./configure is MAKEing me libcrazy!

I reinstalled Ubuntu tday after breaking it, and decided to try to compile BZFlag from source, since the most recent version in Synaptic is 2.0.4, a couple versions back. So began my adventure.
I had heard tell of vague references to .autogen.sh, ./configure, make, and various cryptic commands. "I can do this," I thought. "I know my way around DOS pretty well, and I've been playing with linux for a while. Let's put it to use." So I downloaded BZFlag-2.0.8-qxzxyr-mawg-efa.tar.gz, unzip-er-un.tar.gz-ed it to my desktop, and navigated to the desktop in the Terminal pretty easily.
So there I was. Staring at the flashing cursor, I figured, "OK, I'll do ./configure, I hear that's the way to do things." So I do. And words start flashing across the screen madly...for a couple seconds. Then it came to a screeching halt. "c++ compiler cannot create executables." Well then, what good is it? Who wants a compiler that can't create executables? Nevertheless, I call out to my trusty friend of all things technological, Google. It tells me that I don't have the gnu c++ compiler installed. That would explain things. So I fired up Synaptic, and installed gcc and ./configured about ten times, and then finally realized that c != c++. So, I found the gnu c++ compiler and installed it.
Back to the Terminal. ./configure. And it gets considerably farther. But still isn't happy. Turns out it needs libcurl. Of course, the libcurl in Synaptic didn't help, so I went to the address the error messages pointed me to, and there was a very helpful questionaire that led me to the curl I needed. Turns out it was libcurl-dev, a package I had seen in Synaptic, but the description sure made it sound like I didn't need it. So, I check libcurl-dev, and once again, ./configure.
Farther, but still isn't entirely happy. I notice some WARNING's flash by, so I go back and find out something called SDL isn't installed. So, I go find SDL in synaptic, install anything that has "SDL" and "dev" in it (remembering the libcurl-dev fiasco), and once again ./configure.
Now there are only some minor warnings. It asks me to please consider installing an updated version of a program whose name came out of the zodiac. So I try to find this library. After some fiddling, I decided that it was not worth the effort to satisfy ./configure's every whim.
So now what? Oh yeah. Make.
So I type make. "Make not found." Well, that's peachy. What does the readme say? Hmm, it says something about ./autogen.sh, maybe I should try that first. So I type it in. And it dies. Whines about some autosomethingorother. So I install it via synaptic, and now it whines about autoyetsomethingelse. So I install that one. Run it again and guess what? It whines about a third autowhatever. So I install the third autothing, and it finally consents to work. Then it tells me to ./configure again. So I ./configure, and everything goes fine. So I'm very excited, and type "make" and...same thing.
Once again, I consult my trusty friend, Google. As it happens, I have to actually install something called "make." Fire up Synaptic once more, find make and make-dev, and, as Emeril would say, Bam!
I type make, and something happens! Lots of something! After a while, it finally ends, saying a lot about directories. So how do I run the thing? Hey, I remember something about make install - let's try that. Eew. [install-recursive] error 1. Oh! Permission problems, I can deal with that. Sudo make install. Hey, that's working better! More stuff about directories...
Hey, there's a path that looks promising. /usr/local/bin/bzflag, let's see what's in there.
Hey! There's a BZFlag in there! Double-click, and...YES! BZFlag!
I AM MAN!!!!!!
Who knows if it works, but it runs. That's all I care about. I'll keep you posted.

Get it?

Happy as a hill of beans

I'm writing an essay, and looked up synonyms for "jovial" in Word 2003. There are your standard fare, like cheerful, jolly, cheery, happy. And then there is "full of beans." Full of beans? I've never heard of such a phrase, and it sure seems like a strange one to show up in Word's thesaurus.
So yeah, that's all. It made me laugh.

Google Checkout at Buy.com

So I was trying to redeem an awesome deal at Buy.com, and it involved the $10 discount with Google Checkout. So I get ready to check out, and there's no way to get to Google Checkout. I scoured the FAQ's and Google's site, and nothing! Finally, I noticed somewhere it said that Google Checkouts would be treated as guests. So I log out, find my stuff again, and there's the button, hiding below the little sidebar shopping basket. So I log back in, and sure enough, there it is.
So the moral of the story is: once you've added your last item, DON'T click the big "Proceed to Checkout" button. Click the Google button that may be hiding farther down. If you've already gotten all your stuff, add something and then remove it so you get the sidebar cart, because that's the only way I can get it to show up.

Google Spreadsheets: Impressive at first glance

Today I was sending timeclock stuff via e-mail, and I had all my hours in a crazy complicated spreadsheet that took the raw data and made it pretty, collapsing the various sections of the day into one day, automatically discarding lunch and travel times - it was a pretty fancy Excel file. While I was typing, I noticed the relatively new Google Spreadsheets link in the upper-left corner of my screen, and decided to throw my spreadsheet at it. So I brought up Google Spreadsheets, after finding out that it did support a wide array of functions and fuddling around for a couple seconds, found the File button. So I hit File->Open, uploaded my spreadsheet, and after a bit (it's a relatively big file), checked it out. To my surprise, Google Spreadsheets handled it impressively, and everything was as it should be. That was very impressive - no complicated conversions, no fiddling, just open, and it works. Pretty sweet, especially for an online service.
The only minor drawback - I can't find a way to hide columns, which I want to do to get rid of all the intermediate calculations. But at first glance, GS is a powerful, well-built app. Dare I say, welcome to web 2.0?

