Add /usr/local/include to the header search paths in project settings.
Add the following frameworks to "Link with Binary Libraries" :

Cocoa.
OpenGL.
Carbon. (Ideally you shouldn't need this, but there is some reference to ShowMenuBar and HideMenuBar, which doesn't appear when you build Allegro as a framework.)

Add the following libraries from /usr/local/lib :

liballeg.4.4.dylib
liballeggl.a
liballeg-main.a (This is a stub for "main" that glues Cocoa to Allegro.)

Build the target and it should compile and link.
You are now good to go at writing OpenGL games using Allegro.

[8-Apr-10] Changed because building as framework just doesn't work properly.

Clanlib vs Allegro vs SDL on Mac OSX

2010-04-05T22:21:00.010+01:00

I want to write a little game in C++. Previously, on Windows, I've used Clanlib. This is nicely designed and has pretty much all you need for a game. However, I now have a Macbook (OSX 10.6.2) and Clanlib has fallen behind the times Mac-wise as it still uses Carbon. There don't seem to be any plans to port it and I don't have the experience or time to this work. So I had a look round at the alternatives (again!).

Clanlib 2.1

Pretty mature, modern library with some nice features (e.g. slots and GUI support).
Hardware acceleration through OpenGL or DirectX depending on platform.
Windows and Linux are well supported but Mac has fallen behind, no Cocoa support.
Version 2.0 was the previous 0.9 version; and 1.0 is the old 0.8 version, renamed. Version 1.0 compiles for the Mac but uses the 32-bit Carbon API. In Xcode 3.2.1 you can no longer create a Carbon project, it must be Cocoa; and if you want to do iPhone, this must definitely be the case.
Xcode project files provided for Mac. Version 2 needs work.
Licence: BSD.

SDL 1.2 / 1.3

SDL is a well thought out low level library, but SDL libraries a bit scattered and some look unmaintained.
Very portable and core well supported.
OpenGL compatible.
Uses Cocoa on Mac.
Can be built as a framework.
Basic sprites don't support rotation.
Licence for version 1.2: LGPL.
Licence for version 1.3: Dual licence, LGPL and commercial (closed source). On embedded platforms (e.g. iPhone) you have no choice but to buy a commercial licence or you are forced to go open source.

Allegro 4.4

This is quite an old game library but seems to be well supported. Some of it is quite archaic, with palette support and support for old DOS compilers.
Mac port uses Cocoa.
API being reworked in Allegro 5.
Can be built as a framework.
Uses cmake to generate project files.
Polling API.
Minimal external dependencies (e.g. includes JPEG decoder).
Licence: Giftware.

Allegro 5.0

5.0 been a long time in development, but worth the wait. Allegro had a lot of cruft from DOS and pre-graphic cards.
The API is a lot more organised. Haven't encountered any bugs or issues yet.
OpenGL and DirectX renderers (hardware accelerated) by default.
Event based API (i.e. not polling).
Notes on building for Mac OSX.
Licence: Giftware.
(This was version 4.9 in the original comparison, which was a work-in-progress version of Allegro 5.0.)

Conclusion

I like the extra features that Clanlib and Allegro supply in their default libraries. Clanlib unfortunately uses Carbon on the Mac and Mac version not supported for long time. This is a real shame because Clanlib includes everything you need (including a GUI).

SDL provides extra features in libraries which I find a little scattered and iPhone development requires a commercial licence if you don't want to release your source code.

So as a result I decided on switching to Allegro 4.4, because unsure how mature 4.9 is, and generally Mac lags behind the main development platforms (Linux and Windows). I'll build my own API, hiding some of the the archaic nature of Allegro. I also decided on Allegro because I found the ~~retro games site, which uses AllegroGL. :-)~~

I've now switched to Allegro 5.0. It is still a nice simple API, much improved and tidied up, and libraries updated for modern hardware. Works fine for OSX 10.6. This is the best cross platform (Windows, Linux, OSX) solution I have found.

[24-Jul-10] Updated because SDL 1.3 has now move to dual licence.
[25-Mar-11] Updated for Allegro 5.0. Removed notes on 4.9 as not useful.

Banana head

2010-02-28T18:53:00.000Z

I think we've all had days like this...

Impressive spinning faceplant

2010-02-04T23:31:00.000Z

Oooooooooo. Lovely spin.

Building pygame on OSX Snow Leopard

2010-01-24T23:23:00.008Z

The version of pygame available on the pygame site works for the python.org version of Python. I want one for the system Python (2.6.1 64-bit). I decided to revisit this after giving up (very easily) the first time.

First, get pygame source. I'm trying with 1.9.1 release. This sounds like recipe now.
Untar the source and python config.py reveals some dependencies are necessary. Config will show you which ones you have available.
The pygame dependencies are as follows. So we'll need collect these. Notes follow.

SDL.
SDL_ttf (fonts).
SDL_image.
SDL_mixer.
smpeg.
PNG.
JPEG.
SCRAP (cross-platform clipboard).
PortMIDI.

SDL

There is a Mac SDL 1.2 package on the downloads page.
I got SDL-1.2.14.dmg.
Version 1.2.14 has Snow Leopard support according to the ReadMe.txt and is the minimum requirement. See notes below from UniversalBinaryNotes file:

64-bit Universal Binary Notes:

SDL 1.2.14 is our first release with Snow Leopard on the market. In order to make SDL compile and run in 64-bit, we had to remove code that depended on deprecated Mac APIs and move over to more modern Mac APIs.

In addition, Apple has stopped shipping gcc 3.3 and the 10.3 SDK.

Because of all these combined factors, we have made the decision to make Mac OS X 10.4 the new minimum requirement for SDL.

Our official SDL.framework is compiled as a 3-way Universal Binary (64-bit Intel, 32-bit Intel, 32-bit PowerPC.)

Certain APIs that SDL relies on were not made 64-bit ready by Apple until 10.6. This means even though 10.5 had preliminary 64-bit support, SDL will not compile or run correctly in 64-bit mode on 10.5. So there are two fallout items from this.

First, you can only compile 64-bit code on Snow Leopard or greater (which removes the possibility of 64-bit PowerPC).

Second, this presents a corner-case where if you have a 64-bit Intel executable in your Universal binary and try to run on 10.5 on an 64-bit Intel Mac, it will launch and crash. To force 10.5 to use the 32-bit version instead of the 64-bit, you should set the LaunchServices key, LSMinimumSystemVersionByArchitecture, in your application's Info.plist. Our SDL/Xcode templates for Snow Leopard already set this up for you.

One additional fallout item is we had to remove the SDL Custom Cocoa Xcode template project. It depended on NSQuickTimeView which was deprecated and removed from the SDL codebase. It may still be possible to recreate the behavior that this template demonstrated, but we would need a volunteer to investigate this.

In addition, the SDL satellite projects were affected by the 64-bit transition.

- SDL_mixer depended on legacy Quicktime for midi playback support. We had to disable midi. (Recall that we also disabled MP3 support awhile back because we never got SMPEG working during the Tiger/Intel transition.) To fix this, we would need a native Core Audio backend for SDL_mixer.

- Since we have changed the baseline to 10.4, we took this opportunity to switch SDL_image over to a new native ImageIO based backend. This makes the binary about 10x smaller, greatly simplifies our maintenance requirements and build process as we no longer have to maintain build systems for 3rd party dependencies, and gives us access to more image formats.

