You might also like...

• No Related Post

I decided to make one of my current projects open source and post them on Google Code just for fun. The project is a tool chain that I’m using to remake Thrust. In reality, I decided to divide the project into two separate projects: the actual game engine (called klystron) and related tools, and a music editor that uses the engine.

Here are two videos I made a while ago that demonstrate the engine. The first is the music editor (called klystrack) — it’s much less ugly at the moment but the sound synthesis is the same, and that’s what matters:

The sound engine (“Cyd”) is basically a very simple software synthesizer with capabilities comparable to the SID or any 8-bit machine from the 80s. The editor is a fairly standard tracker, much like GoatTracker.

The graphics half of the engine is basically a wrapper around a quite fast collision detection system (pixel-accurate, or it wouldn’t be much good for a thrustlike) built on SDL. It also does background collisions and drawing as well. As you may have guessed, the whole point is to provide a limited but still helpful set of routines that are useful for creating 2D games not unlike what video games were in 1991.

And, here’s a proof I’m actually working on the actual game (the sound effects are created in real time by the sound engine):

A note on Google Code: it’s rather nice. It provides the standard open source development stuff like source control an such but I really like how clean and hassle-free it is. Adding a project takes a minute and after that it’s simply coding and some quick documentation on the project wiki. The project wiki is good example of how simple but elegant the system is: the wiki pages actually exists inside the source control as files, just like your source code.

Go check Google Code out and while you’re at it, contribute on my projects. :)

You might also like...

• Collision Detection with Occlusion Queries Redux
• Thrustlikes
• ROM CHECK FAIL
• Show Me Yours and I’ll Show You Mine
• Dev Stories from the Past

The first is easy but the second probably is something you uneducated mooks should read.

You might also like...

• Wordle and 30 Years of Games

What the word clouds show are very generic words like “space” or “super”, the number two (a game series is more likely to be two than three games long) and multiple word phrases which usually are popular game series, clichés (Foobar of Doom) or games with many versions or expansion packs. It is interesting that the generic words tend to be the same across 30 years — all generations of gamers seem to love dragons. Another point of interest is that a phrase from a 1980s game title is much less likely an established brand as it most likely is in the 1990s. Also, in the 1990s is became common that a game title has the release year attached to it, since EA et al started to churn out minor updates to their sports games as brand new releases.

30 years of games. Find your favorites!

You might also like...

• Review: The Last Arcadian
• Review: Starball
• Introducing My Latest Projects
• Wordle and Classics
• Collision Detection with Occlusion Queries Redux

Quick summary

Here is a quick summary (based on the search terms people use when finding this page):

• Will <insert software name here> run on Windows 7? In short: Yes, most likely.
• Will I be able to open documents created using <insert software name here> on 64-bit Windows 7? Yes, most likely. The 32-bit to 64-bit transition only affects the applications itself, not files. And, most of all you can simply use the 32-bit version of the program like you used to use.
• The whole 32-bit vs. 64-bit thing is a non-issue and gets better all the time as developers update their software. A bigger issue is if a program works on Windows 7, which it should if it’s written at least somewhat properly (which is the case with 95% of software).
• Yes, even games still work quite well, especially those released only a year or two ago
• Do not simply format C: — you need to reinstall but you can copy a lot of stuff from the previous Windows installation (see below how)
• No major problems in daily use
• No major slowdowns even with Aero enabled
• If you are knowledgeable enough to worry about the above, you can overcome most problems/differences you’ll encounter
• Just do it already!

Introduction

Here’s some quick pointers and answers to questions I, a stereotypical diehard XP user, had that made me hesitate trying out the new Windows 7 RC. I didn’t immediately find such info on the webs and as a chronic luddite I didn’t even think about finding out until absolutely necessary.

My goals, as always with OS installs, were to minimize reinstalling of apps and data so that I can pretty much pick up where I left. Even though it’s common for even experienced or otherwise sane people to advocate a simple reformat of the hard drive and installing everything yet again, it’s just magical thinking to me (although it does make things simpler, but more laborous). In my experience, it takes just a bit of planning to avoid that. A tiny bit. What I did was taking backups of the most vital data (emails, most cherished boobie picture bookmarks and such) but I knew beforehand that’s not a part of plan B, even.

Then, I just installed the new OS.

First impressions

After some waiting and a reboot or two, the following is a list of what went through my head:

• I was worried about if old programs still work. Most programs you used to use in 32-bit XP should work OK. You simply drop them in C:\Program Files (x86). Generally, I think you should not have trouble with common (non-game) programs because they are not native 64-bit code but see below.
• Windows 7 didn’t remove my C:\Documents and Settings, even though for a short moment I thought it did. It’s simply relocated to C:\Windows.old, as are the Program Files folder and of course C:\Windows is there too in case you need it.
• The Application Data and the Local Settings\Application Data folders that previously were right under the user directory are now in C:\Users\kometbomb\AppData\ and C:\Users\kometbomb\AppData\Local\, respectively. I just dropped the Firefox and Thunderbird profile folders in there and here I am again with the same setup.
• I immediately noticed the way I set Viewer2 as the default program for image files no longer works in Windows 7, so this might be a minor annoyance in case someone else does it the way I do. In the Control Panel there’s a working way to change the default programs manually, although I would hate to do it for more than the 4 different extensions Viewer2 needs. It seems you have to click every extension through and select the program you want to open them. Stuff like this probably is avoided if the program is done exactly as the MS specs tell etc. but the reality is that not everyone did that.
• You will have trouble with file permissions if you were using NTFS (especially if this is your first time with more restrictive permissions), but this has always been the case if you move files around inside the same OS and the file owner is different (i.e. you but under a different OS etc.). Currently, I have had an interesting problem which causes some files being unable to open even though the folder has the permissions set as they should be. Even Explorer shows the files without the modification date and most programs report they can’t find the file (which in reality means they can’t open it even though the file is there).

  Found a solution: some (seemingly random) files are recognized as coming from another computer (i.e. my previous OS) and they have to manually be unblocked (file properties -> Unblock). I don’t know why 99% files that are in the same directory work without a question…

  Personally, I think they could have done without this kind of stuff somehow. Yeah, big boys’ OS’s have that kind of stuff but it’s just confusing if you really don’t want to know about that. After all, it’s the computer that should do the work. It’s kind of interesting how otherwise the interface is very much like something your mom would use after a bit of practice but if you just right click a file and go in the properties, there be dragons there.

Problems

After a week months of use, here’s the problems I have encountered:

• A total of two BSOD’s in a few weeks. Both times occurred when I played a video (in Windows Media Player, I mostly use Media Player Classic and there has been no problems with it). The crash happened when the video card tried to reboot itself but failed to do so (crash happened in atikmdag.sys which is responsible of the reboot stuff). Good news: I think this is related to the AVIVO technology my card uses since I have had no problems except with WMP (because I am guessing MPC won’t utilize AVIVO — this is very much a thin, optimistic hunch, though).

  Update (2009-08-14): Haven’t gotten any BSOD’s in two months or so. Additionally, my video card has rebooted a few times successfully (which is still annoying but not fatal) so I guess either Microsoft or ATI fixed the issue.

• It is not possible to mix and match 32-bit and 64-bit binaries freely. That is, a 32-bit program can’t use a 64-bit library and vice versa. Some examples when this is something that is the user’s problem, too:
  • A 64-bit media player can’t use the old 32-bit codecs. So, for some videos you’ll be using the 32-bit version of, say, Media Player Classic.
  • Let’s imagine you compile your hobby project as a 64-bit app for fun. Oops, all the libraries you are used to use are 32-bit and you for some reason can’t/don’t bother to compile them as 64-bit DLL’s. Solution: You revert back to 32-bit code.
  • Shell extensions (e.g. WinRAR’s “Extract to here…” when you right click a file and such things) of 32-bit programs that otherwise work perfectly won’t work anymore (since the extensions are DLL’s with 32-bit code in them and they can’t be used by Explorer which is not 32-bit). Solution: Use a 64-bit version of the program (which often still need you to double click on a .reg file to enable the extensions).
• Almost constant high CPU use when nothing of value is happening. The culprit was WMPNetworkSvc (I really like the new Performance Monitor that shows an average of used resources and not just the current level of use — makes it easier to catch those processes that use tons of power except when you are looking). I disabled the service in Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools\Services as it sounded like it’s not useful for me (the label on the tin says it shares media across UPnP devices, whatever that means).