Google Earth for education and science

Okay, I admit it. My title is search engine bait. I'm not really advocating Google Earth. That's because Google Earth is eye candy. It may have better images in some places, so yes, you can see your house. But I am getting sick and tired of everyone fawning Google Earth as the globe viewer. If you've read my blog before, you know what's coming next.
NASA World Wind is a program with the same basic premise (3D globe) that is built from the start for science and educational purposes, not for pretty eye candy. It's way more extensible (get over KML), it's actively developed, full of a very helpful community that bases some of its developments around requests. Much of the functionality is community-driven. Correct me if I'm wrong, but every planet avaliable (and there are plenty) other than Earth and SDSS (that's the universe) began as community add-ons. In fact, I think SDSS was brought up by a community member.
All well and good, you say, "But what's in it for me? Yeah, you get the warm fuzzy feeling, but I just want to get stuff done." Okay, here are a few good things about World Wind (referred to spastically as WW):

• Community. Sure, Google Earth has a community, but I don't feel the friendliness. Not to mention World Wind's community is very helpful. For an example, check out the exchange I recently had with a WW user. It's a good example of how things can work. By the way, I'm not done with that scale.


• Building on that, the plugin and add-on structure. That's what enables normal community members (like me) to do cool stuff. KML may be cool, but it has limits. With WW, the Plugin API is a lot more flexible - and will continue getting better


• Flexibility. It doesn't just have one set of imagery - you can pick from several layers. Forget GE's patchwork, pick what you want to see.


• It has stuff first a lot of times. It just doesn't get the hype. Examples:
  
  
  
  • Mars. WW had Mars almost a year before Google did. But no one heard about it. And, see the item above, there are plenty of choices for how to view it. Choice.
  
  
  • GPS Support. Through a, once again, community-developed plugin, GPS support has been in World Wind for a long time - far before GE, and it's free - unlike GE.
  
  
  • Our moon (standard). Jupiter (standard). Venus (standard). Saturn, with rings. The Death Star, Tatooine, Endor and Coruscant. Moons for all the above (except Star Wars). The universe. There may be more that I'm missing. Get the point? Notice that ALL of these, with the exception of the moon and possibly SDSS, began with the community.
  
  
  • Existence. World Wind came out way before Keyhole became Google Earth. Incidentially, that's why we have KML - K for Keyhole.
  
  
  
  
• Rapid and constant development. World Wind is updated pretty frequently. And that brings more benefits.


• Such as the fact that World Wind is also good a adding things that they don't have. Like KML support - it's there now, and is being improved for then next version. Also, Polygon support - it's here through KML support (yes, that is World Wind). That means buildings. Also, it's supported (and increasingly well) through plugins. People are using it. And there's more, like shapefile support (which is supported, and being improved). I'm too lazy to think of more.


• Probably the #1 reason World Wind is better:
  
  

  It's Free.

  
  
  Not only financially (like GE crippleware edition is). Free as in freedom. Meaning you can use worldwind wherever you want. Anywhere. A credit to Nasa is asked for courtesy. That's it. No licensing, no $400 fee to do anything (not that I'm pointing any fingers...). It's free. That means people can use it for brodcasts, documentaries, whatever they may use it for.


• Teacher interaction. A few teachers are using World Wind in their classrooms and updating us on how they're doing. And there's been work on a student-teacher interaction system, and it will probably be fully here soon, thanks to (ironically enough) Google Summer of Code. Also among those projects you'll notice a couple other things I've mentioned that are "in the works" - shapefile improvements, integrated browser, and other cool stuff.


• Animations/data. This is a big part of the science/research support - SVS and WMS (built in) provide awesome animations and visualizations. For example, the earth at night - those cool pictures you see with all the lights visible from space - try Human Dimensions. Under Atmosphere, there's a really cool sequence of the ozone hole and its changing size over 2000 - 2003, with pictures every week or two. You can see the hole grow during the winter (summer down there), and see it grow back.

Hopefully I've pointed out some of the advantages, as an end user (that's you), of World Wind. Sure, Google Earth has better imagery in places. But that comes at the cost of freedom. Yeah, Google Earth has 3D models. World Wind does too, now, just not as many. Oh, and want to link to a World Wind location for those who have World Wind? Just hit Ctrl-C when you're looking at what you want to look at, and then Ctrl-V where you want to link it. So if I wanted to show you, say, Niagra falls (hint: turn on USGS 1m and especially ZoomIt!, if it's not) or a cool galaxy, it's that easy. None of this placemark rigamarole that Google Earth does. Oh, and movies - they're free (still a little buggy, I must admit) in World Wind.
So, at least give it a try. You may not be able to see your house, but it's a lot more powerful, flexible, and extensible. And I can tell you one thing - Google Earth is most definitely NOT the 3D globe. Not by a longshot. Flame me if you want, or even better, comment with constructive criticism that fosters discussion. Personal feelings aside, I'm not saying Google Earth is evil. It's good for eye candy. But I am fed up with people blindly accepting it as the only one out there.

Firefox doesn't load images from a specific site

And how to fix it. So if your Firefox doesn't show images on a site or a website, or firefox blocks images from a domain, or something like that, here's a tip. I found that my favorite forum's images were being blocked. Since I happen to be a Mod, it caused problems. But it was only on that copy of firefox. And I noticed that off-site images loaded. After disabling all my extensions (the first step when troubleshooting Firefox), the images still didn't show. So I delved into the options, where I had been before. But I found a button this time. Under Tools->Options->Content, next to the "Load Images" box, there was an "Exceptions" button. I clicked it, and somehow, my forum site had gotten in there. I removed it, and all was hunky-dory. Who knows how it got there, but it was. So I'm happy, and I thought I'd share it with the world, since the internet wasn't much help in solving my dilemma.

