DarC Horizons.com

800m Run
30 HR Push-ups
20 Med-Ball Clean into Wall ball (14#)
10 PC (95#)
20 med-ball clean into Wallball
30 HR-Push-ups
800m run.

19:51

It makes me sad to push the Oink article off the front page… but I haven’t updated this in a really long time (~1yr) and I’ve been wanting to post this poem somewhere I would remember it. This seems the prime place to where I can find it, but no one else will : )

——————————————–

Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of El Dorado.

But he grew old –
This knight so bold –
And — o’er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like El Dorado.

And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow –
“Shadow,” said he,
“Where can it be –
This land of El Dorado?”

“Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,”
The shade replied –
“If you seek for El Dorado.”

–Edgar Allan Poe, “El Dorado”

I’m saving this for my future reference… and maybe someone else will find it useful.

When using jquery AJAX with IE7, often it appears to not work. I had a situation where a jquery AJAX call retrieved the text from another page (Java servlet) to provide session information without a postback - it just returns a 0 or a 1 to the javascript.

It works fine in Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, and IE6… but not IE7. In IE7, it does the AJAX query, but gets the same value every time (it should be be 0 the first time, and 1 every time afterwards). After much searching, it turns out that IE7 “helpfully” caches pages for you… even if it’s a dynamic page. So, the first time the AJAX runs, it grabs the value. The second time it runs, IE7 says “o, we already have that, here you go!” and gives us the old value again.

The easiest way to fix it? Append a random integer to your AJAX target URL.
IE :
$.ajax({
type: “POST”,
url: “SessionServlet.do?” + Math.floor(Math.random()) + dataString,
dataType: “html”,
success: function(msg){}
});

Hope that helps someone.
-darc

Picked up F.E.A.R. 2 today. I played for 2 to 3 hrs (just got to Interval 3) and so far it’s very good… as good as the original. The game balances action with horror very well. The AI is good, the weapons are good, the environment is pretty damn good, and the story is amazing (as expected).

Overall I’d give it a 9 out of 10 so far… hopefully I’ve got another 10 to 15 hrs of good gameplay left..

-darc

EDIT: So far Alma has been quite helpful… hopefully she’ll stay that way…

I’m sure you can find this elsewhere on the internet (I did) but I figured I’d log my experience. Also, I hate windows, but I figured it’d be safer than trying this in Linux seen more people have. However, I had to hack around to get iTunes to work with Windows XP64 as they have no package specifically for it… this becomes an issue as you’ll see in step #4.

1) Downloaded QuickPWN GUI 1.5.0 RC3 (QuickPwnRC3.exe - http://www.iphone-hacks.com/downloads/file/138)
2) Downloaded iPhone1,2_2.0.2_5C1.Restore.ipsw (note this is for 3G 2.0.2)

3) Backup my iPhone…
3.5) Accidentally “Restore iPhone from backup” while seeing how to choose my restore point (I think it only keeps the most recent backup). This seemed to take forever… after 45min of no progress (at around 75%) I killed it by rebooting the phone.
3.75) Made another backup out of paranoia’s sake.

4) Restore iPhone to factory state…
4.5) “Connect to iTunes” : iPhone asks to be connected to iTunes by showing a USB cable pointing to iTunes icon on the phone even though it’s already connected. Windows reports no drivers found (it worked before the restore).
4.6) Reboot computer, reboot phone, restart apple mobile services, repair iTunes installation, reinstall Apple Mobile driver, reinstall iTunes… no go.
4.75) Give up, install fresh iTunes on wife’s Windows XP 32bit machine.
4.8) iPhone is detected in recovery mode just fine, tell it to restore to factory settings.
4.85) Restore fails with error 6
4.86) Restore fails with error 13
4.87) Restore fails with error 13
4.88) Make sure iPhone is in DFU mode
4.89) Restore fails with error 13
4.899) Restore works for no apparent reason except it gets bored of toying with my emotions.
4.9) Deduce that the 64bit driver works in XP64 in standard iPhone mode (for syncing and such) but that it *requires a different driver for recovery/restoration*that DOES NOT WORK (or exist) for XP64.
4.95) Curse Apple for vehemently for not supporting Windows XP 64 … while we’re at it, curse them for not support Linux since that’s the reason we’re in this mess in the first place : D
4.98) Start using the wife’s WinXP 32bit computer for this exercise.