- The static library target for SDL_ttf no longer works because we no longer have access to a libfreetype.a. We have been relying on Apple's supplied libfreetype.a, but they stopped shipping a static version starting in 10.5 which means we have no static 64-bit version. But since 10.4 is our new baseline, all these systems should have libfreetype.dylib installed, so it shouldn't be much of a problem to use SDL_ttf as a dynamic library which dynamically links to libfreetype.

-Eric Wing 2009-09-23

To install SDL 1.2.14 we copy the SDL.framework to /Library/Frameworks:

sudo cp -r /Volumes/SDL/SDL.framework/ /Library/Frameworks/SDL.framework

SDL_ttf

There is a Mac OSX package on ttf project page.
I got version 2.0.9.
sudo cp -r /Volumes/SDL_ttf/SDL_ttf.framework/ /Library/Frameworks/SDL_ttf.framework

SDL_image

Get package from image project page.
I got version 1.2.10.
sudo cp -r /Volumes/SDL_image/SDL_image.framework/ /Library/Frameworks/SDL_image.framework

SDL_mixer

Get package from mixer project page.
I got version 1.2.11.
sudo cp -r /Volumes/SDL_mixer/SDL_mixer.framework/ /Library/Frameworks/SDL_mixer.framework

smpeg

From icculus page.
svn co svn://svn.icculus.org/smpeg/trunk smpeg
We'll skip this for, it's optional.

PNG

Get libPNG from the Sourceforge project download page. I got 1.2.42.
Don't run configure. Instead: cp scripts/makefile.darwin Makefile
make
sudo make install

JPEG

Source files available at Independent JPEG Group site.
I got v8 source (10 Jan 2010).
./configure
make
sudo make install

PortMIDI

Source is hosted on Sourceforge.
I got version 2.00. Fairly new.
Note: PortMIDI uses cmake to generate makefiles. So you'll need to have that installed. I have version 2.8.0.
make -f pm_mac/Makefile.osx
cd Release
sudo make install

SCRAP

I think this is support for the clipboard for pygame. We are missing sdl-config from our SDL framework install so we can't configure SCRAP to build it. We'll skip this.

Building pygame

So after all that palaver, you can now go to the pygame source and run the config.py.

One problem: Portmidi seems to have changed the name of its static library. It now has "_s" appended. config_darwin.py needs editing:

config_darwin.py: Dependency('PORTMIDI', 'portmidi.h', 'libportmidi_s', ['portmidi']),

Now:

python config.py
python setup.py build
sudo python setup.py install

After testing... some of the examples work, but fonts don't. :( This is something to do with SDL linking with a new dynamic library version of freetype which I think is in the /usr/X11/lib direcotory, but this isn't in the dlopen path... Grrr.

Python Game Lab

2010-01-20T20:58:00.024Z

The Concept

I started a new project on Google Code called pygamelab. Often, when you have some spare time and want to try out an idea it takes you most of the time to figure out which libraries to use, how to use them, debug them and develop your idea. Sometimes, your enthusiasm for the idea has evaporated by the time you finally have the tools to attack it.

It would be nice to have a starting point that was:

Python: quick and fun to write.
Portable: Works on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Has lots of features to play with.
Has plenty of examples.
Has some useful tools.
Well documented libraries.

One popular solution is pygame, but unfortunately Mac support isn't great. You need to install the python.org version of Python in order to install the version supplied off the site; I don't want to do this. I don't want the clutter and confusion. And if you do compile it natively, only other users that have done that can play your games.

The Libraries

So I looked around and found pyglet. This is a portable, Python OpenGL wrapper. It uses ctypes to access the necessary binary libraries for each platform. Pyglet also includes avbin, which gives access to multimedia functionality, like video streaming. Brilliant!

Additionally, there is Cocos2d, a layer on top of Pyglet, which supplies things like game flow, sprite management and tiling. Then for physics, I've chosen pymunk. This uses Chipmunk, the C library, which I've used before. Again, this uses ctypes, but this time to a supplied binary. It works on Windows, Linux and I've supplied a Mac binary (that works with the system Python). There will be more libraries to come as new features get added. I'm currently experimenting with GUI libraries kytten and simplui.

An important point to note is that the libraries are included in the repository. This means a user does not have to install extra Python packages and the versions will be compatible. It also means that I can fix bugs (which has happened) and modify the libraries. For example, they can be patched from the library repo with the latest features. For the package to be portable this means that care should be taken about any binaries that are included. Only two libraries contain binaries at present:

pyglet, with avbin. This looks to have good cross platform support, and uses ffmpeg, which again is well supported, portable and stable.
pymunk, which uses Chipmunk. This also looks to have good cross platform support (and 32/64bit support).

Hosting and Version Control

My previous projects have been on SourceForge. This is great site, but it is becoming a little slow and cluttered now. I thought I'd try Google Code, and so far it has been very good. Very fast, nice set of features and not complicated. Just the right level of functionality for managing a small project.

For version control I decided on Mercurial. I'm relatively new to DVCS, but I've really started to like the idea of having a repository that you can clone and experiment with, and also that you don't have to be network attached to commit work. It makes working and experimentation a lot more flexible. It's nice to be able to clone a repo and experiment, commit to that depot, but then throw that work away if you want to. In non-DVCSs you'd have to obliterate the information somehow, and this sometimes has dire consequences.

The other nice feature of Google Code projects is that users can clone a Mercurial repos for their own use. So if you want to collaborate with people, you don't have to give them access to the main repo. They can go away and experiment and do whatever you want, and you can choose whether you want to pull and merge. This is one of the ideas behind pygamelab, that you can clone a useful starting point and do your experiment quickly.

The Future

It's relatively early days, but I'm pretty happy with how it's going so far. I'm planning to supply a few simple default games from different genres that supply lots of different features. These will act as starting points and as sample code. And developing them in the first place is fun besides.

So the idea is:

You clone pygamelab.
Mess around.
If you cloned the repo in the pygamelab project you push back any cool changes.
Everyone else can see your work and potentially pull it.
Any good features make it back permanently into the main repo.

Assets

Some of the default assets are from the Lost Garden site. There are some interesting articles on there and I get itching to try them out, but there is always that hurdle of getting started. So hopefully soon I'll be knocking out games or other apps. Just doing the research and getting things going has opened up a whole load of ideas.

Building PyQt4 on Snow Leopard

2010-01-17T20:18:00.007Z

Here are some notes on building PyQt4 on OSX 10.6 as I always seem to miss a step every time I do this! It should be very similar for all POSIX systems except for a few flags here and there.

My set up: Intel MacBook Pro, OSX 10.6.2, Python 2.6.1 (Apple system python 64-bit, not python.org 32-bit Python).

Get Qt LGPL package. Note, you want the Qt Cocoa libraries as PyQt4 expects 64 bit libraries. The default libraries in the Qt SDK are for Carbon (32-bit) for backwards compatibility. Snow Leopard gcc compiles 64-bit code by default.

