With the parts of the world slowly descending into chaos, maybe
what we all need is some waves, water, tranquility, nature, piano, ...
Here's a video I recorded of my local beach.
Almost 20 minutes of watching the waves slide towards the shore
on a perfect sunny day, hardly any breeze, gentle waves ...
recorded on Kinka Beach
on the Capricorn Coast of Queensland, Australia at mid-morning,
just around high tide, on Mon, 25-May-2020.
And here are follow items I have recorded / prepared and uploaded to
LBRY
(a YouTube competitor without any of the non-sense):
No need to create an account on LBRY
- just click the little download icon below each item.
Play the MP3's on loop on your MP3 player and have a wonderful night's sleep.
I had to put the piano version on
LBRY
because YouTube seem to ping you for Copyright infringement
if you have any music in your video - even royalty free / copyright free
music that Camtasia Studio provides. Yes, seriously.
I'm amazed the original video that I uploaded to YouTube
hasn't been pinged for Copyright Infringement for using wave sounds.
Things really are that bad on YouTube now.
Like 99% of my work, all of the above are free.
Tell your friends. Share and use freely and enjoy and relax.
Maybe, just maybe, if some people had more waves and nature and piano
in their lives there would be more peace and harmony in the world today ...
we can only hope ...
LBRY
are a YouTube competitor without any of the non-sense,
and are so much better.
You can upload videos, audio, documents, HTML, PDF, etc
and share them for free or sell them.
If you create an account, you can get "rewards" for watching videos, etc.
21-Mar-2020::
Coronavirus: What if we did NOTHING? (22-Mar-2020, Thunderf00t)
Everyone - EVERYONE - needs to watch this video immediately:
The Global Mortality Rate might end up being higher than the
1-2% figure used in this video -
it is currently
11.46% according to the very latest data from
John Hopkins University (JHU)
if you only count the cases where the disease has run its course.
i.e. people have either recovered or died:
Mortality Rate = Deaths / (Deaths + Recovered)
NOTE: Doctors are being conservative and are slow to declare people as "recovered", and rightly so.
How do you tell if someone is recovered ? When they can stand up again ? When they leave the hospital ? When the feel well enough to walk outside again ? When they return to work ?
So the above formula results in a vastly inflated Mortality Rate to what it will hopefully be when more cases are declared "recovered".
I still believe there's no need to do any panic buying or hoarding, and certainly no need for ugly, sub-human supermarket fights or stampedes - as long as everyone stays calm and buys only what they need, the food and toilet paper will not run out.
However, apparently a large proportion of the population in the
US, Australia, the UK, ...
are living way beyond their means and
have little or no savings for rainy days -
WHOOPS !!! ... and people are getting scared and are panic buying and hoarding ...
so who knows what ugly, sub-human behaviour we might witness in the coming weeks / months ...
21-Mar-2020::
Coronavirus Spread World Map Animation and Latest News - 21-Mar-2020
Here is my updated simulation / animation of the spread of Coronavirus with
the very latest data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
Just uploaded my latest video to YouTube a few minutes ago:
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives my software a 100% clean bill of health against all 58 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
If your computer does not have Java installed, you will need to download and install the
FREE Java Run-Time Environment (JRE) from Oracle.
I recommend downloading the Java 8 Runtime using this link:
Developing this animation is a great little assignment project for my students
and I am still developing the tool, so I'm not going to place the Java source code
on a public Github yet.
I might even do a "Build Your Own Software" episode on how to develop this
animation.
Anyway, I will continue to monitor the situation and report future developments.
Just finished stepping through and exploring the latest data with the
world map simulation tool I've been working on, and
cannot help but worry if China is telling the truth about their data,
because the recent trends (in particular) are so different to other countries.
I've uploaded 5 videos to YouTube so far about this, and here's my latest video (uploaded to YouTube a few minutes ago):
The ZIP includes the Java JAR file, the latest data files from John Hopkins University (JHU),
and the world map.
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives my software a 100% clean bill of health against all 61 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
If your computer does not have Java installed, you will need to download and install the
FREE Java Run-Time Environment (JRE) from Oracle.
I recommend downloading the Java 8 Runtime using this link:
14-Mar-2020::
Corona Virus - potential under-reporting of cases, deaths, higher than reported mortality rates, etc
Note: According to the data I have, Coronavirus is NOT spreading exponentially.
At this stage, there is NO CAUSE FOR PANIC.
I have been monitoring the Corona Virus situation and graphing the data for several weeks,
and have developed a Coronavirus Spread World Map Simulation that allows me to
step through the data and see how the confirmed cases, deaths,
and recoveries change over time for each country.
My preliminary analyses and simulations suggest:
There is significant variation in Mortality Rates between countries
(over 7.1% in Italy, and only 3.9% in China), and,
The Mortality Rate is much higher than reported in the media, which typically ranges from 1% to 3%, and,
There also seems to be proportionally far more deaths in Italy,
and far less deaths in Korea and China.
And there seems to be proportionally
far less recoveries in Italy and Korea compared to China.
Here are screen shots of my simulation and spreadsheet:
Note: the largest red dot size (of 50 pixels radius) was selected
so that the countries with few cases still showed up as dots.
If I made the largest red dot radius 10 pixels, then the countries
with the low numbers would not even have enough cases to display a single red pixel.
Fig 2: Mortality Data and Graph in Excel.
The data I am using is the from John Hopkins University's (JHU) Github:
Is the data being reported by China and other countries honest / accurate / up-to-date ?
Are the numbers of cases, deaths being intentionally under-reported to the media ?
Under reporting the data to prevent public panic is one thing (there is more than enough hysteria already),
although this is generally not a good idea - people do not like to be lied to.
However, if one or more countries are grossly under reporting or blatantly lying about the number of
cases and/or deaths then this is another matter entirely.
Note Well:
There is so much turmoil because of this virus that JHU may be
having difficulty getting accurate / up-to-date data. This is perfectly understandable.
Links to the John Hopkins University data are provided above
and in the descriptions below each video in my Youtube channel.
Developing this simulation (see videos above) is a great little assignment project
for my students and I am still developing the tool, so I'm not going to place my
Java source code on a public Github yet.
I might even do a "Build Your Own Software" series
on how to develop this simulation / animation.
According to the data I have, Coronavirus is NOT spreading exponentially.
At this stage, there is NO CAUSE FOR PANIC.
Anyway, I will continue to monitor the situation and report future developments.
20-Feb-2020 ::
Web Site - Back-up Again .... with another Web Host: InfinityFree
Until this morning, my web site was hosted with 000Webhost,
but they like to play UPSELL games.
Over the last few days my web site has been down,
because 000Webhost claimed my web site was getting 10's of 1,000's of visitors a day
and therefore I needed $$$ Expensive Hosting Plan A
before my web site would be allowed to "go live" again.
However, StatCounter and my Rebrandly re-director both confirm the true numbers are much lower:
StatCounter says I averaged 3.1 visitors per day over the last 6 months,
Rebrandly re-director had 11 clicks - 11 visitors - in the past month (since 28-Jan-2020).
Certainly not the 10's of 1,000's 000Webhost claimed !
I kept emailing 000Webhost and telling them the facts, expecting an
apology email from them any minute, but there was no response ...
Days went by and all I got was their auto-generated emails
that were still trying to UPSELL me on expensive hosting plans.
No response. No support. No contact details on their web site.
Never the slightest evidence to support their bogus claims. Nothing.
It's not the first time this has happened to me. Many of my prior web hosts
also tried to play this dirty UPSELL scam on me, but I moved hosts each time.
So, farewell 000Webhost, and hello my new web host: InfinityFree.
Long may they reign (aka be host my web host).
Anyway, my apologies for any inconvenience caused by this.
Please bookmark / continue to use this web link to visit my web site
and all should be fine:
I used to use the "V3 URL" redirector service for my web site ... some long term visitors
may remember seeing "http://move.to/Moose" links in my emails, readme files, and web site.
This allowed me to use the same link, but behind the scenes point this to my latest web site url
when I had to change web hosts (they closed down, changed their TOS, jacked their prices up, etc),
which happened approximately every 5-10 years or so.
This "V3 URL" redirector service worked really well for over 10 years,
until suddenly the service suddenly went belly-up, and I could not change
the redirector's link.
A real pain that made it hard for people to find my web site for a while.
Anyway ... after a few years of being "redirector shy", I'm back in the saddle again,
and now trying the
Rebrandly Redirector service.
My web site address using this redirector service is:
So, if you see this link in my emails, readmes, YouTube, GitHub, Reddit, etc
then Don't Panic .... everything is fine. Click the link and it will take you to my web site.
27-Jan-2020 ::
WEB Page Links / Links History / HTML Tidy Ups
I've gone through my web page files and updated old / no longer working web links
to my latest web page location, or
replaced them with something like "web page location / url - edit: removed, no longer valid".
There's no point at all keeping the old links around. They don't work, and are not valid.
18-Jan-2020 ::
Sound Board Lenny - my 111th software title !!
This is my 111th software title to be released on my Moose's Software Valley web site !!
Not bad for a lone developer.
Sound Board Lenny
is a collection of buttons that play specific sounds, and buttons that play random sounds or stop all sounds playing. The sounds included are all FREE, public domain sounds.
These sounds are perfect for tying up phone scammers to waste their time and stop them from targeting others. Help fight the good fight ! Simply put your phone next to your PC's speaker and press buttons to let Lenny do the talking.
A Live Demo of the Sound Board Lenny is available on YouTube:
Click the "Play 1 Random" button to play a random sound.
Click the "Play Many Random" button to play random sounds
sequentially, one after the other, until you click the
"Stop Sounds" button.
Click the "Modern Life" button to keep playing random sounds
over the top of each other - pure chaos !!
Click the "Stop" button to halt playing all sounds.
This is the first public release but is labeled v1.05f to keep it in step with my
Sound Effects SoundBoard
which share the same source code base.
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 55 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
Sound Board Lenny
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
Sound Effects SoundBoard
is a collection of buttons that
play specific sounds, and buttons that play random sounds or
stop all sounds playing. The sounds included are all FREE,
public domain sounds. My friends and I have had a lot of fun
with these sounds, so maybe others will find them funny, useful,
or interesting at work, at home, and with friends.
A Live Demo of the Sound Effects SoundBoard is available on YouTube:
Click the "Play 1 Random" button to play a random sound.
Click the "Play Many Random" button to play random sounds
sequentially, one after the other, until you click the
"Stop Sounds" button.
Click the "Modern Life" button to keep playing random sounds
over the top of each other - it is hilarious and sounds a lot
like modern city life. Umm, if you had a lot of cats around ;)
Click the "Stop" button to halt playing all sounds.
Here are the changes for this 1.05f release:
Add full font scaling support (Ctrl+Mouse Wheel).
Add more sound effects.
Add "Play Many Random" button.
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 55 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
Sound Effects SoundBoard
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
31-Dec-2019 ::
End of Year Round Up ... Farewell 2019, Hello 2020 !!
Been a quiet second half of 2019 on my web page ...
still working on multiple software projects for
myself (and they will probably be released onto my web page sooner or later),
and a dozen or so Java applications I have been working on for a client.
In addition, I have also been recording a lot of Java, database development,
and other software development videos for my
MoosesValley YouTube Channel:
I've also been mulling over ideas for new content ...
As many of my regular visitors may know,
I have been very heavily involved in University Education over the past 20 years,
and I have often wished that I had made videos of the development of many of the
100+ programs available on my web page to help my students
understand how the whole development process works.
And there are probably others out there who would like to see this in actions and understand this.
So, I'm thinking of recording a series of new videos to demonstrate
the entire software development process
for particular software development projects that I have in mind,
from end to end including:
analysis,
requirements discovery - story boarding, prototyping, brain storming, ...
development,
on-line help,
context sensitive help,
Github version control,
automated Unit and Integration testing,
manual testing,
linking to databases: SQL Server, SQLite, MongoDB, etc,
using web services and web APIs: Google YouTube API, London Underground API, etc,
processing JSON and XML content,
graphics, sound, games, ...
cross platform development,
web apps (maybe),
basic editors (like TextPad, Notepad++, etc) and
advanced Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), such as Netbeans, Eclipse, etc,
go live / roll-out / release,
and various other topics.
As always, what I do depends on the response my work receives.
If people like it and provide nice feedback, then
I'll produce more.
If no-one cares or gives a damn, then I might as well go and do something else.
Anyway, stay tuned, got some BIG PLANS for 2020 !!!
16-Dec-2019 ::
Sag Calculator - 3 Questions - Can you Help ?
Some Sag Calculator questions / discussion points .... can you help ?
QUESTION #1:
Moose, I have utilized your sag program to sag all of our work in recent years. We have exclusively used the Tangent 1 and Tangent 2 method sagging straight-line tangent structures. We have an upcoming project that, for some our wire pulls, does not have a large amount of tangents, and most of the structures are running angles. How do you best recommend that we go about sagging this wire in running angle spans? We have a couple ideas, but wanted to see if you had any recommendations.
QUESTION #2:
Can I go 85% on a tangent one sag or is that out of the question. Span length is 350 m.
My reply:
85% is a little bit outside the recommended limit of 20%-80%.
From Sag Calculator's help file: "Ensure that the point of tangency to the cable at the sagging temperature will give good control ie between 20% and 80% of the span."
I don't have any information about how quickly errors will creep in as you go beyond these limits. If you can supply any information about this, then please forward it on to me and I will add it to the help file (giving you full credit).
QUESTION #3:
Hi Mike we are you mostly using tan 2 sagging methods. For our horizontal distance how
much can u move (to the side) off center line so we can see a clear view of all three phases
at one time we are sagging 500 KV four bundle 926.7 conductor.
Can anyone out there shed light on these questions / topics ?
Or, can you provide any hints, tips, information that would be useful in Sag Calculator's help file ?
If you can, then please
email me
and let me know
and I'll add your reply into Sag Calculator's help file and give you full credit for the answer.
Sag Calculator's Help File Needs You !
Sag Calculator's help file is not perfect or complete.
Can you provide any information that will make the help file better, more informative, or more useful ?
If you answer "YES", please
email me
and let me know.
25-Oct-2019 ::
YouTube Demo Videos - Robot Simulator and Solar System Simulator
Upload demonstration videos for two of my freeware programs:
My YouTube channel currently contains
76 videos (51 public, 5 unlisted, and 20 private videos)
in multiple playlists, including:
Delphi / Pascal
General Videos
Java Software Development
Moose's Soapbox
University
Video Captioning Project
but my main playlist is for
Java Software Development
which currently contains more than 25 public videos to
demonstrate and walk through and solve various problems
for my students.
Maybe other people trying to learn how to program in Java
might also find these useful ??
Or, maybe someone out there is having problems sleeping ....
my videos can be a great cure for insomnia (or so my students tell me).
More videos are being added regularly. (In the past 2 weeks, I have added more than 10 new videos).
24-Oct-2019 ::
Moose's GitHub: 69 repositories so far ...
Officially link my web page with my GitHub Repository:
51 PRIVATE repositories (projects)
which contain the source code to various Java projects I am working on,
some of which have been released to the general public on the
Freeware - cross-platform - Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Unix
section of my web page.
All of the AppleSoft BASIC source code for my
Freeware - Apple 2
software,
And eventually, before I shrug off my mortal coil,
all of the Delphi/Pascal, etc source code for my
Shareware / Trialware - Windows
software. There is only one program in this section now, and that's my
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator
software.
And any other software I have developed that might be interesting to others,
perhaps even incomplete, unfinished, projects of which there are dozens ...
Basically, anything that I have developed or started to develop
for my self could end up on my GitHub sooner or later.
NOTE:None of the source code for software that I have developed for
clients or employers
will ever end up on my GitHub. I do not have the right to release that code.
Any backups of that code still in my possession / still on any of my backup drives
will be destroyed.
People may be thinking: Moose, what are you doing ? Are you going somewhere ?
And my answer is: None of us live forever.
The Singularity -> Immortality (Wikipedia)
is coming, but sadly, I don't think it's going to happen soon enough for me.
So, I'm just taking steps to ensure my
software is in order, and as much of my source code as possible is available to anyone
who wants it or would like to explore it or who maybe could learn from it ....
before I depart this world.
In the future, maybe someone out there is still using my software ?
Maybe someone out there wonders how I coded things ?
Maybe someone out there wants to extend or build on one of my projects ?
By making my source code available, I'm making sure that my software
- the creative work of my life -
can live on ....
And if that benefits or helps someone in the future, then that's truly awesome !
Moose's Software Valley has now been live for 23 years.
That's an incredible amount of time on the internet.
I can only think of a handful of web sites who have been on-line longer than me.
Let's see ... there's Google .....
and ummmm, oh that's all I can think of ....
Considering Google launched ~2 years before me, ....
and made squillions of dollars selling search engine rank ...
while I focused on creating great, original software ... and made peanuts ...
Ohh god, don't even think about stuff like that ... :(
I did a search of "old web sites" 2 days ago, and came across:
404pagefound
(http://www.404pagefound.com/).
It turns out there are many 100's of web sites that are as old or
even older than mine that are still up and running.
Even the old Netscape web site I remember visiting in 1993
is still up and running ....
I never knew .....
Well done everyone involved !!
404PageFound started in May 2009 with the goal of uncovering dated websites (generally from 1994-2001) that are still active and have avoided major updates.
Thinking about that last part,
my web site has certainly avoided major updates,
it's got minimal CSS and JS (just for the buttons / menus above),
it's not database driven (even though I have been close a couple of times),
and all of the content is still all just basic HTML,
exactly the same as it was back in 1996.
Yes, my web site went through a redesign back in 2014:
but that was pretty minor: change focus to just be on my software,
removed all other content, drop the HTML frames,
improve the colours, and
adopt a better style for post banners (a nice HTML table).
Anyway, they did not have my web site web site in their list, so
I submitted my web site. Not sure how active they are or how long it
will take for them to add me ...
Anyway, will I be on-line for the 30 anniversary ??
Probably ... if my health holds out ... what else am I gonna do ?
26-Jul-2019 ::
Asus ZenBook: Main Screen + 3 External Monitors +
ScreenPad = 5 screens ... OMG !!!
Yesterday, my work bought me a new laptop, and it's a real sweet piece of kit:
an Asus ZenBook Pro 15, Windows 10 x64, 16GB RAM, 500 GB SDD, Core i7 CPU (12xCPUs), with a beautiful, high quality finish.
See: https://www.asus.com/Laptops/ASUS-ZenBook-15-UX534FT/
But, apart from being a powerful, awesome, and beautiful piece of kit,
it's also got something quite interesting.
As well as having a gorgeous main screen, I can connect
3 external monitors at once - making a really nice 4 screen set-up.
In addition, the TrackPad / MousePad
is also a small, high-res screen.
Asus call it a ScreenPad.
You can run a bunch of specially developed ScreenPad apps there
(calculator, calendar, music player, video player, etc),
and some software, like Office, automatically uses it so you can
use the ScreenPad to change settings in your document, etc.
See: https://www.asus.com/ScreenPad-APPs/
But the ScreenPad has several modes of operation, and
one of those turns it into an additional display screen.
So my laptop can have:
Main Screen + 3 External Monitors + ScreenPad = 5 screens ... OMG !!!
To turn the ScreenPad into an additional display screen, I pressed F6, and selected "Extender Mode", and the ScreenPad sprang into life
as another monitor, and I can drag any apps I like down there and run
them, just like I can do for any other external monitor.
And within seconds, I had all of these running in my ScreenPad at once:
CPUs Monitor
a Delphi app I developed back in October 2015 to monitor CPU utilisation on PCs with multiple CPUs, and also calculate and display the average CPU usages for whatever settings / timeframes you like.
Big Mouse Pointer
my old Delphi app that I developed many years ago
and which I still use every day. Without it, my poor old eyes quickly grow tired
of playing "where's the mouse pointer" ...
Update: just checked, and I developed Big Mouse Pointer18 years ago, way back in April 2001, and it is
still running perfectly across generations of hardware
and Windows OS's as all great software should.
Windows Task Manager,
Emoji Buddy
my Java app to give me quick access to my favourite Emojis whenever I need them.
SciFiComputer 1950s Simulator
is a silly little Java program - it is my
lame attempt at simulating a 1950 Sci Fi movie computer - which
had a matrix of flashing lights but didn't do much. My program
is the same - a matrix of flashing lights but doesn't do anything
useful. It is just flashing lights.
Golden Ratio
my Java app to explore and animate the Golden Ratio.
This app has not been released yet, and to be honest,
I was not really planning to release it,
but everyone who sees it says it's incredibly cool, so maybe one day ...
17-Jul-2019 ::
GitHub
Programmer humour: how I wish my GitHub updates / contributions history looked:
15-Jul-2019 ::
HAXE: transpiler, cross platform application and games development powerhouse
HAXE
TL;DR: "HAXE is a transpiler, cross platform powerhouse that has unlimited potential for games, applications, web, ...", Moose OMalley.
Haxe is FREE, open source, and pretty amazing.
To quote the Haxe web site (https://haxe.org/)
web site:
Haxe is an open source toolkit based on a modern, high level, strictly typed programming language, a cross-compiler, a complete cross-platform standard library and ways to access each platform's native capabilities.
With Haxe, you can easily build cross-platform tools targeting all the mainstream platforms natively.
If that's all Haxe did, it would still be pretty amazing.
You could avoid all of the major, hideous JavaScript issues,
and program in a nice, safe, statically typed language (HAXE),
and generate the nasty JS out the back end.
Or Java, or TypeScript, or Lua, or PHP, or C#, or C++, or ....
well, you get the picture.
HAXE installation is quick and simple (a ~5 MB installer).
Adding additional external libraries is easy
(a simple command on the command line to install).
Some of the additional libraries:
and many others provide game / graphics / application framework / etc support
so you can build cross platform 2D and 3D games, as well as full-blown applications.
Getting fonts, sprites, etc moving on screen, animating, bouncing around, is very easy.
Within an hour or so of discovering HAXE, I had worked out enough to bounce a
bunch of heads round my browser window.
It's all pretty amazing.
So far, I've spent about a day or so over several months (very much part-time) learning HAXE,
and have almost fallen in love with HAXE, and I might yet ....
But ... why is there's always a but ??
It's not a complete rose garden ...
Firstly, the documentation, on-line help, and tutorials just aren't there yet,
especially for the external libraries (Heaps, Nape, etc).
500 lines of uncommented code is not a tutorial, even for a
seasoned veteran programming beast like me.
For me, it felt like every step beyond the basics is a maze of guess work and
trial and error and hours of frustration.
Secondly, the cross compiling nature isn't quite as open or as flexible as I hoped.
e.g. if you target HTML5, then your project wont just cross compile to Android or iOS.
The target is important. It determines what libraries, etc you are allowed to use,
and these don't cross compile to other targets (maybe one day ??).
But it's still early days. There's a great community and dev team behind the project,
and significant improvements are on the way with HAXE v4.0.
So, I haven't given up on HAXE yet ..... not by a long shot.
And if I can add my own tutorials, information, etc, to make HAXE better, easier to learn,
etc then I'll certainly be doing that.
Actually, that's another great thing about HAXE.
A lone developer like me can contribute tutorials, how to's,
notes, help, video tutorials, source code, ... and make a
real difference and be a force for good for the community.
In contrast, I could spend lifetimes contributing to the Java or C# communities
and not even make a blip on the radar.
Anyway, HAXE sure is a promising project, with loads of potential.
13-Jul-2019 ::
Cross platform games development .... Unity - A Restrospective
TL;DR: "Unity was not a good fit for me. I want to be able to do everything in code and not have to deal with a monstrously overly complex IDE with bajillions of options, checkboxes, buttons, panels, menus, toolbars, slide down / slide open panels, ...", Moose OMalley.
The Long story:
Back in early 2016, I enrolled in a 4 week post-grad Unity Games development course ...
I had 4 weeks "holiday" (i.e. gap) between jobs and invested all of my time into learning
Unity (https://unity.com/).
And I went "the whole hog".
I put my life on hold and completely devoted 4 weeks of my life to learning
Unity full time (7 days a week, and well over 100+ hours per week for 4 weeks).
As well as completing all of the course work, assignments, and
getting top marks for everything, I did tons of extra side projects
and explored way beyond what the course covered.
I really went at it full bore. The whole hog.
But, at the end of the 4 weeks, I had barely scratched the surface
of what Unity provides, and I was still a long way from being confident ...
In Unity, there are bajillions of GUI options, that you cannot easily
(at least initially) setup / control from code.
Near the end of the 4 weeks, I worked through videos creating a
2D Tank Battle game for fun, where they supplied all the graphics and art
and some of the code, and the tanks had little health bars, and
I realised how far I still had to go.
It wasn't the complexity. It wasn't the code.
It wasn't the principles, topics, etc.
For me, the BIG ISSUE was my constant battle with the Unity IDE:
What was the option called to let me do X,Y,Z ...
Where on earth is option X in the quagmire of IDE screens,
panels, menus, toolbars, slide down / slide open panels, ...
For goodness sakes Unity, let me do everything from code !!!
e.g. need to set gravity to 0 or 20 ? Let me do that from code, such as something like:
player.gravity = -9.8;
Want to give a game object a collider ? Let me do that from code, such as something like:
player.addCollider (new BoxCollider (20, 20, 10, 15) );
I don't want to have to open multiple toolbars, slide open 5-10 panels,
and hunt for the right data entry box or option. Just let me do it !
Unity for me was like finger nails on a chalk board.
Note: I do know there are devs out there who script Unity ...
to avoid dealing with the monstrously overly complex IDE ....
but these people are pretty openly laughed at in the Unity Community.
[If I continue with Unity, I would be one of the "script everything" people.]
What I hoped was going to be my entry into cross platform games development
turned to dust in my mouth.
Shortly after completing the 4 week course, I started a new job (well 2 in fact, but that's another story),
and things have been crazy busy since.
And also recently, about a month ago, I decided to give Unity another chance ...
However, the installer brought back many memories ....
If you want a bare bones Unity install, it is a 20 GB approx download.
If you want a full blown install with iOS emulator, etc,
then your going to be downloading ~45 GB of stuff,
which probably expand to well over 100 GB of hard disk space once installed.
I went for the full install ....
My PC churned away for hours installing god knows what ....
And that's another issue I have with Unity.
As visitors to my web site well know,
nothing gets near my machine without being thoroughly scanned and checked by
Virus Total (http://www.virustotal.com/),
and other software.
And even then I run just about everything sandboxed or in a VM (virtual machine).
Yes, I am that careful and paranoid.
Software developers need to be for the sake of their clients / users.
So, if I am forced to download an installer, and it goes out across the
net and grabs bits and pieces and installs them,
then I cannot do my pre-install checks.
And I hate that !
Anyway, when the 45+ GB was downloaded, and Unity was installed,
I could not get past the
"enter a license key" screen and actually run Unity.
I had downloaded the FREE version and it wanted a license key.
To be honest, I kinda gave up on Unity at that point.
Didn't search the web for an answer.
Didn't try ... just could not be bothered battling with Unity any longer ...
All I could think was: "Oh, for Fuck's sake Unity !!!".
However, I am often thinking about cross-platform application
and game development. And I am always exploring and thinking ....
hmmm, would this be a good language / environment to re-develop a new cross platform
Sag Calculator
in ....
More recently, over the past 4-6 months, I have been exploring:
Stay tuned ... I will be doing write ups of some of these soon ...
18-May-2019 ::
Mike O's Programming Practice Questions - v0.008 - my 110th upload !!
Since the earliest days of Moose's Software Valley, I have helped
programmers and many other people.
For example, as well as providing over 100 software titles for free:
I have replied to many dozens of emails
over the years asking
"How did you do .... ??? "
for my various software titles, and helped other programmers
with their issues.
My web page includes various learning materials, such as
"How To" guides included with some of my software titles.
I have provided some resources freely, for example
the
Apple 2 Disk Drive Sounds (WAV files)
that I recorded and processed
(many hours of work) back in the early 2000's.
I have provided various source code for free, such as
Have I Been Owned ? / Have I Been Pwned ? (Java Source Code)
and provided full compile and running instructions
so that anyone, anywhere, even with very limited computer knowledge,
can check and verify if any of their on-line accounts / passwords have been hacked / stolen.
And so on.
Over the coming months I will be making a selection of
additional learning resources available on my web page.
I've been producing these for many years, mostly to help
beginner programmers to learn.
e.g. YouTube videos, and a range of other materials.
This is my 109th software title to be released on my Moose's Software Valley web site !!
Pretty darn amazing for a lone wolf developer ???
Full Screen Background
is a simple little program that
creates a full screen "background" over your desktop
and any underlying applications that you want to hide.
Why is this useful ? I'm often doing screen shots, live
demos, and recording desktop videos using tools like Camtasia
Studio, and I don't want to show / include the clutter of
my desktop icons, or show any material in any open documents
that I'd rather keep private, so I needed a program that I
could run and it will cover everything below it - no more
desktop clutter, no more private information revealed,
no more worries about prying eyes of strangers or "busy bodies"
walking by, etc.
So, I created Full Screen Background, and it has proven incredibly
useful to me. Maybe someone else out there will also find it useful ?
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all
59 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
Full Screen Background
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
09-Apr-2019 ::
VirusTotal Virus Scan report - 2 link fixes:
Fix links to
VirusTotal
Virus Scan reports for my 2 most recent software releases:
For those who don't know,
VirusTotal
provides an on-line scanning service for web sites, software, etc
against more than 50 of the leading malware and virus detection engines.
All of my software has a 100% clean bill of health (as I fully expected).
This is not surprising at all: I'm a software developer with almost 40 years of
experience, and my machines are subject to the highest levels of security.
As a result, you can rest assured that my software is the among the safest
in the world.
07-Apr-2019 ::
Emoji Buddy (v1.0f) - my 108th software title !!
This is my 108th software title to be released on my Moose's Software Valley web site !!
Pretty darn amazing for a lone wolf developer ???
Emoji Buddy
is a simple little program that lets you
quickly and easily access some of my favourite Unicode
Emoji and other characters.
Click any button and the Unicode character is copied into
the Clipboard buffer on your Windows, Mac, Linux computer,
so you can paste it into Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, any
word processing document, presentation, spreadsheet, etc.
If you place the mouse pointer over any button, a tooltip
will display the a brief description of the Unicode character.
e.g. "Rolling on Floor Laughing".
If you want all of the Unicode characters, click the "All"
button and paste them wherever you need them.
No need to visit web sites, or load a word processing document
containing your favourite Emojis, just run my tiny Emoji Buddy
program and click a button and then paste the characters wherever
you need it.
I personally use Emoji Buddy several times a day on my machines.
Perhaps someone out there will also find it useful ?
Also:
Use Ctrl + Mouse Wheel Up/Down to increase / decrease font size
(just like you can do on a web page).
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all
59 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
Emoji Buddy
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
31-Mar-2019 ::
Wikipedia: DRAFT page for Moose's Software Valley
Well, I finally did it .... after many years of browsing
Wikipedia and thinking
"Why the hell does this person / company / software developer have a
Wikipedia page and not Moose's Software Valley ????",
I have decided to go through the process of creating a
Wikipedia page for Moose's Software Valley.
I have started to create a Wikipedia page for Moose's Software Valley
in the past, but I was always dissuaded by this
Wikipedia criteria:
"First, please be aware that Wikipedia is an
encyclopedia, and our mission is to share accepted knowledge
to benefit people who want to learn. We are not social media
or a place to promote a company or product or person, or a
place to advocate for or against anyone or anything.
Please keep this in mind, always."
But there are 1,000's of Wikipedia articles that promote
companies and/or products and/or people.
So why not me ? Why not my software valley ?
My 107 software titles (106 are free) certainly provides a range of
"benefits to people" and I certainly
"share accepted knowledge to benefit people who want to learn"
on my web site.
So, why not a Wikipedia page for Moose's Software Valley ?
So, I have finally gone ahead and
created a Wikipedia page for Moose's Software Valley:
"This may take more than two months,
since drafts are reviewed in no specific order. There are 2530
pending submissions waiting for review."
UPDATE:
But already, just ~20 minutes later, the "great people" at
Wikipedia have made their decision:
"This draft may meet Wikipedia's criteria for speedy
deletion because in its current form it serves only to promote
or publicise an entity, person, product, or idea, and
would require a fundamental rewrite in order to become encyclopedic."
So thanks to Wikipedia massively lopsided and biased rules,
I have just wasted hours of my time .....
Am I surprised ? No, not particularly.
Am I disappointed ? Hell yeah.
Am I annoyed with Wikipedia and frustrated at their
massively lopsided and biased rules ?
HELL YEAH !!!
Wikipedia beg for money nearly every time you visit their site.
Will I be donating money to support Wikipedia any time soon ?
Haaa haaa, nope.
Wikipedia are probably going to delete my page (my hours of hard work) soon,
so just in case, here's a PDF of my page:
For discussion of software on Moose's Software Valley (established 1996).
Moose created his software valley web site in July 1996 to distribute the
software he creates. The vast majority of it is free.
Only 1 title is shareware (Sag Calculator).
This sub is for discussing Moose's Software.
If ever you cannot find my web site or me (eg. if my web site or email goes off-line, etc),
please check
r/MoosesSoftware
for my latest web site location.
OoooooKayy .... I'm probably going to regret doing this ....
I sure hope this works out better than they last time I created a discussion forum ....
where I had to delete the Guest Book a few months later because it was
overrun with IDIOT SPAMMERS posting links to their web sites / scam sites.
Oh well, if this new discussion forum is overrun, I'll lock it down (if possible)
to stop the scammers, or (if that is not possible) I'll just delete it.
23-Mar-2019 ::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator - update Customer Feedback and Testimonials
"... I'm very grateful for your guidance getting started.
... Thank you again, and have a great day, Sir."
(Source: Email dated Tuesday, 19 March 2019, 1:32 AM).
"... I really needed this program. There is simply nothing else out
there that compares to it in terms of being user friendly and very
accurate. ... in my opinion it's the best program available."
(Source: Email dated Friday, 15 March 2019, 7:13 AM).
I do need to go back through prior emails, because I am certain that there is a ton of feedback
that I have not yet uploaded.
Note: none of the feedback mentions anyone's name, company, etc to protect people's privacy.
18-Mar-2019 ::
Money or the Case (v1.0f) - my 107th software title !!
This is my 107th software title to be released on my Moose's Software Valley web site !!
Not bad for a lone developer.
Money or the Case
is my game based on games and game shows like
'Pick a Card', 'Deal or No Deal', 'Pick a Box',
'The Money or The Box', ... and of course is just for fun.
How to Play:
Click the 'Start' button to start a new game.
Select 'your' case.
One by one, select the required number of cases for the round.
At the end the round decide whether to accept the
offer or play on to the next round.
If there are 2 cases left, then select one of the cases.
Needless to say, all money / winnings in this game are
'funny money'.
Also:
Use Ctrl + Mouse Wheel Up/Down to increase / decrease font size
(just like you can do on a web page).
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 59 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
Money or the Case
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
19-Jan-2019 ::
YouTube --> Game Videos --> Mr Wobbles
Happy New Year everyone !
First post for the new year ...
Oh boy, time is rushing on ...
One thing I've rarely done is watch videos of people playing games
on YouTube or anywhere else, apart from the very occasional (maybe once a year)
video that showed a world record, speed run, or
showed Easter Eggs or game bugs, or something like that.
But recently I have started watching videos of people playing games, mostly
Rust
and
Day Z,
and I soon found this crazy guy - aka
Mr Wobbles
- singing Christmas Carols (LOL) to people caught in
RCham's
RUST trap base videos:
If you are bored and there's nothing on TV, do yourself a favor and watch these videos.
Anyway, hats off to you
Mr Wobbles
- it's awesome to see you doing your thing and doing it so well.
You have a hell of a set of pipes on you, and
I'd sure love to be able to sing like you.
10-Nov-2018 ::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator - Training Videos
Update the Overhead Cable Sag Calculator - Training Videos section of my web site.
Update the written description for Step 3
to match the latest Registration Confirmation email.
Update the YouTube video download options to include
YouTube-DL (a free, open source, command line tool):
https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl
NOTE: access to Training Videos web page is restricted to Registered Users
(and preferably those who have purchased / supported the training videos package).
13-Oct-2018 ::
Hostinger Web Site Hosting for Mooses Software Valley ending soon
Hostinger Web Site Hosting for Mooses Software Valley ending soon.
Please use:
I will be setting up a 2nd mirror asap (as soon as I can find a reliable host at the right price).
Or better yet, hosting my own web site and avoiding all of the non-sense.
21-Jul-2018 ::
Sag Calculator - add "Windows 10" to list of supported OS's
Add Windows 10 to the list of supported operating systems for my
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator software on the
Sag Calculator - Overview and Features
section of my web site.
Windows 10 has been supported since the start, but I had not
updated this section of my web page to reflect this. Updated now.
29-Jun-2018 ::
UPDATE: Aaron S. and Joe H. - all OK.
UPDATE: Aaron S. and Joe H. have now been contacted,
comminications lines are open, and all is OK. Such a relief.
26-Jun-2018 ::
Attention: Aaron S. and Joe H.
Attention: Aaron S. and Joe H.: please contact me using
email addresses that are external to your company's mail servers.
i.e. please use a hotmail, gmail, yahoo, or similar email addresses.
None of my emails to you are getting through to you and this is causing a lot of frustration for everyone.
I have commented about this many times in the past on my web page.
Companies are becomming increasingly paranoid (and rightly so)
and they are increasingly blocking emails from external sources -
even sources that supply software and services to your company (not good for anyone !).
I have emailed you guys from every email provider I have - and none are getting through.
All I get back are increasingly frustrated "why aren't you replying Moose !!!" type emails.
This message here on my web site is my last option.
And this is precisely the reason why I ask for secondary email addresses in
Sag Calculator's Registration Form (Excel spreadsheet):
E-mail Address #2:
Please provide a second email address that is OUTSIDE of your company. If your company's email server blocks or rejects the Registration Confirmation or any other emails that I send - and this is happening increasingly often - then I will use this second email address for email correspondence. If you don't supply a second email address, and your company blocks my emails, then you will have to find some other way to contact me. e.g. create a GMail or Yahoo email account and email me from this.
In addition, please contact your Company's IT Departments and make sure that my
email address is added to the white list and stays there from now on.
I look forward to hearing from you soon - from email addresses external to your company - so
that we can actually communicate.
26-Jun-2018 ::
MineSweeper (v1.0f) - my 106th software title !!
This is my 106th software title to be released on my Moose's Software Valley web site !!
Not bad for a lone developer.
MineSweeperGUI
is my clone of the Windows Game "MineSweeper".
How to Play:
Left mouse click: select squares that you hope aren't mines.
Right mouse click: flag squares that you think are mines.
Use the number inside the squares to work out where nearby mines are.
Keep going until you have selected all squares or hit a mine.
Also:
Use Ctrl + Mouse Wheel Up/Down to increase / decrease font size
(just like you can do on a web page).
I never really played MineSweeper much until early 2018, and then
I realised what a terrific game it is. So, on a rainy Sunday morning,
I created my own version.
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 59 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
MineSweeperGUI
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
26-Feb-2018 ::
Have I Been Owned ? / Have I Been Pwned ?
Troy Hunt runs the
Have I Been Pwned? (HIBP),
https://haveibeenpwned.com/,
web site which has collected more than a billion passwords
that have been involved in system / web site breaches.
i.e. where web sites have been hacked / compromised and user data has been stolen.
You can visit Troy's web page and type in a password and see if it is contained
in any of the password lists he has.
If it is, then account(s) with that password have been hacked, and you can
look up further details to find out if it is one of your accounts.
In any case, if a password hash match occurs, even if it is NOT for any
of your accounts, I highly recommend that you change your password asap,
preferably to something much stronger.
I use my
Password Generator (freeware)
whenever I need to create new passwords. (I use it several times a week).
Anyway, Troy's web site is all well and good, and Troy might well be a great guy
(he sure seems to be),
but I would never recommend anyone typing in their passwords to random
web sites on the internet. Troy's web site might be legit (again, it sure seems to be).
But this or another web site may be legit but may have been hacked
and running malicious code that collects passwords that users type in.
So, what can you do ? How can you safely check your passwords to see
if their hashes appear in the available lists of hacked passwords ?
Well, thankfully Troy has made an API (application programming interface)
that let's you check your passwords with 100% safety.
The basic idea is this: you SHA1 hash your password, pass just the
first 5 characters of the hash to Troy's web API, and this searches
its database and returns a list of the full hashes of all passwords
that have the same first 5 character hash. You can then -
on the safety of your own computer - see if any of these full hashes
match the full hash of your password.
So, you never need to enter or pass your password to Troy's web site.
And you never need to provide Troy's web site with the full password hash (which can be revealing as well).
So, this is a truly great service that Troy provides.
Sounds confusing ? No, it's really very easy.
Let's look at an example. Say I want to check to see if my password
"abcd1234.zxc" has been involved in any of the available password breaches.
First thing to do is to create a SHA1 of this password:
SHA1 ("abcd1234") = 6367C48DD193D56EA7B0BAAD25B19455E529F5EE
First 5 characters = 6367C
Last 35 characters = 48DD193D56EA7B0BAAD25B19455E529F5EE
Now we take just the first 5 characters of this SHA1 (6367C)
and pass this to Troy's API, and this passes back the last
35 characters of the hashes of all passwords that have the
same first 5 characters. i.e. it does not pass back the
1st 5 characters - to save bandwidth.
In this case, at the time of writing, there are 479 passwords
the same first 5 character hash (6367C), here's the first 5 of these:
The number after the colon on each line above is the number
of times each password hash appears in a list.
So what you can then do is to compare the last 35 characters
of our password's hash (48DD193D56EA7B0BAAD25B19455E529F5EE)
with each entry in the list. If a match is found,
then the password has been compromised, and you need to
login to any accounts that use this password and change it immediately.
Now, how can this information help the average Jane or Joe?
I could provide a nice GUI application where you could
type in or paste in a bunch of passwords, click the "Check"
button and it could check each using the above processing.
But, why would you trust me ?
I'm just a guy who loves developing software, and has been
doing so since 1980, and have released over 100 free software titles
onto my web page since 1996, and none have ever been
malicious, deceptive, or contained any viruses or malware in any way, shape, or form.
I could tell you about all of the clients I have developed software for around the world,
the work I have done, and convince you that I have a *great* track record, etc, but
this still wont be enough for some people to trust me.
(And I applaud people for being skeptical and careful).
So, what can I do to help the average Jane or Joe who does not trust me ?
Well, here's
my Java source code
to do the above password checking.
Compile and Run instructions are included at the top of the file,
and a .BAT file is provided for Windows users.
All you need to do is download and install the Java JDK, edit my Java
source code and type in the passwords you want to check into the array provided,
then compile my Java source code, and run the compiled program.
A sample run screen shot is on the right.
By freely giving out
my Java source code
, even non-programmers
can have a quick look through my code and see that everything is above board
(no malicious code, etc), and feel confident that their passwords can be checked in safety
(providing their own computer has not already been compromised).
Anyway, to conclude, this is *very* important: download my Java software above,
follow the instructions in the
readme.txt
file, and check your passwords today.
NOTE: If this is too hard / too much work for you and you would like me to provide a nice GUI
application where you can copy and paste in your passwords and click the "Check" button,
let me know.
UPDATE:
This is my 105th software title to be released on my
Moose's Software Valley web site !!
Not bad for a lone developer.
27-Jan-2018 ::
Bitcoin CRASH - is now a good time to invest in Bitcoin ?
Let's take all emotion out of this and take a good, hard look at the data
so we can really see what's going on.
I downloaded the
available historical data for Bitcoin (from 28-Apr-2013)
from
CryptoCurrency Market Capitalizations
into an Excel spreadsheet and then calculated the usual 50 Day Moving Average and 100 Day Moving Average
on this, and just to get a long term prospective
I calculated the 365 Day Moving Average.
These moving averages are extremely useful for analysis because they
smooth out the spikes and troughs so that you can really see what the trends are
and how the prices are changing over weeks and months.
Here's a graph showing these averages from the historical data as well as
the last 40 days of Bitcoin prices:
The interesting thing here is that the price of Bitcoin is currently below
the 50 Day Moving Average (the dark green line on the graph above).
Some people - those more open to taking risks - use the 50 Day Moving Average
as a basis for buying commodities.
If so, these people may be considering buying Bitcoin ??
Almost certainly they will only invest if they
believe that there is a good chance of a price recovery. Is there ?
Also interesting is that the price of Bitcoin is quickly approaching
the 100 Day Moving Average (the yellow line on the above graph).
Indeed, the lines are almost touching in several places.
Many people use the 100 Day Moving Average as a basis for
buying commodities - these people are more averse to risk than the
50 Day Moving Average investors.
If so, these people may soon consider buying Bitcoin ??
Once again, they will only invest if they
believe that there is a good chance of a price recovery. Is there ?
The 365 Day Moving Average (the pink line on the above graph)
is a really long term average,
that really smoothes out the spikes and troughs in the data and provides a long term view.
Risk averse investors would be more inclined to use a long term average like this.
The 365 Day Moving Average is a very conservative average - it is very slow to
react to price hikes or price crashes.
Unsurprisingly, given the rapid rise in the price of Bitcoin,
the 365 Day Moving Average is way, way below the current price of
Bitcoin: $11,421.55 Vs $4,841.79.
People who are risk averse will not be considering buying Bitcoin
until the price crashes down to below $5,000 ...
Once again, they will only invest if they
believe that there is a good chance of a price recovery. Is there ?
If the price crashes below $5,000, is the cryptocurrency market doomed ?
Can the price of Bitcoin recover if it crashes to really low levels ?
The red line in the graph is the trend for the last 40 days, and
is steeply down, unsurprising given Bitcoin's rapidly falling price.
OK, to conclude, what can we take away from this ?
Will I be buying Bitcoin anytime soon ?
NO !
Will I be buying any other crypto currencies anytime soon ?
NO !
They all follow the same trends as Bitcoin - if Bitcoin crashes, they all crash, if Bitcoin rises, they all rise. None are immune from a Bitcoin crash.
So the "should I buy ?" answer for me is still definitely, 100% NO.
And that's based on just price and trends.
If I also take into account the
SEVEN BIG REASONS for my "lack of cryptocurrency investment"
that I discussed in my
17-Jan-2018: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Raiblocks, and other CryptoCurrencies
discussion below .... then the answer is
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO !
In any case, there is no way that anyone can justify the high prices
of any cryptocurrency. They are unregulated and not backed or guaranteed.
If someone manages to steal all of your Bitcoins, you have no recourse.
The prices of all of these cryptocurrencies are kept artificially high by
greedy, delusional people who spruke their value and
hope that someone who is even more greedy and delusional
will come along and pay more than they did.
This is a stupid and reckless investment strategy.
Some people are getting incredibly rich out of cryptocurrency, but only because
there are plenty of greedy, delusional people
who are buying into the hype and paying more than they did.
At some point people will have to wake up - and then the music will stop,
and the price will crash.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a financial advisor.
Do not take anything I say as financial advice.
Always, always, always do your own research.
17-Jan-2018 ::
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Raiblocks, and other CryptoCurrencies
I've been very quiet about Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Raiblocks, and other cryptocurrencies on my web site.
Never spoken about them here, but I have been watching them on and off for many years.
Researching, reading, watching, researching, reading, watching, .... for many years.
Back in 2011 / 2012, I was on the verge of investing in Bitcoins and setting up a mining rig, but
friends and work colleagues and university professors talked me out of it.
More recently, and even within the last few weeks, friends have been strongly encouraging me to buy Ripple, Raiblocks, Ethereum, and others.
So far I have (only just) avoided investing any money in any cryptocurrencies.
But I have been very, very close to investing a few times ...
There are SEVEN BIG REASONS for my "lack of cryptocurrency investment",
the first 4 reasons have been there for many years,
and the last 3 reasons have only become really significant during the last 6-12 months or so:
Underworld Past:
Bitcoin (and others) became popular because they allowed people to
conduct their nefarious businesses
(buying / selling drugs, money laundering, tax evasion,
shifting money offshore, and other illegal activity)
on underworld web sites like Silk Road.
Bitcoin (and others) have moved on from this shady past.
But, for me at least, the stigma still remains.
I will not be involved in anything that enables people to commit crimes.
So, how can I possibly invest in Bitcoin ?
If my buying Bitcoin might directly or indirectly help someone to buy drugs
or launder money or avoid tax, then I don't want to be involved.
Creepy Exchanges:
The exchanges where you buy cryptocurrencies uniformly seem to be very shady
"companies" who operate on the fringes, run by people I would not "buy a used car from",
and who seem to demonstrate very little regard for customer security.
Handing over my full name, date of birth, address, driver's license,
and bank account details to these exchanges is not something I have ever
felt comfortable about doing.
I have emailed several exchanges in Australia to ask them about how they
are going to keep my details secure, and none have replied with anything
other than a very half arsed boiler plate email that does not address any
of my questions or concerns. If they cannot be bothered to give even a basic
reply, how on earth could I trust them ?
Too Late to the Party:
I am very worried it is all a scam,
and/or that I am already too late to the party ...
This "too late to the party" feeling has always been a lot stronger than my
fear of missing out (FOMO).
I'd much rather miss out than buy something that crashes.
