have to get to church now, but i was playing with Context Free, and after looking at examples and several tries, i created a checkerboard using it. 
the CFDG source is below:
startshape checkerMain
rule checkerMain {
// modify the numbers at the start to
// change how many are repeated
10* { y 2 } checker2 {}
}
rule checker2 {
10* { x 2 } checker {}
}
rule checker {
SQUARE {}
SQUARE { b .5 x 1 }
SQUARE { b .5 y 1 }
SQUARE { b 1 x 1 y 1 }
SQUARE { s .25 b .5 x 1 y 1 }
}
"Install" is probably my middle name, with curiosity being the middle letter you don't see in there. So my computer is loaded with all kinds of software "just in case". sometimes i play with 3d apps. the ones i really use are Blender, Wings3D, Yafaray. other 3d stuff i have installed now includes Google Sketchup, an old version of Amapi, trueSpace 7.61 beta, Softimage Mod Tool, Mapzone, Terragen 2 and the open beta of Genetica 3 (no longer available, since the full version was released. i just hope they don't come after me for using it past the beta period).
anyhow, i had a few Sketchup models i wanted to import to Blender, since Blender is what i use for primary scene setup. i found out that Sketchup can export compressed Google Earth files, which internally use the Collada format. i exported the models, uncompressed them, and attempted to load the Collada file into Blender. all i ended up getting was a set of axes, most likely because the Blender Collada importer is about two years old. the free version of Sketchup can only export to Google Earth. the paid version is available for 480 minutes of trial, and can export to other formats, including 3DS, Wavefront OBJ and DXF (Blender does an excellent job of importing and exporting Wavefront). so i was in a quandary. Google, clear thinking and patience turned up three no-cost, honest solutions:
so there you have it. i can stay honest and withing my (currently) really limited budget and use my Sketchup models in Blender!i realize that most people, being completely normal (and not scientists — how did they ever find out a cockroach will live without its head for over a week before dying of thirst? who was keeping count?), will be grossed out by cockroaches. so am i. but i'm really grateful for yesterday's cockroach. may it be happy in cockroach heaven, wherever that may be.
what has God got to do with cockroaches? plenty. apart from the fact that He created them, He's the only one who can explain to the disgusting vermin that we don't want to share home or hearth with them.
anyhow, due to a couple of reasons, i was really ticked off with my dad last night. i went to clean the car, and was really finding it hard to release the pent-up aggression. then out of practically nowhere, a cockroach came wandering on the car. i flicked it off with the cloth i was using to clean the car, and resumed cleaning. a few minutes later, i saw it wandering again somewhere on the wall, got really ticked off, and then dispatched it to cockroach afterlife — if there is any such thing. and then really weird thought came to me: what if God sent the cockroach for me to take out my aggression on? the thought was so ridiculous i had to laugh, but i'm not so sure God didn't. so i'm grateful that God cared enough to send me a cockroach (not that i'm asking for any more) :D
ok, so the 3-day weekend was fab. wasted a large portion of it playing Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, which is the most difficult Castlevania game i've played to date (the demon-inspired 16-bit ones don't count). as a review put it: You will die. A lot.
. anyhow, yesterday i decided to fire up Wings3D and see what i could come up with.
the original idea was to create a broadsword, but i kind of got bored with making a long blade and created a dagger. very simple dagger. then i remembered an old image in this article (skip to the last page, and click on the thumbnail), and decided to tamper with a good thing. modeling was done, fired up Blender for scene setup and materials. since i was being lazy, i didn't want to create a complex scene. i just wanted to play around with materials and Yafaray and Luxrender, for a couple of reasons.
when i first started using Blender, i didn't really like the internal raytracer. i could never seem to get the same great-looking scenes i saw in the galleries with it. then i heard of Yafray (the project that is now Yafaray), and i thought it sucked even more. i persevered, though, and i learnt how to use it to some extent (check out my DeviantArt gallery — and the scraps, too — to confirm). however, i've had to dispose of most of my knowledge about Yafray, because Yafaray is very different from it. sometime down the line, i started playing with Indigo and Luxrender. i liked both bcause of the great renders i saw, and disliked both because of the same reason — they are both unbiased renderers (which to me, means that they can take forever rendering if you let them. you stop the render when it's as good — think: noise or black spot free — as you want it). for the Basscom pen scene (look in my gallery for details), Indigo didn't render a texture (it only accepts UV-mapped textures), but Luxrender mauled it, so i preferred Indigo. that was until it went commercial (and i wish Nicholas Chapman and Ben Nolan success with Glare Technologies), and i started looking at Luxrender again.
so i worked hard last night to get my scene working well with both Yafaray and Luxrender, and left my lappie on all night rendering with Luxrender.
…i can just see myself beating them away with a stick…
ok, i finished Fable: The Lost Chapters last night as a goody-two shoes with a halo round his head and ghostly butterflies who tossed Jack of Blades' mask away. and i have a mild headache. since i finished it (finally!), it's off my computer. maybe until i get bored again. but that's not what this post is about.
i have recently developed a strange condition called a 'conscience'. meaning i currently kick against the order of the day here in Nigeria, where pirated software and software license violations abound. for the most part, anyway. somehow, the old "i can't afford it" line seems old and worn to me (even though it's basically true for me anyway — some weeks back i was ranting about how some stock photography @ 100USD+ would cripple me financially). at least for now — maybe this time i won't be able to suppress my conscience again.
being an on/off software developer, i agree wholeheartedly that software developers should receive something for their efforts. and that's why i praise open source developers. the time and devotion needed to complete any software project is appalling. to continue development when you're not getting paid for it is praiseworthy. so i moved toward using freely available software (mostly open-source) for most of my work, including web development. unfortunately, since i'm getting older (and hopefully wiser), i lean more toward RAD ways and means, including WYSIWYG. since i'm not currently using Dreamweaver, and my web development tools of choice are of an 'edit source then preview' variety, i miss the design view of Dreamweaver. i've literally forsaken a project because i've no interest in hand-editing XHTML. so if anyone can recommend a non-sucky design-view-type freely available web editor, i'd be glad. i might even give something for it. definitely not my kingdom though. it may be small, but it's still quite valuable. well then, later.
here's my first 'useful' Python script. it converts a Crosswire SWORD IMP file to the XML needed by OpenSong scripture files. if this is useful to you, please let me know. and please use, don't abuse. you can download it here. full source code available below, and you'll obviously need Python to use it. Want to try it out? Grab a SWORD module (raw ZIP only, please!, convert it to IMP by following these instructions as far as creating an IMP file is concerned, then use my script.