Look here: http://qt.nokia.com/downloads/mac-os-cpp
Download and install Cocoa 32 & 64 bit libraries.
Notes on Qt blog: http://labs.trolltech.com/blogs/2009/08/31/qt-46-on-mac-os-106/
Qt Snow Leopard development notes: http://doc.trolltech.com/4.6-snapshot/developing-on-mac.html

Get latest sip. Build and install:

python configure.py
Check configuration is what you want.
make
sudo make install

Get QScintilla package from Riverbank.

cd Qt4
qmake -spec macx-g++ qscintilla.pro
make
sudo make install
make clean

Now get Mac PyQt4 from Riverbank:

python configure.py
Accept the GPL license.
Check the configuration log doesn't contain anything silly.
make
Go and make a cup of tea. You have plenty of time.
sudo make install
Test to see if there: python -c 'import PyQt4; print PyQt4'

If you get some error about PyQt4 being 64-bit and Qt is 32 bit, you've installed (or built) the default Carbon version of Qt. Build or install the 64 bit Cocoa version, as instructed above.

Now, back to QScintilla package as we're going to build the Python bindings. This has to be done after PyQt has been built and installed.

cd Python
python configure.py
make
sudo make install
make clean

Now the Qt Designer QScintilla plug-in:

cd designer-Qt4
qmake -spec macx-g++
make
sudo make install
make clean
Start Designer and make sure the QScintilla plug-in is there.

Microsoft Shopping Channel Slated

2010-01-07T20:27:00.006Z

Oh dear, can you smell the fear? Watch the video.

It's like the Microsoft Shopping Channel. Has Ballmer really been reduced to this?

Judging by the comments on the BBC site page I think many consumers have seen the light. Microsoft has failed to deliver. They missed the internet, tried to stifle competition, spent too long on luke warm Vista, and now they're worried about losing market share because they've missed the mobile market. People don't want a PC on a slate. They want something fast, responsive, easy. You don't want to "go into PC mode" when you pull your phone or slate out of your pocket.

And I don't think it's even due to Bill Gates leaving. Microsoft just seem to be doing the same thing, but in a less savvy way now. Microsoft want to be everything to everybody, and you just can't do that. Microsoft have the desktop; it's a given, but Apple have exploited their niche very well, and quietly beavered away to create a great operating system which is part of a package that provides great software that is relevant to people today. For the average user, they hardly need to shell out for anything after buying a Mac. You get iPhoto, email manager, a proper web browser (HTML5?), Garageband, Xcode, and not forgetting Time Machine.

Personally, I'm totally sold on the Mac at home at the moment. I didn't want anything Vista on it. It seemed like a sideways move. What does Vista do amazingly better than XP? Ultimately, the thing that sold me on OSX was Time Machine. I went from one shop looking at Sony laptops with Vista on and then into the Apple store. There was picture on the wall of Time Machine and I suddenly realised that Macs aren't more expensive, and even if they are, they are worth it. You save time and have a more enjoyable user experience. To have fully automated backups on a Mac, completely transparently all you need is an external hard drive.

I'll probably be slagging off Apple one day when they become the complacent, greedy, corporate overlords that everyone hates, but for now I can't wait to see what the "iSlate" will offer. Microsoft are clearly rattled.

Spaces and Command Key

2010-01-04T11:33:00.002Z

I've finally settled on a set up for switching spaces that I'm happy with on my MacBook. I started off using the command key + arrows to move from one space to another. But the problem with that is that it conflicts with editing any text, as command + arrow keys moves to the start end and end of things, which is a big thing to lose.

I've tried control + arrows and option + arrows, but you always lose some functionality. It doesn't seem very well thought out. And why can't you use the "fn" key on a MacBook with the arrows?

So I've given up on command + arrow keys and now I use command + number keys. This works well for the laptop, or for the keyboard I plug in for serious typing. You can't type properly on those new flat ones. Bah!

It's very quick and comfortable once you're used to it, especially if you use command + tab for switching applications

Monkey Man

2010-01-02T21:04:00.002Z

This guy is amazing, completely fearless! I hope he gets his funding.

Justin Lee Collins sucks

2010-01-02T20:14:00.004Z

Why is Justin Lee Collins on television? He just blathers on and on and has nothing interesting to say. He's just like some boring, conceited bloke you accidentally bump into in a pub who you can't get away from. Is this country really so short of talent that this is the best we have to offer? At least he's relegated to Channel 5 now. The slow decline.

Excellent, there is a sack Justin Lee Collins petition. There are also other blogs detailing his crapness on his Star Wars programme. And a group on Facebook.

Enough.

A selection of faceplants

2009-12-25T00:03:00.003Z

You've talked the talk, now walk the walk...

Revolving kitchen

2009-12-19T13:49:00.003Z

This is an interesting piece of art:

rotating kitchen from Zeger Reyers on Vimeo.

It comes from the Transmission blog. The question is posed, "is this art?"; but surely the question is "is this good art?". You could consider anything as art, as a metaphor for something, or just something pleasing to look at.

Wikipedia claims "Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions." But it doesn't specify by whom. You could come across some spilt milk and appreciate the pattern. If you took a picture of it would that make it art, because the photograph is deliberate?

Toneport UX2 4.2.5 Beta drivers

2009-11-25T21:57:00.020Z

I tried installing the newer Toneport UX2 4.2.5 beta drivers to see if it fixes the current problem with the 4.2.4 beta drivers. For me, this is: if you disconnect the UX2 USB device and reconnect it, it starts making the choppy noise again. You then have to restart your MacBook with the USB device connected to get it to work properly again (which is a real pain as you have to start all your apps again).

My spec: MacBook Intel '09, OSX 10.6.2, Toneport UX2.

Didn't realise the beta drivers existed until today as they are not well publicised. Remember to click the "beta" tick box on the Line 6 download page:

At first attempt I installed them over the 4.2.4 drivers that I installed, but this doesn't work. I got choppy noise again, but not the same as the first time with the 4.2.4 drivers. Ended up having to uninstall everything and start again.

To anyone from Line 6 reading this: Why don't you supply an application to clean up all traces of Line 6 applications? Dragging applications to the trash can won't delete all files on a Mac. Most of the hassle I have had was figuring out that you need to remove stuff from /Library etc, and that you need to do a clean install. This might stop a significant number of complaints, which I'm sure is losing you customers. I'm only a casual musician, but I'll bet more dedicated musicians are much more frustrated at the situation.

I had to use AppCleaner to get rid of everything (otherwise "kext error" appears):

Restart (so we start with clean slate).
Run AppCleaner.
Uninstall Line 6 Gearbox using AppCleaner.
Uninstall Line 6 Monkey using AppCleaner.
Restart.
Uninstall Line 6 drivers (Use program in Line 6 directory in Applications).
Restart (to start again with no Line 6 software).
Install latest Gearbox (3.70, contains 3.4 drivers).
Install latest (4.2.5 beta) drivers (over Gearbox drivers).
Restart.

Don't install Line 6 Monkey. Apparently the current version can't recognise half the hardware and don't know what other problems it causes.

So, the good news is that you no longer have to restart to get the UX2 to work if you unplugged it.

The Line 6 site claims:

This driver addresses the following issue:
* Various audio pops, clicks, and glitches - FIXED

I'm not quite sure what problem they are referring to, unless other devices besides the UX2 weren't fixed with 4.2.4. The problem I had was disconnecting the USB device.

The bad news is that the drivers still aren't there yet as they aren't 64 bit. I.e. you can't run your MacBook in 64 bit kernel mode where it is something like 30% faster in some cases. Snow Leopard defaults to 32 bit mode for safety, which a lot of people won't even realise. You can tell whether you have 32 or 64 bit kernel mode by doing:

Apple menu > "About this Mac" > "More info..." > Software (In "Contents" left bar) > "64-bit Kernel and Extensions"

You'll see:

To use your Line 6 device this must say no. Line 6 haven't added support for the new Snow Leopard 64 bit kernel yet.

To boot into 32 bit mode (default) hold down "3" and "2" keys when restarting your Mac.
To boot into 64 bit mode hold down "6" and "4" keys when restarting your Mac.

More info.

iPhone Controlled Robot

2009-11-14T11:40:00.003Z

Interesting gesture controlled robot. Uses iPhone touch screen for input.

Two routers, one network

2009-11-10T00:38:00.004Z

I had two routers, an old wired one and a wireless one. The wireless one is the one connected to the internet, and I want to connect a couple of computers in a different room using the second router as a LAN. The older one (D-Link DI-604) doesn't have a "client mode" (i.e. will automatically work as an extension) so need to do some work. Was a bit of hassle to get working, as I'm not a network expert.

This diagram shows the arrangement to get it working. The following notes are how to plug a router into an existing (working) router:

Router B should be added as another client on the LAN, and the output of router A is a LAN input on B (i.e. not the WAN input).
Give router B a valid static address on the subnet of A. So if a has mask 255.255.255.0 and an IP 192.168.1.1 and a DHCP range of 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.200 you are free to give router B an IP of 192.168.1.210.
Disable DHCP on router B. Force the DHCP lease to renew on clients plugged into it if they won't connect.

And bingo, it should work! You lose two LAN ports, but this the only way I could get it to work.

How to open a bottle of wine with no corkscrew!

2009-11-06T22:28:00.003Z

Ha! Now, how did he discover how to do this?!

Field

2009-10-15T03:50:00.006+01:00

Field looks like a really interesting piece of software. It is step on from Processing, providing a richer IDE with features like embedded editing widgets. I haven't used it in anger yet, and it is still beta, but it looks promising. There are apparently 6 years of work in there so there must be a lot more than meets the eye!

What I also like is the implementation philosophy that other libraries and technologies should be embraced and integrated, rather than rewrite everything. It appears that Field provides a wrapper around other technologies and allows time coordinated use of them. The screen shot about shows the canvas. Left to right is the timeline and the boxes represent things going on.

It will be interesting to use the editor and experiment with the embedded widgets. I've thought about a similar concept for my Guish project, where you'd have interactive GUI elements mixed with text that you enter, like in a terminal. Pure text terminals see really out of date now, and it's about time there was some suitable graphical enhancements.

Other pieces of work by the Open Ended Group that look interesting are Breath, which explores different graphical representations of music, and Musical Creatures, which explores digital creatures that can interact with their environment.

Toneport on Snow Leopard

2009-10-05T08:59:00.039+01:00

UPDATE (25-Nov): Please read: 4.2.5 beta drivers are available.

I managed to get my Toneport UX2 working on my (2009 Intel) MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard after a bit of fiddling around. I installed Snow Leopard before finding out that my UX2 is not officially support yet (doh!), but there are beta drivers. I take this to mean that they haven't ironed all the issues out. I couldn't find anything (easily) on the Line 6 forums to help sorting this out. It seems a lot of people have the same problem.

Writing drivers is complicated, and converting drivers from 32 to 64 bit is non-trivial. If you've tried to run Vista 64 they had all the same issues (i.e. no/buggy 64 driver support for a lot of things for quite a while).

Initially I just installed the latest 4.2.4 drivers, but this created "choppy noise" (cutting out, popping, white noise, etc). I did get the "kext" error whilst installing, so assume something was going wrong (but I didn't spend time finding out what). Snow Leopard is all 64 bit now, so some drivers won't work. If you just install the latest drivers something must get confused.

The trick is to completely remove all Line 6 software and start again. I rebooted several times, cautiously, to allow the OS to remove unwanted files. I used AppCleaner to uninstall applications because otherwise some files get left behind (e.g. config and data files). If you don't use AppCleaner, this won't work.

Restart (so we start with clean slate).
Run AppCleaner.
Uninstall Line 6 Gearbox using AppCleaner.
Uninstall Line 6 Monkey using AppCleaner.
Restart.
Uninstall Line 6 drivers (Use program in Line 6 directory in Applications).
Restart (to start again with no Line 6 software).
Install latest Gearbox (3.70, contains 3.4 drivers).
Install latest (4.2.4) drivers (over Gearbox drivers).
Restart.

After you have done this your Toneport should work as normal. The order is important. My Toneport works fine with Garageband and Gearbox now. I'll keep an eye out for new drivers.

Not a bad idea to bung the guy who wrote AppCleaner a couple of bucks, because this won't work otherwise. :)

I'm not a Line 6 support engineer, if this doesn't work for you, sorry!

UPDATE (7-Oct): After disconnecting the UX2 and using my laptop elsewhere, and then plugging the UX2 back in, the crackling came back again. I managed to get rid of this by leaving the UX2 plugged into the USB port and rebooting the Macbook. It seems like disconnecting the UX2 and/or the Macbook going into sleep breaks something in the 4.2.4 drivers so you have to reset the machine.

Snow Leopard

2009-10-04T12:19:00.002+01:00

Well, I upgraded to Snow Leopard recently (10.6.1). Normally I wait a while with new operating system versions until they've had a chance to patch them (e.g. version X.Y.3). I waited quite a while before installing Leopard as it was such a big upgrade. Snow Leopard is supposed to be a "tweak", with the biggest changes at low level, where everything has gone 64 bit.

The biggest problems here will be with hardware drivers breaking (as I found out with my Toneport UX2). Still, compared to Vista 64 this doesn't seem to be much of a problem. Microsoft is notorious for releasing beta quality software and then patching it after users have tested it. Apple seem to be a bit better at releasing, but then they control the whole hardware and platform more strictly, so they have less margin for error.

Snow Leopard does seem more responsive, not that Leopard was slow. Apps seem to start faster, and the Finder is instantaneous. This is a breath of fresh air after using Window's sluggish Explorer (on XP). It's pretty poor that it can take a couple of seconds to refresh, even on a high spec machine.

Snow Leopard no longer supports PowerPC so my old G5 will have to stay on Leopard, and will probably be appearing on ebay. I believe applications are also compressed, which allows them to load faster. It's faster to decompress something into memory from disc, as the bottleneck is your slow hard drive (especially on a 5400 RPM laptop drive). My laptop does seem more zippy, and I got a massive chunk of hard drive space back, ~10GBs?!! I have XCode and a load of other stuff that would benefit.

Not really noticed any visual changes, but it does seem strangely more pleasing to the eye. Upgrade cost is relatively cheap and Apple have been smart not to charge a lot for something which doesn't give a lot of end user features, but a lot of work will have gone into all the optimisations it provides. Worth upgrading for the extra responsiveness.

Overlord II and franchises

2009-09-25T13:30:00.009+01:00

Just finished playing Overlord 2 on Xbox 360, and very enjoyable it was. The first version felt a bit rough round the edges and I didn't complete it. I played that on PC. I seem to remember getting a bit lost in parts of the game, especially after you return to it after not having played it for a while.

After playing the first version on PC I thought the 360 version would be really difficult to control without the mouse and keyboard, but it works really well. The difficultly level was about right for me. I'm more of a take-it-or-leave-it casual gamer, than a hardcore gamer; no time! So impossible bosses and engrossing 4 hour games get played rarely. Overlord 2 felt a little easy to stroll through, but I enjoyed the journey and if it had been more difficult I don't think the control mechanism would have coped that well.

This version has more help with the mission structure and generally feels a lot more polished. It's interesting terms of development because it seems this is what you have to do now to release a relatively big game now, especially as an indie developer, due to the enormous costs involved. You really need to build a franchise to cover any loans or expansion costs, and to reduce future risk, providing the game sells.

It's very easy for game developers (or anyone writing software for that matter) or aim too high on version 1.0 and not deliver. Estimating costs and complexity are complicated matters with large cumulative margins of error. If you develop in an agile manner you should be able to provide something and increment. If you come out with some interesting USP you can afford to release first version that's a bit rough, but in a crowded market this is very high risk.

FEAR 2

2009-08-25T14:50:00.001+01:00

Finished FEAR 2 a couple of weeks ago. This is one of the best first person shooters I've player since Doom 3. It has a added horror bent, which was interesting, but didn't interrupt the game flow too much. It can be irritating when the side story keeps butting in when you're enjoying the game, or you don't find the side story that interesting.

Controls were great: weapon switching and reloading was easy. Movement was easy. Difficultly level was good for me, as I'm not really a hardcore gamer. I started on "normal" and somehow ended up on "hard" towards the end, which I didn't think was that hard. The game flow was excellent, it just kept on going and the length was good. Engaging, constant, and easy to follow.

It was quite refreshing to not have ridiculously hard bosses every hour or so. Instead, there are levels where you are trapped and have to shoot multiple foes. This was more of an enjoyable challenge. Sometimes you get a boss which is just too hard and you spend 2-3 hours and multiple attempts killing it. This just become on exercise in frustration. For example, in Metroid Prime 3 on Wii, Mogenar is too difficult. Perhaps that just tells you something about my level of skill :-). But non-linear difficulty is frustrating for players. Mind you I should have another go now I've found that walkthrough. ;-)

Some of the weapons were a little similar. Not really the variation you get with Doom/Unreal, but usable and change your attack strategy. Climbing into the armoured shell and blowing things up was also fun.

I haven't played the first FEAR, but playing this has made me want to search for a copy.

Well done England!

2009-08-23T17:52:00.004+01:00

Well done England for winning the Ashes! Broad made the difference in the final test for me. Shame Headingley was so bad as that's the test we paid to see! Didn't think they'd turn it around (and neither did Boycott!) and see Australia bat as badly as them in the final test. Well done England's bowlers. Time for a small beer...

Spotify

2009-06-22T22:45:00.004+01:00

It's funny, I was having a discussion with a friend recently about how the music industry is out of date with it's listeners and needs a new revenue model. The current one is decades old and doesn't benefit many except the record companies and a few large artists.

People want free access to music that they have payed for, and want to pay a reasonable price. We already got ripped off with "indestructable CDs" that you can spread jam on and they still work. Ha! One tiny scratch and they're coasters! Vinyl is much more resilient; and better quality sound. Also, the price is too much. 12-15 quid for CD with 8-10 tracks on it is too expensive unless you're a real fan. To get the real money you have to bring more people in, which means getting people to experiment, but people won't at those prices. 6-8 quid and you're talking.

I've heard about Spotify recently, but there is a lot of buzz on the internet and a lot of things don't really pan out. But I really think this will. This is the new model I was talking about. If you are a casual listener it's great for skimming songs, finding new artists and listening to old stuff that you lost; the catalogue is huge!

Ahhhh.... I'd forgotten just how good Daydream Nation is. Silver Rocket is my favourite.

Riddled with viruses

2009-06-22T22:13:00.009+01:00

Whilst updating my media server I did a virus scan and discovered it's riddled with trojans and various viruses! Oops.

I use AVG free version but it seems to have circumvented that. Even after a full virus scan various strange things still happening, including getting redirected to Windowsclick repeatedly whilst trying to fix the problem. Seems other people had the same problem.

Running Malwarebytes Anti-malware (free version) initially didn't work. You have to rename the mbam.exe to get it to work! The trojan is blocking it running. Clever. So after a rename, a quick clean and a reboot that seems to have gone. Wonder what else is left.

So, lesson learnt:

Update Windows automatically. I had this turned off because I don't want the server resetting randomly.
Run full virus scans regularly. I was just running quick scans occasionally.
Viruses are getting more devious.
If you can't follow this link then you have it too.
I post stuff like this because I found what other people put really useful. Thanks!

Mac usable coloured terminal

2009-04-09T18:32:00.011+01:00

When using a terminal window on the Mac (or on any system!) if everything is the same colour it is difficult to tell the difference between file types. E.g. there is no difference in presentation between a file, a directory and a link.

If you are using a bash shell (it tells you in the title bar what type it is), you can configure colouring using your profile. This lives in the file: ~/.profile. Add your changes to the end of the file.

There are some helpful blogs with information on what to add, but I found the bold lettering difficult to read. You achieve something more readable just using 'ls -G'. So add:

alias ls='ls -GF'
alias ll='ls -hl'

The -F option also tells you what the object type is (man ls), and ll adds an extra command to save doing ls -l.

You might also want to change your terminal prompt. The default is the machine you are logged into, which is a little pointless if you know it, and takes up a lot of screen. I find the following quite useful:

export PS1='\t \w> '

\t gives you the time in 24 hour format. It also gives seconds and can be a useful way of timing commands roughly. \w tells you the current directory.

First Jython experiment

2009-03-17T00:29:00.005Z

W00t! Got first Jython program working with GTGE:

# Test of Jython and GTGE.

# Java Foundation Classes (JFC)
from java.awt import *

# GTGE API
from com.golden.gamedev import *


"""
**
* The basic skeleton of Golden T Game Engine (GTGE).
*
* Objective: show how to set up a new game.
*
"""

class Test(Game):

   def initResources(self):
       # initialize game variables
       pass

   def update(self,elapsedTime):
       # update game variables
       pass

   def render(self,g):
       # render to the screen
       pass
  

def main():
   game = GameLoader()
   game.setup(Test(), Dimension(640,480), False)
   game.start()

main()

I decided on GTGE because it seems like it has been used for a lot of games so far, and so is fairly mature. It has also just been released as open source and seems to fairly well supported. We'll see.

Anyway, have a working Jython program that create a GTGE window. Admittedly the authors of GTGE did all the work and I just converted a Java tutorial into Python. Original Java code:

// JFC
import java.awt.*;

// GTGE
import com.golden.gamedev.*;


/**
* Game in Windowed Mode Environment.
*
* Objective: show how to set up a windowed mode game
*/
public class Tutorial5_1 extends Game {


/***************************************/
/************ GAME SKELETON ************/
/***************************************/

   public void initResources() {
   }


   public void update(long elapsedTime) {
   }


   public void render(Graphics2D g) {
   }


/**************************************/
/********** START-POINT ***************/
/**************************************/

   public static void main(String[] args) {
       GameLoader game = new GameLoader();
       game.setup(new Tutorial5_1(), new Dimension(640,480), false);
       game.start();
   }

}

Safari 4 Beta

2009-03-15T10:51:00.000Z

Just trying out Safari 4 beta. Previously I decided Firefox 3 was better than Safari 3 because Safari didn't seem to add any advantage, as Firefox has lots of customisation options.

