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391

Posts / Video Game Nostalgia

« on: September 28, 2009, 05:31:38 am »

Original post for Video Game Nostalgia can be found at https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/Video_Game_Nostalgia.
Originally posted on: 08/15/08

So a comic [Gunnerkrigg Court] that I enjoy and read daily  [updates MWF] recently referenced Metal Gear Solid, which finally made me decide to play through the series.

For reference, whenever I bring up games from here on out, it’s usually to talk about encountered problems, which I will usually provide fixes for, or technical aspects of the game. I’m not qualified, or funny enough, to want to review games; and that is not the purpose of my postings here.

The first thing I wanted to mention is a fix for a graphical problem.  As the game is rather “old” (released in 2000 for Windows), it can be incompatible with modern systems. One of the options it uses in hardware mode is 8-bit textures, which is no longer supported, though for the life of me I can’t see why a hack could be made in the video card drivers for this problem. Because of this, the game only allows you to run in software mode. After a lot of digging and searching, in which every place said the same thing (it’s not fixable), I finally found a hacked executable [Metal Gear Solid v1.0 [ENGLISH] No-CD/WinXP+Vista+GeForce+ATi Fixed EXE] made by a kind sole to fix the problem.

Another problem which really frustrated me was a “puzzle” in the game referring to looking for information on the “back of the CD case”. I had just received an “optical disk” in the game, however, it appeared to be a floppy disk and no matter what I did I couldn’t find the required information with the item. I figured it must have been a bug and finally gave in and looked it up online. It turns out they meant the actual CD case the game came in had a number [radio frequency] written on the back of it - “140.15”. I can only assume they did this as a means of “copy protection” to frustrate anyone who didn’t actually buy the game. Unfortunately, I acquired the game without a CD case so I was frustrated by this myself.

This kind of system reminded me of the very old days of gaming in which some games asked you to input a certain word from a certain paragraph on a certain page of the manual to enter the game, or asked questions with answers found in the manual. One of the games I had that did the former was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [1989] for DOS. I have fond memories of playing this and a (monochrome? [green and black :-) ] IIRC?) version of Muppet Adventure: Chaos at the Carnival [1989] (Dear Thor! heh) [also a DOS game] as they were, IIRC, two of my first video games, though I got many others around that time. Both games had later released NES ports too.

My real favorite childhood games however, which are still both cult classics, were Doom, which got me into the design aspect of making games, and most importantly, ZZT, which is what really got me started on programming in 1991 at the age of 5. I still have the original floppy disks for ZZT too :-). ZZT was more scripting than programming though, and I didn’t start real programming until I got into QBasic in 1993. I might release some of my creations for these games one of these days for nostalgic sake ^_^;. I also remember thoroughly enjoying Star Trek: 25th Anniversary for DOS in 1992 :-). I was a nerd even as a kid! ^_^; This game also had copy protection I had forgotten about. As Wikipedia tells:

The game had a copy-protection system in that the player was forced to consult the game’s manual in order to find out which star system they were supposed to warp to on the navigation map. Warping to the wrong system would send them into either the Klingon or Romulan neutral zones, and initiate an extremely difficult battle that often ends with the destruction of the Enterprise.

[Edit 8/16/2008 @ 10:05pm]Pictures of some of this stuff can be found in tomorrow’s post, “Ancient Software”.

392

Posts / Language Optimization Techniques

« on: September 28, 2009, 05:31:37 am »

Original post for Language Optimization Techniques can be found at https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/Language_Optimization_Techniques.
Originally posted on: 08/14/08

I’m gonna cheat today since it is really late, as I spent a good amount of time organizing the 3D Engines update which pushed me a bit behind, and I’m also exhausted. Instead of writing some more content, I’m just linking to the “Utilized Optimization Techniques” section of the 3D Engines project, which I put up today.

It describes 4 programming speed optimization tricks: Local variable assignment, precalculating index lookups, pointer transversing/addition, and loop unrolling. This project post also goes into some differences between the used languages [Flash, C++, and Java], especially when dealing with speed.

[password must also not be blank]

393

Posts / Multiple Windows XP Sessions

« on: September 28, 2009, 05:31:36 am »

Original post for Multiple Windows XP Sessions can be found at https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/Multiple_Windows_XP_Sessions.
Originally posted on: 08/13/08

All of the Windows lines of OSs from XP through Windows Server 2003 (or 2005 or 2007?) are, to my knowledge and IMO, basically the exact same thing, with just some minor tweaks and extra software for the more expensive versions. My version of XP Professional even comes with IIS (Internet Information Services - Microsoft’s web/ftp/mail server suite). One of my favorite XP hacks adds on a desperately needed functionality found only in Windows Server editions, which is allowing multiple user sessions on a machine at once. This basically means allowing multiple people to log onto a machine at the same time through Remote Desktop (Microsoft’s internal Windows VNC client). I find the most useful function by far of this is the “Remote Control” feature, which allows a second logged in user to see exactly what is on the screen of another session, and if permissions are given, to take control of it. This is perfect for those people whom you often have to trouble shoot computer problems for, eliminating the need for a trip to their location or 3rd party software to view their computer.

This hack requires a few registry modifications, a group policy modification, and a DLL replacement. The DLL replacement was provided by Microsoft in early versions of XP SP2 when they were tinkering with allowing this feature in XP. I found the information for all this here a number of years ago and it has provided itself invaluable since. Unfortunately, this does not work on XP Home edition, just XP Professional. I tried adapting it once and wasted a lot of time . The following is the text from where I got this hack.

Concurrent Remote Desktop Sessions in Windows XP SP2

I mentioned before that Windows XP does not allow concurrent sessions for its Remote Desktop feature. What this means is that if a user is logged on at the local console, a remote user has to kick him off (and ironically, this can be done even without his permission) before starting work on the box. This is irritating and removes much of the productivity that Remote Desktop brings to Windows. Read on to learn how to remove that limitation in Windows XP SP2

A much touted feature in SP2 (Service Pack 2) since then removed was the ability to do just this, have a user logged on locally while another connects to the terminal remotely. Microsoft however removed the feature in the final build. The reason probably is that the EULA (End User License Agreement) allows only a single user to use a computer at a time. This is (IMHO) a silly reason to curtail Remote Desktop’s functionality, so we’ll have a workaround.