# imp2opensong - converts a SWORD IMP file to an OpenSong XML file # author: lewzscruz # date: 18-May-2009 # license: public domain, i guess. use, don't abuse # version: 0.2 ('cause i only tested with one source file!) def strip_markup(line): '''Strips ALL markup from a line''' temp = line while True: # get first opening angle bracket open_angle_pos = temp.find('<') # quit if there's none if open_angle_pos == -1: return temp # get first closing angle bracket close_angle_pos = temp.find('>', open_angle_pos) # strip out the markup temp = temp[:open_angle_pos] + temp[close_angle_pos + 1:] # prompt for input and output files sourcefile = open(raw_input('Where is the input file? ')) destfile = open(raw_input('Where should I put the output file? '), 'w') # start writing destfile.write('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>\n') destfile.write('<bible>\n') old_book = current_book = '' old_chapter = current_chapter = '' verse = '' while True: # read lines till EOF line = sourcefile.readline() if line == '': break # trim the newline line = line[:-1] # don't do empty lines, # empty verses will be handled below if line == '': continue # and 'useless' lines if line.startswith('$$$['): continue # if we have a 'control' line if line.startswith('$$$'): # get the colon's location in the line... colon_pos = line.rfind(':') # ...and that of the space between the book name and the # chapter and verse lastspace_pos = line.rfind(' ') # ...now we know what book we're in... current_book = line[3:lastspace_pos] # ...the chapter... current_chapter = line[lastspace_pos + 1:colon_pos] # ...and the verse! verse = line[colon_pos + 1:] # if we changed books on this line, if old_book != current_book: # and we didn't just start, if old_book != '': # close the old chapter and book destfile.write('</c>\n') destfile.write('</b>\n') # start a fresh book old_book = current_book old_chapter = current_chapter = '' destfile.write('<b n="%s">\n' % (current_book,)) continue # if we changed chapters, if old_chapter != current_chapter: # and it's not the beginning of a book, if old_chapter != '': # close previous chapter destfile.write('</c>\n') # start a fresh chapter old_chapter = current_chapter destfile.write('<c n="%s">\n' % (current_chapter,)) # output real verses (there are fake ones in the source file), # including empty ones if verse != '0': # get the next line and strip the newline nextline = sourcefile.readline()[:-1] # output it, stripping any markup and whitespace destfile.write('<v n="%s">%s</v>\n' % (verse, strip_markup(nextline).strip())) # finally, close the last chapter of Revelation, # Revelation itself, and the Bible destfile.write('</c>\n') destfile.write('</b>\n') destfile.write('</bible>\n') # thanks for all the fish! sourcefile.close() destfile.close()
…or so i'd like to say. But i can't. It's been over 5 years since my mom passed on. And since i'm not comfortable with the idea of talking with the departed, i'll just rant.
Mom should have been 50 today. My dad was telling me last night that if she was still here, he'd have organized a suprise party for her (she didn't like people making a fuss about her :)
ever since that day in January 5 years ago, we've done what we could to get along without her. And been rather successful at it. But sometimes, we crack. Like last night, when Dad's voice broke for a few seconds leading prayers. Or when i'm feeling particularly cut off from humanity. Or Dad's saying something crazy & i'm looking for someone to tell, "please come & take your husband!" (happens quite often actually XD). Anyhow, i'm about done here. We miss Mom. And we're grateful for the time we had with her.
today's rant started rather simply. i'd set my Facebook language to Pirates (English)— rather fun by the way, info courtesy Dade — and wanted to show some notifications I'd gotten via Twitter. I wanted something a little more than (Alt-)Print Screen, and could do some basic editing in it. I've used Techsmith's software offerings before, and they have a free lightweight screencap utility called Jing, and i decided to use that. then the fun began. i decided to actually read the license agreement for Jing, and by the time i got to the third paragraph i was tired of reading, for a couple of reasons:
i still don't know if the license asks me to murder my mother. and quite frankly, i really don't care. must it be so difficult to get software to use? even freeware? if i'm a measure of most people, license agreements are far too wordy and verbose to be of much interest/use to the people it affects the most. and i've no doubt in my mind that that is exactly what the lawyers want. did i mention i hate lawyers already? are you trying to help people or set traps for them, for crying out loud? i eventually installed Jing — without completing the license agreement — only to find that my internet was insane again and would not resolve Jing's mothership, the Screencast.com website. and since it's a new install, Jing didn't work. after uninstalling Jing and googling, i found Bug Shooting, another free screen capture software that has a smaller installer and a more readable license agreement. yes, it appears to lack a feature that Jing has and i'm used to — auto-capturing a window (you have to manually select the window area yourself), but i think that's not such a big problem if i can actually use the software, and it doesn't get in my way. Disclaimer: Jing is actually quite good. i've used it a bit, but i recommend you getting the not-free, but better-featured (and in my opinion, much better-behaved) Snagit if you can afford it. it probably worth the cash you'd fork out for it. i once got a free licence, but i wasn't in the mood for hunting it down where i'd backed it up.
anyhoo, here are screenshots of the respective license agreements for Jing and Bug Shooter. decide for yourself which one's easier to read (screenshots taken with Bug Shooting. and i still had to launch the GIMP to make the edits i wanted. picture i wanted to upload is here).