At this stage, it feels to me like the party is winding down - there's
empty bottles and overflowing ashtrays everywhere, drunks asleep on the couch,
half-naked people passed out on the front lawn, etc and everyone has obviously
had a really great time. Some have made fortunes (e.g. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss).
But to me, at this stage, it sure feels like the party is ending, and
I'm certainly not going to be left cleaning up the mess.
Clueless, Gloating Millionaires:
I have a very good understanding of the technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin
and the blockchain. I fully understand public / private key hashing, Merkle trees,
blockchain linked lists, etc.
I could develop my own software to mine coins, process transactions, provide wallet
functionality, etc.
I could write the code to do it all. It would be a lot of work, but I could do it.
The technology certainly does not scare me, and I can see great merit in it.
However, one thing that amazes me about all of this cryptocurrency stuff is that
the vast majority of people who buy / own cryptocurrencies and post about it in internet forums
seem to be completely clueless about the technology or about how valuations work,
but they act like they are the next Warren Buffet and hysterically scream at
anyone who questions the value of cryptocurrency as an investment.
These people were lucky enough to get in early - it was pure dumb luck, not technical knowledge
or investment acumen or market wisdom. They made a packet because they got lucky.
Now they aggressively spruke cryptocurrency so that others buy in and their own investment grows.
They act like they "know it all", they gloat about how much money they have made,
they try and convince everyone around them to invest, and they ridicule anyone who
doesn't as an idiot who "knows nothing" because you have not invested / made millions
like they have.
Rapid Rise and Mania:
When things have a very rapid increase, and every person you meet is talking about Bitcoin,
and they all have greed in their eyes and "get rich quick" hopes in their hearts,
then you have to be very careful. Very, very careful indeed.
Every up has a down. Every boom has a bust. You do not want to be left standing
when the music stops.
I keep thinking about the "shoe shine" boys giving stock tips in the 1920's just before
the stock market crashed, causing The Great Depression.
And, I keep thinking about this graph ....
we are definitely in the "Mania Phase" of the graph - we have certainly seen
plenty of "media attention", "greed", and "delusion".
But, we may already be "near the top" and may soon perhaps be "over the top" and heading down .... yiikes!
Unsustainable Electricity / Resource use:
The amount of electricity and resources these technologies are consuming is staggering,
and the increases we have seen in recent times are simply unsustainable.
Bitcoin mining / processing alone apparently uses more electricity than the whole of Ireland.
Explosion of Coins:
There are currently more than 1,350 cryptocurrencies in existence,
with more being added every month.
Each has disadvantages and advantages compared to Bitcoin.
Some are outright scams, others seem more legit.
Bitcoin is just one of many cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, so it is the big dog on the block
and by far the most famous - but other coins,
especially Ethereum, Ripple, and others, are catching up fast.
The world does not need anywhere near 1,350 cryptocurrencies.
They can't all survive, so there's going to be a big shake out, with
a few winners and many 100's of losers.
Which coins will survive ? Why ?
Which coins will die ? Why ?
Will other coin(s) supplant Bitcoin as Number 1 ? When ? What happens to Bitcoin then ?
What about Bitcoin's investors ?
What about the other coins ?
Anyway, a month ago I developed a Bitcoin Ticker that allowed me to monitor the price of Bitcoins.
Yes, yes, I know I could just visit a web site and see the price, but where's the fun in that ?
I'm a software developer, so if I want to monitor or do anything on my computer,
I develop my own software to do it.
Since then, I have updated this ticker to track the Top 20 cryptocurrencies, and
display all sorts of information about them. (Longer term trends, graphs, etc will
be added when I can find reliable data sources).
Since the Bitcoin peak of $19,500+ US before Christmas, the crypto market has been
going through some "painful gyrations". The changes in the last few weeks have seen:
Ripple drop from $3.80+ --> $1.18 US,
Raiblocks drop from $28+ --> $14.94 US), and
Ethereum drop from $1,425+ --> $1,018 US).
Bitcoin is now selling for $8,000+ less than it was a month ago ($19,500+ -> $11,114 US).
It's a bit of a "blood bath".
Here's a screen shot of my "CryptoCoin Ticker" from a few minutes ago:
What is really incredibly amazing here are the columns on the right - the
volume and percentages of coins traded. $18 BILLION US worth of Bitcoin have been
traded in the last 24 hours - that's almost 10% of the available supply.
Similar applies to other cryptocoins.
The volume figures are similar every day that I have been monitoring.
One thing is constant: some people are moving a hell of a lot of cryptocurrency.
Some pertinent questions:
What does the future hold for cryptocurrencies / cryptocoins ?
Will 2018 be as bright as 2017 ? What about 2019 onwards ?
Is it already too late / too risky to join the party ?
Is it all a scam ?
Is a BIG CRYPTO CRASH coming ?
Is it all just out-of-control greed and madness, fueled by the lucky few who got in early ??
Are the whales manipulating the price to keep it high while they slowly exit / sell, leaving the
"dumb" masses holding the worthless bag ?
Will the unbridled, gushing, enthusiastic optimism of those who own cryptocurrencies
ever be diminished ?
And will they continue to hysterically scream at anyone who questions the
value of cryptocurrency as an investment ?
Will cryptocoin transaction fees continue to go "through the roof" ?
It is obvious who is buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies - the
tidal wave of new "investors" entering the market, hoping to "get rich quick".
But who is selling ? If Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are such *great* investments,
why are people selling ?
What is really going on ? Who is pulling the strings ?
Who knows for sure.
In any case, it sure is interesting to watch things unfold.
Update 18-Jan-2018: add some of my other questions, my other reasons, my thoughts, the graph, and keywords.
8-Oct-2017 ::
Java Cross Platform Refresh
Upload re-compiled versions of my existing Java programs to the
Freeware cross-platform software for Java Virtual Machine (JVM)
section of my web page which contains software for desktop, laptop, and tablet
computers running Windows, Linux, Unix, and Mac OS.
No changes in source code, no changes in functionality, just re-processed with a
tool to help protect my Java programs from decompilation by thieves disguised as "hackers".
21-Sep-2017 ::
Car / Vehicle Number Plate OCR
I have been reading how the Victorian Police are "investing"
$86 million AUD in a live video Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system for patrol cars. This works out to $330,000 AUD approx per car – and excludes the cost of the car !!!!
For further information see this old article from:
This seems like an extremely exhorbitant price and a disgusting waste of money to me.
So, I decided to see what I could do on a shoe string.
Thanks to the OpenALPR, a free, open source Automatic License Plate Recognition system (web link:
https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr),
all I had to do was write a little bit of Java code to build a user interface,
handle dragging and dropping of images,
and then call the OpenALPR to process the image and retrieve the results when they are ready,
and then look up the number plate details in a little vehicle database I created.
Within minutes I had the basics working. And within 2 hours, I had the GUI, the vehicle database, the lookups, the calling, and drag and drop, and everything working.
See screen shot.
With a couple more hours of work, I could install this on a $100-$150 AUD Raspberry Pi with camera (https://www.raspberrypi.org/), mount the unit on my car dash board, and capture live images as I travel down the road. It could be set to take an image every second and scan it for number plates and check the registration and stolen status of each vehicle.
If a higher frequency was required, and one Raspberry Pi was not up to the job,
I could add more Raspberry Pi's, and have each one take 1 photo per second, and have the times staggered so that there was a photo taken every 0.25 second or whatever I neeeded.
If I was doing this project for the Police,
I could also very easily create a database of vehicles
(stolen status, registration expiry, overdue fines, outstanding warrants, etc)
and download this to the Raspberry Pi each night (over a wireless network)
so that the database was up-to-date every night.
Now, I'm not suggesting that my simple prototype is anywhere near
the sophistication of what the Victorian Police are developing.
They are capturing / processing live video feeds, which is slightly harder,
and they will have much better camera and computer hardware than a modest Raspbery Pi.
But this does prove what you can do on a shoe string.
There's NO NEED to spend $330,000 AUD approx per car !
Shame on you Victorian Police, shame on you.
How dare you waste money like this.
Are other states going to follow suit and spend vast amounts of money on their own systems ? Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland, Northern Territory Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales ?
Are you all going to waste vast sums of money reinventing the wheel ?????
NO !!! I certainly hope not.
I demand my hard earned tax dollars are NOT wasted.
There should be one system developed for a reasonable price -
maximum of $10,000 per car or thereabouts - and it should be rolled out across all police forces in Australia.
21-Sep-2017 ::
Sag Calculator Registration Form and Licensing - Update
Update Sag Calculator's Registration Form and Licensing:
No change has been made to Bulk Buy discounts - these are still available.
They are still calculated as 2.5% discount per registration after your first registration. These bulk buy discounts are capped at 50%.
If you purchase more than 20 licenses, you get a 50% discount.
However, site licenses are now no longer available.
Note: I have not updated the registration form included with Sag Calculator's installer. My dev machine that builds this installer is currently unavailable.
However, the registration form linked on my we site is up-to-date.
Site Licenses that have already been purchased will be honoured,
but only for v3.x of Sag Calculator.
However, for all new purchases of Sag Calculator v3.x and for
all purchases and upgrades for Sag Calculator v4.0 onwards,
the licensing will be per user -
no more site licenses.
Other changes may also apply.
e.g. I will probably have to move to a yearly subscription model,
like most software is moving to.
The good news is that these changes will encourage further sag calculator development, and encourage me to implement cross platform support for Mac OSX and Linux machines.
15-Jul-2017 ::
Moose's Software Valley - Mirrors
After encountering disk space issues with Hostinger.co.uk over the last 2 days
(they have run out of disk space and I cannot even upload a small HTML file),
I am now maintaining multiple mirrors for my Moose's Software Valley web site:
If web site #1 has not had an update in months check the others(s).
As of today (and yesterday), I cannot update web site #1, but I can update web site #2.
I will keep trying - multiple times per day - to update web site #1.
UPDATE: Success - It took 6 days, but Hostinger UK finally found some free disk space.
15-Jul-2017 ::
YahtzeeGUI (v1.0f) - my 104th software title !!
This is my 104th software title to be released on my Moose's Software Valley web site !!
Not bad for a lone developer.
YahtzeeGUI
is my Java version of a simple dice game.
Yahtzee is a *GREAT* dice game, one of the very best, right up there with
Pirate Dice / Liars Dice.
This new version is a remake of another
Yahtzee game I developed (in Delphi) that is also on my web site -
it uses the same icons, same sound effects (my voice, etc)
but apart from that, this Java version is a complete re-write.
Forgot to mention this in the YahtzeeGUI.txt
file, use:
Ctrl+Mouse Wheel Up/Down: to increase / decrease font size (just like you can do on a web page).
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 59 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
YahtzeeGUI
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
16-Mar-2017 ::
Win32HLP Support for Windows 10, etc
The latest released version of
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator
- v3.6 - still uses Win32HLP file for it's on-line, context sensitive help.
When Windows 10 was released, I assumed (hoped) that Microsoft
would soon add / release Win32HLP support, just like they did for Windows 7 and 8 ....
However, they still have not done / addressed this -
which is surprising.
Komeil Bahmanpour
(
http://www.komeil.com/
)
has kindly released a Win32HLP installer.
I modified the "Install.cmd" script to bypass incorrect Windows
version errors, so this now works on Windows 10, etc.
Here's a link to the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 55+ virus and malware scanners.
Unzip the contents of the ZIP file to a temporary directory.
e.g. c:\temp\
Right click on "Install.cmd" and select "Run as Administrator".
A command window will open and WinHLP will be installed, and you will
see a bunch of messages ending with: "The operation completed successfully."
Sag Calculator Help will now work on Windows 10, etc. :)
Special thanks to Komeil for preparing this installer.
Special ANTI-THANKS to Microsoft for not supporting their own products,
and leaving it to 3rd party developers to fix the gaps / issues.
16-Mar-2017 ::
Overhead Sag Calculator Help File: Win32HLP -> CHM
In 2013, I created a CHM version of Sag Calculator's HELP.
I was thinking of including this with Sag Calculator instead
of the the older format Win32HLP version.
However, there are potential issues with CHM help files, and
I am still exploring these.
(I am looking ahead to developing Mac and Linux versions
of Sag Calculator, and maybe Android as well - if there is sufficient
market demand - and the help file format must work with all of these OS's).
Note:
The current version of Sag Calculator - v3.6 - does not
support this CHM version of the help file.
Support for CHM files (or whatever format I find works best with Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, ...) will be provided in a future version of
Sag Calculator which I have been working on behind the
scenes on very much an ad-hoc / part-time basis. Adding context
sensitive help is harder with CHM files -
however, I worked out how to do this.
If you would like to see / review the CHM version of
Sag Calculator's help file, you can download it here:
Video SubTitle Tools
provide functionality to covert subtitle files
(SRT, SBV, and Echo 360 XML) to a plain text transcript.
You can drag and drop subtitle files onto VideoSubTitleTools using
Windows Explorer. Or paste the subtitle data in from the Clipboard.
Or click the "Open" button and select a subtitle file to process.
Check / set the options you want. The following are available.
Remove HTML and XML: remove all HTML and Echo 360 XML tags
from the subtitle file.
Some subtitle files include HTML to colour the subtitle text,
or to make the subtitle text italic or bold:
Remove Scene Setters: remove all "scene setters" from the
subtitle file. Scene setters are text contained within square
brackets [] to add explanation or describe the mood. For example:
[Cheerful instrumental music]
Remove Counters: remove all counters from the text. i.e. remove
all lines that contain just a number.
For example, remove the "1" in the example below.
Remove TimeStamps: remove all time stamps and time durations from the subtitle file.
For example, remove the "00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:11,600":
1
00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:11,600
On this shipwrecked episode
of Mythbusters...
Remove Blank Lines: remove all blank lines.
Combine All Lines: combine all lines of text into a single paragraph.
Bullet points (lines starting with *, -, +) are always placed on a new line.
When you have the settings set the way you want, click the "Convert"
button to process the selected subtitle file (in the "Source" area)
and display the converted data in the "Results" area.
Feel free to explore. :) You can change settings and click the
"Convert" button to see the results and keep trying options
until you get the results you like best. :)
Click the "Save" button to save the results.
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 55 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
Video SubTitle Tools
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
15-Feb-2017 ::
Sound Effects SoundBoard (v1.0f) - my 102nd software title !!
This is my 102nd software title to be released on my Moose's Software Valley web site !!
Not bad for a lone developer.
Sound Effects SoundBoard
is a collection of buttons that
play specific sounds, and buttons that play random sounds or
stop all sounds playing. The sounds included are all FREE,
public domain sounds. My friends and I havee had a lot of fun
with these sounds, so maybe others will find them funny, useful,
or interesting at work, at home, and with friends.
The software is very easy to use:
Click the sound buttons to play sounds.
Click the "Modern Life" button to keep playing random sounds
over the top of each other - it is hilarious and sounds a lot
like modern city life. Umm, if you had a lot of cats around ;)
Click the "Play Random" button to play a random sound.
Click the "Stop" button to halt playing all sounds.
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 55 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
Sound Effects SoundBoard
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
2-Feb-2017 ::
SciFiComputer 1950s Simulator (v1.0f) - my 101st software title !!
SciFiComputer 1950s Simulator
is stupid little program - it is my
lame attempt at simulating a 1950 Sci Fi movie computer - which
had a matrix of flashing lights but didn't do much. My program
is the same - a matrix of flashing lights but doesn't do anything
useful. :) It is just flashing lights. Ummm, OK ? :)
There's no labelled buttons, no menus, no labels, and it is not
user friendly, it's not meant to be - this is a 1950's
SciFi computer simulator !
These is no real user interface - but some of the buttons in the grid do
"interesting" things:
The 9 (nine) leftmost, top row grid buttons change the colour scheme.
The "CS" value in the title bar shows the colour scheme number.
Default CS: 0 = black and white.
The 2nd row grid buttons change the maximum random number of seconds
between random colour scheme changes. If you don't want any colour scheme
changes, click the left most leftmost, 2nd row button.
The "V" value in the title bar shows the maximum random number of seconds
between random colour scheme changes.
Default V: 0 = no random colour scheme changes.
The 3rd row grid buttons change the maximum random number of seconds between
grid refreshes. If you don't want grid refreshes, click the
left most leftmost, 3rd row button.
The "R" value in the title bar shows the maximum random number of seconds
between grid refreshes.
Default R: 0 = no random grid refreshes.
The top right grid button, and 4 bottom right corner grid buttons show
a simple About screen.
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 55 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
SciFiComputer 1950s Simulator
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
30-Jan-2017 ::
Oblotteration (Game) (v1.0f) - my 100th software title !!
This is my 100th software title to be released on my Moose's Software Valley web site !!
Not bad for a lone developer.
Oblotteration
is a simple game - my clone of a game called Flood It.
How to Play:
You start each game in the top left hand corner (the white square).
Use the colour buttons at the bottom of the screen to change
the top left square (and all horizontally and vertically adjoining
squares with the same colour) to the selected colour.
The game ends when all squares are the same colour.
The aim is the end the game in the least possible turns.
Can you beat the Computer AI ?
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 55 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
Oblotteration (Game)
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
12-Jan-2017 ::
Moose's Java Yahtzee, etc running on Raspbian/PIXEL (Raspberry Pi OS)
I've been doing a lot of coding in Java lately
(my 2nd favourite programming language after Delphi/Pascal) ...
Anyway, I have never touched a Raspberry Pi in real life -
seen some videos, seen some screen shots, and read about some great little projects,
but that's about it. It looks like a great little machine ...
But, I already have so much computer gear lying around, I really don't need more.
Anyway, a BETA "work in progress" version of
Raspbian/PIXEL OS (Raspberry Pi OS, based on Debian Linux)
was released about a month ago which runs on desktop and laptop PCs and Macs,
and works great in virtual machines, like VirtualBox.
See here for details:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/pixel-pc-mac/.
Anyhow, I have been dying to have a play around in Raspbian/PIXEL,
and started the download for the 1.3 GB ISO a few times,
but I kept thinking "Moose, you really cannot spare the disk space ....
you should wait for the tested release version to be released ...".
But, today, I just could not wait anymore.
So, downloaded the Raspbian/PIXEL OS ISO, loaded it up in VirtualBox and
copied over some of my Java programs, and they all work perfectly.
Here's a screen shot of my Java version of Yahtzee running under
Raspbian/PIXEL (I've been working on this for the last few weeks).
I've included the About screen as well so you can see the OS.
You've gotta love an OS that has "Programming" as the first item in the "Start" menu,
and it comes with various Java dev options out of the box.
Raspbian/PIXEL OS also includes LibreOffice and all sorts of other goodies.
It's fast, it's sleek, it's easy to use, and it's
not bogged down with all of the junk and graphical non-sense some other Linux distros are ...
I'm going to be using Raspbian/PIXEL a lot more in the future.
I think I've found my new favourite Linux distro ....
And, if I can install it on my Android tablet ....
21-Dec-2016 ::
Geepers, it's quiet out there ...
There are hardly any visitotors to my web site new location / url:
Prior to this move, my web site was getting around 10-20 visitors per day.
However, since the move, not much at all ... You can see the difference on this StatCounter graph:
Before the move: a nice, lively little web site.
Since the move to the new host: tumble weeds and ghost towns ....
So, I have just done something I have not done, or had to do, for 20 years - I have just submitted
my URL to the 3 big search engines: Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
20 years ago (I was on Rocknet back then), I submitted my web site URL and
filled out the obligatory forms for a bunch of search engines: HotBot, AltaVista, and others.
However, since then, whenever my web site has moved to a new provider,
Google, and all others have just found my new web site without any worries -
I did not need to faff around and submit my URL again.
However, at my new location, I am not being found ...
It seems that I am not in any search engine results.
The only people who seem to be finding me are the people I email the URL to.
Hopefully this will now change.
20-Sep-2016 ::
Moose's Software Valley Web Site Move - All Sag Calculator Registered Users Emailed
I have now emailed all Sag Calculator Registered Users and informed them about my web site move and the new location of
Moose's Software Valley:
Well folks, we had plenty of warning (since 12-Oct-2015) that
Moose's Software Valley - *possibly* moving to another web address / URL ???
and I have had a "Sticky Note" at the top of my web page that since then reminding
people that my web site was going to be moving hosts sometime in the future ....
But, it has finally happened. FHosts has suddenly shut down. Their CPanel is gone.
And inexplicably, all of FHosts web sites - that were transferred to
free accounts on
Hostinger.co.uk
in 2015 - are also gone, and without warning.
I had not moved web site hosts yet, because I thought the
Hostinger.co.uk
transfer hosting was "permanent" and would survive the demise of FHosts.
But, alas this was not the case ....
Anyway, not to worry, I have now formally moved my web site to
http://moosesoftware.16mb.com/
which is hosted by Hostinger.co.uk,
and they seem to offer a great service for free and paid accounts,
and I hope to have found a stable home here for many years.
So, what's coming down the pileline on Moose's Software Valley ?
I am developing lots of new software behind the scenes.
And most of it is cross platform software written in Java,
so it *should* run on Windows, Linux, Mac, and Android.
Still no release dates on anything yet (I am also doing lots of work for several
clients at the moment and this is chewing up lots of my time),
but please stay tuned ....
Please Note: My new web site URL is: (Please bookmark this new location)
29-Jul-2016 ::
Moose's Software Valley = 20 YEARS OLD today !!!!
Happy Birthday to Moose's Software Valley !
Happy Birthday to Moose's Software Valley !
Happy Birthday Dear Moose's Software Valley !
Happy Birthday to YoooooOOOOOOO !!!!!
Moose's Software Valley is 20 YEARS OLD today !!!!.
WOW, that's an AMAZING milestone in today's rapidly changing world, where web sites (and even brick and mortar bussinesses) are here today and gone tomorrow.
I was hoping to release at least 2 brand new programs today - programs that I have been working on for the last 6 months or so. But alas, there just wasn't time to do the required testing and polishing to get them released today. Work has been so busy (I work 4 jobs - and 2 of these have been extremely busy lately). I was also hoping to release some Android programs I have been working on, and some prototype games. Maybe, if all goes well, some of these will be finished and released over the coming months ...
20 years ago today, on Mon, 29-Jul-1996, I publicly released Moose's Software Valley and uploaded the very first version of my web pages to the space alloted to my at my ISP (Rocknet). Sure my web site has gone through some name changes: Moose's Valley -> Moose's $5 Shareware & Arcade Emulation Valley -> Moose's Software Valley, and my web site has moved server hosts several times (Rocknet -> BlackApple -> fHosts), and it has radically changed design twice. But, hey, 20 years on and I AM STILL HERE.
I've been reading back through
past web page updates ....
and keep getting all nostalgic .... remembering the great people I have met over the past 20 years ....
and urrrrggghhhh ..... some of the trouble makers the internet seems to have no shortage of as well ....
LOL.
Two past updates are especially relevant for my web site's 20th birthday:
In these 2 posts, I spoke about my motivations for starting Moose's Software Valley:
my passion for developing software,
how I wanted to turn ideas I had for software that had been percolating around in my head for many years into reality,
how almost all of the software I had developed was running on private servers deep inside large companies so I had nothing to show for my years of hard work,
and how I wanted to turn the shareware industry on it's head - by selling great software at rediculously low prices, etc).
All of these dreams and ideals are still very much alive in me today. Although, 99% of my software is now FREEWARE - it just wasn't worth trying to sell it with all of the hackers and crackers around ... I am always on the lookout for new ideas for software.
I also remember Keith and Laura from the early days on Moose's Software Valley. And Dave (from Dave's Video Classics). And the emulator software authors ... I was in regular contact with Neil Bradley, Dave Spicer, Marat Fayzulin, and many other great people.
And over the last 20 years, lots of people have emailed me and told me how much they like this program or that program, or make suggestions. Sometimes, school teachers have emailed me and said how much their students like using my software. These emails really make my day and warm my heart. Some people even send me donations - but this only happens very occassionally - a few dollars every few years. But, I still appreciate them all the same.
But like I said earlier, I also came into contact with lots of trouble makers. People who were ripping off my work and sending me gloating emails. The HUGE number of cracks released for my software onto the internet. The rampant piracy. Piracy almost killed off my
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator
project because cracks for the program were released far and wide on the internet before I had even sold a single copy. That was very upsetting and stressful. And then there were other people .... Like the lovely person who emailed me and claimed that all of my software was ABANDONWARE because I had not updated all of my programs in the last month and I had better well hand over all of my source code or else ! It's hardly a news flash, but trouble makers are dime a dozen on the net.
In the weeks prior to publicly launching Moose's Software Valley, massive changes - seismic shifts - had taken place in my life:
I had moved countries to be near my parents because my father was extremely ill.
I had a seriously broken heart - my partner would not return to Australia with me, and said "NO" when I asked her to marry me. Yep, very sad but true.
I was living in a new city and, apart from my parents, I knew no-one at all living within 700+ Km.
I was out of work for the first time ever ! The very promising efforts to telework with the international communications company I had been working with for the past few years had failed to materialise at the 11th hour (and 59th minute) because of the cost of international phone calls - a rediculous technicality. The phone calls for the company were FREE. However, because of the way they did their accounting, the company had to charge its various departments internally for the cost of the phone calls, and this blew the international teleworking gig completely out of the water. Don't worry, I was not out of work for long. Pretty soon I was working way more than 40 hours per week and being offered more work than I could handle.
On the computer front, I had just purchased a brand new PC a few days prior to launching Moose's Software Valley - it was a Pentium 100 PC running Windows 95 with a whopping 1 GB harddrive and staggering 16 MB of RAM - LOL !
The first thing I did was tighten up security on my PC, and then install Borland Turbo Pascal v5 and Borland Delphi v1.0. Then, I wrote some basic HTML to provide a starting point for my web page, dusted off some old DOS programs I had written (Tetris, Blaster, etc) and added these to my web page. Moose's Software Valley had been released to the public and was up and running. Then I started deloping some new GUI programs in Delphi, and soon released these onto my web page.
And it all started 20 years ago today .... It seems like only yesterday ....
Anyway, the last 20 years have flown by ... What does the future hold ?
Will my web site be around in another 10 years ? Yes, it is quite possible.
I've still got tons of ideas for new and innovative software that have not been released publicly yet - in fact I have way more ideas than I have spare time to code them. And, I still LOVE developing software. So Moose's Software Valley probably will be still around in another 10 years. Besides, I've got nothing better to do !
*** All images of balloons, cakes, etc courtesy of Google Images.
6-Mar-2016 ::
More Unity Development
Further to my last update (see
see below),
I'm still doing mountains of work, exploring, tinkering, and development in Unity - and loving every minute of it.
Here are 7 more screen shots of some of the very simple games I have developed so far:
More on this in the future ....
6-Feb-2016 ::
Recent Activity = Unity Development
Time is flying by, over 2 months since my last update, so I thought I'd better post an update so people know I'm still alive and kicking ......
As usual, I have doing a lot of software development behind the scenes lately,
and recently I have started focusing on
Unity development.
Unity
is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies and used to develop video games for PC, consoles, mobile devices and websites.
So far, I have just been learning the basics of Unity, and have developed some simple simple 2D and 3D games, such as Breakout. It's still early days, but it is a lot of fun.
With Unity, you can focus on game development without having to worry too much about cross-platform issues, how to do things in Direct/X, OpenGL, etc - you focus on your game and Unity takes care of the rest.
Unity development still feels like "cheating" to me. I am a "old school" programmer and I believe in developing everything from first principles for whatever platform I am developing on. But, for a one-man-band (me) to develop a 3D game from first principles that would work on Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, etc could take many months (years ?) and by the time I finished, the platform / environment would have moved on / changed so much that I would have to re-tool / re-do a lot of work. So, I am slowly coming to accept that dev tools like Unity are essential for modern games development. And that is why I have suddenly started doing some Unity development. Well that, and I also have a very specific project in mind ... treasure, haunted house, hmmmm ...............
Here's screen shots of some of the very simple games I have developed so far:
More on this in the future ....
26-Nov-2015 ::
Apple Panic (a *great* old Apple ][ game) - UPDATE
Further to
yesterday's web page update,
I did some more searching on the net and found an
old forum post of mine from 4-Dec-1998
describing how I had completed Apple Panic, and that there are 48 Levels, etc.
In the intervening 17 years, I had forgotten all about this (but the memories came flooding back when I read my old post).
Apple Panic - Found out what happens at the end of the game .....
Post by Moose OMalley » Fri, 04 Dec 1998 04:00:00
My memory is a little fuzzy remembering 18 years ago,
but I am pretty sure that Apple Panic was the second game I
got for the Apple ][, way back in early 1980. Artillery (written in
BASIC) was my first Apple ][ game.
Anyway, 18+ years later, I was curious to know what
happened in later levels of Apple Panic, as I don't
think I had ever gotten higher than levels 10-15.
Thanks to the wonders of emulation, and the excellent
Apple PC emulator (which allows save states), I finally
finished Apple Panic at 3:00 AM on December 2, 1998.
There are a few surprises in the game :
1. There are no Quad Hole monsters !!
There are monsters that must be dropped through
1, 2, or 3 levels to be killed, but no monsters
that must be dropped through 4 levels.
2. There are only 48 levels !
3. At the end of Level 48, the game exits and this
message is displayed :
START ADDRESS = $7000
PROGRAMMED BY T.NAGAWA
S.BEPPU
(OKYAMA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE)
*
Which doesn't mention Broderbund at all. Are these
the hackers of the game ? Or are these the real
programmers ?
Bizare !!
If anyone else :
- has seen this message, or,
- can shed some light on things, or,
- wants my Apple PC save state for Level 48, or,
- is / was also a fan of this game,
is a hacked version, so if anyone has a disk image of the original /
uncracked game let me know - it would be interesting to see if
it happens in the original game as well, or if, as I was expecting,
some kind of end game demo is displayed (like at the start -
when the monster jumps on the guy's head).
One thing is for sure - without Save states, I would never have made
it to the end - with 8 Triple Hole monsters on screen at once, things
got pretty tough.
All the best
Mike "Moose" O'Malley
_________________________________________________________________
Moose's $5 Shareware & Arcade Emulation Valley
LOL - look at my web sites list at the end of this post. I had mirrors of my web site on 3 other web hosts because Rocknet were so unreliable.
After finding this post, I hunted round on some old backup CDs from the late 1990's and managed to find some of my
old save files and screen shots from when I completed Apple Panic way back then.
I am very glad that I found my old forum post from 1998. Brought back good memories and happier times ....
25-Nov-2015 ::
Apple Panic (a *great* old Apple ][ game)
I first played Apple Panic way back in 1981 -
it was my 2nd Apple ][ game, and it will always hold a special place in my heart !!
Artillery (written in BASIC) was my first Apple ][ game.
The game involves you digging holes, trapping monsters, and burying them before they escape.
At higher levels you have to deal with more monsters and also tougher monsters -
ones that you need to drop through 2 levels to kill, and then 3 levels to kill.
The game was very difficult, especially considering that you could *not* save your game or save your progress.
If you lost all of your lives, you had to start back at Level 1 again.
I have always wondered:
Does the game have an end ?
If so, what does the final level would look like ?
Is there a "congratulations" screen at the end ?
In later levels, would I need to deal with monsters that required a 4 or 5 level drop to kill ?
How does the number of monsters of each type change as the game progresses ?
Maybe no-one else is wondering about these questions, because I have never been able to find out any answers on the internet ....
About 10 years ago (???), I decided to try and find the answers to these questions.
However, my Apple Panic disk image must have been damaged, because the game crashed to monitor after many, many levels and I could not proceed.
Over the last week, thanks to the wonderful AppleWin emulator
and a new Apple Panic disk image, I now know the answer to the above questions.
The game ends after Level 48 (see screen shot).
There is no "congratulations" screen, but there is a "programmed by" screen (see screen shot).
The programmer listed on the title screen (Ben Serki) does *NOT* match the programmers listed on the end of
game screen (T.Nagawa and S.Beppu) - see screen shots. Ummm ....
The toughest monster is a "3 level drop" monster. i.e. you have to drop it through 3 levels of holes to kill it.
On the final level (Level 48) you have to deal with 8 of these "3 level drop" monsters !! (see screen shot)
Here is a table that shows how the number of monsters of each type changes as the game progresses
(the colour coding below highlights the levels which have the same number of monsters of each type):
Level
A1 (1 level drop)
A2 (2 level drop)
A3 (3 level drop)
Total
1
3
0
0
3
2
5
0
0
5
3
8
0
0
8
4
2
1
0
3
5
4
1
0
5
6
7
1
0
8
7
1
1
1
3
8
3
1
1
5
9
6
1
1
8
10
0
2
1
3
11
2
2
1
5
12
5
2
1
8
13
0
2
1
3
14
1
3
1
5
15
4
3
1
8
16
0
2
1
3
17
0
4
1
5
18
3
4
1
8
19
0
2
1
3
20
0
4
1
5
21
2
5
1
8
22
0
2
1
3
23
0
4
1
5
24
1
6
1
8
25
0
2
1
3
26
0
4
1
5
27
0
7
1
8
28
0
1
2
3
29
0
3
2
5
30
0
6
2
8
31
0
0
3
3
32
0
2
3
5
33
0
5
3
8
34
0
0
3
3
35
0
1
4
5
36
0
4
4
8
37
0
0
3
3
38
0
0
5
5
39
0
3
5
8
40
0
0
3
3
41
0
0
5
5
42
0
2
6
8
43
0
0
3
3
44
0
0
5
5
45
0
1
7
8
46
0
0
3
3
47
0
0
5
5
48
0
0
8
8
End
of Game - game exits to monitor.
Maybe this information is useful to someone else out there ??
I have AppleWin Save Games and Screen Shots for all levels, and I'd be happy to make this available if anyone wants these.
Update:
I also improved the screen shots above (double pixel to increase brightness) and added colour coding to my monster types per level table.
Millionwaire Remake
is a simple little quiz program, that produces the
same quiz (same questions, same answers, same data file, etc) as the ancient
Apple ][ game called "Millionwaire", but in a nice GUI for modern Windows PCs.
Here are the changes for this 1.1f release:
Add a timer giving you 15 seconds to answer each question. As the
timer counts down, your potential Winnings is reduced accordingly.
In other words, the faster you correctly answer questions, the
more "money" you win. :)
Display Win and Loss amounts for each question and update
these as you change the bet amount slider (and also adjust
these values as the answer timer counts down).
Display winning streak details and display these as you play.
(You need to get more than 1 question right in a row for them to show up).
Keep track of which questions have been asked in each game
(so the same question is not asked multiple times in a single game).
Also, keep track of the remaining questions in each Category.
If all of the questions in a Category have already been asked, then
that Category will not be offered again (for the current game).
Continue displaying the "seconds count down progress bar"
after the question has been answered.
Add random encouragement messages: "Good luck ! :)" and similar
when you are selecting a Question Category.
Change "Better Luck Next time" to "Better luck next time".
Change Tick and Cross images from 256 to 2 colour GIF images,
to try and get rid of the ugly dark marks around the graphics
at some resolutions. (Didn't help much ...)
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 55 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
Millionwaire Remake
section of my web page.
Hope this new version is useful for someone out there ...
Millionwaire Remake
is a simple little quiz program, that produces the
same quiz (same questions, same answers, same data file, etc) as the ancient
Apple ][ game called "Millionwaire", but in a nice GUI for modern Windows PCs.
I don't recall every seeing or playing
this ancient Apple ][ game until a few days ago (on 26-Oct-2015), when I
downloaded a disk image of the game and played it on the excellent AppleWin
emulator. I made it to $1 Million on my first go (it is a very easy quiz game).
But, like I sometimes do (if I have time), I started poking around in the
disk image and I located the data file, and I slowly worked out the format
for the file and then wrote my own program to play the quiz based on this file.
So, Millionwaire Remake is a remake of the old Apple ][ game called "Millionwaire".
It is only single player (at the moment, would be easy to add support for any number
of players). It has no sound effects. It has no graphics. It has no wise crackin'
host (like Bob Brainbank in the original Apple ][ game). It is just a very basic
Quiz program that produces the same quiz (same questions, same answers, same data
file, etc) as the original Apple ][ game. (See the "Data File Format" section
in the
program's readme text file
for my analysis / notes about the original data file format).
Millionwaire Remake:
Enables you to select question categories / difficulty levels.
Specify the amounts you want to bet by moving the trackbar slider -
the minimum bet is $1,000 and maximum bet is your account balance.
Select your answer to a random Question with the difficulty and
from the category selected. (in this version of the program, you have an unlimited amount of time to answer each question).
And repeat the above steps over and over again until you either bomb out
(bet all your money) or reach $1 Million dollars.
The lower screen shot on the right is for the old Apple ][ version.
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 57 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
Millionwaire Remake
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
25-Oct-2015 ::
About me (Moose) and my Software .... Added to the Contact Me section of my web page
Over the 19+ years that Moose's Software Valley has been on the internet,
it has gone from having a very small "About me" page, to a much larger "About me" page, to an "About me" page with lots of stories from my past
(most heroic act, most embarassing moment, etc), to
an "About me" page with only an email address on it (very minimalist), and now it is changing again ....
Passion: I am a computer programmer with extensive industry experience and I love thinking up new ideas for software and then developing the software.
In early 1980, I touched my first computer keyboard and it was a religious experience for me ... electricity tingling up my arms ...
It was "love at first byte".
Safe and Reliable: My software contains NO ads, NO tracking, NO DRM, NO nagging, NO nasty surprises, and has NO hidden side effects.
My software does just what it claims to do. Nothing more, nothing less.
I personally use many of my software titles every day on my own machines (this is why I developed the software in the first place ! I needed a program that did X, Y, and Z so I wrote it myself.)
Secure: I am super paranoid about computer security and all of my computers are subject to the highest levels of security.
You can rest assured that there are no viruses or malware in any of the software I provide.
Throughly Verified: Before releasing my software, the files are uploaded to the
VirusTotal.com
web site, which scans each file against 50+ virus and malware scanners, including the most respected names in anti-virus and anti-malware industry:
AVG,
Ad-Aware,
Avast,
Avira,
BitDefender,
ClamAV,
Comodo,
F-Secure,
Kaspersky,
Malwarebytes,
McAfee,
Panda,
SUPERAntiSpyware,
Sophos,
Symantec,
TrendMicro,
VIPRE,
and many others !
I provide links to these
VirusTotal.com
virus scan reports here on my web site for each software title.
And, I am slowly going back through my catalog of software, and scanning older titles on
VirusTotal.com ...
So far, no viruses and no malware - not a single one ! - have been found in any of my software (as I fully expected).
Need Anything ? If you need any software developed or have a good idea for a new program or would like a custom version of any of my programs,
or if you would like special bespoke software developed for you or your business or company - and not released to anyone else - please email me at
Moose_Software@yahoo.com.au.
Support ?
Like my software ? Want to support my software development activities ?
Donations via
PayPal
are much appreciated, but are *not* mandatory.
Feedback ? If anyone likes my software or finds any of my programs useful or fun, then email me at
Moose_Software@yahoo.com.au
and let me know - it really makes my day.
CPUs Monitor provides the following functionality:
Displays CPU Utilisation (Usage) for each CPU in your system (unless
you turn this off in the Settings screen).
Displays the average CPU Utilisation (Usage) according to settings
you specify on the Settings screen (Edit -> Settings).
For example, you can specify that you want to see the Average CPU Usage
for all CPUs for each refresh (0 seconds), and/or the Average CPU Usage
for the last 5, 10, 30, 60, and/or whatever seconds you want,
and/or include the Average CPU Usage since the program has been
running (for this run of the program).
Lots of options are provided in the Settings screen (Edit -> Settings)
to control the layout of the CPU graph. And, as you change settings,
the main screen's CPU graph automatically updates on-the-fly to reflect
your latest settings.
CPUs Monitor also includes my "CPU Usage Drop alarm" functionality (similar to
functionality included in my RAM / Swap Monitor and CPU Usage Drop Alarm programs).
When activated (by clicking the "Activate" button) this functionality
plays a sound over and over again until the user clicks the OK button
when the CPU usage drops below a user specified level for a user
specified number of seconds. This is very useful for telling you when a big
job has ended, such as a Virus Scan, Disk Scan, Disk Defragment, CD/DVD Burning,
video processing and conversions, etc.
I like to keep an eye on the resource usage (and the average resource usage)
in my computer systems and I developed CPUs Monitor to help me do this.
Maybe someone else out there will find this useful as well ?
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 55 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
CPUs Monitor
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
12-Oct-2015 ::
Moose's Software Valley - *possibly* moving to another web address / URL ???
Just a quick heads up about possible future changes to my web page location / url ...
Moose's Software Valley has been on-line since July-1996, and
since then I have been forced to move web hosts several times as companies close down, are brought out by another company, and/or change plans.
So far, I have moved from Rocknet (where Moose's Software Valley started), to my work server, to BlackApple, to fHosts,
and now it looks like I may be forced to move again ....
I don't like changing web site hosts. It's a lot of work and stress to move a web site to a new location ....
and it causes disruption, hassle, and uncertainty for my visitors. :(
Please Note:
My web site *might* be moving hosts and/or changing to a new web site address (URL) in the future.
My existing service provider is closing down the plan that I am on, and it appears that the only way I can
stay with them is to move to another plan, and that unfortunately means changing my web site address / URL ! :(
If they don't offer a suitable hosting plan, then I *might* need to move to another hosting company ...
(and that also means changing my web site address / URL)
There is a danger that my web site at its current location
could become inaccessible to me in the near future - they are shutting down access to various plans without warning -
so I might not be able to update my web page or redirect visitors to my new web site address / URL.
If I do move to another host or change web site address / URL, then I will update my web page here - if possible, if I have access ....
If my web site becomes inaccessible in the future (clear proof of this will be that I have not updated my web page for several months), then please
Email Me
and I will email you my new web site location.
Bitwise Encryptor Decryptor provides the following functionality:
Character Frequency Analysis.
Simple Bitwise Encryption of Data.
Single Step and Brute Force Decryption of Simple Bitwise Encrypted Data.
Analysis of Encrypted Data.
See "Using this Program" in the
program's text file
for a walk through of each of these uses.
Bitwise Encryptor Decryptor can encrypt / decrypt data one attempt at a time,
or cycle through all possible combinations, stopping at possible solutions along the way.
Bitwise Encryptor Decryptor also displays a chart and table of ASCII character
frequencies in the source and destination data as well as the percentages of alphanumeric
characters (a-z,A-Z,0-9) and spaces in the data, which should be useful for
anyone wanting to do statistical analysis of data.
All of the functionality / buttons should be pretty explanatory.
All of the buttons have tool tips / pop-up help, so just hover the mouse pointer
over a button to see further information / help about the button's functionality.
5 bitwise operators are supported so far:
NOT: flip / invert the bits.
e.g. NOT 01101 = 10010
SHR / SHL: shift right and left without carry.
e.g. SHR 01101 = 00110 (the 1 bit on the right was lost !)
ROR / ROL: shift right and left with carry.
e.g. ROR 01101 = 10110 (the 1 bit on the right was wrapped around to the left - NO data was lost !)
I've also included a special file "Project4b_encrypted.txt" which contains a
special message for those who want to run this program's Brute Force decryption.
Note: Bitwise Encryption is NOT serious encryption in any way, shape, or form.
It is a very simple and very easily crackable encryption that is only really
used when people are first learning about encryption or bitwise operators.
Bitwise Encryptor Decryptor is provided to help people do that. :)
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 55 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
Bitwise Encryptor Decryptor
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
Sanitize Disk Space
enables you to select any writeable drive connected
to your PC, such as any USB thumb drive, external harddrives, network
drives, or any of your PC's harddrives or harddrive partitions,
and then sanitize the free / unused space on this drive.
Once sanitized (at a high sanitization level), the data in your
deleted files can never again be recovered, and no hacker - no
matter how clever - should ever be able to view any data contained
in your deleted files.
This processing should be highly desirable for anyone who is
selling or replacing their PC - especially if the PC contained
any sensitive or personal or confidential data.
Here are the changes for this 2.3f release:
Add exception handling to the loading and saving of program settings (INI file)
so that the program executes and exits cleanly (no error messages produced) even
if running from a read-only device such as a optical disk (CD-ROM, etc) or
there are disk errors or the disk is full and/or the INI file does not exist
and/or it cannot be created.
Insert " and " between words in the confirmation dialog
"deletedpreviously" -> "deleted and previously".
Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries.
Change #1 is useful because Sanitize Disk Space
is an essential program on my Recovery and Utilities CD / CD image.
I use it (often from CD) when disposing off PCs and old harddrives, and
also when I am backing up my PC (to drastically reduce the file size of the backup drive image).
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 55 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see
Sanitize Disk Space (v2.3f).
Hope this new version is useful for someone out there ...
This is my 96th software title to be released on my Moose's Software Valley web site !!
Woo hoo, I'm closing in on the magic 100 mark ...
Just between you and me, it would be wonderful if I could release my 100th software title on the 20th Anniversary of
Moose's Software Valley, which is coming up on 28-July-2015 2016 [in just over 12 months time], but I need to do a great deal of
coding between now and then to have any chance of making such a milestone.
GIF Image Details displays information about a GIF image, and allows you
to step through each frame of animation and save each frame to separate
bitmap (BMP) files or copy each frame and information about the GIF to
Windows Clipboard. You can also move or copy the GIF to a selected
directory. To get started, simply use the File -> Open GIF File menu
option, or use "open file" button above the GIF image, or just the
drag and drop a GIF image file onto the main window using Windows Explorer.
If you have a lot of GIF images that you want to examine / extract /
review, sort out, then GIF Image Details will help you with this.
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 57 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
GIF Image Details
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
Updated Above: The 20th Anniversary of
Moose's Software Valley
is coming up on 28-July-2016 (in just over 12 months time) - *not* 28-July-2015 (which I originally stated above).
23-May-2015 ::
Work In Progress: File Sorter / Re-Orderer
As always, I'm working on several projects behind the scenes, and one of these projects is getting close to a release ...
File Sorter / Re-Orderer
is a program to re-arrange the order of files on USB drives, Media Players, Tablets, Phones, etc
so that when you click "Next Song" or "Next Video" in whatever media player you are using (on your Music Player, Set-Top Box, TV, Tablet, Phone, etc), then you get the title you were expecting, instead of some random title.
Like many (most ?) people,
I am slowly transferring ALL of my DVDs to MP4 or AVI video files and all of my CDs to MP3 files on my PC,
and am copying these files to my USB thumb drives and external USB hard drives and
plugging these into my TV to watch them and into my amplifier to listen to them.
I am doing this for 4 main reasons:
It is infinitely easier and quicker to find the titles I want to watch on a USB drive than going
through boxes and shelves of disks trying to find what I want to watch or listen to.
I am sick to death of all of the copyright warnings and other time wasting bullshit you are forced to sit
through with every DVD, BluRay, etc that I purchase *BEFORE* I can even start to watch a movie - this rubbish is beyond frustrating.
Optical disks (like VHS tapes and floppy disks before them) are slowly on the way out. It's only a matter of time before everything is purchased on-line and downloaded directly. The drives that play these disks will soon follow (like VHS Players and Floppy Drives).
I want to watch my movies and listen to my music on devices that do *NOT* have CD/DVD/BluRay drives. e.g. my Android Tablet and Windows Netbook.
So, the ONLY option for me to continue to enjoy the media I have purchased is to rip all of my disks to harddrive. Technically, this is supposedly illegal in Australia - what sort of IDIOT would make a "law" like this ????
It's about time somebody took these idiot politicians and judges to task for some of the damned stupid laws
they create and force on people. By ripping my disks, I am NOT stealing ANY copyrighted material.
I am just making it so that I can enjoy the media I have purchased on whatever device I want to consume it on !
What could possibly be wrong with that ????
Anyway, the ONLY annoying thing about storing everything on a USB drive was that the videos and music files
were never in the order I wanted them. For some strange reason, TV's, Media Players, etc insist on listing / playing
files in the order they were copied to the device instead of alphabetical or some other order, and there's no way to change this behaviour.
File Sorter / Re-Orderer solves this problem by re-ordering your files to whatever order you want at the click of a mouse button.
File Sorter / Re-Orderer is Windows software (like most of my recent software). To re-order the files on whatever device you are using - phone, Tablet, USB thumb drive, USB harddrive, etc - you will need to connect this device to a Windows PC via a USB cable and then drag and drop the drive or directory onto File Sorter / Re-Orderer from Windows Explorer and then re-arrange / sort the files to suit, and then click the "Re-order" button. As simple as that ! ;)
File Sorter / Re-Orderer is currently in the final stages of testing.
I need to make sure it handles all possible file systems (Android, Windows Phone, FAT, FAT32, NTFS, ExFat, etc, etc), and that it can 100% recover from power loss, devices being unplugged, USB cables being severed, etc so that no files are corrupted or lost. So far, File Sorter / Re-Orderer has worked perfectly and is 100% fool proof,
but I just need to make absolutely sure before releasing it publicly.
3-May-2015 ::
QI TV Show UnOfficial Companion - A RESOUNDING FAILURE ???
To date, I have released 95 software titles onto my web page,
and so far this is BY FAR the least popular and has generated the least interest after release.
The dream of musicians is to see people enjoying and appreciating their music.
The dream of artists and painters is to see people enjoying and appreciating their art.
The dream of computer programmers is to see people enjoying and appreciating their software.
And, when they give it ALL (or almost all) away for FREE, well ...
Maybe someone somewhere sometime will care ... As I always say, it only takes a spark ...
