Blog
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Updates, hypnosis and books 🙂
Okay i have been too busy lately with everything to write anything of value here. However as always i struggle to change that… no i am changing that 🙂
Today my two new books arrived, making my backlog of books to read just a little bigger. Both are written by Dan Millman, whom i have come to love the writings/teachings of 🙂 Sacred Journey
of the Peaceful Warrior and No Ordinary Moments.In my own journeys i have also come to discover the advantages of a little meditation and hypnosis. So i am deticating some time to studying some self hypnosis, and meditation techniques to help in a stressfull everyday life. So far i really like it, and i have included a link (to the right :p) to a danish Hypnotherapist called Jacob Strachotta whom provides some free relaxation mp3’s (in danish). Also plan to invest in a product or two from his store.
Other than that i can say i am juggleing a busy everyday life right now. Programming alot more though. In fact me and a friend launched Team Bistromath (taken from a random word in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy). We are right now only making small applications that we use ourselves but in the near future (propably weekend) we will begin our first games/mods.
You can follow our progress and mad rambling about code, the sanity of the coders and wierd ideas and bugs here – Team Bistromath
Thats all for now since i have some assignments for class to complete before work. But i can say i will have more articles comming real son 🙂 Thanks for the patience 🙂
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Connery launches book at festival
Scottish acting legend Sir Sean Connery has celebrated his 78th birthday by launching his memoirs at a sell-out event in Edinburgh.
Sir Sean launched Being A Scot in front of a 300-strong crowd, which included First Minister Alex Salmond, at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
The actor backed calls by the SNP for a separate Scottish Olympic team.
He told the audience: “Scotland should always be a stand-alone nation at whatever, I believe.”
source: BBC News
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RIP Randy Pausch
I just got home from my trip when i read the sad news. Randy Pausch had died from his cancer. Nothing more to say really. It is a sad day indeed, but i hope that others will take from him his life lessons and be inspired by the way he lived.
Randy Pausch, the professor at Carnegie Mellon University who inspired countless students in the classroom and others worldwide through his highly acclaimed last lecture, has died of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 47.
source: Carnegie Mellon University
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My favorite Firefox Extensions
Here is a list of my currently installed, and most beloved, Firefox extensions. Not all of them are currently out-of-the-box compatible with Firefox 3.0 RC but using the Nightly Tester Tools i can override the compatiblity check, and install them anyway. To my knowledge all of the extensions are working perfectly with Firefox 3.
- Better Gcal
- Better Gmail
- CopyAllUrls
- Dictionaries (Danish and English)
- FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension)
- Foxmarks
- FoxyTunes
- Nightly Tester Tools
- PDF Download
Hope you can use some of them and let me know if you have trouble with the links, or getting them running.
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Restoring Dual Boot funtionality
Okay i had to format my windows partition on the laptop. No big deal.. just pop in the old windows disc, and do a fresh install (after proper backup of course :p) to the correct partition.
However i like to use my laptop for Ubuntu also, and thus have dual boot. But windows insists on having control over the whole MBR. Hmm so this install lost me my dual boot functionality. Technically all i lost was the GRUB install that allowed me to boot from Ubuntu’s partitions.
Normally i would do a complete reinstall of the whole machine, taking me about a whole day considering all the programs i use, and backups to restore. However i didnt feel like this grand gesture, and was pressed for time.
A quick search gave me the quick fix for restoring dual boot functionality thus saving me some time. So here is the solution to re-install GRUB after installing Windows or in some other messing up your MBR
- Boot into Ubuntu using the Live CD. I used Ubuntu 8.04 currently.
- Open a terminal. Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal
- In the terminal type the follwing steps:
- sudo grub
- This should result in a GRUB Prompt with grub>
- find /boot/grub/stage1
- Remember this information
- root (hd0,4)
- setup (hd0)
- And you are done!
The above is a simple rewrite of the instructions found on the official Ubuntu help.
After following the steps you restart and everything should be working normally again 😀
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Pledge to download Firefox 3.0
The people at Mozilla have started a pledge to get people to set the record for most downloads within 24 hours of the release of Firefox 3.0. Here is more from the site:
Set a Guinness World Record
Enjoy a Better WebSounds like a good deal, right? All you have to do is get Firefox 3 during Download Day to help set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours – it’s that easy. We’re not asking you to swallow a sword or to balance 30 spoons on your face, although that would be kind of awesome.
By the way, the official date for the launch of Firefox 3 will be posted here soon – so check back! Join our community and this effort by pledging today.
Firefox 3.0 promises to be faster, safer and smarter with over 14.000 improvements. Personally i am using the Beta of FF3.0 right now and i am loving it all the time. So of course i will be helping the downloads with 1 download 😀 Sign up now! 😀
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Cannon3 (XNA) done!
Version 1.1 of my Cannon3 game done entirely in XNA is now finished.
I quickly included a small scoring system that basically updates the score throughout the game, and after the player dies it keeps the score displayed until the next game starts.
For now the graphics are the default improved graphics from the course, as I want to focus on my development, coding, skills rather than spend time making graphics for now.
But I WILL be making Cannon3 with more features. I just need to learn more about XNA to actually do so. Had some trouble getting the text displayed properly and still need to figure out a way to display it on the right side without using “magic numbers” as the solution is right now.
without further delay ..I present … Cannon 3 !
Screenshots:
Version History:
- 1.1 – Game with scoring system
- 1.0 – Initial game
Downloads:
Requirements:
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XNA Xtreme 101 volume 2 arrives!
The good news today just wont end !
For the first time in a week or more I get home at an reasonable hour. Been working all hours of the day (missing out on my previous TV-show watching time) on our Bachelor Project at the university.
So I get home and we finally could take a day off before preparing to defend the paper next week. I am happy and decide to finish the XNA vol 1 videos and get my Cannon 3 ready for further expanding.
Just as I sit down and start the videos with a giddy smile the doorbell rings. Its a postman. Hmm what on earth could be be carrying for me ?! 😉XNA Xtreme 101 vol 2
So as soon as I am finished with my exams (2 weeks into June) I will be spending at least 1½ hours a day coding XNA and making games. I simply cannot wait! 😀
A big thanks to 3D Buzz for making these awesome tutorial videos!
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Cannon2 is done! XNA here I come!
Okay last night I finally finished the Cannon2 game. This time around the game is still coded in win forms, but emulating the way XNA supposedly works even more.
A few “bugs” compared to Cannon1 is that the window can be resized and maximized for now. I wont bother fixing this problem right away, as it is quite trivial to fix and would only waste time.
The scoring visual is intended to stay on screen after the game ends, to make the score visible from the previous game. It is quick and crude, but it works 😀
Version History:
- 1.1 – Game with scoring system
- 1.0 – Initial game
Downloads:
