what's going on at Trolltech?

quite a number of developers will know Trolltech, the company behind Qt, the cross-platform framework for creating desktop applications (orignally in C++, and more recently, in Java). Qt has a long history and forms the basis of KDE.

anyway, Qt has long been a favourite of C++ developers on *nix systems. Windows developers weren't so lucky. Trolltech released a non-commercial edition of Qt, which i first learned about when Qt was in version 2.3. anyway, i never really used Qt then (even now, i just want to get started with it) but i did keep up to date with it. some open-source developers (originally behind the port of KDE to Cygwin) began an unofficial opensource native Windows. they succeeded, but they had to shut down binary builds because people (who weren't thinking of the implications of what they were doing) kept posting questions about the open-source Qt to the official Trolltech support team. and with the release of Qt 4, the team started creating (again unofficial) patches to the Qt opensource edition to make it build with compilers other than MinGW, which was the only system supported by Trolltech officially.

recently, the project has been closed. there are no new files because as the team says: "This project was closed because the goal to provide Qt/GPL on windows (inclusive msvc support) was achieved". more information can be found here. i guess that's because in the latest version of opensource Qt - even though Trolltech claims that Visual Studio support and integration is only provided with the commercial versions of Qt - you can build Qt and Qt-based applications using commandline tools with other compilers, including Visual Studio. but be careful, any commercial application you create must be completely licensed uner the GPL. as the Trolls themselves say, your product must be licensed exclusively under the GPL.

what i'm wondering is: why the change of heart? and Trolltech seems to have been bought by Nokia. so what happens to developers after this? your guess is as good as mine.

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my battery used to last longer!

i've noticed recently that my computer's battery isn't lasting as long as it was. i'm not quite sure why, but i think because i've installed quite a number of network applications (web server, at least 2 database servers, etc), my firewall program might just be the reason my processor (AMD Turion 64) is constantly running at top speed, instead of stepping down. so i'll do a format soon and change firewall programs, and find out how far.

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Design problems

i have to maintain a list of phone numbers. i also need to maintain the owners' details. but here's a problem: i already have access to the phone number data, but i'll fill up the owners' data as i go along. so here's the problem: how do i do this? quite a number of people have more than one phone number, so the phone number(s) cannot be the primary key. at the end of the day, each person whose data is recorded will have one or more phone numbers, but i currently have phone numbers but no associated personal data. how do i design my database so that i can fill in personal details when they come in, but i won't repeat any information and have a sufficiently extensible database design that can adapt to changing requirements?

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Enjoy your student days

leaving school and working isn't all it's jacked up to be. so many people just want to get out of school and begin their lives, but they're missing a single important thing: they're already living their lives. life started the day you were born, and continues till the day you die. somehow, we tend to miss that patently obvious fact and decide instead to wait for something or other to 'begin' our lives: "when i leave school, i'll really start living", "when i get my dream job, i'll really start living", "when we get married, we'll really start living"...please. you're alive, aren't you? life's going on all around you. assume today's the last day you'll ever live. do what you would if that were true today. then go ahead and do it everyday. each day is meant to be enjoyed to the full and maximized to the last. life is far too short not to be enjoyed; it's far too short for you not to make impact and influence your world. grow every day. hug someone you love. try to leave everyone better than you met them, and don't worry if they choose not to get better. laugh. cry. be human. for crying out loud, when did we become elastic plastic? we have fake eyelashes, fake fur coats, and we've become fake people (the fake fur and eyelashes are kinda okay - the fake people are a big no-no). make a kid laugh. tell someone you love them. there are so many things you can do, it's amazing we waste time with things that really don't bring us any fulfilment. and that's the main thing i want to say: make sure each day leaves you fulfiled. abayo!

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the dangers of copy and paste

copy and paste is dangerous. here's why.

a pastor was at a conference where the speaker said: 'the best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who was not my wife!' as the audience gasped, he continued: 'she was my mother!'. everyone clapped. the pastor decided to use the same thing back home. unfortunately he only remembered the first part, so he ended with: 'and i can't remember who she was!'