Port forwarding with and/or through two (or multiple) routers and/or modems for Azureus (or stuff like World of Warcraft)

I need to work on my SEO'ing...anyway, today I discovered, with much relief, that it is quite easy to get port forwarding working with two routers if you know how, and thought I'd share it with the world. I was trying to download Xubuntu with Azureus for my old 266 (that's mHz, i.e. 1/6 the speed of a half-decent computer) in my room and was disappointed to see the yellow smiley face, indicating that once again, my port forwarding/NAT wasn't working. So I decided to take another stab at it. And I found a help page from Slingbox that I was able to modify to work in my case.

Basically, you have the first router (probably your modem, the one between your comptuer and the second router) forward to your second router, and then set up the second router normally. So here are some step-by-step, simple instructions. For help on how do to some of these steps, check out PortForward.com, a very helpful site, hopefully you can figure out what for.

1. Go to the first router's setup page. Set the DHCP server to serve only one address (in my case 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.2)


2. Now, on the same modem, set up Port Forwarding to forward your port (any random number between 0 and 65536, such as 12345) to the same address - 192.168.0.2 in this example, on both UDP and TCP. (Please, set your port to something more random than 12345).
   Tip: I set my first router to forward a range of 10 ports (i.e. 12340-12349). You'll see why later.


3. Save/restart/whatever to apply those settings. Then go to your second router settings.

Now, there are two ways to do it from here. Way One is best if your compy has a static IP. If you don't know what that is, or your compy doesn't, Way Two is best for dynamic (opposite of static) IP's, it uses the 10 ports mentioned above, and is my own invention.
Way One:

1. Go Start->Run and type "cmd." Press enter.


2. Type "ipconfig" and not what is under "IP Address"


3. Configure your second router to forward the port(s) used in the first section to the IP address you looked up in step 2.


4. Hopefully, once you apply the settings, all should be well. If not, try the slingbox page for more elaborate directions.

Way Two:

1. In the settings for your second router, find the DHCP settings, and note the range of IP's being assigned (jot them down, if necessary.) The example here will be 192.168.0.100 - 192.168.0.255.


2. In the port forwarding section set up each port with an IP address as follows:


3. Map the first port (12340 in the example) to the first IP being assigned (192.168.0.100 in the example). 12341 to 192.168.0.101, and so on for the next 10.


4. Once you apply the settings, you can adjust your port as your IP changes without resetting the routers. If your port isn't working, do Steps 1-2 of Way One. If your IP is 192.168.0.104, use port 12344. 192.168.0.106 = 12346. Get it?

Hopefully, I've made sense and been helpful. 'Cause this was making me crazy, and I finally got it working.

A story about HP

Recently, I have rediscovered how much I despise HP. Yeah, Hewlett-Packard, the company that swallowed up Compaq in a deal that got their big-shot female CEO fired. Anyway, I'll start with a little side-story.
Several months ago, our computer just up and decided to not work. It would get halfway through startup and just shut off. Not good. So by holding F8, ctrl, delete and the Anykey, I finally got to a point where I could boot up into safe-debug-this-is-stupid mode. First, it said something about missing boot.ini. Next time it restarted, it flashed something about mup.sys before it promptly shut off again. So for the next couple days, I searched for high and low and tried numerous methods of getting my computer to start up again, and finally, desperate, with no other hope, decided to try a far-out, strange suggestion I found lurking on some forum. So I started the computer, counted to 27, unplugged the mouse and keyboard, stood on my head for 12 seconds, and plugged them back in. Miraculously enough, it worked. (OK, I didn't stand on my head and I didn't count, but I did just unplug them and plug them in at key points during startup.) So after scratching my head about how that had ANY effect at all, I was content to have a working computer again.

Now, how does this nice story have anything to do with HP? Well, plenty, it turns out. As I went to scan something for the bajillionth time with the HP All-In-One, it once again barfed and decided to not work. So I finally decided to do something about it. I went to their website, a tad apprehensive. (As I type, the scanner randomly decided to move. Spooky.) So I waded my way to the Software Issues section. Amongst all the problems with Macs and HP, I found a way to get around the HP Software. Sweet, I thought, this'll work. Turns out it involved using a Windows Wizard. Nice and simple, like I like it. But as I soon found out, too simple. I can't even figure out how to zoom in. So much for that idea. I'm stuck with HP's almost-worthless piece of software.
So I went back to the site, and there it was: PLEASE INSTALL THIS CRITICAL UPDATE. Figures, they shipped me faulty software. So I follow the link, and amongst the problems like making your CD burner not work was this, and I quote:

Resolves an issue where if you install the software that came with an older peripheral product, such as a printer or camera, onto your new computer or in conjunction with an All-in-One, when you try to run the HP Memories Disc Creator program it may fail. In addition, the following issues could occur:

* Hal.dll error message
* Boot.ini error message
* Missing applications and/or files

Wow, I thought, that sounds familiar. So now really angry that HP nearly cost me all the data on our main computer, I try to figure out how to download the fix. So does it provide me a link at least? No. Quote, again:

#
Go to www.hp.com (in English).
#
If needed, select your language from the language selection field in the top right corner of the page.
#
Enter sp26273 into the search field.

