Archive for category Software and Development
April news
Posted by Boris in Software and Development on April 4, 2009
Exactly what I would like to do every time I see such a parked car…
From xkcd 
Edit: As I write a post today, I also post a direct link to latest Nvidia drivers for Geforce 6, 7 ,8 ,9 and 200 series for windows XP 32 bit; since the download button doesn’t seems to appear on firefox. Note that downloading this file makes you accept the NVIDIA Software License Agreement.
Actionscript 3 stage origin.
Posted by Boris in Software and Development on September 27, 2008
Hi there, it’s been a while.
So, what’s about AS3 stage origin? Well, I tried to use the stage with this.stage.scaleMode = flash.display.StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE; associated with this.stage.stageWidth; and this.stage.stageHeight; to work with a non-scaled, just-in-time dimensioned stage; but I had a nasty problem: when I used this.stage.stageWidth; and this.stage.stageHeight; to get the stage dimentions, and set them to my objects (movieclips, sprites, layouts, etc.), with X = 0 and Y = 0 coordinates; they were stuck at some given coordinates, but not in the top left of the browser viewport.
Actually, the 800×600 stage was centered. It’s quite simple, you just have to set this.stage.align = flash.display.StageAlign.TOP + flash.display.StageAlign.LEFT; but if you don’t know that; you could waste a lot of time wondering why the stage origin is not in the top left.
Google Chrome
Posted by Boris in Software and Development on September 5, 2008
Yeah, It was obvious that sooner or later, I’d come to speak about the attempt from Google to do a browser. Actually, I just tried Chrome. And after a short time of use, I know that this browser is not yet for me: ok it’s fast. But, it has too many lacks. Even if it could be skinned easily by replacing a dll file, it doesn’t support extensions, and has many missing features. I found a related google project, but the code is hosted there. If you want to compile it yourself, here are instructions.
Finally there are two bills on the subject, one by Lennart Regebro, and the other from “the independent”.
Note: for those who want to change the theme, just rename the file default.dll. I saw a theme changer on a forum, but it seems to be done in vb6, so you’d better get away from it if you don’t want to screw your Chrome up.
LaTeX
Posted by Boris in Software and Development on August 5, 2008
… Well, no. That’s not exactly what you are thinking of. Except if you are a nerd. I won’t talk about S&M stuff here. Not in this blog, and even less right now. is an awesome programming language, designed for document creation. Actually, that’s not a “real” programming language, I mean, not like C or Python. A document is composed by two distinct parts, each one merged with the other. On the first hand, you have text. Text you want to type, the real content of the document. On the second hand, there are “structural” parts, which allows to describe the document and its content, to specify font, font-size, etc. But these structural parts are not just about “global” structure, it also exists for local usage, like when you want to Italicize some given text. So, you are able to perfectly control what you do with text. But because of this feature, it’s not natively WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). And if I have to choose between perfect control and WYSIWYG, my choice is already done: I keep the control. Nothing’s more annoying than a document which “do what it wants”. People who have experienced problems with (especially old versions of) Microsoft Word would see what I mean. 
Anyway, the syntax of this language is very well done, it allows complex evolutions: a consistent amount of other document-conception-oriented languages are derived from . But speaking of is a language abuse, because the real stuff behind it is 
. is a language more “primitive” than + (mostly called ). In fact, is more like a layer upon . The compiler is using specification, and just allows a more intuitive approach of it.
Finally, I would recommend / to those who want to have a reusable, precise, way to create and maintain clean documents. But if you just want to redact some crappy documents and if you don’t care about paying software a huge price (or if you are a student ), just buy Word 2007, it’s great, as long as you don’t compare it with .
Shredder – Mozilla Thunderbird 3
Posted by Boris in Software and Development on July 13, 2008
Hi there.
Early this morning, I found mistakes on a french website. No ones cares (even those who did it, maybe), but it was the reason why I decided to get Thunderbird 3 Alpha. Actually, the french dictionary was only available for Thunderbird 3, and I needed it to correct those mistakes, since I have a Qwerty keyboard, and since I’m too lazy to use an International Qwerty Layout. Maybe I’ll get a Dvorak Us Keyboard soon, but it’s not currently the matter.