But so far,
QI TV Show UnOfficial Companion (v1.0f)
is sure starting to feel like a resounding failure ... Thank goodness my friends and I really enjoy using
this software, or many weeks of hard work would be "all for nothing" ....
Where do I go from here ??
I will just keep doing what I love doing (developing software) and hope people appreciate my work ....
File Usage Monitor
simply monitors and logs the usage of files that
you want to monitor: how many hours each file has been open / in use,
the date/time it was opened, the date/time it was closed, etc.
for any files you want to monitor.
I use File Usage Monitor to keep track of various documents, spreadsheets,
and files that I work on so that I can tell when the files were last changed,
when I last worked on them, how long I have worked on them for, and so on.
File Usage Monitor also records the date / time each time that it is started
(executed, run) and ended (exited, closed) in the event log.
An example use of this program could be to enable
companies / people to justify / support work invoices sent
to clients by logging the amount of time spent working
on computer files relating to each client.
The program resides in the Windows
Icon Tray (with the clock, etc).
WOW, another big update, and just weeks after the last update.
I've been putting a lot of hours of work into this program recently.
The following changes are for this 2.0f release:
Add filtering for other file types in the "Add Files" dialog:
Access all files in read-only mode - this is required when monitoring
Windows Vista, 7, 8, etc pagefiles from a "standard user" level account.
Add "Drag and Drop" support so you can drag and drop files from Windows
Explorer onto File Usage Monitor's window and they will be added to
the list of files being monitored.
Add an information dialog when adding files to be monitored: display
the number of files added, the number of files that were already being
monitored (and therefore weren't added to the list again), and so on.
Add mouse wheel scrolling to the grid and log interface components.
Add the "Update the status of all files every seconds" timer interval
setting to the Settings tab so you can change this to whatever you want.
The default value is 5 seconds. Warning: if you are monitoring the status
of 100's of files on an ancient / slow computer, then set the delay
to something reasonable. e.g. 5+ seconds - not 1 second !
Display the application name and version number (rather than just the
program's EXE name) when the mouse hovers over the application's icon
in the Windows TrayBar.
Record in the log when files are added to / removed from the monitored list.
Display the number of files being monitored in the program's title bar.
Remove the horizontal scroll bar from the grid - it was not needed, because
the grid automatically expans to fill the available space.
Make the Remove and Reset Usage buttons multi-select friendly - so you can now
select multiple files in the grid and remove them or reset their usage hours.
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 57 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
File Usage Monitor
section of my web page.
Hope this new version is useful for someone out there ...
2-Apr-2015 ::
QI TV Show UnOfficial Companion (v1.0f)
QI TV Show UnOfficial Companion
is for fans of the TV show QI (http://qi.com/), and will help
you really get the most out of QI by providing the following functionality:
Find episodes by keyword(s) and/or panelist and then watch the selected
episode by simply double clicking on the episode name (video files not provided).
Watch episodes of QI in a window or full screen, with or without subtitles,
automatically skipping opening credits / music, etc (video files not provided).
Search through episode transcripts / sub-title / keyword index files and display a
list of episodes that contain the keywords.
If the Transcript files are on your computer, then the sentences / phrases where each
word appears will be displayed.
If the Sub-title files are on your computer, then the sentences / phrases where each
word appears will be displayed along with the time-stamp (the location in the episode).
If you double click on any searh results lines with a time stamp, then the video
will jump to that location and play the episode from that point forward.
(Keyword index files are supplied with the program. Transcripts and sub-titles are not provided).
If you have sub-title files for episodes, then QI TV Show UnOfficial Companion
will automatically use these when you do a search, and you double click on a
particular line in the search results, and the video will jump directly to that point
and play the episode from that point on.
(Keyword index files are supplied with the program. Transcripts and sub-titles are not provided).
See a list of episodes that each panelist appeared,
Select multiple panelists to see which episodes they appeared in together,
See photos of every panelist that has appeared on the show to remind you who they are
(panelist photos not provided).
Watch any episode by simply double clicking on the episode in any of the lists
(video files not provided).
See various statistics about QI, such as the ratio of men / women on the show,
who appeared most on the show, and so on.
If the "Auto Search for episode on YouTube if not found" checkbox on the Settings
tab is checked, then automatically search for episodes on YouTube if they cannot
be found locally on your computer. No need to have *any* episodes stored
locally on your computer. (Make sure you have lots of spare internet bandwidth).
And more ...
The program keeps track of which episodes you have watched and colour codes these
(blue by default, but you can change this to whatever colour you want) so you can
tell at a glance which episodes you have watched (requires video files stored locally oin your copmputer - not provided).
If you want to reset / erase
your watching history, then click the "Reset" button for your history on the
"Watchers" tab.
If you have multiple people using the same computer, then you can add multiple people
to the Watchers tab and they each have their own individual viewing history.
Just click on the name in the list to change the person watching.
The program colour codes episodes whose videos it cannot find red by (default).
You can change the colours used for colour coding on the "Settings" tab.
Macintosh, Android, Linux, iPad, etc version(s) are planned for the future.
Please Note: If you are interested in this software, then I very highly recommend that you watch my
setup, installation, and usage video on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/DBNON13WJL0.
In addition, a wealth of information and very detailed settings and program help are provided in the program's
readme file (REF: QI_TV_Show_Unofficial_Companion.txt).
NOTE: Screen shots show the program with panelist photos - which are for illustration purposes only and are NOT supplied
(I could not get permission to include them).
The program is supplied with basic episode and panelist data and with keyword indexes for all episodes up to the end of Season L (12).
However, as supplied, this software's functionality is limited because even after ~3 months of trying,
I could *NOT* obtain permission to include episode transcripts, sub-titles, panelist photos, etc.
To avoid Copyright issues, no copyrighted material is provided with
this program nor is any copyrighted material available on my web site.
i.e. Transcripts, sub-titles, panelist photos, episode videos, QI music / sound effects, etc are *NOT* available / provided.
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 57 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
QI TV Show UnOfficial Companion
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ... Hope someone likes it ....
Paper Quiz Generator (aka Paper Multi-Choice Quiz Generator)
is a program that enables you to generate paper
based true/false and multiple choice quizes - consisting of a random
selection of questions and the randomised answers for each question -
from files of questions and answers that you provide. Paper Quiz
Generator is ideally suited for generating the true/false and multiple
choice (A,B,C,D,E,etc) question sections of paper based exams,
assignments, tutorial questions, and so on.
Paper Quiz Generator enables you to:
Select a file containing the Questions and Answers or drag and
drop a file from Windows Explorer,
Specify the number of questions to ask (questions are selected at
random from the question and answer file),
Specify various other settings such as:
Appending an auto-incremented sequence number to output file names so you can
generate many question and answer files by just repetitively clicking
the "Create" button.
Whether to include a quick marking summary at the top of each answer file.
This makes it much faster and much easier to mark quiz attempts.
Whether to show a success message dialog after each quiz is created.
etc
You can view / edit the questions and answers file, and the generated
quiz questions file and quiz answers file by clicking the "Open" buttons
to the right of each file name's data entry box.
Paper Quiz Generator is very easy to use. A couple of minutes (or less)
and you will be an expert in using Paper Quiz Generator.
A sample Questions and Answer file is included in the ZIP file for this program.
See file called "Moose's Sample Quiz.qiz".
Also, two sample quizes generated from this Questions and Answer file,
and their corressponding answer files, are included so you can very easily
see what this program does.
See files "Moose's Sample Quiz_1_questions.txt" and "Moose's Sample Quiz_1_answers.txt",
and "Moose's Sample Quiz_2_questions.txt" and "Moose's Sample Quiz_2_answers.txt".
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 57 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
Paper Quiz Generator
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
File Usage Monitor
simply monitors and logs the usage of files that
you want to monitor: how many hours each file has been open / in use,
the date/time it was opened, the date/time it was closed, etc.
for any files you want to monitor.
I use File Usage Monitor to keep track of various documents, spreadsheets,
and files that I work on so that I can tell when the files were last changed,
when I last worked on them, how long I have worked on them for, and so on.
File Usage Monitor also records the date / time each time that it is started
(executed, run) and ended (exited, closed) in the event log.
An example use of this program could be to enable
companies / people to justify / support work invoices sent
to clients by logging the amount of time spent working
on computer files relating to each client.
The program resides in the Windows
Icon Tray (with the clock, etc).
The following changes are for this 1.6f release:
Remove all of the sub-forms / sub screens and place all user interface
components in a tabbed notebook on the program's main screen.
Add in functionality to save File Usage Monitor's settings and
the File Usage Log periodically (say every 5 minutes, or whatever
you specify), to minimise the impact of a crash, power failure,
etc.
Add a Detailed Log for each file being monitored so
that you can see the various start / stop dates / times
for when work was undertaken on each particular file.
Record the start/stop dates and times for File Usage Monitor to the log.
Add a 2nd "Clipboard Copy" button on the "Event / Status Log" tab
which copies the log in TAB separated format to Windows Clipboard
(makes it *very* easy to paste the data into columns in a spreadsheet).
Change the name of the program and readme file names from "File_mon"
to the much more meaningful and appropriate "File_Usage_Monitor". :)
Add exception handling to the loading and saving of program settings (INI file)
so that the program executes and exits cleanly (no error messages produced) even
if running from a read-only device such as a optical disk (CD-ROM, etc) or
there are disk errors or the disk is full and/or the INI file does not exist
and/or it cannot be created.
Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries.
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 57 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
File Usage Monitor
section of my web page.
Hope this new version is useful for someone out there ...
View the Text or Bitmap data in the Window's Clipboard,
List the formats of data currently available in the Window's Clipboard,
Copy data (rich text, formatted text, etc) from the Clipboard
and copy it back to the Clipboard as plain text.
The following changes are for this 1.2f release:
Remove all of the sub-forms / sub screens and place all Clipboard information
on the program's main screen.
Add a "Copy as Text" button which is very useful for me.
I regularly copy and paste large amounts of formatted text from
various sources into Excel spreadsheets, and I was tired of going
Edit -> Paste Special -> and then selecting text and clicking the "OK"
button in Excel, so this new "Copy as Text" button does all of this in 1 step,
so it reduces 4 mouse clicks down to 1.
Add exception handling to the loading and saving of program settings (INI file)
so that the program executes and exits cleanly (no error messages produced) even
if running from a read-only device such as a optical disk (CD-ROM, etc) or
there are disk errors or the disk is full and/or the INI file does not exist
and/or it cannot be created.
Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries.
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 57 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
Clipboard Tools
section of my web page.
Hope this new version is useful for someone out there ...
7-Mar-2015 ::
A Kind Word Goes A LOOOOOONNNNGGG Way
Special thanks to "Morc" who emailed me after I
released Mouse Odometer (v1.7f) containing the new "Traybar Icon" functionailty he
requested, saying:
"Hi Moose, Thanks!!! I was expecting a month or two lead time on this :D Absolutely brilliant!"
(Source: Email dated Tuesday, 3 March 2015, 3:56 AM).
Mouse Odometer is a "for fun" program that simply keeps track
of your mouse clicks and mouse cursor movement and converts this to a total
distance travelled in Kilometers by the mouse cursor, based on
the screen resolution and size of your current display.
The following changes are for this 1.7f release:
Auto-minimise Mouse Odometer to Windows TrayBar (with the clock, etc)
on start-up and whenever the program is minimised. The icon for
Mouse Odometer in Windows TrayBar is the "mouse with red legs and black shoes".
Just double click on this icon to open Mouse Odometer's window, or
right-mouse click on the icon and select a menu option from the pop-up menu.
Greetings to "Morc" who requested this TrayBar functionality earlier today.
Add exception handling to the loading and saving of program settings (INI file)
so that the program executes and exits cleanly (no error messages produced) even
if running from a read-only device such as a optical disk (CD-ROM, etc) or
there are disk errors or the disk is full and/or the INI file does not exist
and/or it cannot be created.
Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries.
For anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 57 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
Mouse Odometer
section of my web page.
Hope this new version is useful for someone out there ...
Wed, 25-Feb-2015 @ 9:30 PM ::
Update: Category 5 Cyclone - Everything now back to "normal"
The Short Answer:
The cyclone happened, it was a big one, we lost power for 6 days, but everything is now back to "normal". Power and internet, etc have been restored.
The LONG Answer:
Well, the cyclone was a big one. But, it didn't turn out anything like I expected.
Normally a week or more of torrential rain follows a cyclone. Not in this case ...
In the days leading up to the cyclone (when it was still just a weak Category 1 storm),
there had been a buying frenzy at the supermarkets and it was like a plague of locusts had been through leaving the shelves bare.
Bread, milk, tinned food, etc were all sold out very quickly.
In the panic that precedes every cyclone, people once again panicked and purchased way more than they needed.
The vast majority of these cyclone warnings turn out to be "all for nothing" - the storm never eventuates, or else it changes direction and misses us by 700+ Km.
The vast majority of cyclone warnings are just "crying wolf".
The last serious cyclone in this region was Cyclone David in 1990 = 25 years ago. And we have had dozens of cyclone warning since then, all amounting to nothing or much, much less than was forecast.
Every year, there are multiple (3-4 ?) cyclone warnings (and 90%+ are "crying wolf"), but there are always lots of people who
go to pieces, cancel their holidays, and panic and buy everything in sight,
instead of just thinking clearly and stocking up with just what they need to last them for 5-7 days or so.
It's always good to be prepared, but just don't go crazy !
Shops selling electricity generators wacked up their prices (again) and still sold out very quickly in the stampede (again).
Fuel prices go up ... Food prices go up ...
Anyway, this cyclone warning was no fizzer. This storm was real, and it was coming straight for my area, and it really picked up force after
my last update on Fri, 20-Feb-2015 @ 9:29 AM below.
By 11:30 AM, the winds were gusting up to 285 Km/hour (180 miles/hour). It sure was a beast of a storm.
The sound was incredible - the storm roared, sounding exactly like someone had parked a jumbo jet nearby - just the other side of the trees - and was running the engines at full throttle ....
The wind was so strong that rain came in horizontally and stung like getting hit with gravel when mowing the lawn, etc.
I stayed and watched the storm from my office and lounge room throughout the storm - which both faced into the wind -
and I had to stuff towels into the aluminum window tracks to try and stop the rain water coming in.
The rain water was being blown along the aluminum rail tracks and flooding them and then bubbling and spraying furiously out of them inside my house.
I had buckets, plastic containers, etc lined up under the windows and towels, sheets, etc on the floor to catch as much of the water coming in as I could.
It was like being in a submarine that had been hit - water was spraying in everywhere.
The windows were also flexing in and bulging alarmingly. I was concerned that they might break ...
The broken glass - accelerated to 285 Km/hour (180 miles/hour) - would have passed through the human body like a bullet.
No windows broke.
And, thankfully, the storm only lasted a few hours.
By 4:30 PM, a couple of hours after the cyclone had passed, the weather cleared, the wind died right down, the rain stopped,
and we had blue sky on the horizon (in the afternoon on the day of the cyclone).
Since then, we have no breeze (or sometimes just a very gentle breeze) and glorious blue skies all day every day. No rain. No storms. Just lovely blue skies.
House Damage:
A very small percentage of houses (I estimate less than 1 in 150) were seriously damaged, involving lost roofs or collapsed walls.
Along the road between my house and town, there are 1,000's houses and all were right in the path of the Category 5 cyclone, and only 5 or 6 suffered serious damage.
The vast majority of houses and buildings suffered no damage at all or just some very light damage.
e.g. maybe some damaged guttering, a shade awning ripped away, a flimsy garden shed de-roofed or wrecked, and so on.
My house had 2 aluminium shade awnings ripped away and I lost part of the roof of my old garden shed. i.e. very minor damage.
A friend of mine lost a big old farm shed and had the electricity cable ripped off his house.
No damage at all occured to any of my neighbours houses or their neighbours houses.
Fallen Trees and Branches:
There were lots of fallen trees and branches. Branches and debris were everywhere.
Council tractors and trucks came along straight after the storm had passed and cleared the roads of debris within a very short time -
most were cleared by the evening of the day of the storm, if not the next day.
It took me all day cutting up the fallen branches around my house with a hand saw and raking up the debris and loading it into my
trailer and taking multiple loads to the local green waste tip (where it is mulched and used for gardens).
And, I spent the following days helping friends do the same, and taking away their debris, and am still helping them do this.
My hands have blisters on top of blisters from the work.
Electricity, Phones, TV, Internet:
Everyone in my region - 65,000+ people - lost electricity and land-line phones, and the TV broadcast towers and mobile phone towers were all out of action so
no-one had TV, land-line phones, land-line internet, mobile phones, or mobile internet.
All of the sewerage pumps in the region had no power, so sewerage from houses, etc was not being pumped away properly, and apparently there was a danger of it gushing out
onto the ground in parks, etc in low lying areas. I never heard of anywhere where this actually happened - but people were warned to watch out for and stay away from areas where it might happen.
There was also a distinct possibility for 3-4 days that the water supply was going to be cut off, but they got the water pumping stations
back on-line just fine. So, we were never without water. If this had happened, and the water was off for a few days, it would really have been awful:
even a bath full of water is quickly emptied when the water is used to flush a toilet.
Mobile phones and mobile internet came back on in my area at lunchtime on Day #4, Monday, 23-Feb-2015. So, this, together with laptops / tablets gave us
some desperately needed communications.
The trouble was that there was extremely little useful information about what was happening anywhere on the internet or on TV or radio.
Media Coverage: TV, newspaper, radio:
As usual, the reports in the media - TV, newspaper, etc - were way over the top, hyped up, sensationalised, and bordering on hysterical and they only showed the extreme side of things -
the destroyed houses, etc - because they are trying to get more people to watch their coverage (and view the ads in between) or buy their newspapers.
As always, take *everything* you see / read in the media with a big pinch of salt. Especially when it comes to storms, floods, etc.
Information, Information - Where's the Information ????
Because there was no electricity, there was no TV for at least several days (the TV broadcast towers had no power). But radio still worked.
And, we still had newspapers, etc so we got what little information there was from radio and newspaper.
Mobile phones and mobile internet came back in my area at lunchtime on Day #4, Monday, 23-Feb-2015. So, from then on we had limited internet (between charges of laptops, phones, etc).
I checked our electricity company's web site and their "outage finder" for information about when the power in my area might be back on,
but there was no information at all. Just very vague references to general topics like "we are still trying to find / repair faults".
Very little detailed or useful information at all concerning any area, and nothing useful at all for my area.
The electricity was still off, so
we charged a mobile phone, laptops, etc using car charger kits and also a small petrol generator, which was very busy every day trying to keep the food in
a fridge/freezer cold and, in rotation, the food in 2 x freezers as close to frozen as possible.
We didn't run the generator at night, because we didn't want to disturb others / neighbours.
And the nights were hot and still, making sleep very difficult indeed.
Even just a simple pedestal fan would have been oh so nice.
There were queues for fuel at service stations - usually about 10 cars long. Most of the cars on the roads and in the queues at petrol stations
were sightseers - people in 4WDs, etc who appeared on the roads immediately after the
cyclone had passed and were driving around looking at everyone's damage and misery.
These people sure got in the way of those trying to clear up the mess and damage.
After 6 days, we still had no power (electricity) and we had absolutely no idea
when the power or our land-line phones (and internet) were going to come back on. We had heard reports and rumours that the electricity
in our area should be back on Tuesday (yesterday) or today (Wednesday).
In the afternoon on Day #6, Wed, 25-Feb-2015, I heard from several people and broadcasts on the radio that the
electricity was probably going to be another 1-2 weeks for my region.
I was very annoyed. It is the not knowing that is the worst thing.
I managed to get enough charge in a laptop and wireless mobile internet to check the electricity company's
web site (again) and their "outage finder" (again), but both were completely useless (again) - no mention at all of my region, and
very little (if any) detailed information about any region.
I then spent 20 mins or so on the phone to the electricity company - listening to their crappy automated answering service - and
had to hang up when my mobile went flat - without even managing to speak to anyone. No return call service.
No "xx minutes until you get an operator" message. Nothing useful like that.
Just their extremely annoying automated answering service with a hyper-perky voice spouting marketing crap over and over again.
So much for customer service ....
I was preparing to drive into town to try and find a working pay phone and phone the electricity company
to try and find out what the hell was going on and when we might get power back on.
But, as I was closing the door to depart at 4:53 PM, the power suddenly came back on. WOW !! What a shock ! What the ???????
About 4 hours later, at 8:30 PM on Day #6, Wed, 25-Feb-2015, the land line phones and therefore my full internet - came back on.
Helping Others:
The very first thing I did when the power come back on was put a BIG sign out the front of my house saying:
FREE Charging for Phones, Laptops, etc
FREE Hot Showers
And when my land-line phones (and internet) came back a few hours later, I added:
FREE Wireless Internet
because there are still so many people here - the electricity company estimates 30,000+ people - who do not have power and
may not have power for several weeks or more. For these people a hot shower while their phone and laptop are charged can help,
and then when they are showered and feeling refreshed, they can check the internet for news and check their email and email friends and family.
If I can do more, I certainly will. I am helping other people clean-up their yards and around their houses.
I will also provide free short-term accommodation for people whose houses are seriously damaged.
The last 6 days have been very difficult and challenging for everyone in the region.
The least I can do is try and help others ....
Fri, 20-Feb-2015 @ 9:29 AM ::
Category 5 Cyclone
A Category 5 cyclone is bearing down on where I live. Category 5 is the strongest category - there is no such thing as Category 6.
It's a BFS - a Big F...ing Storm.
The center of the storm is about 2 hours away, and on a track to pass right over where I live.
If the electricity transformers down the road flood again, then I will lose power and internet.
For some reason, the geniuses at my local electricity company built the transformers near ground level, in the middle of a well known flood way and drainage area.
People canoe down through the area when it rains heavily - and the electricity company built their transformers there,
right at the lowest point.
It beggars belief ....
The caravan park who owns the land where the electricity transformers are, have installed big water pumps and these run 24 hours a day
whenever it rains - to try and keep the water at bay ....
This helps the issue, but can the pumps keep up with all the water this time ?
Perhaps not if heavy rains follow the cyclone ...
Anyway, as a result of this, every time we get heavy rain or even a couple of days of moderate rain,
the pumps cannot pump out all of the water, the transformers flood, and we lose power for an indeterminate period - usually 2-4 days.
In a cyclone situation, the flooding may be worse and the power may be off for longer. And this is a Category 5 .... so who knows how bad it could be.
If the transformers flood - when the transformers flood -
then the power may be off for a week or longer - depends how long it may take them to fix things (pump out the water and dry out the transformers),
or what else may cause power issues (fallen trees, etc).
Anyway, I might be off the air for a while.
So, if I don't answer emails, you will know why.
The rain outside has suddenly become very heavy .... The floodway where the electricity transformers are is already turning into a shallow lake ....
The wind has picked up .....
My ears keep popping ..... The air pressure is changing fast .....
It's coming .... It is coming ..... The storm is almost here ....
The next few hours will be interesting ....
Sudoku Solver Helper Trainer solves sudoku puzzles,
and it does this exactly how I personally solve the puzzles.
When I solve sudoku puzzles, I work out and write down the numbers that
can go into each row, column, 3x3 box on the paper next to the puzzle,
and then work out which numbers cannot go into each row, column, etc,
and then solve the puzzle based on this information. I wrote this
program to solve the puzzles exactly the way I do it.
However, this is only the start. Sudoku Solver Helper Trainer can do
*lots* more.
Sudoku Solver Helper Trainer provides functionality to:
Solve Sudoku puzzles. :)
Give you hints on the next best "move" you can make to solve a
puzzle (the program highlights the cell without giving you the answer).
Displays the numbers that still need to be placed in each row, column,
and 3x3 box, so you don't need to write this down and keep track
of this on paper. This makes solving puzzles *much* quicker and
easier, because my program does this tedious work for you !!
Solve the next cell / make the next move (the program highlights and
solves (fills in the answer) for the next best move).
Solve all cells / make all moves until the puzzle is solved or until
the puzzle is deemed "unsolvable".
Saves and loads puzzles to/from file (a bunch of puzzles are included
with the program to get you started).
Solves "unsolvable" puzzles by "Brute Force" methods. That is,
the program guesses a number and then tries to solve the rest of
the puzzle. If this doesn't work, then Sudoku Solver Helper Trainer
will back track, guess a different number at this cell or go to
another cell and try numbers and keep trying until the puzzle is solved.
Sudoku Solver Helper Trainer includes a selection of more than 25 Sudoku puzzles: easy, medium, hard, and evil.
But you can add as many puzzles as you like - just type 9 lines of 9 numbers per line separated by commas into a plain text file,
or, enter the numbers directly into Sudoku Solver Helper Trainer's grid and save the puzzle as a new file.
Sudoku Solver Helper Trainer can help you and show you how to solve
sudoku puzzles so that you become better and faster at solving them
yourself. It sure helped me !
There's 2 changes for this 1.1f release:
This program is now FREEWARE. i.e. the FULL version of the program is now completely FREE.
Add exception handling to the loading and saving of program settings (INI file)
so that the program executes and exits cleanly (no error messages produced) even
if running from a read-only device such as a optical disk (CD-ROM, etc) or
there are disk errors or the disk is full and/or the INI file does not exist
and/or it cannot be created.
I really hoped this program would become popular and generate interest, that
perhaps even the authors of Sudoku magazines and books might email me and ask
to include my program on cover CDs and/or on their web sites (which I would
have enthusiastically agreed to).
But, not a single shred of support or encouragement since this program
was released 14+ months and not a single sale.
Maybe I wildly overestimated how popular Sudoku is .....
Maybe Sudoku has had its day .... Or maybe, more likely, nobody cares ....
Anyway, this program is now FREEWARE.
The internet has become a very big place, and so much is lost in the noise ....
Long gone are the days when you could release a new or updated software title
one evening and receive 10+ emails of encouragement by the next morning.
Yes, this used to happen frequently in the mid-late 1990's.
I sure do miss those days ....
Anyway, for anyone who may be interested, here's the
VirusTotal Virus Scan report
which gives this software a 100% clean bill of health against all 57 virus and malware scanners (as I fully expected).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see
Sudoku Solver Helper Trainer
section of my web page.
Hope this new version is useful for someone out there ...
2-Feb-2015 ::
QI TV Show - now being broadcast in the USA !!!
I recently emailed the QI team and asked them:
I am wondering: is QI being or has QI been broadcast in the USA ?
I have been asking all of my friends in the USA about QI recently, and no-one had heard of it. I was very surprised !
Anyway, after they had watched an episode or 2 on YouTube, everyone I have spoken to has become a fan of the show.
I'm doing my best to spread the word about QI ! :)
And I received a reply this morning:
Good timing! We announced yesterday that QI is to be broadcast for the first time on BBC America -
more details here.
Which is excellent new !!
I'm positive that this excellent TV show will become extremely popular in the USA - just like it is everywhere else !!
27-Jan-2015 ::
More scans against 57 Virus Checkers = 100% Virus Free
Further to the virus scans on
17-Jan-2015,
18-Jan-2015,
and
25-Jan-2015
of my software against 57 anti-virus / anti-malware engines on the
VirusTotal.com
web site, I have today performed a bunch more scans of various of my software titles and added links to the
VirusTotal.com
scan results / reports below the download links for each software title.
Here are the scans I have performed and added links for today:
I'll perform more scanning and add more links to the resulting reports in the future as I update / upload new versions of each of my programs.
25-Jan-2015 ::
More scans against 57 Virus Checkers = 100% Virus Free
Further to the virus scans on
17-Jan-2015
and
18-Jan-2015
of my software against 57 anti-virus / anti-malware engines on the
VirusTotal.com
web site, I have today performed a bunch more scans of various of my software titles and added links to the
VirusTotal.com
scan results / reports below the download links for each software title.
Here are the scans I have performed and added links for today:
As always, ALL reports show that ALL of my software titles have a 100% Clean Bill of Health, and that
my software contains NO Viruses and NO Malware.
As always, I was 100% certain that this would be the case, because I am so extremely careful and paranoid when it comes to security on my computers.
Anyway, these
VirusTotal.com
scans / reports provide further peace of mind to people that my software contains NO nasty surprises.
I'll perform more scanning and add more links to the resulting reports in the future as I update / upload new versions of each of my programs.
Since then, I have done a great deal of work on my program. Almost every day, I am tweaking things, adding new features, or adding more functionality.
So far, 52 people have watched the
demonstration video on YouTube, but most of these viewings were in the 1st few days.
No-one has commented or provided any feedback (under the video) on YouTube so far, and there's only 1 like for this video on YouTube so far.
In fact, the only words of encouragement so far (apart from friends and family) are just a few messages on the MAME Forums .....
Sheesh .... throw me a bone someone ! ;)
I was hoping that my program / demo video might have generated a tad more interest ....
Oh well ... maybe there's not as many QI fans as I had thought ....
Or, maybe people just don't care at all ?
Or, most likely, my work is irrelevant ?
I have spoken to a lot of my friends in the USA, and none had even heard of QI, which is very surprising.
But, after they watch a QI episode or two on YouTube, everyone I speak to seems to like the show and become a fan of the show.
I wonder if QI has been broadcast in the USA ? If not, why not ?
Hopefully word will spread and the show will gain more fans.
I'm doing all I can to spread the word !! :)
I still have not had any reply from the QI team about my "QI TV Show Unofficial Companion" software,
but I have emailed them again and I'm still hoping for a favourable reply so that I can release my program with the desired features ....
If I don't obtain permission to include episode data, panelist data, panelist photos, subtitle / transcript files, etc,
then things are going to a little bit limited to say the least ....
18-Jan-2015 ::
More scans against 57 Virus Checkers = 100% Virus Free
Further to
yesterday's virus scans
of my software against 57 anti-virus / anti-malware engines on the
VirusTotal.com
web site, I have today performed a bunch more scans of various of my software titles and added links to the
VirusTotal.com
scan results / reports below the download links for each software title.
Here are the scans I have performed and added links for today:
As always, ALL reports show that ALL of my software titles have a 100% Clean Bill of Health, and that
my software contains NO Viruses and NO Malware.
As always, I was 100% certain that this would be the case, because I am so extremely careful and paranoid when it comes to security on my computers.
Anyway, these
VirusTotal.com
scans / reports provide further peace of mind to people that my software contains NO nasty surprises.
I'll perform more scanning and add more links to the resulting reports in the future as I update / upload new versions of each of my programs.
18-Jan-2015 ::
Reinstate "Shareware / Trialware" section of my web site and "Sudoku Solver Helper Trainer (v1.0t)"
Reinstate the
Shareware / Trialware
section of my web site, which I have just noticed that I had missed out / left out when the new re-designed version of my web site "went live" back in
31-Oct-2014.
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator (aka Sag Calculator)
has received
some very nice feedback
and I am very happy with this program.
Sag Calculator has its own web pages (and its own menu above), and it was certainly never "forgotten".
It is only listed briefly on the
Shareware / Trialware
section of my web site - just a link to
its own web page.
Sag Calculator is my one and only "success" as a shareware author ...
Sudoku Solver Helper Trainer
was a program that I hoped would be popular and might even sell a few copies.
Alas, only 8 downloads so far, and zero sales since it was
released on 1-Nov-2013.
And no feedback at all. Not a single person has emailed me to say "great program" or "your program saved me hours !" ....
Even taking into account that the
Shareware / Trialware section of my web site was off-line for 2.5 months (out of the last 14.5 months since it was released),
this is still *really* disappointing.
I love developing software and solving new problems, and I use each and every one of my programs - many of a daily basis -
as do many of my friends and colleagues, so my Moose Valley software were always extremely worthwhile from a personal satisfaction perspective.
Still sales / donations and/or kind feedback - especially the kind feedback - are always very nice to receive ...
17-Jan-2015 ::
Anti-Virus / Anti-Malware Scans - courtesy of VirusTotal.com
I am super paranoid about security on all of my computers and my PCs are subject to the highest levels of security.
You can rest assured that there are no viruses or malware in any of the software I provide on my web site (or anywhere else).
VirusTotal.com
is a brilliant and free web service
where you can upload files and, at the current time, scans them against 57 virus and malware scanners.
I have been using this service for many years, and nothing gets near any of my machines -
not even into my temporary sandbox areas - unless it at least passes a
VirusTotal.com
scan with a clean bill of health.
However, just to reassure people that my software is safe and virus free ....
From now on, whenever I upload new / updated versions of my software, I will also add links to
Anti-Virus / Anti-Malware Scans for each software item (below the download link for each of my software titles).
To kick things off, I have added links to the
VirusTotal.com
scan results / reports for the latest versions of all of my software titles that have been uploaded / updated / created over the last 12 months:
Every one of these
VirusTotal.com
reports show the results of scanning my software against 57 of the world's best virus and malware scanners and
ALL reports show that ALL of my software titles have a 100% Clean Bill of Health.
That is, my software contains NO Viruses and NO Malware.
Of course, I was 100% certain that this would be the case, because I am so extremely careful and paranoid when it comes to security on my computers,
and I perform regular
VirusTotal.com
and many other scans.
Anyway, these
VirusTotal.com
scans / reports provide further peace of mind to people that my software contains NO nasty surprises.
This is the 3rd update to RAM / Swap Monitor
within the last couple of weeks.
There's only 1 change for this 5.2f release:
Add exception handling to the loading and saving of program settings (INI file)
so that the program executes and exits cleanly (no error messages produced) even
if running from a read-only device such as a optical disk (CD-ROM, etc) or
there are disk errors or the disk is full and/or the INI file does not exist
and/or it cannot be created.
I intend to roll out this same update to all of my software in the future, especially the software people download most.
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
RAM / Swap Monitor
section of my web page.
Hope this new version is useful for someone out there ...
Just a few very minor changes for this 1.1f release:
Improve the alignment of some screen labels.
Fix the tab order of the GUI components.
Display "Alarm Activated!" in the program's title bar when the alarm is activated.
No-one has downloaded v1.0f yet, which I uploaded a few days ago on 13-Jan-2015 ... Maybe no-one needs this functionality ??
Oh well, I sure find this program useful.
Hope this software is useful for someone out there ...
As the name suggests, CPU Usage Drop Alarm provides "CPU Usage Drop alarm" functionality.
When activated (by clicking the "Activate" button) this functionality
plays a sound over and over again until the user clicks the OK button
when the average, maximum, or minimum CPU usage drops below a user specified level for a user
specified number of seconds.
This is very useful for telling you when a big job has ended,
such as a Virus Scan, Disk Scan, Disk Defragment, CD/DVD Burning,
video processing and conversions, etc.
This is the same functionality that is provided in some of my other
software titles (such as my
RAM / Swap Monitor),
but this program provides
additional features. For example, you can select whether the CPU Usage
being monitored is the Average, Minimum, or Maximum CPU Usage across
all of the CPUs in your computer.
This is useful because you may be running a single threaded application (an
application that uses only 1 CPU), and if you want to know when this finishes
its processing / work, then you could monitor the Maximum CPU usage across all CPUs,
rather than the Average across all CPUs.
If you select Average, then the number of CPUs is displayed next to the graph.
e.g. 'Avg 8xCPU' will be displayed if you have 8 CPUs.
If you select Minimum, then the ID of the CPU that had the minimum usage and the
number of CPUs is displayed next to the graph. e.g. 'CPU.3/8' will be displayed
if CPU 3 of 8 had the minimum load.
If you select Maximum, then the ID of the CPU that had the maximum usage and the
number of CPUs is displayed next to the graph. e.g. 'CPU.3/8' will be displayed
if CPU 3 of 8 had the maximum load.
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
CPU Usage Drop Alarm
section of my web page.
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
Solar System Simulator
is a program to help you visualise
the solar system, compare the planets, and find out more about
the planets, or help you produce your own reports or assignments on the planets.
This program includes :
An animation of the Solar System, with the planets rotating
around the Sun - and you can alter the speed of animation, and
choose which planet to "stand on" and the perspective of the rotating
planets and Sun is adjusted accordingly. And, you can also trace
the orbit of each object - great for helping to visualize /
understand the various orbits.
Many dozens of Planetary Comparison Graphs (with various options) to
let you compare dozens of criteria, such as mass, radius, volume,
distances from the sun, atmospheric composition, visits by
space probes, wind speeds, and many other criteria for each planet.
Planet Reports containing statistics and detailed information
on each planet or our Sun - including size, mass,
length of day, temperature ranges, density, volume,
surface area, orbital velocity, space craft visits, moons,
discovery details, and many dozens of other measurements,
statistics, and interesting facts.
A Weight Calculator to enable you to enter your weight
and calculate your weight on each planet.
Extract Data: you can copy and paste any or all selected
data values into a spreadsheet or your own reports
at the click of a mouse button.
Gravity Calculator: allows you to enter the mass and volume of an
object relative to Earth, and calculate the object's gravity. This works perfectly
for all astronomical objects, including stars, Neutron Stars, Black Holes,
planets and moons in our solar system, and exo-planets (planets around other stars).
Planet and Solar System Images.
The lots of changes for this 3.0f release: :)
Add the ability to scale all graph values relative to Earth.
This makes it easier to visualise the data. For example, instead of
seeing the Planet Radius values for each planet (Earth 6,371 Km,
Saturn 58,232 Km, etc) you see the sizes relative to Earth
(Saturn has 9.14 Earth's radius).
Add "First Graph" and "Last Graph" buttons so you can quickly navigate around the graphs.
Remove "Registered Version" message on the "Data Extraction" tab.
Replace images on "Sizes and Tilts" and "Moons and Dwarf Planets" tabs
with higher resolution images. This makes the EXE slightly larger.
Update details for Pluto (add 4 newly discovered moons, etc).
Although Pluto isn't "visible" in any of my program's graphs, etc,
it is still there behind the scenes.
Fix an issue with this program running under 64 bit versions of
Windows Vista, 7, 8, etc. (Auto-run at Windows startup).
Fix the solar system / planetary animation under 64 bit versions of Windows:
the problem was that the planets were NOT visible in the animation.
It turns out that this problem was caused by an AutoSize parameter for
TImage components being handled differently under 64 bit versions of Windows:
For 32 bit versions of Windows, if an image is copied to a blank TImage
component with a specific size, then the size of the TImage does NOT change,
even if it's AutoSize property is set to True.
For 64 bit versions of Windows, the TImage size will be set to 0, and 0 pixels
are copied, and this is why the planets were not showing up.
So, the behaviour of the TImage component completely changes depending on which
version of Windows you are using. I could NOT find any reference to this anywhere
on the internet. Very STRANGE and completely undocumented behaviour.
The fix for this was *very* simple: set AutoSize to false for each of the
planet TImages, and everything worked perfectly again. :)
Fix a form sizing and scaling issue under 64 bit versions of
Windows Vista, 7, 8, etc - where the behaviour is, once again, completely different
to 32 bit versions of Windows.
Thank you Microsoft - NOT ! - for continuing the to break and change things behind the
scenes in Windows in completely unexpected ways !
Add a Gravity Calculator to the new "Gravity" tab which allows you to enter the mass and volume of an
object relative to Earth or the Sun, and calculate the object's gravity. This works perfectly
for all astronomical objects, including stars, Neutron Stars, Black Holes
and for ExoPlanets. I added this functionality because I was reading some articles
about exo-planets today, such as "HD 40307g". The articles said this exo-planet had
"eight times the mass of Earth and twice the volume" and that its "gravity will
be a real killer for any human visitors". None of the articles mentioned what the
gravity was. How strong was its gravity ? Would it really kill humans ? I decided
to work out the answers to these questions. So, I added the "Gravity" tab to my
Solar System Simulator, added the required calculations, and within a minute or 2
I had my answers: HD 40307g's Gravity = 49.50 m/sec^2, which is 5.04x Earth`s Gravity.
Now, this is strong gravity. However, I have experienced more than 6 G for short periods
(5-10 seconds or so at a time, but it felt like hours ! ;) in an old Russian MiG fighter jet
and 5+G is not particularly comfortable, but it certainly wont kill you. The author's claims of
it being a "real killer for any human visitors" are clearly exaggerated. And who
knows, eventually humans might learn / adapt to live under such strong gravity ?
Add "Animation Speed Benchmarks" for my most recently purchased computers:
Laptop: HP EliteBook (purchased early-2013)
Desktop: HP Z220 Workstation (purchased mid-2013)
Add exception handling to the loading and saving of program settings (INI file)
so that the program executes and exits cleanly (no error messages produced) even
if running from a read-only device such as a optical disk (CD-ROM, etc) or
there are disk errors or the disk is full and/or the INI file does not exist
and/or it cannot be created.
Explore using a Frame Skip method for the planetary animations in the Solar System Simulator
tab, but this did not work as well as the currently implemented "Time Increment"
method that I have been using all along. I will explore this further though.
Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries.
This program should be interesting to people of all ages.
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
Solar System Simulator
section of my web page.
Hope this new version is useful for someone out there ...
I last uploaded a new version of RAM / Swap Monitor
just yesterday, but today I've made some minor changes / additions, so I might aw well upload this new version as well. :)
Here are the changes for this 5.1f release:
Add right-mouse click popup context sensitive menus to the CPU, Disk Space,
and Mouse sections.
Display a little speaker icon between the CPU Usage and Average CPU Usage bar
graphs when the CPU Usage Drop Alarm is active. (Prior to this, a little
radio button was displayed in the top left corner of the CPU groupbox,
but this was not as attractive as the little speaker icon).
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
RAM / Swap Monitor (v5.1f)
section of my web page.
Hope this new version is useful for someone out there ...
the CPU usage and the Average CPU usage (since RAM / Swap
Monitor has been running). If your PC has multiple CPUs / cores,
then the CPU Usage is the average across all CPUs.
graphs and numerical values for the Physical RAM and
SWAPfile (Page file) usage in your PC,
the free space and total capacity of any single drive
selected by the user, and you can view a report for the selected drive
by clicking the little button next to the drive selection drop down box.
and, if the "Show Mouse Odometer" option is "checked" in the
"Mouse Odometer" menu, the number of left / right mouse button
clicks and the distance the mouse pointer has traveled in Km or Miles.
RAM / SWAP Monitor also contains "CPU Usage Drop Alarm"
functionality which plays a sound over and over again until
the user clicks the OK button when the CPU usage drops below
a user specified level for a user specified number of seconds.
This is very useful for telling you when a big job has ended,
such as a Virus Scan, Disk Scan, Disk Defragment, CD/DVD Burning,
video processing and conversions, etc. This functionality is available
under the "CPU Usage Drop Alarm" menu option in the "File" menu.
(I use this all the time, so I can watch TV or do something else,
and my PC will make a sound and tell me when it has finished its work !!).
Here are the changes for this 5.0f release:
WOW, nearly 8 years since I've updated this program. :)
Fix an issue with this program running under 64 bit versions of
Windows Vista, 7, 8, etc. (Auto-run at Windows startup).
Change the CPU Usage Drop Alarm from the PC Speaker to an embedded sound (WAV) file,
because modern PCs no longer have a speaker. All sound now comes via the
sound device / speakers.
Flash the program's title bar in the Windows Taskbar's when the CPU Usage Drop Alarm
goes off (as well as playing the sound). When the CPU Usage Drop Alarm goes off,
the sound keeps playing over and over again until the OK button is clicked.
Fix memory (RAM) and Swap File space reported under 64 bit versions of Windows
with memories much larger than 4 GB.
This program now supports memory (RAM) sizes, file sizes, and disk drive sizes
well into the trillions of Zeta Bytes range (unless there is a bug I don't know
about in the Pascal compiler I am using). Wish I had a 100 ZB drive to test against. :)
1 ZB = 1,000,000,000,000 TB. Given that current hard-drive sizes max out at
about 6 TB, we wont be getting to ZB drive sizes for a little while yet ! :)
Change over to using 1000 bytes for a KB as per the "standard". I hate doing this.
1 KB should be 1024 bytes, not 1000 bytes. But I refuse to use the stupid looking
"KiB" abbreviation for 1024 bytes. Stupid standards committees !
To avoid feeling ill, I'll just have to "avert my eyes" when I get to the part
of my code that says "1 KB = 1000 bytes". :/
Completely re-design / re-vamp the user interface.
Change the old "oval Pie Chart" gauges for RAM and Swap to standard (and boring)
"bar graph" gauges. I remember 6 or so years ago someone sent me a very angry and
highly abusive email because these 2 gauges weren't circular. Ummm, they were never
meant to be circular dude ! I liked the ellipses. LOL. :)
Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries. :)
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
RAM / Swap Monitor.
section of my web page.
Hope this new version is useful for someone out there ...
the total disk space and the free (unused) disk space in bytes, KB,
MB, GB, TB, PB, EB, YB, ZB (whatever is most suitable)
for all drives you want to monitor.
the percentage of free (unused) disk space for all drives
you want to monitor.
the overall totals for all drives you are monitoring.
Disk Monitor will monitor up to 26 drives.
Here are the changes for this 3.7f release:
Fix a couple of issues with this program running under 64 bit versions of
Windows Vista, 7, 8, etc. (Auto-run at Windows startup and refreshing).
Fix an issue with the total of all drives.
Stop the timer when refreshing the free / space for all drives and
re-enable it when everything has been refreshed for all drives just
in case the user has selected a LOT of drives (up to 26) and/or some are slow
or take time to spin up - CD drives, etc - and the user has selected
a fast refresh frequency (1 second). This prevents updates from clashing
with / piling up on each other.
Change the timer refresh increment from 5 seconds to 1 second.
Smarten up the Settings screen a little bit: add icons to buttons,
change from bevels to groupboxes, etc.
This program now supports disk drive sizes well into the trillions of
Zeta Bytes range (unless there is a bug in the Pascal compiler I am using).
1 ZB = 1,000,000,000,000 TB. Given that current hard-drive sizes max out at
about 6 TB, we wont be getting to ZB drive sizes for a little while yet ! :)
Change over to using 1000 bytes for a KB as per the "standard". I hate doing this.
1 KB should be 1024 bytes, not 1000 bytes. But I refuse to use the stupid looking
"KiB" abbreviation for 1024 bytes. Stupid standards committees !
To avoid feeling ill, I'll just have to "avert my eyes" when I get to the part
of my code that says "1 KB = 1000 bytes".
Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries. :)
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see the
Disk Monitor
section of my web page.
Hope this new version is useful for someone out there ...
29-Dec-2014 ::
Binary Clock - fix link to download ZIP file
Special thanks to Naoki for reporting the incorrect link.
21-Dec-2014 ::
My minuscule contribution to the open source VLC / VideoLan Project
The best video player on the planet bar none is
VLC (VideoLan).
In fact, VLC is so good that I install it on all of my Windows and Linux machines. The only exception at this stage is my
Android tablet, because VLC is still *VERY* buggy and unstable on this - it crashes very regularly -
but the VLC team are working on things and stability should improve soon.
I've recently installed the very latest version of
Fedora Linux
onto one of my PCs and I was shocked to see that the video and music playing software included with Linux are still -
even after all of these years - absolute shite ! They could *NOT* play any of my AVI or MP4 videos and they could not even play MP3's,
and they could not update themselves or download the codecs, etc necessary to handle these ubiquitous files - despite numerous attempts !!
And, needless to say, they could NOT play any DVDs. What a pile of shite !
So, needless to say, I very quickly installed VLC onto the machine and made it the default video and music player and this solved
all of my video and music playing problems.
I don't know why the Fedora team just doesn't include VLC by default and ditch the crap that they are currently including.
Anyhow .... A feature I would really like in VLC is to be able to pass a negative stop-time parameter and have the
video stop playing this many seconds prior to the end of the video. Great for chopping off ending credits, etc.
So, today, I downloaded VLC's source code, very quickly scanned all 168 MB of the code,
worked out how to support this new functionality that I wanted and then wrote the necessary code,
and posted my code and suggestion to the VLC Forums. Here's a screen shot of my post:
Here's a link to my post on the VLC Forums if anyone is interested in reading further:
13-Dec-2014 ::
QI TV Show Unofficial Companion - DEMO Video
I have been very busy creating a new program for the past 2 weeks or so - the "QI TV Show Unofficial Companion" -
as well as hunting for episode data, panelist data and photos, and searching for subtitle / transcript files, creating mosaics
(see below),
and so on.
"QI TV Show Unofficial Companion" is an UNRELEASED computer program that has the following functionality:
Find episodes by keyword(s) and/or panelist and then watch the selected episodes by simply double clicking on the episode (if you have the video files stored on your harddrive),
Search through episode transcripts / sub-title / keyword files,
See a list of episodes that each panelist appeared,
Select multiple panelists to see which episodes they appeared in together,
See photos of every panelist that has appeared on the show to remind you who they are,
Watch any episode by simply double clicking on the episode in any of the lists (if you have the video files stored on your harddrive).
See various statistics about QI, such as the ratio of men / women on the show, who appeared most on the show, and so on.
And much more ... (if everything pans out as I hope)
Here's a DEMONSTRATION video of my "QI TV Show Unofficial Companion" computer software so far:
NOTES and Questions and Answers:
This computer software has NOT been released and it is NOT currently available.
At the current time, this software is NOT official QI software nor has it been endorsed by the QI Team.
But, I am hoping the QI Team will get behind my work and support / encourage this software development.
What operating systems / environments does this program run on ?
At the moment this program is for Windows PCs only, but if all goes well, I'd like to port my code to the
Macintosh, Android, iPad / iOS, Linux, etc.
What happens next ?
Will this program be publicly released ? When ?
What functionality will it include ?
Will it include all of the functionality demonstrated in the video ?
Will it include anything else ? A QI Quiz ?
Will this be freeware ? Or will the program need to be purchased ?
Will I Open Source my program code ? Will I encourage other programmers to work on this project ?
The answers to ALL of these questions depend on the response I get from the QI Team and from the feedback and support the YouTube video receives.
Do you know anyone who likes the QI TV Show ? If so, spread the word.
11-Dec-2014 ::
QI Photo Mosaic of Stephen and Alan - UPDATE :)
Last week, I emailed the QI team the mosaic I created of Stephen and Alan
(see below),
and
I have just received this very kind and friendly email reply from Alex of the QI Team:
Hi Mike,
Thanks very much for writing in - very impressive! How long did it take to make?
I've passed it on to the web team who manage what goes on QI's social media and website.
If you send in your postal address then we'd be very happy to send you a QI badge & photo?
Best wishes,
Alex
QI Researcher
Thanks for the lovely email Alex.
I've replied to Alex and thanked him and answered his questions.
His email is much nicer than I hoped for, and it is certainly infinitely nicer and
more positive than many of the emails / replies I received about the mosaic
from people on official QI web site forums.
5-Dec-2014 ::
QI Photo Mosaic of Stephen and Alan - made with photos of every guest who has appeared on the show
I am a huge fan of the TV show, QI !
Here is a mosaic I created from a photo of Stephen Fry and Alan Davies that I found on the internet. The mosaic is made with photos of every guest who has appeared on the
QI TV Show.
Hint: Click on mosaic on the right to see a full sized, high resolution version.
Note: you will need to zoom in on the image to see the mosaic tiles that make up the image.
To get the photos of each guest, I had to watch dozens of episodes of QI and capture screen shots of each guest - carefully rewinding and forwarding through video frames so I could get the exact images I wanted. Then, I cropped each screen shot to create the photo "tiles" that I needed for the mosaic. For some guests, I created multiple tiles - so I could get their classic expressions.
For other guests (I think about 10), I did not have / could not access the episodes they appear in (or the episode hasn't been aired yet), so I just grabbed publicly available images of the person from the internet, thanks to Google Images.
The resulting mosaic image is made up of 32,340 tiles, each 10 pixels x 10 pixels in size.
I have created other mosaics of this photo, using various sized tiles - 20x20, 15x15, etc, but the 10x10 mosaic is the best one.
I've also been messing round with morphing mosaics with different sized tiles into and out of each other - e.g. 40x40 -> 30x30 -> 20x20 -> 10x10 and back out again - and this produces some interesting effects.
I emailed the mosaic to the QI team a few days ago (on Monday, 1-Dec), but have not heard anything back yet. Not surprising, they must get 1000's of emails a day.
Stay tuned, there's more QI related "items" to come ...
And, special thanks to the QI team for their wonderful TV show !!
Update: 6-Dec-2014: Specially for the self-proclaimed "Copyright Police" on the QI web site forums who think it is their lot in life to go round attacking people and making hysterical claims.
Here's a deep zoom into the original, highest resolution version of the mosaic, down to a random section of 3x3 tiles:
Very "pixelly" at this level of zoom. I created the mosaic, I have the source
photo tiles right here on screen next to the zoom, and I cannot recognise a
single "face".
So, it certainly would be difficult for anyone to claim / prove any copyright
infringement, let alone anything else.
In addition, the photos of all of these celebrities are all over the internet.
Google Images is full of them. If anyone is going to get picked on, it is a nice,
big target like Google.
The chances of anyone picking on me, let alone succeeding, are zero.
For all anyone can really tell, I used photos of my doggies dressed up in clothes.
So sorry to rain on your parade self-proclaimed "Copyright Police", but good luck taking me to court or trying to prove anything.
But, thank you for the hate mail guys, my friends and I really had a good laugh !
. . . . . . . And, I admit, a bit of a cry as well ...
Units Converter enables you very easily and quickly
convert units between metric, imperial, and other units for
length, mass (weight), temperature, area, and many other
categories.
This program currently supports 328 units in 14 categories.
Units Converter
has actually been in development for over 14 years, (actually, it is the
unit conversion data that has been researched / collected for over 14 years),
but this is the very first public release of this program.
As a special tribute to Carl Henry's 1993 "Unicon" program
(which no longer exists on the internet, as far as I can tell),
I have decided to set aside nearly all of the units / conversions I have
painstakingly collected and researched over the last 14+ years, and instead use
the data file from Carl "Unicon" program, but with some fixes and
21 extra units / conversions and 4 additional unit categories.
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see
Units Converter (v1.0f)
Hope this new program is useful for someone out there ...
17-Nov-2014 ::
Sanitize Disk Space CL (v2.2f) - Windows Command Line version
Both enable you to select any writeable drive connected
to your PC, such as any USB thumb drive, external harddrives, network
drives, or any of your PC's harddrives or harddrive partitions,
and then sanitize the free / unused space on this drive.
Once sanitized (at a high sanitization level), the data in your
deleted files can never again be recovered, and no hacker - no
matter how clever - should ever be able to view any data contained
in your deleted files.
This processing should be highly desirable for anyone who is
selling or replacing their PC - especially if the PC contained
any sensitive or personal or confidential data.
The screen shot on the right shows the new Windows Command Line version in action - performing a "Level 2: Medium (3 pass)" sanitization of my PC's C:\ drive.
To download these program(s) or see screen shots or view the readme files for more information, see the web page for whichever version(s) you require:
Hope this new version is useful for someone out there ...
Also, update the readme text file for my
Sanitize Disk Space
- the Windows Graphical User Interface (GUI) version, to add in details about the new Windows Command Line version.
Sanitize Disk Space
enables you to select any writeable drive connected
to your PC, such as any USB thumb drive, external harddrives, network
drives, or any of your PC's harddrives or harddrive partitions,
and then sanitize the free / unused space on this drive.
Once sanitized (at a high sanitization level), the data in your
deleted files can never again be recovered, and no hacker - no
matter how clever - should ever be able to view any data contained
in your deleted files.
This processing should be highly desirable for anyone who is
selling or replacing their PC - especially if the PC contained
any sensitive or personal or confidential data.
Here are the changes for this 2.2f release:
Re-design the user interface - remove the tabbed control, etc - everything
is now on one screen / form.
Add a "Prepare for Drive Imaging (1 pass)" option, which is great
for when you want to back up or image a disk or hard-drive, because
it will minimise the size of any compressed backups.
Also, add a "Play Sound" checkbox. When this is ticked / checked,
Sanitize Disk Space will play a sound over and over again when all
disk sanitization processing has been completed. This is to alert
the user to the fact that processing has completed. The sound will
cease playing when the OK button is clicked.
Add a "Test Sound" button next to the "Play Sound" checkbox so you can hear the
sound and set your volume levels in Windows Volume Controls to suit your needs.
The user can check / uncheck the "Play Sound" checkbox and also click the
"Test Sound" button at any time - even during sanitization processing. So,
if you want to change the setting or check your volume levels you can at any time. :)
Change over to using my "Universal Progress Form" to display elapsed time, processing
speeds, estimated completion time, etc. This form is used across many of my programs.
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see
Sanitize Disk Space (v2.2f).
Hope this new version is useful for someone out there ...
Sag Calculator's help file is not perfect or complete.
Can you provide any information that will make the help file better, more informative, or more useful ?
If you answer "YES", please
email me
and let me know.
So, if you can help make Sag Calculator's HELP file any better, please
email me
and let me know.
Also, change a sagging
screen shot
from Series Dynamometer to the Sightboard method, which is used more commonly. And, add 2 screen shots to
Sag Calculator's Overview and Features
web page.
31-Oct-2014::
Web Site Re-Design and Massive Reduction / Re-Focus
Re-design and modernise my web site to make it sleek, clean, and professional.
Also, streamline the navigation (menu bar at the top, rather than a list of links down the left-hand side).
This is the 1st time that my web site has had a major face-lift since it first went live over 18 years ago, way-back in July, 1996.
So, this re-design work was certainly way, way, way overdue, and it is something I have been wanting to do for a long time.
Along with this re-design, I have greatly reduced the content on my web site, and I have also re-focused my web site on just my software, which really is what
Moose's Software Valley
is all about anyway.
As a result of this reduction and re-focusing, many sections and pages have been removed, including
the Arcade Emulation section, the Arcade Anecdotes section, the Apple 2 emulation section, the interesting Answering Machine Messages section,
the Links section, my Book and Software Reviews,
my analysis confirming that the Moon Landings really happened, the Renewable Energy section, the Campaign to Preserve section, and many others.
These deleted sections will probably never be brought back into Moose's Software Valley web site, but
they may re-surface on other web sites. If you want to access any of this deleted content, then please use web services such as
The Way Back Machine.
If people are arriving here via external links from the outside world, then these links might now point to web pages that no-longer exist.
I apologise for all such issues and any inconvenience this may cause.
If you want to access any of this deleted content, then please use web services such as
The Way Back Machine.
For anyone who does want to access deleted content or old content or even prior versions of Moose's Software Valley web site, here are some links for
The Way Back Machine
to get you started for the main places where Moose's web site was hosted: (valid at 31-Oct-2014)
To help people understand / manage the fact that many links / pages will no longer exist, I have also created a special
Error 404 page. (The Error 404 page will appear automatically if a required web link no longer exists).
I hope you like my new web page design.
If you have any comments or feedback about my new web page design, please
let me know !
Post Code Lookup
enables you to search on postcodes, locations,
and states / regions in your country to find the place name or
postcode for the locations you are interested in - all at the
click of a mouse button. This program comes complete
with Postcode data for: Australia (16,640 postcodes / locations),
New Zealand (2,219 postcodes / locations), and United Kingdom (27,195 postcodes / locations).
This new version has the following usability enhancements:
Add in the ability to copy the selected post code
line of data from the Search Results to Windows Clipboard in a
variety of formats by selecting an item in the Postcode Search
Results screen and then doing any of these:
Clicking the "Copy" button,
Selecting "Clipboard Copy" from the Right-mouse click popup menu, or
Using the ubiquitous Ctrl-C Windows shortcut.
Also tidy up the alignment of labels and data entry boxes on the main screen.
I use my
Post Code Lookup
program at least once per day,
and usually many times per day, and I have wanted to make these
usability enhancements for ages and finally found a spare 10 mins.
To download the program or see screen shots or view the readme file for more information, see
Post Code Lookup.
If anyone is actually using
Post Code Lookup
out there - Hellloooooooo ???? - then you might find this new version useful as well.
4-Oct-2014::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator Registration Form - Update to v2.41
2-Oct-2014::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator and Windows 10
I always like to try out and test out new versions of Windows well before they are released to make sure there aren't any issues with any of my software. I especially like to make absolutely sure that my
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator
is running fine under all x86 and x64 versions of Windows so that none of my registered users have any problems. If there are problems, then I will either fix them or find solutions / work-arounds to them.
Microsoft have just released a special pre-release of the next major version of their flag-ship Windows operating system, and they are skipping Windows 9 and going straight to Windows 10. The special pre-release version available is called the
Windows 10 Technical Preview. The full / retail version of Windows 10 probably wont be released for at least 6-12 months, but, like I said above, I like to get in early and test things out.
I've just downloaded the 64 bit version,
Windows 10 Technical Preview (64 bit),
and installed this in a
VirtualBox
virtual machine, and everything seems fine. There were just two *very* minor issues:
I had to run Sag Calculator's installer in Windows XP compatibility mode, otherwise an error dialog popped up saying that the Wise Installer file "UNWISE.EXE" could not be installed / created.
There is a gap at the bottom of Sag Calculator's main window - between the tabbed book and the status bar - which is very strange, but it shouldn't be to hard to resolve.
Both of these "issues" could be because this is such an early, pre-release version of Windows, or they could be because Microsoft have changed the way Windows works under-the-hood again. In any case, these "issues" are *very* minor and Sag Calculator is running and working fine under Windows 10. I will, of course, keep an eye on things over the coming months, and if there are any problems, I will either fix them or find solutions / work-arounds for them.
Oh, and what did I think of Windows 10 ?
Well, it's a strange beast, and the user interface is sort of cross between Windows 7 and Windows 8.
Will I be upgrading my main Windows 7 machine to Windows 10 ? Not for the foreseeable future !
8-Aug-2014::
HalfStoned .... a collectible game kinda like Hearthstone ....
I love developing software, and I'm usually either thinking of new programs / software to develop / write,
keeping a look out for things that might make great or useful programs,
or actually writing / developing software.
Very few of my programs "escape from the lab" onto my web page.
Most are just "for fun" little projects, or projects that are never developed far enough to be released for a variety of reasons (I may lose interest, the project may turn out to be "not as good" as I had originally thought, I may discover that someone else has already done the same thing, etc).
Over the past few months, I've been playing waaaayyyy too much
Hearthstone
(released by Blizzard in early 2014)
a deceptively simple but amazingly addictive and deeply strategic free, on-line, multi-player collectible card game. It's like a cross between cards and chess, but with infinitely more complexity, addictiveness, variations, and subtleties. The ideas behind Hearthstone are nothing knew. There are numerous card games from which Hearthstone has borrowed ideas, such as
Magic the Gathering (MTG)
(released by Wizards of the Coast in August 1993),
Shadow Era
(released by Wulven Games in 2012),
and various others.
Back in high school, friends and I used to play
Nuclear War
(a card game by Douglas Malewicki, originally published in 1965).
In fact many dozens of collectible card games (computer based and/or physical cards) exist, see
Wikipedia's List of collectible card games.
So, while the ideas behind Hearthstone are nothing new, Hearthstone focuses on just 2 things: card collection and combat, and it does these very well indeed. And it has a beautiful Graphical User Interface (GUI). Hearthstone is "free to play", and you can earn in-game currency by completing quests, etc which you can then use to buy card packs, buy access to add on adventures, etc. Or, you can use real money to buy in-game currency and card packs, which will give you an edge over "free to play" players and greatly accelerate your advancement in the game. I have read forum posts from players who have spent well in excess of $500 US on card packs, etc for the game !
If you haven't played
Hearthstone
or
Magic the Gathering (MTG)
yet, then PLEASE DON'T - they are both way too much fun and you will lose many hours every day playing them. You have been warned !
For the past few weeks, very much on the back burner, I have been developing my own "card game" engine, and I am currently using some of the names and stats of some of the cards included in the Hearthstone, purely for testing purposes. My version of the game is called "HalfStoned" ..... It's currently character based, so its user interface (UI) is an "ugly, black and white console screen". Ahhh, those were the daze ....
It's still very early days and mountains of work still needs to be done.
Here's a screen shot of the game so far:
My main aim is to get the engine working for all of the types of cards I want to support, and then when everything is working, worry about the UI and other things later.
I'm also thinking of porting my code to the
Apple ][
and maybe even the
C=64
and perhaps even other ancient computers so that users of these systems can play a turn based card game.
My game will also support *many* players in the one game - not just PvP (player vs player). So, for example, you will be able to have 2 Vs 2 battles, or 3 Vs 1, or 5 Vs 2, or whatever you like.
The only limit so far is screen real estate to display everything .... this issue will be reduced when I improve the user interface ....
NOTE: Needless to say, if I do release any version of this program to anyone else or onto my web page, then it will be FREEWARE and it will NEVER include *any* of Blizzard's card names, card stats, art, sounds, or anything else. I will develop my own cards with their own unique stats. If I need art or sounds then I may seek help from others who want to help with the project. The last thing I want to do is infringe anyone else's Intellectual property or Copyright or have any issues with Blizzard's lawyers or anyone else's lawyers ....
If you might be interested in helping me test my version of the game, or if you would like to contribute in any way (playing "over the internet" support, AI, card art, game sounds, etc) then please
email me.
If other programmers want to help me, then I will Open Source the game / code.
3-Aug-2014::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator Registration Form - Re-Update
I've also checked all links to the Registration Form and also checked the Registration Form in
the latest version of Sag Calculator (available only for Registered users) and
all of these are fine. The only issue was in the TRIAL version ....
Everything was fine, and people were emailing me and
registering Sag Calculator fine until a few weeks ago when Registrations
started going to my old email address (which no longer works), and this caused delays and confusion over the last few weeks.
I apologise for the confusion this has caused.
Special thanks to Raymond K for his patience and for bringing this to my attention.
14-May-2014 ::
Add an Astronomy Link - Special thanks to Kelly and the great kids at Morrow Community Center
Special thanks to the terrific kids at
Morrow Community Center
and especially to their amazing mentor Kelly.
Kelly emailed me recently and asked me to add the link because she and the kids she
mentors found it such a useful web site. Thanks to Kelly's inspirational email, and the great work
Morrow Community Center are doing,
I am more than happy to add the link.
2-May-2014 ::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator - The Survey Results are *IN*
Back on 20-Sep-2013, I emailed all registered users for my
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator
software and asked them what they wanted for the future:
Do they want an Android tablet version ? Do they want an iPad / iOS version ? A Linux version ? What else would they like ?
And, I placed an update on my web page about this:
just in case anyone had changed email addresses without updating me, or
a company's mail servers were blocking my emails,
etc.
I also placed several updates about my progress in exploring 2 tools that enabled me to
develop Android and/or iPad / iOS versions of my software:
and I left the survey OPEN for over SEVEN (7) months to give everyone *ample* opportunities
to see and respond to the survey.
And here are the results:
Android
Mac OSX
iOS / iPad
Linux
Total Votes:
4
2
7
0
If I count the one site license that I have sold for
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator
as "20 registered users", then there are currently 112 registered users for Sag Calculator.
(When the survey email was sent out on 20-Sep-2013, there were 107 registered users for Sag Calculator).
So, the above survey results figures represent *very* low demand for Android and/or
iPad tablet versions of Sag Calculator.
Tablets are terrific little machines, and they are great for games,
but they are not so brilliant for real work,
and it seems that few of the people who use Sag Calculator
(engineers in the field) are using tablets while they are sagging the actual cables.
And, I can certainly understand why this is the case. With the very low price of netbooks and laptop computers,
you get a hell of a lot more "bang for your buck" and a far more useful computing device,
a much bigger screen, more memory, far greater processing power, and a proper keyboard to boot.
Does this mean that there will never be an Android or iPad / iOS version of Sag Calculator ?
Certainly NOT ! I will continue to explore development options for these devices, and when the time is right,
when the necessary tools have matured sufficiently, I will certainly consider developing native
versions of Sag Calculator (and my other software) for these devices. However, my main priority, for now,
will be adding improvements and enhancements to Sag Calculator on the Windows platform.
Run Sag Calculator on a Tablet:
So if you need to run Sag Calculator on a tablet, you still have options:
Buy a Windows tablet and run Sag Calculator on this.
Or, buy an Android or IPad and:
Run Sag Calculator under emulation.
e.g. Bochs -> Windows 95 or 98.
Run Sag Calculator in a Virtual Machine.
e.g. Parallels, VirtualBox, etc and setup a Virtual Machine for Windows 95 or later.
Run Sag Calculator on a Mac:
Or if you need to run Sag Calculator on a Mac:
Run Sag Calculator under emulation.
e.g. Bochs -> Windows 95 or 98.
Run Sag Calculator in a Virtual Machine.
e.g. Parallels, VirtualBox, etc and setup a Virtual Machine for Windows 95 or later.
If you want to explore these further, use your favourite internet search engine and
you will quickly find loads of articles and tutorial / walk through videos on
YouTube.
2-May-2014 ::
Moose's Software Valley - Back Up Again
As you may have noticed, Moose's Software Valley has been down and out of action since Monday, 21 April 2014,
which what felt like an eternity (11 days). The company hosting my web page has been having extreme
difficulties lately behind the scenes.
Hopefully, they have now got their act together and there wont be any further
interruptions to their service, or I'll be looking for a new hosting
company pretty darn quick.
Anyway, happily Moose's Software Valley is finally back up again today. :)
12-Apr-2014 ::
Email Servers still REJECTING Registration Confirmation and Other Emails from Me
Just re-highlighting an issue that I have spoked about previously, where my emails are not getting through because they are being rejected by "over-zealous" company mail servers as SPAM.
This is still an ISSUE. Several of my emails to Sag Calculator Registered users have bounced today.
For the record, unless I am very ill and in hospital,
I check my email at least once per day (and usually several times a day) and
I respond to emails very quickly.
So, if you have not received a response to your email or your registration within 24 hours, then it is
almost certainly because your mail server is blocking or rejecting my email replies.
As I said in my updates below:
If you Register Sag Calculator or email me and don't receive a reply email within 24 hours,
then please email me from another email account - OUTSIDE OF YOUR COMPANY, such as
Gmail
or
Yahoo
or some other account
because it is *very likely* that *your* company's mail server has deleted or blocked my email replies.
Hope people see / read this, and don't sit there thinking "Geez, that Moose guy never checks or replies to his emails .... ". I am replying to your emails, honest. :)
Sanitize Disk Space
enables you to select any writable drive connected
to your PC, such as any USB thumb drive, external harddrives, network
drives, or any of your PC's harddrives or harddrive partitions,
and then sanitize the free / unused space on this drive.
Once sanitized (at a high sanitization level), the data in your
deleted files can never again be recovered, and no hacker - no
matter how clever - should ever be able to view any data contained
in your deleted files.
This processing should be highly desirable for anyone who is
selling or replacing their PC - especially if the PC contained
any sensitive or personal or confidential data.
Here are the changes for this 2.1f release:
When the program first starts up, refresh the currently selected
drive's statistics (displayed in the main window).
Fix an error in the calculation of MB/sec after processing has
been completed.
I noticed these very minor issues when sanitizing some drives yesterday.
Enjoy !
13-Dec-2013 ::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator - License Transfers = No !
13-Dec-2013 ::
Supaplex + For Sale = SOLD + Woo Hoo !!!
Back in 1995 and '96, friends and I frequently played a Mac game called Infotron -
we loved the game and played it every chance we got for ages (months).
Then, I found a PC version of the same game, called Supaplex, and played it even more.
This was almost 20 years ago now, and even though (by today's standards)
Supaplex is an "old DOS game", I still play the game occassionally on my Windows 7 PC
thanks to DOSBox.
Supaplex is one of my "holy grails" of gaming, and I have been searching usenet (user groups),
eBay, local second hand stores, "For Sale" ads on the internet, etc for many years so
that I could buy the game. Even though it was long ago released as Freeware,
I still wanted to own the original game.
Anyway, today, after many years of searching, I have finally purchased the game on eBay (with the original box !!).
I have been watching the game's auction since 2-Sep, but the price was rediculously high and the
seller refused to comment on condition or upload *any* photos. However, the price was finally reduced
to a more reasonable level, and I decided to hit the "Buy It Now" button before missing out forever.
Very excited !! I'll add more detail and perhaps even a review in the future ....
8-Dec-2013 ::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator - Customer Feedback and Testimonials
To protect privacy, the names of people and companies are *not* included / shown.
If you would like to add your feedback about Sag Calculator, please
email me.
25-Nov-2013 ::
Zip Password Cracker Pro News - People asking for access to old versions
When I checked my email this morning there were 7 emails from people requesting access
to the old v1.2f version of Zip Password Cracker Pro.
The ZIP file for this version of the program still exists on MediaFire (where I store all my ZIP files),
but it's status has been changed from PUBLIC to PRIVATE,
because it is an old version and no-one should be downloading it anymore.
The ONLY reason it is still on MediaFire is because I have started keeping old versions of programs
on there so I can see how many people have downloaded each version of my software.
For example, for v1.2f of Zip Password Cracker Pro, 126,740 people downloaded this program directly from my web site.
The real number of downloads is probably many times this, because the program is mirrored on many other web sites.
There are no links to v1.2f of Zip Password Cracker Pro anywhere on my web site.
However, people are still trying to download v1.2 of Zip Password Cracker Pro because there are still links to
it on other web sites and web forums, etc
that I did not create and that I do not have any control over, so I CANNOT update these out-of-date
links (and life is way too short for me to even try).
Anyway, please do NOT email me asking for access to v1.2f of Zip Password Cracker Pro
(or any other old versions or PRIVATE files), because they have been superceded by new versions which are
available here on my web site.
If you do email me requesting access to any old versions or PRIVATE files,
it is highly likely you will end up on my SPAMMERs list.
Screen Shot Machine,
or more simply
Screen Machine,
is a program that captures screen shots of
the full screen of your computer in action at 1 minute,
5 minute, or whatever intervals you choose.
This program might be useful for anyone who wants to
check what someone is doing / typing on your computer.
e.g. keep track of what your teenage kids or the computer
repair guy are doing while using the internet or any other
programs on your computer.
Here are the changes for this 1.2f release:
Fix some program behaviour: not minimising correctly some times
and popping up after taking screen shots and regressing to saved
settings under some conditions. Special thanks to Jerry P. for reporting
the issue.
Save images to JPG files rather than BMP files.
I selected BMP files originally because they are super fast
to generate and write to disk. JPG requires compression and
generating one visibly slowed the PC I was using down for a
split second way back when I wrote this program (in the early 2000's).
However, modern PCs / laptops / netbooks, etc can generate
many JPGs per second with barely a blip on the CPU's radar.
Here's how the sizes compare for 1280x1024 desktop screen shots:
BMP: 5,121 KB
JPG: 450 KB (varies depending on what is on the screen being captured)
At its core, Sudoku Solver Helper Trainer solves sudoku puzzles,
and it does this exactly how I personally solve the puzzles.
When I solve sudoku puzzles, I work out and write down the numbers that
can go into each row, column, 3x3 box on the paper next to the puzzle,
and then solve the puzzle based on this information. I wrote this
program to solve the puzzles exactly the way I do it.
However, this is only the start. Sudoku Solver Helper Trainer can do
*lots* more.
Sudoku Solver Helper Trainer provides functionality to:
Solve Sudoku puzzles. :)
Give you hints on the next best "move" you can make to solve a
puzzle (the program highlights the cell without giving you the answer).
Displays the numbers that still need to be placed in each row, column,
and 3x3 box, so you don't need to write this down and keep track
of this on paper. This makes solving puzzles *much* quicker and
easier, because my program does this tedious work for you !!
Solve the next cell / make the next move (the program highlights and
solves (fills in the answer) for the next best move).
Solve all cells / make all moves until the puzzle is solved or until
the puzzle is deemed "unsolvable".
Saves and loads puzzles to/from file (a bunch of puzzles are included
with the program to get you started).
Solves "unsolvable" puzzles by "Brute Force" methods. That is,
the program guesses a number and then tries to solve the rest of
the puzzle. If this doesn't work, then Sudoku Solver Helper Trainer
will back track, guess a different number at this cell or go to
another cell and try numbers and keep trying until the puzzle is solved.
NOTE: Some of the above functionality is only available in the FULL version.
See "TRIAL Vs FULL Version" and "TRIALware Information" in the
program's readme file.
Sudoku Solver Helper Trainer can help you and show you how to solve
sudoku puzzles so that you become better and faster at solving them
yourself. It sure helped me !
Screen Shot Machine,
or more simply
Screen Machine,
is a program that captures screen shots of
the full screen of your computer in action at 1 minute,
5 minute, or whatever intervals you choose.
This program might be useful for anyone who wants to
check what someone is doing / typing on your computer.
e.g. keep track of what your teenage kids or the computer
repair guy are doing while using the internet or any other
programs on your computer.
Here are the changes for this 1.1f release:
Fix the capturing of screen shots so that this program
works properly under Windows 7 and 8 (32 bit and 64 bit)
as well as all versions of Windows back to Windows 95.
Under Windows 7 and 8, only a black screen was being captured.
All fixed now. Special thanks to Jerry P. for reporting
the issue.
Prevent the form being rescaled (and text shrinking) when
"Capture Screen Now" button is clicked.
Remove a "Registered Version Only" label in the Settings tab.
Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries.
Update various sections in the Screen_Machine.txt file.
Zip Password Cracker Pro
enables you to generate
passwords and apply these to password protected
ZIP files. This can be an incredibly useful thing
to do when you have backed up data to a ZIP file
and mistyped or forgotten the password.
The program has many useful password generation features, and
also saves Restart information as it tests
passwords so that if the power fails, you switch off your PC,
your computer crashes, etc then this program can continue where
it left off at the click of a mouse button.
Here are the changes for this 1.4f release:
Change from a 3rd party Memo component, called TMemoEx,
back to the standard Delphi TMemo because TMemoEx refuses
to hold more than a few million short passwords. TMemoEx
was refusing to hold more than 3,663,901 four character
passwords. This is very strange, because I have been using
the TMomeEx component for many years and have never encountered
anything like this problem before. I searched for an updated /
fixed TMemoEx component but could not find one. This is a
shame because TMemoEx was a lot faster than TMemo.
Special thanks to Jerry P. for reporting this issue.
Display "Loading - Please wait ..." and "Pasting -
Please wait ..." messages when loading passwords or
pasting passwords (TMemo components are very slow
when loading / pasting millions of items).
I also found that TMemo components behave strangely and
data access speeds fluctuate wildly when they hold millions
of items. To get around this, I removed the check for
duplicates when generating passwords to keep the speed
the same as prior versions of this program.
For the Brute Force method, calculate and display the
number of passwords to be generated and display a progress
bar while generating passwords to give a nice visual
clue of progress.
Add "Known Issues / Known Limitations" to the Zip_Cracker.txt file.
Update various sections in the Zip_Cracker.txt file.
Enjoy !
23-Oct-2013 ::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator (v3.6) - Registered Users only
More specifically, this computer program calculates the sag of overhead conductors and earthwires
for transmission and distribution lines, enabling you to use a variety of methods to calculate
the sag, and also generate a report and save the data for virtually any number of spans and cables
within any number of projects.
This program is for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 and 8 (32 bit and 64 bit).
Changes for v3.6 of the program include :
When working in Imperial units, convert the Minimum and Maximum allowed temperatures to imperial as well (there was one place in my code where I had not done this). Special thanks to Scott C. and Jon G. for reporting this. (Ref: SAG_v3.6.1: Sagp.pas)
When working in Imperial units, convert the Minimum and Maximum allowed Span Length to imperial - there was one place where I had not done this. (Ref: SAG_v3.6.2: Sagp.pas)
Display the Units of Measure in the status bar at the bottom of the screen (along with the Theodolite setting, etc). (Ref: SAG_v3.6.3: Sagp.pas)
Update the status bar with the latest settings for Units of Measure and Theodolite when returning from the Settings Screen. (Ref: SAG_v3.6.4: Sagp.pas)
Correct the spelling of "Traveling" (it's not "Travelling" - d'oh). (Ref: SAG_v3.6.5: sag help, MainForm1 of sagp.pas)
Tension fields (Series Dynomometer, Shunt Dynomometer, etc) use large force units (e.g. KN not N when metric), so use SAGUC__Force for checking instead of SAGUC__Small_Force. (Ref: SAG_v3.6.6: Sagp.pas)
Fix an issue with multiple Metric <-> Imperial changes. e.g. If you changed Settings from Metric -> Imperial and exit back to the main screen, and then go back to Settings and change from Imperial -> Metric, the values on the main screen did not change back to Metric. (Ref: SAG_v3.6.7: sagp.pas)
Force Fields uses small force units (e.g. N when metric), so use SAGUC__Small_Force for checking instead of SAGUC__Force. (Ref: SAG_v3.6.8: Sagp.pas)
Change to an Excel spreadsheet for the Registration Form (from a Rich Text File, RTF). This change was made to the TRIAL version a few months ago, and it isn't really needed for the FULL version (because people have already registered by then), but here it is just in case someone wants to buy more licenses for more users, upgrade, etc. (Ref: SAG_v3.6.9: Sagp.pas, Register_sag.xls)
This is a FREE upgrade for all registered users of version 3.x of the program.
(I have emailed this latest version of the program out to all registered users).
For new users, or users who have not yet upgraded to v3.x, pricing, upgrade costs, and all other details are
available here.
If any new or existing users have any comments or questions, or would like to place
an order for this upgrade, then please
Email me. I highly recommend you download and trial the program and
ensure that it does exactly what you want before you buy. :)
NOTE: At 2:30 PM on Wednesday, 23-Oct-2013, I emailed all Registered users with FREE upgrades to
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator v3.6,
and told everyone about the changes / updates to the program.
Sadly, the email addresses I have for some registered users are no longer working / valid,
so my email to them bounced. If you did not get the email, the please forward a
valid contact email to me and I will update your details and make sure you get all update
emails from now on. :)
Zip Password Cracker Pro
enables you to generate
passwords and apply these to password protected
ZIP files. This can be an incredibly useful thing
to do when you have backed up data to a ZIP file
and mistyped or forgotten the password.
The program has many useful password generation features, and
also saves Restart information as it tests
passwords so that if the power fails, you switch off your PC,
your computer crashes, etc then this program can continue where
it left off at the click of a mouse button.
Here are the changes for this 1.3f release:
Fix the display of passwords containing the
ampersand "&" character. Prior to this fix,
ampersands were being interpreted in the
success dialog as "underline the next character".
Special thanks to Jerry P. for reporting this.
Add checking to make sure the selected ZIP file is a standard ZIP
and that it can be decrypted by the UnzDll.Dll I am using.
Special thanks to Jerry P. for reporting this.
Always check for blank / no password before doing
any other password checking.
If the password is found, display it in a box
in the bottom right hand corner and display a
"Copy to Clipboard" button next to this to
make it easy for the user to obtain the password.
Display a progress bar while checking passwords
to give a nice visual clue of progress.
Add a "Display ZIP Information" button next to
ZIP File name to display basic information about
the ZIP file (this is all available information
from the DLL I am using), and estimate whether the
ZIP format / encryption method is standard and whether
the password can be cracked or not.
All the DLL seems to return is "ErrorCode 8" if it
doesn't recognise the ZIP format or encryption method
(and this ErrorCode is not mentioned at all in the
Help File for the DLL or the ZIP component).
So, all I can do is check for "ErrorCode 8".
Update to the very latest version of UnzDll.Dll
I can find. It is v173 and dated 15-Jul-2003, obtained
from the "compressit.zip" file from Torry's Delphi Pages:
http://www.torry.net/pages.php?id=300.
I will continue to explore other / more up-to-date
ZIP components, but no guarantees. (Exploring each
one is many hours of work and many seem to have issues,
most seem to be a nightmare to install / get working,
and few seem to have help files associated with them).
Check the version of UnzDll.Dll is the correct / expected one
before trying to crack any passwords.
Add extra items to and update the FAQ and text file accompnaying the program.
Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries.
Add in the requirement for a second email address:
Email Address #2: Please provide a second email address that is OUTSIDE of your company. If your company's email server blocks or rejects the Registration Confirmation or any other emails that I send - and this is happening increasingly often - then I will use this second email address for email correspondence. If you don't supply a second email address, and your company blocks my emails, then you will have to find some other way to contact me. e.g. create a GMail or Yahoo email account and email me from this.
Add notes about what to do
if you Register Sag Calculator or email me and don't receive a reply email within 24 hours:
If you Register Sag Calculator or send me an email and don't receive a reply within 24 hours, then please email me from another email account - OUTSIDE OF YOUR COMPANY, such as a GMail or Yahoo or some other account, because it is very likely that your company has deleted or blocked my email replies.
Add formatting to dates and credit card numbers
to make it easier to tell if you have entered the right number of digits.
The form now also caters for major version upgrades (minor version upgrades are free).
e.g. if you register Sag Calculator v3.2 then all version 3.x upgrades are free.
So, for example, Sag Calculator v3.3, v3.4, v3.5, etc are all free.
However, when Sag Calculator v4 is released, then you will need to pay an upgrade fee
to access this latest version of the program. Once the upgrade fee has been paid, all v4.x of
the program will be free upgrades. So, for example, v4.1, v4.2, etc would then be free upgrades.
The Registration Form now handles this.
NOTE:
As I said below
the development / release of an Android, iOS, etc version of Sag Calculator will
change how upgrades and purchases work -
but exactly how things will work is still to be determined
(it all depends on projected sales, how much work is involved, etc).
1-Oct-2013 ::
Email Servers REJECTING Registration Confirmation and Other Emails from Me
Way, way, way too many of my emails are being blocked and rejected by company mail servers.
And this problem seems to be getting worse !
I have just spent several hours trying to send a simple Registration Confirmation
email to a person who registered Sag Calculator today, and I still have not succeeded in getting
the email delivered to them - their email server keeps rejecting ALL of my emails as SPAM
even though I have used multiple email accounts from multiple email providers (Yahoo, GMail, and HotMail).
NONE OF MY EMAILS GOT THROUGH. Their company email server REJECTED them all.
I cannot begin to tell you how frustrating this has been. I have *much* better ways to spend my time
than trying to get round mail servers who had their security settings wound-up way too tight.
For the record, unless I am very ill and in hospital,
I check my email at least once per day (and usually several times a day) and
I respond to emails very quickly.
So, if you have not received a response to your email or your registration, then it is
almost certainly because your mail server is blocking or rejecting my email replies.
So, here's the New Rule from now on:
If you Register Sag Calculator or email me and don't receive a reply email within 24 hours,
then please email me from another email account - OUTSIDE OF YOUR COMPANY, such as
Gmail
or
Yahoo
or some other account
because it is *very likely* that *your* company's mail server has deleted or blocked my email replies.
I am also going to change Sag Calculator's Registration Form to require at
least two email addresses - at least one must be outside of your company
so that this nightmare can't happen again.
They have also provided instructions for fixing the PLATFORM variable issue and
getting Delphi XE5 to see the Galaxy Tab 3.
I really appreciate their fast and helpful replies and their professional service.
And, I sure look forward to trying out the new version of Delphi XE5 ! :)
25-Sep-2013 ::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator - Training Videos
Add a new "Downloading the Training Videos to your Computer" section to the
Training Videos web page for
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator.
This page provides lots of advice and links to enable you to download the videos quickly and
easily to your computer, desktop, laptop, or mobile device (Android, iOS, etc).
NOTE: access to Training Videos web page is restricted to Registered Users who purchase
the training videos package.
Disk Space Logger enables you to quickly and easily keep track of
the amount of free disk space on a particular drive in or attached
to your machine.
I wrote this program on 23-Sep-2013 to keep track of the free
disk space used by a *very* badly behaved installer, which said
it needed 3,288 MB, when in reality it needed more than 11 GB.
I wanted to log the disk space used so that I could provide
information to the developers of the product so that they could
fix their installer.
This program would be useful for anyone maintaining installers.
And for anyone who wants to keep a log of disk space usage
on their computer while it is performing various tasks,
for whatever reasons they may have.
OK I'm not giving up ! I am determined to install this software, despite its best efforts to frustrate and thwart me. It's 9:30 AM, and I'm going to do it today.
Today I setup a new Windows XP SP3 install in VirtualBox, with lots of free disk space.
After installing all Windows Updates (so everything is 100% right up-to-date), and copying over all the Delphi XE5 install files to
My Documents, I had 35.4 GB of free disk space.
This Windows XP VM has 2 x CPUs and 1 GB RAM.
Delphi XE5 says 3,288 MB of disk space is required (that's non-sense as we have well and
truly already seen), and that there is 36,002 MB of free disk space (35.4 GB).
After starting the Delphi XE5 installer, I started watching the free disk space in Windows Explorer, and then I thought
"darn, I wish I had a program to log the min, avg, and max free disk space for me". So, as I always do,
I scooted over to my Delphi development VM and knocked together a quick program to do this and copied it back to my Delphi XE5 VM and ran it.
My Disk Usage Logger program logged the lowest disk space usage at 24,702 MB.
At the start of install, (before I had written let alone run my Disk Usage Logger program) there was: 36,002 MB of disk space.
So, Delphi XE5 required 11,301 MB of disk space to install. This is a lot different to the 3,288 MB claimed on the install screen.
NOTE: I will probably release my Disk Usage Logger program here when I get a chance, because it sure
is useful and I can think of lots of reasons why it might be useful to others. It will be free-ware of course.
After finishing the install and exiting the installer, I had 24.4 GB of free disk space.
Phew, it's now 11:55 AM and after more than a dozen hours of pain and frustration
(see yesterday),
I had finally managed to install Delphi XE5. Woo hoo !
As for the installer issues, I can understand how these things happen. Developers are focused on fixing / enhancing their product (and rightly so),
and the installer is not given much focus. It's easy to let this happen. Years go by, additions are added to your program
(Android development, etc), and no-one quite gets round to updating / checking the installer.
However, from a customer perspective, the installer is a very important part of your product.
It is the first thing they interact with. Before they can use / trial your product,
they need to deal with your installer, so the installer is *very* important.
A bad installer can kill sales for your product.
If I wasn't a glutton for punishment, I would have given up yesterday and deleted Delphi XE5 from my system and would never have considered buying it.
In fact, I could easily have added Embarcadero products to my "damned list" and never tried or purchased anything from them again.
I could have easily turned into an enemy of their company, and told others to stay the hell away from their products.
Yes, I have been so frustrated by their installer many times over the last 2 days that I was ready to delete it, but I hate to be beaten.
In 33+ years of programming and using computers, I have never let any software beat me, and I was not going to start now.
OK, onto building my first "Hello World" application.
I watched the first 2 videos (provided with Delphi XE5) and then had a go at creating my own hello world while I watched the videos again in a
window side by side to where I was working. It's very diferent enironment to Delphi v5.
And, the guy doing the demos was very fast, and I had no idea where he got a button or edit box from -
they just appeared like magic. I soon figured it out (tools on right, expand, and search and select item).
I then could not figure out how to get back from the code to the design view, but
then I also soon figured that out as well (the tiny tabs at the bottom).
It would be good to have a "start at the basics" video (and place this as the first video)
to show people the basics like "how to move between code and design views", etc.
OK, after figuring this out, I was up and running within seconds. I had compiled my first "Hello World" application, and
had built separate EXEs for both Windows 32 and 64 bit. Easy peasy ! Now, onto Android.
Straight away I hit a problem: not enough memory for the Android emulator.
Really the installer should have warned me that I needed 2 GB to run Delphi XE5.
Anyway, I exited my VM and doubled the memory available to
it from 1 to 2 GB. Re-load the VM. Now, I could compile for Android and load the Android emulator,
but nothing I did could make my app appear on the Android emulator.
I just could not find it anywhere. I saved everything, rebooted my VM, re-compiled and tried again and again.
No luck. My app was nowhere in the Andoird emulator. Bastard !
OK, time for Plan B. I grabbed my friend's brand new Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 and hooked it up to the USB port.
Drivers installed.
Windows Explorer can see the Galaxy Tab in Windows Explorer and explore the file / directory structure, etc.
Great stuff Windows XP - you're a legend !!!
However, no matter what I did, Delphi XE5 would not see the device or add it to the list of devices.
I rebooted the VM and tried again. No luck. Bugger !
OK, now for iOS and Mac OSX. Tried both of these out, but even the iOS simulator doesn't work unless you have a Mac connected to the PC. Damn !
OK, I was now going to do something that I never do. I was going to install new application software on my host PC -
the desktop machine I run my VM's on. This machine is a bit of a beast:
HP Z220 Workstation, Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, Core i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), 200 GB SSD, 2 TB HDD, 16 GB RAM,
ATI FirePro V Graphics Adapter with 1 GB RAM, etc.
So, off I go to install Delphi XE5 on this machine ....
OK, that's done (and much faster than for a VM).
Copy over my project, load Delphi XE5, try to open Target for Android devices
and there is nothing there - not even the Android emulator.
Plug in the Galaxy Tab 3 in the USB, and refresh a few times,
and it still does not appear.
Windows can see the Galaxy Tab in Windows Explorer and I can explore the file / directory structure, etc.
But Delphi XE5 refuses to see it.
Exit Delphi XE5 and try again - still no Android Emulator or Galaxy Tab or any other Android device available.
Unplug the Galaxy Tab 3 and reconnect. Still nothing. Try again, still nothing. Bollocks !
Things definitely are NOT as straight forward or as easy as the guy shows in the video !! :(
Reboot PC. Reload Delphi XE5 - still no Android devices showing up in the target !
Log off and login as Admin user. Reload Delphi XE5 - still no Android devices or the
Android Emulator showing up in the target !
Erase Android from the targets and re-add it - still no Android devices or
the Android Emulator showing up in the target !
And, when I select Android and compile I get these messages:
Checking project dependencies...
Compiling X01__Hello_World_Mobile.dproj (Debug, Android)
[Error Error] Invalid PLATFORM variable "BWS". PLATFORM must be one of the following: "Win32", "Win64", "Android", "iOSSimulator", "iOSDevice", or "OSX32". If PLATFORM is defined by your system's environment, it must be overridden in the RAD Studio IDE or passed explicitly on the command line to MSBuild; e.g., /p:Platform=Win32.
Failed
Elapsed time: 00:00:00.0
Something is wrong.
Probably because no devices listed under Android -> Target ....
If it is an "environment variable" problem, then why aren't the environment variables set-up correctly ?
Surely the installer should have set and checked these ?
The error doesn't really make a lot of sense.
Clicking F1 to view help for this error yields no useful information and no hints on how to fix it.
And that's it ..... I've hit a wall .... What an ordeal ....
Against impossible odds and in the face of horrendous issues, I have made a super human effort.
I have managed to actually install and run this cantankerous and extremely complex product.
However, I have now hit a wall. I cannot compile for Android at all. Nor can I compile for iOS or Mac OSX until I buy a Mac.
Until I buy a Mac or until Embacadero fix the Android stuff, all further experimentation is on hold with Delphi XE5.
If the Android stuff was working properly - like they show in the video - then I would bite the bullet and buy a Mac.
However, the Android stuff doesn't work, so how on earth could I trust them to have the Mac stuff working ???
Besed on my experiences so far, here's my rating of Delphi XE5:
Installer: 1/10
Delphi XE5: 5/10
Android Development: 0/10
Mac / iOS Development: ??? / 10
Anyway, another long day of work and not much to show for it .... But it is still early days ! :)
Yeah, right Moose, keep telling youself that until you believe it ;)
UPDATE:
I have emailed
Embacadero
and have also contacted them via the
Contact Us form
and the
Contact Sales form
on their web site and I have described all of the above issues to them in great detail
so that they know all about these issues and can fix them and make their product even better.
22-Sep-2013 ::
Embarcadero Delphi XE5 - Day 01 - Start Time: 12:30 PM, End Time: 9:35 PM
Because things weren't working out very well with
Lazarus Free Pascal,
I decided to check out a product from the other end of the spectrum. A very expensive product called
Embarcadero Delphi XE5,
or just Delphi XE5 from now on. Embarcadero are the company that purchased Delphi
(click here for details)
back in 2008.
The cheapest version of Delphi XE5 is $1,299 AUD (AUD = Australian Dollars), and to develop for mobile devices,
this needs a $649 AUD add-on mobility pack. So, to get started with mobile development, I would need to spend about $1,950 AUD.
That's quite a large chunk of change.
To develop for Mac OSX or iOS (iPad), I would need to also buy a Mac. Another large chunk of change ...
Delphi XE5 looks very slick and polished in the videos and screen shots I have seen.
I have been wanting to try out this product for a while ....
And, with my desire to develop a version of Sag Calculator for Android and hopefully
(if all goes well) iOS and Mac OSX as well, now was the time.
Based on the videos on Embarcadero's web site, it looked like I would be effortlessly
developing and releasing mobile applications
for Android and other devices in no time at all. It all looked so easy, so effortless, so straight forward.
So, I visited
Embarcadero's web site,
found the installer, and after filling out some forms, creating an account, etc,
I bit the bullet and downloaded the installer for Delphi XE5, which clocked in at a reasonable 119 MB.
A few notes before we go on: I use Virtual Machines (VMs) in a product called
VirtualBox
for everything. VirtualBox is similar to VMWare, Virtual PC, and Parallels,
and provides the ability to run multiple operating systems
at once, each in their own separate, protected, virtual environment.
My Delphi development environment and all of the tools I need to develop and release
my Delphi programs (Delphi v5, Help Compiler, WISE Installation System, etc) are
all contained in one VM, locked up with strong security measures.
I use other VMs for other things, such as testing the software I develop and
release across multiple versions of Windows.
I also have separate VMs for each version of Windows from Windows 1 to Windows 8, and
for a dozen flavours of Linux, and for exotic OS's (such as BeOS), and
all major versions of MS-DOS from v1.x to 7.x.
By using VM's, you can run dozens of operating systems in
complete isolation, or with network, clipboard, etc connections if you prefer,
all on a single PC, and all at the click of a mouse button.
VMs allow you to isolate and protect your various operating system installations.
The machine I use to host these VMs and the various VMs themselves
are locked up tight with lots of anti-virus and security software.
Nothing gets near my machines without going through exhaustive
checking. I cannot risk any of my machines ever becoming infected with a virus or malware
and then accidentally distributing that
virus to others in the software I distribute.
So, I am super paranoid about security.
I also have other throw-away or "scratch" VMs which I use to test out and monitor
3rd party software to make sure it is OK before
trusting it enough to install it in any of my other VMs.
I also virus scan everything against 42+ virus and malware scanners
(thanks to indispensible web services like
VirusTotal
and
Jotti's Malware Scan
)
and do lots of other checking and monitoring
before allowing anything anywhere near my machines or core VMs.
It might sound complex, but it's the price I pay to ensure that I am never infected
with any viruses, spyware, malware, or any other nasty software.
Anyway, at 12:30 PM, I copied the Delphi XE5 installer into a scratch Windows XP VM
(so it could be installed in complete isolation
from everything else) and kicked off the installer. My Windows XP VM had 4.0 GB free,
which was ample (the installer said it
needed 3,288 MB = 3.2 GB of free disk space). 4.0 GB free was close, but 700 MB extra
should be fine. I mean, an installer
wouldn't lie would it ? Ahh, if only I knew the hell waiting for me ......
I was installing Delphi XE5 in a Windows XP VM under VirtualBox so I could give it a test out and trial well away from my main
source code and development environments. There's no way I will ever allow strange software to install anywhere near my main
development environments. Hence the VM.
After going through the initial installer screens, entering my name, the serial number, etc, the installer started doing its job.
But, to my horror, the installer started downloading many 100's of MB of files from the internet, and it did NOT ask me or even
warn me that this was going to happen, it just went ahead and did it.
For example, here are some of the files it downloaded:
3 MB for Microsoft J#
100 MB of videos
366 MB for Android_NDK_X86
424 MB for Android_SDK_X86
17 MB for fdcdall
52 MB for androidcore
34 MB for coremobile
33 MB for coreios
9 MB for fmxcore
36 MB for coreosx32
64 MB for core64
32 MB for core
11 MB for corez
And no doubt many 100's of MB for other stuff I missed (I was doing other things while the install was going on, so
I only saw a small part of the downloading).
I found out later that it downloaded more than 1.8 GB of additional files for the installation process.
All without telling me or warning me ! This really is incredibly poor behaviour !
And the entire time it is doing this, it does not tell you how much more it is going to download. Is this current item the last thing ?
God I hope so. But I have no idea ! Are the progress bars for downloads or installation progress ? I have no idea, the installer does not say.
I really hate this sort of thing. Installers should make it very clear what they are going to do, especially if they need to reach out
across the internet and download and install 100's of MB of other things.
STRIKE 1 !
An installer should contain everything needed.
Or, at the very least, tell you what it is going to do.
Better yet, it should give you the option to download the stuff yourself and use this when you do the install,
so that you can control the downloads and keep an eye on what is being put on your machine.
I virus scan everything against 42+ virus and malware scanners
(thanks to indispensible web services like
VirusTotal
and
Jotti's Malware Scan
)
and do lots of other checking and monitoring
before allowing anything anywhere near my machines or core VMs.
If an installer downloads and install stuff without my involvement, then it
can bypass all of my checks and security. Not acceptable !
STRIKE 2 !
While it was downloading all this stuff, I was wondering: Where has all of this stuff been put ? What if I need to install on another PC ?
Do I need to download all of this stuff all over again ?
Is it going to delete all the downloads at the end, before I get a chance to back them up so they don't need to be downloaded again if I need to install again or,
if the installer fails or bombs out for some reason ?
I had no idea. The installer does not provide any information about this.
STRIKE 3 !
Anyway, the installer chugged away for more than an hour, and then less than half-way through the installation process, it stopped.
Windows had been popping up "low disk space" warnings for a while, and then I ran out of free disk space 27% into installing the "corewin32" component.
Oh dear .... how could this happen when the installer said it needed 3.2 GB of free disk space and I had 4.0 GB ??
I had not received any disk space warnings at the start of the install. Indeed, the installer said everything was fine at the start.
I freed up some more disk space in the VM - but the install would not recognise this or continue. It gave me NO ERROR messages at all.
It just stopped doing anything. The green dots at the bottom right hand corner of the installer keep flashing across, but nothing was happening.
An installer should be able to pause / resume / retry if there is any problems, especially if the process is long or involved (longer than a few minutes say).
Any installer that is going to download many 100's of MB of stuff from the internet MUST do this.
This installer didn't. It just froze-up with the running green dots at the bottom of the screen.
STRIKE 4 !
That's it, this software should be "out" by now.
But I could not give up yet, even though I was becoming furious and very pissed off.
I was right on the verge of deleting Delphi XE5 and its installation files off my computer
and sending Embarcadero an angry email my
experiences and telling them "I will never try, use, or buy any products from Embarcadero".
But, I'm a developer well used to dealing with the occasional badly behaved and cantankerous product,
and I am certainly a glutton for punishment and
I do enjoy a challenge. And, I refuse to ever let anything beat me. So I persevered ....
After waiting about 2 hours for the install to "right itself" or do something, I clicked the Cancel button and got this message
"Unable to extract installation data downloaded from the web".
A more appropriate message would have been "insufficient disk space".
Shame there was no pause / resume / retry option. Also a shame it just hung there,
stupidly twiddling its thumbs for 2 hours, keeping me guessing
if it was going to continue or not.
After the above error message, the installer exited. I checked disk space, and there was still none left.
The installer did not clean up after itself and remove the partially installed files before quitting.
STRIKE 5 !
So, I freed up another 2.1 GB more of disk space on the VM, and bit the bullet and double clicked on the installer again, just to see what would happen.
The -1+TB (yes negative) of remaining disk space was a worry (clearly, they haven't used large enough integers in disk space calculations in their
installer).
STRIKE 6 !
Anyway, after navigating the screens at the start of the installation again,
I was very happy to see that the partial download install was found
and recognised in this directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\Moose\My Documents\Rad_Studio_XE5_Downloads
So, now I know where everything is hidden during install, I am much happier !
BATTER GETS TO FIRST BASE !
To be honest, I would be a lot happier downloading an ISO of the installer and all of the required files - then I know what I'm up for before I start.
Suggestion to Embarcadero: please provide such an ISO on your web site for people like me, who want to know what they are up for before they start.
However, the installer bombed out again straight away with "Not enough disk space". The installer did not take into account that 2+ GB of components
that had already been downloaded and partially installed. It did not realise that these could be removed from the disk space requirements calculations.
STRIKE 7 !
OK, freeing up more disk space. Uninstall OpenOffice and Adobe Acrobat and others from the VM, and delete all temporary internet files, etc.
Super, I've now got 3.5 GB free space - lovely !
(So, in effect this machine really had 4.0 GB + 2.1 GB + 3.5 GB = 9.6 GB
free at the start of the installation - taking into account the space the installer and it's files used up).
Installation checks passed again, so there's plenty of disk space, and soon
I'm resuming the downloads where they left off. Nothing can go wrong now. Oh, how wrong I was .....
Whoops, spoke too soon ran out of disk space again. Delphi XE5's installer has been using loads of
disk space for these abortive installs and not cleaning up after itself when it bombs out.
And, pretty soon, it ran out of disk space again. All 9.6 GB had been used up ....
the rotten installer claimed it only needed 3.2 GB to do the install.
STRIKE 8 !
An installer should clean up after itself if it bombs out for any reason, or at least,
there should be a way to delete the partially installed files and reclaim the disk space.
Better yet, it should allow you to resume the install, especially for installations that
take an hours (like this one).
I checked Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs, and "Embarcadero RAD Studio XE5" was not listed, nor were any of Embarcadero's products, nor were any
of the files / tools / products Embarcadero's installer had downloaded and installed. I also ran CCleaner to see if it could find and delete the remnant files.
it couldn't. I checke the usual temporary files areas - nothing.
I had no easy way to recover the used disk space, without carefully scouring the
disk image to try and find where stuff had been placed.
Would be 10x easier to delete the VM's hard-disk and recreate it.
STRIKE 9 !
In the end, after uninstalling everything left on the VM (Bad Piggies, Laewoo Video Converter, and
loads of other things, etc), I still could not get back more than 1 GB of extra free disk space.
Hours and hours of pain and frustration !
But, I'm not giving up !!!
So, I changed to another Windows XP VM I had set up - and this one had 10.4 GB of free disk space !
Way more than I needed.
So I copied over the Rad_Studio_XE5_Downloads directory (2.02 GB) into My Documents and started
the installer again with 8.4 GB of free disk space
(more than 2.5 x what the installer claimed it needed).
After a couple of hours of the installation running, there was now less than 100 MB left,
and Windows Low Disk Space warnings were popping up.
Soon, all the free disk space was gone and the install bombed with a
"Can't extract unpack.dll" error message and then when I click OK,
I got an
"Unable to create temporary file. Setup Aborted. Error 112: There is not enough space on the disk"
error message.
Clearly the disk space requirements displayed at the start of the installation are *WAY* out.
You need at least 11 GB of free disk space
(I would recommend 15 GB or more) before the downloads and install has any chance of being successful.
STRIKE 10 !
For Moore's sake. It is now 9:35 PM at night, and I have been trying to install this pile of rubbish for over 9 hours (started at 12:30 PM).
What a nightmare. Whoever develops / maintains the installer need a darn good kick in the nuts for foisting this rubbish on an unsuspecting public.
After clicking OK on the error message, an "Installation Successful" screen was displayed.
What the .... ????
It was displayed, even though the install was NOT successful.
Somehow, the installer completed just enough for it to think it had been successful.
If I tried to run / use Delphi XE5 now, who knows what strange behaviour and bugs I might have encountered ?
If an installation fails, then the installer should recognise this, and not display "success" screens.
STRIKE 11 !
I checked Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs again, and it now listed "Embarcadero RAD Studio XE5" and suggested it used 2,790 MB of disk space.
Windows Explorer reports 151 MB of free disk space. I started with 10.4 GB less 2.02 GB for the install files, so I had 8.4 GB of free disk space
at the start. If Delphi XE5 only uses 2,790 MB of disk space, where on earth has the other 5.5+ GB gone ? It was there when I started the install
and now it is gone apparently.
STRIKE 12 !
So, I went ahead an uninstalled Delphi XE5. After the uninstall finished, I deleted the Rad_Studio_XE5_Downloads.
I was expecting to see the original 10.4 GB of free disk space, but there was only 8.65 GB free. There's almost 2 GB missing.
I ran CCleaner on the VM and it could not recover the missing disk space, and the space wasn't in temporary files.
Delphi XE5 had NOT cleaned up after itself when it was uninstalled.
STRIKE 13 !
By now, I was furious and angry, but it was time to call it a day. What would I do tomorrow ?
Would I let this badly behaved software beat me ? Would I admit defeat ?
Would I give up and find a product that actually worked ?
Or, would I continue my trip through hell ? Stay tuned for the next episode ! ;)
Anyway, another long day of work and not much to show for it .... But it is still early days ! :)
UPDATE:
I have emailed
Embacadero
and have also contacted them via the
Contact Us form
and the
Contact Sales form
on their web site and I have described all of the above issues to them in great detail
so that they know all about these issues and can fix them and make their product even better.
20+21-Sep-2013 :: Lazarus Free Pascal - Day 01 and 02
Note: this post is part of a series of related posts. Before reading this post you should
skip to the very first post
and read the series of posts back up the page in order.
OK, I am starting to look into developing at least an Android version of
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator,
and am starting my search for
a suitable development tool by downloading and installing
Lazarus Free Pascal.
Lazarus is a Delphi compatible cross-platform IDE for Rapid Application Development, and it is now starting to support cross-platform Android Development.
And, the great thing about it is that it is totally FREE !!
Yep, it doesn't cost a cent. Although I would, of course, make decent periodic donations to the
developers to support their work if I ever used it for any commercial projects.
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator
is written in Delphi v5 (a language based on Pascal), so it sure makes sense (and will save an enormous amount of time and work and money)
finding a tool that allows me to use my existing code base to produce Android applications and
hopefully others (like Mac OSX and iOS) in the future.
The last version of Borland Delphi I purchased (and the version I still use) is Delphi v5, which was released way back in 1999.
And it is this version that I still use for all of my Delphi development. It does everything I need, and I know it like the back of my hand.
It feels like a comfortable old pair of shoes. So why change ?
However, if I am going to develop a version of
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator
for Android and perhaps other mobile environments, then I need to find a new, more up-to-date tool. Delphi v5 has no idea about Android or iOS or iPads.
A version of Delphi (called "Kylix") was released for Linux, but that died after 3 versions - not enough people purchased it.
If development of Kylix had continued, it would probably have been a great environment for developing applications for Android and iOS and Mac OSX.
So far, I have spent about 2 days evaluating and exploring
Lazarus Free Pascal.
It installed really easily, and I managed to create simple "Hello World" programs very easily, and it all looks nice and flash, and works really well.
However, it's not all plain sailing. I ran into serious problems when converting simple applications that I had developed with Delphi v5.
If it cannot convert my simplest Delphi v5 applications, then it cannot convert Sag Calculator, and I'd
be left converting my code to the Lazarus environment by hand - an enormous amount of work.
You can read about some of my issues so far (further exploration work is still underway) in these forum posts (Note: my user name is "I_Love_Pascal" on these forums):
And, I still have not had a chance to try out any Android development using Lazarus.
I will need to install a bunch of other stuff and proceed a lot further before I can even start to attempt this.
2 long days of work and not much to show for it .... But it is still early days ! :)
20-Sep-2013 ::
Sag Calculator v4.0 ... ANDROID ?? Apple iOS ?? Let me know what you want !
Over the last 6-8 weeks or so on a part-time basis,
I have started work on Sag Calculator v4.0, which features
major changes and improvements, such as:
Converted the WinHelp file to more modern Compressed HTML Help (CHM) format.
Totally revamping / re-writing large portions of the on-line help and updating all screen shots.
Ability to delete data, such as sags, spans, combinations, cable bundles, structures, etc.
"Check for Updates" and similar functionality to keep registered users of
Sag Calculator informed and up-to-date, even if their email address changes / no longer works.
Added in loads of usability and other enhancements.
An enormous amount of work and testing still has to be done.
e.g. The changes require a whole new data file format, and this means I need to
develop a converter for people to upgrade their Sag Calculator v3.x project files to v4.x format.
NOTE: Sag Calculator v4.0 will not be ready for release for many months.
If there is anything you want changed or added in Sag Calculator, then now is the perfect time to
email me and let me know. :)
Anything is possible !
e.g. New reports, data extraction functionality (to enable you to export Sag data to
spreadsheet and generate your own reports, etc), and so on. You decide !
There is also the distinct possibility of an ANDROID version of Sag Calculator, for running on Android Tablets and devices.
Only one person has asked me about this (and it was very recently). Would you like this ?
Let me know. :)
If I am doing an ANDROID version, I might also do an Apple iOS version
for users with Apple iPad and similar devices.
Only one person has asked me about this (and it was around 6 months ago). Would you like this ?
Let me know. :)
Note that ANDROID and iOS development will require *VERY* substantial
investments from me in the following areas:
Books and software purchases. A version of Delphi that allows me to develop for Android and iOS,
such as
Delphi XE5
costs from $1,299.00 + $649 for the mobile add-on pack, up to $5,199.00 AUD
depending on what version I buy.
That's right, I could spend anywhere from $1,950 up to $5,200 AUD just on software !!!!,
Coming up to speed in these new development environments.
i.e. learning to develop Android and iOS software and conforming to the
standards expected in each environment, making proper use of touch screens, etc.
Converting Sag Calculator's source code to work in these new development environments.
Working out how best to implement
Sag Calculator on touch screen devices with various resolutions and screen sizes.
All up, an ANDROID version of Sag Calculator could easily involve
2-3 or so months of full time work and could easily
involve me spending $1,900 or more on books and software.
If the emulators built into the development environment aren't up to par, then
I will also need to buy various tablets and devices to test each release of Sag Calculator.
This could add many $1,000's to the cost !
And, once released, I might need to maintain multiple separate code bases.
Ideally, I will try and keep everything in a single code base, but this might not be possible.
e.g. if I make a change to Sag Calculator for Windows, then I might then need to
make the same changes to separate source codes for ANDROID and iOS as well.
And then do 3 lots of testing. Yiiikes ! Talk about a lot of work !!
Pricing for ANDROID and iOS versions of Sag Calculator will depend on the amount of work and cost,
and projected sales. They certainly will not be free.
But, if sales are high, then this will bring the price down.
It's clear before I even start that ANDROID and iOS certainly wont be cheap or easy !
In the last 12-24 months, Sag Calculator sales have increased relatively "dramatically",
but sales are still very low.
Sag Calculator is niche market software with a *very small* niche.
Sag Calculator was first released on 5-Sep-2000, 13 years ago, and there are now
110 Registered Users (most have large multi-user volume discounts).
This equates to 8.43 sales per year on average. Like I said, it is *VERY* low volume.
But, anyway, I'm happy to discuss things and see what people want.
I will consider all requests ! And, if multiple people have the same request,
or if you ask for a change that would be useful for others (even if no-one else has asked for it),
then your request will be bumped up higher in my "To Do List".
If no-one asks for a change, or if no-one asks for a particular version (e.g. iOS), then
I will be more likely to leave this out or add it to my "Possible Future Changes List".
So, it's all up to you, my Registered Users and people who are thinking of registering in the future. :)
Let me know what changes / additions you would like to see in Sag Calculator,
and I will do my best to make it happen in the future.
UPDATE: 21-Sep-2013 @ 4:04 PM
I sent an email to all registered users to alert everyone to the above,
so that everyone is fully informed and has ample opportunity to be
involved and vote and have their say in the future of Sag Calculator.
To do this, I built a list of all known email addresses for all registered users:
all email addresses used on registration forms,
all email addresses used by registered users for enquiries / questions / comments / feedback,
all email addresses added or updated later on, and so on. This gave me total of 51 unique email addresses.
My email was successfully delivered to 42 of these email addresses.
Sadly, 9 email addresses were no longer invalid.
For 3 of these email addresses
my email had also been sent to valid email addresses for others at the same company,
so the news got through.
For 6 of these email addresses I have no valid email address for anyone at the same company ...
There's not much I can do about this ... hard to contact people without a valid email address ...
Hopefully they will check my web page soon and
email me
their latest email addresses.
3-Sep-2013 ::
Zip Password Cracker Pro - Screen Shot - Link Fix
Rename and re-link the screen shot for
Zip Password Cracker Pro.
It looks like my web host no longer allows access to certain files,
and "ZIP_Cracker.gif" is apparently on the "banned list", but "ZIP_Cracker.txt" seems to be acceptable.
Strange .... Anyway, a slight change to the GIF file name fixes the issue.
Special thanks to Mike V for reporting the issue earlier today.
2-Sep-2013 ::
Page Counters - Re-Added
Back in the early days, my web site, Moose's Software Valley, had
visitor counters on the main page, and later, on all of the pages.
Between 27-Nov-1996 and 26-Oct-1999, these counters recorded 566,490
unique visits to my web site. That works out to 3,735 visits per week !! :)
I was excited and *very* happy to see that my web site
was becoming so incredibly popular. :)
However, since then, my web site counters have usually been unreliable
or faulty or broken.
e.g. the free page counter services I was using frequently and randomly
closed down and their web sites
were disbanded. I tried searching for and using other counters many times,
but these turned out to be faulty or didn't last long either ....
It was a constant battle to try and keep the page counters going.
For ages I have wanted to add reliable counters, but I was pretty tired of
having counters only work for a short time. I'd much rather spend time
updating my existing software or developing new software than chasing
around the internet trying to find a reliable page counter.
Anyway, as of today at 2:00 PM (GMT+10), I have re-added page counters
to all of my web pages, courtesy of
StatCounter.com.
And, I have made these public so that my web page visitors can
see my page counters
and,
for anyone who might be interested, click the
View My Stats
link at the
end of each page
to see detailed visit statistics.
Sadly, the counters are starting back at 0 again ....
but it sure will be interesting to see how much traffic my web site
gets now. I am guessing it will be a small fraction of what I got
in the early days - the internet is so large now, and there are
many 1,000's of times more web pages now.
I am guessing that I get less than 1,000 visitors per year now,
but I would love to be proved wrong !! :)
It will be interesting to see how things go. :)
1-Sep-2013 ::
Text Buttons - fix download link
Fix the download link for
Text Buttons.
Special thanks to Eddie B for letting me know the link was broken.
Text Buttons enables you to place often used pieces of
text behind anything up to 750 buttons, and view 1, 2, 3, or 4 columns of
15 of these buttons at any time, so that any text you need is very easily
and quickly obtainable when required.
10-Aug-2013 ::
Sag Calculator Registration Form
Update the Registration Form: you could not enter a date into the box at the bottom of the form - all fixed now.
Special thanks to Gerald W for reporting the issue earlier today. :)
Password Generator enables you to quickly and easily generate a
random password according to the password rules you specify, such as
whether the following types of characters are allowed:
numerical digits (0-9),
lowercase English letters (a-z),
uppercase English letters (A-Z),
special characters. e.g. !@#$, etc,
and the minimum and maximum password length.
Password Generator also estimates the strength of each generated password.
This program is very useful in our modern world. As hackers have
access to ever more powerful computers and ever more sophisticated
password cracking techniques, using strong passwords for all of
your on-line accounts and activities is becoming increasingly
important to protect your privacy, your identity, your reputation,
your friends and family, and your hard-earned money.
???-1999 to 26-July-2013 - Dear Boogle, rest in peace my little darling.
Boogle was a beautiful, friendly, happy doggie and a truly great friend.
Back in 1999, he was on death row at the local dog pound, and my friend Murray discovered and rescued him at about 11:30 AM, just before he was to be put down at 12 noon. This poor doggie was about 18 months old at this time, but in a shocking and terrible state - very dirty, covered with ticks and fleas, and as skinny as a rake with backbone and ribs sticking right out. But, Murray took him home and cleaned him up (lots of baths) and fed him.
As well as getting lots of good food into him, he also needed a name. After trying out lots of names, and racking our brains for the right name over several weeks, my mother, one day out of the blue, called him a "Booglie thing", and the name Boogle stuck - it was perfect for him.
Very soon, Boogle adopted me as his new dad. He would sit in the doorway of my bedroom at night and watch me sleep, unsure whether he could go in, and he would keep trying to sit with me when I was watching TV. I had a dog already, a sweet Shitzu called Jessica, and I did not want another doggie. Slowly but surely, Boogle worked his magic and wheedled under my skin, and very soon, I came to love him as my own son. I often called him "Myson", short for for "my son". He slept on my bed every night, stayed close to me whever I was around, kept me company when I was working in the office, and we went for walks together every day (usually several times a day).
He loved walks on the beach, walks in the bush, climbing and running, and he loved fishing - chasing and catching the small fish that almost boil out of the sand when the tide was coming in. He would go bounding through the shallow water, leaping around, trying to catch them in his mouth. Even though the fish were really fast, and zig zagged about, Boogle became a very good fisherman. When he caught a fish, he would "massage" them a bit in his mouth, put them down on the sand and lick them once or twice, and then I would carry the fish back to the water and he would watch closely as I let it go, and we both watched the fish swim off. Then he would run ahead and look for more.
Boogle and I helped to run a motel together at nights and on weekends, and Boogle was always the perfect motel doggie - he never barked unless there was a really good reason, and he was very friendly and gentle with our customers and their kids, and (when we decided to introduce a pet friendly apartment), he was very friendly and gentle with their dogs as well.
In a park once, a man with another dog, a husky, screamed at me to keep my dog away, because his dog will rip mine to bits. His dog was very savage and anti-social. But, Boogle gently and slowly walked up to the dog, they touched noses, and the dog instantly changed, becoming friendly and wagging his tail. The man was speechless and shocked - he had never seen his dog become so friendly with another dog before or so quickly. Boogle had this way with everyone - people, dogs, cats, etc. He had a magical, calming effect, and a wonderful, friendly personality. I've seen him work his magic and calm things down many dozens of times.
When I went sailing, Boogle came with me, even though boats did scare him, especially when the weather was rough and the keel would swing back and bang under the boat. We'd sail during the day and then camp onboard in sheltered bays on the lee side of one of the Keppel Islands.
He was always such a friendly and gentle little chap. He loved being patted and brushed. He was always ready to comfort me when I was stressed or sad, always ready for a run and play, and he just loved being with me. The feeling was mutual. I hated to have to leave him when I had to go shopping, etc - it almost made me feel sick inside, and I know Boogle felt the same.
You are sorely missed Boogle. In so many ways, you were the wind beneath my wings. Rest in peace my darling friend.
This new version adds a "Do *NOT* Sort" option to the Sort Method dropdown box.
This is for when you want to process text from the clipboard (and remove
duplicates, trim off white space, etc according to the other settings) but
not actually sort the text. I have needed to do this a lot lately, so I added the functionality
into
Sort It Out (v1.5f).
Email Address Obscurifier can help you to obscure the email addresses
on your web page(s) so that they act the same and function the
same as before, but so that they cannot easily be accessed /
identified by email harvesting programs used by people
who send unsolicited junk email (SPAM) to 1,000's of
internet users.
This new version has the following changes:
Adjust start-up main window size to suit.
Recompile and recompress program to remove "damaged
application" error. (All of my software does a full
self-check on start-up to check nothing has messed with
it, and this was failing due to a build issue with the
old EXE. Sadly, no-one reported it, so it went unfixed
until today when I noticed it. :/
Copy_File_Mod_DateTime copies the file modified date/time from all files in the current
directory which have a particular extension to the same file with another extension.
Copy_File_Mod_DateTime is a console application for DOS which runs perfectly in
a DOS shell, command line, DOS batch script, etc under Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000,
XP, Vista, 7, 8, etc.
Why is this useful ? Why do this ? I do lots of video and picture conversions,
and I wanted the converted files to have the same modified date/time as the
original file. I did a bunch of internet searches, but these found no program
or utility that did this. So, I wrote this program to do what I needed.
3-July-2013 ::
Windows 8.1 Preview (with ClassicShell)
OK, after my experience with the original Windows 8 Preview, I was a little skeptical about how much Microsoft had listened to user feedback about their new OS.
The latest version,
Windows 8.1
, has just been released, and I've just downloaded and installed the 64 bit version in VirtualBox, and given it a few hours of usage, and I must say that I'm impressed: super fast and with light memory usage (~500 MB footprint), and it sure seems a lot easier to navigate around and do things.
Installation was very straight forward, but I had to select Custom Settings (rather than Express Settings) because I did not have, or want to setup, a Microsoft account. The only settings I changed were on the "Share info with Microsoft and other sevices" screen - I turned all of these OFF. ;)
Windows 8.1 is really easy to navigate even with just a mouse (none of my machines have "touch screens"). e.g. it only takes 1 mouse click to jump from the Desktop to the Metro interface, or back again.
A START button is there, but not the sorely missed START menu - so it seems that perhaps Microsoft is not listening to users as well as many had hoped. However, after installing ClassicShell
(freeware), the full start menu is back (just like in Windows 7 and earlier versions) - see
screen shot.
Windows 8.1
together with
ClassicShell
makes it all so easy and so painless - a real piece of cake !
I have no plans to upgrade my main desktop and laptop machines to Windows 8 (both use Windows 7 Pro x64), because there's just not enough reason to change at this stage. However, if I was buying a new machine, I'd be perfectly happy if it came with Windows 8.1.
2-June-2013 ::
Sag Calculator TRIAL Version - updated
I have just updated the TRIAL version of Sag Calculator to have my updated email address and web page links, and have also updated
all Registration Form links (to the new XLS spreadsheet).
The TRIAL version is still v3.3 of Sag Calculator, and while this isn't the latest version, it is still more than good enough to
let people really try out and test the program and make sure it does exactly what they need.
Why aren't I providing a TRIAL version of v3.5 (the latest version) of Sag Calculator ?
Due to the evil hackers and crackers on the internet
that love ripping off people's work and distributing nasty cracked versions that often contain trojans and viruses.
Hopefully, no-one will create a cracked version of v3.3 because it is an old version. And, distributing an old version of Sag Calculator
as the TRIAL version will hopefully disuade people from looking cracked versions and therefore protect them from viruses / trojans.
28-May-2013 ::
Sag Calculator - Email to Registered Users - Status Update
Yesterday, I sent out an update email to all registered users of Sag Calculator, however, this email bounced (i.e. failed to be delivered) for 7 (seven) people's email addresses.
I urge all registered users to email me if your email address changes, so that I can keep you up-to-date with news about Sag Calculator.
For these 7 people, there's nothing I can do, I don't have any other contact details, so I hope they visit this web site soon and see the Sag Calculator update, and then
email me
with their latest email addresses. :)
27-May-2013 ::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator (v3.5)
More specifically, this computer program calculates the sag of overhead conductors and earthwires
for transmission and distribution lines, enabling you to use a variety of methods to calculate
the sag, and also generate a report and save the data for virtually any number of spans and cables
within any number of projects.
This program is for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 and 8.
Changes for v3.5 of the program include :
Please Note: This release (v3.5) is *exactly* the same as v3.4c TEST Release that was
distributed earlier to people who reported any issues or were helping with the testing.
So, if you are using v3.4c TEST Release then you do not need to "upgrade" to v3.5 if you don't
want to, because there are NO changes or differences at all (apart from the changed version number).
Fix the handling of saving / loading of projects to / from directories where
the directory path is other than Sag Calculator's installation directory.
Special thanks to the Power Engineering guys for finding and reporting this issue.
(Ref: SAG_v3.5.1: Sagp.pas)
Make sure the user has entered at least one Structure Type, Cable Position,
Cable Code Name, and Valid Combination in the "Structure Details" tab
on the Setttings screen (i.e. the user needs to click the "Setup" button).
Prior to this change, Sag Calculator displayed a "List out of bounds" error, if the user
did not enter any of these details, which was *not* user friendly at all.
Special thanks to the Power Engineering guys for finding and reporting this issue.
(Ref: SAG_v3.5.2: Sagp.pas)
Update my Web page to new web page location / url.
(Ref: SAG_v3.5.4: sethead.inc)
Add a status bar at the bottom of the screen which displays the number of Spans and
Cable Sags saved so far for the project. Move the 'verticle circle' status to the status
bar as well. No-one asked for this, I just thought it was a useful feature to add.
(Ref: SAG_v3.5.5: Sagp.pas)
Change the Registration Form from a Rich Text Document (RTF) to an Excel spreadsheet,
which automatically caters for and calculates volume discounts, calculates totals, and
provides a range of other features and is much more user friendly.
Note: I also double checked that this Excel spreadsheet worked perfectly OK with a
10 year olf version of Microsoft Office, and a 3+ year old and recent versions of
OpenOffice's Calc - so no-one needs to rush out, buy Microsoft Office, or
spend any money to fill out the registration form. :) Use any spreadsheet
that can handle Excel files - and most do.
e.g. OpenOffice's Calc (freeware):
http://why.openoffice.org/.
SPECIAL THANKS to: Scott C and the guys at Power Engineering for finding
and reporting the issues above.
This is a FREE upgrade for all registered users of version 3.x of the program.
(I have emailed this latest version of the program out to all registered users).
For new users, or users who have not yet upgraded to v3.x, pricing, upgrade costs, and all other details are
available here.
If any new or existing users have any comments or questions, or would like to place
an order for this upgrade, then please
Email me. I highly recommend you download and trial the program and
ensure that it does exactly what you want before you buy. :)
NOTE: On 27-May-2013, I emailed all Registered users with FREE upgrades to
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator v3.5,
and told everyone about the changes / updates to the program.
27-May-2013 ::
NEW Email Address and WEB Address (URL)
Please also note that the redirection service I have been using for more than 10 years now, has shut-down and gone out of businesses with very little notice - so my "old" email address (moose AT move.to) and my old web address (http://move.to/moose) no longer work. The redirection service was often flakey, especially with regards to email, so it's closure is not the end of the world.
All of my freeware programs list my old email address and old web page address (URL). One rainy day, I might get around to recompiling them all and uploading the updated versions. However, I don't know how useful this will be in the big scheme of things - my freeware programs are mirrored / spread all over the internet, on web sites that I have no knowledge of or control over, so these will always be out-of-date.
3-Dec-2012 ::
Milestone: 501 New / Updated Programs developed and released since July 1996
WOW, my web site,
Moose's Software Valley,
hit another milestone recently, and this almost went unnoticed.
I just happened to scroll down on the
Software Updates
section of my web page when I was updating the page for the
Sort It Out (v1.4f)
release a few minutes ago, and noticed that this was my 501 st new / updated program since .
Moose's Software Valley,
was set-up in July, 1996 - 16.5 years ago.
That seems like a pretty amazing milestone for a single programmer working on his own. :)
Will my web site be around for another 500 new / updated programs ? Will my web site be around in 16 years ?
Well, not if you believe the world is going to end in a couple of weeks
(the end of the Mayan calendar) - LOL, ROFL, LMAO. ;)
Only time will tell what happens to my web site in the future, but I can say one thing for certain -
the world is *NOT* going to end any time soon. Yes, you can quote me on that. :)
And, people should be taking careful note of those who are claiming the world is going to end soon,
because they will be dissappearing back under their rocks and changing their stories soon -
as these kind of morons always do. Yeah, you can quote me on that as well. :)
This new versions adds the ability to remove duplicates from the sorted results -
something I have needed to do a lot of lately.
27-Nov-2012 ::
Moose's Valley Back Again - New Hosting Company: FreeWebHosts.com.au
Apparently my old web hosting company has shut-down, so I have just moved everything to a new provider:
FreeWebHosts.com.au.
I must say that I like this new company a lot so far: I created an account and FTP'd my entire web site to
my new host all within minutes. It was all just so easy !!! So, special thanks to
FreeWebHosts.com.au
and also to Carrie D for emailing me and telling me that my web site is gone ...
I got Carrie's email literally 10 mins ago -
so I am back up and running again in super quick time - woo hoo ! :)
UPDATE: To visit my web site, you can use either of these links (the first link is preferred):
new web page location / url #1 - edit: removed, no longer valid.
new web page location / url #2 - edit: removed, no longer valid.
As always, the first link (new web page location / url #1 - edit: removed, no longer valid)
is preferred because this will always point at my current web site location. The 2nd link, on the other hand,
will completely change depending on where my web site moves in the future.
5-Sep-2012 ::
Cinematronics Development System found - Miracles do happen
Scott over at AtariGames (formerly known as SafeStuff)
has just made an amazing find: a Cinematronics Development System with 4 big boxes full of old 8 inch floppy disks
containing the source code to old Cinematronics games, including games that have never been released.
Love that they used UCSD Pascal. (In spare time lately, I've been going back to my roots and
doing some Pascal coding under CP/M on an Apple ][). And that Terak sure is a cute piece
of kit as well. Some lost prototype games have been discovered. What a find !!
An incredible piece of programming history has now been preserved, thanks to Scott.
Very happy to see this found and in safe hands (it was literally about 2 days away from going
into a dumpster). Well done Scott !! :)
More specifically, this computer program calculates the sag of overhead conductors and earthwires
for transmission and distribution lines, enabling you to use a variety of methods to calculate
the sag, and also generate a report and save the data for virtually any number of spans and cables
within any number of projects.
This program is for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.
Changes for v3.4 of the program include :
Please Note: This release (v3.4) is *exactly* the same as v3.3c TEST Release that was
distributed earlier to people who reported any issues or were helping with the testing.
If you are using v3.3c TEST Release then you do not need to upgrade to v3.4 if you don't
want to, because there are NO changes or differences at all (apart from the changed version number).
Add "SAGUC__Acceleration_Gravity" as a unit of measure (this is a support change
for one of the changes below).
(Ref: SAG_v3.4.1: SAG_Unit_Convert.INC)
Update the SAGUC__Convert_Number_To_New_Units method to handle
"SAGUC__Acceleration_Gravity" (this is a support change for one of the changes below).
(Ref: SAG_v3.4.2: SAG_Unit_Convert.INC)
Fix Travelling WAVE Method, Swing Method, Series Dynamometer Method, and
Shunt Dynamometer Method to handle gravity (and cable mass, which is
calculated from gravity) correctly when the units of measure change.
(Ref: SAG_v3.4.3: sagp.pas)
Fix angle issues with Azimuth theodolite.
(Ref: SAG_v3.4.4: sagp.pas)
Fix an issue with loading the auto-loading the last used project
(when the program is next run). Only attempt to get the directory if it is blank.
(Ref: SAG_v3.4.5: sagp.pas)
Disable warning message of inclination or declination is over 40 Degrees !
(Ref: SAG_v3.4.6: sagp.pas)
Place the Vertical Circle Setting (Theodolite) next to the "Cable Sag Details" tab
just to help you remember which Theodolite you are using.
Fix very strange and very rare issue with angle conversions. I tracked the
problem down to an issue with Borland Delphi's TRUNC and ROUND functions.
The exact same calculations and formulas in Excel produced different results in some rare cases.
I think I have worked around the issue, but will monitor it very carefully.
(Ref: SAG_v3.4.7: sagp.pas)
SPECIAL THANKS to: Lisa D, Tom P, Richard A, Frank B, Jason C, Joe S, and anyone I've missed for
reporting any issues and/or for helping with the testing and verification process.
This is a FREE upgrade for all registered users of version 3.x of the program. (I have emailed this latest version of the program out to all users).
For new users, or users who have not yet upgraded to v3.x, pricing, upgrade costs, and all other details are
available here.
If any new or existing users have any comments or questions, or would like to place
an order for this upgrade, then please
Email me. I highly recommend you download and trial the program and
ensure that it does exactly what you want before you buy. :)
NOTE: On 21-Jul-2012, I emailed all Registered users with FREE upgrades to
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator v3.4,
and told everyone about the changes / updates to the program.
22-Apr-2012 ::
Post Code Lookup (v1.2fc) - Updated Postcode Data File(s)
Post Code Lookup
enables you to search on postcodes, locations,
and states / regions in your country to find the place name or
postcode for the locations you are interested in - all at the
click of a mouse button. This program comes complete
with Postcode data for : Australia (16,640 postcodes / locations),
New Zealand (2,219 postcodes / locations), and United Kingdom (27,195 postcodes / locations).
NOTE: There are NO changes to the program itself, I have just updated the Australian Postcodes Data File
to the very latest version. Interestingly, this latest Australian Postcodes Data File contains 100 fewer
postcodes than the old version (last updated 2 years ago).
I use this program many times per day, so the updated data file is a useful update for me.
If anyone is actually using
Post Code Lookup
out there - Hellloooooooo ???? - then it should help you as well. :)
Enjoy ! :)
17-Apr-2012 @ 6:39 PM (GMT+10) ::
Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia source code - Update #5 - Downloadable !
Truly excellent work Jordan, Jason, and Tony !!! Once again, congratulations
on recovering your work from 1988-1989.
On a personal note, the small flurry of web page updates within a couple of days
that Jordan's source code recovery mission
has caused, sure brought back memories and some of the "vibe" of the early years of
Moose's Software Valley. Thanks Jordan ! :)
17-Apr-2012 @ 11:35 AM (GMT+10) ::
Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia source code - Update #4 - SAVED
24 hours later, and according to
Jordan's Twitter feed
they are still "Waiting for luggage to come off the carousel at LAX".
I knew LAX was a busy place, but I never knew it was that busy ! ;)
Come on Jordan, please tweet an update. ;) Throw us a bone .... Give us some news .... Pleeeeease ... ;)
Oh well, back to the only thing I can do ....
15-Apr-2012 @ 4:58 PM (GMT+10) ::
Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia source code - Update #2
Fixed the download link to my
Email Address Obscurifier
program. Special thanks to ^MaL]{av|an^ for reporting the broken link earlier today.
15-Apr-2012 @ 11:50 AM (GMT+10) ::
Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia source code - about to attemp recovery *SOON*
Generally, I don't post general news on my web site anymore.
I used to do this for many years, and often many times a day, especially in the early days of
Moose's Software Valley
.
But there are now millions of web sites posting general news, and the last thing the internet needs is another.
So these days, I usually only post news about my own software updates.
Unless something incredibly exciting happens .... and now is such a time !! :)
After many years of searching, he has recently found the "ancient" floppy disks containing
his long lost source code for the original version of
Prince of Persia (1989)
which he developed on the
Apple ][ computer,
are meeting up with Jordan to attempt recovery of his source code for Prince of Persia.
This is SOOOOOOOOOO Exciting !!! :)
According to
Jordan's Twitter feed
they are now standing at Los Angeles LAX International Airport waiting to collect their luggage.
Within a few hours they will hopefully be starting the recovery process -
doing lots of testing (I am sure) *before* touching the priceless backup disks of course. :)
Back in 1999, I purchased an Apple ][c and used
Apple Disk Transfer (ADT)
to recover some of my old Apple ][ work from the early 1980's from all of the disks that
I had left (most had been thrown out in the early 1990's when my parents moved house and my store room was cleaned out.
I would never have thrown them out, but I was living and working on the other side of the planet at the time).
Some of my disks could not be recovered - they suffered from the ravages of bit rot and decay.
So, I have a very good idea of what Jordan, Jason, and Tony might face.
Recovery can be easy (if the disks are good) or nighmarishly difficult (if the disks are damaged).
Good luck with the recivery Jordan, Jason, and Tony !!! :)
Hope you can recover all of your source code and other files.
I am literally on the edge of my seat here waiting to hear and see how you get on ... Sooooooooo exciting !!! :)
This is what I am doing as I watch
Jordan's Twitter feed
web page =======>>>>>
11-Feb-2012 ::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator - Training Videos
I have created a series of training videos for
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator
in which I cover everything from installation, the basics, and advanced features and usage.
By watching these videos you will be able to come up-to-speed on using Sag Calculator very quickly.
So far there are 3 training videos:
Training Video #1: Sag v3.x Installation Walkthrough (running time: 8:52)
Training Video #2: Sag v3.x The Basics (running time: 48:42)
Training Video #3: Sag v3.x Advanced Topics (running time: 9:56)
These videos can be purchased when you register Sag Calculator, or registered users can purchase them at any time in the future.
More videos will be created / added in the future (if they are supported).
NOTE: On 11-Feb-2012, I emailed all Registered users with FREE upgrades to
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator v3.3,
and told everyone about the changes / updates to the program, the new training videos, and provided
everyone with the new / updated install instructions.
11-Feb-2012 ::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator (v3.3)
More specifically, this computer program calculates the sag of overhead conductors and earthwires
for transmission and distribution lines, enabling you to use a variety of methods to calculate
the sag, and also generate a report and save the data for virtually any number of spans and cables
within any number of projects.
This program is for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.
According to several registerted users, Sag Calculator also works fine on Windows Vista (64 bit) and
Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit), providing you don't install the program to C:\Program Files\Sag Calculator\
(as with Vista 32 bit). e.g. install to C:\Sag Calculator\ or similar.
Changes for v3.3 of the program include :
Fix an issue with the help file and Windows 7 (64 bit) (even after installing
Windows Help Support,
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=82148
) due to the fact that
Microsoft have renamed the Windows help file EXE from Winhelp.exe to Winhlp32.exe.
Microsoft are usually very good with backwards compatibility, so it is suprising to seem
them renaming executables that support legacy files. Sag Calculator now checks a range of
WinHelp program names and runs whichever of these exisit on the machine before displaying
the help file. If no Windows Help Support is installed, display an informative error
message, directing the user to follow the instructions provided in their
Sag Registration Confirmation email and the FREE Sag Upgrade Announcement email.
(Code Ref: SAG_v3.3.1: win_api.inc).
Add Windows Help Support installation to the Sag Registration Confirmation email
and the FREE Sag Upgrade Announcement email sent to all registered users.
NOTE: I will move to the new Compressed Html (CHM) help file format one of these days.
It's just going to involve a few days of work to make the changes, update all the context
sensitive links, and then a few days more work to test everything on every Windows platform
under the sun from Windows 95 onwards.
Change the default install location to c:\Sag Calculator\ to avoid the issue of
claimed file extensions that crops up in the c:\Program Files\ directory under
Windows Vista, 7, and later. This change is because most people now seem to be using
Windows Vista or Windows 7 (or later). (Ref: SAG_v3.3.2: Sag Calculator - Wise Installer.wse).
Sag Calculator tested under Windows 8 (developer preview): I have tested Sag Calculator
(prior versions and this laterst version) under Windows 8, and all seems to work fine. Can't say
I like Windows 8 at this stage. It's very strange. So, I'll be sticking with Windows XP,
Vista, and 7 on my machines for the forseeable future (several years).
This is a FREE upgrade for all registered users of version 3.x of the program. (I have emailed this latest version of the program out to all users).
For new users, or users who have not yet upgraded to v3.x, pricing, upgrade costs, and all other details are
available here.
If any new or existing users have any comments or questions, or would like to place
an order for this upgrade, then please
Email me. I highly recommend you download and trial the program and
ensure that it does exactly what you want before you buy. :)
NOTE: On 11-Feb-2012, I emailed all Registered users with FREE upgrades to
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator v3.3,
and told everyone about the changes / updates to the program, the new training videos, and provided
everyone with the new / updated install instructions.
I've added a "Frequently Asked Questions" to the text file that accompanies
Zip Password Cracker Pro (1.2fb),
clarified some details about the prior release, and fixed links to the program's
icon and text file. Special thanks to Curtis G for bringing these to my attention
earlier today.
File Synchronizer
allows you to sychronise some or all
of the files in 2 directories, and if you like, all of
their sub-directories.
File Synchronizer is (hopefully) extremely useful for people
who (like me) have their data spread over multiple PCs - such as Work
and Home PCs, USB thumb drives, External USB harddrives, CDs / DVDs / BluRay disks,
and other media, including, if anyone still uses these, floppy disks,
ZIP / JAZZ / SyQyest / Orb drives, etc.
This program enables you to easily and quickly make sure
you have the latest versions of files on all machines / media,
and that your master directory contains the latest versions
of all files.
Here are the changes for this v2.1f release:
Save / restore the checked / unchecked status of the "Multi" button's list.
Add a new section to this readme text file:
"50,000+ Lines of Code ??? Your f^%@ing kidding me !!!".
WOW, it's more than 9 years after the first public release of this program,
and I still use this program at least several times every day, and find it
incredibly useful. I move files in many directories between home and work PCs
every day on several USB thumb drives (for extra backups), and File Synchronizer
allows me to keep all of these files perfectly synchronised.
Out of all of the software on my PCs, this is the program I use most !! :)
File Synchronizer
allows you to sychronise some or all
of the files in 2 directories, and if you like, all of
their sub-directories.
File Synchronizer is (hopefully) extremely useful for people
who (like me) have their data spread over multiple PCs - such as Work
and Home PCs, USB thumb drives, External USB harddrives, CDs / DVDs / BluRay disks,
and other media, including, if anyone still uses these, floppy disks,
ZIP / JAZZ / SyQyest / Orb drives, etc.
This program enables you to easily and quickly make sure
you have the latest versions of files on all machines / media,
and that your master directory contains the latest versions
of all files.
Here are the changes for this v2.0f release:
Add a "Multi" button so that you can process many or all directory pairs
at once. (Something I need to do several times every day).
At this stage, the "Multi" button is for synchronising files, not for
comparing files.
File Synchronizer
allows you to sychronise some or all
of the files in 2 directories, and if you like, all of
their sub-directories.
File Synchronizer is (hopefully) extremely useful for people
who (like me) have their data spread over multiple PCs - such as Work
and Home PCs, USB thumb drives, External USB harddrives, CDs / DVDs / BluRay disks,
and other media, including, if anyone still uses these, floppy disks,
ZIP / JAZZ / SyQyest / Orb drives, etc.
This program enables you to easily and quickly make sure
you have the latest versions of files on all machines / media,
and that your master directory contains the latest versions
of all files.
Here are the changes for this v1.4f release:
Add extra functionality to the "Compare Common Files" function.
Now, if any files mismatch, you are shown a list, and then you can
select which directory contains the correct files and then copy and
recompare these by clicking the "Re-Copy and Re-Compare Files" button,
to copy, re-compare, and then display the results of this process
(to make sure all files now match). This makes it dead easy to make
sure all files is each directory are 100% the same.
Add buttons / functionality to open either of the directories in Windows
Explorer - this can be useful if you want to take a closer look or
perform any actions on the files / directories.
If any settings change that require a re-build of file lists before a
file sync, then disable File Sync button until user re-builds file lists.
Enjoy ! :)
26-Jan-2011 ::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator (v3.2)
More specifically, this computer program calculates the sag of overhead conductors and earthwires
for transmission and distribution lines, enabling you to use a variety of methods to calculate
the sag, and also generate a report and save the data for virtually any number of spans and cables
within any number of projects.
This program is for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.
According to several registerted users, Sag Calculator also works fine on Windows Vista (64 bit) and
Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit), providing you don't install the program to C:\Program Files\Sag Calculator\
(as with Vista 32 bit). e.g. install to C:\Sag Calculator\ or similar.
New features for v3.2 of the program include :
Add a File -> New menu option. (This just does exactly the same job as a Reset to All data, but it is a more obvious command). If they user has any unsaved work, they will be prompted before proceeding (of course). (Ref: SAG_v3.2.1: sagp.pas)
Make sure the cable details are showing after the "Add Basic Settings" button functionality has been executed. (Ref: SAG_v3.2.2: sag_setp.pas)
Double check the conversion of data back to metric for saving / preserving. (Ref: SAG_v3.2.3: sag_setp.pas)
Make sure all of the "outside of the expected range" warning dialogs show the name of the data, even those dialogs which should never be seen by users (because the values are calculated and checked behind the scenes). Special thanks to Jayson K for reporting this. (Ref: SAG_v3.2.4: sagp.pas)
Make sure the Upper Sag is converted to the required units of measure. Special thanks to Jayson K for reporting this. (Ref: SAG_v3.2.5: sagp.pas)
Do the unit conversions *before* the calculations. Special thanks to Jayson K for reporting this. (Ref: SAG_v3.2.6: sagp.pas)
New look installer (without the graded background screens).
This is a FREE upgrade for all registered users of version 3.x of the program. (I have emailed this latest version of the program out to all users).
For new users, or users who have not yet upgraded to v3.x, pricing, upgrade costs, and all other details are
available here.
If any new or existing users have any comments or questions, or would like to place
an order for this upgrade, then please
Email me. I highly recommend you download and trial the program and
ensure that it does exactly what you want before you buy. :)
25-Jan-2011 ::
Apple 2 Disk Drive Sounds (v1.0, WAV files)
I sure have had a lot of great feedback about this program over the years. ;)
One person told me how they left
Apple 2 Disk Drive Sound Simulator
running (on random) next to their parrot's cage, and
after a while the poor parrot started trying to make Apple 2 disk drives sounds. LMAO ROFL !!! ;)
That sure would be something to see. I've lost his email address now, but I wish I had asked him to do a video of the poor bird.
I can just imagine it's facial expressions as it tries to get the "Grunt Grunt Grind" just right. LOL ! ;)
In addition, a few people have emailed me over the years asking for a copy of the sounds to use in various projects.
e.g. Laz wanted to do a Mac version of the program back in 2002 (but he seems to have been derailed on this project for the last 9+ years - LOL !! ;)
Other people have emailed me since then asking for the sounds to use in their various projects.
In every case, I've always been happy to oblige. All I asked for was a credit in the help / readme file.
Very recently (8-Dec-2010), Garnet U emailed me to ask if he could use the sounds in his
cAndy Apple emulator (an Apple //e emulator on the Android Market == Google phones).
Once again, I said YES and provided the sounds for free for this project - all I asked for was a credit in the help / readme file.
To save people having to ask me in the future, I've decided to release the sounds as FREEWARE on my web page.
I am a very friendly guy and I like supporting / helping other software
developers whenever I possibly can. Especially if you are like me - lone-wolf developers,
struggling on their own to create software they are passionate about.
So, if anyone wants to use these sounds in their own programs /
projects, then that is fine with me: all I ask is that you add a credit to me
on your projects's web page, the credits screen, the help file,
or similar. A credit something like this would be perfect:
Also, if you
Email me
and let me know about your project, I'll add a link to it here on my web page (and a link to it in my
Apple 2 Disk Drive Sound Simulator readme file).
Like I said earlier, I'm always ready to help other software developers. :)
Zip Password Cracker Pro
enables you to generate
passwords and apply these to password protected
ZIP files. This can be an incredibly useful thing
to do when you have backed up data to a ZIP file
and mistyped or forgotten the password.
The program has many useful password generation features, and
also saves Restart information as it tests
passwords so that if the power fails, you switch off your PC,
your computer crashes, etc then this program can continue where
it left off at the click of a mouse button.
Here are the changes for this 1.2fb release:
Update the DLL (UnzDll.dll) included with ZIP Password Cracker Pro.
Special thanks to Lost Identity for alerting me to the fact my
program wasn't finding ZIP passwords properly. It turned out it
wasn't, because the DLL (UnzDll.dll) included with ZIP Password
Cracker Pro was not the required version.
NOTE: The UnzDll.DLL file must have a time stamp of 14-Jan-2003 7:45 AM.
File Synchronizer
allows you to sychronise some or all
of the files in 2 directories, and if you like, all of
their sub-directories.
File Synchronizer is (hopefully) extremely useful for people
who (like me) have their data spread over multiple PCs - such as Work
and Home PCs, USB thumb drives, External USB harddrives, CDs / DVDs / BluRay disks,
and other media, including, if anyone still uses these, floppy disks,
ZIP / JAZZ / SyQyest / Orb drives, etc.
This program enables you to easily and quickly make sure
you have the latest versions of files on all machines / media,
and that your master directory contains the latest versions
of all files.
This new version has been in testing for 3 weeks now, and no
issues have been found. However, there is still a lot more
functionality I want to implement / add.
Here are the changes for this v1.3f release:
Add in "Only Save First Setting" safety checkboxes to "Synchronize Directory Options", "Synchronize Files Options", and "File Last Modified Date / Time" settings groups - because it is easy to select one of the other "dangerous" settings and exit and then forget to reset the settings next time you run the program, thereby not synchronising all files in all sub dirs. These new safety settings are checked by default. If you want to make sure the settings saved by the program are the safest possible, then leave these new checkboxes checked.
Remove "Multiple Directories" tab. This was something I started building and then abandonded when all of my software became freeware.
Fix "run out of disk space" issue - remove the half copied file.
If one fo the DIRs does not exist, then offer to create it.
Display the total size (in MB) of files copied after the file synchronisation.
Display elapsed time (in secs) for file synchronisation.
Display Average Copy Speed (in MB/sec) for file synchronisation.
Display "Step 1 of ..." for list building process.
Fix the spelling of "synchrized" in this error message "File's date / time could NOT be synchrized ...".
Add a "Compare Common Files" button to compare all common files and generate a brief report listing the common files that weren't identical.
Add a "Remove Selected" button to Remove selected items from list. Note: No files will be deleted from your machine, they are just removed from this list.
Add a "Delete Selected Files" button to delete the selected files permanently. Warning: All selected files will be deleted from your machine !!
Add a comma to some messages in the Title Bar. For example, change this: "Dir and All Sub Dirs, First Dir is the Master files of any age." to this: "Dir and All Sub Dirs, First Dir is the Master, Files of Any Age."
There's still lots of other new functionality that I want to add.
Maybe on the next rainy day ... ;)
Enjoy ! :)
27-Sep-2010 ::
My First YouTube Video
I have been creating a lot of "Photo Stories" lately - mostly for special occasions for
family and friends. Ahem, and quite a few even feature our doggies ... I know, I know ... ;)
Anyway, today I uploaded my very first video to YouTube. It is a commedy Photo Story I put together
of hilarious and embarassing family portraits and photos.
Everyone has some funny / embarassing family portraits and photos ... hopefully yours aren't this bad ... ;)
This new version enables the user to change between a 12 and 24 hour clock.
This change was done specially for Dietmar, who requested this feature in an email
to me a couple of days ago.
29-May-2010 ::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator - ZIP Download Link Fixed
BlackAppleHost offers instant account activation and
up to 5 GB of space for FREE !!. File upload can be done via FTP as well. They provide support
for PHP and MySQL and detailed traffic analysis reports.
They don't allow ZIP, RAR, MPG, etc files though, which is a real shame (because 99% of my web site are ZIP files),
so I have had to upload these to MediaFiles and change all links
to point to the new and extremely awkward file locations.
I kept hoping someone would email me with a better hosting option ... Oh well ...
If anyone finds any issues, broken links, etc, then please
email me.
21-Apr-2010 ::
Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Back - Well, Almost !!!
Moose's Software Valley is coming back .... slowly .... :)
My apologies everyone for the down time (over the past 2 weeks).
For the few who emailed me and wondered where Moose's Valley went, my thanks for your concern and patience. :)
My web site lost its prior web hosting without *any* warning or notice on Good Friday.
What was interesting about this was that it was a *very* small part of my work's web
server that has been hosting Moose's Valley for the past 8+ years.
I thought we had a "win win relationship", a "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" type of deal -
all of the staff and their families at my work got FREE site licenses to all of my software
(long before everything was FREEware), and I wrote bunches of software specifically to help staff with their work,
and they let me use a paltry 100 MB of the space on their 25+ TB web server.
It seemed like a good deal to me, and I thought everyone was happy.
But, without notice they deleted my web site.
Needless to say, if they are going to start treating people like this,
I now need to re-evaluate all of the extra things that I do to help and go way above and beyond the call of duty for this company.
I am always the first to stick my hand up and volunteer for extra work, even when my plate is already full of work.
If they aren't going to give me a lousy 120 MB of disk space, I would have to be effing mad to keep
busting-my-guts to help out and doing 10+ hours of FREE overtime every week. Hmmmm ....
Anyway, I have been hunting around for alternative suitable FREE web hosting since then.
Well you don't expect me to pay for web hosting do you, given that 99% of my software is FREEware ??? LOL ;)
So far I have tried out TopCities, Tripod, 007Sites, ZeroCatch, and BlackAppleHost.
None are ideal.
All have either severe space limitations (20 MB for Tripod) or else they have
massive space (5 GB) but ZIP, WAV, MPG, RAR, etc files are *not* allowed.
So, Free != good for me at least !
At this stage, I am seeing if I can get BlackAppleHost to work for me.
It will mean hosting all of my ZIP files, MPG files, WAV files, etc on other web servers (perhaps Mediafire ?),
so it isn't ideal, and it is going to be a lot of work and messing around to get everything back on-line.
Anyway, this is just a quick note to let people know that Moose's Software Valley has *NOT* closed down.
I have been on the net since mid-1996, I am still here, and my web site will be back to normal again asap.
Stay tuned .... :)
Oh yes, if anyone knows of any good, free, reliable web hosts for about 120 MB of data that includes ZIP files,
a couple of MP3's (apple 2 disk drive sounds, talking clock sounds), some old moon walk videos (.mpg),
WAV files (answering machine sounds), etc then please
Email moose@move.to
27-Jan-2010 ::
Post Code Lookup (v1.2fb) - Updated Postcode Data File(s)
Post Code Lookup
enables you to search on postcodes, locations,
and states / regions in your country to find the place name or
postcode for the locations you are interested in - all at the
click of a mouse button. This program comes complete
with Postcode data for : Australia (16,700 postcodes / locations),
New Zealand (2,219 postcodes / locations), and United Kingdom (27,195 postcodes / locations).
The changes for this release include:
No program changes - just update the Australian post code data file and the readme text file.
Update links to the Australian post code data file.
Include the latest Australian post code data with the program.
This new Australian post code data file contains 16,700 postcodes / locations,
which is 392 more than the 16,308 postcodes / locations in the
old data file from Apr-2000).
The web links I have to UK and NZ post code data files no longer work.
Can anyone supply me with new links to this data ?
Post Code Lookup
enables you to search on postcodes, locations,
and states / regions in your country to find the place name or
postcode for the locations you are interested in - all at the
click of a mouse button. This program comes complete
with Postcode data for : Australia (16,308 postcodes / locations),
New Zealand (2,219 postcodes / locations), and United Kingdom (27,195 postcodes / locations).
I wrote this program 10 years ago, and I still use it multiple
times every day. An extremely useful program.
18-Jan-2010 ::
Solar System Simulator (v2.3f) - The "Farewell Pluto" Release
Solar System Simulator
is a program to help you visualise
the solar system, compare the planets, and find out more about
the planets, or help you produce your own reports or assignments on the planets.
This program includes :
An animation of the Solar System, with the planets rotating
around the Sun - and you can alter the speed of animation, and
choose which planet to "stand on" and the perspective of the rotating
planets and Sun is adjusted accordingly. And, you can also trace
the orbit of each object - great for helping to visualize /
understrand the various orbits.
Many dozens of Planetary Comparison Graphs (with various options) to
let you compare dozens of criteria, such as mass, radius, volume,
distances from the sun, atmospheric composition, visits by
space probes, wind speeds, and many other criteria for each planet.
Planet Reports containing statistics and detailed information
on each planet or our Sun - including size, mass,
length of day, temperature ranges, density, volume,
surface area, orbital velocity, space craft visits, moons,
discovery details, and many dozens of other measurements,
statistics, and interesting facts.
A Weight Calculator to enable you to enter your weight
and calculate your weight on each planet.
Extract Data : you can copy and paste any or all selected
data values into a spreadsheet or your own reports
at the click of a mouse button.
Planet and Solar System Images.
The changes for this release include:
Some usability enhancements (can use left / right arrow keys
to change graphs, etc).
Calculate the actual Gravity of each planet and the Sun using its
mass and diameter (this data was hard-coded previously).
Calculate some other values that were hard-coded.
Increase Jupiter's moons to 63 (according to ABC Radio quiz), and
Saturn has 61 moons, Uranus has 27 moons, and Neptune has 13.
Remove Pluto as a planet. On August 24, 2006, the International
Astronomical Union (IAU) voted on the definition of a planet:
orbit the sun and not another planet
be massive enough to be spherical
have cleared its orbit of debris
Pluto met the first 2 criteria but not the 3rd. Since part of
Pluto's orbit is in the Kuiper Belt, its orbit is not cleared
of debris. Pluto is now officially known as a "dawrf planet",
and also sometimes called a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO).
Poor Clyde Tombaugh (the discoverer of Pluto) will be spinning
in his grave. At least they waited until after poor Clyde had
passed away. The decision still affected his family however,
read this article:
For over 3 years, I have resisted removing Pluto from my Solar
System Simulator because I kept hoping the IAU would reverse
their decision. Sadly not.
I have made it so ALL of Pluto data is still there, and that
it can easily be reinstated as a planet if this decision about
Pluto changes in the future. (Not holding my breath ...)
Reduce the default "Speed" of animation (the slider at the bottom).
Change the default of "Trace Orbits of Objects" to checked for all
objects.
Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries.
This program should be interesting to people of all ages !!
Enjoy !! :)
This is the FREEWARE version of this program, that was supposed to have been created /
uploaded in
Sep-2007
but somehow I missed creating a freeware version of this program.
Here it is .... finally. ;)
This is the FREEWARE version of this program, that was supposed to have been created /
uploaded in
Sep-2007
but somehow I missed creating a freeware version of this program.
Here it is .... finally. ;)
Clean-Up Old Files
enables the user to specify one or more directories,
and then periodically clean out / erase / delete files that
haven't been modified for a certain number of days.
The program can run automatically at Windows startup
and also automatically exit after the clean-up, if desired.
Special thanks to Rich for asking me "is this program free", prompting me to re-check the version uploaded.
Print and PDF Pictures
enables you to drag and drop a whole
bunch of pictures from Windows Explorer, move or sort these
into the required order, and then either :
Print them all out to a printer,
Or, if you have
Adobe Acrobat Distiller
installed, then then you can print them all
to the Acrobat Distiller, which places all of the
images into a PDF (Portable Document Format) file.
This program should be useful to anyone who wants to print a number of images, or get
them into a suitable format that enables easy reading "on screen".
Special thanks to Mark for his kind words and feedback.
5-Aug-2009 ::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator (v3.1)
More specifically, this computer program calculates the sag of overhead conductors and earthwires
for transmission and distribution lines, enabling you to use a variety of methods to calculate
the sag, and also generate a report and save the data for virtually any number of spans and cables
within any number of projects.
New features for v3.1 of the program include :
WOW, 6 years since the last update of this program. Sadly, the reason for
this is the lack of support - only 4 sales of the program during this time.
This program has now been tested with Windows Vista (32 bit) and it works
perfectly OK. However, because the on-line help is in Windows Help File
(.HLP) format, if Windows Vista users want to view the program's on-line
help externally from the program, they will need to download and install
WinHlp32.exe for Windows Vista, which can be obtained from this link:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=82148
I don't have access to a PC with Windiows Vista (64 bit) so I cannot
comment further on this at this stage.
Increase the maximum temperature from 60 Celsius (140 Fahrenheit) to
80 Celsius (176 Fahrenheit), as requested by Derek H. (Ref: SAG_v3.1.1)
Fix an issue with Cable Settings when using Imperial units of measure.
Special thanks to Derek H. for reporting this issue. (Ref: SAG_v3.1.3)
Fix the handling of the Sag Demo Project included with the program
(simply had to change section heading handling to include [sag] and [sag32]).
Special thanks to Derek H for reporting this issue. (Ref: SAG_v3.1.4)
Change the colour of read-only data entry fields from clInactiveBorder to clInactiveCaption,
which seems to work better and make the read-only status more obvious.
See the on-line help (included with the program) for further information.
Pricing, upgrade costs, and all other details are
available here.
If any new or existing users have any comments or questions, or would like to place
an order for this upgrade, then please
Email me
4-July-2009 ::
Backup Again (v1.0f) Update
I found out a few minutes ago (after installing Backup Again on my brand new Windows Vista laptop,
that the wrong version of ZipDll.dll is included in the distribution ZIP file for
Backup Again (v1.0f).
So, I have now fixed this.
Nothing else has changed with the program,
but I do have a "To Do" list detailing many dozens of changes / improvements that I want
to make to many dozens of my programs - when I get a spare 24 hours or so and have a
chance to dig my old Delphi Development machine out of storage.
Difficult to find spare time when you already work 2 full time jobs, plus several part time jobs ...
16-Jan-2009 ::
Do you use / burn / create CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray discs ?
Do you use / burn / create CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray discs ? If so, then maybe you can help a
Central Queensland inventor to research the potential for a new product she is developing
and hoping to bring to market by completing the following survey:
http://www.mlr.id.au/
16-Jan-2009 ::
Finally Some GOOD News !!!
These days all we seem to hear on the TV news and read in newspapers is bad news.
Another robbery, another assault, another car crash, another disgusting terrorist killing innocent people,
another stock market crash , another round of job losses as the Global Financial Crisis worsens .... on on and on it goes.
Even though I was 10,000 miles from where this happened and know no-one involved,
this has really made my day !! Thanks Chesley !! :)
16-Jan-2009 ::
Amazing Wooden Machines ?
I've just been browsing various wooden machines web pages for a few hours, watching videos, reading the stories, etc
and am amazed by the machines these people have built and the craftsmanship and imagination they have shown.
For those who may be interested, here are some of my favourites:
15-Jan-2009 ::
"Choplifter 1987" and "Lunar Lander on Steroids" ?
I've been searching for these coin operated, video arcade games ("Choplifter 1987" and "Lunar Lander on Steroids")
for well over 10 years now (on and off searching), but still no luck yet.
The main aim of my recent posts is to let others know that I'm still searching.
However, an interesting lead has cropped up for "Lunar Lander on Steroids" .... (read
MAMEWorld's MAME Chat Forums
for details).
Hopefully the games will turn up one day. But time is running out ...
Even if these games are being looked after somewhere and still work,
they are still in danger of bit rot, ROM decay, and eventual failure because of age, corrosion, etc.
2-Nov-2008 ::
Car Engine Stuffed => Convert to Electric ???
My Daewoo Lanos car died on the side of the road last Thursday night ... :( The oil problems that had been haunting
it for years (that mechanics told me could only be fixed by completely rebuilding the entire engine)
finally ended it's life when the engine finally siezed up. I purchased it brand new in mid-1999,
it had never been driven hard or thrashed, and it had only done 205,000 Km.
Now that it's broken down, I've spoken to mechanics and used car dealers and they all say that
my experiences are quite common - Daewoo's, particularly the Lanos, are apparently renowned
for oil problems / oil faults and that their engine "is not a good motor".
Anyway, I have been thinking about electric cars for well over a decade now, but it never made any
kind of sense to scrap a perfectly good petrol engine. However, now my petrol engine is dead, I'm seriously thinking of
converting my car to electric instead of buying another petrol car (or getting a reconditioned petrol engine).
At this stage, after a brief search of the internet, the
Electricity4Gas guide
(about $80 AUD) looks pretty good, and I'm thinking of buying it.
However, I am worried that it will list parts, suppliers, etc that are in the
USA and that it wont help me much in Australia.
If anyone knows of good value conversion kits (available in Australia), or
has done Electric Car conversions (in Australia) and has any advice or guides for me, then please
please email me. :)
29-August-2008 ::
Replace MAC with Mac
Search and replace all of my web pages and replace "MAC" with "Mac". Special thanks to Mathew C for the heads-up and email.
29-February-2008 ::
10 Ways you can tell an IT worker is *NOT* up to the job !!
Tuesday's edition of
The Australian newspaper has TOP 10 lists each week, where they ask readers to submit
their suggestions. For next Tuesday's Australian, they asked readers to submit suggestions for the
"Ways you can tell an IT worker is *NOT* up to the job". So, over a cup of coffee this morning, I
started jotting down ideas, and before I knew it, I had 10 suggestions. So, as well as emailing them to
The Australian,
I thought that I'd share them here.
10 Ways you can tell an IT worker is *NOT* up to the job:
You ask them to burn a DVD and they literally set fire to it.
You send them to the shop to buy a dozen new mice and they come back with hamsters because they were cuter.
You ask them to clean up their cluttered screen and they reach for a can of Spray N Wipe.
Looking admiringly at their new computer, you ask them how much memory did they get, and they reply "I can remember back to when I was 3 years old !"
You ask them if the database they are meant to be working on is in 3rd Normal Form, and they reply "It should be, it was fine yesterday !"
You ask them how many bits in a byte, and they ask "Are we talking dogs or rats ?"
You ask them to backup the office computers, and they reverse their car up.
You ask them to virus scan the office computers, and next thing you know, they have latex gloves and a microscope.
You ask their opinion about which language would be the most suitable for developing the new accounting system, and they reply "English ... probably ... umm ..."
You ask them to point at something on screen with the mouse and they physically lift the mouse off the desk and hold it against the part of the screen you indicated.
Yes, I've actually seen someone do number 10. Sorry Mum, I let the cat out of the bag !! ;) Oh the humanity ... ;)
3-December-2007 ::
Aussie National Bingo Night - Update
The 6 week
National Bingo Night !!
season finished on 25-Nov-2007, but my cheques are still slowly rolling in.
Thank you Channel 7 !!
My hard work on the software I wrote to check Bingo cards
( see below)
has paid off nicely, and it was
a great fun little project.
Just hope there's a season 2 ...
3-December-2007 ::
How EVIL Are You ??
Ever wonder about how evil or good your are ? Maybe the
How evil are you? quiz will provide the answer.
The redirection service I have used for my email for years (V3) is NOT working yet again and probably hasn't been for many
months now, and the V3 admin staff have not repled to any of my emails or messages. Oh well ...
Anyway, until this problem is sorted out, please do NOT use my moose AT move.to email address.
I don't intend to recompile ALL of my software again just to update my email address on the "About ..." screen.
(This is about 1-2 days of work to recompile, rebuild the ZIPs, update readme files, upload, release, etc).
However, I have gone through ALL of my web pages and updated my email address - so any Email me links are correct.
A new craze is sweeping Australia -
National Bingo Night !!
At 6:30 PM every Sunday night on free-to-air TV, numbers are drawn for
3 games of Bingo, and people on the show and in the TV show's audience can win money and prizes.
Even for players at home, the prizes can be generous - if 5 numbers come up in the shaded area of a game,
then you win $100 and also go into the draw to win $10,000 !!
Anyway, in Week 1, I downloaded a bunch of bingo cards, and shuffled these on screen and marked off numbers (I didn't print them because I didn't want to waste paper / trees).
Shuffling and marking off 10 cards (30 games) on screen was a bit of work, but manageable and fun.
For Week 2 and 3, I wrote a program to help me generate a WORD document with 20 bingo cards (60 games) per
side of an A3 page, and I played bingo this way for these weeks. But, marking off 40+ cards is hard work !!
(But still fun for a while !)
For Week 4, I vastly extended my program to extract the data from the Bingo game card PDFs and
automatically check the numbers against the cards - you simply key in the numbers that have been
drawn for each game, select the shaded cells orientation for each game and click the "Check Cards"
button and away my program goes.
Since then, I've been downloading heaps ... errr, I mean downloading my limit of 10 ... bingo cards each week, and
then running my program against them to see if we have won. No more marking off games by hand, simply kick back,
have a few glasses of wine, eat some cheese and biscuits, etc and take it easy.
So far, no luck winning any money .... But, I like a challenge, and once I get my teeth into something ...
Here is a screen shot - click on the screen shot for an expanded version. The user interface still
needs polishing, but it processes lots of cards *very* quickly.
I've thought about polishing my program and releasing it as shareware, but I've already seen how this story ends ...
See below.
People will yet again just rip off my work - like they did with all of my shareware. 10,000+ hours of work down the toilet.
Thanks bastards !!!
The TV program is due to end in 2 more weeks. If a new Bingo season starts (e.g. next year), then I
may think again about trying to do something commercial-ish with my program ...
Definitely no trial versions, shareware versions, or honesty box system this time though -
I know all about human nature now !
14-November-2007 ::
A Place In ... Series Episode Guide - v1.0
I've been thoroughly enjoying the "A Place In ..." series ever since it began on TV a few years ago.
New episodes are being shown on ABC now, and old episodes are being repeated - which is great.
Recently, I've been scouring the net to try and put together an episode guide for all of the
different parts, and I have succedded for all except "Chaos at the Chateau".
A Place In Greece – Brian &Andrew, Pete & Lesley (15 episodes)
A Place In France – Nigel, Nippi, and Reza (23 episodes)
A Place In Italy - Paul & Rima (10 episodes)
A Place In Slovakia - David & Ann (15 episodes)
A Place In Slovakia - Chaos at the Chateau - David & Ann (7 episodes) *** TO BE DONE ***
Student Results Merger is a program to help you handle /
merge / process student and other results that are allocated some sort of unique ID.
This is a BUG FIX release !!! The changes for this release include:
Warning: Do NOT use v1.07 – please upgrade to this latest version (v1.08).
Fixed a bug that was inadvertently introduced in the prior version (v1.07) which caused some students to be given the wrong result.
Anyone who processed any results with the prior version (v1.07, which was released 1 month ago) should reprocess them using this latest version (v1.08).
I apologise for any inconvenience caused. Just glad I noticed this before the start of end of term results processing …
While the program was developed for the purpose of
processing student results, it could also be used to
process cycling race, horse race, swimming race, or
keeping track of workers or volunteers, and/or various
other results / details.
This program comes with full on-line help and a step-by-step user guide
with screen shots.
19-October-2007 ::
Geek Toys - USB Toy Rocket Launchers
Are the people at work annoying you ? Playing practicle jokes ? Bombarding you with wadded-up
pieces of paper or paper aeroplanes ?
If your answer is YES to any of these questions, then maybe you need one of these amazing and
very reasonably priced USB Toy Rocket Launchers:
Err, then again, maybe you just need to get a job with people who are responsible and mature ... ;)
18-Sep-2007 ::
It's ALL Free Baby !!
ALL of my software (except for
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator
) are now FREEWARE, that is, they are free software. Anyone - any person, any company, or any business - can
use this software for free. Please download, distribute, and use it freely. No fees or payment is required.
ALL of the following 52 programs were SHAREWARE (which costed $5-$20 AUD - or approximately $2.50-$10 US - to register), and
they are now totally free:
HOWEVER: If you would like to support my efforts, and would like to send me a donation, then please feel free
to do so by clicking on the "PayPal Donate" icon on the Help ? About screen.
(But I'm not holding my breath .... The reason why all of my hard work is now freeware is that the vast
majority of people will not pay even a few lousy dollars for something that they can get for free.
It is the crackers' fault, because they provide the tools that enable people to do this.
And, it seems that the only way to beat the crackers is to give everything away for free.)
Please Note: Before making the decision to just give everything away for FREE, I had actively explored other
options for more than several years. For example:
Over 3 years ago, I contacted the Australian Red Cross and Green Peace to see if they would like me to change ALL of my software - FOR FREE - to
have their logos and links on the About screen (instead of my logo and links), so that when users clicked these logos or links
they could be taken to these organisation's WEB pages so they could read about these organisations or make donations to these organisations.
So, in effect my software would have become freeware to help advertise the Australian Red Cross and/or Green Peace
and they could have distributed it and used it to spread the word about their organisations.
Sadly, neither bothered to reply to my emails.
Over 2 years ago, I also contacted MAME Dev and had some long email discussions.
Again, I was offering to recompile all of my software FOR FREE,
place MAME's logos and links on the About screen (instead of my logo and links), so that the
software would become freeware that could be distributed to spread the word about MAME. And, when users clicked the
MAME logos or links on the About screen, then they would be taken to MAME's web page, where they could read about MAME or
make donations to support MAME. However, MAME Dev didn't seem to like the idea much at all.
I have often wondered about this ....
So, maybe it was a stupid idea ? Maybe I'm just naive ?
Anyway, who cares, it is too late now. My software is now FREE. Enjoy !
Student Results Merger is a program to help you handle /
merge / process student and other results that are allocated some sort of unique ID.
The changes for this release include:
Add in support for processing multiple result lines exist for a particular student. If multiple result
lines exist for a particular student, then you can select whether to treat this as an error, or get the program
to select the highest result via the "When Multiple Result Lines Exist for a Student" options. This is very useful
to, for example, process quiz results where students can have multiple attempts at the quiz and it is their highest
score that counts as their final result.
Add support for handling the results for multiple markers at once. This involved a simple change to the way
the program deals with data. The program now removes all lines from the ID+Result list where the result is blank
before doing any processing. This means that you can now paste in the results from multiple markers at once and
the program will handle them correctly. This should save people a lot of pre-sorting or post-merging (via multiple
columns in a spreadsheet) when multiple markers are involved. If multiple markers mark the same assignment, then
it will either be flagged as an error, or the highest result will be selected, depending on the settings you have
chosen for "When Multiple Result Lines Exist for a Student" options.
Remove the "On the Error Report, show either All Information, Warning and Error Messages or Error Messages Only"
option – the report shown after processing contains multiple tabs – one for Information Messages / Processing summary,
one for Warning messages, and one for Error messages.
While the program was developed for the purpose of
processing student results, it could also be used to
process cycling race, horse race, swimming race, or
keeping track of workers or volunteers, and/or various
other results / details.
This program comes with full on-line help and a step-by-step user guide
with screen shots.
13-July-2007 ::
Global Warming - Update
Please note: Even if it turns out that humans are NOT causing significant global warming, then I believe we must continue to learn to live more efficiently and conserve resources, like water and energy, continue to repair and recycle more, and also prepare for living in times of warmer and colder weather. Our climate is always changing, and something far worse than warming could occur in the future - cooling.
In addition, if it turns out that humans are NOT causing significant global warming, then:
This does NOT mean that we can go on using energy, using resources, producing pollution, or continuing to increase populations like we currently are.
Nor does this mean that we should delay the transition to clean, renewable forms of energy, such as geothermal, solar, wind, hydro, and tidal.
And finally, this does NOT mean that we should accept the continuing or increasing use of energy from dirty or dangerous, non-renewable forms of energy, such as coal, gas, oil, or uranium (nuclear fission).
Just because I believe that the "Anti-Human Caused Climate Change" camp have some very good arguments, it does not mean that I am suddenly a coal burning environmental anarchist in the pay of the oil companies.
Just wanted to make this clear. :)
13-July-2007 ::
Global Warming - Update Following Last Night's ABC Program
Tony Jones, the presenter of the ABC program that included this documentary, interviewed Martin Durkin (the writer and director of the
The Great Global Warming Swindle). Actually, "interviewed" is probably too nice of a word, Tony Jones actually turned-up the heat on Durkin, so much so that some people might prefer to call it a very well researched attack. The main thrust of Tony Jones' / ABC's attack on the documentary included:
At least one of the people interviewed for the documentary were, in the past, also involved in claiming that "smoking is harmless", CFCs do not harm the ozone layer, etc. This was a fair comment and I call such people "scientific whores", because they sell their opinion to whoever will pay them. However, in my opinion, such people aren't that much worse than those who beat their chests and put forward arguments in order to get research funding, or sell their books / DVDs / TV programs.
One of the people interviewed for the original documentary, Professor Carl Wunsch, claimed he was misled and mis-quoted, and has since been edited out of the latest versions of the documentary.
At least two of the graphs used in the documentary are old versions of graphs from 1990 or thereabouts, so they do not show the latest trends or highlight recent discoveries / issues.
One of the graphs had been "doctored" in the first version of the documentary, but was fixed for the version we saw last night.
All of these are very fair comments and criticisms, and I certainly believe that probing questions, like these, should be asked and that people should maintain healthy levels of skepticism. So, I applaud Tony Jones probing interview.
However, it is a shame that Tony Jones and the ABC do not subject other items, such as "Pro-Human Caused Climate Change" documentaries, news items, reports, Al Gore, or the IPCC reports, to the same levels of scruitiny. The scruitiny certainly does appear to be shamefully one-sided at the ABC, at least in this case.
Before, during, and following the program, viewers were invited to post their thoughts on ABC forums. And a lively discussion ensued, which was great to see, as viewers and members of the panel continued the discussions.
Unfortunately, ABC's servers (or server admins) weren't up to the job, and everything soon crawled to a halt as it became overloaded, making it nigh on impossible to join in any discussion, especially on dial-up internet. Oh well ... Today, I've been reading some of the
ABC forum posts, and, from what I have seen so far, they seem to indicate healthy levels of discussion and debate on both sides.
It is also a shame that other pressing issues, such as
Peak Oil
and the world's Exponential Population Increase (where the poorest people on the planet are continuing to "breed like flies" without being able to support themselves or their families) are not receiving the same levels of coverage, scruitiny, debate, or action.
12-July-2007 ::
Global Warming - Is It REALLY Caused by Human's or Human Activity ???
I have seen many documentaries and TV news reports on Climate Change and Global Warming, and have read many 1,000's of articles,
reports, documents, and WEB sites on these topics over the past 17+ years. (Yes, that's correct, my interest
and research into these topics began in the late 1980's, and today the "Renewable Energy and Environment" directories
on my harddrive currently consist of 4,541 articles and reports requiring 2.05 GB of disk space. Please Note: this does NOT
include any videos, such as those listed below).
Anyway, back in June-2004 I stumbled across a WEB site called
Still Waiting for the Greenhouse. At the time,
I remember that this web site initially made my blood boil. I could not fathom why someone would try
and deny that climate change was happening. Surely, they are either an idiot or they must be being
paid-off by some oil or coal company.
After all, I had read so much material (literally 1,000's
of articles, journal papers, reports, etc) and seen so much news footage, environmental programs, etc
that said Humans are causing Global Warming, that I thought that this must be a fact.
However, rather than get angry or upset, I decided to check out the claims being made and determine the truth for myself.
Since then, I have read many 100's more reports and articles from those that claim Global Warming is
NOT caused by Human's or Human Activity.
As well as reading these, I have also watched the following videos (all at least 3 times each over the past few months):
+2050 Future Storm - Discovery Science
+Al Gore - The Climate Crisis - 2006
+An Inconvenient Truth - An Update from Al Gore - 2007
+An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore - 2006
+Can We Save Planet Earth - David Attenborough - BBC - 2006
+Climate Change - Bush's Climate of Fear - Panorama, BBC - 2006
+The End Of The World As We Know It - Channel 4 (UK) - 2005
+The Truth About Global Warming - PassionateEye, CBC - 2006
+Too Hot Not To Handle - HBO - 2006
-An Inconvenient Truth ... or Convenient Fiction
-Global Warming - Doomsday Called Off - CBC - Nov-2005
-Global Warming - The Debate Continues - Fox News - 2006
-Greenhouse Conspiracy - Channel 4 (UK) - 1990
-The Great Global Warming Swindle - Mar-2007
All videos that start with a plus sign "+" above are "Pro-Human Caused Climate Change", and all videos that start with a minus sign "-" are "Anti-Human Caused Climate Change".
One of the program above - The Denial Machine (item 14 in the list) - is particularly interesting because one of the "scientific whores", who claimed that there were no known ill effects from smoking in the 1970's, is being wheeled out again to claim that Climate Change is NOT caused by humans. This severely dents the credibility of at least one person in the Anti-Human Caused Climate Change camp.
As you can see, in spite of extensive searching, the "Pro-Human Caused Climate Change" videos vastly outnumber the "Anti-Human Caused Climate Change" videos (by more than 4:1 in my collection), as the topic does for all types of media whether it be documentaries, TV news reports, written reports, newspaper articles, etc. We are simply flooded with the message that humans are causing global warming and that we may all soon be doomed to live in a world with extreme drought, extreme storms, etc.
After watching all of these videos several times and doing enormous amounts of background reading on these topics, here is the general gist of where things stand:
Nobody is denying that Climate Change is occurring. Everyone agrees that Climate Change is happening and the climate is currently in a warming phase. However, the climate is always changing and has done ever since Earth developed an atmosphere.
In addition, some people are saying that the Pro-Human Caused Climate Change camp have made some terrible mistakes in their interpretations of the various data, that current climate trends are nothing unusual, and that humans and human activity probably have negligible effect on our climate.
Furthermore, the "Anti-Human Caused Climate Change" camp do have some extremely strong and rational arguments that the "Pro-Human Caused Climate Change" camp simply have not been able to refute. Indeed, the "Pro-Human Caused Climate Change" camp seem to be more interested in hysterical and irrational arguments than in truly analysing or exploring the science.
As a result of my extensive research, I am now leaning towards the "Anti-Human Caused Climate Change" camp. That is, I am tending towards believing that humans and human activity have negligible impact on the climate. However, I am, as always, keeping a skeptical and open mind.
In addition, I think that before we rush out and spend BILLIONS of dollars of tax payers money on curbing CO2 emissions, we had better make darn sure that the data has been correctly interpreted and that the appropriate course(s) of action are being pursued and for the right reasons !!
After all, there is NO POINT AT ALL in spending money on a perceived solution that has nothing to do with a perceived problem.
Anyway, the reason why I mention all of this now is that one of the documentaries above,
The Great Global Warming Swindle
(item 22 on the list), is going to be aired for the first time here in Australia tonight (at 8:00 PM on ABC TV - in just 3 hours time), and it is bound to stir up a hornest nest. I wonder how many people will do anything like the volume of research I have done before they jump to any conclusions ? I wonder how many people will do anything like the volume of research I have done before they attack someone for their beliefs or put forward hysterical and irrational or unfounded arguments ?
Anyway, I'll probably hop on ABC's forums after the show tonight and see how people have reacted ... and maybe I'll stir things up a bit there as well ... ;)
12-July-2007 ::
The Simpson's - Create Your Own Avitar
Here's
a cute little WEB site to enable you to create your own Simpson's avitar.
And, err, yep, that's
me on the left,
complete with a T-Shirt that has a picture of Santa's Little Helper
with antlers - which is about as close as you can get to a Moose in the Simpson's universe. :)
3-Apr-2007 ::
Renewable Energy Page - Back On-Line
I don't know how it happened, but somehow my
Renewable Energy
page went missing. Never mind, it is back on-line now. :)
Special thanks to Kalmar
on the
Yak Yak forums
for letting me know !! :)
On a related "maintenance" note, I notice that my web page counters (at the bottom)
are no longer working (again). Seems the web site I was linking to for free
counter services is gone. I'll fix this in the near future as well.
2-Apr-2007 ::
Greetings to the Guys at Yak Yak
There have been a real lack of updates in Moose's Valley recently - sorry, I've been exceedingly busy lately ...
However, for a change, I was bored at work on Friday and scratching around for distractions (as you do ;),
so I was hunting around on my hard-drive trying to see where all my space had gone (as you do ;),
and pretty soon I found and started watching some old videos of the scoring bugs in Computer Space (as you do - NOT ;), and
then decided "What the hell, I'll do a quick search on "Computer Space Simulator" in Google and see what pops-up".
Anyway, there weren't many hits !! ;) and pretty soon I found this thread on the
Yak Yak forums
where people have said some kind things about my
Computer Space Simulator
software, and some old timers even remember visiting my humble web site way back when Emulation News
sites weren't "dime a dozen" - which was very nice to hear !! Thanks guys - you really made my day !! :)
2-Apr-2007 ::
UFO Master Blaster Simulator
Seeing that I mentioned this on the
Yak Yak forums
earlier today, I thought that I should probably mention it here as well ... ;)
I've got lots of projects "on the go" at the moment (err, hang on, some things never change ... ;),
but one that has been on the backburner for ages (i.e. decades), and now getting more of my attention is
a "UFO Master Blaster" simulator.
I purchased one of these great little hand held games out of my hard earned pocket money way
back in the late 1970's (in my early teens), and still have it, and it still works !!
(That's actually a scan of my game's box that you see here).
Since the the early 1980's, I have often thought of developing a simulator for this
game. However, it is only after the late 1980's that the average home computer
was powerful enough and had nice enough graphics and sound that they could do the game justice.
So, decades later, the time is definitely well over due for me to do a simulator of this game.
There are still lots of issues to iron out before I can make much progress, such as
fixing my game's fire button (I can't solder to save myself),
finding the best way to record decent quality sound samples,
scanning and reproducing the graphics (there is no pause button -
need to use the flat battery trick that I still remember from 25+ years ago), etc.
And, then I have weeks of analysis, programming, etc work to do - to make my simulator
as close as possible to the real game. There are mountains of work in this - just look
at the development log at the end of the
manual for my Computer Space Simulator
to see for yourself, and I wont have Kevin's help this time. Gaaawwwddd !! ;)
So, if anyone knows of any other project to emulate or simulate "UFO Master Blaster", then please
Email me
and let me know asap, because this information could save me weeks of wasted work, and I might instead be able to concentrate on helping someone else's project along.
You can read more about "UFO Master Blaster" here:
And, on related news, if all goes well, I'll also be releasing an update to my
Computer Space Simulator
within a few months or so which supports the scoring bugs, etc. You read it here second - that's right,
Yak Yak
found out first !! ;)
29-Sep-2006 ::
Monitors - Amazing New Releases
It is not everyday (or even every year) that I get excited about computer / video monitor developments,
but some incredible developments are under way and some amazing products have been released lately.
In particular, Sharp Triple Directional Viewing LCD and the
Radius 320 Seamless LCD are interesting.
Sharp's LCD
allows you to see 3 different images depending on the direction of viewing, and has great applications for advertising, games, large desktop viewing, and even watching movies and entertainment. For example, with headphones, 3 people in room, airplane, or a car could each watch a different movie or play a different game.
While, the
Radius 320
is a big, sexy monitor that would be great for desktop use - especially for those of us with dozens of applications running and many windows open all day.
I know what I want for Christmas Santa !! Mom ?? Anyone ?? LOL. ;)
3-Aug-2006 ::
10 years of Moose's Software Valley !!!
Happy 10th birthday Moose's Software Valley !!!
(Well ... actually it was my web site's 10th Birthday 5 days ago, on 29-July).
It is almost unheard of on the internet for a web site to last for 5 years, let alone 10 years.
However, that is just what Moose's Software Valley has done,
which is pretty amazing in our world of constant change.
When I started this site, there was no such thing as $5 or $10 shareware - this was completely unheard of.
The minimum price for Shareware in 1996 was something like $25 US - not $5 AUD !!! (which is only about $3 US)
So, I tested the water with a bunch of little programs - just to see what the potential market was like - with
the philosophy "Stack in high, sell it CHEAP !!!". I wanted to turn the shareware market on its head,
by selling great software at rediculously low prices - prices so low that people would not bother to steal
the software or download hacks or cracks for it, but would instead be happy to hand over the paltry registration fee.
Or, at least, that was the theory. The reality turned out to be very different ...
Looking back, many of my early programs (in particular) should never have been released as shareware,
but I figured "What the hell, I'll put them out there and see if they sell". And to my suprise, they started
selling like hotcakes within 24-48 hours of Moose's Software Valley going live, and, for a while,
I thought I was onto a *real* winner.
So, I got stuck into developing more and more shareware and today I have a catalog of
85 programs (comprised of 53 Shareware + 29 Freeware + 3 Apple ][ freeware programs).
But, alas, soon the whole fabric of the internet changed.
Pretty soon I realised that even at rediculously low "give away" prices, most people
will still go right out of their way to avoid paying for something, and that they will quite happily put their PCs
and their own personal data at risk and use illegal cracks and hacks (that often contain viruses, trojans, spyware, etc)
to break software so they can use full versions of it for free.
Anyway, 85 programs is pretty impressive.
This volume of shareware and freeware software by a single author is (as far as I can tell)
completely unheard of on the internet, and there is a chance that
I might just be the world's most prolific (and also least successful !) shareware / freeware author.
In the past 10 years, Moose's Software Valley has had well over 500,000 visitors
(since going live in late July - very early August, 1996).
Actually the exact number of visitors as of today is 534,735 visitors, which
consists of 489,951 visitors up until December 10, 2002
and another 44,784 since December 11, 2002 = 534,735 visitors -
and that is just on my main Index page,
which many visitors bypass as a result of clicking on links in search engines.
The total number of visitors to all of my pages is well over 1 Million.
Which is not too bad in 10 years I guess ...
Anyway, I wouldn't say Moose's Software Valley has been a success, and it certainly hasn't been a
financial success, but it has always been interesting, it has mostly been fun, and I have met some terrific people
and, sadly, also a few extreme arsewipes !! ;) (or asswipes as Americans would say).
Will Moose's Software Valley last another 10 years ?? Probably not, but only time will tell ...
3-Aug-2006 ::
Goodbye Frames and Java Menus
In order to vastly speed-up the loading of my web pages, and also to remove any issues from
non-Java enabled WEB Browsers, I have removed the Java based JoyButton class (which
used to display / control the menus / links on the left), and have also completely
done away with HTML FRAMES. I probably should have made these changes ages ago ...
Anyway, this site, and my web pages, no longer use Java and there are no more HTML Frames.
Hopefully, visitors will notice a nice speed-up !! :)
I have been trialling various Fuel Savings techniques lately. e.g. buying a small car, driving gently
(speeding up slowly, cruising and slowing down slowly - no rapid starts / stops), and also driving at 90-95 Km/Hr
instead of 100+ Km/Hr. These activities helped improve my car's fuel economy by around 10%.
In addition, I have also started using an Upper Engine Lubricant (UEL) - it costed $68 for 5 litres,
and you add a small amount to your petrol tank before filling up.
For my small car, which has a 50 litre petrol tank, I add 25 ml of UEL - which costs about 25 * $68 / (5 * 1000) = $0.34
which is less than $0.01 per litre of fuel ! This UEL increased my car's miles / gallon by an additional 12.8%:
Driving 90-95
39.536 miles/gallon
Driving 90-95 + UEL
44.593 miles/gallon
So, instead of getting 700 Km on a tank of fuel, I now get 790 - which saves me around $6.97 in fuel per tank of fuel,
while costing just $0.34 for the Upper Engine Lubricant (UEL) per tank of fuel (for my car).
That is a NET saving of $6.63 per tank of fuel for my car. So, it is well worth doing !!
UELs also reduce engine wear and tear, improving the life of your engine, reducing maintenance, etc.
If UELs provide similar efficiency improvements in all petrol and diesel cars, trucks, etc
(and the manufacturer assures me that it does) and everyone started using them,
then we could all spend 10-12% less on fuel overnight
and entire countries could reduce their fuel consumption by 10-12%, which could reduce the global demand for oil,
help conserve precious oil and fuel reserves, and also help the environment (less fuel used for the same journey
= less pollution / greenhouse gas !).
Talk about a Win, Win, Win situation !!
In fact, I believe that such fuel additives should be made MANDATORY, or better yet,
premixed into the fuel at the petrol bowser (for an additional charge of a cent a litre).
11-July-2006 ::
Peak Oil - Australian ABC's 4 Corners Special
I have made various reports about Peak Oil and various environmental issues in recent years, including:
11-July-2006 ::
Moose's Weight Loss - Update - 33 KG so far
I
reported recently about my weight loss success up until 8 May, 2006.
Well, I am happy to report things are still going very well - I have lost another 13 KG since then,
and am now down to 87 KG which is less than 4 KG off the upper
end of the ideal weight for my height and about 5-7 KG off where I want to be. So, the end is definitely in sight.
As a result of this weight loss:
my Body Mass Index (BMI) has dropped from a dangerously high 37.87 down
to a far safer 26.85.
And, I am now the same weight that I was in my mid 20's - which isn't bad for a 40 year old computer programmer !! ;)
And, my waist size has dropped from 49 inches to 38 inches.
And, people are finally starting to notice the change at
work (serves me right for being a quiet achiever I guess !! ;)
It has been hard work so far - it feels like I've walked and jogged half way round the
planet and I've eaten my way through acres of celery, cabbage, and broccoli - but it will all
be worth it in the end. ;)
At my current rates, I should get to my target weight within the next month. As always,
I'm pushing hard to make this happen ... ;)
Here's a summary of my progress after exercising and dieting for the past 163 days:
At Start (1-Feb-2006)
As of Today (11-Jul-2006)
Weight
120 KG
87 Kg
Waist Size
49 inches
38 inches
BMI
37.87
26.85
Weight Loss so far
33 KG
Percentage Weight Loss so far
27.5%
Average Exercise per Day
3.18 hours (mostly walking and jogging)
Average Calorie Intake per Day
1,410.67
Average Calories Expended per Day
3,091.29
Average NET Calories per Day
-1,680.62
Average Weight Loss per Week
1.52 KG
Target Weight
80-85 Kg - only 4-7 KG to go !!
There's now only 1 part of my life which isn't a complete success, and this has always been the most difficult part of life.
If all goes well, then I will be turning my attention to that next.
Which part you ask ?
Well, I'll give you a hint: how many dates do you think an overweight computer programmer gets ? ;)
Student Results Merger is a program to help you handle /
merge / process student and other results that are allocated some sort of unique ID.
The changes for this release include:
Add a new "Remove these chars from all fields" setting onto the main screen. If this setting's checkbox is checked, then any characters typed in the data entry box next to it will be automatically removed from all student ID and result data before it is processed further. Special thanks to Peter C for suggesting this improvement.
Add a "Help" button to the main window - this does the same as the Help -> Help + Step by Step Guide menu option.
While the program was developed for the purpose of
processing student results, it could also be used to
process cycling race, horse race, swimming race, or
keeping track of workers or volunteers, and/or various
other results / details.
This program comes with full on-line help and a step-by-step user guide
with screen shots.
Student Results Merger is a program to help you handle /
merge / process student and other results that are allocated some sort of unique ID.
