While I don’t think it’s anywhere as violent as Netscape Navigator vs. Internet Explorer (back then I sided with Netscape… and was sad when they lost), but I do think that the current war is ever as important. Today, the players are primarily Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, with some other minor browsers desperately jumping up and down for attention.

Opera 9.5 came out Thursday, and I’m glad there’s a marked improvement over the beta I tried out before. While the UI wasn’t particularly ugly in previous releases, it really wasn’t all that great once you got down to using it. Tabs looked more like buttons instead of… well… tabs. It kinda’ reminded me of an Apple product redesigned by Linux programmers to target Windows users. In other words, kinda’ all over the place. But whatever.

Unfortunately, it seems to still have some kinks in it. One particularly strange and annoying one is that, even as I write this post, Opera doesn’t know how to correctly parse me writing a new paragraph. If I hit ENTER after a paragraph, guess what? It adds a line above it! Go to add a line above the paragraph, and you get a line below it! Oh fun fun. I wonder if Opera will ever go above 1% market share.

Safari 4 is due out, with a preview already available. As a guy who’s actually concerned about having a standards-compliant browser (with that the caveat that the standards should actually be practical), I should download it and give it a try. Honestly, though, I never really like Safari. Or rather, I never really liked its interface and skin. I don’t know about you, but that brushed metal covering makes me think I should be piloting a ‘Mech instead of surfing the Internet. It just seems to utterly clash with the smooth colors that dominate webpages and OS themes.

To me, the only reasons people use Safari is 1.) they use Macs, and to use anything else would get you ostracized by the Church of Steve Jobs, 2.) web developers were unknowingly baited into testing against another browser once Safari was released for Windows, and 3.) it’s stuck on their iPhone. But whatever. Internet Explorer 8 and its super-standards mode is still in development. Of course, being a product from Microsoft, it receives a lot of flak no matter what direction it goes in. I think breaking existing website that don’t conform to standards is a good thing, even if IE was partly responsible for it. IE helped grow a dynamic Internet, whether people like to admit it or not, and if the will of the people is to finally move towards standards compliance, Microsoft should be commended for doing the right thing even though they’ll lose a lot of their supporters. Plus, I think a lot of web developers are real idiots, anyway.

Speaking of idiots, I do hope the IE developers do something to the UI. Design by committee was obviously a huge mistake. Having your the File menu BELOW your address bar kinda’ ruins the whole Windows look-and-feel, and the buttons are just a huge mess of I-don’t-care-about-that-feature and what-the-heck-is-that. It’ll be a bad, bad day if things start looking like a universal remote control.

For the record, I use IE6. Because I find IE7 incredibly annoying and has some stupid bug that plants a huge IE icon on top of other file icons whenever I go browse a data CD or DVD of mine. Don’t you dare mess with my file browsing.

And then, good ol’ Firefox 3 is set to arrive on the 17th, trying to make a world record for downloads or something. Not that I particularly care, because I’d rather get a copy free of stupid bugs (like the one in Opera) that will get patched a couple days from release. In any case, the speed improvements will be a very welcome change, along with the host of other neat things that I’ve already forgotten about since I first used the beta. Firefox, especially if loaded with add-ons that I commonly use, is a huge resource hog, if you haven’t noticed (or rather, if you’ve been living under a rock).

And, I should have gotten to this earlier, but the main big political issue nowadays for browsers is standards-compliance. If all things go as planned, pretty much all four of those browsers will be pretty darn standards-compliant, to the point that probably the average user (e.g. not me) will probably be unable to pick out any difference.

Speaking of standards-compliance, I decided to pick up Solaris 10 to use as an alternative OS, seeing as it’s about the only free option that’s Single UNIX Specification 03 compliant. I felt like choosing UNIX over Linux because 1.) Linux fanboys irritate me as much as Apple fanboys, 2.) I’ve better prior knowledge of UNIX than Linux, 3.) I care about standards, 4.) I generally like Sun Microsystems, 5.) I was reminded of NoodleKnight and his ol’ SPARCstation that I was impressed with, and 6.) I care a lot more abut “free software” than “open source software.” As long as it’s doing good, I honestly don’t care how it was made.

For the record, Solaris 10 crashed during installation. These OSes all just hate me, it seems.

Currently, it’s trying to boot for the first time. Ooo, yay. Login. I guess it’s time to hammer out some of the weird bugs, see if WinXP is still working, and create a non-root user.

So, I decided to download and burn Ubuntu 8.04 today, giving Ubuntu another stab. This time, I wanted to stick with it and give it a proper chance.