EDIT: double-clicking the Bug Shooting icon in the taskbar takes a screenshot of the currently focused window
I have my own little world, Surrounded by my toys and my dreams, I'm often occupied, Tinkering away, In my little bit of earth. One day I spied someone, Curiosity ate at me, I wanted to meet them, But they were in their own world. I had blocks you know, Toys I treasured, So many of them, But my growing wonder At the sight of another Could not be denied. I got to the edge of my world I leaned and stretched as far as I could Yet my arms and legs fell short. I wanted to weep, run away and give up, saying I had tried. Then a thought came to me "Build a bridge" "What with?" "Your valued toys" I fought the idea "What? Give up my toys?" "Start while they're still there" So I dropped one block, not sure it would stay. To my surprise, it hung in the air, and never did sway. I built a little bit more, then gingerly stepped, to see if it would hold, I i decided to step on it. Once again wonder filled me As my toys did hold my weight And I let go of my land. Since then I've built some more bridges, Some I've completed, and seen other worlds, Some never reached the other world, Since my desire turned cold. It was a day like any other, I was tinkering again, Somewhat older, hardened, much colder Concealing my pain. But you looked like the sun that parted the dark clouds, I felt a stirring, like a coming to life, and somehow some warmth flickered in this cold heart again. So I wanted to meet you, But my toys would not do. For as far as they could go, I'd already built. All I had left were my dreams, very precious and few, If I were to use them, then what would I do? But love pushed me forward, In tears did I build, For it counted you worthy To walk over my hopes. At last I have finished, This bridge of my heart, The causeway is narrow, But it plays its part. I hope to welcome you To my world, and live in yours But as I escort you, Yeats will inspire my lips and my only desire: "HAD I the heavens embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."
Saturday was not the nicest day I've spent in a while. Church had a program that day and the next, and I had a number of responsibilities to handle, including the ones I normally have at home. On the good side, my brother was home for the weekend, so he could handle some of the chores at home. On the minus side, he had to go out, and I was just informed that morning that painters were supposed to come to the flat that day :(
So the day basically progressed…after the church program in the evening, I was supposed to go somewhere with some other folks — when the clouds turned dark for the umpteenth time that day — but they meant business this time. it started raining, and we weren't able to get bikes where we were headed because of the rain. Everyone fired up his "Legediz Benz" and started hurrying while being pelted. Someone then said, "God do something", and I (jokingly) remarked that what if God, acting mischievous, decided to turn the knob controlling the rain to "Heavy Rain"? It started as a joke, but the rain did indeed get heavier — we all got soaked through and through. Still being pelted by the rain, I brought up the issue, and we all agreed, "God, don't do something! Turn off the rain!"
Moral of the story? Don't ask God to do "something". Ask Him to do something specific. :D
this post is fairly ordinary — it's just a rant about some software i've had to deal with today. this morning, i was using my brother's computer when iTunes informed me that there was an update. great. i decided to update it, only to be reminded why i no longer use iTunes — it's bundled with QuickTime. you can get QuickTime by itself, if memory serves me, but you can't get iTunes by itself. shame.
something similar happened today when updating Aptana Studio. i'd installed the basic distro quite all right, then i wanted to update it to get some functionality (Javascript libraries, etc). most everything went smoothly when i only installed functionality for the latest version of the Javascript libraries except YUI and MooTools. i'd install support for the latest supported version, restart Apatana Studio, and it would prompt me again. the problem went away for MooTools when i decided to install support for the older version as well. the problem for YUI is that the download is large, so installing support for older versions will just eat disk space and not give me any returns. sigh.
UPDATE: yes, installing support for versions 2.4 through 2.7 of YUI for Apatana Studio left no more complaints. whoopee.
I've sort of settled with a programming language I generally use, C#. I know other languages too, and sometimes I wish I did more Python programming. Python really simplifies programming. As an example, I coded an application recently that automated pushing form values to a web page. In C# 3.0, the code would look like this:
using System.Collections.Specialized;
using System.Net;
//...
var formData = new NameValueCollection { { "Var1", "Value1}, {"Var2", "Value2"}};
var webClient = new WebClient();
webClient.UploadValues("http://localhost/localapp.aspx", formData);
In Python 2.X, the code would look like this:
import urllib
#...
formData = urllib.urlencode({ "Var1" : "Value1", "Var2" : "Value2"})
urllib.urlopen("http://localhost/localapp.aspx", formData)
There's no error handling or anything special in this. This example is rather contrived, to be completely fair, but when you add other things like multivariable assignment, and take into consideration Python's standard library, you might understand why I'm envious. Ah well
Joel Spolsky has an excellent article on customer service. I didn't really think there was much to the article until someone shocked me by doing something like that for me
there are several ORM toolkits for the .NET platform, most notably NHibernate. i came across Habanero sometime back, and i can't remember how, but i tried using it for a project, and found out that the FireStarter tool didn't apparently support Windows authentication for SQL Server. i decided to send them feedback about this, and got an immediate email that my feedback had been received. nothing strange about that. what is remarkable was that i got an email from the Habanero team yesterday detailing some workaround that allowed me use Windows authentication with both Habanero and Firestarter. considering that i'm not a paying customer, i'm really impressed with this. here's a big one for the Habanero team!
i've always had an interest in music. not merely as a listener and enjoyer of the audio arts, but i always wanted to make my own tracks. for fun and personal enjoyment. so i have a collection of VST instruments and effects, but i've never really gotten down to making any tracks. same as i've not done any 3D in a while :( anyhow, last night i got to being serious with at least making a 2-instrument track longer than 5 seconds :D so, in all its glory, i present to the world my lastest "hit" and expect those royalties to start coming in anytime soon (but i'm not holding my breath :D)
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it began with a call: “B's taking us to the movies, but insists O comes with a date, so…”. i'm a pretty solo kinda person. i don't really come into contact with people for the most part of the week. we're less than 10 at the office and only two in my area of it, and then i go home where it's just family — i rarely even see, much less talk to the neighbours. my phone rarely rings or beeps outside work hours. it's a life i'm used to — it sucks, but at least i know it.
