What’s the big deal with apps over webpages?

Short History Lesson

In the day of the web, starting 20 years ago, say 1990, web pages were all the rage. By 2000 we had the (dot)com boom. Nobody was talking Apps then. We weren’t writing hundreds of thousands of apps for our PCs then. The concept of having a single program on the PC that could display hundreds of thousands of websites was the way things went. We could have had a PC app boom then. (more…)

VirtualBox

Installed VirtualBox on Ubuntu x64. At first there was a problem: starting Guest hung system. But this problem was eventually found as a BIOS setting. Avoid enabling Limit CPUID MaxVal in BIOS when using VMM. Now system is working fine. At first, VBox installed from Ubuntu PPA, but then removed that and installed as per this page. Either would probably work fine since problem was BIOS setting.

Now have Ubuntu x86 and x86 guests running on x64 system.

Clean systems are now available for testing programs in both x86 and x64.

- ww

This is a placeholder for the screenshot, and thumbnail for the application. No content here.

Find the application at: https://sourceforge.net/projects/debipack/

DebiPack thumbnail

DebiPack Screenshot

I recently upgraded to Firefox 4 on ubuntu 10.04. I did this by setting the ppa as described in many places: For example:

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get upgrade

After doing this, firefox has been working for many days just fine. On several of my systems [ 3 of my systems ]. Now I come back to one of my 10.04 systems and find that the menus of firefox are unresponsive. They do not work at all. The book marks do not work. Processor is not busy. Plenty of memory. Network is working fine. If I type into the google search bar and type enter I get a page and I can navigate from there, but the menus and bookmarks are totally unresponsive.

What gives? I have rebooted the system and nothing changes. Menus work fine in other apps, for example System Monitor. and the Window Manager menus are fine. Menus work fine in the web pages. Bookmark menus highlight, they do not pull down. Menus on the menu bar do not pull down. Toolbar buttons work fine.

Reply

I fixed the problem by starting firefox in a terminal. Works when you start it that way, and works fine afterward. This problem was reported by me ages ago ( i forgot actually). http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10081127#post10081127

Back in Nov 2010. Strange. but the bug is still with us after all this time.

- windy

see attached troubleshooting info:

FireFox_MenuProblem_Info

VirtualBox

Virtual Machine systems have been popular for servers for a few years now. They save big time $$ when setting up server rooms since most of the server systems in an IT shop aren’t that busy. But recently VM has become popular for desktop users. Many of the reasons we used to use “Dual-Boot” systems are much better served using VM. There are several reasons why you might want to run VM on your system:

• You have a windows system and want to run Ubuntu.
• You have a Mac and want to run Windows occasionally.
• You have Windows, or a Mac, and want to have a system where you can surf safely, for example to do your online banking.
• You are doing development and want to have a “clean” system for testing.

One of the most functional, and easiest to deploy, VM systems is VirtualBox. Now inside Oracle, this system was originally developed at Sun and is Open Source, and free. Microsoft has Windows Virtual PC,  and you can run Windows XP or Ubuntu on your Vista or Windows 7 system. But of course, it has no support for Ubuntu or OS/X as a host, so why learn more than one system? I’m going to use Windows and Ubuntu systems as hosts, so I’ve chosen VirtualBox.

(more…)

I’m trying to use Debreate 0.6.5-1 on Ubuntu 10.04 to build a package. I’m new to package building. Can you help with where I’m going wrong?

I have some comments on Debreate:

1. I can’t find a tutorial. Looks like a great program. But it’s not obvious how to use it.
2. I’d like an option that takes a whole tree – like Packin does – and builds the package from that. The features that are present look interesting, but are not clear and may not match my requirements, whereas, the Packin method would seem to work for all requirements.
3. Does Debreate build a .desktop file, or require that you have one? If it builds one that’s great. But I couldn’t get that far since the build failed. Not clear how to do a build, or what those paths are. Error is obviously not very helpful.
4. It’s complex to fill out all the tabs in Debreate, and I’m likely to want to build a package many times to test it. How about the ability to save ALL the information in the tabs to a file. I thought that’s what the control file was until I looked at it. Maybe the control file could contain “Comments” that contained the rest of the information if the control file is for something else. Maybe the control file is used by the package installer, but that was never clear, since the use of Debreate appears to assume that I know all about packages before I start.

Thanks,

ww

Just images I’ve uploaded to put into game forum posts by linking here.

A Dangerous Crop Quest is Bugged

AION Logo

I have been watching the AION game for some time, and since it was released in this country by NCSoft, I had hoped that they would use the same model as they do with Guild Wars, which is purchase followed by FTP [no subscription]. Well they apparently are greedy, and have gone with the WoW model, which is Pay for the game and then pay $15 / month. Sorry, but I’m not interested in this model.

However, I have found a FTP Private server. Oddly enough. GameZ AION is a private server with enhanced EXP, Currency and Drop rates.

(more…)

Elite Dekaron

I’ve recently discovered the culture of Private Game Servers for popular MMO and other games where the rules are broken to make the game experience different. Usually the EXP, loot and currency drop rates are multiplied by 200 – 1000x to make the game less of a “Grind”. Many Asian MMOs are one awful grind, meaning it takes hours or days to level up or collect the loot or currency you need by killing monsters. A couple of years ago I played 2Moons [Dekaron] for almost a year and never got above level 85.

On a private server for Dekaron I now have 7 characters above level 170.

(more…)

Dekaron at GameHi

Remember when 2Moons shutdown with no notice?

