StumbleUpon | Age-zero's blog posts http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/ Age-zero's recent blog posts on StumbleUpon en-us Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:43:17 -0800 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:50:57 -0700 StumbleUpon | Age-zero's blog posts http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/ http://cdn.stumble-upon.com/images/logo_su_36x36.png Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:37:09 -0700 <![CDATA[http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/34769516/]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/34769516/ http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/34769516/ Some Unknown Roman Guy?

OR

Open-Source Goodness



While working on another quest that shall remain unmentioned until some progress is made, I discovered a very useful resource: gitorious. Gitorious was intended to replace a type of SVN quickly. As such, it has many of the same features as SVN except that it's more intuitive and user-friendly depending on the client that you use.

Having that said, the most easy and user-friendly client is Git Extensions. It contains everything you need to use git and more: the git core and a merge tool all combined in a GUI that's all encompassing and user-friendly.If, however, you prefer something more minimal, you can just install the git core, msysgit. It includes a GUI and a toolkit for patches, but it is mostly invoked through a command-line bash that was designed for the application.

So, what could I want with subversioning software? Well, gitorious is also a free host for open-source software. And now, the purpose is revealed: Dark Rainmeter Mod and Dark Rainmeter Dock have a new home on gitorious found here. On gitorious, you can either make your own personal clone on your computer via git, or you can download a tarball (.tar.gz) of the entire project. Should you go the tarball route, you'll find 7-zip a great, flexible tool. Best of all, because of gitorious, you can get the latest, bleeding edge versions of the dock and mod before I even compile them together for a full release.

Now, go ahead and enjoy the wonders of open-source -- I know I do.

]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/34769516/ Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:32:50 -0700 <![CDATA[http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/34769399/]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/34769399/ http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/34769399/ The Darkness Keeps Getting Darker

OR

Is it Just me or is it Cold in Here?



Since I couldn't sleep for reasons blogged about earlier, I spent the rest of the day using my new-found button-making knowledge to finally update the Dark Rainmeter Dock. Admittedly, the first version was very basic, cumbersome, and not too easy to manage (which explains why there was 1 download all of this time). Now, however, every single icon that I made has been consolidated into one, easy to manage dock widget.

Included in the release are all the new images I made for the buttons and the dock itself as well as the .psd's of those images so that you can customize your own. Also included are the custom .lnk files so that you can customize what each button press does.

The Dark Rainmeter Dock 20090715 is exclusively available at the eMule ContentDB (unless I get a webspace/server donation). There, you can find a changelog excerpt and a screenshot.
Enjoy the fruit of my sleepless toils.

]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/34769399/ Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:29:23 -0700 <![CDATA[http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/34769306/]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/34769306/ http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/34769306/ The Darkness Continues

OR

The Cool Just got Cooler



After a long and sleepless night, the latest update of the Dark Rainmeter Mod is ready. Okay, so, here's what's been going on. Rainmeter has made a deal with AccuWeather to use their API (more info here). For those who feel uncaring and decide to not conform to the new features available (mainly for advertising on both parts) you're in trouble. As it happens, Weather.com (where the original LocalWeather.ini got it's weather data) changed their XML policies, and, apparently, require you to register in order for LocalWeather.ini to work. Considering the sudden bandwidth drop, i don't blame them.

To sum, it is basically recommended that developers use the AccuWeather API to not only prevent litigation due to bandwidth theft, but also to promote advertising for Rainmeter. As a result, developers are urged to conform to the conditions set by AccuWeather to use their API. A learning experience, let me tell you. Nevertheless, i am proud to announce the latest releast of the Dark Rainmeter Mod. Within is the latest weather widget using the AccuWeather API. Additionally, it conforms to AccuWeather's conditions so that this privilege is not taken away from the Rainmeter community.

Dark Rainmeter Mod Version 20090714 is exclusively available on the eMule ContentDB. There you can find a changelog excerpt as well as a screenshot.

Enjoy.

]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/34769306/ Sat, 09 May 2009 16:55:20 -0700 <![CDATA[http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/32689872/]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/32689872/ http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/32689872/ The Beginning of Darkness

OR

A Cool Looking Widget

There is a skin for Rainmeter called Dark Rainmeter. In it, the author included the images to create a Dock of Icons that can perform customized tasks. However, the author neither provided code that could as a dock nor instructions on how to do so. So, my quest was to do just that. Using the Photoshop files that were included in the original download, i created lighter versions of a few icon images for darker desktops. Finally, i used the aforementioned images and added some custom Rainmeter .ini files to create a series of icons that do tasks i want them to. Due to the varying desktop sizes, you will have to manually position the icons to form your dock. However, Rainmeter will remember those positions, so it's a one-time-only task.

For those of you without the awesome-possumness of Photoshop, there's always GIMP Portable. It has many of the same abilities of Photoshop but with a few discrepancies. Afterall, if it were exactly the same, that'd be copyright infringement.

The Dark Rainmeter Dock is exclusively available here. Soon, it will be available via eMule (or one of its mods) and the eMule Content Database.

EDIT:Dark Rainmeter Dock is now available at the contentDB here

]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/32689872/ Sat, 09 May 2009 16:52:52 -0700 <![CDATA[http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/32689827/]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/32689827/ http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/32689827/ Rainmeter

OR

What Sounds Wet but Goes With Computers?

Rainmeter is an interesting little program that primarily acts as a resource meter that can display different data in different formats. Since it supports third-party plug-ins, it can measure many different things. However, when you strip away its intended purpose, rainmeter is basically a frontend to create and display widgets with custom data. It is for this reason that rainmeter is actually a multi-purpose tool, as I will later show.

My work with rainmeter is mostly to enhance a theme for rainmeter called Dark Rainmeter. Actually, i've posted my modifications in the rainmeter wiki under the examples. There you can find a description of the modifications, the modifications themselves, and how to apply those modifications. Alternatively, you can download the entire Dark Rainmeter skin with mods from my here. In fact, the previous link contains the most up-to-date mods.

My current quest with rainmeter is expanding the use of rainmeter to include a dock of icons that executes programs. For example, opening gmail in firefox by clicking on an icon. Since the dock buttons are custom images compounded with custom rainmeter code, the work is lengthy and will be difficult to provide to others without the use of a file archiver.

]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/32689827/ Sun, 07 Dec 2008 22:30:18 -0800 <![CDATA[http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/28211791/]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/28211791/ http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/28211791/ Toils
or
The Web Design Rant Part III


So, out of sheer boredom, i've been doing such things as making RSS feeds from scratch. It's not too bad, actually, but with the semester coming to an end, there's far too much time to be had.

Hmm, in either case, i have found a good amount of resources.

The most notable of which has, of course, been W3C.

i mean, these are the guys that develop the DTDs that determine how things are properly written on the web. "Go to the root," and all that good stuff, ya?

First, why bother learning DTDs and getting "verified?" Well, they have a site that gets into detail about why one should do it. Basically, it's to show that your site has a good chance of being compatible with every browser out there. It turns out, browsers have a lot of correction code to fix mistakes, and that's why... Well, just read the info on the site for more info.

Anywho, i've picked up on the proper way to do just about every web designing language there is:

  • XHTML
    • They say that XHTML is going to be the future of web design. They're mainly pushing this mark-up language because it's strictness allows for compatibility to all browsers; even those on cell phones.
  • CSS
    • CSS is the replacement to in-line styles. This way, you can set how each tag/element of your site will look without having to customize each one individually. Furthermore, making the CSS a separate file can reduce the size and load-time of your sites greatly. CSS is also great for making custom templates for websites.
  • RSS
    • RSS is a great way to get at the guts of a site and bypass all extraneous info. As a developer, it can make your site more accessible to those people who think that actually going to sites individually is too much work. They have links to feed generators, but the best way is to make your own. If you have the will, that is.
  • Javascript
    • Javascript is just the unsung hero of the web developing world. It lets you customize your content and gives you a way to interact with viewers. Also, you'll find it's strikingly similar to C, go figure. While it can often be annoying, see what you have to say about it when you make your own e-cookie.


So, that's pretty much it for now. Now, program on, you developers of the future, and now, you have no excuse for not programming well.