but this date thing caught me offguard. even though i prepared for it, told my dad i would be having a sleepover, i was still reluctant to go. O called me on the morning, and thought i didn't have her number cause of the way i spoke. at any rate, i stayed late at the office. after waiting for the ladies to show up, we went to see Watchmen at the Palms. first time i ever went to the movies — and of all the movies to see, i just had to go watch Watchmen. as far as i'm concerned, very bad choice (plus some of my popcorn got lifted).
i basically glowered most of the movie, especially after the popcorn was gone. the ladies didn't seem to like it either, since they paid more active attention to me than the movie. i was basically regretting the waste of my time in something i didn't enjoy. i have my own timewasters — but i at least enjoy them. i pushed the feeling that i was the group wet blanket away several times, and did nothing to improve my mood or attitude (yes, i know. sue me — i'm a far more skilled jerk than nice guy). anyhoo, my date complains later that i ignored her. i keep my usual sarcasm in check and basically say nothing. she's basically saying something i already know about me: i suck at relating with humans. odd. because despite my fighting it i remain human.
my dad sent this to me, and i felt it was too good to pass up. here y'all go:
I've been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second grade classroom a few years back.
When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness and usually, show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about it, they're welcome.
Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater. She holds up a snapshot of an infant. 'This is Luke, my baby brother, and I'm going to tell you about his birthday.'
'First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mom's stomach, and Luke grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord.' She's standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I'm trying not to laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her in amazement.
'Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mom starts saying and going, 'Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh!' Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans. 'She walked around the house for, like an hour, 'Oh, oh, oh!' (Now this kid is doing a hysterical duck walk and groaning.)
'My Dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn't have a sign on the car like the Domino's man. They got my Mom to lie down in bed like this.' (Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall.)
'And then, pop! My Mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like psshh heew!' (This kid has her legs spread with her little hands miming water flowing away. It was too much!)
'Then the middle wife starts saying 'push, push,' and 'breathe, breathe. They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff that they all said it was from Mom's play-center, (placenta) so there must be a lot of toys inside there. When he got out, the middle wife spanked him for crawling up in there.'
Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat. I'm sure I applauded the loudest.. Ever since then, when it's show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another 'Middle Wife' comes along.
Now you have two choices...laugh and close this page or pass this along to someone else to spread the laughs.. I know what I did!!!
today, i was reminded about what it means to provoke a blessing. normally, the word “provoke” is used in a negative context; but i like what the Free Online Dictionary says: “to give rise to, to evoke; to bring about deliberately”. that's what happened today. i was rushing off to work this morning, and somehow dropped my wallet in the bus i took. there wasn't much money in the wallet, but it did contain my ID cards, some business cards and my ATM card. i was tempted to despair — just how deeply, i'll leave you to guess. but i decided that i'd walk in faith about it and remembered telling God that i give the tithe, and so the devourer is rebuked for my sake. i went back home and dropped my laptop off, then started coming over to work.
when i got to work, i found that someone had called my office saying i'd dropped my wallet. i wasn't sure about calling back since he might have called from a business line. when he didn't call most of the day — and i'd confirmed that he did call from a business line, i was tempted again to despair. i decided to keep trusting God's word instead, regardless of how i felt. i left the office not having heard from the finder. on my way home, my colleague sent me a text saying the guy had called from a business line and i should call him back. i set up a meeting, but it still didn't feel like the guy would return my wallet. after getting home, i waited till the meeting time then. i had mixed feelings — joy that i'd be getting my wallet back, and a temptation that it was just a game. to cut the story short, the person who found my wallet showed up. he was a secondary school kid. i gave him what i could, and wanted to clear off, but i didn't feel satisfied. i decided to pray for him there on the street, but i still didn't feel like i'd “hit” it. it's the second time in less than a week i've had this feeling. this first was when my sister came over when we were out and helped us with cooking and me with my laundry.
when i got home, i was still praying for him. i guess i kind of understand how God felt when Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings to Him. there're just some things you do that make people want to bless you. i experienced God's blessing today, and someone was used by Him, and i felt provoked to share that blessing with him. that's all. except i got my wallet and its contents (complete with the N10 in it :D) without having to go to the police or do any funny stuff. and the wallet came back to me. i couldn't have gone looking for it anyway. coincidence? i think not.
this morning, i was editing some code, and Resharper warned me about a possible System.NullReferenceException. i'd been bitten before by this in the same code, but that was because i didn't understand how XmlReader worked then. here is the original code:
MessageDatabase messageDatabase = null;
MessageTable messageTable = null;
while (configReader.Read())
{
if (configReader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element)
{
// ...
if (configReader.Name == "messagedatabase")
{
messageDatabase = new MessageDatabase();
messageDatabase.Name =
configReader.GetAttribute("name");
MessageDatabases.Add(messageDatabase);
}
if (configReader.Name == "messagetable")
{
messageTable = new MessageTable();
messageTable.Name =
configReader.GetAttribute("name");
messageDatabase.MessageTables.Add(messageTable);
}
if (configReader.Name == "identityfield")
messageTable.IdentityFieldName =
configReader.ReadElementString();
// ...
as you can probably tell, it's supposed to parse an XML file and convert it into a bunch of objects. nothing wrong with that. it takes into account the structure of the XML and makes an assumption based on that, namely, the <messagedatabase> element is always processed before the <messagetable> element, so messageDatabase will be set to an existing MessageDatabase object before any MessageTable instance is created.
a more explicit version of the code is shown below:
while (configReader.Read())
{
if (configReader.NodeType != XmlNodeType.Element) continue;
// ...
if (configReader.Name == "messagedatabase")
{
var messageDatabase = new MessageDatabase
{
Name = configReader.GetAttribute("name")
};
MessageDatabases.Add(messageDatabase);
}
if (configReader.Name == "messagetable")
{
var index = MessageDatabases.Count - 1;
var messageTable = new MessageTable
{
Name = configReader.GetAttribute("name")
};
var currentDb = MessageDatabases[index];
currentDb.MessageTables.Add(messageTable);
}
if (configReader.Name == "identitfyfield")
{
var dbIndex = MessageDatabases.Count - 1;
var currentDb = MessageDatabases[dbIndex];
var tblIndex = currentDb.MessageTables.Count - 1;
var currTbl = currentDb.MessageTables[tblIndex];
currTbl.IdentityField =
configReader.ReadElementString();
}
while this is more explicit, the code is simply more. for each property of the MessageTable, i must get the index of the last database and the last table in it, and then set the values accordingly. that plain sucks.
