FiFi's blog

Merry X-Mas and Happy New Year!

FiFi — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 20:55:38 +0000

Yeah, i haven’t posted here since month due to lack of time.

Now i’m not sure when i will can next time access internet so i wish you all (does anybody read it? lol) Merry Christmas (or happy holidays; i know some people may be offended by calling that time christmas) and a happy new year. It will be a little break for me from internet. I will return somewhen in january ’08 with… a suprise! Stay tuned

Edit: I will have no internet access because tomorrow i’m going to my new house and i’m waiting for the special offers comming next year from the ISP.

Back to school

FiFi — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 21:01:21 +0000

Today, first time after recovering from almost 4 weeks illnes, i was at school. All classmates were like “WTF?!” but i dunno why ;P …

I had to finaly go back to normal life. So i had to go back to school. My doc said that i should stay at home for few more days but, meh, i just wanted to go somewhere, get out from my room and now i don’t care is that school or anywhere else, just away from my room I feel much better now and i’m slowly geting health again

Windows XP Service Pack 3 RC1

FiFi — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 14:16:46 +0000

Yep, the Release Candidate 1 of SP3 is ready and can be downloaded via Microsoft Connect. I’m installing it right now.

Those who don’t have Connect can download it via Microsoft Update. You just need to save this file as *.bat and open it:
[removed on request - if you need it go to connect.microsoft.com]

or ask me at: fifi5000[a---t]gmail[dooot]com

And now just check for updates in Microsoft Update

Oh, i recommend you uninstalling previous beta of SP3 first.

UPDATE:
Just installed

Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.1 is out

FiFi — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:46:43 +0000

Leopard bugs got you down? Apple just pushed out its first update for the new OS, 10.5.1. It looks like it cures a whole laundry list of niggles with Leopard, including that nasty “potential data loss” issue with partitions in Finder. We heard about most of these fixes last week when the first build was seeded to developers, but there’s a rundown of what actually made it after the break. Highlights include a fix to Time Machine drive limitations, a bunch of improvements to Finder’s Shared Sidebar, and good old fashioned spanking of Mail.app’s issues. Let us know if Apple didn’t fix what ails you and we’ll be sure to have our people talk to Steve’s people.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

AirPort

Allows password-protected accounts on AirPort Disks to show up on in the Finder’s Shared Sidebar.
Resolves an issue with saved passwords for wireless networks.

Back to My Mac

Improves the reliability of Back to My Mac-enabled Macs appearing in the Finder’s Shared Sidebar.
Improves compatibility with D-Link NAT gateways.

Disk utilities

Restores the functionality of the progress bar during permission repairs in Disk Utility.
Addresses an issue that could produce an alert when creating disk images using Disk Utility or Terminal.
Improves disk partitioning when multiple RAID sets are created on the same disk.

iCal

iCal alarms are now more reliably delivered via email.
Resolves an issue when inviting attendees via a CalDAV account.

Mail

Improves stability when resizing columns in the message viewer or switching between Stationery templates in email messages.
Addresses an issue in which attachments enclosed inside an HTML link may not be clickable in email messages.
Fixes an issue with email accounts added using the “Simple Setup” feature in which messages cannot be sent due to an SMTP connection failure.
Improves Smart Mailboxes compatibility with .Mac Sync, and addresses an issue with To Do’s disappearing when using Smart Mailboxes.
Resolves an issue with syncing Mail accounts with .Mac in which multiple On My Mac folders appear in the Mailbox pane.

Networking

Addresses an issue in which Microsoft Windows shared folders may be read-only when connected via SMB.

Printing

Resolves an issue in which user-selected values on Paper Feed PDE are reset to default while saving a custom preset.

Security, Firewall

Addresses a code signing issue; third-party applications can now run when included in the Application Firewall or when whitelisted in Parental Controls.
In Security preferences’ Firewall tab, the “Block All” option is now called “Allow Only essential services”
Includes recent Apple security updates.

System and Finder

Addresses a potential data loss issue when moving files across partitions in the Finder.
Resolves an issue with login after turning off FileVault for a specific user account.
Improves compatibility with Adobe Flash-based uploaders used by .Mac Web Gallery and certain other websites and applications.
Resolves a potential text drawing issue with certain Adobe Flash-based websites and applications.

Time Machine

Addresses formatting issues with certain drives used with Time Machine (specifically, single-partition MBR drives greater than 512 GB in size as well as NTFS drives of any size and partition scheme).
Resolves an issue in which files restored in Time Machine may be restored to the backup hierarchy rather than the folders to which they belong.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/15/leopard-10-5-1-is-now-available/

So good ol’ Apple still cares about customers

RapGet is great! w00t!