Til next time,

age

]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/28211791/ Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:11:17 -0700 <![CDATA[http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/24612132/]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/24612132/ http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/24612132/ The Web-Design Rant (editors)


As i fortold in many of my reviews, i have finally begun my web-design binge. Still waiting for my webspace to become active, but that's another rant.

As implied in the title, this rant will be about my quest for a good editor. It's wrought with sorrow and torment, but it shall first begin with a list of what i tried out:

  • Firebug
    • is an extension for Firefox that lets you edit webpages in real-time. Normally, this ability would make one die in awe, but as of Firebug 1.20b13, it does not save the changes you make. That is, you'll have to do a cut-and-paste job into another editor. Another interesting little thing about firebug is that it also includes CSS into the header of any page you edit, making it a tad more larger.
    Nevertheless, firebug is convenient and does mark-up highlighting. It truly has a lot of potential, if you can tolerate it.
  • Web Developer
    • is another firefox extension that adds a toolbar. This extension has many of the same features as firebug (such as highlighting what ever you are working on in the webpage and real-time editing) just available in a different way, and can save your changes. It also has the great ability to sometimes obliterate the page your working on (don't try saving after this happens) and thus losing all your changes (as of Web Developer 1.1.6).
  • FireFTP
    • is yet another extension for firefox that allows you to use FTP to update your webpage. As i have not been able to use this extension, i cannot say how well it works, but it goes well with the concept of keeping web-design within firefox.
  • KompoZer Portable
    • is a portableapp that is supposed to be "an unofficial bug fix of Nvu." It works well enough, but is rather glitchy, in my opinion (such as suddenly killing itself and making me have to re-open it and lose my changes), as of KompoZer Portable 0.7.10 Rev 2.
  • Notepad++ Portable
    • is also a portableapp and is just too awesome-possum for words, per usual. It has the normal features like mark-up highlighting and some shortcuts, but it also has it's own FTP plugin! While i've not yet had the chance to use it, it seems like it will work and look forward to pwn'ing the web-design world.

Not on the illustrious ul are things like Frontpage 2002 (default on my computer) which is outdated and not available on every computer i'm on. One notable mention is, of course Dreamweaver. I've used it before and like it to the point of illegality. Alas, i cannot really afford it, but if i were willing and able to spend the moo-ney on it, i would.

At one point, i was using firebug to edit and Web Developer to save, up until the latter killed my webpage and had me remake it. Currently, i'm sticking with Notepad ++. If anyone has an open-source, portable editor that they like, do let me know, info is appreciated.

So, thanks goes to you, the reader, for bothering to read this far. Again, it's for youse guys. And, tune in next week for yet another exciting rant!


Til next time,

age

]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/24612132/ Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:44:18 -0700 <![CDATA[http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/24460448/]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/24460448/ http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/24460448/ The Portableapps Rant continued


Welcome back to the second part of the gripping series The Portableapps Rant. This is your host, age, and we're about to get this show back on the road. But first, i'd like to thank those who stuck around to see more about what portableapps i bother to use. Really, it's for youse guys. "Now, let's get it on!":

  • 7-Zip Portable
    • is a God-send for many, i'm sure. This file archiver can not only handle winzip and linux formats, but it also has it's own format. C'mon, let's stop trying to remember which side the "Evaluation Version" button is going to show up.
  • Toucan
    • is not a bird, nor a plane, but a data synchronizer. Last i used it, it didn't have as many features as i wanted, but now that you can even make a batch file to make things a little easier, it's almost tempting to look into it again.
  • VLC Media Player
    • is a fairly mainstream open-source media player that gets the job done. Granted, i don't often run into a computer that didn't have Windows Media Player or a situation in which i needed to view a format that wasn't supported by WMP, but VLC did the trick the one time i did. Eh, given the choice, i'd probably just install Winamp onto my USB drive. It's relatively small and it worked last i did it, so, why not?
  • PuTTY Portable
    • Okay, so, this one time in VLSI camp, we were laying out ICs with Magic on Linux and to get copies of our files (since we didn't have permissions to mount a removable device nor had access to the Internet) we would telnet from a windows computer using Command Prompt. This portable program gave me a false sense of security (not to say that it didn't work, because it did).
  • ClamWin Portable
    • is, as the website says "antivirus to go." The definitions get updated daily and automatically (only when you open the program) and it works as well as any other virus scanner except for the fact that it does NOT actively scan. Aside from that, expect to wait the usual 90 minutes for a scan of all devices.


