PyOpenGL & py2exe

In the past when I'd tried creating a bundled executable with PyOpenGL & py2exe I had always failed. Recently however I was successful & after spending a few more days understanding the build process I was able to create an application that was just 2.3MB in size.

Click here to download the file.

ScribeFire for Google Chrome

Just discovered it on the Chrome Web Store here & I can highly recommend it if you've got a blog.

Chrome Web Store

The Chrome Web Store has just gone live & can be found here.

Amongst it's features are free Extensions & Themes for the Chrome browser & OS.

Some of the really good Extensions that I've noticed are a free 5GB of web space on Box.net here & the Picnik image editor here.

GameBoy Emulation in JavaScript

Imran Nazar has an interesting site here with a lot of useful articles.

Perhaps the most interesting is his work on a JavaScript GameBoy Emulator here.

Basic4GL Facebook Page

About a Month ago I created a group on Facebook for Basic4GL, which can be found here.

There's more information about the group here on the Basic4GL forum.

OpenGL SuperBible Sources

The source code for all the examples in the 5 editions of the OpenGL SuperBible can be found here.

You can also browse the sources for the newest edition of the book here.

View unread emails in Gmail

Ever had the problem in Gmail where you've got unread emails but can't find them amongst all your other messages?

There is a useful tip on this webpage which will tell you how to find all your unread emails.

Basically it involves just typing label:Unread in the Gmail search box.

SDL_gfx-2.0.22

I've compiled the latest version of SDL_gfx for any Windows users who need it. The lib & dll files can be downloaded from here & the Code::Blocks project can be found here.

CoD: Black Ops Perks List

From this post on the Call of Duty: Black Ops Blog it looks like the full Perks list has been released for the game.

UEFI > BIOS

According to this news story on the BBC website by 2011 the BIOS chip in PCs will be replaced by a UEFI chip which will decrease boot times to a few seconds.

Live Search Site

Nice site here which uses the Bing API to obtain search results as you type.

BarTab Firefox Add-on

If you're worried about opening too many tabs in Firefox because it might use up a lot of memory, you should try BarTab.

3D Fractal Animation

Excellent video rendered with the free piece of software called Mandelbulber.

Replay YouTube Videos

Ever wanted a YouTube video to replay automatically?

If you have just visit TubeReplay.

Windows Audio Problems

Ever had this problem in Windows, where you can't hear any sound & you get the following message...

There are no active mixer devices available. To install mixer devices, Go to Control Panel and Other Hardware, and then click ADD HARDWARE.

Solving it is quite simple, just go to the Start menu & select Run... then type in services.msc.

In the Window which then appears on screen, scroll down & find Windows Audio then click start.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

A new video has been released showing multiplayer footage of Call of Duty: Black Ops.

SDL_gfx-2.0.21

I've compiled the latest version of SDL_gfx for any Windows users who need it.

If you just want the DLL & library then download this. If however you'd also like the Code::Blocks project as well, download this.

Things to avoid in C & C++

I first discovered this website several years ago & found it very useful. I'm sure anyone who is interested in learning more about good programming practices will find it useful too.

Basic4GL Website Restored

The Basic4GL website is back online & can be found here.

CodeLite IDE

Today I was looking at the Wikipedia page for the GCC compiler & I noticed there was a section listing the different IDE's you can use with it. Most of them I'd already used such as Dev-C++ & Code::Blocks but I noticed one which I hadn't seen before called CodeLite.

I've spent the past few hours using it & have found it to be quite useful, it's a lot like Code::blocks but a bit simpler to use.

Small Basic Update

The new version of Small Basic can be downloaded from here & it features a lot of useful updates.

MW2: Resurgence Map Pack

The new map pack is released June 3rd on Xbox Live. It features 3 new maps, Carnival, Fuel & Trailer Park plus 2 maps from the original Modern Warfare, Vacant & Strike.

Gmail in IE won't load images

Ever had that problem in Internet Explorer where images for your Gmail e-mails won't show?

I found the solution here & it's quite simple to fix.

Installing KeePass for Ubuntu

Recently I've just installed the new version of Ubuntu on my system. In Windows I use KeePass to remember all the different passwords I use on the Internet. I was wondering whether there was a version of the program for Ubuntu & there was. Just type the following in a terminal window if you want to install it too.

sudo apt-get install keepassx

Advanced Windows Console

If you're looking for a replacement to the ordinary Windows Command Prompt then you should give this a try.

Aptana IDE

Aptana is an IDE used primarily for developing Ruby on Rails applications but it can be used just for creating simple sites using HTML & CSS. It can also be installed as an Eclipse plugin.

Getting Started with RadRails from Aptana, Inc. on Vimeo.