5) Run QuickPwnRC3.exe
6) Select iPhone 3G
7) Browse for iPhone1,2_2.0.2_5C1.Restore.ipsw, select, and hit next
8) Select all options
9) Follow directions
9.1) Fail due to USB error? (”Your device has connected in the wrong mode”)
9.2) Retry
9.3) Fail due to USB error? (”Your device has connected in the wrong mode”)
9.4) Retry
9.5) Fail due to USB error? (”Your device has connected in the wrong mode”)
10) Give up.
11) Admit defeat.
12) Try to restore to Apple software.
12.2) Fail due to Unknown Error 13
12.3) Retry
12.4) Fail due to Unknown Error 13
12.5) Retry
12.6) Fail due to Unknown Error 13
12.7) Retry

13) Go back to WinXP64 computer.
14) Try to restore
14.1) Installs driver for DFU mode, fails to load driver for regular mode (USB Device)
14.2) Get Unknown Error 1601 due to above.
14.3) Am very sad.
14.4) Apple knowledge base suggests removing all Apple software (iTunes, etc) and reinstalling… god I hate windows.

15) Remove iTunes
16) Remove QuickTime
17) Remove Apple Software Update
18) Remove Apple Mobile Device Support

19) Reboots.

20) install Apple Mobile Device Support
21) install iTunes
22) install QuickTime

23) Still FAIL due to same driver issue.
24) Install old version of Apple Mobile Device Support for giggles (and I think it worked at one time).
25) Still FAIL, no driver for regular iPhone USB device mode.

26) Go back to wife’s WinXP 32bit computer… try again because I’m out of ideas and it worked earlier… one out of three times… for some reason.
27) Try to restore (DFU mode), Fail with Unknown Error 13
28) Try again, Fail with Unknown Error 13
29) Try again, Fail with Unknown Error 13
30) Reboot (it is windows after all)
31) Do the Apple dance
32) Try to restore in Recovery mode (non-DFU)… Fail with Unknown Error 13.
33) Try again in Recovery mode (non-DFU)… Fail with Unknown Error 6 (WTF is it changing?!).
34) Try again in Recovery mode (non-DFU) just because I’m curious what error I will get this time… Fail with Unknown Error 13.
35) Try to restore in DFU mode… Fail with Unknown Error 13.
36) Try to restore in DFU mode… Fail with Unknown Error 13.
37) Try to restore in DFU mode… Fail with Unknown Error 6.

38) Give up
39) Admit failure
40) Go to bed.

41) Wake, go to work
42) Plug in iPhone on work computer and tell it to restore
43) Restore to factory settings works fine, the first time, in recover mode… wtf?!
44) Restore from backup
45) All’s back to normal…

She’s growing steadily. She still likes it in my boggon (as you can see), but she’s getting too fat to fit : )

The new Nine Inch Nails album is out. Reznor has it up for free at :
http://theslip.nin.com.

I’ve listened to most of it and it’s nothing amazing, but it’s decent.
-darc

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.>++[<---->-]<.>++++[<++++>-]<-.>++++[<---->-]<--.>++[<++++
>-]<.>+++++++++[<-------->-]<--..>+++++[<----->-]<++..

-darc

I picked up my Ball Python yesterday. She’s about 18 inches long and maybe 1.5 lbs (but I’m horrible at estimating weight). Granted I don’t have any experience in Pythons, but I’d guess she’s 2 to 3 months old.
She was very active last night, investigating her enclosure, but has been sleeping all day (Ball Python’s are nocturnal). When she gets up and around later today I’m going to see if I can get her to eat since she hasn’t been fed in 5 days.
-darc

FINALLY!

Didn’t think I was coming back did ya? Well I squeezed in some time and got some stuff done that was way overdue. The changelog is below and I also added a “upcoming” section to give you an idea of some things that are in the works. As usual you can pick it up off SourceForge or the DarC Horizons code repo.