Popped in the LiveCD. Worked fine… I guess. I sorta’ got called away to do something menial so I couldn’t stare at the boot up process and make sure things load up fine. Doesn’t matter. I was greeted by the somewhat familiar brownish orange desktop that sorta’ assaults my senses. Sorry, but scientific studies have shown that blue and green-based themes are better for the human brain. But I semi-digress.

First thing I do is, of course, to play a card game. I open up a game of Blackjack. Thought it look kinda’ neat… until they started dealing cards. Oh god, the horrible looking card faces. The lack of impact or tension when playing.

I played a blackjack game on Windows 3.1, with the good ol’ Windows Entertainment Pack. I miss that game.

Played some Chess, screwed around and got my butt handed to me. Not that I really care, as the graphics that were available to me on the LiveCD weren’t too impressive.

To be honest, I had more fun jiggling the windows once I upped the graphics settings. Even if xkcd says that Ubuntu is basically Vista with some custom themes, I’d argue that it handles better than Vista in terms of utilizing the graphics card.

Hell, I refuse to use Vista’s touted Flip3D without installing the Switcher, made by a Microsoft techie named Bao Nguyen. Sure, it kinda’ makes it look like it ripped off of MacOS, but at least it made Flip3D useful.

Anyways, after changing to a nice Mist theme with a 1280 x 1024 Saber wallpaper to match, I started exploring all the icons on the screen. I found somet things nicely placed, giving me better, quicker access to things I myself would rather do than go through the cumbersome Start Menu (i.e. direct access to programs instead of going to All Programs in Windows XP).

That’s when I found the network connections icon. Not a bad interface. As Ubuntu seemed to have recognized my wireless USB dongle and detected a few wireless networks, I decided to connect myself the Internet and try out Linux version of Firefox. I go to connect…

… and Ubuntu crashes.

Everything freezes up. Can’t move the mouse. Can’t type on the keyboard. The screen has frozen still.

I guess that’s another operating system (or, more specifically, operating system flavor) that has crashed right before me for no good reason at all. It joins the long list of MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000 Pro, Windows 2000 Server, Windows NT 4.0, Windows NT 4.0 Server, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista… and UNIX, some GNOME Linux distro that was just a major pain in the ass, Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, my cellphone, my calculator, my PS2, a DVD player, my Gameboy, my N64, my NES, my SNES, my crappy MP3 player, an all-in-one printer at Office Depot…

In case you haven’t figured it out, I have this awesomely dumbfounding ability to crash anything I come near.

So, to me, this is all the same. Linux (or at least Ubuntu) isn’t a magical silver bullet, a cure-all panacea, a miracle drug, or the Holy Grail. It’s just another OS.

I wonder how well my games will run under this, though. I don’t look forward to using Wine…

Oh, by the way, I’m using Ubuntu to write this post, following the exact same prodedure I used previously. And it works now. Which means it was a weird fluke that crashed my system, and not having stupid hardware or having a PEBKAC.

Oh, thank you, Lord, for introducing such randomness to computers.

I hope I can squeeze in some space on my HDD for Ubuntu. Unlike most people, I actually like to keep my hard drives from being filled to the top.

So ends this post.

Oh, right. Working on the SHIROU SEAL, which I’m sure none of you care about.

NoodleKnight pushed me to write another blog entry, so here I am, I guess.

As the title indicates, I’m not quite dead yet, and, surprisingly neither is Nekohime. It’s just in continual development hell. ^^; I just do some personal programming for it every now and then.

For the most part, the coding hasn’t been much of a challenge in actual programming, though design is a bit different. Mainly, balancing simple code that might have inherent shortcomings versus complex code that is hard to work out. My current problem involves synchronization of sprite frames and movement based on time. While what I have pretty much works out fine, the fact that I know that it’s technically not completely synchronized grates on my conscious. I originally avoided some of the complications with a startAt() method, so I’m possibly looking at getFrameAt() and getLocationAt() to solve the problem. Of course, the trade-off for synchronization is the lag due to the processing; instead of one being off 10 units of time with the off by 5, they’ll both be off by 10 units of time. … Not quite an improvement I’d hope for…

I’ll probably just do what I’ve been doing for now (5/10 lag instead of 10/10 lag), as the design is modular enough that I can improve that bit of code or even tweak the interface or implementation fairly painlessly.

Lately, I’ve been getting some new ideas in my head, too. First being the adventures of Eldeen, and the second being related to me currently watching Slayers NEXT. (The Slayers series, by the way, is something I really should have watched a long time ago.)

Too bad they’re both still a bit too fuzzy to work out. Maybe with some more time.