there was one good thing about writing this post: i finally thought about where i could optimize the loop that advances configReader, and added continue statements where they wouldn't cause exceptions. :D
i had an emergency, and needed to send someone an email. i'd just installed Opera Mini, and decided to acutally use it instead of my phone's default browser. i logged into GMail, opened the mail i wanted to forward, and began forwarding it. i had to attach a file, so i copied it to my phone's memory card and attached it with no hassles. the problem was that every time i clicked 'Send', GMail would belch up an error concerning an invalid email address, which came to something like “/tmp/<gobbledygook>”. i resent this email thrice, to the same effect. Opera Mini is a great mobile browser. but i'm really shaken, as this is my first time using it, and i had this problem. ah well. since my main internet came up, i no longer needed to send the mail (which incidentally, was saved in my 'Drafts' folder).
i love Python. i find it one of the most expressive programming languages i know. It's saved my bacon quite a number of times. for instance, when i generate test data for other applications i write, i generally generate the data (and usually the SQL to insert it into a database) with Python. also, when it comes to sorting data, it's much faster to write scripts to do basic data sorting (as an example, sorting out CDRs from Asterisk) in Python than it is in most languages. today was no exception. i had loads of numbers to send text messages to and i needed to weed out invalid destinations. for the first 50 or so, it was easy enough (but tiresome) to do by hand. when i started to look at just how many, i decided to write a script to help me sort out the numbers. abut 10 minutes later (mostly spent trying to create regular expressions that would do just what i wanted), i was done. and most of the program worked beautifully (well, there were some hiccups. i'm not perfect!)
my laptop uses an AMD Turion 64 processor that clocks in about 1.8GHz. i've always thouht it was a pretty good one — at least until this morning. i've never been faced with the value of multiple-core processors personally as today. what happened is i was trying to get back into design & 3D, so i decided to model & render items i could find around me. so i started modeling this:
after modeling and setting up the scene in Blender to render with Indigo, i started a render. almost six and a half hours into the render, it looks like this:
then i take the scene to the office and try rendering on a Pentium Dual Core 2.0Ghz. about four and a half hours later, it look like this:
obviously the second render is better. and it ran for a shorter time. i'm officially jealous! i want a multiple-core system now! :D
just a simple quickie here. i completed my application (somewhat...do we ever really complete applications?) - and the service it was meant to configure — then found out that while it ran beautifully in console mode, it just sat there after connecting to the SMPP server. i kept wondering what the problem was. much later i realized that the service was created to run using the local Service account, which is a low-privileged account. as such, it cannot connect using Windows authentication to SQL Server versions that support it. in reality, this is the second time i've faced this issue. at any rate, all i needed to do was change the service to run under the local System account (a highly privileged account) and the problem was solved. another solution would probably be to use SQL Server authentication, which Microsoft doesn't recommend. yet running a service using the local system account is also seen as a bad idea. i guess you'll need to make a tradeoff to solve this problem.
by the way, this is the app i was complaining about. 
. many thanks to Component Factory for the excellent (and free) Krypton Toolkit.
i was working on the config application for a service i wrote...but i ran into something really strange: 
Just now I was having dinner, and the TV was on. We're subscribed to DStv, and while I usually don't watch TV, my computer was busy in the room, so I had to manage until I was done with dinner. M-Net Movies was showing The Matador, and I just happened to watch the scene where Bean (Hope Davis) wakes up and meets Danny (Greg Kinnear) having breakfast. They start kissing and then it gets heavier; Bean asks Danny if he has enough time, Danny already strips to his shorts when he shouts, "Tree!" — and a tree crashes into their kitchen. I could hardly stop laughing. I don't care how hard your hard-on is—a tree crashing where you want to have sex will put a stop to that quickly. No, I didn't stick around to watch the rest of the movie (it's still running now). Oddly enough, while reading about the movie, I found out that Danny asks Bean if she's still horny after the tree crashes. Is he an idiot or what?. Now if I were God...
Mono is definitely some great software. I downloaded and built Mono on our Asterisk server because it seemed I'd have to develop the application to handle the automated calling on Linux. Not wanting to hurt myself with PHP, Ruby or Python (time frame), I decided to continue using C# and .NET, since I knew enough about Mono to know it is cross-platform. What I wasn't prepared for is just how cross-platform it (and .NET) is. After downloading and building it, I created a "Hello, World" application in it and ran it on the Linux server. I then moved the compiled assembly to my Windows desktop and it ran with the Microsoft .NET framework! After I got home, I built one of my old programs, which had a reference to the excellent FileHelpers library. The library was probably built with Microsoft's tools, but I was able to build (and run) the application using Mono (for Windows).
That's pretty amazing, but the last part is even more amazing. I just tested the Devshock SMPP component (which was definitely built on Windows, using VB.NET), in a program I wrote using Mono on Linux. There's a text on my phone now that proves that .NET is an awesome platform, and Mono is a great cross-platform implementation of that platform. Mono rocks. Period.
for some reasons, i've been interested in using Asterisk.NET (mostly because code completion in a GUI beats grokking code in a command line). one problem i'd always had, though, was making calls. for some reason, i'd just get the message 'Originate failed' returned to me. today i was working on my sample program again, when i got the same error. i then started looking through the Asterisk.NET code to find out what i could be doing wrong. i also dug out my trusty copy of .NET Reflector to analyze the assembly.