Let me know if you come up with any problems. Sorry this took so long.
-darc

v0.11 - 2008.02.20
———————
* Added password change utility so users can change their own passwords… how did I miss that?
* Removed static paths pointing to webroot/php/. I think I’ve caught and removed all the static paths left over from my poor practices days : )
* Removed use of the $table_name variable. This should prevent accidental breakage.
* Fixed the ability to view meeting minutes (view_minutes.php). I had an unassigned variable that was breaking it.
* Changed link colors to a deep scarlet… pretty, eh? The default blue was making my eyes bleed.
* Formatted all code with PHP-Eclipse’s built-in formatter. Looks much cleaner now.
* Changed “include()” to “include_once()” where necessary.
* Added “Apply for Membership” link to the front page. This has been around forever, just not easily accessible.
* Added “Pledge” to list of statuses.
* Made slight CSS changes on input elements.

Upcoming:
– Add ability for admins to force users to change their password on next login
– Add a system for uploading/viewing class notes, worksheets, and tests

We’re closing on the new house on Friday.

The wedding is Saturday @ 5pm @ Bauxite Community Center.

Rehearsal dinner is Friday @ 7pm @ Bauxite Community Center.

-darc

I bought F.E.A.R. last weekend at CompUSA since it was on sale (they’re going out of business). I’ve been playing it almost every night since and it was a pretty awesome game. I know I’m getting into this late since it was the best FPS in 2005 (spake the package) but it still is an extremely solid game, with great graphics, 3 yrs later. I’m kind of assuming that it was like Crysis currently is, an amazing (graphically at least) game that you need an IBM z9 with 3x nVIDIA SLI cards to run at its best (Crysis ate my brand new computer alive). However, now that my computer can handle it pretty easily, it was an awesome game. I ran the original F.E.A.R. on all Maximum settings, and started playing the expansion pack (Extraction Point) on max but cut it down to High due to performance issues … I guess it still packs a punch graphically. One of the only things that really annoyed me was in the first level. You’re walking around looking for Paxton Fettel in a warehouse district and come to a T junction. I hugged the left wall and came around the corner pointing my .45 to the right… exactly where Mr. Fettel decided to swing a 2×4 at my face from. It was a semi-cinematic, but I had control of my gun… and I shot him 4 times in the chest from 3 feet away before he connected with my head and knocked me out. After playing through the entire game, who’s #1 purpose (for most the game) is to kill Paxton Fettel, I felt a little cheated since I tagged him solidly in the first 15min of gameplay… I could’ve skipped 10hrs of play if they had registered those four .45 rounds in his chest at the beginning. O well, the rest of the game was fun, but they should’ve taken the ability to shoot away from me because any decent FPS’er is going to at least squeeze off a double tap into his face before he can love tap me with a 2×4.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. It was a great first person shooter, with a nice variety of weapons, enemies, and levels and throughout the game it continually came up with ways to scare that crap out of me. If you don’t believe me, play this in a dark room, at night, with 5.1 surround. Between dealing with the paranormal (dead guys peeking around corners to chat with you, then disintegrating… not to mention that creepy little girl that keeps trying to catch you on fire) and the regular flesh and blood enemies, it’ll keep you on your toes. I’ve been playing Crysis for the past few weeks which has been widely hailed as amazing graphically (and yes, it is) but I didn’t have any regrets about playing this 3 yr old game … it handled itself well in the graphics/performance area.

I just started playing the expansion pack, “Extraction Point” tonight and it looks like it’s going to be pretty good as well. The graphics ability went up (so I had to turn it from Max to High) and a few game play elements changed (they took the ability to use slo-mo and the flashlight from you a lot more often… which makes me angry) but for the first level, I like it. However, Mr. Fettel is back to haunt me even though I shot him in the face (and the game accepted this fact) with a .45 in the very end of F.E.A.R. My little 8yr old ghost friend is also apparently angry with me for blowing up her laboratory home in the first episode as she insists on catching everything around me on fire… not to mention the ghoulies she keeps sending after me from beyond.

System:
Intel Core Duo 6550 @ 2.33Ghz, 4GB 800Mhz RAM, 512MB nVIDIA 8600GT

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2008/01/securitymatters_0110

Just reposting an article I just read over at Wired.com ~ I also (purposely) run an open wireless network and anyone is welcome to use it so long as they don’t completely hose my bandwidth.

Worst case scenario, I’ll set up the upside-down-ternet on them : )

-darc

RS-232 Infrared Receiver in a Serial Connector (LIRC)

I just posted a new instructable that walks you through the creation of a serial (RS-232) IR receiver which will allow you to use a remote control with your computer.
I use it with LIRCd in Linux to control my XMMS music player and VLC media player.

: )
-darc