Microsoft did try out the feature in earlier builds of Service Pack 2 and it is this that we’re going to exploit here. We’re going to replace termsrv.dll (The Terminal Server) with one from an earlier build (2055).

To get Concurrent Sessions in Remote Desktop working, follow the steps below exactly:

1. Download the termsrv.zip file and extract it somewhere.
2. Reboot into Safe Mode. This is necessary to remove Windows File Protection. [Dakusan: I use unlocker for this, which I install on all my machines as it always proves itself useful, and then usually have to do a “shutdown -a” from command line when XP notices the DLL changed.]
3. Copy the termsrv.dll in the zip to %windir%\System32 and %windir%\ServicePackFiles\i386. If the second folder doesn’t exist, don’t copy it there. Delete termsrv.dll from the dllcache folder: %windir%\system32\dllcache
4. Merge the contents of Concurrent Sessions SP2.reg file into the registry. [Dakusan: Just run the .reg file and tell XP to allow the action.]
5. Make sure Fast User Switching is turned on. Go Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Change the way users log on or off and turn on Fast User Switching.
6. Open up the Group Policy Editor: Start Menu > Run > ‘gpedit.msc’. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Terminal Services. Enable ‘Limit Number of Connections’ and set the number of connections to 3 (or more). This enables you to have more than one person remotely logged on.
7. Now reboot back into normal Windows and try out whether Concurrent Sessions in Remote Desktop works. It should!

If anything goes wrong, the termsrv_sp2.dll is the original file you replaced. Just rename it to termsrv.dll, reboot into safe mode and copy it back.

The termsrv.dl_ file is provided in the zip is for you slipstreamers out there. Just replace that file with the corresponding file in the Windows installation disks.

I have included an old copy of the above web page, from when I first started distributing this, with the information in the hack’s zip file I provide.

If you want to Remote Control another session, I think the user needs to be part of the “Administrators” group, and don’t forget to add any users that you want to be able to remotely log on to the “Remote Desktop Users” group.

This is all actually part of an “Enhanced Windows XP Install” document I made years ago that I never ended up releasing because I hadn’t finished cleaning it up. One of these days I’ll get it up here. Some of the information pertaining to this hack from that document is as follows:

• Any computer techy out there that has tried to troubleshoot over the phone knows how much of a problem/pain in the anatomy it is, and for this reason, I install this hack which makes it painless to automatically connect to a users computer through remote desktop, which can then be remotely viewed or controlled via their displayed console session.
• I often use this hack myself when I am running computers without keyboards/mice, like my entertainment computer.  For a permanent solution for something like this though, I recommend a KM (Keyboard/Mouse) solution like synergy, which allows manipulating one computer via a keyboard and mouse on another.
• Your user account password must also not be blank.  Blank passwords often cause problems with remote services.
• The security risk for this is a port is opened for someone to connect to like telnet or SSH on Unix, which is a minimal risk unless someone has your username+password.
• You have to have a second username to log into, which can be done under Control Panel > User Accounts, or Control panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > System Tools > Local users and Groups.
• If you want the second user to be able to log in remotely, make sure to add them under Control Panel > System > Remote > Select Remote users, and also check “allow users to connect remotely to this computer”.
• You also need to know the IP address of the user’s computer you want to connect to, and unfortunately, they are not always static.  If you run into this, you may want to use a DDNS service like mine.
• You may also run into the unfortunate circumstance of NAT/Firewalled networks, which is beyond the scope of this document. Long story short, you need to open up port 3389 in the firewall and forward it through the router/NAT (this is the port for both remote desktop and remote assistance).
• You may also want to change the port number to something else so a port scanner will not pick it up.  To connect to a different port, on the client computer, in remote desktop, you connect to COMPUTERIP:PORT like www.mycomputer.com:5050.
  • Registry Key: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\PortNumber - Set as your new port number
  • This requires a reboot to work.
  • Make sure you don’t provide a port that’s already used on the computer, and you probably shouldn’t make it a standard port either [21 [ftp], 25 [smtp], 80 [http], etc])
• You can also log into their current console session by going to the task manager (ctrl+shift+esc in full screen, or right click taskbar and go to “task manager”) > Users > Right click username > Remote control
  • This will ask the user at the computer if they want to accept this.  To have it NOT ask them, do the following:
    • Start > Run > gpedit.msc [enter] > computer configuration > administrative templates > windows components > terminal services
    • Double click the option “Sets rules for remote control of terminal services user sessions”
    • Enable it, and for the “Options” setting, set “Full control without users permission”
• If the ability for you to access a client’s computer without their immediate permission or knowledge is too “dangerous” for their taste, you may suggest/use Remote Assistance, which is more troublesome, but much more “secure” sounding.

[really]

394

Posts / Mudslinging Campaigns

« on: September 28, 2009, 05:31:35 am »

Original post for Mudslinging Campaigns can be found at https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/Mudslinging_Campaigns.
Originally posted on: 08/12/08

I really really really really really really really really really really hate politics. I try to completely ignore that scene when possible as most politicians are just brown nosing liars who would disown their own mother if they thought it could help them. The thing I hate most about politics though is the attempt to discredit opponents. Sniping and mudslinging is such a cheap, low, and pointless practice, but it always seems to inevitably come to it. One instance of this is the crimes against humanity Bush has committed are so much more atrocious that it is inconceivable to me that Bill Clinton came so much closer to impeachment just because he wanted to hide his dirty sex life, which isn’t really anyone but his families business anyways. The Republican Party just happens to be really good at being loud, obnoxious, and forceful over any issue they can bring up, it seems to me.

One recent example of this that occurred to me was when a good friend of mine who is incredibly left wing recently sent me some “Bush is a dirty old man” news articles.  While I am as much of a Bush hater as the next democrat, and would have liked to have just agreed with her, I had to voice the flaw in the logic of the articles premise and say that it was a pretty silly thing to be paying attention to.