My initial impression is that Safari 4 is really fast. Pages appear notably faster than Firefox 3. It will be interesting to see Firefox 3.5 improvements. I wonder if they'll beat Webkit.

Other reviews (The Unix Geek: Safari 4 Review) have pointed out new features. I agree that moving the tabs into the title bar is a great idea as it gives more space. This is especially important on laptops where the screen isn't as tall. It's a relatively simple change but being able to read a couple of extra lines makes all the difference.

I also found a plug-in to allow use of Delicious bookmarks. It's not as well integrated as the Firefox one, but it'll keep me using Safari until I can try Firefox 3.5. Having your bookmarks stored online is a great usability boost for web usage, and having this well integrated with the browser is just as important.

The new bookmarks viewer in Safari 4 looks interesting. You can scroll through previews of your bookmarks or history. This a great if you are doing research and trying to find a site you bookmarked to read later. I hope someone is working on a Delicious extension for this. Now that would be cool.

Java games

2009-03-14T18:32:00.006Z

Been wanting to write a little game for fun. There are lots of ways to do this!

There are good C/C++ cross platform game libraries. One of the best I found is Clanlib. It's well designed and contains everything you'll need. Libraries like SDL provide simple cross platform APIs but extra functionality is via extension libraries which tend to be low quality or not maintained. Clanlib provides more of a coherent framework, and uses OpenGL for all rendering, so there are no platform specific quirks.

Using Python and PyGame means you don't have to recompile per platform. PyGame provide bindings for SDL. High level languages, like Python, are nice for prototyping and knocking experimental games up. You also don't need to worry too much about performance these days since most PCs have more than enough horsepower.

If you want to get your game to the widest audience then probably the best way is to make is playable in a browser. Downloading executables from the web is a lottery. Any program could contain malicious code. Running them in a browser gives people more confidence nothing nasty will happen. Flash is quite popular for this, but I didn't really grow to like it when experimenting with it. Now that canvas has arrived, Flash may be on the way out.

I've never really used Java, I suppose I haven't found a use for it. I use C++ for performance programming and Python for scripted tools etc. An interesting Python variant is Jython, that is, Python written in Java. This allows you to compile Python code into Java. So this seems like a good compromise, and allows you embed your Jython applet in a page to be used.

Using Java and Python also allows me to use Eclipse, which is a great development environment. We'll see how it works out.

Hot Chicks With Douchebags

2009-01-10T16:49:00.003Z

If you haven't come across it yet I suggest you get over to "Hot Chicks with Douchebags". It's pictures people have sent in of the "choice" trendy set.

Not a lot you can say really, the title says it all. Here are some of my favourites. :-)

What is so brilliant about some of the posts are the Haikus. For example:

Crotch first, Glenn triumphs,
Two Russian Cougars from Queens,
And the Hair Point. Dude.

Hair tapered to point
reminiscent of a turd
that I just pinched off.

Inga: real estate
Olga: low-rent "socialite"
Glenn: sanitation

So full from dinner,
Pointy reclines and begs you
To sniff his blue jeans

Looks like all three shop
at H&M, buy one girl's
black shirt get two free

Blue Moon

2009-01-10T16:24:00.003Z

I've been trying to work out exactly how this guy managed to end up upside-down dangling from the lift. It can't have been easy.

Hilarious. More photos.

Upgraded Mac to Leopard

2009-01-10T15:40:00.007Z

Been getting more into the Mac recently. Did a clean install of Leopard (OS X 10.5) and it seems there are a lot of subtle improvements over Tiger. I held off doing this for a while since a lot of open source and freeware software hadn't been updated.

Seems more polished generally. Once nice thing is connecting to a Windows machine over a local network is a lot easier. Despite the apparent ease of a lot of things in OS X some things were a little esoteric, or half arsed. Generally, though I now seem to spend less time messing around trying to get things done. Quicksilver also seems somewhat redundant now as Spotlight has been added.

This is the last upgrade of OS I'll get for the PowerMac G5 I have. Apple are apparently on a big push to optimise OS X for Intel now and have dropped support for PPC. Not too surprised at this as the machine is starting to feel a little sluggish now and starting to think about upgrading, but not quite sold on the pricier Mac hardware yet. For starters, Mac laptops have relatively small screens for the price (although it helps with battery life). For a desktop replacement though you need a bigger screen.

Also got an external hard drive so I can use Time Machine. Now this is a great piece of software. Not only does it just back everything up transparently it also sets your backup schedule for you. And the presentation is excellent as well, screens travelling through space. Corny but well done ;-).

Haven't had to retrieve anything major (yet!) but it's nice having that feeling that everything is being backed up in case you have a catastrophic drive failure (which will happen eventually, and has happened to be twice before on PCs). Now to backup my Windows laptop I can just copy my documents onto the Mac and they'll be backed up. :-)

Just getting into using Spaces now. With four of them you have four desktops which is very handy for programming where you have web and document references open, a compiler and testing environment. Well you need one screen just for Xcode because of all the window clutter.

Another addition is Mobile Me although yet to try this. Unsure what I'd use it for at the moment. I use Google and Yahoo for my web storage at the moment.

How much is that dog in the window?

2009-01-10T15:37:00.004Z

Granville Street, Vancouver, Canada.

Oddest Book Title of the Year

2008-09-11T18:23:00.001+01:00

The Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year

1978: Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice (University of Tokyo Press)
1979: The Madam as Entrepreneur: Career Management in House Prostitution (Transaction Press)
1980: The Joy of Chickens (Prentice Hall)
1981: Last Chance at Love: Terminal Romances
1982: Population and Other Problems (China National Publications)
1983: The Theory of Lengthwise Rolling (MIR)
1984: The Book of Marmalade: Its Antecedents, Its History and Its Role in the World Today (Constable)
1985: Natural Bust Enlargement with Total Power: How to Increase the Other 90% of Your Mind to Increase the Size of Your Breasts (Westwood Publishing Co)
1986: Oral Sadism and the Vegetarian Personality (Brunner/Mazel)
1987: No Award
1988: Versailles: The View From Sweden University of Chicago Press)
1989: How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art (Ten Speed Press)
1990: Lesbian Sadomasochism Safety Manual (Lace Publications)
1991: No Award
1992: How to Avoid Huge Ships (Cornwell Maritime Press)
1993: American Bottom Archaeology (University of Illinois Press)
1994: Highlights in the History of Concrete (British Cement Association)
1995: Reusing Old Graves (Shaw & Son)
1996: Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers (Hellenic Philatelic Society)
1997: The Joy of Sex: Pocket Edition (Mitchell Beazley)
1998: Development in Dairy Cow Breeding and Management: and New Opportunities to Widen the Uses of Straw (Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust)
1999: Weeds in a Changing World (British Crop Protection Council)
2000: High Performance Stiffened Structures (Professional Engineering Publishing)
2001: Butterworths Corporate Manslaughter Service (Butterworths)
2002: Living With Crazy Buttocks (Kaz Cooke - Penguin)
2003: The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories (Kensington Publishing)
2004: Bombproof Your Horse (J A Allen)
2005: People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It (Gary Leon Hill - Red Wheel/Weiser Books)
2006: The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification (Harry N Abrams)
2007: If You Want Closure In Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs (Simon & Schuster US)

2008-06-24T18:54:00.004+01:00

These have probably been posted everywhere but they are quite amusing... More here.