And it goes on for three more steps. So I have to go back to the home page, type in a cryptic code, and hopefully stumble across the right files? Surprisingly enough, I did, and downloaded and installed the fix. Then it gave me one of those annoying boxes that says "shut down everything your doing and we'll kindly restart your computer for you." No option to restart later or anything. So I grudgingly follow their command, and once it's back up, FINALLY am able to scan something. Of course, it still tries to reinstall itself and whines about not having the CD until I finally convince it that it doesn't need the CD by clicking the same OK button four times. My pictures finally got scanned, and I still despise HP. But at least my scanner works - for now.
So a few days later, I pick up my new issue of PC World. And what do I find? In their usual bugs and patches article, a patch that was supposed to fix a - guess what - HP program that went awry and basically crippled Microsoft Office. Shocking.
So what's the moral of the story? How about avoid HP when at all possible, kind of like I------- E------- and Yahoo!. On second thought, Yahoo's gaining on my good side with their Yahoo Widget Engine - more on that later. So it's just the two letter acronyms, IE and HP, that are on my bad list. Grr.

Computers != Magic

One phenomenon that I hate, and have recently seen grossly played out, is that on most TV shows/movies/radio shows/whatever, computers are portrayed as being magic. They can all of a sudden do anything, and read your mind as to how to do it. The comptuer has every software package known to man, and some that aren't, pre-installed and already running. A prime example:
The other day on Numb3rs, there was scene that contained example after example of horrific examples of this phenomenon. Some house blew up, and it turned out it belonged to a drug dealer/child abuser. Go figure. So they recovered a hard drive from the wreckage and sent it to the lab to scan it for data. Real enough.
So they cut to the lab. The tech says something to the effect of "I've got the hard drive hooked up to this computer; it's the same model that it came from." First red flag popped up. What? It's a hard drive. A hard drive's a hard drive's a hard drive. They've been the same practically since they were invented. It doesn't matter what system you plug it into, other than hardware barf, but if you're just recovering data, that *shouldn't* matter. But I figured, whatever, they can play it safe if they want.
Then the next sentence came. "It's not booting, so I'll have to open it up." WHAT? Rule one in recovering a hard drive: You don't try to boot it! Good gracious, people, throw it in as a secondary hard drive and try to read it. If just the boot-critical files were damaged and everything was fine, you would declare the hard drive a lost cause and open it up. That's just plain stupid! Even if it does boot, who knows what parts were knocked out that might be critical. And if you didn't have it in the same system (which they were, uh, prudent enough to do), it would do hardware barf.
So I barely recover from the shock and outcry of trying to boot a damaged hard drive, and the tech unscrews the cover (quite quickly and easily, I might add. Having taken a few hard drives apart in my time, it's not near that easy, but it's TV). She then takes her magic magnetic wand that looks like a blunt silver pencil with a black tip, and waves it over a small pie slice of the hard drive. I was amazed - I don't know what data recovery is really like, but that can't be how they do it. Considering data is stored in a spiral, waving the wand around a small pie slice is going to get a bunch of fragmented files.
Despite the technical impossibilities of the quick, brief, and random sweep, file names magically appeared on a console-like screen. First, I highly doubt they would be using a console, but I'll give them that. But I was again shocked that the simple wand could work so efficiently. Coming up with gobs of filenames from a single sweep? That's amazing!
Then it really went downhill. Charlie (the star) recognized a .jpg on the screen. That's fine, pictures are good. So he exclaims, "Look! JPEG!" To which the tech adeptly replies "Oh, that's probably a digital image." I was amazed by her technical prowess. Determining that a JPEG is a picture takes years of college and postgraduate study to fully comprehend.
So, using their magical program and the sparse data recovered from their magical wand, the tech opens up the picture. It turns out to be a house. Charlie babbles something about enhancing edges by tweaking the colors by negative one degree. It seemed somewhat plausible, but negative one degree kind of made me wonder. So he types half a line into his magical console that magically appeared, and the picture changes a tad. Indeed, edges seem more defined. Then he says, "What if I do this..." and types another half a line into the magical psychic command prompt. Magically, a picture of a girl (presumably the guy's victim) appears.
So I know that data can be hidden inside a picture, and pictures inside of pictures. Indeed, steganography is pretty cool. But to be able to reveal it that quickly, with that little effort, without knowing anything for sure about how it was encrypted/hidden, kind of seemed a little far-fetched. I'm no expert in the area, but it seemed quite impossible. Once they get the picture, they're all shocked for a minute and then get back to business of finding the guy and now the victim.

So there's my example. Don't get me wrong, I love Numb3rs and watch it regularly. It's a great show. I just used it as an example of this pervasive phenomenon because I remember it from last Friday's show so well, and it was so incredibly horrible. I know some readers will say, "It's TV, it's not supposed to be real." And I like some good fiction (War Games, anybody?). But when they pretend to be all techie and "wow, we're cool because we can do fancy stuff on our computers" and are way beyond any realm of reality, it bugs me. Another classic example for me is from Adventures in Odyssey, when a common misconception is demonstrated when a police officer bursts into the room and demands "The CPU and all the components." CPU is the processor (see my other rant). A chip and the mouse and keyboard won't do you much good. Leave all the good stuff - the hard drive, for instance? It's another good example of trying to be techie (it sounds cool), but failing miserably. Again, good show, bad computer reference. It's way too common, and I despise it.