RK wishes kiryuu=rekka and arai would come back sometime soon, as it’s kinda’ painful to get into a lot of stuff they recommend only for them to not show up again…

Spark: v0.0.5.1

There is a war being waged across the computer world. It is a war without beginning, and a war that most certainly will not have an end. It does not necessarily involve that huge corporate entity known as “Microsoft,” nor does it always involve involve the faceless empire of “Google.” Many times it involves that of the open source community, other times the black- and white-hatted security experts, other times the Web 2.0 junkies, other times just the common user.

This war? It is the war of “I’m Right, You Idiot, So Let Me Tell You How It Should Be.”

Since as long as I can remember (which isn’t very long, to be honest), mankind has always had the problem of individuals thinking themselves to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Some are rather skilled individuals, some are not. But, as a wise Jedi once said, “Size matters not. The only difference is in your mind.”

And, unfortunately, that’s true here.

Case in point, the people that make up my computer certification class. I bring you Subject A, who I shall call Abe. We are talking about the basic networking components. The hub on Layer 1. The switch on Layer 2. The router on—

“WAIT A MINUTE AREN’T THERE SWITCHES THAT HAVE ROUTING CAPABILITIES?!” Uhh, sure. Those are layer 3 switches. So, anyways, we have routers on Layer 3—

“SO WHY WOULD WE USE A ROUTER IF WE HAVE A LAYER 3 SWITCH?” Uhhh, well, routers came before layer 3 switches—

“ARE WE USING A LAYER 3 SWITCH OR A ROUTER IN THAT OTHER LAB?”

…

Who the hell cares?! Must we specifically have to tell people it’s not important, primarily because this is just an explanation that will segue right back into configuring Routing and Remote Access, and making sure we do it right when we’re taking that wonderful certification test.

And then there’s the case of the man who must drill all technicalities despite the fact that generalizations were invented to quickly go over concepts without spending hours on it. Network Load-Balancing and Clustering.

“Aren’t those two basically the same thing?” No… let me explain. This does this and that does that, and when this happens…

“But since this and this, aren’t they the same?” No, I haven’t finished. This and this…

“I asked about clusters, not load balancing. You didn’t answer my question.” Wait, what?

I know comparatively a lot about things that most people don’t even care about. Therefore, it’s sometimes best to not even open your mouth. One must gauge whether you are being helpful, whether you’re on topic, and whether the topic warrants the time being used.

And, of course, making sure you have your facts straight before you start criticizing something is always a plus. Like when a bunch of “l33t” users couldn’t figure out the logic behind numbering the upcoming Windows client OS as “Windows 7″ (refers to the kernel version, which I would THINK those type of people would know something about), or how the Microsoft IT personnel couldn’t wrap their head around the concept of Mandatory Access Control (MAC), which is pretty much the basis for all the stereotypical governmental security measures you see in Hollywood movies (”Hey, this file is marked as Top Secret! Let me see if I can crack the password and get top secret clearance…!”).

So, in total, I find that this world of computers, which is supposed to be a world of logic, information, and advancement, is just the same as the real world: full of bull.

This might be impetus for the writer to fulfill his lifelong dream and takeover the world. Or, at least, carve his own nation out of it.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Slightly old news, but last Saturday, I finally completed and passed my A+ and Network+ certification exams. Whee!! Finally, all that studying paid off! Honestly, though, I’m glad I passed them. Too much of my life is trudging away, endlessly studying or doing things without any real end in sight. No sense of real accomplishment, no marker to justify my work, no encouragement or acknowledgement. Just a continual so-called “need” to work and work.

Lessee… continuing my Japanese study, but I might try to add another, more advanced class that’s more suited for my level tomorrow. More work involved, but I feel the need to actually learn stuff, not review.

Project Updates
Project Nekohime seems to be trudging through things, though some of the members have me worried. One in particular seems to be… hmm… having an authoritative identity crisis? It’d be nice if they communicated more, instead of emoing and acting immature. What I won’t stand for, though, is attempting to pass themselves off as skilled in a certain area that they know nothing about. There development is a lot more complicated than they realize, and I hope that I won’t have to come to head with that person. They’ve pushed before… and I don’t feel like needlessly relenting because of some stupid personal opinions.

Anyways, working on finishing Common Skills, publishing it, then drafting Servant classes. Once that is done, we can create a generalized Character class. And to finally be able to code things! In the meantime, the Art Center was created, and I’m really, really hoping I can finish the Java Applet for character creation. If things work out well, the Applet would be able to allow the user to easily create (and balance) a character’s stats, and possibly generate accurate information for programmers to start creating the static user objects.

The Tsukihime Translation Project is coming to a close, of which I have mixed feelings about. First, proofreading still needs to be done, whether certain people admit to it or not. Second, I honestly wish I could be doing more, but, as evident in the lack of posts I’ve had recently, my time has been spirited away by other things.