1. Chuck Norris secretly sleeps with every woman in the world once a month. They bleed for a week as a result.

2. Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird.

3. The quickest way to a man's heart is with Chuck Norris's fist.

4. Chuck Norris is the only person on the planet that can kick you in the back of the face.

5. Death once had a near-Chuck-Norris experience.

6. Bill Gates lives in constant fear that Chuck Norris' PC will crash.

7. Chuck Norris can strangle you with a cordless phone.

8. Chuck Norris can have both feet on the ground and kick ass at the same time.

9. Chuck Norris can build a snowman out of rain.

10. Chuck Norris plays Russian roulette with a fully loaded revolver... and wins.

11. Chuck Norris is 1/8th Cherokee. This has nothing to do with ancestry, the man ate a fucking Jeep.

12. Chuck Norris eats the core of an apple first.

13. Chuck Norris can drown a fish.

14. When Chuck Norris enters a room, he doesn't turn the lights on, he turns the dark
off.

15. Chuck Norris can play the violin with a piano

16. The only time Chuck Norris was wrong was when he thought he had made a mistake.

17. In 1991, Chuck Norris shot a 14 on an 18 hole golf course, falling short of his personal best by 2 strokes.

18. The saddest moment for a child is not when he learns Santa Claus isn't real, it's when he learns Chuck Norris is.

19. Chuck Norris is the only person that can punch a Cyclops between the eye.

20. Most men are okay with their wives fantasizing about Chuck Norris during sex, because they are doing the same thing.

21. the theory of evolution is bogus, its just a list of animals chuck norris allows to live

22. when chuck norris does a push up he doesn’t push himself up, he pushes the world down

23. There were no giraffes until Chuck Norris uppercutted a horse

24. In the first Jurassic Park movie, the Tyrannosaurus Rex wasn't chasing the jeep. Chuck Norris was chasing the Tyrannosaurus AND the jeep

25. Chuck Norris has never been accused of murder for the simple fact that his roundhouse kicks are recognized world-wide as "acts of God."

26. Chuck Norris once got into a fight with a one-armed Ninja. Seeing that he had an unfair advantage, Chuck Norris ripped both of his arms off and one of his legs. He then roundhouse-kicked the ninja in the head, killing him instantly, and proceeded to sow his limbs back on using only a rusty tent spike and bailing wire

27. Chuck Norris needs a monkeywrench and a blowtorch to masturbate.

28. God said: "Let there be light," Chuck Norris said: "Say please!"

29. There is no chin behind Chuck`s beard. Only another fist.

30. Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.

31. There is no 'ctrl' button on Chuck Norris's computer. Chuck Norris is always in control.

32. Every time Chuck Norris listens to a song, Apple pays him 99 cents

33. Leading hand sanitizers claim they can kill 99.9 percent of germs. Chuck Norris can kill 100 percent of whatever the fuck he wants.

34. Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice.

35. Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

36. Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

37. Chuck Norris puts the "laughter" in "manslaughter".

38. Chuck Norris doesn't cheat death. He wins fair and square.

39. When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

40. Once a cobra bit Chuck Norris' leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.

41. Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting implies the possibility of
failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.

42. Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

43. Chuck Norris' dog is trained to pick up his own poop because Chuck Norris will not take shit from anyone.

44. Chuck Norris doesn't have hair on his testicles, because hair does not grow on steel.

45. Chuck Norris was once charged with three attempted murdered in Boulder County, but the Judge quickly dropped the charges because Chuck Norris does not "attempt" murder.

46. The reason newborn babies cry is because they know they have just entered a world with Chuck Norris.

47. Chuck Norris has to maintain a concealed weapon license in all 50 states in order to legally wear pants.

48. Chuck Norris once had a heart attack; his heart lost.

49. A Handicap parking sign does not signify that this spot is for handicapped people. It is actually in fact a warning, that the spot belongs to Chuck Norris and that you will be handicapped if you park there.

50. The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.

Garfield - Garfield

2008-04-25T08:56:00.007+01:00

What a great idea! Remove the main character from a comic strip and show what's left.

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.

See Garfield minus Garfield.

Removed from reality

2008-04-23T13:15:00.004+01:00

"There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality." - Pablo Picasso.

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." - Albert Einstein.

"Creativity represents a miraculous coming together of the uninhibited energy of the child with its apparent opposite and enemy, the sense of order imposed on the disciplined adult intelligence." - Norman Podhoretz.

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. " - Joseph Chilton Pearce.

Clowns

2008-04-10T15:37:00.001+01:00

To me, clowns aren't funny. In fact they're kind of scary. I've wondered where this started and I think it goes back to the time I went to the circus and a clown killed my dad.

-Jack Hanley

Housing market decline

2008-04-09T11:32:00.005+01:00

The housing market is looking a bit bleak at the moment. An interesting site to read is http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/ which is trying to counteract the overexcited spin of the financial analysts. These are the weasels who obviously are going to make less money if the market goes down. It's interesting to see on the HPC site the only people predicting the market will go up are the people who will make money from it going up. All the economic pundits and research institutes are predicting falls. This essay is very interesting.

The spokesman from the Nationwide was amusing yesterday morning on 5 live. He was trying to paint a rosy picture of things and yet the tone of his voice suggested that even he didn't believe what he was saying! There are amusing asides to the coming pain but it will be good for younger people in the end. The Property Snake (opposite of propery ladder!) shows falling prices in most places and long house sale durations.

Meaty Montage

2008-02-19T13:28:00.004Z

Organic objects have some interesting patterns and textures, especially when you kill them and cut them up! Victoria Reynolds, an artist from California has painted various cuts of meat.

I like the way they fit with the ornate frames that some of them sit in. It's an interesting and quite compatible marriage: baroque framing of marbled meat.

Have a look at the other artists at the Richard Heller Gallery. Brendan Monroe has some nice work.

Acute viral nasopharyngitis... aaarrrrggghhhhh!

2008-01-28T16:32:00.000Z

Well, since I seem to have a nasty cold (acute viral nasopharyngitis!) I thought I'd read about what causes them and how I can avoid them in the future. Amazingly there seem to be whole websites dedicated to the common cold!

Interestingly a cold isn't necessarily a sign that you are worn down. It just seems that once the cold is in your nose you are f*cked. So it would seem that you have to plug your nostrils. So I thought that might be a way to make a quick buck but it seems like someone has thought of this already.

Alternatively it seems just washing your hands a lot could reduce the changes of getting it, especially if you use a keyboard.

I think this girl might still get a cold, and she definitely needs to wash her hands.

The symptoms of a cold are like mild influenza. The virus enters through the nasopharynx. This probably accounts for the reason I couldn't swallow this morning and sounded like Marlon Brando, without the need for cotton balls. - Interestingly Marlon Brando becomes "becomes very cross if he does not have enough vigorous physical activity". Wow, he must have been one angry butterball at the end.

In summary, to avoid a cold: Don't put your keyboard up your nose.

Where there is a willy, there is a way

2008-01-18T13:26:00.000Z

The Nintendo Wii allows you to make your own characters faces. This is a fun addition to console ownership and allows you to play as yourself, or an alter ego, whilst bowling, or playing tennis, etc. Nintendo have tried to make everything family friendly, but it's funny how inventive some people can be.

It's strange but this is almost a lesson in design. The best designers work within the constraints they are given and are creative with it.