the main source of aggravation was that i could use call files, and they'd work. but with Asterisk.NET, at most i'd get a missed call. my code went something like this:
after some sniffing around in Reflector, i found the
var myManagerConn = new ManagerConnection();
myManagerConn.Hostname = "asterisk-server";
myManagerConn.Username = "admin";
myManagerConn.Password = "god";
myManagerConn.Port = 5038;
var action = new OriginateAction();
action.Channel = "SIP/3595009";
action.CallerId = "3595009";
action.Context = "robocall";
action.Exten = "10";
action.Priority = 1;
myManagerConn.Login();
myManagerConn.SendAction(action);
myManagerConn.Logoff();
Timeout property for the OriginateAction class. i went looking in the code, and found that Asterisk would set it to a specific value (30000 milliseconds) if it wasn't set. knowing .NET initialization, however, i guessed that the underlying field was probably set to 0, and set the property explicitly to 30000. i ran the program again, and the call came in, the phone kept ringing (yay!) — but the program generating the call threw an exception complaining about a timeout. i increased the timeout to one minute to no avail. i then decided to set the timeout parameter for the SendAction() method of the Asterisk.NET.Manager.ManagerConnection. the resulting call was like this:
myManagerConn.SendAction(action, 30000);i wanted to install PEAR on my Windows machine as a prelude to installing symfony. i'd installed PEAR before on Windows, no biee. but when i tried using the batch file to install PEAR today, i was greeted with a list of 12 options after deciding to install a system-wide copy. the last option specified C:\ as the PHP executable path. every time i changed it to C:\, i couldn't continue to install PEAR. i had to leave it as-is, install PEAR, then edit the pear.ini file to specify a correct path. ideas, anyone?
as an example of just how shallow my relationships are, i just told my neighbour "Happy New Year". on the 19th. my neighbour. we live in the same building. and have lived every single day of this year in said building. pretty pathetic, don't you think?
quite a bit has happened since i was here last. for one thing, it's now over 5 years since my mum passed on. and it seems that my dad is "officially moving on" — whatever that means in English. monday i was going home from work, and i saw this really hot (translate: hawt) chick getting out at Obalende. great body, pretty as a flower and had this really nice musical voice (i have no idea what that means either, but it sounds good ;)…and i started thinking about my life.
an ache i hadn't felt in a while came up (though i did the sensible thing and went looking for my next bus instead of gawking), an ache to have someone to hold, to talk to (don't act like you never felt it before! guys really want to have a beaty to rescue!)…and all that. there is no such person in my life. and in the last couple of months, i've been asked (subtly and non-too-subtly) quite a number of times about my "relationshipital" status. no, there's no one either here or on the horizon. so if i really want to hug someone, i'd better grab my pillow. and maybe weep into it. except i'm not that lame. or so i'd like to think. or maybe not. either way, it doesn't really matter since what i do with my pillow doesn't affect the price at which i buy fish in the market.
it's not like i've lacked opportunity to dig trenches and build bridges. at least i'm not in the "women are irritating" phase right now (on the contrary, they're currently interesting — but shall this soon come to pass also? i'm unhurried :D) it's just that for the most part — i get bored (ladies, seriously, it's got nothing to do with you. i easily get "bored" normally. so don't show up at my house with pitchforks, ok? ;), for lack of a better description. maybe they piss me off. maybe i piss them off. i dunno. rare has been the woman who held my attention for 6 weeks or more. i think i broke something. though i can't tell. few and far between are the friends with whom i share my secrets. that's another thing i realized. i've so many shallow relationships, i may just be scared of a real relationship. it's really easy to say, hi, bye. hey sweetie, you're looking good and all that crap, but…i need real relationships. not plastic people with vinyl smiles that are cracked and faded. i'm not even sure where this is coming from. despair? regret? but then, where exactly did i miss it? dunno. maybe this is just a random rant coming from a testosterone overload, but it doesn't matter. since it really doesn't affect the price of fish, anyway.
all said and done, i'll was over it in a couple of hours, then wonder why in the world i posted this anyway. since i wasn't the one who killed Jesus, and i'm not the third leg in humanity. just for fun, i wonder what kind of person would lose sleep thinking about me (ladies, here's an itty bitty cheat sheet: guys want to know you're thinking of them too. really. even though they act tough. guys like me, anyway. unless of course, i'm right and i'm in the minority ;). anyway, enough ranting. off to bed to start what i believe will be a glorious week. why? we two oddballs are going to be spending more time together. and it won't matter that there is no trench in progress. who's the other oddball? naisho da. have a great week!
PS: last year, i needed to do a head scan. i was somewhat excited about it because i believed that i would finally find out what nuts and whatnots were not in place in my head. the result came back…normal. seriously. i had a regular brain like everyone else. not a clockwork one. or an electronic one (might have fried a few circuits). it felt like a letdown. yet another proof that despite my best efforts, ore wa tada no ningen. ah well.
still here. yep, opened this year rather late, but it's no biggie. 2008 was a great year, and i have high expectations of myself this year. nothing works until you make it work by finding how it should work then putting that knowledge into practice. so go out and make it a great year for yourself. and one more thing: new year resolutions suck. don't bother. just make normal decisions and live by them.
been meaning to mention it for a while now: Hellsing is over. bit of a letdown, that ending. ah well. guess one can't have everything. no, i'm not telling you! go read it yourself. also, watched the last episode of Ga-Rei Zero last night. awesome ending. hope we get to see an anime series released soon. yes, i know i wondered what trashy anime was released when i watched the first two episodes. if it wasn't for someone else, i'd not have bothered watching anymore. boy, am i glad i did complete it.
on a not-so-light note, Chromium lacks print preview - and i'm not the only one missing it. what are the developers thinking? what good is a browser with no print preview (quite a bit, but i'm trying to stress a point here)?
i was thinking recently of the fact that Opera 10 alpha passes the Acid 3 test. great news for web developers and designers, but does that mean Opera will get a larger market share? and how does that translate into cash for Opera? passing the Acid 3 test does not mean that more users — a demographic much larger than the demographic of web designers or developers — will use Opera 10. yet, the fact that Opera 10 passes a test that the more popular browsers fail is a good thing - if you ask me
Thanks, Dayo for sending this to me
A mom was concerned about her kindergarten son walking to school. He didn't want his mother to walk with him. She wanted to give him the feeling that he had some independence but yet know that he was safe. So she had an idea of how to handle it. She asked a neighbor if she would please follow him to school in the mornings, staying at a distance, so he probably wouldn't notice her.