Another example of this came through again today in an email. I received this morning from another very good friend of mine, who is strongly republican and thinks if Obama is elected our economy will basically crash and all hell will break loose.  It is as follows:

 

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/airplane.asp

                 

WHAT A DISGRACE!!!  AND HE IS ALL AMERICAN?                                              Obama The Patriot - Removes American Flag From His Plane                The Patriot Room                Posted on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 8:11:07 AM by Bill Dupray                                Barack Obama recently finished a $500,000 total overhaul of his 757. And as part of the new design, he decided to remove the American flag from the tail...                What American running for President of the United States would remove the symbol of his country? And worse, he replaced the flag with it with a symbol of himself... Obama is such a despicable human being.                                Please forward this if you're not ashamed of our country and our flag & ifthink this is a disgrace.                                 If you do not forward this to everyone you know nothing will happen.  If Obama is elected president of the                United States                 we are in trouble.  If you think the Liberals can lead our country just look what Pelosi and Reid have accomplished for us.         God Bless America         http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/airplane.asp

 

   
            In God We Trust

My first thought was to check Snopes, which I quickly noticed was already provided for me, how thoughtful!!!
So after reading it, I replied to him via email:

From the (snopes) article linked to by the email you sent me:

The replacement of North American’s commercial markings included the removal of two stylized U.S. flag images which are used in the airline’s logo (a registered trademark of that company).  The North American flag/logo on the forward portion of the fuselage was removed and the one on the tail was replaced with the Obama "O" campaign logo, while traditional depictions of the U.S. flag adjacent to the plane’s registration numbers remain.

However, I was just looking at the new design of McCain’s “Straight Talk Express” bus, and all its large American flags are gone now, as is the American flag theme while it was (Rudys?) bus. And while I can’t find enough good pictures to confirm the small details on the new design, it looks like it has removed ALL of its American flags.

You want to forward these updates to your buddies? :-p

And FYI, I know it sounds hypocritical including the McCain comment in there; I was trying to be ironic ^_^; .

I also just noticed from the Snopes article that McCain’s plane seems to lack any U.S. flags, and oddly, Bush's campaign plane kept the trademarked flag on the tail.

Also, on a side note, while I was searching through Flickr for images of the “Straight Talk Express” (after Google Image failed me somewhat), for some reason it brought me to this picture, which I thought was too adorable to pass up putting here ^_^; .

395

Posts / New Entertainment Center

« on: September 28, 2009, 05:31:34 am »

Original post for New Entertainment Center can be found at https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/New_Entertainment_Center.
Originally posted on: 08/11/08

Doh, I wanted to try posting at least once a day all month and I missed out yesterday because I was just too busy with other stuff, alas.

I had lots of work, mostly house work, to catch up on, culminating in transporting and setting up a new entertainment system, wee. I had to wire the darn thing twice because the first setup really didn’t work well and would have been damaging to the cords; and it takes like an hour each time to do the wiring. Grrrr, oh well.

I originally had all my entertainment stuff set up in my living room, as I assumed that I was going to have guests and would want to watch stuff out there with them on the couch. This has unfortunately turned out to not be the case in this apartment, and I usually only end up going to the living room couch mainly to snuggle with my cat, as she will only get close to me on the couch for some reason, while I have the TV on in the background while I work.  Now I can have stuff running in the background whenever I want from my room, and can use the surround sound speakers to play my music, as I am getting tired of my crappy (though better than many) laptop speakers, and headphones are more cumbersome than not.

I bought the new parts of my entertainment system from some [married] friends who finished moving yesterday to a one bedroom in downtown Austin that couldn’t even remotely hold all their stuff, so they were desperately trying to get rid of a lot of it in a hurry. I got a 32" CRT TV [$50], the black shelving unit w/ glass enclosure [$50], and an older computer (512MB of RAM, 780mhz CPU, 80GB hard drive) [$20] to use as a new Home Server. All of these were at about 20% of cost, yay :-).

I really needed the new TV, as my current 32" TV is badly scratched up from being dropped on cement a few years back. I am leaving the old TV hooked up to my current Home Server, which I will now be using as just a multimedia station for that TV and a place for extra backup hard drives. I wanted the “new” computer as a new Home Server, as the current one uses way too much power for what it’s being used for, and is too loud to keep in my room. I’ll be just turning it on when I need it now instead; backing up and watching videos that require too much CPU power that the new computer won’t be able to handle.

The new computer is quite tiny and has no AGP slots, just 2 PCI32 slots. I am therefore looking into getting a $25 (w/ shipping) e-GeForce 5200 PCI card for tv-out. I hope it fits in the small case, because if not, I will just have to leave the case cover off.

Click for full size (I love my new camera ^_^ )

396

Posts / Blade Laws

« on: September 28, 2009, 05:31:33 am »

Original post for Blade Laws can be found at https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/Blade_Laws.
Originally posted on: 08/09/08

Speaking of swords, though I know most people would probably not agree with me, it’s always irked me that it is legal to carry around guns, but not swords. I guess swords would be a bit harder to conceal, so maybe that’s why, and not that I necessarily would ever carry one around, but still :-(. Guns produce one type of fear, but seeing a 3+ foot long blade that could easily hack off a limb produces a completely different kind of respect, heh. Even knifes are subject to scrutiny, as any blade, by different state laws, are only legal to carry around if less than a certain length, usually under half a foot. Though it is very hard to find these laws and everyone says something different on them, there are consequences for trying to push it.

I have a friend who was once transporting a sword home after buying it, and by unlucky coincidence was pulled over for whatever reason, and he allowed the cops to search his vehicle. He was given a hefty fine and a misdemeanor for having the sword. More unfortunately, this ruined his future prospects for going into the intelligence sector for our government, as you can’t have any blotches on your record, and a misdemeanor is considered bad enough.

It is of course perfectly legal to have one in your car if transporting it [home] right after buying it. So make that your story if you ever find yourself in this unlikely circumstance, whether it is true or not :-). My friend lamented to me he wishes he knew this at that time.

Then again, there is a complete double standard on this subject, as anyone, I believe of any age, can walk out of Walmart with a 22" machete! Like this time in college... when a friend of mine got one... and oh Thor, the poor watermelons!