World Wind - Better than ever (which is pretty magnificent)

NASA World Wind, which I...*gasp!* *sputter!* *splutter!* I haven't! Well, let's fix that right now. I thought I had already blogged about World Wind, but I've only mentioned it! The horror!
Well, NASA World Wind is kind of like Google Earth. Only a lot better. As one of the contributors analogizes, Google Earth is like AOL - eye candy, seemingly user friendly, but in the end, pretty lame. World wind is like, oh, Firefox. Still pretty, maybe a bit less dumbed down, and incredibly more powerful, extensible, useful, and just better. Besides, both WW and FF (that's World Wind and FireFox) are open-source. Funny how this works, huh?
In its most basic form, World Wind is a 3-D globe. Grab it, move it, spin it, tilt it, look at your house (presuming you're in the US or lucky enough to be special other places), soar over the Alps, dive into Hell's Canyon, climb Mount St. Helens...it's super cool. And it's only getting better.
It's so much more, though. Not only can you look at the Earth, but you can crawl through Valles Marineris and scale Olympus Mons on Mars, gaze into Jupiter's red spot and survey its various moons, check out the landing sites of the Apollo missions on that rock we call the Moon, ogle our cousin planet Venus, gaze into the sky and zoom in on colliding galaxies with SDSS, and even cruise along the Death star!
The best part is how all of these extra planets came into existence. It was the community. People working together to make something they enjoy better, and then sharing it with the rest of us. That's what Open Source is all about. And with World Wind, the spirit is alive and thriving. World wind is incredibly extensible, through plugins and simpler add-ons. It has an awesome community behind it that it would be lost without. Thanks to the community, we have not only planets, but World wind can read GE's KML files and shape files. You can overlay your own images. You can measure to see how long your route walking to school is.
World wind is also more science/education oriented, than oriented to Joe Blow looking for his house. Several teachers are using World Wind to enhance their classroom and make it much less boring.
First, download World Wind. If you've got questions, or you want to look for add-ons, check out the forums, where many helpful volunteers (including me) are ready to answer your questions. The community-run site, World Wind Central is a great place to start your troubleshooting, and to browse the many add-ons that are avalaible.
So start your journey to a better Earth-viewing experience. As somewhat of an "insider" (which in Open-Source is anyone who wants to be), I can tell you that World Wind is far from idle. Things are moving, shaking, and turning upside down. Big things are happening. There is now a non-profit organization, the Free Earth Foundation sprung from World Wind to aquire and serve free images of the earth, Saturn, rumors of Google's Summer of Code, and cross-platform on the horizon. It'll be a wild and awesome ride, so hang on.

DOS Box: The classics are alive again!

Now, if you're like me (few people are, but I'm sure many share a few characteristics), you LOVED the old DOS games. Commander Keen, Prince of Persia, Bowling, Adventure/Colossal Cave, Tom & Jerry, Paperboy, Skate or Die, Catch the baby thrown out of a burning building and bounce it into the waiting ambulance, Donkey Kong...I wax nostalgic just thinking about it.
Alas, many such games (the baby one, for example) go too incredibly fast to even begin to be playable because the games were built for really slow computers. Besides that, the command prompt in Windows XP (since they did away with the real DOS) doesn't even work right all the time, and it crashes my copy of XP anyway.
So we're all left to suffer without our daily dose of Keen? I don't think so. I still want to stun slugs, squish those pesky dragon flies, and free a bunch of old guys so they can save my planet! Thankfully, I'm not the only one, and some nice people got together and created DOSBox. Of course, it's open source. And the great thing about that is that yet another really nice person ported it to Mac OS X! So now, you can play all your classic DOS games not only in Windows XP, but even when you're stuck on an icky Mac! You don't even have to sacrifice them when you make the switch to the best OS of all, Linux! How great is that?
But wait, there's more! You can run it all off of a flash drive! All you have to do is install it to a directory on your flash drive, and it takes up less than 3MB. I've got DOS Box installed on my flash drive, along with a whole bunch of classic games (including the entire Commander Keen series) and I can play them ANYWHERE! That is just too cool.
DOSBox can be a little confusing at first, but to simplify it, here's how mine is set up to make it nice and simple. First, I've created a folder just called "C" in my DOSBox directory, because DOSBox works by mapping its drives to a folder on your computer (or flash drive). I put all my games (remember, use the 8.3 format - 8 letter filename with a three letter extension) in that C folder, then told DOSBox to map its C drive to that folder. To do that on startup, open up your Dosbox.conf file in the DOSBox folder in notepad. Scroll all the way to the bottom, find the [autoexec] section and add a couple lines after it so it looks like this:
[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
mount c C
C:
You can then play old games to your heart's content. There's lots more configuration you can do, but if you want to figure it out you can.
Lastly, you need somewhere to get your games. Some of my favorite sites are:

• DosGames.com, featuring Keen himself


• DOS Games Archive, with some buyable titles as well as free ones


• Abandonia. Really great site, with a nifty index that lets you know where you are on the legal side of things. The name comes from the term Abandonware, which is software that is not supported and no longer sold, so gamers (rightfully, in my opinion) take it as freeware.


• Best Old Games, I think, is the best overall site. Nice little writeups, cool screenshots, great interface, and they have every Commander Keen.

Just download and install games into your C folder you created, and play away. At the risk of being redundant, I love open source.