The changes for this release include:
Add in "Truncate Student IDs to NN characters" checkbox / setting to enable the user to specify the trimming of student-ids to allow the correct comparison of master and result student IDs - which may be of different lengths due to addition of check digits or other items to one or both student IDs. Special thanks to Peter C for suggesting this improvement.
Change the default setting for "On the Error Report, show" to "Error Messages Only".
While the program was developed for the purpose of
processing student results, it could also be used to
process cycling race, horse race, swimming race, or
keeping track of workers or volunteers, and/or various
other results / details.
This program comes with full on-line help and a step-by-step user guide
with screen shots.
8-May-2006 ::
Sailing
I've always loved sailing - it is lovely to spend time on the water in
one of the quietest, lowest impact, and most non-polluting ways possible.
Free, renewable energy from the wind - what could be better ??
In the past I've done a lot of sailing, including
100's of hours of amateur yacht racing on the Gold Coast and
100's of hours sailing catamarans (Byron Bay, Gold Coast, Capricorn Coast, etc).
For as long as I can remember, one of my life's goals has been to
sail the world in my own yacht.
Recently, I purchased a small yacht, and have been enjoying sailing around the
pristine and spectacularly beautiful islands and bays around the Capricorn Coast,
Queensland, Australia where I live.
Anyway, here are some very recent pictures of sailing with Boogle (click on them for enlargements):
More photos to come soon ... ;)
8-May-2006 ::
Moose's Weight Loss - 20 KG so far
There has been a lot in the press and media recently about how 60+% of "westerners" are obese, etc, and looking around my local area and workplace, this certainly appears to be a reasonable figure. However, it's not all bad news, and many "westerners" are sitting up and taking notice and taking steps to lose weight.
I've had a desk job for the last ~20 years (mostly as a computer programmer, a renowned job for "fatties"). Even though I've never been a junk food-aholic, I do love my food, and I'm ashamed to say that the weight has slowly been packing on over the years, and I haven't exercised properly.
Last year, for a part-time job, I started ghost-writing lots of health related articles and ebooks, and I soon realised just how serious excess weight was to your health and what complications it could cause. This work got me to take a long hard look at myself. I used to describe my physical appearance as a "full framed Aussie male", that is, someone who is tall, broad shouldered, a little stocky, and strong. But, earlier this year I suddenly realised that I had developed quite a gut and was very unfit. I was 120 KG and had suddenly crossed the boundary from looking "strong but stocky" to looking "pretty chubby / fat", I decided to do something serious about it.
So, back in February - instead of going away on holidays to Europe or wherever for a month as I usually do - I turned my house into a mini health farm and spent the entire month changing my life style and eating habits for good:
getting into a daily exercise routine,
buying home exercise equipment (exercise bike, ab gear, and home gym which are set-up in my living room so there is no excuse not to use them),
walking and jogging on the beach before and after work (I live just across the road from a lovely beach),
walking to shops, etc - or parking far away from the shops / movies / etc and walking,
walking at lunch time,
eating *much* healthier (10+ times more fruit and vedge, black tea, no sugar, no junk food, as little fat as possible), etc.
A couple of weeks later, the Aussie version of "The Biggest Loser" was just starting on TV, so I got into the habbit of working out while watching this and other TV programs (Simpsons, News, etc).
Another huge help was finding out about Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and calories burned during different types of exercises and monitoring everything I eat (thanks to Calorie King's book) - it all goes into a spreadsheet with my current weight, etc so I can see how I'm going, and a summary is displayed on a graph.
For me this effort has paid off and worked well. In the end, it all came down to watching what I eat, counting calroies, regular exercise, and making sure that my calorie input is a LOT LESS than what I am using / need. i.e. Calorie Intake < Calories Expended.
Here's my progress after 96 days:
Start Weight (1-Feb-2006)
120 Kg
Current Weight (8-May-2006)
100 Kg
Weight Loss so far
20 KG
Percentage Weight Loss so far
16.5%
Average Exercise per Day
3.13 hours (mostly walking and jogging)
Target Weight
85 Kg would be nice !! ;)
At my current rates, I should get to my target weight sometime in July, 2006. I'm pushing hard to make this happen ...
10-Jan-2006 ::
Red Vs Blue, Machinima, Fresh Baked Video Games
I was catching up on the most recent
Red Vs Blue
episodes today. For those who haven't heard of Red Vs Blue yet, they are a series (currently about 70)
of cartoon-ish episodes using multi-player Halo (a very popular X-Box and PC video game) game engine
for animation and real humans for the voice overs. The episodes are excellent and (often) very funny,
and once you start watching them you will want to buy the DVDs asap. Make sure you check it out.
Because of Red Vs Blue, I have become a big fan of machinima. (BTW, if you don't know what
the hell I'm talking about or what machinima is,
check this out).
Anyway, while catching up on Red Vs Blue, I decided to take a look over at
Machinima.com
as it had been a while since my last visit and I also checked out a few recent newsgroup postings there and found
this interesting post:
Apart from discussing the topic, this topic also provided links to two truly inspired and hilarious new
machinima videos (produced using the
Ever Quest 2 game engine I believe):
Judging from the sample videos, the show looks pretty stupid - but very, very funny - and right up my alley.
Shame I don't have cable or satellite .... If you have cable or satellite, make sure you check it
out ... and send me DVD's if you can record them !! LOL !! Just kidding !! ;)
9-Dec-2005 ::
Jimmy Carter's speech televised on April 18, 1977.
Below is a speech Jimmy Carter made in 1977. Everything he says is totally and undeniably true.
What a shame that so few people and so few politicians have done anything about it ...
Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem unprecedented in our history. With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetimes. The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us, but it will if we do not act quickly.
It is a problem we will not solve in the next few years, and it is likely to get progressively worse through the rest of this century.
We must not be selfish or timid if we hope to have a decent world for our children and grandchildren.
We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now, we can control our future instead of letting the future control us.
Two days from now, I will present my energy proposals to the Congress. Its members will be my partners and they have already given me a great deal of valuable advice. Many of these proposals will be unpopular. Some will cause you to put up with inconveniences and to make sacrifices.
The most important thing about these proposals is that the alternative may be a national catastrophe. Further delay can affect our strength and our power as a nation.
Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people and the ability of the President and the Congress to govern. This difficult effort will be the "moral equivalent of war" -- except that we will be uniting our efforts to build and not destroy.
I know that some of you may doubt that we face real energy shortages. The 1973 gasoline lines are gone, and our homes are warm again. But our energy problem is worse tonight than it was in 1973 or a few weeks ago in the dead of winter. It is worse because more waste has occurred, and more time has passed by without our planning for the future. And it will get worse every day until we act.
The oil and natural gas we rely on for 75 percent of our energy are running out. In spite of increased effort, domestic production has been dropping steadily at about six percent a year. Imports have doubled in the last five years. Our nation's independence of economic and political action is becoming increasingly constrained. Unless profound changes are made to lower oil consumption, we now believe that early in the 1980s the world will be demanding more oil that it can produce.
The world now uses about 60 million barrels of oil a day and demand increases each year about 5 percent. This means that just to stay even we need the production of a new Texas every year, an Alaskan North Slope every nine months, or a new Saudi Arabia every three years. Obviously, this cannot continue.
We must look back in history to understand our energy problem. Twice in the last several hundred years there has been a transition in the way people use energy.
The first was about 200 years ago, away from wood -- which had provided about 90 percent of all fuel -- to coal, which was more efficient. This change became the basis of the Industrial Revolution.
The second change took place in this century, with the growing use of oil and natural gas. They were more convenient and cheaper than coal, and the supply seemed to be almost without limit. They made possible the age of automobile and airplane travel. Nearly everyone who is alive today grew up during this age and we have never known anything different.
Because we are now running out of gas and oil, we must prepare quickly for a third change, to strict conservation and to the use of coal and permanent renewable energy sources, like solar power.
The world has not prepared for the future. During the 1950s, people used twice as much oil as during the 1940s. During the 1960s, we used twice as much as during the 1950s. And in each of those decades, more oil was consumed than in all of mankind's previous history.
World consumption of oil is still going up. If it were possible to keep it rising during the 1970s and 1980s by 5 percent a year as it has in the past, we could use up all the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of the next decade.
I know that many of you have suspected that some supplies of oil and gas are being withheld. You may be right, but suspicions about oil companies cannot change the fact that we are running out of petroleum.
All of us have heard about the large oil fields on Alaska's North Slope. In a few years when the North Slope is producing fully, its total output will be just about equal to two years' increase in our nation's energy demand.
Each new inventory of world oil reserves has been more disturbing than the last. World oil production can probably keep going up for another six or eight years. But some time in the 1980s it can't go up much more. Demand will overtake production. We have no choice about that.
But we do have a choice about how we will spend the next few years. Each American uses the energy equivalent of 60 barrels of oil per person each year. Ours is the most wasteful nation on earth. We waste more energy than we import. With about the same standard of living, we use twice as much energy per person as do other countries like Germany, Japan and Sweden.
One choice is to continue doing what we have been doing before. We can drift along for a few more years.
Our consumption of oil would keep going up every year. Our cars would continue to be too large and inefficient. Three-quarters of them would continue to carry only one person -- the driver -- while our public transportation system continues to decline. We can delay insulating our houses, and they will continue to lose about 50 percent of their heat in waste.
We can continue using scarce oil and natural to generate electricity, and continue wasting two-thirds of their fuel value in the process.
If we do not act, then by 1985 we will be using 33 percent more energy than we do today.
We can't substantially increase our domestic production, so we would need to import twice as much oil as we do now. Supplies will be uncertain. The cost will keep going up. Six years ago, we paid $3.7 billion for imported oil. Last year we spent $37 billion -- nearly ten times as much -- and this year we may spend over $45 billion.
Unless we act, we will spend more than $550 billion for imported oil by 1985 -- more than $2,500 a year for every man, woman, and child in America. Along with that money we will continue losing American jobs and becoming increasingly vulnerable to supply interruptions.
Now we have a choice. But if we wait, we will live in fear of embargoes. We could endanger our freedom as a sovereign nation to act in foreign affairs. Within ten years we would not be able to import enough oil -- from any country, at any acceptable price.
If we wait, and do not act, then our factories will not be able to keep our people on the job with reduced supplies of fuel. Too few of our utilities will have switched to coal, our most abundant energy source.
We will not be ready to keep our transportation system running with smaller, more efficient cars and a better network of buses, trains and public transportation.
We will feel mounting pressure to plunder the environment. We will have a crash program to build more nuclear plants, strip-mine and burn more coal, and drill more offshore wells than we will need if we begin to conserve now. Inflation will soar, production will go down, people will lose their jobs. Intense competition will build up among nations and among the different regions within our own country.
If we fail to act soon, we will face an economic, social and political crisis that will threaten our free institutions.
But we still have another choice. We can begin to prepare right now. We can decide to act while there is time.
That is the concept of the energy policy we will present on Wednesday. Our national energy plan is based on ten fundamental principles.
The first principle is that we can have an effective and comprehensive energy policy only if the government takes responsibility for it and if the people understand the seriousness of the challenge and are willing to make sacrifices.
The second principle is that healthy economic growth must continue. Only by saving energy can we maintain our standard of living and keep our people at work. An effective conservation program will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
The third principle is that we must protect the environment. Our energy problems have the same cause as our environmental problems -- wasteful use of resources. Conservation helps us solve both at once.
The fourth principle is that we must reduce our vulnerability to potentially devastating embargoes. We can protect ourselves from uncertain supplies by reducing our demand for oil, making the most of our abundant resources such as coal, and developing a strategic petroleum reserve.
The fifth principle is that we must be fair. Our solutions must ask equal sacrifices from every region, every class of people, every interest group. Industry will have to do its part to conserve, just as the consumers will. The energy producers deserve fair treatment, but we will not let the oil companies profiteer.
The sixth principle, and the cornerstone of our policy, is to reduce the demand through conservation. Our emphasis on conservation is a clear difference between this plan and others which merely encouraged crash production efforts. Conservation is the quickest, cheapest, most practical source of energy. Conservation is the only way we can buy a barrel of oil for a few dollars. It costs about $13 to waste it.
The seventh principle is that prices should generally reflect the true replacement costs of energy. We are only cheating ourselves if we make energy artificially cheap and use more than we can really afford.
The eighth principle is that government policies must be predictable and certain. Both consumers and producers need policies they can count on so they can plan ahead. This is one reason I am working with the Congress to create a new Department of Energy, to replace more than 50 different agencies that now have some control over energy.
The ninth principle is that we must conserve the fuels that are scarcest and make the most of those that are more plentiful. We can't continue to use oil and gas for 75 percent of our consumption when they make up seven percent of our domestic reserves. We need to shift to plentiful coal while taking care to protect the environment, and to apply stricter safety standards to nuclear energy.
The tenth principle is that we must start now to develop the new, unconventional sources of energy we will rely on in the next century.
These ten principles have guided the development of the policy I would describe to you and the Congress on Wednesday.
Our energy plan will also include a number of specific goals, to measure our progress toward a stable energy system.
These are the goals we set for 1985:
--Reduce the annual growth rate in our energy demand to less than two percent.
--Reduce gasoline consumption by ten percent below its current level.
--Cut in half the portion of United States oil which is imported, from a potential level of 16 million barrels to six million barrels a day.
--Establish a strategic petroleum reserve of one billion barrels, more than six months' supply.
--Increase our coal production by about two thirds to more than 1 billion tons a year.
--Insulate 90 percent of American homes and all new buildings.
--Use solar energy in more than two and one-half million houses.
We will monitor our progress toward these goals year by year. Our plan will call for stricter conservation measures if we fall behind.
I cant tell you that these measures will be easy, nor will they be popular. But I think most of you realize that a policy which does not ask for changes or sacrifices would not be an effective policy.
This plan is essential to protect our jobs, our environment, our standard of living, and our future.
Whether this plan truly makes a difference will be decided not here in Washington, but in every town and every factory, in every home an don every highway and every farm.
I believe this can be a positive challenge. There is something especially American in the kinds of changes we have to make. We have been proud, through our history of being efficient people.
We have been proud of our leadership in the world. Now we have a chance again to give the world a positive example.
And we have been proud of our vision of the future. We have always wanted to give our children and grandchildren a world richer in possibilities than we've had. They are the ones we must provide for now. They are the ones who will suffer most if we don't act.
I've given you some of the principles of the plan.
I am sure each of you will find something you don't like about the specifics of our proposal. It will demand that we make sacrifices and changes in our lives. To some degree, the sacrifices will be painful -- but so is any meaningful sacrifice. It will lead to some higher costs, and to some greater inconveniences for everyone.
But the sacrifices will be gradual, realistic and necessary. Above all, they will be fair. No one will gain an unfair advantage through this plan. No one will be asked to bear an unfair burden. We will monitor the accuracy of data from the oil and natural gas companies, so that we will know their true production, supplies, reserves, and profits.
The citizens who insist on driving large, unnecessarily powerful cars must expect to pay more for that luxury.
We can be sure that all the special interest groups in the country will attack the part of this plan that affects them directly. They will say that sacrifice is fine, as long as other people do it, but that their sacrifice is unreasonable, or unfair, or harmful to the country. If they succeed, then the burden on the ordinary citizen, who is not organized into an interest group, would be crushing.
There should be only one test for this program: whether it will help our country.
Other generation of Americans have faced and mastered great challenges. I have faith that meeting this challenge will make our own lives even richer. If you will join me so that we can work together with patriotism and courage, we will again prove that our great nation can lead the world into an age of peace, independence and freedom.
Jimmy Carter, "The President's Proposed Energy Policy." 18 April 1977. Vital Speeches of the Day, Vol. XXXXIII, No. 14, May 1, 1977, pp. 418-420.
9-Dec-2005 ::
Mike's Soapbox: Australian Drug Users, Addicts, Dealers and Mules
An alarming number of Australian drug users, drug addicts, drug dealers and drug mules have been
in the spotlight lately:
Schapelle Corby - a Queensland beautician who received 20 years in an Indonesian Jail
for "allegedly" importing 4.2 kilograms of marijuana.
Michelle Lee - an Australian model who received 3 months in an Indonesian Jail for
"allegedly" being caught with multiple ecstasy tablets
Bali 9 - "allegedly" caught in a joint drug bust between Australian and Indonesian police with
11 kg (24.2 lb) of heroin strapped to their bodies while trying to import the drug into Australia.
Graham Clifford Payne an Australian living in Indonesia was caught with 0.1 grams
of crystal meth AND 2,000 pills of prescription drugs in his house.
Van Tuong Nguyen - a 25 year old Melbourne salesman was "allegedly" caught smuggling
396 grams of heroin strapped to his body and in his hand luggage at Changi airport, Singapore in 2002.
He was hanged recently.
There are a lot of people in Australia bleating about the "harsh penalties" metered out to
drug users, drug addicts, drug dealers and drug mules, and some people are even
demanding that the Australian Government should do more to help these people.
But hang on a sec, I don't want my tax dollars being used to defend or support drug users, drug addicts,
drug dealers or drug mules. EVER ! In fact, I DEMAND that my tax dollars are NOT used for these purposes.
I work hard for my money, I pay a lot of tax, and I don't want this squandered on supporting or helping
parasites and criminals.
These are ILLEGAL drugs. They are ILLEGAL for good reason, they are EXTREMELY dangerous.
There are huge signs all over Singapore and Indonesian airports warning of the penalties of
drugs possession or drug trafficking.
These are NOT "party drugs". They are NOT "recreational drugs". I find these terms extremely offensive,
it makes them seem like the drugs are OK, or even beneficial. But, these are downright dangerous illegal drugs.
Anyone who takes these drugs is breaking the law, but all evidence suggests that
drug addicts and drug users believe that they are somehow better than everyone else and that they
are somehow above the law and that they have some sort of right to take illegal drugs. HOW DARE YOU !!
At best, these people will be a future burden on the health care system, the legal system,
and so on. In fact, my tax dollars will probably end up supporting them for their entire lives on the pension or DOLE,
because they wont be employable and it is also likely that they will never be useful or productive
members of society.
In fact, by buying illegal drugs to support their nasty habbits, they are supporting criminals and
criminal drug dealers
in Australia, making Australia a worse place to live and undermining the fabric of our society,
causing an increase in violence, crime, and multitude of other serious issues.
Imagine how much better the world would be without drug users, drug addicts, drug dealers and drug mules ?
I support Indonesia and Singapore's so-called "tough" laws. I would like to personally and publicly
thank these countries for standing tough against the parasites and criminals. It is a shame that the
Australian Government and Australian Legal System don't start doing the same.
Death to all drug users, drug addicts, drug dealers and drug mules !!!
Or, at the very least, lets lock all of them away until they learn to obey the law and make full
ammends for their parasitic, criminal behaviour. OK, OK, "death" *might* be a little too harsh,
but let's at the very least bring back good old
"hard labour" to make these parasites and criminals understand that what they are doing is
wrong and totally unacceptable.
28-Nov-2005 ::
Peak Oil on ABC's Catalyst
Australiam ABC's Catalyst
program last Thursday had a special on Peak Oil -
which I suggested to the ABC on 7-Dec-2004 via this email :
From: Mike O'Malley
Sent: Tuesday, 7 December 2004 12:19 PM
To: 'catalyst@your.abc.net.au'
Subject: Peak Oil on Catalyst
A terrific topic for Catalyst would be Peak Oil.
We depend on oil for many things :
To power machines to grow and transport our food,
To power machines to manufacture the materials and build our homes and factories and schools and hospitals.
To power the machines which mine coal and uranium - which generates the vast majority of out electricity.
To make plastics, pesticides, and other industrial chemicals.
etc
If oil production is peaking or is about to peak - as many claim around the globe right now - and there is not enough supply to satiate the increasing demand - then there could be far reaching consequences.
Increasing prices of oil (an just about everything else) will be just the start.
If we cannot afford to grow or transport our food, what will happen ?
If we cannot afford to mine coal / uranium to generate electricity, what will happen ?
Some people predict a very dire future for humans.
I'm taking a more hardline approach - I hope that any shortage in oil will finally force us into :
conserving electricity, fuel, and other resources,
investing in the cleanest possible, renewable energies - such as wind, solar,
and that we may be able to engineer our way out of this mess at the 11th hour.
If you would like a hand to research this topic, then I would sure like to help. I've been trying to discover the real truth for several months now - and I would like to have an opportunity to interview Shell, BP, OPEC, etc people to see what they say.
Michael
[Email SIG showing my company and contact details removed]
In the subsequent replies I got from the Catalyst team, it was obvious that they didn't
know about Peak Oil and had not considered it as a potential Catalyst topic before. So, it
was probably my email that "inspired" their coverage. It is a shame that they didn't say
thanks or mention my name in the credits ... ;)
Forgot to mention it here, but I received a DVD of digital camera pictures, digital camera video, and
sound recordings of a real Stunt Cycle machine back in July, 2005. I'd like to thank Mike
again (and publicly this time ! ;), for his efforts and for the expenses he incurred to
record, prepare, and post this DVD to me. Thanks Mike !! :)
Things have been so busy lately, that I haven't had much of a chance to look at it - but it fell
out of my "Inbox" a couple of days ago (when I picked up a wodge of paper work),
so it is still there and I will get to it "one of these days" ... Promise !! ;)
As I have said all along, I cannot guarantee that this will result in a simulator or an emulator, but it is
certainly good to have this material safely archived for the time when someone
wants to work on a Stunt Cycle simulator or emulator.
23-Nov-2005 ::
Computer Space Simulator News
In related news (to Stunt Cycle above), the public response to my
Computer Space Simulator v1.0
which was released on
11 May, 2005,
has been "underwhelming" and "disappointing". Of the very few people who commented on it,
about all anyone seemed to have to say about my months of work was
"where are the scoring bugs and hyperspace" (that the original machine had) ....
So, this took the wind out of my sails, and I haven't had the time, energy or
inclination to do any work on it since.
However, recently I have been in touch with Kevin at
Computer Space Fan
and I should begin work on v1.1 sometime in the near-ish future. The new version will support
ALL of the quirks of the original machine : scoring bugs and hyperspace - so it will be 99.9% accurate.
I'm still preparing myself for the usual "underwhelming" and "disappointing" feedback however ...
Why can't people be happy and grateful for what they receive for FREE ?? Bah !
23-Nov-2005 ::
Microsoft Windows 1983 pre-Version 1.0 demo
The article is a review of Windows just prior to the release of v1.0 way back in 1983,
and it received a lot of praise from BYTE magazine's reviewers and they clearly saw
the future potential of the product.
As an old Apple ][ user, I particularly liked the picture of the
Apple II with a PC emulator card running Microsoft Windows !!
What a mighty machine the ][ was !!
Yiikes, found some more pictures of the poor ugly little dog reported below.
I have also read some articles about him - he might be ugly, but his owners love
him to bits - and rightly so as well. God bless you little hell dog. God bless you. ;)
19-July-2005 ::
World's Ugliest Dog - Part 2
Yiikes, the poor ugly dog I reported yesterday is all over the internet.
After a bit of searching, I managed to find another picture of the ugliest dog.
N.B. Click on the image to see a bigger picture of this pooch.
In Electronics World, Sep 2004, as I have just found out, there was an amazing article
on a new Tongue Display Unit (TDU).
This new tongue mounted electronic device is enabling blind people to see simple images.
These people may never have seen anything in their life, and all of a sudden they can see simple images.
Incredible !!
And what's even more amazing is that the images and information are processed by Visual Cortex
area of the blind person's brain.
So, the Visual Cortex in blind people is still alive and fully active, even
though it had never been used for visual processing before, AND the tongue can be used as
a gatweay to that area of the brain.
Absolutely and utterly amazing !!! And, imagine "watching" pornos with this thing ??? ;) ;)
Special thanks to Francis O for emailing me about this !! :)
Anyway, you can read more about this here :
Is this a face that even a mother couldn't love ???
N.B. Click on the image to see a bigger picture of this pooch.
As an avid dog lover, I never thought I would say that any dog was utterly and truly ugly,
but after receiving an email early today, I can now admit that there is at least one hideously
ugly dog on the planet !! ;) ;)
According to the email:
The owners of the other contestants in this year's World's Ugliest Dog Contest may have thought their pooches had a chance - until they saw Sam.
The 14-year-old pedigreed Chinese crested recently won the Sonoma-Marin Fair contest for the third consecutive time, and it's no surprise.
The tiny dog has no hair, if you don't count the yellowish-white tuft erupting from his head. His wrinkled brown skin is covered with splotches, a line of warts marches down his snout, his blind eyes are an alien, milky white and a fleshy flap of skin hangs from his withered neck. And then there's the Austin Powers teeth that jut at odd angles from his mouth.
He's so ugly even the judges recoiled when he was placed on the judging table, said his proud owner, Susie Lockheed, of Santa Barbara."People are always horrified when I kiss him. He may turn into a prince yet. He's definitely a toad," she said. "I always thought he'd be great on greeting cards or on a commercial for Rogaine."
Sam, who's pushing 15, has something of a cult following after winning the contest - and fans' hearts - for three years running. Last year, huge crowds gathered around Sam and Lockheed at a local parade and Lockheed said she received letters and calls about her pup for weeks. "So many people have told me they've got his picture on their refrigerator. He certainly has a little cult following," she said. "I did years of professional musical theater and never achieved the fame Sam has."
Sam will appear in this weekend's Fourth of July parade in Santa Barbara, but the recent events may be the cap on a long, ugly career. Lockheed says Sam's now suffering from congestive heart failure, lung and kidney problems and has definitely slowed down in his twilight years.
Still, he enjoys regular gourmet meals of sirloin steak, cheese balls, roasted chicken and flan (so he'll swallow his multiple pills). He also passes occasional weekends at the Gaviota ranch of Lockheed's boyfriend, where the World's Ugliest Dog rides in the back of an ATV with his few remaining hairs wafting in the wind.
Yiiikes, that's an ugly dog !!! ;) Special thanks to Elaine A for emailing me about this !! :)
Text Buttons enables you to place often used pieces of
text behind anything up to 750 buttons, and view 1, 2, 3, or 4 columns of
15 of these buttons at any time, so that any text you need is very easily
and quickly obtainable when required.
Key changes for this release include being able to run the program
minimised on Windows startup, and adding a whole range of text processing
functionality (sorting and wordwrapping Windows' Clipboard text, and converting
Windows Clipboard text to uppercase, lowercase, or titlecase).
7-June-2005 ::
Mac becomes PC
Apple Macintosh computers (aka Macs) are finally about to realise their destiny.
For two decades Mac users have beat their chests and derided the PC, blindly spouting
half-baked, biased, mis-information from Apple's marketting machine at every opportunity.
However, despite this, the Mac has slowly and surely become a carbon-copy of the PC.
In recent years, Macs have
taken on / copied all of the significant internal hardware / features of PCs -
Macs now have the same IDE harddrives as the PC,
the same AGP / PCI / PCI-X buses and graphics cards as the PC, the same memory chips as the PC, and so on.
And, Macs have adopted a Unix based OS - which is basically a custom version of Unix / Linux - something
that has been running happily on PCs for decades. Mac users now have a command line - which they claimed
was another of "their" innovations - but PC's have had a command line since day 1.
About the only remaining thing differentiating recent Macs from PCs are the Mac's IBM PowerPC CPU.
Oh yes, that, and the fact that Apple only has 2.3% market-share, versus the PC's 97.7%. LOL !! ;)
However, I found out a few minutes ago that the Mac looks set to take
the final step and become a fully fledged PC by switching to an Intel CPU :
At its Worldwide Developer Conference today, Apple® announced plans to deliver models
of its Macintosh® computers using Intel® microprocessors by this time next year, and
to transition *ALL* of its Macs to using Intel microprocessors by the end of 2007.
So, perhaps soon, all you will be able to buy is a PC with an Intel CPU running
some flavour of either Windows or Unix (e.g. Linux, BSD, Solaris, OS/X / Tiger, or whatever).
Frankly, I don't particularly care which OS I use - Windows or some Unix variant - as
long as it is extremely stable, user friendly, allows me to turn off
all of the graphical bells and whistles crap, and does what I want how I want.
The PC has finally killed the Mac as a "different" hardware platform.
However, this is hardly suprising. Like all previous "battles", the outcome was inevitable from the start
and the PC won in the long run - just like it did with the :
PC Vs Apple ][ (very early 1980's),
PC Vs Atari ST (mid-late 1980's),
PC Vs Amiga (very early 1990's),
PC Vs NeXT (early 1990's),
PC Vs IBM's PS/2 (very early 1990's), and
PC Vs all game consoles (1981 - now).
All were swept aside by the unstoppable and unbeatable PC.
Long live the PC - the undisputed king of all prior computers and consoles.
The sad thing is that I'm not sure how I feel about all this. I'm certainly not "joyous".
For a start, it was kinda nice having the PC Vs Mac rivalry - and
I've got quite accustomed to it over the past 20 years.
It was also nice knowing that those
unwashed, angry, religious war, fanatical, hysterical, over-emotional Mac users were
"over there" and away from me and my beloved PCs.
And I'm already feelin' kinda dirty - all of those unwashed Mac users
will soon be "over here" and using and supporting the PC and beating their little hairless chests in religious
battles against who knows what ... Actually, that's a good point.
What will they find to fight against now ?? What will they hysterically attack now ??
What FUD from Apple's marketting machine will these ex-Macers blindly swallow and fight against now ??
Hmmm, maybe it's time I found another machine. Anyone have a spare NeXT ? ;) ;)
What I find most amusing here is how, until recently, Apple has been so busy showing it's PowerPC-equipped
Mac's as 200%! No, 400%! No, 1000%! faster than anything Intel could make. The claims grew more absurd as
time went by. Now Apple is moving to that same much-maligned architecture. How long will be be before
we see benchmark graphs showing an Intel-based Mac beating a PowerPC-based system 200%! No, 400%! No, 1000%!
My guess is that Jobs won't keep us waiting very long. Perhaps they can claim (once again) to have been the
first to introduce 64-bit computing. After all, if it's good enough to fib about once, why not twice?
Why not indeed Eric - I couldn't have said it better myself. ;)
Central Queensland University
are holding the 3rd annual
CQ Junior Robotics Competition
on 7-Aug-2005.
Students from high schools in the surrounding region - usually within a radius of about 400 Km -
will enter robots that compete in the three main events : Robot Soccer, Dance, and
Rescue (aka "Follow the Trail"). It's a great event, and the young people who enter
really get a lot out of it and have a lot of fun.
As usual, I will be helping out at the competition, refereeing the Robot Soccer, etc.
If you think you might like to enter a robot in the competition, why not check out my
Robot Simulator,
it's a great way to get into / see if you like robotics.
Rob Hubbard's name should be recognized by almost everyone who played computer games on the
Commodore 64, Atari ST, Amstrad, Amiga or (to a lesser extent) the PC.
Rob composed and created the music for 100's of games during the period from 1985 to 1997.
One of my favourite pieces of computer music of all time is the music from
ZOIDs - an old Commodore 64 game.
(Click here to download / play ZOIDs.MID).
However, after almost a decade of silence, Rob is returning to composing and creating
computer game music and (of all things) mobile phone ring-tones.
So, our
One-Switch games
will be featured at a prestigious, international gaming event. Pretty amazing news !! ;)
Update: Fixed the date fo CGE-UK - it is on the 13-Aug-2005.
27-May-2005 ::
International Pun Contest : Top 10 Winners
I've only just received an email about this, but apparently some sort of International Pun Contest
late last year had these winning entries :
A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."
Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says,"Dam"!
Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says "I've lost my electron." The other says "Are you sure?" The first replies "Yes, I'm positive."
Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.
A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?" they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said "I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."
A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."
These friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to "persuade" them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store,saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.
Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him a ... super calloused fragile mystic, hexed by halitosis.
And finally, there was the person who sent ten different puns to his friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. Unfortunately, no pun in ten did.
I have searched quite a bit with
Google
, but have not been able to find the original source of the
contest or verify the contest or check out any other entries yet.
If anyone can shed more light on any of this, please
Email me.
26-May-2005 ::
Apple ][ - SunRaycer - Saved from Oblivion !!
SunRaycer is an ancient program for
Apple ][
computers, dating way back to 1987.
At the time,
General Motors
had just won the first
solar car race across Australia,
and they decided to commemmorate the achievement by developing some solar car
racing software. Thanks to General Motors kindness, this software was released
to the PUBLIC Domain so that it was free for school kids around the world and everyone else
to use and share. The software came on two 5.25 inch floppy disks, and one of these was double sided.
I received a copy of this software when it was released and I enjoyed exploring and racing solar cars.
The software was truly innovative for its time, and you could race solar cars, design and build your own
solar cars (from a limited set of options), and test them out on test tracks, etc.
No other software since has allowed you to do anything like this with solar cars.
However, I always wondered why they released it for the
Apple ][
(a fiesty little machine that was
way past it's use by date by then, but still refused to die despite Apple Inc's best efforts to kill
it off). At that time, they could have made an infinitely better / sexier / more user-friendly
version for the PC or Mac.
Somewhere in the intervening years, I lost or loaned my Sunraycer disks to somebody.
For the past few years I have been trying to play SunRaycer again under
emulation on my PC. However, NONE of the disk images on
Asimov
or any other
sites worked with any Apple 2 emulators (and I have tried
new and old versions of just about everything out there -
AppleWin, Apple PC, Apple OASIS, MESS, etc, etc).
So, I assumed that the disk images were bad.
In Feb, 2005, I stopped off in Hawaii on a round the world trip to visit
Mike Ching (from
Kula Software - http://www.angelfire.com/hi/kulasoft/
) specially to pick up the only copy of the working disks that I had been able to find after years of posting messages on
the
comp.emulators.apple2
and
comp.sys.apple2
newsgroups.
I also spent a few hours
trying to help Mike get his Apple <-> PC transfers setup and working,
but something fishy was going on, and ADT wasn't playing ball at all with his setup.
When I got back home to Australia following this trip, I went to backup
and trasnfer the disks and found that
my Apple ][c no longer worked. After several months of trying to fix it -
reseating all of the socketable chips, replacing the Monitor BIOS with
the self-test version (thanks to David Wilson of Wollongong, Australia),
etc, etc - I still did not have a working Apple ][, so I could not
investigate or transfer the working SunRaycer disks.
In the meantime, back in Hawaii, Mike Ching was having problems setting up
ADT on his Apple ][, so I sent him over my Apple ][ floppy disk containing
ADT, SST, Copy ][+, DDD, etc. i.e. everything needed to transfer disk
images between the Apple ][ and the PC. The disk image for this disk has
been available on
Asimov
since ~1999 :
Mike tried various methods to transfer the SunRaycer disks but the resulting
disk images would NOT work under emulation on the PC. As an experiment,
he transferred working Sunraycer disks over to the PC as DSK
(not NIB via SST !!) and then back again to the Apple ][ as DSK, and
they booted fine on the Apple ][, but still would NOT work under any
of the Apple ][ emulators out there (AppleWin, Apple PC, Apple OASIS,
MESS, etc, etc) on the PC.
So, the disks must be using some sneaky or undocumented feature at boot.
There were 2 ways to fix this - fix the disk images or ammend the emulators
to support whatever is happening. Seeing it is only 2 disks in this boat so
far, I reckoned that fixing the disks may be the easiest / fastest way forward.
The emulators could wait until later. The first step was to find what was going on.
So, I posted a request for help on
comp.emulators.apple2
, and Thomas Lai
stepped forward to check out the disks and see if he could fix them.
I emailed them to him that night.
The next morning, Thomas forwarded me working Sunraycer disks. According
to Thomas :
"The fix was simple: change the byte (Track$19,
Sector$0A, Address$17) from $E7 to $F7. The problem
is caused by all of the emulator is not implement
rotating disk model (real floppy drive read different
data when the time between successive read is different)."
So, now we know what is wrong. If the emulator authors want
to think about adding support for this, then that would be terrific
as well. The current - unmodified - Sunraycer disk images on
Asimov
might then work / be OK.
These fixed / working images of all 3 Sunraycer disks have now been uploaded to the central repository for all
Apple ][ software
ftp.apple.asimov.net.
Before you can transfer disks backwards and forwards between your PC and Apple ][, you need to install
ADT (Apple Disk Transfer) for Windows
on your PC.
Instructions / hints and tips for using this software, especially SST (Super Saltines Trans-Copy) :
17-May-2005 ::
Dawning of the Age of the Super-Consoles
Within a few days of Microsoft releasing the
X-Box 360 Specs,
Sony has released the Playstation 3 Specs.
Both are very impressive - featuring powerful processors,
massive RAM, powerful graphics and sound processors.
The age of super consoles is dawning ...
And, it's going to be a vicious battle between Microsoft and Sony - and that
should be great for the consumer - especially at X-Mas ...
For the first time in years, I am seriously tempted to buy one of these babies when they
are released later this year - or next year, because we will probably have to wait again in Australia. :(
It will sure be interesting to see the games line-up for each console.
Holy mackrel - yet another new program !!!
That's 5 brand new programs released so far in May, 2005.
Birthday and Event Reminder allows you to easily keep track of birthdays,
anniversaries, school reunions, and other important annual events.
A range of functionality is provided with the program to help you add,
update, change, or delete events, and then report on the events occuring
within a specified number of days. You can copy and paste this report
into emails or print it.
This program should be very useful for helping you keep forwarned of all
important dates, so that you give yourself plenty of time to organise and
prepare for birthdays, anniversaries, and so on.
Import functionality is also provided so that you can import / load data from other
date / event reminder programs directly into Birthday and Event Reminder
without having to re-type anything.
Now, there is NO EXCUSE for forgetting or leaving things until the last
minute !!! ;)
Special thanks to Egil L for suggesting / requesting this program. Egil has received
a free registration to this program and will receive a share of the profits if
the program sells like hot cakes.
This is my 85th program to be hosted on
Moose's Software Valley
(53 Shareware + 29 Freeware + 3 Apple 2 programs) ! :)
Hope you find it useful !
Student Results Merger is a program to help you handle /
merge / process student results.
While the program was developed for the purpose of
processing student results, it could also be used to
process cycling race, horse race, swimming race, or
keeping track of workers or volunteers, and/or various
other results / details.
This program comes with full on-line help and a step-by-step user guide
with screen shots.
This is my 84th program to be hosted on
Moose's Software Valley
(53 Shareware + 28 Freeware + 3 Apple 2 programs) ! :)
Hope you find it useful !
16-May-2005 ::
Lack of Updates ???? Abandonware ???? WTF ????
A few days ago, I was told by someone - let's call her Miss Pleasant - which
is really quite funny, because she was anything but pleasant and, as it turned out,
she did in fact live in Pleasant Street.
Anyway, Miss Pleasant told me that
it was perfectly OK for her or anyone else to use cracked / pirated versions of my software
because some of it hasn't been updated since November 2002, and it should therefore
be declared "unsupported" and "abandonware".
Well, little Miss Pleasant, let's step into the real world for a second and review the facts :
I am a one-man band. I am a developer working on my own.
I develop all of my software from scratch. I develop my software part-time.
My full time job is teaching / tutoring.
I make *extremely* little money out of shareware sales or donations in
comparison to the effort that I have put in.
I have released 85 new programs in the 9 years. i.e. since mid-1996.
Can anyone name any other software developer who has released a comparable library of
software in the same timeframe ?
I have enhanced and extended my existing software 422 times in the past 9 years. i.e. since mid-1996.
Can anyone name any other software developer who has put so much effort into
enhancing and extending their software in the same timeframe ?
None of my software can be considered expensive or overpriced. When I jumped
into the shareware scene in 1996, there was precious little freeware out
there (and the freeware that existed back then was extremely basic and/or crappy)
and no-one was selling any
shareware for anything like $5 - shareware prices generally started at about $30 back then.
So I tried to turn the market on its head by charging far less than my fellow developers / competitors.
All of my programs are developed using the "80 / 20 principle", which says that 80% of the work
can be done with 20% of the effort, and that the last 20% of work takes 80% of the effort.
So, my more polished programs (the ones where I have invested a great deal of extra effort
for a comparatively small result) are the programs that people support and register (or I use).
I state this quite openly in all the the text files that accompany my programs and on the
Register How and Why
page of my web site.
At this stage of the game,
Check Sum Calculator
and
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator
are my most commercially successful programs by far.
These programs have both seen a lot of development and enhancement, and both are v3.x programs
simply because they are the ones that people have supported and registered. i.e. purchased.
Finally, my software - even my
freeware - will be protected by copyright until at least 25 years after my death.
I am now almost 40 years old, and statistics say that I should live until at least 65.
So this means my software should be copyrighted until at least 2050.
Given the above little Miss Pleasant, you can hardly call any of my software "abandonware".
How dare you even suggest such a thing !!
Indeed it is "people" like you that are holding back further development.
11-May-2005 ::
Computer Space Simulator - Announcements
OK, I've now announced the release of the simulator in the usual places :
Computer Space Simulator is a remake / recreation of Computer Space,
which was the very first coin-operated video arcade game and went on sale in 1971.
Only 1,500 of the machines were ever built, and of these it is estimated that less
than 500 of these machines still work / exist.
Like the vast majority of my software,
Computer Space Simulator is for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, or later.
The game play in Computer Space consists of you controlling a Rocket and
attacking and avoiding the computer controlled enemy Saucers that are trying
to shoot you or collide with you. You have an infinite number of lives, but
each game has a set time limit. The object of the game is to have a higher
score than the enemy at the end of the time limit.
This simulator supports the following modes of operation :
Demo / Attract mode
1 Player Vs Saucers
Co-Op 2 Player Against the Saucers
Deathmatch - Player 1 Vs Player 2 (No Saucers)
A multitude of game settings and options are provided, so you can create
your own variations of the game and customise things to any required level of difficulty.
You can also share your game variations with friends via the Load / Save settings
buttons and functionality provided with the simulator.
At any time you can restore the correct / factory default settings via the "Restore" button.
I've entered a special One Button / One Switch version in the
Retro-Remakes
One Click programming competition - mentioned on 10-May-2005 below.
You can download the
One Click version here.
I'll let you know how the competition goes !! Wish me luck ! ;)
Special thanks to Kevin at
Computer Space Fan
for all of his advice, testing, feedback, checking, support, and encouragement during the development of this simulator.
Oh, one more thing, make sure you visit Kevin's
Computer Space Fan
web site for a wealth of information, pictures, videos, sights, sounds, history, trivia, and more
about Computer Space.
This is my 83nd program to be hosted on
Moose's Software Valley
(52 Shareware + 28 Freeware + 3 Apple 2 programs) ! :)
Hope you find it useful !
Here's an interesting idea ... With games becomming ever so complex and requiring even
more buttons, keys, etc, it is quite nice and refreshing to see that there is a push to make
games as simple to control / play as possible - requiring just a single key to start and play a game.
Not only that, but
Retro-Remakes
are holding a competition for programmers around
the world to enter their own home-brew one-switch games.
I'm going to enter a one switch version of a very famous game - more about this very soon !! ;)
(Hint: If you scroll down my web page a bit, you will see a WIP screen shot and a mosaic of the game's cabinet !! ;)
The competition closing date is: 11:59pm on the 11th May, 2005 (UK Time, GTM+0).
So, if you want to get an entry in, get coding !!
Robot Simulator allows you to simulate and control
your own virtual robot(s) on screen - aka Leggo
Mind Storms robots, but without the flat batteries
or the other hassles.
By using a simple command language (called RoboSlang),
you can control your virtual robots on screen, to make
them move around, dance, follow lines, and explore
their virtual world.
This program has been in "on again / off again" development for over
12 months now, and I have put an enormous amount of effort into this program.
Robot Simulator
and another program of mine,
Solar System Simulator
, were
demonstrated and show cased on a big projection screen
before current and prospective students, staff, and the general public all day
during
Central Queensland University's 2004 Open Day
in Rockhampton, Australia, on August 3, 2004. (I am a teacher, tutor, and marker at this university).
Included with the program (after installation) are sample scripts, a
sample robot, a selection of background images, a full on-line help, and
a RoboSlang script reference manual with loads of examples.
The TRIAL version of the program is fully functional with the exception that you cannot change robots.
This is my 82nd program to be hosted on
Moose's Software Valley
(52 Shareware + 27 Freeware + 3 Apple 2 programs) ! :)
Hope you find it useful !
I'm thinking of starting work on a Stunt Cycle simulator.
So far, I've contacted
Fever at Discreet Logistics,
and Erik Netwon (who was going to do a SC simulator a few years ago).
I've also posted messages on
MAME's Message Board and the
Rec.Games.Video.Arcade.Collecting
newsgroup, and I've searched high and low with
Google
but have yet to track down what I need to work on this smulator.
It has been about 30 years since I last played this game so I dare not trust my memory ... ;)
So, here's what I'd like to have before I can really get stuck into a simulator for the game :
High quality, high resolution screen shots of the game in action.
High quality sound samples of all of the game's sound effects.
Some movie files of the game in action - with the bike going as slow as
possible up the ramp, medium speed, high speed, etc - showing as much of the
game play as possible.
Precise details of the game play, etc
Someone who can test the simulator and run it side by side against
a real Stunt Cycle machine and report any significant variations / differences.
Does anyone here have access to a Stunt Cycle machine ?
Computer Space was the very first coin-operated video arcade game and went on sale in 1971.
Only 1,500 of the machines were ever built, and of these it is estimated that less than
500 of these machines still work / exist.
Over the past 3 years, actually, it's only been about 3 weeks but it seems like 3 years ;),
I've been working on a Computer Space Simulator
with much encouragement, testing, and feedback from
Kevin at the Computer Space Fan web site.
Work is going very well, but it is a very time consuming process to get eveything as close
to perfect as possible, especially since I don't have access to a real Computer Space machine,
nor have I ever seen a real Computer Space machine in person, and
Kevin is based in Canada and I'm in Australia.
We're 98+% done - but the devil is definitely in the details !! ;)
Anyway, here is a Work-In-Progress (WIP) screen shot of the simulator in action.
Click on image to expand it.
14-Mar-2005 ::
Back Again
G'Day, I'm back from holidays. Well, actually, I have been for about 9 days now,
and I've almost caught up on sleep, and I'm almost
over a really bad flu that I developed after I go back (all of those
weeks of being coughed on and sneezed on while travelling finally caught up with me ... ;)
2-Feb-2005 ::
Holidays - 5-Feb-2005 to 4-Mar-2005
I'll be on holidays from 5-Feb-2005 to 4-Mar-2005, and heading over to Europe mostly
but I'll also be spending a few days in the USA, Hawaii, and Singapore.
During this time I'll be away from email (so I wont be able to reply
to anyone's emails until I get back)
and I'll also be away from my computers (*sob* ! ;)
and Boogle and Jessica - my pooches (*sob* *sob* ! ;)
Renewable Energy will be a theme of this trip, and one of the places
I'm seriously looking forward to visiting is the "Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA)"
in Spain :
This place looks like clean energy nirvana to me -
solar towers, parabolic troughs, dish-stirlings, and all sorts
of other things. I'm going on an extended behind the scenes tour, which will allow me to get close to
the technologies I've been researching and reading so much about over the past 14 months.
As well as this, I'll also be visiting some Wind Fams, and whatever else I possibly can.
It should be a great trip. I'm hoping to come back with a more hands on feel for all of
these technologies so that I can proceed with crunching the numbers and trying to apply it,
in a way that isn't going to lose me millions, to my
Clean Energy Farm
project in Australia.
Periodic Table of Elements
is a program to help you investigate, look
up, or compare the details for all known elements. e.g.
Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, etc.
This release fixes a zero truncation issue on the element reports -
special thanks to Blane P
for reporting this to me yesterday afternoon.
2-Feb-2005 ::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator (v3.0)
This isn't an update of my
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator (v3.0)
program as such, rather this update simply brings my postal address in the Registration file up-to-date.
Mosaic Maker Extractor enables you to create mosaics or pull
them apart again into their component images (tiles).
A mosaic is a big picture made out of lots of little pictures.
So, with Mosaic Maker Extractor, you can create your own mosaics
or extract the tiles from existing mosaics for further use in
other mosaics.
This is my 80th program to be hosted on
Moose's Software Valley
(50 Shareware + 27 Freeware + 3 Apple 2 programs) ! :)
Hope you find it useful !
10-Jan-2005 ::
Moose Software Updates
There haven't been any software updates around here for ages.
A big part of the reason for this are that my clean energy research / activities (see below),
which have been soaking up huge amounts of my "spare" time - particularly over the past 12 months.
Rest assured though that I have been busy coding as well, and that I do have some exciting
new and updated software to release in the coming month or so - including :
a brand new Virtual Robot Simulation pogram complete with its own robot control language.
etc.
One thing that has really gripped my attention recently are Mosaics.
i.e. big pictures made out of lots of little pictures.
Unfortunately, I don't have an artistic bone in my body - I can't sing, dance, paint, draw,
or sculpt so I could never draw / make a mosaic by hand -
but the one thing I am really good at (and love doing) is writing software.
So, I have been working on some mosaic creation software recently. Below is an early
picture based on my pampered pooch, Boogle.
If all goes well, then I will also release this program in the near future.
Update: After searching today on the internet, the only existing Mosaic programs I could
find were shareware programs costing $29.95 US or more - YIIIKKKESSS !!! ;) ;)
However, don't panic, as with all of my shareware, the selling price for my program will be as low as possible -
much lower than this competition, and it will contain more features, and have much better user support.