397

Posts / Skuld Kitty

« on: September 28, 2009, 05:31:32 am »

Original post for Skuld Kitty can be found at https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/Skuld_Kitty.
Originally posted on: 08/08/08

Because I’m a super nerd, I thought I’d post pictures of my adorable kitty =^.^= . Her name is Skuld and I adopted her from a store on May the 11th of 2005 when she was 6 weeks old, so I just assume she shares my birthday, March the 28th :-).

She’s a tiny bit psychotic, but I love her to death none the less ^_^. She’s most recently become much more sociable, and she has always especially loved energetic playing; mostly wrestling with my hands and feet, and games of tag.

She has survived living with me at 5 locations so far with 5 moves!!! (Garland, North Dallas, Parent’s House [near-death appendix burst put me here for a while], Canada [1 month stay x.x; but the 26+ hour non stop drives there and back with Skuld were torturous]), Parent’s House [very very short stay], Austin). She’s been a very good sport about it, and I think she loves the Austin place the most so far.

Mouse over the thumbnails for larger copies. (Video clips to be uploaded soon.)

(2005-05-11) These are all pictures of Skuld on the night I adopted her.
(2005-05-11) Exploring on adoption night!	(2005-06-01) Skuld is a few weeks older here, lounging in a box, as she has always loved to do.	(2005-07-06) Skuld was much more daring in her youth and loved climbing onto very high things. She even went to the top of the TV on these shelves a few times which almost touched the ceiling. She is playing hide and seek with a friend of mine, Jamie, here.
(2005-07-28) Just curled up on some blankets sleeping.	(2006-02-16) Stretching out in crazy positions as usual.	(2006-02-21) I often took Skuld to the Qrush office for the 6 or so months we had it, as she got very lonely at home and there weren’t many of us at the office. She’s sleeping on some office supplies here.
(2006-04-13) Grooming herself in her favorite fluffy box bed.	(2007-07-15) During the stay at my parents house, I did weekend Dungeons & Dragon games at a friend’s (Brad’s) house in North Dallas (a 30-40 minute drive away) once a month, and the cat demanded to come along. She’s just lounging here.	(2007-07-15) Taken a minute or so after the last one, she noticed me taking her picture.
(2007-07-15) Eating later that day at Brad’s.	(2007-08-24) Sleeping on the >24 hour trip back from Canada in a cat cube my mother bought for her.	(2008-08-02) Taken about a week ago as I was testing out my new camera right before needing to use it at Angel Sword. She’s just chillin next to me in bed.
(2005-10-18) Olympic High Jumper (Video) - My dad took this video of me playing with my cat. My mother is the one in the background.	(2007-11-24) What I have to come home to (Video) - I was away from my place for about a week and my cat does not easily forgive. She meowed at me for hours on end like this.

398

Posts / Wedding Completed, Yay

« on: September 28, 2009, 05:31:31 am »

Original post for Wedding Completed, Yay can be found at https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/Wedding_Completed,_Yay.
Originally posted on: 08/07/08

It is now 4:44pm MST (5:44 CST, which is the time zone my website runs on) and I’m currently sitting in the Salt Lake City [Utah] Airport (SLC) with children crying all around me and businessman talking loudly on their cells... people, wee. Thank Thor for headphones + music :-).

Unfortunately, this airport, like most other airports AFAIK, does not provide free public WiFi (Wireless Internet) (examples off the top of my head are Dallas Fort/Worth [DFW] and Austin [AUS]). Phoenix (PHX) did provide free WiFi though, which was really nice. It was (and is, as I am flying there in a few hours for a layover) probably one of the nicest airports I have been to in a while. It even had lots of rows of comfy seats with small 1/.5 ft or so tables between them that had 2 electrical plugs on them, which was all very nicely designed and ergonomic too. Anywho, without access to the internet, I am stuck in 2D land (Snow Crash reference ^_^; ) and am withdrawn from the outside world.

You may notice however that this post is dated while I should be offline. Most of my work and entries for my site are done/posted on my laptop which runs a local web server, and then I move over batches of changes at once when I am finished. I will probably stop this practice once my website is more complete, but at the moment, it works better, and assures I have local backups. This is why, if anyone noticed, why 4 days of posts suddenly showed up yesterday :-).  I’ve been on the move lately so I hadn’t had time to do a data transfer.

ANYWAYS, Luis’ wedding was really nice, though a ton of work. As one of the groomsmen I was trying to help out with stuff all day, which all the groomsmen were helping lots too. The bridesmaids had it super easy! I was on my feet almost all day in a heavy suit running around taking pictures, videos, and fixing things, but it was worth it. I’m so happy for Luis, and glad everything went so well ^_^.

Unfortunately, I was not allowed to be there for the actual marriage part (called a Sealing) as it was a Mormon/LDS (Church of Latter Day Saints) ceremony, which takes place in one of their temples, which is sacred and only practicing Mormon adults who have been confirmed are allowed in. Oh well ^_^;. There were probably 50 or so people in the temple to witness the ceremony and 5-10 people waiting outside with me. There were a couple hundred people that showed up for the reception though; the hall was one large mass of people!

There’s not many pictures I want to share publicly here from the event (this is not the place for their personal pictures :-) ), but I do have a couple; especially some I had taken of me in the suit I wore all day, as it’ll probably be a long time before anyone sees me in a formal suit again! ^_^; ... though it is nice to feel respectable sometimes and dress like that.

The weekend was well worth the expensive flight up here (and the suit), as myself and everyone had tons of fun and I got to meet a lot of great new people, and see a lot of old friends I haven’t had the opportunity to hang with for a while. It seems everyone is moving into opposite directions around the country ... or all the Mormons are just conglomerating in the LDS capitol of the world (Salt Lake City), but we won’t talk about that ^_^;.

The Happy Couple	The Groom and I	Me Dollar Dancing with the Bride
Me (Jeffrey Riaboy)

399

Posts / An Agnostics Perspective

« on: September 28, 2009, 05:31:30 am »

Original post for An Agnostics Perspective can be found at https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/An_Agnostics_Perspective.
Originally posted on: 08/07/08

An Agnostics PerspectiveA lesson in logicTags: Religion, Eragon, BooksThere’s a specific dialog that goes on in Eldest, the second book of the Inheritance Cycle (Eragon), about religion that I thought worded my general beliefs on the subject, though in a fantasy setting, quite well. I have included this verbatim below, which basically describes how agnostics reason. I particularly like the last paragraph, which basically says how non god-fairing people can be, from a certain perspective, in a way, on a higher moral ground due to basing their actions on what is right because they want to help others, as opposed to fearing divine retribution. FYI, this doesn’t really contain any spoilers for the books. The following text is copyrighted by the author, Christopher Paolini.