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mah first day at work

so i've been working. not quite what i'd imagined it to be. so far, it's been great. i was helping my boss with something, and i needed to use regular expressions somewhere down the line. here's the catch: i've never used regexes before. i was going to use Python to create a script to deal with the data, but then i switched to C++. for regex processing, i first employed the GRETA library, but for some reason, it didn't compile using Visual C++ 9.0, so i switched to Boost's regex. for a wonder, i didn't even need to download a pre-built jam executable - it compiled out of the box. Boost compiled, but since it was created before VC++ 9, it didn't recognize the compiler. it did build anyway, but i was getting puzzling errors about the regex library file missing. apparently, i didn't read what i should have - it assumed i build it with VC++ 8.0, and was looking for a library file with the version number embedded in the name - but my build didn't have a version number in the name. it basically amounted to showing the printer to the computer, but not actually plugging it in. ah well. at least i finally got it to work.

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my first day on the job so far...

i want to kill something. i want to rip flesh apart. i want to hit something and watch blood fly. why? i'm on the internet and using plain old Mozilla Firefox. i miss Flock! why should i login to Blogger just because i want to post on my blog? arrgh!

seriously, Flock has been cool...but i said this post was about work, not browsers. so, it's been good. so far. went somewhere with my boss and watched how business is done in Naija. ol' boy, e no easy o! met with an old friend i've not seen in over five years. maybe this is a month for old relationships...but i'll save that for later. anyway, i got to be called 'Sir' by someone older than me - which was quite embarrasing. i have to get used to it though - just not let it get to my head. if it does, maybe you'll do to me what Rooftop MCs have suggested: e la'gi mo! well, gotta go. see y'all later!

Back from school

got back home last night. whew! don't want to do that again. get home late, that is.

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Back in School

well, i made it back to school two days ago. seems in the last few months a number of my friends have hooked up with great girls. i say: "good riddance!" were they planning on hanging with me for the rest of their lives? guys! y'all are great, but...we really can't keep each other warm at night. and i really don't need to know some things. plus, i'm sure you want to have your own kids sometime...most of all, i'm definitely not happy, sorry, gay :D.

seriously, it's weird being back in school, even if it's only after a few weeks. guess it's not that bay's d with my guys around. Woody's around, for one. most of the guys in class have peeled out, so it's rather empty in the library. ah well. got to get some real work done.

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Switched!

at long last, i'm switching from Firefox to Flock, at least for the time being. and i'm liking it very much, so far. sorry, Firefox fanbois out there. the fact that i can use pretty much all my old extensions is a major plus, and i don't need themes.

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Annoyances

i'd like software developers to create their installs such that you can customize as much of the install as possible. take for instance Visual Studio 2008 Express. Even if you install VC++ 2008 Express on some other partition, the Windows SDK headers and libraries will end up on your primary partition - with no way to customize that behaviour. The same thing applies to XNA Game Studio 2.0 - it installs on your primary partition, even if you want to install it elsewhere (like i do!). i realize that system components (such as the .NET Framework) will be installed on the primary drive, but for everything else...as though that wasn't all, what are the strange looking things that got installed when i installed VC#? SQL Server Compact? huh? who wants to use that? i'll install SQL Server as and when i want, you...

stuff, and nonsense

thanks to Dade and some other folks, i'm getting to realize i've really slipped. i've got used to so many bad things i've been ignoring personal excellence. y'all, thanks!

another week gone by. and the year's a week old already. ah well. finally formatted my system, and trying to decide wheter or not to install both VC# 2005 and 2008 Express. i'm not sure i want to try out XNA programming just yet, but if i don't install now, i'll have to reinstall 2008 (it has sexier icons).

Softimage have released a new version of the XSI Mod Tool. For those who don't know what it is, it's a version of Softimage|XSI originally developed for modding games such as Half-Life 2. The latest version (6) also serves as a 3d authoring tool for XNA Game Studio Express. what i like about this version is that you can also use it for noncommercial 3D authoring because it can export to some well-known formats. i realize that this may be a bad move on Softimage's part, because they're effectively giving away XSI, but there are some restrictions on the polygon count that may be exported and so on. indie game developers and lazy modelers should get this.

Happy New Year!

seriously, it's 2008. praise God!