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Noticebar, a jQuery plugin

Warll — Mon, 10 May 2010 04:52:16 +0000

Noticebar

What?

Noticebar is jQuery plugin that adds, well, a noticebar to the top of any page. Much like the one that will have shown up right about now.

Why?

A while back I wanted to drive traffic from one of my older sites to a successor site. Inspired by the IE security alert page I whipped up a very ugly, static solution, a purely html lime green bar across the top of the page. Before that I had searched for a javascript solution but came up empty handed. Since then I’ve been meaning to create Noticebar for a while.

Features

It uses minimal markup and accepts several options.

Use of text and HTML markup
Custom CSS to change the appearance.
Optionally have the bar slide into view, like I have done here.
With animation on you can have the bar’s arrival delayed, again like done on this page.
A close button
Prepend the Noticebar to any div by specifying the target argument.

Example code

To use the above code copy and paste it inside your websites head tag. By this I mean between the “” and the “” part.

Options

A list of accept settings with their defaults:

jQuery.fn.noticebar({

html : “Notice is credit to team!”, //Your message which can use html
animate : true , //true means that the noticebar will ’slide’ down after the delay
delay : 0 , //A delay in milliseconds, 1000 would be one second
css : “”, //Used to customize CSS styling
close : true, //Whether the close button appears
target : “body”, //Use “#id” you have the noticebar appear on an element with said id, .class for classes

})

Download jquery.noticebar.js | Preview An example page

Program to playback mic live

Warll — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:36:04 +0000

Long story short my mother needed t0 playback a microphone through the speakers. Should be simple and on Windows Xp it is. But for some strange reason vista does not have the option, some drivers do but not the default Microsoft audio driver. Of course doing this should be simple so I spent at least a good hour finding a solution, it would appear that none exist. I tried googling everything “Force mic loop”, “Force mic feedback”, “vista mic live playback”, “play mic through speakers vista”, “program to playback mic” and yes I did just put that list there in the hopes that Google will get a clue.

Turns out there is no program that does it. So I’ve created my own. It is done in flash and has some minor latency due to the use of flash, but any solution will have a bit of latency and hopefully for your needs it will be good enough.

To run it you have to give it permission to use the mic, it will automatically show you the permission dialog and will start working as soon as you close the dialog.

You can download the file and run it locally should you need to. To do so right click on the following link and select “Save file as”

Download: Warll’s Microphone playback’r

Embedded below:

How to make a subdomain point to a sub-folder on Dreamhost

Warll — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:04:00 +0000

By this I mean haveing the domain folder.example.com be hosted in the FTP folder example.com/folder.

You can do this in the “Add new domain” page by changing the “Web directory” field for the sub-domain “folder.example.com” from “/home/username/folder.example.com” to “/home/username/example.com/folder”

Example screenshot follows.

First impressions of Drupal

Warll — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:55:10 +0000

I’ve spent the last week or so exploring Drupal and I must say that it is impressive.

Things I like:

Backend dosn’t hide options behind menus or other pages
Strictly enforced coding style
Theme markup encourages presentation to be removed from data manipulation
A block system that effectively gives users a ton of widget panels, and everything is placed like a WP widget would be
A form api that takes care of mundane and verbose html input markup
A ton of plugins that are rather generic yet well integrated with Drupal allowing for easy adoption and extension.
A focus on security even if at the cost of higher minimum skill set for usage.

What I dislike:

code style enforces the use of spaces instead of tab chars, which is positively insane.

In the end I like Drupal and am currently working on a port of the default Wordpress Theme.

afterRead, a wordpress plugin

Warll — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:59:47 +0000

afterRead

Download afterRead | zip

What do you show the reader after they have read your content? Do you show them an empty comment box? A small unrelated block of automated text?
Instead use afterRead to present an active post footer driving visitors back into the site, don’t waste a prime opportunity. Presently afterRead’s options are focused on driving visitors back into other related articles, but afterRead is capable of much more so expect to see new innovative Suggestions.

Features;
* Add Previous and Next post links to the bottom of posts. These links can potentially be to any post, to only posts in the same category, or even only to posts with a matching tag. By default there are three styles to choose from, these styles integrate well with most themes.
* Suggestions can be anything from a donate button to a subscribe button to anything you can imagine.
* afterRead is modular and made of two primary parts, the afterRead core, and afterRead suggestions.
This allows for updates that do not revert changes and for easy custom extension of functionality.
* You can easily add new suggestions by simply pasting code into a text box in the afterRead settings page

== Installation ==

1. Upload `afterread’ folder to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory
1. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
1. Navigate to the afterRead settings page found under the “Settings” menu
1. Select a different suggestion or use the default

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= What is a Suggestion? =

A Suggestion is anything you want to encourage the reader to do once they have finished reading, commonly a link to other posts. A Suggestion file is a php file which afterRead core uses to generate a Suggestion.