Nine days later, Eragon presented himself to Oromis¹ and said, “Master, it struck me last night that neither you nor the hundreds of elven scrolls I’ve read have mentioned your religion. What do elves believe?”

A long sigh was Oromis’s first answer. Then: “We believe that the world behaves according to certain inviolable rules and that, by persistent effort, we can discover those rules and use them to predict events when circumstances repeat.”

Eragon blinked. That did not tell him what he wanted to know. “But who, or what, do you worship?”

“Nothing.”

“You worship the concept of nothing?”

“No, Eragon. We do not worship at all.”

The thought was so alien, it took Eragon several moments to grasp what Oromis meant. The villagers of Carvahall² lacked a single overriding doctrine, but they did share a collection of superstitions and rituals, most of which concerned warding off bad luck. During the course of his training, it had dawned upon Eragon that many of the phenomena that the villagers attributed to supernatural sources were in fact natural processes, such as when he learned in his meditations that maggots hatched from fly eggs instead of spontaneously arising from the dirt, as he had thought before. Nor did it make sense for him to put out an offering of food to keep sprites from turning the milk sour when he knew that sour milk was actually caused by a proliferation of tiny organisms in the liquid. Still, Eragon remained convinced that otherworldly forces influenced the world in mysterious ways, a belief that his exposure to the dwarves’ religion³ had bolstered. He said, “Where do you think the world came from, then, if it wasn’t created by the gods?”

“Which gods, Eragon?”

“Your gods, the dwarf gods, our gods... someone must have created it.”

Oromis raised an eyebrow. “I would not necessarily agree with you. But be as that may, I cannot prove that gods do not exist. Nor can I prove that the world and everything in it was not created by an entity or entities in the distant past. But I can tell you that in the millennia we elves have studied nature, we have never witnessed an instance where the rules that govern the world have been broken. That is, we have never seen a miracle. Many events have defied our ability to explain, but we are convinced that we failed because we are still woefully ignorant about the universe and not because a deity altered the workings of nature.”

“A god wouldn’t have to alter nature to accomplish his will,” asserted Eragon. “He could do it within the system that already exists.... He could use magic to affect events.”

Oromis smiled. “Very true. But ask yourself this, Eragon: If gods exist, have they been good custodians of Alagaësia²? Death, sickness, poverty, tyranny, and countless other miseries stalk the land. If this is the handiwork of divine beings, then they are to be rebelled against and overthrown, not given obeisance, obedience, and reverence.”

“The dwarves believe³—”

“Exactly! The dwarves believe. When it comes to certain matters, they rely upon faith rather than reason. They have even been known to ignore proven facts that contradict their dogma.”

“Like what?” demanded Eragon.

“Dwarf priests use coral as proof that stone is alive and can grow, which also corroborates their story that Helzvog³ formed the race of dwarves out of granite. But we elves discovered that coral is actually an exoskeleton secreted by minuscule animals that live inside the coral. Any magician can sense the animals if he opens his mind. We explained this to the dwarves, but they refused to listen, saying that the life we felt resides in every kind of stone, although their priests are the only ones who are supposed to be able to detect the life in landlocked stones.”

For a long time, Eragon stared out the window, turning Oromis’s words over in his mind. “You don’t believe in an afterlife, then.”

“From what Glaedr said, you already knew that.”

“And you don’t put stock in gods.”

“We give credence only to that which we can prove exists. Since we cannot find evidence that gods, miracles, and other supernatural things are real, we do not trouble ourselves about them. If that were to change, if Helzvog were to reveal himself to us, then we would accept the new information and revise our position.”

“It seems a cold world without something... more.”

“On the contrary,” said Oromis, “it is a better world. A place where we are responsible for our own actions, where we can be kind to one another because we want to and because it is the right thing to do instead of being frightened into behaving by the threat of divine punishment. I won’t tell you what to believe, Eragon. It is far better to be taught to think critically and then be allowed to make your own decisions than to have someone else’s notions thrust upon you. You asked after our religion, and I have answered you true. Make of it what you will.”

1: Eragon is the protagonist of the book who is currently being tutored in magic by Oromis, an elf. The elves are an enlightened species that view the world as scientists.
2: Carvahall is the farming village Eragon grew up in, in the world of Alagaësia.
3: The dwarves have a typical polytheistic religion. In their case, they believe that they were created from stone by their god, Helzvog, and that coral, by growing, is proof that stone is alive.

400

Posts / Windows 98 for VMWare

« on: September 28, 2009, 05:31:29 am »

Original post for Windows 98 for VMWare can be found at https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/Windows_98_for_VMWare.
Originally posted on: 08/06/08

I recently had to install Windows 98 through VMWare for some quick tests, and there were a few minor problems after the install that needed to be resolved. I thought I’d share them here if anyone ever needed them.

• First, VMWare Tools needs to be installed to get video and some other drivers working.
• Second, Windows 98 was really before the time when network cards were used to connect to the internet, as broadband technology was rare and modems were the commonplace solution, so it doesn’t make this process easy. To connect through your VMWARE bridge or NAT to the Internet (to use IE - FireFox [newer versions of?] doesn’t work on Windows 98), the following must be done through the MSN Connection Wizard (this is mostly from memory).
  • Open "Connect to the internet" from the desktop
  • Click Next
  • Select Modem Manually [next]
  • Select any of the normal modems in the list on the right, like a generic 56,000 modem [OK]
  • Click Next
  • Click lan/manual
  • Connect using my local area network (LAN) [next]
  • Click Next
  • "No" to email [next]
  • Click Finish
• Lastly, the default sound driver does not work, so you need to do the following [Information found here by googling]
  • Install the Create Lab’s drivers for the PCI sound card
  • Add the following lines to your VMWare config (vmx) file
    • pciSound.DAC1InterruptsPerSec = 0
    • pciSound.DAC2InterruptsPerSec = 0
  • Optionally, for a better midi waveset, download Creative Lab’s 8mb GM/GS Waveset [version 5] and select it for use in the device’s properties by:
    • Right click my computer
    • Select properties
    • Select the Device Manager tab
    • Find the area for sound and go to “SB PCI(WDM)”
    • Go to the second tab
    • Change the Midi Synthesizer Waveset to the downloaded eapci8m.ecw

401

Posts / When your electronics know more than you

« on: September 28, 2009, 05:31:28 am »

Original post for When your electronics know more than you can be found at https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/When_your_electronics_know_more_than_you.
Originally posted on: 08/05/08

I really love my GPS (Magellan Maestro 3100) system that I received last Christmas as a present from my mother. I use it whenever navigating to new places I have never been before and it is always pretty darn accurate.