So, I installed Thunderbird 3 Alpha pre. I didn’t notice any differences with the 2.0 at the first look, excepted about addons. Indeed, not any did work, but adblock plus. Great thing, but I needed at least the “MinimizeToSystray” addon, in order to let Thunderbird to check my mails regularly. And the MinimizeToSystray addon, on the mozilla addons repository, was available for Thuderbird 2 and previous versions only. So, I tried to find how to tell to Thunderbird 3 to accept it. It’s in install.rdf in the xpi archive. The only thing you have to do is to seek for <em:targetApplication> <!-- Mozilla Thunderbird --> and then replace the <em:maxVersion>2</em:maxVersion> in the <Description> section by <em:maxVersion>3.0a2pre</em:maxVersion>. So the package is there, and it works almost perfectly for me (where “almost” means “since you don’t try to run the old Thunderbird”).
Update : I found a bug in the minimize to tray plugin: when you call thunderbird, it’s started twice, and you have to close one instance.
Update #2 : The new version is out, so I updated the xpi in order to get things working.
Update #3 : As requested by Jimmy (see comments), here is the FF3 minimize to tray plugin.
Update #4: As of today, a new version of TB is released, the new unofficial minimize to tray plugin has been, as well.
Update #5: Minimize to tray for Shredder 3.0b3pre.
Final Update: Since I now use a linux distribution, I won’t upload (nor modify) any version of this plugin here.
Vista. Round trip.
Posted by Boris in Software and Development on May 22, 2008
The less I could do by buying (and using) Vista Professional was to write a post on it. That’s what I intend to do now. Vista is amazing, hem, great, …, functional. No, I’m nor jokin’ neither sarcastic. It really is functional. But, that’s probably all the good I would write on it. And before to go any further, I’ll explain what I mean.
By “functional”, I mean “It can run, with no problems.” Seriously. It can. But, not on all cases. It will run with no problems if you ignore incomplete boots (always followed by a reboot to solve them, sometimes twice). Although these “turn it off and on again” problems, you’d prefer not to install any third party driver. I assure, you’d prefer. Especially these kind of sound card drivers. No, you probably won’t get a BSOD. But you won’t be able to boot, I mean, to reach login step, since they ‘ll be removed.
But, this OS is beautiful. And, on a E6750 Intel Proc, with 4GB ram and a Leadtek 8800 GTX inside, and all this stuff on an Asus Striker Motherboard, it is fairly smooth. And, It can run Dx10 native, since its release, and without any others problems than Vista ones (Heh, anyway, I’m not totally sure about this).
If you ask me why I’m still running’ it, I’ll probably answer “I wonder. But it’s a bit addictive. And beautiful too. And runs all the softs I need. Excepted Digital Audio Software. That’s why I still have XP.” And, also, it is not very great saving system resources. That’s why I’ll manage to boot if from HD though VmWare by a Linux (Archlinux as example), to start it only when I want to play (actually, not. Just because visualization won’t support graphical acceleration, it’s useless). But I’m not sure I’ll proceed exactly like that, I’m still thinkin’ about all that stuff. For now, anyway, I’ll focus on programming, no matter which OS I have.
Now, I come to the “Round trip” mention in the post’s title. The reason why it’s here, is because SP1 for Vista was released. At last. ’cause all I wrote
So, if you are considering buying a computer, I’ll say to you: “Wait another one SP for Vista, or maybe two of them, before doing such a regrettable thing”. It’s for the moment a lot too expensive for what it is.
Firefox 3 RC1 is out.
Posted by Boris in Software and Development on May 22, 2008
Yeah, I know. It’s not a news. But I mention it if you had skipped it. It’s almost like the beta 5, and it’s still that good =]
Firefox 3 Beta (?) 5
Posted by Boris in Software and Development on May 1, 2008
After a short while spent (wasted?) to configure this blog, to correct the mistakes left in the template by Kapikua, and to add some other mistakes by myself; I found the time to start an article on Firefox 3 Beta 5. Why? Because I think this soft is awesome. Yes, ok, it is a beta. But, this beta is more stable than Firefox 2. And, that’s not all. It’s very prettier, faster (they fix a lot of memory leaks), more ergonomic, has an awesome zooming functionality… in severe ways: Ff 3 beta 5 is better. So, we could just ask ourselves why is it still called a “beta”.
The only answer I found is: “The gold release will completly overwhelm I.E. and other browsers”. This might be The browser we are waitin’ for.
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