= Do I need PHP or HTML knowledge to use afterRead? =

No, I have attempted to make afterRead extremely usable for anyone with limited knowledge or no knowledge of HTML and PHP. If there is a feature you’re confused about just tell me so that I can improve the documentation.

= I have an idea for a new Suggestion =

Perfect, the more Suggestions the better. If you get me an image of what you would like it to look like then I can see about coding it, I can’t promise I will be able to add it but I will certainly consider it.

= When using tag based Suggestions the links seem random =

This is quite confusing to see, but it’s actually logical. To illustrate this say we have a post, this post was made on the 20th and has a ‘cooking’ tag. Say there is then another post made on the 18th that had the ‘cooking’ tag and a ‘book’ tag, this will cause the 20th’s post to link to the 18th’s, now pretend that there was a post made on the 19th that only had the book tag, this will cause the 18th’s post to link to the 19th’s post and not the post made on the 20th.

= When using category based Suggestions the links seem random =

The same thing can happen for categories as happens with tags in the above question, it is less common because it is rather rare to add a post in two categories.

== Screenshots ==

1. Dynamic style 1 in a number of different styles displaying the Suggestion’s versatility

2. The backend as of 0.7.1.

3GB Enabler 1.2

Warll — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 01:41:54 +0000

Three years ago the Sid Meier’s Railroads community over at Hooked on Railroads found that the 3GB enabler fixed crashing to desktop for Sid Meier’s Railroads. Apparently we were not alone and a number of games from that era, ~2006, suffered and so far I have seen versions of the 3GB enabler edited for Supreme commander, Stalker, Battlefield 2142 and Oblivion. Recently I edited the 3Gb enabler to work with Sid Meier’s Railroads, before this Sid Meier’s Railroads players had to do weird things like renaming the “.exe”

No more! Now any the 3GB Enabler will work with any program. In fact it is not even limited to “.exe”s. With that said I have no clue what will happen if you edit a none exe. Read on for the readme and the download.

README:

Later Edited by Warll.Dressler to add arbitrary program selection, changed many minor portions of text to clarify and improve readibility
Editted by Chimera for Oblivian
Originally by unknown source for S.T.A.L.K.E.R CTD issues.

****** VERY IMPORTANT: IF YOU ARE USING AN x64 OPERATING SYSTEM:
****** SKIP THE “DIRECTIONS” SECTION.

Introduction:

This is for intermediate to advanced Windows users.
Follow the instructions carefully…the risk is minimal, as long as you backup a copy of your original executable, aka “program” aka file ending in “.exe”.

This will enable an executable, aka “program” aka file ending in .exe, to use over 2GB of memory in the application space.
It uses conventional tools using a batch file so everyone can see nothing suspicious goes on.
This tool will automatically set the header in said .exe so that it can address more than 2GB memory.
Normally XP will only address up to 2GB memory for applications and 2Gb for the kernel.
If we add a boot.ini switch /3GB, then XP is allowed to address up to 3GB for applications.
But unfortunately only applications that are enabled with “IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE” header can utilize more than 2GB of the space.

I highly recommend you look at some official information here at microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/PAE/PAEmem.mspx

______________________________________________

Directions:

First you need to tell XP/Vista that it can use more than 2GB of RAM for applications.
Manually edit your boot.ini file by adding ” /3GB /Userva=2900″ to your boot.ini (no quotes).
Your boot.ini is normally read only and you will need to change that temporarily while you edit it.
To do this, right-click the file and untick “Read Only”. After editing the file, restore the Read-only status.
To Edit it manually you can find it on the root of your system drive or
go to system properties/advanced tab, settings under ’startup and recovery’ section, then hit edit.

Mine looks like: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Windows XP Professional” /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /3GB /Userva=2900

Yours maybe different, the only thing you should change is add ” /3GB /Userva=2900″.

______________________________________________

Instructions for using the 3GB Enabler tool:

*** Important: First make a backup of the original “.exe”. there are any number of ways to do this, the simpliest is to make a copy of the “.exe” and store said copy some place safe or to keep a copy in the same folder under a diferent name. ***
*** Without a backup of the original “.exe” you might have troubles updating the program in the future due to copy protection schemes ***

The tool will add the “LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE” header for you to your executable.
Make sure a copy of the program is located in the same folder that the batch file is going to be ran from.
Doubleclick startme.bat then the menu walks you through.
1) Type the full name of the program including the “.exe” portion
2) Press Enter
3) Hit the A key to add the large address header.
4) Press any key to continue.
5) When back at main menu hit ‘V’ to output the headers in text so you can see the values.
6) Now you can check to see if it is enabled. Scroll to the top and look for section “FILE HEADER VALUES”. Look for a line in that section that says “Application can handle large (>2GB) addresses”. It’s the tenth line down in that section. If you see that line then the executable is now enabled for >2GB, you are done.
7) Copy the enabled “.exe” back to the correct folder.
8) To avoid any strange issues with future patches, I suggest you rename your 3GB capable “.exe” to something else like “Fubar3GB.exe”, then make a shortcut to it on your desktop. In the meanwhile, keep the original where it belongs and you will avoid any possible patching or online issues.