So it worked as usual without a hitch, calculating the best route flawlessly, on my way to Angel Sword last Saturday. On the way back, however, it sent me back on a different route which ended up making the 50 minutes trip take 10-20 minutes longer due to sticking me on backwater highway roads with only 1 lane, and getting stuck behind old geezers going below the speed limit.  This had made me really mad at the time, and rather confused as to why it chose a different "fastest" route back; that is until I got to my destination and found out there was heavy construction on the highway going northbound (my way back) that had delayed one of my friends for 4 hours on his trip into Austin :-O. Glad I ended up following its directions after all and not going with my gut and taking the same route I took down there!

My fatal mistake was assuming the GPS calculated the routes itself instead of asking a central server elsewhere with traffic information. Now I know better!

402

Posts / New Harry Potter Canon Stuff

« on: September 28, 2009, 05:31:27 am »

Original post for New Harry Potter Canon Stuff can be found at https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/New_Harry_Potter_Canon_Stuff.
Originally posted on: 08/04/08

I’ve been rereading one of the many Harry Potter books again, as usual when wanting to relax, for the millionth time through the series. I thought I’d check around and see if there was anything new, and apparently there are a few new things I didn’t know about.


The Tales of Beedle the Bard has a mass release coming on December 4th.


According to a note on JK Rowling’s website (Wizard of the Month Archive), quoted verbatim:

(1980 - )
The Boy Who Lived, only known survivor of the Avada Kedavra curse and conqueror of Lord Voldemort, also known as Tom Riddle. Harry Potter joined the reshuffled Auror Department under Kingsley Shacklebolt at age 17, rising to become Head of said department in 2007.

And finally, an 800 word "Harry Potter Prequel" by JKR written for some charity book by WaterStone, or something like that. I found the text for it here, and it is quoted below.

The speeding motorcycle took the sharp corner so fast in the darkness that both policemen in the pursuing car shouted ‘whoa!’ Sergeant Fisher slammed his large foot on the brake, thinking that the boy who was riding pillion was sure to be flung under his wheels; however, the motorbike made the turn without unseating either of its riders, and with a wink of its red tail light, vanished up the narrow side street.

‘We’ve got ‘em now!” cried PC Anderson excitedly. ‘That’s a dead end!”

Leaning hard on the steering wheel and crashing his gears, Fisher scraped half the paint off the flank of the car as he forced it up the alleyway in pursuit.

There in the headlights sat their quarry, stationary at last after a quarter of an hour’s chase. The two riders were trapped between a towering brick wall and the police car, which was now crashing towards them like some growling, luminous-eyed predator.

There was so little space between the car doors and the walls of the alley that Fisher and Anderson had difficulty extricating themselves from the vehicle. It injured their dignity to have to inch, crab-like, towards the miscreants. Fisher dragged his generous belly along the wall, tearing buttons off his shirt as he went, and finally snapping off the wing mirror with his backside.

‘Get off the bike!’ he bellowed at the smirking youths, who sat basking in the flashing blue light as though enjoying it.

They did as they were told. Finally pulling free from the broken wind mirror, Fisher glared at them. They seemed to be in their late teens. The one who had been driving had long black hair; his insolent good looks reminded Fisher unpleasantly of his daughter’s guitar-playing, layabout boyfriend. The second boy also had black hair, though his was short and stuck up in all directions; he wore glasses and a broad grin. Both were dressed in T-shirts emblazoned with a large golden bird; the emblem, no doubt, of some deafening, tuneless rock band.

‘No helmets!’ Fisher yelled, pointing from one uncovered head to the other. ‘Exceeding the speed limit by - by a considerable amount!’ (In fact, the speed registered had been greater than Fisher was prepared to accept that any motorcycle could travel.) ‘Failing to stop for the police!’

‘We’d have loved to stop for a chat,’ said the boy in glasses, ‘only we were trying -’

‘Don’t get smart - you two are in a heap of trouble!’ snarled Anderson. ‘Names!’

‘Names?’ repeated the long-haired driver. ‘Er - well, let’s see. There’s Wilberforce… Bathsheba… Elvendork…’

‘And what’s nice about that one is, you can use it for a boy or a girl,’ said the boy in glasses.

‘Oh, OUR names, did you mean?’ asked the first, as Anderson spluttered with rage. ‘You should’ve said! This here is James Potter, and I’m Sirius Black!’

‘Things’ll be seriously black for you in a minute, you cheeky little -’

But neither James nor Sirius was paying attention. They were suddenly as alert as gundogs, staring past Fisher and Anderson, over the roof of the police car, at the dark mouth of the alley. Then, with identical fluid movements, they reached into their back pockets.

For the space of a heartbeat both policemen imagined guns gleaming at them, but a second later they saw that the motorcyclists had drawn nothing more than -

‘Drumsticks?’ jeered Anderson. ‘Right pair of jokers, aren’t you? Right, we’re arresting you on a charge of -’

But Anderson never got to name the charge. James and Sirius had shouted something incomprehensible, and the beams from the headlights had moved.

The policemen wheeled around, then staggered backwards. Three men were flying - actually FLYING - up the alley on broomsticks - and at the same moment, the police car was rearing up on its back wheels.

Fisher’s knees bucked; he sat down hard; Anderson tripped over Fisher’s legs and fell on top of him, as FLUMP - BANG - CRUNCH - they heard the men on brooms slam into the upended car and fall, apparently insensible, to the ground, while broken bits of broomstick clattered down around them.