Overall, I conclude there will be some problems but nothing that you can’t fix. I am happy with Windows 7 and relieved the whole 32/64-bit issue was nothing but a overblown scare. Some things about the GUI I don’t like but then again it’s usually just something you have to learn to do a bit differently, not that you can’t do something anymore.

Useful tips

How to migrate your old Firefox/Thunderbird profiles

1. Install Firefox and run once so all the directories and files will be created.

2. Exit Firefox.

3. Go to C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles (AppData might be hidden, you can simply just type in the path and press return).

4. Copy the old profile directory (e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\dl34875xyz to the Win7 directory above. If you have multiple profiles, just copy them all.

5. Copy C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles.ini to C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles.ini. Also, open the .ini with Notepad and double check the lines that say “Path=Profiles/xyz123.default” etc. are relative, i.e. that the path starts with “Profiles/“.

6. Open Firefox and it should now load your old default profile!

To migrate Thunderbird profiles, do the same for the Mozilla\Thunderbird directory.

A general way for migrating programs and settings

This should work for programs that do not use the registry to store settings. Note that this also means uninstall information will not be migrated and you may need to delete files manually. Try the below method only if you have a basic understanding what you are doing (which said I’ll add it’s not hard at all — just don’t blame me for anything you did.)

I assume the old files from the previous installation are in C:\Windows.old which should be the default.

1. Copy the program folder from C:\Windows.old\Program Files to C:\Program Files (x86)

2. Copy the settings folder from C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Local Settings to C:\UserData\Username\AppData\Roaming. You may need to find out which folder to move but generally it’s C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Manufacturer Name\Software Name

3. Create a shortcut on the desktop by dragging C:\Program Files (x86)\Software Name\Software.exe with the right mouse button on the desktop and selecting “Create shortcuts here”. Again, you need to find out which file is the executable that has to be run to run the migrated software.

4. Double click the new shortcut and cross your fingers!

You might also like...

• Get your act together, Mozilla

Links

• Seven Warning Signs of Bogus Science by Robert L. Park, Ph.D.

You might also like...

• Homeopathy and the Computer
• Look smart on the Internet in three easy steps

News should never be speculative and if that is the case, it has to be explicitly stated where the line between fact and fiction goes. Some news are meant to be taken as entertainment but that style of writing should not bleed to potentially important news items. At least I expect to get information from news, even if I just casually pick the interesting sounding ones.

I hereby give away another priceless idea: one-sentence news. That is, you do not need to read the full article after you have read the descriptive, 5-15 word headline. Maybe that’ll cut into the advertising profit for there are less visitors to your site from feed readers etc. but not providing full articles in a feed is yesterday. And if you really only write 20 words per article, well, I guess that could make it profitable if you divide your income by the amount of text you write.

Here’s an example: Popular Science reports “Genetic Material Found on Meteorite“. What went wrong? Take a guess. At the very least I expect to read about scientists finding very discriminating evidence on a meteorite with a blacklight, kinda like how they do it with dead hookers in CSI.

Even the subtitle right below the main title already downplays the sensational title and states “A meteorite in Australia has been found to contain component molecules of DNA”. And if you take the time to read the article, you’ll learn similar molecules that make up DNA are found on a meteorite (I bet a rather large percent of the molecules in your DNA most likely are entirely made on Earth). That’s like reporting there are organic molecules in space (look it up), and not explaining what “organic” actually means. Except in the end, right below the ad banner.

How could that be reported in one sentence and what are the benefits? First, you’ll deliver the exact same amount of information but quicker. “Similar Molecules as in Your DNA Found on a Meteorite”. “The Birth of DNA Molecules Could Have Been Helped by Completely Uninteresting Stuff on Meteorites Billions of Years Ago”. Hell, I don’t care if it’s a haiku. Just make it terse, informative and less stupid.