FiFi — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:02:50 +0000

Six days ago i wrote about my Rapidshare premium account. I have to tell you that when file is like 40 – 60 parts it’s sooo boring to download it – everytime copying link, pastling it in new tab address in browser, clicking premium, loging on and chosing the server (i’m lazzy – that explains all ).

And i’ve found something perfect for me – small (200 kb) application called RapGet. It is easy to use downloader from file hosting services like Rapidshare, MegaUpload, SendSpace, etc. In fact, it supports about 70 services (full list on the official website). This tool is realy useful and very easy to use. It takes just few minutes to set up config that will be ideal for you. It supports things like proxy, premium accounts and even adds links to downloader after just copying them. After finishing downloading one file it can automaticly start downloading another. And it has supprot for 48 languages. Another good thing is great interface. Everything works just perfectly! RapGet is a must-have for anyone who download much from free-but-not-so-free file hosting services!

Official Website (english version): http://rapget.com/en/

Rapidshare Premium account!

FiFi — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:20:34 +0000

Yes, after years of cheating the Rapidshare service, today i have decided to buy my own premium account. It is not so expensive, i payed 6.99 EUR for 1 month. It was realy worth of it. You know, i just love warez ;P … i downloaded 2 movies and 3 games already (i bought it today morning). Of course, if you have dynamic IP you can renew it… but i dont have one. I have static and shared IP… shared with thousands of customers using same ISP i am using. What does it mean? It basicly means that if there are even only 2000 customers (it’s a small, local ISP) and even if only 10% of them is using rapidshare, lets say one time per day it gives us 0.1 * 2000 = 200 customers per day. So 200 downloads per day. And how many people can download from one ip per day? Hmmm… Let’s say one file downloads 30 minutes (100 MB in polish reality) and than you have to wait about 60 minutes (sometimes even longer) so 1.5h per file. 24 / 1.5 = 16 files downloaded daily…

What else could i try? the renew IP command will take no effect as it is static IP. Well… i can search for proxy server, right. Those extremly slow ways to mask your IP address are quite popular toady. So no chance if i will google for “free proxy servers list” – most of them will be already used by RS leechers already or not working or slow as hell.

So i think it was totaly worth of it. I have the luck i’ve got PayPal account and a credit card and i had few euros inside. Oh, btw, if you want to make some money over internet for free i recommend you that site. It’s not a phishing site or something like that. And you maybe dont earn a lot of money, but hey, it works

Create shadows in Game Maker

FiFi — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 11:17:22 +0000

So today morning when i launched my computer i have decided to add shadows to my game i’m currently working on. Now i would like to share this simple script i wrote to add shadows:

In script section add script scr_shadows:
draw_sprite_ext(sprite_index,image_index,x+shadow_x,y+shadow_y,shadow_xsize,shadow_ysize,direction,c_black,shadow_alpha);

Now we need to add this to draw event of object we want to add shadow:
shadow_x=a; shadow_y=b; shadow_xsize=c; shadow_ysize=d; shadow_alpha=e; script_execute(scr_shadows); draw_sprite_ext(sprite_index,image_index,x,y,image_xscale,image_yscale,direction,image_blend,1)

where:

a is how far is shadow from the object on x axis
b is how far is shadow from the object on y axis
c is how big is the x size of shadow
d is how big is the y size of shadow
e is the shadow alpha (transparency) (can be only 0-1, so for example it can be 0.5, 0.1, etc.; 0 is invisible, 1 is fully visible)
the 6th line executes the scr_shadows script
the 7th line draws the sprite itself

I hope this was useful

PS: about my game i will write soon!

It’s good to have a blog

FiFi — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 21:23:42 +0000

I have always thought that blogs are for those pinky girls and wannabe-elite. What is cool about bloging? Thats sooo lame! Why should i want to have blog? Posting my personal stuff? For what? Posting tech stuff? For what? - you would hear this if you asked me about my opinion on bloging week ago…

But my life has changed… People arround me have changed their statement about me… I have changed… Earlier my life was bit empty. I had no opinions because nobody cared what’s my opinion on something. But now i think, even if nobody cares, i should care. I should have opinions – basicly keep them to myself – and if ever asked, i should know what to say. So it’s good to have a blog – here i can share my thoughts with you and with myself. No, it’s not only a personal blog. It’s also a tech blog. Or – it’s mainly a tech blog and also – sometimes – a personal blog. This blog is not escape from my life. It is more like to keep my life up.

Well, i had one blog before – it was tech blog only – all about Longhorn, and it was in polish. But i gave up and i had no reason to keep it up. There were better sites about Longhorn. This blog is other – it’s unique, it’s a connection between my personal life and my tech passion.

To sum up, i realy need this blog. I will try to keep it updated as much as i can. I hope you will like it. I hope i will like it…

Thanks for reading this very important for me (and boring?) entry