She said that since she was up early with her toddler anyway, it would be a good way for them to get some exercise as well, so she agreed. The next school day, the neighbor and her little girl set out following behind Timmy as he walked to school with another neighbor girl he knew. She did this for the whole week. As the two walked and chatted, kicking stones and twigs, Timmy's little friend noticed the same lady was following them as she seemed to do every day all week. Finally she said to Timmy, 'Have you noticed that lady following us to school all week? Do you know her?'
Timmy nonchalantly replied, 'Yeah, I know who she is.' The little girl said, 'Well, who is she?' 'That's just Shirley Goodnest,' Timmy replied, 'and her daughter Marcy.' 'Shirley Goodnest? Who the heck is she and why is she following us?' 'Well,' Timmy explained, 'every night my Mom makes me say the 23rd Psalm with my prayers, 'cuz she worries about me so much. And in the Psalm, it says, 'Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me all the days of my life', so I guess I'll just have to get used to it!'
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift His countenance upon you, and give you peace.
May Shirley Goodnest and Marcy be with you today and always. I'm sure you smiled! I sure did.
…when it isn't worth it logging in to Megaupload to download a file for free to cut the waiting time from 45 to 25 seconds. condiments of the seasoning to all.
i'm supposed to have moved my focus from the SMS part of my employer's business to IVR. i've had to deal with a flowchart-based development environment i find very annoying. plus, since i had no prior experience with telephony systems, quite a bit is lost on me. i've mostly been fumbling around in the dark.
this morning, my boss called me and asked me if i could develop a voice broadcast application using that environment. since i'd been having problems with it, i said i'd try. since then, i have failed in trying to get the application to make outbound calls. the alternative was to call in a consultant who's very good with Asterisk. i called him, but not after i discovered Asterisk.NET. before long, i had learned a little about the Asterisk Manager Interface and AGI, both of which i never knew existed before today, even though i've played around with Asterisk as part of my job. i also found the Sipek VoIP projects site. hopefully, i'll be able to build the application needed either by using Asterisk.NET or the Sipek SDK. either way, things should work out now.
Python 3.0 is out (i'm a couple days late on this one), and it isn't backward compatible with the 2.X series. looks like they really gave some thought as to where Python should go. i guess that means development of the 2.X series will basically be mostly bugfixes from now on. still, there seems to be a lot to like about the new Python, even though it's slower than 2.6 on the pystone benchmark (i cannot believe they actually took a line from Basic and added the <> operator in Python. thank goodness it's been removed in 3.0!). let's see how things go, especially with open-source projects that use Python. i'm personally wondering where IronPython goes (yes, they did it - got me sold on .NET. doesn't mean i now despise C++ though. i still plan on using it from time to time).
and thanks to Segun who gave me a ride yesterday when i forgot my wallet at home. you're the best, bro!
seems my previous post was somewhat more popular than usual, judging from the two comments i got on it. so, i'm writing this more or less in response to those comments.
my answer is: it depends on a number of factors. what do you want to do? create a client or server? is working with unmanaged code a requirement? what kind of timeline do you have? is reading through code and class diagrams your way of learning, or is it one step above swallowing broken glass? must you absolutely have commercial support? what about licensing? when you look at all these, your mileage will definitely vary. at any rate, below i give some of the things i've picked up about these components. hope it helps!
BasheerG asked if i tested for performance & high load. no i didn't - i didn't have the space to, since i was (mostly) moved from the SMS arm of my employer's concerns. to answer your other question, if i could afford it, i'd go for the IP*Works first, then RoaminSMPP, then Devshock. i've no idea where i'd place the ALT.SMS.SmppClient. maybe lurking around the forum might help me decide. i'd hate to use the SMPPLIB component because of COM issues. and since EasySmpp didn't work effectively for me, i'd not use it. i hope this helps you and Sandip.
phew! what a weekend! Dad was out of town, so it was just my brother& i at home till last night. man, this was the illest weekend so far - as regards tiredness. i can't believe Friday & Saturday i was retiring before 10pm. dude, i really need some downtime - but i'm afraid that may not be till next month.
spent some time designing a website. unfortunately, it seems sticky-footer layouts are mutually exclusive with centered layouts. i can either allow the content pane be centered in browser window, or i can make the footer stick to the bottom of the browser window. so far, i haven't managed to let it do both.
i usually dislike the mass mail i sometimes get, but this one's got something in it so i'll reprduce it here:
One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey. He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt.The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.
see y'all some other time
was just wording with Legzitano on Facebook chat, and for some crazy reason, the conversation went like this:
Legzie: tryna stash cash me: in a flash, smoking brown hash, flipping the ash Legzie: brown hash is trash cos you may crash me: word bro...just tryna make that rhyme Legzie: lol me: maybe we should dash? grab some mash? what a bash! Legzie: good, bro! you sing like Nash me: omo, battery don dey run down Legzie: no vex! ryhming no easy
i'm almost tempted to agree with the guy who said, "Of all the things i lost, it's my mind i miss the most". almost. but not quite.
yesterday i found out (courtesy of friends on Facebook) about an event that has quite a number of people abuzz: the assault of some civilians on Monday in Victoria Island by naval servicemen, including someone i knew a couple of years ago. in the aftermath, she - and some other person - is suing the Nigerian Navy to the tune of N100m. personally, i think this is both bad & good:
i could go on, but let it suffice to say that things don't look too bright. i hope the support of Uzoma and the rest isn't just for show, that we are willing to take bullets for what we believe is right, instead of merely talking about it and 'thanking God' secretly it didn't happen to us. Nigeria is ripe for change, but that change will begin with individual action. when we are true to ourselves first, then to each other, we can change things. until then...we can only hope that the pigs don't make us worse off than the humans, to paraphrase Blair.