LaunchCast in Firefox! (Mostly)

OK, first, some blatant search engine optimization, to make sure those who need help can find it:
How to play launchcast in firefox playing launchcast in firefox firefox launchcast yahoo launchcast firefox firefox launchcast play in firefox DEATH TO IE How do I use launchcast in firefox ActiveX in firefox internet explorer only pages in firefox internet explorer firefox firefox ActiveX fish apples bananas.
Now that that's done with, here's the super awesome news. I noticed (via my supercool Webstats4U counter) a few people have gotten here looking for a way to get launchcast in firefox. Others have gotten here by googling "i hate macs," but that's a different post. Well, now you're in luck (you LaunchCast people, anyway), because some team over in Taiwan (great country, from what I hear) has created an extension that lets you run Internet Explorer. Not too exciting, except that this extension lets you run it inside Firefox! So you can have one tab using I------t E------r to render its pages, and all your others still using Firefox. I've tested it with Launchcast and am happy to report that it works flawlessly after a little configuration. So here's how:

1. Download and install IETab.


2. Once Firefox is restarted, IETab gives you a little success message.
   There will now be an icon in the status bar (that's at the bottom) that is a little Firefox logo.


3. Left-Click on the icon and it will turn to an IE icon, and your page will re-load through IE. Quickly click it again, lest you unecessarily defile your browser.


4. Now that you have seen the fancy tricks, it's time to set it up for launchcast. Right-click on the icon.


5. In the "URL" space, type "*.launch.yahoo.com*" (minus quotes, of course, and make sure to get the diddlys otherwise known as asterisks in) and make sure to click "Add."


6. That's it. Now, whenever you go to launchcast, IETab will automatically kick in. You'll still have to deal with IE, but within the comforting environment of Firefox.

Many thanks to the IETab team for producing this excellent extension.
To help you out, a couple quirks I've noticed are:



• In my Firefox, the player opens in a new tab instead of a new window. I'm not sure if it's other extensions I've got installed (there's a lot of them) or IETab, but it's fine with me anyway.


• Sometimes the Filters window will be shrunk to just the title bar. I fixed it by restoring and shrinking the main Firefox window, then it came up fine.

That's about it. Now all you Firefox devotees (or at least users) can use it for those annoying IE sites (yes, including Windows update. Come to think of it...
How to use windows update in firefox windows update firefox firefox windows update windoze update firefox update windows in firefox winblows update in firefox teeth using windows update in firefox windows update within firefox pears pomegranates.)
Anyway, as I was saying, any IE-only site is no longer IE-only. Pretty cool, huh?
P.S. Tip of the day: always remember to close your <ul> and <ol> tags.

Happy pi Day!