At anytime if you want to remove the large address header then you can restore you original backed up exe or use the app and use the Remove function and it will remove the header. Once you run (R) to remove the header you have the original exe back, the MD5 hashes will match.

No strange side effects have been witnessed, but gladly I can play some big games now.

DOWNLOAD:

3GB_Enabler_1.2.zip

The dark cloud of not knowing

Warll — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:21:09 +0000

Man it has been a while since I felt like this, when you don’t really know what you are doing, following tutorials word for word yet it is just not working. I think I am just about over it for now but it has put me in a reflective mood, in the past I would have struggled and given up. And maybe later coming back and getting it right. Lately though I seem to be struggling and then achieving, maybe I am just trying harder, or my skill set has reached a special level where it is semi-transferable. I must say though, programing, or at least flash programing, is very rewarding, one can see playable progress at nearly every stage.

Changing Language Windows XP/Vista and Linux

Warll — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:45:05 +0000

Using an OS in Japanese is a very big part of creating an all encompassing environment, even more so if you spend most of your day on the computer in which case the transition is vital. Typically I would expect that you will have memorized how to do the things you commonly do. You should know by heart how to launch Firefox or whatever web browser you use without reading the icon’s label. There will be more complex things that do require your attention. For these it helps to be able to switch between English and Japanese, for instance while I may be able to expand a partition by memory that’s not necessary something I would want the average user to do by feel. Actually changing the language for many will be an obstacle even though the process itself is trivial.

Changing OS language – Linux

If you are a user of Linux then lady luck is on your side, provided there is an actual Japanese version of your distro, you will be able to get away without reinstalling in most cases. For instance Ubuntu user’s can follow these instructions to changing the primary language. You are on your own as to finding solutions for other distros.

Changing OS language – Windows

Microsoft loves segmenting the market as such changing languages on Windows is a lot more obstacle prone.

For Windows XP it is possible to change language but only if you have access to a Windows XP MUI(Multilingual User Interface). The problem you run into is that Microsoft only sells the MUI packs to OEM, companies such as HP, Dell and Gateway who build and sell computers. Chances that your computer maker bought a Japanese MUI and then bothered to bundle it with your English computer is so slim any reasonable person would round the odd down to zero. This leaves you with really only three options, buy a Japanese copy of Windows XP, commit civil violation of Microsoft’s copyright, or a third option I will cover later in this article.

Windows Vista changes this for the better, translations are not only much easier to come by but are also are more complete. If you are one of the few people who shelled out for Windows Vista Ultimate or Windows Vista Business then your in luck, MUI packs can be gotten directly from Microsoft and switching between English and Japanese is a piece of cake. To switch languages on Windows Vista Ultimate or Windows Vista Business all you have to do is go to Windows Update and select Japanese, boom your done. Don’t have Windows Vista Ultimate or Windows Vista Business? Luckily there is a hack to get MUIs for other Windows Vista versions such as Home Premium, this article walks you through it. Prefer not to resort to a hack or violating copyright laws? Well in that case this should help you:

The Third Option

One of the most likely users of Linux are students, especially geeky students. Microsoft knows this and has not let this fact go unchecked. Microsoft’s Dreamspark program gives away copies of many otherwise expensive Microsoft program for free to anyone with a International Student ID card. One of these programs is Windows Server 2008, Server 2008 is much like Vista and is able to use drivers made for Vista as well as working with any Vista compatible program. This option is not without its downsides not least of which is that many programmers use checks in program installers and will refuse to install on an “unsupported” OS, it will also require a reinstalltion of your OS. I suggest that if you do plan to go this route that you do so first in a dual booting environment so that if it does turn out that one of your programs does not like Windows Server 2008 then you can always go back. For more information on Using Windows Server 2008 as a desktop operating system see this very helpful website .

Server rebuild

Warll — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:58:34 +0000

Ok so the parts arrived finally. While I love Newegg’s competitive prices the shipping factor usually dampens my enthusiasm, not only is shipping a bit more expensive but it is also slower since everything comes from the states even when ordering from the Canadian site.