Browser Review

2008-01-17T13:19:00.000Z

I've been using Firefox 2 at home for sometime now, and Internet Explorer 7 at work. Internet Explorer 6 was very lacking in usability features, like tabbed browsing. IE 7 seems to add a lot of functionality and is surprisingly useful and responsive for something from the Microsoft stable. I suppose competition from Mozilla spurred them on. Hooray for choice and competition.

Firefox 2, out of the box has memory issues though when you leaving running or use it for a long time. It has great functionality, but eats RAM, and can become quite sluggish on a laptop. This can be relieved, but I thought I'd try another option, Opera.

My initial response was very enthusiastic. It's a small install and uses less memory than the other browsers. It's the browser that is used on the Wii console. However, after using it for some time, what I don't like is the plug-in support, called "widgets" in Opera. These don't seem to be dockable, like a lot of the Firefox plug-ins. Instead they can live on your desktop and you can access them when the browser in minimised. But why would you want to do this?

Plug-ins are important because they let you add extensions like del.icio.us toolbars, i.e. so you don't have to go via a web page to get to your links. There are lots of other useful integrated plug-ins as well which block adverts etc. The Opera widgets don't seem as integrated with the browser, which is disappointing.

I'm settling on Firefox 3, which is beta 2 at the moment. It seems a lot more responsive than Firefox 2 and they have supposedly fixed the memory leak issues. Not all sites work with beta 3 yet, e.g. Yahoo Mail, the new flashy version. And not all the add-ons have been ported from version 2, but it definitely looks like the most promising browser out there at the moment as IE 7 doesn't have anywhere near the community support that Firefox has.

On Blogging

2008-01-16T14:26:00.000Z

Blogging is quite odd. It's quite therapeutic, but at the same time you wonder who is reading. Whatever you write is open to millions, probably billions of people. Not that that many people are likely to read it, but they have the option to.

To sway an audience, you must watch them as you speak. -- C. Kent Wright

Perhaps the style of writing is influenced by how many you intend to reach. Sensationalist tabloid newspapers subscribe to hyperbole and gossip to extend their readership.

I'm not sure I want popular opinion on my side. I've noticed those with the most opinions often have the fewest facts. -- Bethania McKenstry

But isn't blogging more of a personal thing?

I write because I'm afraid to say some things out loud. -- Real Live Preacher, Real Live Preacher weblog

Like a diary? Except, things you'd to say someone you met in the street; or, more extreme because you'll never meet them? I suppose it's also nice, and sometimes we take for granted that not everyone can publish their thoughts and opinions.

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. -- Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. (1900 - 1965), Speech in Detroit, 7 Oct. 1952

There does seem to be an awful lot of stream-of-consciousness babble in some blogs.

When ideas fail, words come in very handy. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

Well, it's an interesting medium. And without the help of filters and search engines it would all become overwhelmingly meaningless. Perhaps it's just a case of patience!

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together. -- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799)

Sweet Jesus, Linux is enough to give you a nosebleed

2008-01-12T21:31:00.000Z

Linux seems to be getting more and more press. A lot of people have got fed up with Windows over the years and maybe don't want to pay for the Vista upgrade, or maybe just want to try something different.

A Mac, you need the hardware; it's good, and if you consider the price against the performance and all the software bundled, and the quality of it all, it's not that expensive. Is Vista worth the extra cash? It has the security flaws of the previous version and needs higher spec hardware to get the same results! So, Linux, you think... hey, that's free, I can get better performance out the Windows PC I have now!

Now a few years back it was just for geeks. There was all kinds of voodoo you had to do to get it working, so that made the choice easy: Windows. Okay, Windows 95 wasn't perfect but it was accessible. Linux was too hard to use back then without growing a hobbit beard, wearing a cardigan and socks and sandals. But now there are dozens of different versions of Linux, and lot of effort has been put into usability. But that's where the problem starts; we're spoilt for choice; nosebleed number one.

All these distributions come about because people have different ideologies, motives (or axes to grind) about Linux. Some want a raw, text based low resource version, like Slackware, where you have to know how it works. And some want easy to use versions, perhaps with commercial support, in case you stuck or want to buy services, like Red Hat and Xandros. And then there are the philanthropic versions, like Ubuntu. The idea here is to stick to the values of free software.

So, Ubuntu, I'll give that a whirl. It's getting some good press. There we go decision made. Except it isn't, ha, oh no. There are multiple versions of Ubuntu to choose from! Nosebleed two, cardigan ruined. To be fair it's easy to choose here because they are packaged with specific uses in mind. I decided to go with the "desktop" version (version 7.10 at the time of writing).

Well, at least the experience of installing is okay. After some fannying around with partitions and boot programs and graphics card drivers we get the thing working. This was certainly a more pleasant experience than with Red Hat linux a few years back. I won't into the different versions of Debian that Ubuntu is based on or I'll run out of blood before the end of this. And now we're up and running.

The desktop environment isn't that different from Windows. If you want it to be more like Windows you can always use Kubuntu. Yes, that was another option; sandals and socks stained now. This provides a more glossy user interface experience and a whole load of free applications. Strangely these work under both Ubuntu and Kubuntu, the difference is just that some people decided to do it a different way.

What a shame there have been so many ideological differences whilst Linux and it's software was developed. Just imagine how far ahead of Windows it could be right now. All those thousands, probably millions of hours of duplicate effort and refusal to compromise principles. Unfortunately end users just want things that work and don't care about principles, well not much for development ones and open source anyway. Uncle Bill doesn't really need to attack Linux because for a lot of the time it's been it's own worst enemy!

Well, here's to hoping that Ubuntu and a friendlier, more end-user centric development philosophy gives us end users more choice. And try Ubuntu (or Kubuntu if you like flash GUIs) out, you'll probably like it. You can always download it and run the Live CD (i.e. it runs off the installation CD and you don't have to install anything). If you need more info, read:

Ubuntu opinion, from non Linux zealot.
Ubuntu support forums.
Which Ubuntu to pick?
How to stop a nosebleed.

Google Reader, yay!

2008-01-12T14:02:00.000Z

I've been using Google Reader as a news aggregator recently. It's great! Not only is the presentation style good, the response time is good and its very well organised, thought out and easy to use. I was previously using Great News (on Windows); it's quite low on resources and hides in the system the tray. Previous to that I was using RSS Bandit (for the amusing name as much as anything), but uses a lot of resources, probably because its written in C# or something. Still shouldn't complain too much about free software, as it is, after all free effort by someone.

One of the other reasons that it's great is by virtual of it being a web application. I'm writing this on a newly installed version of Ubuntu that I'm trying out, so I don't need to worry about cross platform problems. As virtualisation becomes more and more prevalent we'll all be looking for cross platform, portable solutions.

Google are busy providing a whole framework for your online presence on the web. You can get a blog ( like this one), e-mail, news, etc and tag items to tie it all together. Quite impressive and even more impressive that it's all free, well apart from all the adverts.

You can see my shared news items. And also subscribe to a feed of them, in your reader!

I think I've ignored the whole "Google Applications"/Web 2.0 stuff until now as a lot of it is just unusable fluff. But, all of a sudden it's here (not in beta), working and pretty good. Try it out, you'll need a Google account and then you can get access to Google Mail which is equally good for doing your email and subscribing to mailing lists. For the while though I'm sticking with my Yahoo mail account because that is also excellent, free, and I haven't quite gotten over the concept of someone wanting to archive all your personal mail.