ever heard of Waiting for Godot? you can find out more by clicking the previous link. sometimes, waiting for God can seem like waiting for Godot...it seems He never makes it. i realized why we get tired of waiting for God to show up with something promised: every time we're waiting for God, we're presented with the option of not waiting for Him.
today, some things weren't okay at home, and since i returned from church first, i could either go fix them or wait for my dad and brother to return to get them fixed. one of them was lunch. for some unknown sentimental reason, i was loath to get lunch (i wasn't in a position to cook it) without them being around. so i tried calling. all their phones were unreachable. i was hungry. really. so i waited. then i reached my dad. he said they were on their way. i waited some more. fell asleep. woke up. by this time, as Rudyard Kipling would say, my patience had already gone where dead crabs go. so i fixed myself something to eat. while eating it, i realized that this was the same choice we always have to make when waiting for God.
i can no longer stand with my arms akimbo and accuse Abraham of impatience, for i, too, have been impatient. i looked at the clock ticking, and said to myself, "God(ot) will never show up. looks like it's time to take care of business myself". and like Abraham, only the future can tell what i messed up by "taking care of business". i may not have been promised a son the way he was, but God has promised things in His word that i need/want, and sometimes i took the alternative and stopped trusting God. that's right. that's what happens when you choose the alternative. you pretty much say, "God, time's in your hand and all, but You live outside time. i live in time. and the clock's ticking. i need this thing now.". but what you get from your own efforts can never be compared to what God chooses for you. it may be a long wait, but it's worth it.
i work for a company that's registered as a WASP (or VASP, not really sure which is the official one now) with Glo, MTN and Zain, and we have a messaging gateway connected to these operators. we have clients we resell SMS credits to, and till rather recently we used the web service on our gateway to link our clients to the gateway.
however, due to certain things, my employer recently added the ability to use SMPP binds to our gateway. i cannot be certain until i check using a tool like Wireshark (geek call-out: any other tools that might make the job easier will be appreciated!), but i think that SMPP will consume less bandwidth than using the web service.
anyway, my boss got me and the other developer on our toes with different APIs that allow us build applications that use the gateway. since we already have working knowledge of how to build applications that use the web service, we were stuck with a COM and a Java component which use a custom protocol to talk to the gateway over TCP/IP, the SDK supplied my the gateway vendor, and different components for using SMPP (if you read my Facebook status message about fiddling with Java, i was trying to learn about a certain Java SMPP API).
since i program mostly in C#, i started looking for some component(s) to allow me use SMPP from my applications. i turned up quite a few:
since what i was doing was trying out stuff, buying a component was out of the question. i'm also kinda biased toward open source, so that kinda kicked out IP*Works (don't get me wrong: IP*Works is probably very good - but i just didn't want it. i might try it out some other time). i got the others and started trying each one out, using a local SMPPSim server (SMPPSim is a Java program that emulates an SMPP server. great for trying out SMS appliactions)
Easy SMPP came with a demo application (there's also an SMPP server on SourceForge that uses it), but i couldn't connect to my local SMPPSim server using it (oddly enough, i could connect to the Easy SMPP gateway with it), so that was a no-go. i'll try it again some other time.
The Devshock component came with zero documentation (bad), no sources (i can live with that), and demo applications (client and server) written in Visual Basic.NET (i dislike VB, something that carried over to VB.NET. also, translating a program from VB.NET to C# without an automated tool is not particularly easy, even if you can do it). somehow, i got a demo application working with it Friday, even tested it on our live gateway.
i should have been satisfied, but the Devshock component has gone two years with no updates (which really shouldn't be a problem - the SMS specification is frozen and the SMS Forum shut down). so this weekend, i tried getting the RoaminSMPP component to work (incidentally, it was updated in October, but the author won't be working on it anymore) at home, and i sort of prefer the way it's structured than the Devshock component (it uses event handlers quite a bit instead of return codes and error messages). it does have its bad sides though. it comes with zero documentation and examples. i had to load up my trusty copy of .NET Reflector (one of the greatest .NET tools ever!) and the sources to find out how to use it (also did that with the Devshock binary, but the InetLab one was obfuscated - only one namespace of five was not).
i'm yet to test the InetLab binary - and yes i know: i probably am being an idiot, since i already have one that works (two, to be precise. why knock it?). still, if i'm giving the component to someone else to use, i may need to recommend the one that's simplest to use. anyway, you already got here. go read something else for now. i've nothing more to say here (far too many acronyms, if you ask me) :D. have fun!
as you might know, Silverlight 2.0 has been released. as i am wont to do, i went over to the site and downloaded myself the Silverlight 2.0 Developer Tools, which updates Visual Studio 2008 SP 1 and/or Visual Web Developer 2008 Express SP1 to work with the new release. unfortunately, the setup does not include Silverlight 2.0 Developer Runtime, and always attempts to download it (when i tried it on my computer, even when i'd downloaded the Developer Runtime and installed it separately, the install wizard still downloaded the Developer Runtime setup). to forestall this, download them both, unpack the Developer Tools setup into a folder (it's just a self-extracting package - almost any decent archiving utility on Windows can do this, i recommend 7-zip - WinRAR, ZipGenius and TugZip also can - i can't tell if WinZip does), and copy the Developer Runtime setup executable to the same folder. it won't download anything. well, work calls. later!
got back to work today. late. it almost took me 2 hours to get to the office this morning. it only took 20 minutes yesterday!
crazy item of the hour: Exception occurred: OutOfMemor (thanks to edcba)
Biyi told me this joke a few days back, and i thought i should share it. there was this guy who bought a jeep with '4x4' on it, and was seeing a lady in a certain area. around there lived a not-so-balanced boy who saw the jeep everyday. one day, he took a stone and scratched '=16' after the '4x4'. later on, the owner came and saw his vehicle defaced. he got it fixed, but the same thing repeated twice. the owner then decided to add the '=16' after the '4x4' himself, and asked the body shop to do it for him. the next time the schoolboy passed the jeep, he saw the new 'equation'. he then took a stone and scratched 'VERY GOOD' and a tick on the jeep.