The motorbike had roared into life again. His mouth hanging open, Fisher mustered the strength to look back at the two teenagers.

‘Thanks very much!’ called Sirius over the throb of the engine. ‘We owe you one!’

‘Yeah, nice meeting you!’ said James. ‘And don’t forget: Elvendork! It’s unisex!’

There was an earth-shattering crash, and Fisher and Anderson threw their arms around each other in fright; their car had just fallen back to the ground. Now it was the motorcycle’s turn to rear. Before the policemen’s disbelieving eyes, it took off into the air: James and Sirius zoomed away into the night sky, their tail light twinkling behind them like a vanishing ruby.

On a slightly off-topic non-official tangent, I really love this picture! Wish I knew who the artist was, especially to give credit here.

[BEAUTIFUL]

403

Posts / Angel Sword

« on: September 28, 2009, 05:31:26 am »

Original post for Angel Sword can be found at https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/Angel_Sword.
Originally posted on: 08/03/08

So I went to an open house at Angel Sword yesterday, which produces the world’s best swords. I first fell in love with their work when I saw them well over 10 years ago at Scarborough Fair Renaissance Festival in Dallas, and have schemed owning one since, which is not easy as their lowest series cost about $2,000. Of course, I could get smaller (and legal) blades from them like knives, but that’s just not the same or as fun ^_^; .

Their lowest line of swords, the Bright Knight series, holds at least the top two world records in ability from international competitions. I asked why they haven’t submitted their upper series lines (Angel Swords, Avatar series, etc) and the basic reply was “You don’t show your queens and kings if you can win with your jacks” :-). The master sword smith who started and still does most all of the work on the swords is Daniel Watson, whom has been working on swords for well over 30 years. The reason his swords are the best is that he uses combinations of ultra-tech with old tech to produce the best results.  He has over 14 patents on processes and technology to produce the swords that he has been creating and refining over his lifetime that make no one able (easily) to catch up to his quality of work. The ultra-tech stuff includes cryogenics with quick freezing using liquid nitrogen and super heating, electromagnetic manipulating machines, metallurgy, and good old fashion hammer techniques, including cold forging, which most sword smiths apparently ignore.

I unfortunately had to miss a wedding of a friend of my sister’s up in Dallas for this, but I thought this more important/pressing as they only have these open houses every few [2-3] years, and I have reason to believe this may be the last one. It was supposed to start off at 9am. I got there 20 or so minutes early, well before anyone else, so I got some one on one time with Mr. Watson and another of his employees, Wolf (his real name ^_^). So I checked out his large stock of swords in the show room for the first hour or two while everyone else was arriving, and we all chatted and had general fun.  There are so many beautiful swords and blades of every style, size, and make; pure works of art!

After that we went up to the forge and he did a demo with running commentary of reworking a knife, sharpening and fixing it up using types of buffers.  That demonstration and everything else from the whole day was all quite fascinating.  During this we also got a good list of accidents that have occurred in the shop, it was quite gruesome!!! :-D. After that we went back to the display room and had some more discussion.

Next was practical sword use ^_^.  We all either borrowed swords or those who already owned ones used them, and we went out to their large front yard area (they are out in the country) and Daniel went over how to properly make cuts with a sword; proper torque and body movements to get the most out of a swing and such. Then each person that showed up (we had 10-15 people) got one wet tatami mat to practice on, which depending on your aim, one could get 5 to 10 solid cuts with. A single tatami mat, which is what most of us used, is about similar to cutting someone through the neck and a shoulder, while a double tatami mat, which they only had 1 made, is about equivalent to a solid cut through someone’s midsection. It was really fun ^_^.

We then broke for lunch with a lot more chatting about swords and many other interesting topics. The final part of the structured day was a voted upon sword creation process that we wanted to hear about. How he made his Avatar swords and the difference between the lines easily won out, as he had never released the information to anyone before (besides perhaps his apprentices and significant others). The reason he was now willing to tell us all about it was his final batch of patents on the processes went through very recently so it was safe to give it out.  One of the guests video taped the whole talk, and I’m hoping to get my hands on a copy of it to post here with his permission later. He told me he wanted to edit it a bit first and show it to Mr. Watson before he did anything with it or released it anywhere. The main gist is that the lower lines just used the electromagnetic manipulation and other ultra-tech to achieve their chemical bonding properties so they can be cut to have much smaller angles on the edges without being too brittle, while the higher lines in addition have the hard work muscle and sweat forging and pounding put into them.

I think he ended his talk a little early to hit the 4pm mark when everything was supposed to end.  A few people left then but I stayed around for over an hour to keep talking with the other participants.  Everyone was really great and from many different walks of life and experiences all brought together by a common interest. After a few more people left, Mr. Watson brought out many of his whiskeys to let us try out. That’s the business he’s trying to break into and away from swords BTW, making whiskeys and rums and some other types of alcohol.  I think I heard him mention to someone that some of the alcohols he was giving us were going for over $125 a shot!

I then left around 5pm, even though I wanted to stay longer, because I had another previous engagement I had promised to make... and then when I got there it didn’t even happen and I was quite perturbed about this, as they could have told me it wasn’t going to happen and I could have stayed at Angel Sword longer, but ah well.

I will probably be getting one of their blades very soon, as I just found out you can trade in their blades at no markdown to help get more expensive blades. So I can get a $2,000 one that I like and then have that around while I work up to a $6000 blade I really like ^_^. They also have a guarantee against breakage, chips, or damage, which is really hard to do anyways, so they can be used all you want without worry. He even showed us a sword that had been shot due to an accidental misfire of a .22 gun from the room above the show room. The sheath it was in clearly showed where the bullet went through, but there wasn’t even a ding or a scratch on the sword! The only remaining evidence was some copper that came off the bullet and etched into the metal a bit :-).

And here are all the pictures with captions that I took for the day! :-D Mouse over the thumbnails for larger copies. (Video clips to be uploaded soon.)