The new parts:

Only the motherboard and the Trendnet switch were bought from Newegg, the rest I had already bought from NCIX.

The gigabit switch (TEG-S50G) combined with the gigabit integrated NICs in the server’s new motherboard and desktop will finally give me a gigabit connection. I have also used the switch to segregate the three hubs on the network, although this is not a big deal since the vast majority of traffic is between the desktop and server. I do hope to change this and setup a backup system for the house’s laptops as well.

While I have no clue as to the electrical merits of this power supply, a Antec Earthwatts 500W, it is from a brand name I trust and what reviews I read gave it great praise. One thing I do know is that it has a ton of connectors, I can only wish I had as many SATA drives as this thing has SATA power cables. Its also a 80+ rated power supply which is nice since this server is on twenty four seven.

The mother board is a ECS A740GM-M, I choose this one because it was the cheapest shipped with a gigabit nic and has plenty of SATA ports. One down side is that I had to go down to two gigabytes of RAM since it only had two DIMM sockets. This hopefully will not be an issue since the server never went over 1.4 gigabytes before.

The disasembly:

Before shot:

Half way shot:

Before wiring:

Completed:

Over all everything was really uneventful. The only program I ran into was that the motherboard maker, ECS Elitegroup, in an attept to make the motherboard as multilingual as possible did not mark the power on, restart and LED plugs on the board itself. Instead they provided a large cheat sheet in Korean, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and a few others including English if you can find it. All this and they still only call the plugs by their abbreviated English names like “PWR” plus a translated introduction to what it actually is. Basically why they did not simply print it on the motherboard is beyond me.

Trouble shooting:

Now onto the fun part, its not as if something would ever work just the way you want it to right out of the box eh? This time though the configuration issues were minor which may just be that I’m getting better at this. I opted to reuse the Windows installation from before the rebuild since even though I have read posts otherwise I have never had an issuse running windows with changed hardware. Once I booted the computer up Windows started searching for drivers. It found what it needed for everything except the integrated Ethernet. Luckily for me I had installed the wireless drivers for my wireless dongle a while ago. So I check the NIC’s id from the device manager and feed it to google. The first search result was some find-all-drivers program, with a free trial, I skiped that. Next result had the drivers with a direct download link. I grabed that and tried to install it, the installer ran but nothing came up. I moved on but then I notice something, there were two Windows security icons. I already knew that this was a tactic of scareware, my suspicion is confirmed soon when one of the icons informs me that I have been infected with a “virus” no less. First thing I did was of course pull out the wireless dongle, without internet access I have plenty of time. Next I killed the proces, a 123643.exe, seriously why would someone use such a unique name, no other process ever uses a random string of numbers. Then I go into msconfig and untick the autostartup, I also take a look in program files but in this case the programmer was not as obvious. I then rebooted the system. All that is left now besides some never to be executed binaries is the server’s new desktop wall paper. It looks kind of cool I must say although I will never see it since I always RDP into the headless server with wallpapers turned off: After that I got back to looking for the driver and fianlly found it on ECS’s website. For some reason only the audio drivers and new bios show up when you search the downloads section for this motherboard, you have to go to the motherboard’s product page to find the other drivers. All this and later I find that there was a driver CD hidden inside the manual.

The next problem to fix is the fans. For some reason the case fan and the cpu fan which both plug directly into the motherboard are always on high. Turns out even though the BIOs lists fan settings none of them do anything, the fans always get max voltage. I also tried speedfan, while the fans may have been loud they were doing a great job, the cpu was running at 29 Celsius. Although I do suspect the motherboards heat sensors to be a little, off, temp sensor three was apparently at negative one hundred and thirty two. My solution to this annoying bug was to replace the heatsinks fan with a larger one that would run much quieter at the same voltage and to unplug the case fan.

Now all that is left is to hook up the TV Tuner but I’ll leave that. So here is the finished product my “server” room in all its techy glory:

Useful program for Windows Vista #1

Warll — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:29:53 +0000

Make Windows transparent for free with Glass2K.

So why would you want to make windows transparent, well put simply productivity. It works expecally well when viewing an image, be that photos or video, since the colours are less likely to blend with what you are doing on top. With text it becomes a little harder although it is trivial to decrease the transparency which allows you to easily to which peice of text is on top. Surprisingly this program is actually compatible with Windows Vista even though it was programmed for Windows 2000 and Windows XP . Performance wise it runs well although this is to be expected since it was written with much weaker computers in find vesus what we have today. In fact it stays at around three percent of my AMD 940 and uses 1.6MB of RAM. All together the productivity gains are comparable to getting a second monitor, if not a bit nicer since everything is kept in one field of view and Glass2K is free to boot!

chime.tv/products/glass2k