Thus concludes The Portableapps Rant and i hope it further solidified your belief in the awesome-possumness of Portableapps.

Tune in next week (where "week" >= "month") for another exciting rant!


Til next time,

age

]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/24460448/ Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:02:54 -0700 <![CDATA[http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/24459815/]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/24459815/ http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/24459815/ The Portableapps Rant


Learning from mistakes passed, i've decided to begin a Portableapps rant of favorite portableapps by doing a blog post so that i'm not accused of being affiliated with them.
And so, it begins:

  • Sumatra PDF Portable
    • is a PDF viewer just in case there is no Adobe nearby. Granted, it's not as fully featured as Adobe, but believe me, "it's getting better all the time."
  • AbiWord Portable
    • Is a relatively small word processor that is worth the effort because it can save in Word format. Granted, it's not always going to save as a Word doc exactly how you want it to, but it saves close enough to make it a good alternative.
  • OpenOffice.org Portable
    • is for those who shake their fist at Microsoft Office and have tons of space to spare. This is a full office suite that, among other features, allows you to save in the format of its counterpart. Again, not a perfect save in Microsoft's formats, but it's the thought that counts.
  • Notepad++ Portable
    • i've hinted at the non-portable version throughout my reviews, but this is the one that i use most often. I could spend a long time babbling about how awesome-possum the features are, but the long and short of it is that it's how notepad should be.
  • Nvu Portable
    • is very similar to Adobe's Dreamweaver. Most would be fine using Notepad++ for web page design, but for those that want much more, this one's for you.
  • GIMP Portable
    • is for those who like image editing with photoshop but cannot afford it. I've seen some insane things done with it and it's proven useful even if only to convert postscript to pdf.
  • Firefox Portable
    • it's Firefox and it's portable. "'Nuf said."
  • Miranda IM Portable
    • is for those fans of Miranda IM who wish there were a way to take it with you everywhere. Main pro being that it is extremely small, albeit a bit glitchy.
  • Pidgin Portable
    • is more stable than Miranda IM, but also much larger. It acts just like it's non-portable counterpart, but is designed to work off of a portable device.
  • Command Prompt Portable
    • is a command prompt that you can take with you (provided you take it to a Windows computer), at least for those who actually still use command prompt.
  • Eraser Portable
    • securely erases files by overwriting them as many times as you choose.


Since i worry that this may soon be the posting limit (thank you, Notepad++ for keeping track), it seems this ul is

To be continued...

]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/24459815/ Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:41:40 -0700 <![CDATA[http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/23671228/]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/23671228/ http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/23671228/ The Miranda Rant
OR
The Limit of Reviewing


Wow, i actually reached the limit for reviewing Miranda's addons. Apparently, StumbleUpon suspects that i'm advertising for Miranda. While i am flattered that they think i'm affiliated with such an awesome-possum program, really, i'm just listing all the plugins i use. So, after spending about an hour prepping many more undiscovered Stumbles only to find that they didn't post, i'll just provide a commentary of the remainder.


  • Popup Plus 2.1.0.5
    • is an addon that displays popup notifications for many other addons. Combine with Butterfly PopUp 0.03 to have functional, good looking popups.
  • SecureIM
    • is a plugin that allows you to use various encryption levels for all of your protocols. There are some extra plugins that are required, but the links to those are available on the page.
    NOTE: that both users need to have SecureIM in order for it to work properly.
  • Recent Contacts 0.0.0.3
    • is a plugin that shows a list of your contacts in order of the most recent one you talked to. Again, i mainly got this one because it was compatible with RedDevil 1.0, but at least my Miranda skin is now fully functional.



As far as i can recall, those are all the ones that were missed. If i find anymore, now i know to do a blog post. As for hurricane Dolly (who's going to slam nearby), alls i can say is "Dolly, Dolly, Dolly get your adverbs here." (See here for an elaboration).


Til next time,

age

]]> http://Age-zero.stumbleupon.com/review/23671228/