Show Room - Northeast corner
A large assortment of different kinds of swords.	Slightly left of the first picture, in the upper right corner are the few wakizashis on display.	Directly above the first picture.
The left side of the last picture. These two were BEAUTIFUL.
Show Room - Southeast corner
More assortments of swords. There were still a lot of areas in the show room I didn't even get pictures of.	The right side of the last picture.
Show Room - West side - Katanas and Knives
This whole wall was mostly katanas, with knives and other smaller blades in the glass display cases below them. Most of these swords were worth ~$3,500 a piece.	Directly to the right of the last picture.	Zoomed in from the last picture. The katana with the black and red hilt is the one I plan on getting soon, hopefully!
The Forge - Buffers and Sharpeners
Dan was showing us here how he sharpens and fixes blades with the buffers.	A zoomed out (and underexposed?) view of the buffer area.  To the left is a larger belt buffer for larger blades.	3 short video clips spliced together of Mr. Watson working on a blade.
This is the sign in the 2nd picture directly above. I believe they take it to shows as a decoration.
The Forge - The Kiln
A normal heating kiln with tons of different types of hammers, tongs, and tools.	A different angle of the first picture.	This ones a little hard to see... it's a little better in my original large resolution copy. This is a shelf directly to the left of the kiln that contains racks of different types of metal sheets including (from top to bottom) steel?, brass, and copper.
The Forge - Mr. Watson hammering
Hammering on a piece of steel while describing the process of creating the different series of blades. Hopefully I can get a copy of the video someone took of this later.
The Forge - Electromagnetic Machine
All 3 of these are pretty blurry, but this is the electromagnetic machine used to rearrange the molecules of the steel and do micro hammering.
The Forge - The (High Pressure?) Furnace
This is the furnace. I believe it to be super high pressure, but I know it heats steel to over, IIRC 1400 Fahrenheit.	A picture taken from the same spot as above, but shifted slightly to the left.  The LOUD and powerful mechanical hammer is in the way.
The Forge - Liquid Nitrogen tanks for cryogenics
A close up of a liquid nitrogen tank.	All 4 (or were there 5...?) tanks sitting next to each other.
The Forge - Unfinished blades
Blades that are being worked on. Mr. Watson is standing on the left side of the picture. He is currently standing right in front of the liquid nitrogen tanks from above.
The Forge - Other areas
A workbench. This is directly to the right of the kiln, shown above.	Another area of the forge with lots of other workstations and tools.
In the Yard - Group Photos
This was taken while we were waiting for Mr. Watson to come out and start demonstrating.	This one has most of the group that was there. The guy on the left side in the red shirt is Ingrid's husband. Lucky guy :-).
In the Yard - Mr. Watson teaching and demonstrating
	Using Angel (yes that's his real name... I think) as a dummy :-)
		Another "volunteer" 0:-)
In the Yard - Wolf cutting (video)
Wolf (real name) is one of Mr. Watson's employees. He did some of the first cuts, for demonstration purposes.
In the Yard - Angel cutting
Angel (yes that's his real name... I think) cutting. He seemed quite good. Probably the second most experienced guest there (maybe?), after Kendall.
In the Yard - Kendall cutting (videos)
Kendall cutting up his tatami mat. He is apparently quite adept with swords... has won some past sword competitions and is a martial arts instructor and such.
In the Yard - Ingrid cutting
Girls like swords too!!! heh. You may have seen Ingrid in a few other pictures (see Group #1) with her (5 month?) old boy that she brought along. Her husband was there too, they are both great people.		Video...
In the Office - Mythbusters Barrel
The final picture I took. This is the .30 caliber steel barrel used in Myth Busters that they kind of cut through in an episode.

404

Posts / Dakusan v0.5a

« on: September 28, 2009, 05:31:25 am »

Original post for Dakusan v0.5a can be found at https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/Dakusan_v0.5a.
Originally posted on: 08/02/08

This is a picture of me receiving my first real programming language, Visual Basic 4.0, for Chanukah [a Jewish holiday, like Christmas in terms of gifts] in 1995 [I’m the one holding it, age 11, 5th grade]. I had been using QBasic before that. I just thought the picture was too cute to pass up ^_^. The person next to me, Luis Merino, was my best friend during elementary and middle school, and is the reason why I just found this picture. I’m flying up for his wedding in Salt Lake City, in which I will be a groomsman, this coming Tuesday :-).

405

Posts / LinkedIn Policies Part 2

« on: September 28, 2009, 05:31:24 am »

Original post for LinkedIn Policies Part 2 can be found at https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/LinkedIn_Policies_Part_2.
Originally posted on: 08/01/08

Continued from Part 1. Once again, I received another notification of a friend joining from an email I gave to the LinkedIn system. I contacted LinkedIn before writing the previous post on the topic with the following message:

For reference, your privacy policy states the following

Information about your Contacts
In order to invite others to connect with you directly in LinkedIn, you will enter their names and email addresses. This information will be used by LinkedIn to send your invitation including a message that you write. The names and email addresses of people that you invite will be used only to send your invitation and reminders.

I decided to search for accounts through your "Address Book Contacts" function, and manually entered my email contacts.  I only used this function to find existing users, and not invite new ones.  I expected the information to be immediately deleted from your servers, as it had no more use for the contacts I gave, but I found out today they were still there when one of said addresses was used to sign up a new account and LinkedIn informed me of such.  While this is a nice feature, it would have been appropriate to allow the user to opt out of having LinkedIn keep the emails for further use, and downright shady that the user is not informed at all that given email addresses are kept by LinkedIn on your servers.

And this is the non-auto-generated response I received back 2 days later:

Dear Jeffrey
We are aware of the issue you are currently experiencing and we are working diligently to resolve the issue. We appreciate your patience while this issue is being resolved.

I thought it obvious from this reply that they did not take what I said into consideration, and a high probability that they didn’t really even read it. I mentioned in the last post this exact thing happened to my friend who was trying to communicate with LinkedIn about a problem he was having with errors with their site code. This kind of thing is typical from large corporations that receive a large amount of communications and do not have the staff to handle it. I consider this practice almost as bad as out-sourced tech support (usually India), another pet peeve of mine, as communication is often hard and the tech support agents often don’t know what they are talking about... at least very much more so than when with other first-tier tech support channels provided in-country ^_^; . I went ahead and contacted eTrust a few days ago in hopes that I get a more personal response from them.