Well, it turns out that the accounts were saved. You can transfer the characters to new accounts at GameHi. So they apparently saved the database, and now Dekaron [and the other game] at GameHi, are Free to Play. Surprise Surprise. At the time that 2Moons was released, I understood that Dekaron – which was popular in Korea – was a subscription game, which is why Acclaim’s FTP version was IP checked for US only IP addresses.

(more…)

Nemesis

Dekaron Nemesis is another private server.

They have done an amazing amount of changes to the art work.

There are a number of interesting and odd features to their system.

(more…)

Elite Dekaron

Here’re a few things I’ve found out while playing Elite Dekaron.

The EXP factor varies from place to place. For example, in Frozen Forest lvl 40 it appears to be 60X, but in Heiharp lvl 25 it appears to be 40x. The DIL factor varies as well. To calculate the rate, watch the EXP and DIL drop for a monster and then do the math based on a Wiki like the 2Moons wiki which has a very nice Monster Detail section. Here’s the section for Heiharp.

(more…)

Dekaron Evolution

 

Elite Dekaron

Dekaron is Free to Play and it’s even more fun than it was with 2Moons.

Remember back when I was playing 2Moons? Seems like ages ago. (more…)

Heroes of Three Kingdoms

We like living in Heroes of Three Kingdoms, except for two big problems:

• There are two currencies. Money and Funds. And due to the second problem, this is just too much of a hassle to mess with.
• There is no good wiki. Oh they have a wiki. But it only has the bare minimum of content, and nothing to help you deal with the Two Currency problem.

(more…)

Update: The Fix is to install to C:\Evolution Games\Dekaron Evolution\ rather than to C:\Program Files. This means that you can manually update using the manual patch at: Recent Update

When installing the Client found here: http://evolutiongames.net/dekaron/

It said it needed the (dot)NET 3.5 support and the Microsoft page provided an installer for (dot)Net 4.0.

The system is Vista x86 SP1.

Run the Client

Error Boxes in Order

First Error

Second Error

Third Error

Chains are pretty interesting. They are Skill Macros.

Chain with Pickup

I’d like a sequence to end with a PickUp to grab the loot automatically.

Here’s the Chain I have, and it works, except that the Pickup never happens.

What’s up?

- windy

Mounted Combat

Mounted combat is available from level 30 in Heroes of Three Kingdoms. But the quest chain to achieve it is not well documented and is confusing. This is a guide to gaining Mounted Combat with a minimum of cost and headaches. I had to attempt it three times before I got it right and finally help from the forum got me across the last stumbling block. It cost me 3 Gold in Money to gain it rather than the usual 1 Gold, so I’m trying to save you the money.

(more…)

Char selection page

Heroes of Three Kingdoms is a FTP MMO from Perfect Worlds. I’ll put a detailed review in later, but I wanted to post a major hint for playing at levels between 20 and 30 now. I’ll show you how to make your weapon glow like this picture.

(more…)

The latest email from OpenDNS has been flagged by Windows Live Mail on Windows 7 as a  phishing attempt apparently:

Latest Open DNS Email

Here are the details from the email:

Return-Path: <newsletter-bounces@opendns.com>
Delivered-To: GMX delivery to windyplayer@gmx.com
Received: (qmail invoked by alias); 17 Feb 2011 17:55:07 -0000
Received: from m67.sfo.opendns.com (EHLO m67.sfo.opendns.com) [67.215.68.105]
 by mx0.gmx.com (mx-us001) with SMTP; 17 Feb 2011 12:55:07 -0500
Received: from m54.sfo.opendns.com (m54.sfo.opendns.com [67.215.68.145])
 by m67.sfo.opendns.com (8.14.3/8.14.3/Debian-5+lenny1) with ESMTP id p1HHt7AN005450
 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT)
 for <windyplayer@gmx.com>; Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:55:07 GMT
Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.opendns.com)
 by m54.sfo.opendns.com with esmtp (Exim 4.69)
 (envelope-from <newsletter-bounces@opendns.com>)
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 for windyplayer@gmx.com; Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:55:02 +0000
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:55:02 +0000
To: windyplayer@gmx.com
From: Allison Rhodes <marketing@opendns.com>
Subject: [OpenDNS] February 2011 Newsletter - Home Edition
Message-ID: <50d3d7955f49e9336720738ab05c89a1@lists.opendns.com>
X-Priority: 3
X-MessageID: 101
X-ListMember: windyplayer@gmx.com
Precedence: bulk
Errors-To: newsletter-bounces@opendns.com
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
 boundary="b1_50d3d7955f49e9336720738ab05c89a1"
X-GMX-Antivirus: 0 (no virus found)
X-GMX-Antispam: 0 (Mail was not recognized as spam);
 Detail=5D7Q89H36p7HKxCVe41YRZxu4X4easLw8FopDTu/SvPZoLCWaicuN98U46fbCsKa9cJT4
 SbLgNcly1rvzJazPF3zfowb5EuQVtoKrGhICOZPgQJRcbpzwsdWXT/CL3rDXHR2gxPleCqaNqQss
 YRh/uvSjZjqq0hbV1;

I’ve written a photo resizer program, which can be found here on Source Forge.

I’m now porting the program to Linux, which is no issue except when it comes to getting it to run on a system where the development environment is not installed. I’ve installed the following packages: libqtcore4, libqtgui4. The program runs fine, except that JPG support does not work. PNG works fine.

The image plugins are there in both usr/lib/qt/plugins and usr/lib32/qt/plugins. Although the list is not the same which is strange.

usr_lib_qt4_plugins_imageformats

usr_lib32_qt4_plugins_imageformats

Report Lib Paths And Image Formats

So why won’t JPG images load into my program?

- Windy