Thunderbird + Gravatars = Letdown

~ Enno ~ 1 Comment


So I found the nifty gravatar extension for Thunderbird, and after making it work in 1.5.0.*, I was anxious to see how many of my contacts actually have a Globally Recognized Avatar. On first glance, I couldn’t find any. Well, so maybe not very many people have one?

So I went and wrote a little script that would go through my archived mails and address book, checking every sender’s gravatar. The result is shocking: Except for myself, there was only 1 (ONE!) other address, and that was the one for the Firefox newsletter (and yes, that has a firefox logo).

So while it’s a nice extension, it’s widely unused. So are X-Faces, so installing an extention for those is almost as useless. Too bad. I’m a visual person, and I would like seeing avatar icons with mail 🙂

Miranda IM (Plus)

~ Enno ~ 1 Comment


I made true on my threat to create my own installer for Miranda IM that comes with some plugins I consider important pre-installed. If you want to give it a shot, you can get it here. Immodest as I am, I called it Miranda IM Plus (and also to reduce confusion with the official release).

This is what you get:

  1. ICQ, MSN, Google Talk, Jabber, AIM and Yahoo supported (and the installer lets you select which ones you really want).
  2. A choice of icon sets for either 32 bit or 16 bit icons, depending on whether you run Windows XP or not.
  3. OpenSSL libraries are installed for the protocols that can make use of them.
  4. Your profile is created in your profile directory (%APPDATA%), not in “Program Files”.
  5. KeepStatus, a plugin that automatically reconnects you when you lose contact to the servers (ICQ users rejoice).
  6. History++, a plugin that makes the chat history significantly more useful.
  7. SmileyAdd, a plugin that adds smileys to your chat window

All of those features are chosen by a simple process: If I have use for them and would recommend them, then they are included. This is why there is no fancy themed contact list, no IRC protocol and no sound schemes. Actually, I do use a sound scheme, but I’ve yet to find another person that likes it, so I am not including it :-).

[ media | Sonic Wanderer – Parallax (Wanderized) (SLAY Radio) ]

Miranda IM

~ Enno ~ 2 Comments

For reasons that may be entirely subjective, I think that Miranda IM is the best Messenger out there at the moment. I can’t see myself using Trillian, at least, and I’m not going to ever install 4 different Messengers just because my friends can’t agree on one.

However, there’s one thing that’s really annoying: The installer you can download from the Miranda webpage gives you only half of what you need, and insalling the rest is a pain for Joe Average User. For example, you can’t use it with GTalk because it lacks the OpenSSL libraries required to do that. You can’t use it very well with ICQ, because at the rate that the ICQ servers are going up and down, you need a plugin that automatically reconnects you. And there are no Smileys! And… there’s more, but you get my point.

So yes, I’m really considering bundling the important stuff in my own installer – if only to make it easier for friends to switch ;-P

Things I learnt from bicycling to Stavanger

~ Enno ~ 1 Comment

Having cycled from Oslo to Stavanger as part of my vacation, I learned a few things. Just like after my attempt last year, I’ll write them down, mostly for my own reference.

The entire trip took 7 days. Five of them were full 8-hour days with 120 km each and two were 50-60 km short resting-stages.