XAMPP: Tomcat Server

Just installed the Tomcat Server for XAMPP & kept getting the following message...

The admin/config user (xampp) for Tomcat Server has an old password (xampp)

Someone on the XAMPP forum was having the same problem but never got it solved.

All that needs to be done is turn off the Tomcat Server then locate tomcat-users.xml which should be located at C:\xampp\tomcat\conf & change the name & password. Then just restart the server.

XAMPP 1.7.3

In the past I used to set-up MySQL, PHP & Apache separately. However recently I brought a copy of HTML, XHTML & CSS for Dummies which had a section dealing with setting up a Server. The author had decided to use XAMPP instead of installing all the components individually.



It took me just about an hour to get everything configured correctly & it was much simpler than what I used to go through before.

Just Cause 2 Map

I recently brought Just Cause 2 for my PS3. It's an excellent game but the playing area can be a bit overwhelming in terms of size.

However I found this post over at the Playstation League forum which features an interactive map of a lot of the locations found in the game.

Important Console Updates

According to the following sites here & here; USB memory storage is coming to the Xbox 360 on April 6th in a console update. In other Xbox related news here; an official Xbox 250GB hard drive is to be sold separately.

It's reported on the PlayStation blog here, that an update is coming out for the PS3 on April 1st which will remove the ability from the original PS3 to install other Operating Systems such as GNU/Linux.

Miro 3.0

The new version of the Open-Source Media player Miro is available for download from here.

The makers of Miro have also released a Video Converter which can convert videos to a variety of different formats for mobile phones, iPods & the PSP.

MW2 - Stimulus Package

New DLC for Modern Warfare 2 is due to be released on the 30th March. It will include 3 new multiplayer maps; Bailout, Storm, Salvage & 2 maps from the first Modern Warfare; Crash and Overgrown.

The DLC is being released on the Xbox 3660 first & will cost 1200 MSP.

Uninstalling Wubi Completely

Recently I found myself running out of disk space so I decided to remove Ubuntu which I had installed using the Wubi installer. Removing Wubi was as easy as uninstalling any other program.

However when I rebooted my computer instead of Windows XP starting immediately, I discovered that the Operating System selection menu was still there, giving me the choice between Ubuntu & XP even though I'd removed Ubuntu.

Solving this problem was quite simple, all I did was follow the steps in this Microsoft article.

All you basically have to do is remove the unwanted OS from your boot.ini file.

You'll see C:\wubildr.mbr = "ubuntu" in the image below on the bottom line. It's that line which needs to be removed from the file. Once you've done that, save the file & reboot the system.

Also, don't worry I'm not going to stop using GNU/Linux. I'll probably be getting a new computer soon & when I do I think I'll be trying out the new version of OpenSUSE.

Popular Science Online

Recently I found this news story which stated that every copy of Popular Science magazine had been put online at Google Books.

The magazines can be found here & the earlier editions feature articles by Charles Darwin & Louis Pasteur.

Shared Library Dependencies

In Linux displaying such information is quite simple as you can use ldd, however in Windows MinGW doesn't come with ldd.

Two good alternatives in Windows are Dependency Walker & Process Explorer plus the former of the two will let you save the output in a text file.

John Carmack & OpenGL

Recently I discovered this post that John Carmack had made back in 1996, where he discusses the differences between OpenGL & Direct3D & concludes that OpenGL is a lot easier to use.

Apparently he still appears to think the same as when he was asked in this 2008 interview whether his new game would be using OpenGL or DirectX, he said...

It’s still OpenGL, although we obviously use a D3D-ish API [on the Xbox 360], and CG on the PS3.

GnuPG GUI

For sometime now I've been using the Command-line versions of GnuPG in Windows & Ubuntu for verifying downloads & encrypting emails.

Recently however I discovered there was a GUI version available, which makes it much easier to use.

The Windows version can be downloaded here & if you want to install the Ubuntu version just type the following in a Terminal...

sudo apt-get install gpa

IE Tab Replacement

Apparently IE Tab is no-longer being developed but there is a replacement version here called Coral IE Tab which does work with the newest version of Firefox.

I've been testing it on some of the Microsoft sites today & it worked fine.

Registry Fix for DVD Drive

Today I discovered that my DVD drive wasn't being recognised by Windows XP.

A quick search on Google brought me to this page on the Microsoft Support site.

After downloading the necessary software the problem was fixed & the drive was working again.

Firefox 3.6 Customizations

I've just installed the new version of Firefox from here.

After watching this video on the Firefox YouTube channel, I visited this site & installed a new theme for the browser.

Onlive: 48 Minute Presentation

More information about the Onlive Gaming System has been released & it's looking very good.

The full 48 minute video can be watched here.