You might also like...

• A Blogging Experiment
• Get your act together, Mozilla
• Ideas for Blogs
• A simple statistics plugin for Wordpress
• Webdesign stuff that annoys me

At least Syd Lexia frequently does this on his page, albeit humorously (even though he does often answer a simple question as well as it can be answered). My idea is to either write about the subjects as much as I know about them or simply point out how to find the needed information.

For example, people are often looking for image re-targeting when they click their way to my post about a crap example of the seam carving algorithm. There are much nicer examples out there. I’d like the random visitor to know that so the time is not wasted when skimming through my writings.

So, expect more useless information about things that interest the random visitor (not you).

You might also like...

• Proposal: One-sentence News
• Ideas for Blogs
• A simple statistics plugin for Wordpress

Just add water.

You might also like...

• Is X Bullshit?
• Look smart on the Internet in three easy steps

Mozilla has finally lifted the curtains off Mozilla Addons that has a completely has a shiny new look and is simply amazing at the first sight
[...]
What do you think about the new Mozilla Addons site?

Frankly, I think it sucks.

I had to reinstall Firefox and when trying to download all the old addons I used to have, the dreaded addons site stopped the process instantly. First, I had to create a user for a site I have used for years with great ease.

Usually, I wouldn’t even think twice about that but I don’t have the Bugmenot addon installed because I have to log in the site first to download it. I went ahead and saw the trouble of typing in the information and checking my mail for a confirmation email and so on.

I found an addon I need and click the install button on the page, which has to this point been a two-or-three-click deal. Next thing I see is a completely nonsensical and technical error message (one with an error code with no explanation — on top of it all it was a negative number). I had to right click and save the XPI package on the disk in order to realize it’s actually a web page explaining the error I encountered.

The add-on you’re looking for is in the sandbox, which you do not have enabled in your user preferences.

Guess where the option is? Not anywhere near the user preferences. In fact, I can’t find it anywhere. And, I don’t really feel like reading through a forum or a well-hidden FAQ.

If a dedicated Firefox user like me can barely find enough energy to fight through the mess that the new site is, how can they assure the common surfer that addons aren’t that big of a hassle? Sure, the new site might be somewhat safer and somewhat less threatening to the normal visitor but that doesn’t mean it has to be an annoyance for everyone else. Also, I don’t care if this is just a temporary quirk.

At least Firefox 3.0 seems quite promising. Though, I can’t really agree with all of the thousands of blogs that are completely flabbergasted of the fact the next shipped release actually works. Or, that the bookmarking system doesn’t suck balls as much as the current thing.

I think the new user interface has some clever realizations. For example, the two drop down menus that are usually located next to the forward and back buttons have been combined into one menu. It simply has items above (forward in time) and below (backward in time) the current page that is highlighted in the middle. I also think the “Smart Bookmarks” (something that remembers the most visited pages) are a good idea, the most visited pages generally are the same pages as the pages in your bookmarks.

However, I think 3.0 also has some mistakes in the new features. While it’s great you can search the browser history simply by typing in words in the location bar, I think it’s not that clever that it’s always the page title that is the largest part of the results — I bet most users are very used to seeing addresses in there since it’s originally the address bar.

Also, there still is an annoyance I have wished didn’t exist since version 1.0. You can try it yourself: go to e.g. Google, move your mouse just a bit below the query field and type in the beginning of a query. Now, since Firefox remembers earlier form data it will show a drop down list of earlier searches. The catch is that since the mouse hovers over the drop down list, pressing enter will not submit the form but select the item that the mouse is hovering over. Not fatal but it can very annoying (everyone has to agree to some extent, any lost data is at least just a bit annoying).

Anyway, Mr. Mozilla, call me when you have removed the silly stuff from the addon site. Kthx.

You might also like...

• Migrating From 32-bit XP To 64-bit Windows 7
• Proposal: One-sentence News
• Webdesign stuff that annoys me