  1. When going during tourist season, plan your accomodation. I didn’t take into account that the Norwegian “fellesferie” was in full swing, and everything on the south coast was booked. As a result, I ended up booking into a hotel room at 990 NOK a night when I stopped at Krageroe. This was less of a problem on the westcoast, though.
  2. Bring almost nothing. I packed the absolute minimum of gear. A simple bag on the handlebars, and a small one under the saddle was all I had, and that weighed in at just a few kilos. You don’t need much. Shirts can be worn several times, and wicking clothes will dry over night when washed in the hostel sink. I brought no camera (there’s one on the phone), and I should have left the MP3 player at home (see the bit about having a radio below).
  3. Don’t plan for the worst. I had very little emergency gear with me. Patches, but no extra tube, for example. That way, I needed pretty much everything I had with me at some point, and most of my contingency plans consisted of “I’ll stop a car and ask for help”.
  4. Check your gear. I had one flat tire, and when I had everything dismantled, I found that I’d brought patches, but no glue. Luckily another rider was able to help me out.
  5. 75 km on the GPS = 120 km on the bike. As a rule of thumb, when something is 75 km away in a straight line, it’s about 120 km of cuycling to get there. This worked rather well for southern Norway, at least. I found that for me, 120 km were easy to do in a day, and then again the next.
  6. Mount the GPS. I didn’t have a bike-mount for the GPS, and as a result didn’t check the map as much as I should have. The problem is that the mounting equipment doesn’t fit on the Bianchi handlebars 🙁
  7. Youth Hostels rock. These are great places. Most have a place where you can lock your bike inside. If you’re not a member, you can collect stamps for each night you are staying to work up to a membership. You might have to ask them about that, though. People there are generally nice, and you get a kitchen to make some food. The hostel at Jaeren gets my price for best hostel I’ve ever stayed in.
  8. Gravel roads suck. I had one bad crash on a gravel road, and my left elbow is all scar tissue and scabs. Avoid them. This means being creative when following cycle routes, and looking ahead on the topo maps so you don’t end up in a dead end.
  9. I love NRK P2. 8 hours a day on a bike can get pretty boring. Your MP3 player will annoy you on day 2. Radio, however, is different all the time, and tells you stuff. That is, it used to. Nowadays they rotate the same 10 hits, and the talking bits in between are retarded. With the exception of NRK P2, who have history programs, jazz music and intelligent programming. Having a useable radio on the mobile phone was absolutely brilliant.
  10. If it’s broke, know how to fix it. My bike is still fairly new, and the cahin started falling off. I realized I didn’t know how to adjust the gear system, and went with this annoyance for a day before finding a bike shop. Make sure you know how to adjust the adjustable bits on your bike before you leave.
  11. Bring ice-cube bags. Those plastic bags for making ice-cubes take virtually no space, and let you make ice that you can cool your drinking bottle with virtually anywhere you’re staying. Cold drinking water is heavenly when it’s 28+ degrees outside.

Eigene Dateiformate

~ Enno ~ Leave a comment

Ein typischer Fehler in unserem Geschaeft ist es, dass Programmierer ihre eigenen Dateiformate erfinden. Frundsaetzlich ist das eigentlich immer verkehrt, trotzdem passiert es regelmaessig. Heute beispielsweise habe ich einen Konverter schreiben muessen, der von PNG in das interne Grafikformat von TLJ umwandelt, weil fuer ein neues Release ein Hintergrund ausgetauscht werden sollte. Die alten Tools sind wegen Hang zum Moloch nicht brauchbar (es gab da nur genau ein Tool, das alles machte), ich brauchte ein kurzes Kommandozeilentool.

Das XMG-Format fuer die Ingame-Grafiken von TLJ hat alles, was ein internes Dateiformat so auszeichnet: Es ist entstanden, weil die Zielplattform eine zu schwache CPU hatte, und daher das entpacken schnell gehen sollte. Dabei haette man eigentlich primaer auf die Groese der Dateien schauen sollen, denn die 4x CD-ROMs die es damals gab, waren die wahren Performance-Killer. Stattdessen ist ein typische 640×480 Pixel grosses Bild 460 kb gross geworden, hat aber nur 16 bit Farbtiefe. PNG waere nicht nur 30% kleiner geworden, sondern ich haette mir den Konverter erspart. Ein weiterer Grund, eigene Dateiformate zu machen, ist gelegentlich, dass man die Spieler davon abhalten will, das Spiel zu modden oder die Daten anderweitig (z.B. in ihrem Blog?) zu verwenden. Mal abgesehen davon, dass das eine voellig bekloppte Idee ist, weil mehr Fansites ja irgendwie was gutes sind, hilft es auch nicht. Screenshots sind leicht gemacht, und selbst im Fall des kranken TLJ-Formates hat sich in kurzer Zeit jemand gefunden, der einen TLJ Viewer programmiert hat, mit dem man alle Sounds, Animationen und Bilder aus den Spieldaten auslesen kontne. Zum Glueck, das hat mir erspart, selber einen Konverter zu schreiben… An dieser Stelle heissen Dank!

Das Grafikformat fuer TLJ hat zu allem Unheil auch noch 3 Versionen durchgemacht, die aus irgendeinem Grund alle unterstuetzt werden. Wahrscheinlich, weil in den ersten beiden Versionen Fehelr waren, oder z.B. keine Grafiken ueber einer bestimmten Groesse unterstuetzt wurden (auch in Version 3 kann ein Bild nicht breiter als 4096 Pixel sein). Ueber die Entwicklungskosten im Vergleich zu einer funktionierenden Library sprechen wir mal lieber garnicht.

Am Ende werden die Bilder uebrigens im Hauptspeicher als RLE gespeichert. Das ist auch so eine Sache, wo jemand selber etwas erfunden hat, das prima funktioniierte, ehe Hardware-Beschleunigung existierte (TLJ ist gerade so an der Wende gemacht worden), wo man aber haette vorhersehen koennen, dass es keine lange Bedeutung mehr hat. Als Resultat benutzt TLJ sein DirectX eigentlich nur als Grafikseiten in den es pixelweise hineinmalt. Images im Grafikspeicher? Wieso das denn…

In Anarchy Online benutzen wir ausschliesslich PNG und JPG. Man lernt ja dazu. Aber handgeschriebene eigene Datenformate gibt es da auch…

[ media | Chronblom – Heartland (Tranciano remix) ]

Ich brauche ein neues Telefon

~ Enno ~ Leave a comment


Gestern bin ich bei meiner Radtour nach Toensberg gestuerzt, und genau auf mein Telefon gefallen. Nach fast 5 Jahren muss ich mich also von meinem treuen Ericson T39m verabschieden. Das macht mich schon ein wenig traurig, wir haben viel zusammen durchgemacht.

Ein neues Telefon kommt mir nicht ins Haus – gebraucht muss es sein. Ich brauche den neusten Schnickschnack nicht, und was viel wichtiger ist: Mobiltelefone sind toedlich fuer Gorillas. Solange ich ein gebrauchtes kaufe, so zumindest meine Argumentation, wird kein neues fuer mich produsiert.

Ebay waere jetzt mein Freund, wenn es hier in Norwegen ein vernuenftiges ebay gaebe, aber das lokale Pendant dazu, QXL, ist einfach unbrauchbar. Ich habe mal in der Firma angefragt, ob jemand sein altes weggeben will. Eventuell wird’s ein k700i.

Update: Ich habe ein neues. Es ist ein Ericsson K700i, und es kann deutlich mehr, als ich erhofft habe. Ich hab’s zu einem ordentlichen Preis gebraucht bekommen. Und mal so ganz nebenbei: Spiele auf Mobiltelefonen sind immer noch echt Kacke.

[ media | Monty – Captured (SLAY Radio) ]

Fun with game graphics

~ Enno ~ Leave a comment

I’m currently working on some updates to AOs graphics, nothing I am going to really discuss here, as I can’t say when or if it’s getting into the game. But I thought you might get a kick out of the screenshots from some of my more interesting failures today:

Of course, much like the LSD graphics I posted earlier, balloon heads and giant cardboard guns won’t get into the final game 🙂

Anarchy Online, in case you are wondering, is still going strong. Advertising in the game was a brilliant thing to do (I was really sceptical to that one, I admit).

[ media | Briskeby-Out of Town ]

Anagram Map of Former Rochester Subway

~ Enno ~ Leave a comment

BoingBoing has been spreading a meme where people mix up underground maps by replacing station names with anagrams. My contribution to this a map of a subway that no longer exists.

This is the Rochester, NY subway, or what it could have been. Rochester is the smallest US city to have had a subway, and in a typical case of urban decay, it was abandoned in 1965 and is now one of many industrial ruins. The green line shows the original railway, the orange line shows proposed extensions. None of it ever got past the planning stage.

There are now plans to fill in the tunnels with dirt, utterly destroying this landmark of Rochester history!

I got my map from this site and a lot of information from RocWiki.

[ media | Amadou et Mariam – Aristiya ]

x64 with the Platform SDK: The Horror!

~ Enno ~ Leave a comment

If you still have Visual Studio 2003, the only way to build 64 bit applications for Windows seems to be the Platform SDK. This, however, is downward compatible with Visual Studio 6. And most of us probably remember what that means: The STL in there is shite. It’s an implementation from back in 1995. A lot of projects simply don’t support it and recommend you use STLport instead.

OMG, should I really have to install that thing again?

[ media | Briskeby – Joe Dallesandro ]