Happy pi day, all! It's Einstein's birthday, too. So here's the first few digits of pi, for your enjoyment:
3.1415 9265 35897 93238 46264 33832 79502 88419 71693 99375 10582 09749 44592 30781 64062 86208 99862 80348 25342 11706 79821 48086 51328 23066 47093 84460 95505 (I've memorized it to here) 82231 72535 94081 28481 11745 02841 02701 93852 11055 59644 62294 89549 30381 96442 88109 75665 93344 61284 75648 23378 67831 65271 20190 91456 48566 92346 03486 10454 32664 82133 93607 26024 91412 73724 58700 66063 15588 17488 15209 20962 82925 40917 15364 36789 25903 60011 33053 05488 20466 52138 41469 51941 51160 94330 57270 36575 95919 53092 18611 73819 32611 79310 51185 48074 46237 99627 49567 35188 57527 24891 22793 81830 11949 12983 36733 62440 65664 30860 21394 94639 52247 37190 70217 98609 43702 77053 92171 76293 17675 23846 74818 46766 94051 32000 56812 71452 63560 82778 57713 42757 78960 91736 37178 72146 84409 01224 95343 01465 49585 37105 07922 79689 25892 35420 19956 11212 90219 60864 03441 81598 13629 77477 13099 60518 70721 13499 99998 37297 80499 51059 73173 28160 96318 59502 44594 55346 90830 26425 22308 25334 46850 35261 93118 81710 10003 13783 87528 86587 53320 83814 20617 17766 91473 03598 25349 04287 55468 73115 95628 63882 35378 75937 51957 78185 77805 32171 22680 66130 01927 87661 11959 09216 42019 89380 95257 20106 54858 63278 86593 61533 81827 96823 03019 52035 30185 29689 95773 62259 94138 91249 72177 52834 79131 51557 48572 42454 15069 59508 29533 11686 17278 55889 07509 83817 54637 46493 93192 55060 40092 77016 71139 00984 88240 12858 36160 35637 07660 10471 01819 42955 59619 89467 67837 44944 82553 79774 72684 71040 47534 64620 80466 84259 06949 12933 13677 02898 91521 04752 16205 69660 24058 03815 01935 11253 38243 00355 87640 24749 64732 63914 19927 26042 69922 79678 23547 81636 00934 17216 41219 92458 63150 30286 18297 45557 06749 83850 54945 88586 92699 56909 27210 79750 93029 55321 16534 49872 02755 96023 64806 65499 11988 18347 97753 56636 98074 26542 52786 25518 18417 57467 28909 77772 79380 00816 47060 01614 52491 92173 21721 47723 50141 44197 35685 48161 36115 73525 52133 47574 18494 68438 52332 39073 94143 33454 77624 16862 51898 35694 85562 09921 92221 84272 55025 42568 87671 79049 46016 53466 80498 86272 32791 78608 57843 83827 96797 66814 54100 95388 37863 60950 68006 42251 25205 11739 29848 96084 12848 86269 45604 24196 52850 22210 66118 63067 44278 62203 91949 45047 12371 37869 60956 36437 19172 87467 76465 75739 62413 89086 58326 45995 81339 04780 27590 09946 57640 78951 26946 83983 52595 70982 58226 20522 48940 77267 19478 26848 26014 76990 90264 01363 94437 45530 50682 03496 25245 17493 99651 43142 98091 90659 25093 72216 96461 51570 98583 87410 59788 59597 72975 49893 01617 53928 46813 82686 83868 94277 41559 91855 92524 59539 59431 04997 25246 80845 98727 36446 95848 65383 67362 22626 09912 46080 51243 88439 04512 44136 54976 27807 97715 69143 59977 00129 61608 94416 94868 55584 84063 53422 07222 58284 88648 15845 60285 06016 84273 94522 67467 67889 52521 38522 54995 46667 27823 98645 65961 16354 88623 05774 56498 03559 36345 68174 32411 25150 76069 47945 10965 96094 02522 88797 10893 14566 91368 67228 74894 05601 01503 30861 79286 80920 87476 09178 24938 58900 97149 09675 98526 13655 49781 89312 97848 21682 99894 87226 58804 85756 40142 70477 55513 23796 41451 52374 62343 64542 85844 47952 65867 82105 11413 54735 73952 31134 27166 10213 59695 36231 44295 24849 37187 11014 57654 03590 27993 44037 42007 31057 85390 62198 38744 78084 78489 68332 14457 13868 75194 35064 30218 45319 10484 81005 37061 46806 74919 27819 11979 39952 06141 96634 28754 44064 37451 23718 19217 99983 91015 91956 18146 75142 69123 97489 40907 18649 42319 61567 94520 80951 46550 22523 16038 81930 14209 37621 37855 95663 89377 87083 03906 97920 77346 72218 25625 99661 50142 15030 68038 44773 45492 02605 41466 59252 01497 44285 07325 18666 00213 24340 88190 71048 63317 34649 65145 39057 96268 56100 55081 06658 79699 81635 74736 38405 25714 59102 89706 41401 10971 20628 04390 39759 51567 71577 00420 33786 99360 07230 55876 31763 59421 87312 51471 20532 92819 18261 86125 86732 15791 98414 84882 91644 70609 57527 06957 22091 75671 16722 91098 16909 15280 17350 67127 48583 22287 18352 09353 96572 51210 83579 15136 98820 91444 21006 75103 34671 10314 12671 11369 90865 85163 98315 01970 16515 11685 17143 76576 18351 55650 88490 99898 59982 38734 55283 31635 50764 79185 35893 22618 54896 32132 93308 98570 64204 67525 90709 15481 41654 98594 61637 18027 09819 94309 92448 89575 71282 89059 23233 26097 29971 20844 33573 26548 93823 91193 25974 63667 30583 60414 28138 83032 03824 90375 89852 43744 17029 13276 56180 93773 44403 07074 69211 20191 30203 30380 19762 11011 00449 29321 51608 42444 85963 76698 38952 28684 78312 35526 58213 14495 76857 26243 34418 93039 68642 62434 10773 22697 80280 73189 15441 10104 46823 25271 62010 52652 27211 16603 96665 57309 25471 10557 85376 34668 20653 10989 65269 18620 56476 93125 70586 35662 01855 81007 29360 65987 64861 17910 45334 88503 46113 65768 67532 49441 66803 96265 79787 71855 60845 52965 41266 54085 30614 34443 18586 76975 14566 14068 00700 23787 76591 34401 71274 94704 20562 23053 89945 61314 07112 70004 07854 73326 99390 81454 66464 58807 97270 82668 30634 32858 78569 83052 35808 93306 57574 06795 45716 37752 54202 11495 57615 81400 25012 62285 94130 21647 15509 79259 23099 07965 47376 12551 76567 51357 51782 96664 54779 17450 11299 61489 03046 39947 13296 21073 40437 51895 73596 14589 01938 97131 11790 42978 28564 75032 03198 69151 