I recently discussed things concerning Project T in the #beastslair channel. I felt it was kinda’ nice to be able to exchange our thoughts about certain private things we were all working on, giving me some fresh perspective on aspects of it. One of them made a comment that was probably just a statement of fact, but I ended up taking it as a compliment. More development on that is happening… and I’m getting closer to actually creating excerpted material, as well as prepare for Project C.

I guess I should sorta’ partially declassify Project World Egg. I haven’t worked on it just recently, though I have been doing more work on it as a whole. Nasu is… complicated. But fun. The only thing that gets me is the design of the universe. I might leave it for later, though I hope the ramifications of doing so don’t come back to haunt me later.

Ehh… time flies when blogging… >_>

I am the bone of my domain.
NICs are my body, and CAT5s are my blood.
I have run DCPROMO over a thousand times.
Unaware to DNS,
Nor aware to AD.
Have withstood errors only just to reformat,
Hoping for it to finally work.
I have no choice. This is the only path.
My entire life is “Unlimited Server Works.”

Seems like a bunch of projects and other things in my life are hitting critical points. Time to rant away…

• A+ and Network+ Certification programs coming to an end in a little more than a week. I get to take tests afterwards. >_>
• The BL Game Project (semi-renamed, unofficially, to Project Nekohime) is hitting a point where things the battle code might be put into production. Hopefully, I can get Raf, Noodle, and JSeabolt to join in, and CB if he’s still around. >_>
• Planning on joining a role-playing game. Though I really don’t have too much time to be doing stuff like this. >_>
• The Tsukihime Translation Project has been in normal playtesting phase, which takes a lot of time to go through, and the deadline is fast approaching. >_>
• Classes start up in the beginning of September. I need to get my Japanese up to speed again. >_>
• I made a slight promise to have Project Neco-Arc would be up within a month. Well, that month has now transformed into a little more than a week. >_>
• Project W has been trying to be restarted for a while. Sort of waiting on me. >_>

I’m currently taking classes for my A+ certification, and one of the characters in this class is a man who reminds me a lot of the guy in those stupid ditech.com commercials. “Lost another one to Ditech!!!”

Normally, I wouldn’t care so much, since people here are learning to use computers (Holy crap, is A+ cert supposed to be this easy?!), and they come from all different backgrounds and with little or no familiarity with computers. But, seeing as this is a class with an instructor (who happens to be more than qualified to teach), I feel there is a difference between asking questions to clarify a subject and asking questions to dispute a concept you know very little about.

The instructor talks about the Recycle Bin, and how it’s a temporary holdover whenever you “delete” something. I respectfully pay attention even though 99% of what’s being taught is stuff I already know. Anyways, this guy, who I shall call Mr. Ditech, suddenly says, “But isn’t it not really true that it’s not deleted? Isn’t it true that it’s still there?” He then goes on about the FBI coming to your house when you’re away, taking away your hard drive, and extracting all the data that you thought was safely deleted, hoping to find something illegal so they can haul you off to jail.

Now, the instructor knows this type of person, so after giving him a few terse answers to his barrage of “isn’t it” questions, he quickly ends it by saying, “You know what? You’re absolutely right. There it is. Absolutely right.” Mr. Ditech is at a loss of words to say immediately, so the instructor uses that to his advantage and pushes forth with the lesson.

Hmm… I understand what he was getting to, and Mr. Ditech is right, but 1.) it’s not at all in the scope of the class, 2.) if the FBI is after you, you’re pretty much screwed no matter what, 3.) he’s emphasizing less about the computer concept and more about his bone to pick with “the government.”

Other things he’s tried to make arguments about.

• The move away from floppy drives in favor of disc burners and flash memory, saying that it’s all the computer makers forcing people to stop using floppy disks.
• Microsoft and Bill Gates in general, saying that Microsoft has a monopoly on 100% of all computers in the world, which isn’t true. (Windows is on roughly 95% of all home user’s computers, but only 50% in commercial environments, with fierce competition from UNIX.)
• The fan of a power supply sucking air into the computer, which he thought wasn’t efficient even though he knows nothing about physics.
• The use of fiber optics and burying lines in the ground.
• The computer industry’s change from analog to digital, particularly the “copier industry,” as glamorous as a “copier technician” sounds like.
• The need to learn a new operating system every few years, even though the Windows interface is almost EXACTLY the same from version to version.
• The archaic nature of the Command Console and DOS commands, even though he was told it’s archaic and confusing.
• The “confusing nature” of doing basic tasks in Windows, like opening a folder. (Is double-click that hard?)
• The “confusing nature” of complex, multilayered problems, which are inherently supposed to be confusing. (Why else would they be complex, multilayered problems?)

What’s worse than a know-it-all braggart that doesn’t shut up? A know-nothing braggart that doesn’t shut up.