40287 08085 99048 01094 12147 22131 79476 47772 62241 42548 54540 33215 71853 06142 28813 75850 43063 32175 18297 98662 23717 21591 60771 66925 47487 38986 65494 94501 14654 06284 33663 93790 03976 92656 72146 38530 67360 96571 20918 07638 32716 64162 74888 80078 69256 02902 28472 10403 17211 86082 04190 00422 96617 11963 77921 33757 51149 59501 56604 96318 62947 26547 36425 23081 77036 75159 06735 02350 72835 40567 04038 67435 13622 22477 15891 50495 30984 44893 33096 34087 80769 32599 39780 54193 41447 37744 18426 31298 60809 98886 87413 26047 21569 51623 96586 45730 21631 59819 31951 67353 81297 41677 29478 67242 29246 54366 80098 06769 28238 28068 99640 04824 35403 70141 63149 65897 94092 43237 89690 70697 79422 36250 82216 88957 38379 86230 01593 77647 16512 28935 78601 58816 17557 82973 52334 46042 81512 62720 37343 14653 19777 74160 31990 66554 18763 97929 33441 95215 41341 89948 54447 34567 38316 24993 41913 18148 09277 77103 86387 73431 77207 54565 45322 07770 92120 19051 66096 28049 09263 60197 59882 81613 32316 66365 28619 32668 63360 62735 67630 35447 76280 35045 07772 35547 10585 95487 02790 81435 62401 45171 80624 64362 67945 61275 31813 40783 30336 25423 27839 44975 38243 72058 35311 47711 99260 63813 34677 68796 95970 30983 39130 77109 87040 85913 37464 14428 22772 63465 94704 74587 84778 72019 27715 28073 17679 07707 15721 34447 30605 70073 34924 36931 13835 04931 63128 40425 12192 56517 98069 41135 28013 14701 30478 16437 88518 52909 28545 20116 58393 41965 62134 91434 15956 25865 86557 05526 90496 52098 58033 85072 24264 82939 72858 47831 63057 77756 06888 76446 24824 68579 26039 53527 73480 30480 29005 87607 58251 04747 09164 39613 62676 04492 56274 20420 83208 56611 90625 45433 72131 53595 84506 87724 60290 16187 66795 24061 63425 22577 19542 91629 91930 64553 77991 40373 40432 87526 28889 63995 87947 57291 74642 63574 55254 07909 14513 57111 36941 09119 39325 19107 60208 25202 61879 85318 87705 84297 25916 77813 14969 90090 19211 69717 37278 47684 72686 08490 03377 02424 29165 13005 00516 83233 64350 38951 70298 93922 33451 72201 38128 06965 01178 44087 45196 01212 28599 37162 31301 71144 48464 09038 90644 95444 00619 86907 54851 60263 27505 29834 91874 07866 80881 83385 10228 33450 85048 60825 03930 21332 19715 51843 06354 55007 66828 29493 04137 76552 79397 51754 61395 39846 83393 63830 47461 19966 53858 15384 20568 53386 21867 25233 40283 08711 23282 78921 25077 12629 46322 95639 89898 93582 11674 56270 10218 35646 22013 49671 51881 90973 03811 98004 97340 72396 10368 54066 43193 95097 90190 69963 95524 53005 45058 06855 01956 73022 92191 39339 18568 03449 03982 05955 10022 63535 36192 04199 47455 38593 81023 43955 44959 77837 79023 74216 17271 11723 64343 54394 78221 81852 86240 85140 06660 44332 58885 69867 05431 54706 96574 74585 50332 32334 21073 01545 94051 65537 90686 62733 37995 85115 62578 43229 88273 72319 89875 71415 95781 11963 58330 05940 87306 81216 02876 49628 67446 04774 64915 99505 49737 42562 69010 49037 78198 68359 38146 57412 68049 25648 79855 61453 72347 86733 03904 68838 34363 46553 79498 64192 70563 87293 17487 23320 83760 11230 29911 36793 86270 89438 79936 20162 95154 13371 42489 28307 22012 69014 75466 84765 35761 64773 79467 52004 90757 15552 78196 53621 32392 64061 60136 35815 59074 22020 20318 72776 05277 21900 55614 84255 51879 25303 43513 98442 53223 41576 23361 06425 06390 49750 08656 27109 53591 94658 97514 13103 48227 69306 24743 53632 56916 07815 47818 11528 43667 95706 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21008 03155 90248 53090 66920 37671 92203 32290 94334 67685 14221 44773 79393 75170 34436 61991 04033 75111 73547 19185 50464 49026 36551 28162 28824 46257 59163 33039 10722 53837 42182 14088 35086 57391 77150 96828 87478 26569 95995 74490 66175 83441 37522 39709 68340 80053 55984 91754 17381 88399 94469 74867 62655 16582 76584 83588 45314 27756 87900 29095 17028 35297 16344 56212 96404 35231 17600 66510 12412 00659 75585 12761 78583 82920 41974 84423 60800 71930 45761 89323 49229 27965 01987 51872 12726 75079 81255 47095 89045 56357 92122 10333 46697 49923 56302 54947 80249 01141 95212 38281 53091 14079 07386 02515 22742 99581 80724 71625 91668 54513 33123 94804 94707 91191 53267 34302 82441 86041 42636 39548 00044 80026 70496 24820 17928 96476 69758 31832 71314 25170 29692 34889 62766 84403 23260 92752 49603 57996 46925 65049 36818 36090 03238 09293 45958 89706 95365 34940 60340 21665 44375 58900 45632 88225 05452 55640 56448 24651 51875 47119 62184 43965 82533 75438 85690 94113 03150 95261 79378 00297 41207 66514 79394 25902 98969 59469 95565 76121 86561 96733 78623 62561 25216 32086 28692 22103 27488 92186 54364 80229 67807 05765 61514 46320 46927 90682 12073 88377 81423 35628 23608 96320 80682 22468 01224 82611 77185 89638 14091 83903 67367 22208 88321 51375 56003 72798 39400 41529 70028 78307 66709 44474 56013 45564 17254 37090 69793 96122 57142 98946 71543 57846 87886 14445 81231 45935 71984 92252 84716 05049 22124 24701 41214 78057 34551 05008 01908 69960 33027 63478 70810 81754 50119 30714 12233 90866 39383 39529 42578 69050 76431 00638 35198 34389 34159 61318 54347 54649 55697 81038 29309 71646 51438 40700 70736 04112 37359 98434 52251 61050 70270 56235 26601 27648 48308 40761 18301 30527 93205 42746 28654 03603 67453 28651 05706 58748 82256 98157 93678 97669 74220 57505 96834 40869 73502 01410 20672 35850 20072 45225 63265 13410 55924 01902 74216 24843 91403 59989 53539 45909 44070 46912 09140 93870 01264 56001 62374 28802 10927 64579 31065 79229 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