Stay tuned ... ;)
If anyone wants further information about any of this software, would like to take part in BETA testing,
or would like to be notified when I release it, then please
Email me
and let me know.
Oh, yes, one last point, I've also taken down my Christmas decorations ... ;)
20-Dec-2004 ::
Environment, Conservation, Peak Oil, and Clean Energy
On the internet, I reckon that the best advice is to always play your cards very close to your chest.
There are far too many lamers, scammers, and spammers out there to risk revealing too much
about who you are or what you do.
"Playing my cards very close to my chest" has certainly been my motto since setting up
Moose's Valley in mid-1996.
And, as such, extremely few of my real life projects or activities are mentioned on my web pages.
However, because of increasingly dire reports from scientists and environmental groups about our environment,
I feel that it is time for me to come "out of the closet" over the environment and conservation.
Whether or not you personally believe in the Greenhouse Effect or Global Warming or Climate Change -
and, yes, there are many people out there who don't - it is impossible to ignore the signs that our
planet's environment is under increasing stress.
Pollution, asthma rates, cancer rates, etc are increasing.
Fish stocks, soil quality, health, etc are decreasing.
People in so-called "rich countries" use the most energy and,
on average, generate the most pollution per capita.
Over-population is continuing to cause all sorts of problems - particularly in
"poor countries" where the people who are least able to support, raise, or
feed children, continue to breed like there is no tomorrow.
(For the record, I am 39 years old and have no children).
The continuing (and possibly soon increasing) use of Nuclear Energy is causing
enormous issues and problems, as well as leaving an unacceptable legacy for future generations.
There is significant evidence that the polar ice caps and glaciers are melting and shrinking.
It is difficult to comprehend the scale of the problems that these things might cause in the future.
What we are doing clearly isn't substainable. The way people are clearing trees, the way people are fishing,
the way people are living, the way we are using energy and resources, and the rate some people are breeding
simply isn't sustainable. We must strive for a sustainable future, otherwise we could have a painful future.
As you might expect from someone called "Moose" and whose website is "Moose's Valley",
I am seriously and deeply concerned about our environment and conservation, and have been
for as long as I can remember.
Since mid-1994, my family and I have had a net positive impact on the environment.
i.e. I purchased enough tree filled land so that any pollution caused by our
activities (e.g. driving the car, using electricity, etc) were more than
offset by the photosynthesis and environmental benefits of the trees on this land.
However, as the years went by, I have become increasingly worried about our environment,
and decided 5+ years ago that I must do more.
Today, I own more than 140 acres of land, and some of this is prime land that
would have been cleared by developers long ago if I hadn't purchased it.
I am also seriously into energy conservation - my house primarily uses low energy light globes,
energy efficient appliances, off peak / solar hot water, and I turn appliances off
rather than leave them in standby mode.
In addition, I car pool to work each day, drive one of the smallest, most economical and most
"environmentally friendly" cars available (at the time of purchase - mid-1999), and walk
rather than drive whenever possible.
And, I recycle what I can - including plastic, metal, aluminium cans, etc.
One of my long standing dreams has been to set-up an electricity grid connected clean energy farm.
Finally, after more than 3 years of searching for a suitable clean energy farm site,
I finally found and purchased a near-perfect 100 acre site in May, 2004 with the
sole aim of setting up my own grid connected clean energy farm. This property
satisfied all 19 of my criteria for a clean energy farm site.
In early June 2004, I organised and conducted a community meeting of the 30 closest neighbouring properties
to try and get
people interested in helping the environment and taking part in projects for the generation of renewable energy.
I was hoping to turn the local area into the Clean Energy Capital of Central Queensland, Australia.
At this meeting, I discussed the pros and cons and details of more than a dozen forms of
clean, renewable electricity generation, and emphasised that I was mostly interested in those that
had the lowest possible risks to bats, birds and animals, and presented the lowest possible
noise and visual impacts.
Sadly, the community response from this meeting was very disappointing.
Property owners / residents from only 4 out of the 30 properties invited turned up,
and all of these were (at best) very negative about the whole "clean energy farm" idea.
They claimed that they were all for saving the environment, but they didn't
want anything in or near their back yards. Good old NIMBY syndrome
(Not in My Back Yard) had raised it's ugly head.
One guy, who was particularly ignorant, nasty and spoiling for a fight at this meeting,
said that if I even put one solar panel on my barn's roof, then he would
go to the council and put in complaints about me "industrialising the countryside".
Such is life - sadly, people like this do exist on our planet ...
Since December 2003, I have been heavily researching all known types of clean, renewable energy,
and I've been keeping my eye on recent developments in dozens of areas and countries.
The biggest problem with current clean, renewable energy technologies are that they aren't
cheap to implement or install. If they were, then every man and his dog would have solar cells
and mini-wind turbines or whatever on their roofs.
Also, so few of the technologies are
available commercially for small scale activities. You are basically limited to Wind Turbines or
Photo-Voltaic Cells for anything less than a multi-MW commercial installation.
However, this situation looks set to change in the near future, as many other forms of
clean electricity generation come onto the market. e.g. Stirling Engines, Solar Concentrators, etc.
I am also increasingly concerned about the spectre of "Peak Oil". For anyone who doesn't
know what this is / means,
click here
to do a
Google search on "Peak Oil".
Keep in mind however, that there is a lot of near hysterical hype out there, and anyone with an axe to grind
or money to make (by selling you books, videos, etc) should be treated with a high level of scepticism.
At this stage, I believe that the truth about "Peak Oil" is probably more in line with :
Winning the Oil Endgame
than
Peak Oil: Life After the Oil Crash.
(The former is far more balanced and says we can engineer our way out of the coming crisis if we work together and start ASAP.
Whereas the later says that there will be savage resource wars and that 95%+ of the
population will die out within the next 5-10 years. I hope the former is more accurate, but who can really say for sure ?).
OK, so where am I going with all of this rambling ? Well, in a nut shell,
I'm saying that not everyone on the planet is part of the rat race.
A lot of people out there are taking decisive and significant steps to do what they can
to save our environment and push the change over to clean, environmentally friendly energies
as soon as possible.
Stay tuned .... if all goes well, then I could be announcing some good / positive news in the near future.
And, if all goes well, then I will also be making some of my Renewable Energy research, analyses, articles,
presentations, and news letters available here for download in the future.
One thing I have learned is that we cannot wait for our governments to bail us out of this mess.
It is going to take a massive grass roots effort to save the environment, with lots of "people power"
pushing / supporting / funding the innovative car makers to change over to electric cars, hydrogen cars, etc
and help electricity generators to change over / set-up clean, renewable energy, etc.
So, if you are worried about the environment, you really only have to ask yourself one question :
What am *I* doing to save the environment ? (Hint: "Nothing" is not a satisfactory answer !)
20-Dec-2004 ::
Christmas Decorations ...
My Christmas Decorations are now up ... I hope all regular "Moose's Valley" visitors and
those who have registered any of my programs have a great X-Mas / New Year !
10-Nov-2004 ::
Man Pays US$215,000 for a Cell Phone Number in China
I visit
Geek.Com
pretty much every day, and I enjoy the articles, but I particularly enjoy the humour
in the user feedback area under each article.
A phone number was sold at an auction in Beijing for the final price of US$215,000.
The number sold to the unidentified buyer was 133-3333-3333, which is considered to
be extremely lucky in China.
Which is pretty amazing - and incredibly stupid if you ask me - talk about more money than sense ... ;)
Here is what some the Geek.Com guys said in response :
Even beyond the money, is it really that wise to buy a number that everyone knows about and wants? How many calls do you think this person is going to get, especially knowing the number was just sold for a ton of dough?
I called him and told him he was dumb. I also asked him if he could hear me now.
Damn the capitalistic chinese !
The phone system is really messed up. There are so many Wings and Wongs you might Wing the Wong number.
He really screwed his luck by settling for $215,000. neither 2, 1, 5, or 0 is the number 3. he should have paid $333,333.33, for it.
A University of Florida scientist has created a living "brain" of cultured rat
cells that now controls an F-22 fighter jet flight simulator.
Which is pretty darn freaky, I must say ... ;)
Back in the late 1970's, I read about how scientists had hooked electrodes up to the muscles of a Sparrow,
and put it in front of a flight simulator, and it was flying the jet plane (in the simulation) properly.
But, man-made rat brains flying planes is in a whole new league all together ...
Next they'll be talking about Franken-Rats and all sorts of things.
Intel has congratulated NASA and SGI on building Project Columbia,
a system that boasts a world-record speed of
42 trillion floating point operations per second (42 teraFLOP/s)
and was deployed in less than six months.
This computing monster consists of 10,248 Intel Itanium 2 processors.
The previous champion was
IBM's Blue Gene/L (36 teraflops) which knocked NEC's Earth Simulator (35 teraflops)
from top place.
This
web site
contains interesting, automatically generated, randomised artwork that are
based on the screens that many Coin-Operated Video Arcade Machines display
when they are switched on and are going through their test modes.
The result of combining these images is some interesting and often striking
computer generated artwork.
I'm thinking of writing a stand alone program to generate similar artwork,
and allow the user to control various settings. Maybe even a screen saver ...
25-Oct-2004 ::
PC Games Order ...
I've just purchased a bunch of "golden oldies" games :
Aquanox
Battle Realms
Beyond Normandy Berlin
Deus Ex
Medieval: Total War
Soldier of Fortune 2: Gold Edition
Spider Man: The Movie
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
I got all of these games from
Games Market - Australia
and their mail order service was very fast, friendly, and professional, and
I will definitely buy games through them again in the future.
These games are all "oldies" now, and were all at budget prices ($10-$20 AUD),
but that's all my poor old Pentium III rig will handle ...
I know my PC is ancient in the scheme of things, but
it is beautiful to use and 100% stable, and it's been such a joy to use that
I'm really gonna miss it when I finally do upgrade. *SOB* !! ;)
Also, I'm trying to hold off upgrading until something really **FAST**
comes out that'll run
MAME's
most demanding game at full speed ...
An ~8-10 GHz P4 or equivalent CPU should just about do it ... ;)
I'm still on the lookout for Aquanox 2 Revelation for a reasonable price in Australia.
So, if anyone has it (and wants to sell it) or knows where to buy it, then
Email me.
6-Oct-2004 ::
Man mistakenly cuts off penis, dog eats it ...
Just when you thought the world couldn't get any wierder or stranger ....
Apparently, an elderly Romanian man mistook his penis for a chicken's neck,
cut it off and his dog rushed up and ate it.
6-Oct-2004 ::
SpaceShipOne claims the $10,000,000 US X-Prize ...
The $10 million US Ansari X-Prize award was intended to spur civilian space-flight.
And, it has certainly done that.
Numerous contenders around the world have been battling feverishly for years to
try and claim the prestigious prize, but the SpaceShipOne team succedded yesterday.
Microsoft's Paul Allen, who financed the program,
Richard Branson, who recently founded Virgin Galactic for space tourism,
and Burt Rutan greeted the newly minted astronaut and pilot of Space Ship One, Brian Binnie,
on the runway after the flight.
The day of common place space travel has definitely taken a big step forward - and about time as well, imho !! ;)
Mount St Helens volcano in Washington State is likely to erupt again very soon.
However, thanks to living in the information age, you can look at up-to-the-minute video cam pictures
and seismograph readings and see the volcanic ballet unfold.
You can check these out / read more about it here :
4-Oct-2004 ::
Wanted: Aquanox and Aquanox 2 Revelation PC Games ...
I am trying to buy Aquanox and Aquanox 2 Revelation games for the PC.
Amazon
has them for sale at great prices
(Aquanox: US$1.85 used and US$4.99 US new, and Aquanox 2: US$4.99 US used and US$8.25 new)
- but you cannot order computer games software from Amazon unless
you live in the USA - which is a stupid policy.
If you own either or preferably both of these games and would like to sell them, please
email me and let me know the following details :
Which of the games - Aquanox or Aquanox 2 Revelation - do you have ?
Your selling price for the game(s) ?
The condition of the game(s) - especially the CDs ?
N.B. I don't mind if the games are used - as long as the CDs still work and are in good condition.
Whether the box and manual are included ?
Your best estimate for postage and handling ?
N.B. I live in Central Queensland, Australia and the nearest "big" town is Rockhampton -
so please check the postage and handling costs out with your local post office before replying.
How do you want payment ? Can I send you a cheque ? PayPal ?
30-Sep-2004 ::
Funny Australian Election Ads ...
It's election time here in Australia, so it's time to elect a new dick head to
"run our country".
What this really means is that they will buy votes, do all the wrong things,
and shut half of the population up by giving them welfare instead of doing the right things
to create jobs, save the environment, conserve resources, and get people working and off their arses.
Anyway, there are some funny radio ads about Telstra (Australia's major communication's company)
shipping jobs to India - as is also happening in the USA, the UK, and other countries.
Apart from being an incredibly short signted action, and getting products and services that
simply cannot compare with the quality of our home grown products and services,
shipping jobs to India is also very bad for Australia and Australia's future.
Anyway, enough of my soap boxing.
Here are MP3's of the radio ads - have a listen and a laugh.
N.B. I recorded these myself off the radio and MP3'd them. There is a chance that
these ads might be copyrighted material, but they DO NOT say that are copyrighted at all.
If the Australian Labour Party or any copyright holders want these ads removed,
then please
email me and let me know
and I will comply.
You'd think they would be smarter than this and
be happy for the free advertising I'm giving them though ... ;)
27-Sep-2004 ::
Wrist Watch with GPS and Loads of Features ...
It has built-in GPS, tracks distance walked, speed, route taken,
allows you to set and track waypoints, works out the shortest way "home", etc
and allows you to plot these on maps on your PC (via USB).
To top it off, the damned amazing thing also contains a barometer,
altimeter, thermometer, clinometer, and compass.
Did I mention that it also tells the time ??
The 4 hour battery life can be extended by slowing down the satellite
polling, and it will get better in the future.
You can recharge it from a 9v battery. Solar cells would help.
At $699 US it's not cheap - but look at what it does.
When I was hang gliding (late 1980's), you could NOT buy an
altimeter for this price, let alone something that does all this.
Sadly, I seem to be having a lot of email issues again lately, and I've
just found out that a lot of emails aren't getting through.
My
moose@move.to
email address is playing up and emails aren't getting through.
It seems that the email redirection service I use at
http://www.v3.com/ has dropped the ball (yet again).
However, I can't really complain about their service, because it is a free service after all ...
Still, the regular email issues and their lack of response are becoming a pain ...
Anyway, if you send me an email and I haven't replied within a few days then the chances are that
your email didn't arrive because of my email issues.
So, here's an alternate email address that you can use until my main email address is repaired again :
Email me. (This is my work email address).
I'll keep working to try and resolve the issues asap ...
11-Aug-2004 ::
Apple, Microsoft, and what might have been ...
Normally, I don't bother to read or follow up articles written by "Mac enthusiasts" - because, let's face it,
life's too short, and I don't have time to educate them or correct all the idiotic things they say. ;)
However, being an old Apple ][ fan, I visit the Apple ][ newsgroups
comp.emulators.misc
and
comp.sys.apple2
almost on a daily basis. Earlier today, I noticed the group talking about this article :
and it was so full of errors, wildly inaccurate claims, and the same old Apple nonsense
that "Mac enthusiast's" seem to love regurgitating every chance they get,
that I simply could not let matters rest in this case.
Here is what I had to say about the article (on the comp.sys.apple2, and via direct email to the article's author) :
From: Mike O'Malley
Sent: Wed, 11 August 2004 14:21
To: xxxx
Subject: The Art of the Parlay, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Platform Licensing and Market Share
>It's generally agreed that the first version of Windows that didn't
>suck shipped in 1995, a decade after the arrival of the Mac.
Agreed by whom - by Mac users ?
FYI, Windows 3.x was a terrific operating system - super fast, extremely stable, able to multi-task dozens of programs with ease, while still being able to run all the DOS / CLI programs you wanted. And it was able to be locked up tighter than a duck's arsehole with a few simple changes - so you could put a PC on display anywhere (e.g. for general public use) and people could NOT mess with it, run anything you didn't want them, change anything you didn't want them to, etc.
The biggest draw back of Windows 3.x was it's 8.3 file name limitations - but people were used to this, so it wasn't until they got long file names that they noticed how constrained they were.
If Windows 3.x supported long file names, then I dare say that I'd still be using it today as my OS of choice.
In fact, I still run a few Windows 3.x programs today on my Windows XP machines because they still do all that I require. e.g. Winfax v3.0 from 1992, and Lotus Improv v2.0 from ~1994, etc.
So, give us a break, next time you say something is "generally agreed" and suggest it is by many people, make sure that you actually talk to people who were there in the early 1980's - and not just Mac users or people who swallow the guff poured out by Apple's marketing machine without analysing or seeking the truth in it first.
>But except Apple couldn't just license the "Mac OS" (which
>wasn't called "Mac OS" until the mid-90s)
There you go again ... This simply is NOT true. In 1986, I was finishing uni and was preparing my resume for sending out to companies - and this resume lists Mac/OS as the operating system for the Mac - which I used frequently at the time.
So, the Mac's Operating System was definitely widely known as Mac/OS or Mac OS even in the mid 1980's.
>In short, what were then called IBM-compatible PCs
>were technically incapable of providing a user experience
>even vaguely resembling that of the Macintosh.
Oh, deary, deary me - here we go again. This is simply not true. IBM-ATs (based on the 80286 processor) were veritable speed demons, and were more than capable of blowing the Mac out of the water performance wise. Hercules and other companies made graphics cards for PCs that provided far superior resolution - in B&W and in colour - that made the Macs tiny display look like a joke.
Furthermore, in the mid-1980's, Apple techs ported Mac/OS to the IBM-PC and had it running the OS / GUI / Apps / etc. However, Apple Execs got scared and canned the project - how could they sell their overpriced hardware if Mac OS ran on PCs which were far superior in price / performance.
>Carlton's book is seriously flawed in many ways (not
>the least of which his conclusion that the company
>was on the verge of going out of business circa 1999)
You have a short memory ! Apple very nearly did go out of business in the mid-late 1990's - it was only a miracle that saved them (e.g. Steve Jobs coming back onboard just in the nick of time, shortly after which some new products were launched). In fact, Apple are still not in a particularly enviable position - despite whatever hoopla you may have heard / swallowed.
>PCs simply weren't capable of providing a Mac-like user experience
>in 1984, and it was many years later until they were
You call 2 years "many years" - why ? Check your facts !
By 1986, IBM-AT's were speed demons, capable of providing high resolution, colour graphics that simply blew the Mac right out of the water.
All of the people into computer graphics / ray tracing / etc that I knew at university (in the mid-1980's) all dreamed of owning an IBM-AT.
>"No one ever got fired for choosing IBM" was the
>IT mantra of the '70s and '80s.
Simply not true. This slogan was from an IBM 1980's ad campaign that was a joke to the vast majority of computer people. If this slogan were true then everyone would have followed the IBM into PS/2 land in ~1987. As it turned out, the PS/2 was a massive flop that not even a great operating system (OS/2) could save. Everyone stayed with the PC standard, instead of following IBM into new standards. People have brains. People aren't all complete mindless idiots like Mac people like to claim. Most people are quite savvy, and buy according to price Vs performance, and for that you have never been able to beat the PC. The Apple products (Lisa and Mac) were overpriced and slow in comparison to the PC - yes they looked better, but most people (at that time) valued price, performance, and functionality far more than something superficial, such as looks. That is why the PC is king and why it has been for 20+ years.
>but rather to have written a GUI-based operating system compatible
>with the existing PCs of 1984.
GUI operating systems were a joke until the early 1990's - no reasonably priced desktop / home computers had the power or memory to support them *and* allow you to do any serious work. Even the first Macs had a limitation of 18 pages of text and took many seconds to page down through a document - and this is according to Steve Levy. Mac was a joke !
>The Macintosh was neither based on nor compatible
>with the Apple II.
Actually it was - sort of - but only many, many years later, and by then it was too late - the abandoned Apple ][ users were already moving to the PC.
>If Apple had been like Microsoft, the Mac would have been built on
>top of the Apple II platform and the Newton would have been
>designed as a Macintosh peripheral.
This is quite correct. Although, if this happened in ~1984, then the Mac would have been 3-5 times faster than the Apple ][, and had better graphics, a 10 MB hard-drive, and it would have run all of the Apple ]['s software either natively or via emulation.
All the best,
Mike "Moose" O'Malley
____________________________________________________
Moose's Software Valley - Established July, 1996.
____________________________________________________
Anyway, that's my *rant* for the day. It's time for me to get down off my soap box .... ;)
If anyone would like to comment on any of this, then please feel free to
Email me.
13-July-2004 ::
TRON sure has let himself go ...
The internet is a marvelously chaotic place, brimming with the strange,
the wonderful, and the downright freaky.
Jay Maynard,
a 43 year old, "chubby", computer programmer from Fairmont, Minnesota, made a TRON custume for the
masquerade at Penguicon 2.0 - which I understand is a
Linux cum Science Fiction convention in America.
Anyway, to show off his work, Jay innocently posted pictures of his costume on the internet,
and suddenly found himself to be the internet's latest ... errmm ... phenomenon.
Jay is now known to 100's of thousands of people around the world as
"The Tron Costume Guy". But, not everyone praises his efforts, and there have been all
sorts of brutal debate and discussions - much of it is funny, but some of it
is downright nasty.
I've been following this story since early-mid May .... and I'm still chuckling about the
first time I saw the famous "camel toe" and the skin-tight body harness ... ;)
Anyway, follow the links below, and check it all out and you decide for yourself :
Long term visitors to these WEB pages, who are (like me) interested in arcade machine
emulation and the
Multiple Arcade
Machine Emulator (MAME) project
are probably wondering why I have not been mentioning MAME releases lately.
Since the day MAME was released to the public (Feb, 1997), I have been a strong supporter of
the MAME project, and have updated mu web pages to announce releases / updates for many years.
And, I am still interested in and a supporter of the MAME project, however, I have
decided not to update my new pages with information about new MAME releases from now on.
There are a number of reasons for this decision :
Far too many web sites out there already already announce MAME updates, so
my pages were just a face in a crowd, and my announcing MAME updates probably
wasn't all that useful. People interested in MAME would visit the
MAME WEB page anyway, so again,
my announcing MAME updates probably wasn't all that useful.
For the first time ever, I am behind in my MAME updates. In fact,
I'm currently about 6 MAME releases behind the most recent.
I'm still on MAME v0.78, and the latest (as of today) is MAME v0.84u2.
And, sadly, the struggle to upgrade is too high for me to consider regular MAME upgrades at this time.
I am far more interested in the earlier games (pre-1990) than the later games, and
most of these have been emulated in MAME for many years now.
MAME has started emulating games that require PC's far more powerful
than any currently existing, so it isn't possible to enjoy these games, and
maybe wont be possible for another 5 years or so. (And by then, MAME
will probably emulate games requiring even more powerful PCs).
In my opinion, MAME is emulating games that are far too recent. MAME started
off being all about emulating / preserving 10-20+ year old arcade games -
which was a very noble and worthwhile goal.
However, MAME emulates so many recent games now, games still making money
for arcade operators, that the "Retro" emphasis of MAME has been greatly diminished, making
the project higher profile and higher risk.
As a shareware author, how could I complain about people ripping off my work, while
supporting a project that enabled some people to rip off other people's "still
supported and still sold and still making money" work ? Simply, I could not.
It was OK while MAME was all about preserving 10-20+ year old games that haven't been
sold or supported or made money for 10-20+ years. However, as MAME moves onto more recent games,
this is no longer the case.
The MAME project has become a bit of a political "hot potato", and swarms of new
people are in
MAME's message forums
each week showing off their poor attitudes,
dishing out abuse, or trying to conduct their own little flame wars.
Little of the original fun and pioneering atmosphere remains in
MAME's message forums
there are far too many people ignoring the forums posting rules and asking questions like
"where can I get da romz dude ?",
and where flaming and abuse are more the norm, than helpful or funny replies.
So, while I still support MAME, and still visit MAME's forums almost daily,
I wont be announcing MAME releases here any more.
Key Sound Generator
is a fun program that plays a particular
sound effect each time a mouse button or keyboard key is
pressed. Different sounds are played depending on the type
of key or button. Various sets of sounds are available for download,
and you can also add your own !
In this new version, the program runs automatically following installation, and the lack of sound is fixed.
Thanks go to David S for reporting the sound issues ! :)
Real Estate Calculator
enables you to perform a number of
calculations which should be useful to anyone who is involved
in buying or selling properties or houses, such as first home
buyers, investors, real estate agents, solicitors, etc.
More specifically, this program allows you to calculate :
Real Estate Agent's Commission, Government Stamp Duty,
adjustments (for vendors and purchasers, for rates, rent, etc) due at settlement,
calculate the mortgage / loan details, and generate a
detailed mortgage / loan report.
21-June-2004 ::
Greatest Products of All Time : Lotus Improv
Quantrix
have developed beautiful, sleek financial modelling software - that is clearly
based on "Lotus Improv" but is written in Java - and it costs $990 US (or $250 US for the Academic version).
Thanks to Maarten B for the update / information.
21-May-2004 ::
PayPal Payments and Donations ...
I can now accept payments for software and donations via
PayPal.
Special thanks to David C for pushing me to do this yesterday.
Up until recently, I could not regsiter for PayPal because you had to
supply a US address - but I live in Australia, so I couldn't do this honestly.
As a result, I could not register for PayPal. However, David C checked things out and found out
that I could now register legally and honestly as an Australian - so I did this straight away.
I've updated the
How / Why Purchase Moose's Software ???
(i.e. How to Register) page to reflect this as well - PayPal is now listed
as option #1 as it's probably the easiest and safest method all round.
Hopefully, PayPal should help boost the sales of my software !! ;)
PayPal will also make it easier for me to continue to make donations and support
worthy causes, such as :
David C : I have sent you a few emails, but they keep bouncing - please clean out your inbox asap. ;)
Also, I want to send you a free registration to a program of your choice
to say thanks for your support and kind feedback. :)
Update : 21-May-2004
David C has emptied his inbox ;) and (to say thanks for the kind feedback and support)
he has now been sent a *FREE* registration to the program of his choice :
Words Worth - Crossword and Scrabble Companion.
Thanks David - hope you enjoy the program ! :)
Email Address Obscurifier can help you to obscure the email addresses
on your web page(s) so that they act the same and function the
same as before, but so that they cannot easily be accessed /
identified by email harvesting programs used by people
who send unsolicited junk email (SPAM) to 1,000's of
internet users.
This is my 79th program to be hosted on
Moose's Software Valley
(49 Shareware + 27 Freeware + 3 Apple 2 programs) ! :)
Hope you find it useful !
30-Apr-2004 ::
Email Issues ... and New Guest Book
Sadly, I seem to be having a lot of email issues again lately, and I've
just found out that a lot of emails aren't getting through.
My
moose@move.to
email address is playing up and emails aren't getting through.
If you send me an email and I haven't replied within a few days then the chances are that :
Maybe my Spam Filter has deleted your email, or,
Your email didn't arrive because of my email issues.
Anyway, here's an alternate email address that you can use until my main email address is repaired again :
Email me. (This is my work email address).
Also, I've also set-up a Guest Book which you can use to leave messages as well :
UPDATE 27-Jun-2004:
My Guestbook had to be deleted because it was overrun with
IDIOT SPAMMERS posting links to their web sites / scam sites.
Sorry about the banner ads on the Guest Book's web site - it was the best "free" Guest Book that I could find at short notice.
Email subject line hints, tips, and suggestions :
When you send me an email, I would suggest using a meaningful subject line -
i.e. don't use anything like "Hey, about this" or "hi, how are you" as this
will only make your email look like SPAM email (i.e. Unsolicited Junk Email)
and because I get 100's of these a day then I ignore / delete emails like this.
Using an email subject line starting with "Shareware: " or "Registration: "
is a darn good, sure-fire way to get my attention. :)
Follow these suggestions and there is a much greater chance that I'll see and reply to your email. :)
This is my special version of the fun and highly addictive dice game, called Yahtzee.
This program was only updated yesterday, but I've been doing a lot of work
behind the scenes - and this new functionality is worth releasing straight away.
This new version adds this functionality : If you get a high score, then make the appropriate row of
the high score table visible.
i.e. scroll the display down / up to reveal the row of the
high score table where you just entered your score.
Key Sound Generator
is a fun program that plays a particular
sound effect each time a mouse button or keyboard key is
pressed. Different sounds are played depending on the type
of key or button. Various sets of sounds are available for download,
and you can also add your own !
In this new version, you can select the sounds for each category, and even select "No Sound".
Thanks go to Jonathan H for requesting this functionality ! :)
8-Mar-2004 ::
I'm Back - and MAME v0.80 is out
I'm back from holidays - had an awesome trip.
(Stay tuned for a trip summary and photos ... :)
6-Feb-2004 ::
Moose on Holidays until March 3, 2004
Well, it's that time of the year again - yes, that's right, it's time to take some
incredibly well earned holidays ....
I've been working extremely hard by doing
1 full-time and 3 part-time jobs - actually, this isn't unusual at all for me
as I've been doing this for many years. (Well, someone has to support all of the people
on the dole, "compo", etc here in Australia !! ;))
Anyway, I reckon that I probably deserve a nice,
long holiday more than just about anyone else on the planet right now !! ;))
This year, I'm heading to Hong Kong, UK, Europe, and the USA
(New York and LA) for about 26 days.
And, I'm taking someone along with me who is very dear to my heart, and who has stood by me through
the good and the bad times, and who has also worked extremely hard all of her life (and still does)
and has never really had a decent holiday, and she's never
been outside of our Australia's immediate vicinity (Australia, New Zealand, Fiji).
So, who is this mystery person ? Well, it's my mother, who I affectionately call "Chookie" -
I'm taking her away on the first decent holiday of her life.
Anyway, as a result of all of this travel, I wont be able to answer any emails or process any
orders until I get back on Wednesday, March 3, 2004.
I might upload some holiday pictures here when I get back - so stay tuned ... :)
RAM / Swapfile Monitor
displays details and graphs
of the Physical RAM and SWAPfile (Page file) usage,
the free / used space on a selected Disk Drive,
and the CPU and Average CPU usage on your PC.
The program also contains Mouse Odometer functionality.
i.e. it can display the number of left / right mouse botton
clicks and/or the distance the mouse pointer has travelled in Km or Miles.
Also, the program contains a CPU Usage Drop Adviser
(which is great for knowing when your PC has finished a big job -
like virus checking your PC, defragmenting the harddrive, etc).
14-Jan-2004 ::
House and Shop For Sale - $20,000 AUD Freehold
Update : This property is now SOLD - the first people to phone up about it purchased it.
I have a little holiday old house and an old, dilapidated shop in
Wowan - a little town about 70 Km south-west of Rockhampton in Central Queensland, Australia.
Because of work committments, etc, I can no longer get out to the house
as often as I would like, and when I do, the grass is usually 6 feet
high and I spend the next 2 days mowing it. This trend looks set to
continue forever, so, reluctantly, I have decided to sell the property.
So, if you think that you will never be able to afford your own house,
or that houses are extremely expensive - think again.
My house is priced to sell quickly (hopefully before the darn grass
grows again !! ;))
N.B. For $20,000 - DO NOT EXPECT A PALACE !!! Both of these properties are
far from perfect and both need at least some work and TLC (Tender Loving Care).
Update : This property is now SOLD - the first people to phone up about it purchased it.
The MAME guys released another new version of
Multiple Arcade
Machine Emulator (MAME) way back on December 25, 2003 -
which was a very nice Christmas present to the 1,000's of slavering MAME fans.
However, I've been away from the internet since a few days before
this, so I've only just caught up on this news ...
Date & Time
is a very simple clock program that simply displays the date and time.
10-Dec-2003 ::
Happy 10th Birthday Doom
Today is Doom's 10th Birthday. It was on December 10, 1993 that
Id Software
dropped the 100 megaton bomb on the gaming community that was Doom.
While Id's previous title, Wolfenstein 3-D, was a huge hit and firmly established
the company as a serious player in
the action gaming genre, it was Doom that annihilated everything that came before
it and set the standard for games for many years to come.
Doom was an amazing First Person Shooter (FPS) game.
Even though Doom was the successor to other FPS games, such as Id's Wolfenstein 3-D, etc - it
was the first game to really gain world wide acceptance / recognition.
Doom was a true killer application,
and many 1,000's of people purchased PCs and network cards / cables (or null modem cables)
just so they could play Doom in the comfort of their own homes.
Compared to today, the home computer landscape was very different in 1993 - many people were still using
Commodore 64's for games, but people with more money (or more serious gaming habits / addictions ;)
had Amiga 500's, Atari ST's, or PCs, or a console, such as a NES, Mega-Drive, or PC Engine.
And, the power of those 1993 machines was *very* modest compared to modern PCs / consoles.
A typical PC in 1993 was a 386SX-20 MHz, with 2 MB of RAM, and a 40 MB hard-drive.
CD-Drives (i.e. CD readers) still weren't common on any machine because they were still
far too expensive. Most people had sound cards in their PC. A lucky few had 486 PCs with 4 MB
of memory ... they were really powerful beasts of machines in those days.
Many (like me) had been using the PC as a games machine for many years (in my case, since 1985),
but the users of other systems - Amiga and Atari users in particular - used to try and bash the PC
at every opportunity by saying that their games were so much better, or had
more colours on the screen at once, or had better sound / music.
And, at this stage in the game (particularly with sound), they were often right.
However, then along came Doom, and this game not only silenced the criticisms of Amiga and Atari users,
it turned them into instant PC fans, and they flocked in their 1,000's to buy PCs just so
that they could play Doom.
At the time, stores like Electronics Boutique had almost equal shelf space dedicated to PC and
Amiga games - the two kings of home computer gaming at the time.
However, after Doom was released, the Amiga declined very quickly, and pretty soon, PC games also filled
the game shelves which were previously occupied by Amiga games.
I was working in England when Doom was released. I remember at the time, that my
brother, Frank, phoned me from Australia and said "Oh Mike, you've got to get Doom -
you've just got to get Doom - get down to the shop now and buy it - NOW !!!".
I was busy at work and could not get away at lunchtime, but he phoned me again after
lunch to see if I had purchased it yet - and nagged me to do so immediately.
So, after work, I went and purchased a PC magazine with the shareware Doom on the cover.
That night, I played it and (by about 3 AM in the morning) I had finished and explored all
10 levels of shareware Doom and found quite a few of the secrets.
At 8:00 AM the next morning,
I was waiting outside Electronics Boutique to buy the full version of the game.
I was well and truly hooked !!
Within a week, a friend and I had a 2 computer home network set-up at my house, and
we were playing 2 player Doom games via a null modem cable. We could play co-operatively or Death match,
but more often than not, it was us against Doom's evil demons of hell.
Within a very short period, 3 other friends and I were regularly meeting at each other's houses and playing 4
player network games of Doom all night, while having a few beers, and eating snacks and pizza and
gulping down coffee in between games.
It was a real social event - and that was the real beauty of Doom - it was a great single player game,
but it was an awesome game to play with friends.
Doom 2 was released a year (or so) later, and then friends and I were regularly getting together and
playing 8 player LAN games - it was great fun.
Doom 1/2 still have enormous nostalgic value for
me because of these great times.
And, pretty soon, all sorts of *FREE* Level Editors were being released - so you could design your own levels.
Also, CDs full of 500 *FREE* Doom Levels were on the covers of PC magazines - and you could very easily
play these additional levels via a simple command.
Then came the incredible *FREE* Total Conversions - such as Alien Doom, etc - where
people had completely changed Doom's graphics, monsters, sounds, weapons, menus, title screen,
interface, etc to make it a completely new game and experience.
And all of these extras were 100% FREE for people that had purchased Doom.
They were created by Doom players for Doom players and given away free of charge.
Doom was incredibly advanced for its time, and some of it's features included :
Fully texture-mapped walls, floors, and ceilings
Non-Orthogonal Walls
Variable Height Floors and Ceilings
Palette Translation
Environment Animation and Morphing
Light Diminishing and Light Sourcing-so distant objects are enshrouded in darkness, unless a light source is nearby
256-Color VGA graphics
Status read-outs in your helmet
Tons of punch-packing power-ups and wicked weapons
Explore a seamless world-inside and outside
Four players at once on LANS, two by modem
Doom and Doom 2 were amazing games, and they certainly changed the games landscape forever.
And, by finally making the PC the undisputed king of home computer gaming, PC games and
capabilities hit high gear, and many game developers switched to support the PC, and/or gave
the PC a lot more respect as a games platform.
Thanks to Id software releasing the source code for the game to the public, the game still lives on today, and there
are many new versions of Doom that allow you to play with awesome new graphical effects on fast, modern PCs.
10-Dec-2003 ::
TV Tuner / Capture card problems resolved ....
Back in September, I
reported some of the issues
that I have been having with various TV Tuner cards that I have been plugging into my PC.
However, I can report that the problems are now - as far as possible - resolved -
although the achieved resolution of these problems leaves a lot to be desired ...
After spending many hours trying various TV Tuner cards, various primary graphics cards,
various OS's (Windows 98 and XP), reinstalling OS's from scratch (onto spare hadddisks),
downloading and installing the latest drivers, and various other things, I still could not
receive anything but static in any TV tuner card that I tried in my PC.
But, the problem in the end turned out to be the aerial signal - i.e. the reception –
so I had to buy a booster and get some connections re-joined and everything worked fine.
Prior to buying this booster, my TV picture had been reasonable but not perfect.
The reason why I did not consider that the TV signal / aerial was a problem previously was
entirely due to the advice I had been given by staff in my local
Harvey Norman store.
This store has many dozens of TVs hooked up to a single antenna (via god knows how many boosters),
but by the time the TV aerial cable reached the technicians room at the back of the store,
no TV could receive any watch-able signal - all they got was a mass of static.
However, they demonstrated that TV cards
could still receive near picture perfect TV - even in the technicians back room.
They said (and demonstrated to me) that PCs with TV cards
could handle TV signals that were far below anything that any TV could handle.
So, what would appear as a mass of static
on a TV was actually a very nice picture on a TV card in a PC.
Their senior technicians told me this, and they demonstrated this with a TV and a TV card in a PC.
So, for these reasons, I felt confident that my TV reception wasn't to blame for my PC TV Tuner problems.
My TV reception wasn't perfect, but it was infinitely better than Harvey Norman's back room.
However, for some reason it turned out that the reception was my problem, and that my TV Tuner card
required better reception than my TV - contrary to what Harvey Norman claimed (and demonstrated).
Unfortunately, where I live, I still get a less than perfect picture
(even after the booster was installed) and digital TV
doesn’t work in my area of Queensland, Australia – so I’m still not happy.
And, due to reception issues in my area, I cannot use my second aerial point in my house
(and it has now been disconnected by the guys who installed the booster).
So my TV card is virtually useless now - if I want to hook it up, then I have to unplug my TV and
use my TV's aerial socket - a pain in the neck.
This isn’t the TV card’s fault though – this is a reception issue.
So, it looks like I've already got a nice present for my brother for Christmas .... ;))
4-Dec-2003 ::
San Francisco Rush HDD Analysis
Over the past few days, just for laughs, I've been analysing the contents of a
San Francisco Rush Hard-drive (HDD) from a real coin-operated video arcade machine with
some software that I have been creating "on-the-fly" to help me do this.
The San Francisco Rush HDD has a formatted capacity of 1.18 GB.
A summary of some of the overall results of this analysis are :
The text string "Tempest " appears 100,927,970 times and takes up
770 MB or 63.3% of the disk space, and in one place on the disk this string appears
consecutively 3,269,376 times. That's a truck-load of Tempests !! ;)
N.B. The "Tempest " string is actually due to the way Quantum's Fireball Tempest
hard-drives are initialised / tested in the factory. Visit
F-Secure
for more information about this.
The hex code string "$00 $00 $00 $00 $00 $00 $00 $00" appears 13,199,548
times and takes up 101 MB or 8.3% of the disk space.
There are huge swathes of other repeated, redundant, and/or duplicate data.
Here is a portion of one of the many graphs that I created to help me analyse / understand the data patterns :
And, just for kicks, I was seriously thinking about developing a utility to generate an image of the HDD
from the smallest possible set of files / data -
the aim was to make this significantly smaller than MAME's current SFRush CHD -
and this might have been be useful for anyone who is trying to replace a broken hard-drive on their SFRush machine.
However, the next version of
MAME's CHDMan
will take care of all of this redundancy, restoration, and more, so I wont continue with this project now.
Still, I did find some interesting data patterns and some suprising results,
and it also gave me an excuse to produce a swag of interesting graphs and software
to help me analyse this data - and all of this was pretty good fun.
If anyone would like a copy of this data, let me know.
Spam Analysis Tool is especially designed for use by Mail System
Administrators, or anyone else who runs an email server or
wants to block spam / junk emails.
SPAM (i.e unsolicited junk email) is a rotten scurge that is
annoying millions of internet users and causing all sorts of
havoc due to clogged mail boxes and clogged servers, not to mention
the nasty payloads (viruses, trojans, etc) that many spam emails
contain.
Most email clients (such as Outlook) allow you to save emails
to your harddisk with the headers intact. e.g. in Outlook,
simply drag and drop the spam emails to a directory on your
harddisk. (Do not open them or run any programs they contain).
Once saved to your hard-drive with the email headers intact, these
spam emails can be analysed so that their real source can be
identified, and then all emails from this source can be blocked
in the future. Doing this will help reduce the volumes of
spam that you receive in the future.
Spam Analysis Tool enables you to :
Step through directories full of spam email,
View just the email headers or the entire email,
View each spam email's contents with colour coding
Select text (such as IP addresses, email addresses, etc)
at the click of the mouse button, and add these to a list
of unique items (which can be incorporated into a block file),
And do various other things.
This is my 77th program to be hosted on
Moose's Software Valley
(48 Shareware + 26 Freeware + 3 Apple 2 programs) ! :)
Hope you find it useful !
Binary Clock is a "for fun" program that displays a re-sizable
binary clock - that is, a clock where the time is displayed
via the binary number system (base 2) instead of the
decimal number system (base 10).
This version adds several new features and options - such as the option to use 4 or 6 bits for each digit.
Binary Clock is a "for fun" program that displays a re-sizable
binary clock - that is, a clock where the time is displayed
via the binary number system (base 2) instead of the
decimal number system (base 10).
A whole range (in fact, some people would probably say
"a whole overkill") of settings, graphics, and options
are available via the settings menu.
This is my 76th program to be hosted on
Moose's Software Valley
(48 Shareware + 25 Freeware + 3 Apple 2 programs) ! :)
Hope you find it useful !
3-Nov-2003 ::
8.5GB DVD+R drives to ship April 2004
The glacial paced, half-baked, ill-conceived roll out of DVD technology looks set to
continue - ermmm, at an even slower pace.
Yes, that's right folks - by April 2004 (or sometime - who knows when - there after)
we might (hopefully) start seeing double-capacity DVD+R drives and media.
Big spanking deal !!! These 8.5GB DVD+R drives are only about 5-6 years over due !
All I can say is come on
Blu-Ray
... ;))
ROM Clone Zip Manager can delete redundant / duplicate files
from inside Clone ROM ZIPs.
That is, ROM Clone Zip Manager scans your Clone ROM ZIP files
(in all directories you specify) and compares each file
inside these against the files inside the Parent ROM ZIP
file, and if an identical file is found (with the same
name and CRC) then it is deleted from the Clone ROM ZIP file.
In adition, you can backup the files (and extract them to
another directory) before they are deleted from inside the
Clone ROM ZIP file.
ROM Clone Zip Manager also enables you to move all Clone ZIP
files to another directory of your choice.
I wrote this program and ran it against my MAME ZIP files,
and, in less than 2 minutes, it had saved me a whopping 191 MB
of disk space !
31-Oct-2003 ::
New light-speed CPU is 1,000 times faster than current CPUs !
Lenslet, an Israeli company, have developed and are now selling a new CPU, called Enlight,
which can perform 8,000 billion operations per second - that's about
about 1,000 times faster than a standard processor.
These are very expensive (10's of $1,000's of US dollars per CPU),
special purpose, custom made CPUs, and aren't for general use, so, sadly, we wont
be seeing these in our desktop PCs or games consoles any time soon ... ;)
In my usual, weekly sweep of BBC, Scientific American, and New Scientist web sites,
I've just stumbled across some other
interesing articles on eternal life, nano-technology, astronomy, space flight, and our Sun :
I've decided to get real tough on the SPAM (i.e unsolicited junk email) that has
suddenly increased exponentially over the past weeks.
As a result :
All of the email addresses in the text files from this site have all been
Munged.
In addition, all of the email addresses that you can click on my web pages
have all been obscured (behind the scenes) to stop them being harvested by spam-bots, etc.
This change is completely transparrent to visitors to my web pages.
I haven't done these things in the past because spam wasn't really a problem - my filters, etc
were stopping most of it.
But, all of a sudden over the past few weeks, the volume of spam has increased exponentially and
the nasty, dirty tricks used by spam-mongers have become even more unacceptable (if that is possible).
If this isn't sufficient, then I'm moving to JavaScript decrypted "on the fly"
email tags - that have been adaptively / mutatively encrypted -
and this will certainly stop the bastards.
In the next few weeks I'll probably release one or two programs
(that I am working on now along these lines) and that help will other people to fight
spam - including average PC users and mail system administrators.
They've pissed me off one too many time, and now I'm fighting the good fight against these scum.
All in all, this was an extremely, embarrassingly simple change to MAME, but it
took me a few minutes to work out what I had to change and where everything
went (in the 1+ million lines - 47+ MB - of MAME source code).
Please note, these Test ROMs are not even as exciting as the good old
Sente Diagnostic Cartridge.
i.e. they are almost on a par with "watching paint dry" ... ;)
A summary of what code I added to support the Test ROMs.
Special thanks to Paul Sommers and Chris Hardy
for dumping / verifying these ROMs.
I've got a few other test roms here (somewhere ... ;), so I may also add
support for those as well in the future.
18-Sep-2003 ::
TV Tuner / Capture card blues ....
This week, I've spent well over 10 hours trying to get a brand-new
Pinnacle PC TV Pro card working in my PC, and so far, it simply will NOT work.
All I get is static, the card will NOT find any channels.
I live in Queensland Australia, and my PC 's details are : Pentium III 700 MHz, Windows XP Pro,
256 MB RAM, PowerColor TNT2 M64 AGP video card with Video IN/Out and TV Out, 3COM network card,
Soundblaster 128, and a brand-new Pinnacle PC TV Pro card.
I have an external roof-top antenna hooked up to my Pinnacle PC TV Pro card. The
antenna and cables I use work perfectly with my TVs.
Here's a quick summary of most of what I have tried so far :
Install Pinnacle card and software and follow the instructions to the letter.
Quick Scan TV - Australia, Antenna, PAL - nothing but static - no chanels were found.
Full Scan TV - Australia, Antenna, PAL - still nothing but static - no chanels found.
Double check cable, Pinnacle card, and software.
Check Hardware Device Settings under Control Panel - everything reported as working correctly - no device or other conflicts.
Run DXDiag and check everything out.
Full Scan TV - Australia, Antenna, PAL, PAL M, PAL N, PAL DK, and PAL I - still nothing but static - no chanels found.
Try another Areal lead and Full Scan TV - Australia, Antenna, PAL, PAL M, PAL N, PAL DK, and PAL I - still nothing but static - no chanels found.
Test both leads with TV and both work 100%.
Try another antenna socket and Full Scan TV - Australia, Antenna, PAL, PAL M, PAL N, PAL DK, and PAL I - still nothing but static - no chanels found.
Full Scan TV - Australia, Antenna, PAL - still nothing but static - no chanels found.
Install PPE - PCI Performance Enhancer and Reboot.
Full Scan TV - Australia, Antenna, PAL - still nothing but static - no chanels found.
Check Pinnacle's WEB Site and discussion forums and read *ALL* posts where
people are having problems with their Pinnacle cards - and there were many of these !!!
Download DirectX v9.0b (32 MB), the DirectX v9.0b TV Tuner Fix, latest nVidia drivers, and the latest Pinnacle drivers.
That's a whopping 93 MB of downloads folks !!
Moved Pinnacle Card to another PCI slot - as recommended in the Pinnacle discussion forums.
Full Scan TV - Australia, Antenna, PAL - still nothing but static - no chanels found.
Moved Pinnacle Card to another PCI slot #2 - as recommended in the Pinnacle discussion forums.
Full Scan TV - Australia, Antenna, PAL - still nothing but static - no chanels found.
Install PPE - PCI Performance Enhancer - v1.11 - PPE111.exe and Reboot - as recommended in the Pinnacle discussion forums.
Full Scan TV - Australia, Antenna, PAL - still nothing but static - no chanels found.
Installed latest Pinnacle drivers : PinnaclePCTVUpdate550.exe and Reboot - as recommended in the Pinnacle discussion forums.
Full Scan TV - Australia, Antenna, PAL - still nothing but static - no chanels found.
Install latest nVidia GForce2 - TNT2 Drivers - v45.23 - Aug 13, 2003 and Reboot - as recommended in the Pinnacle discussion forums.
Run DXDiag and check everything out.
Full Scan TV - Australia, Antenna, PAL - still nothing but static - no chanels found.
Install DirectX 9.0b - as recommended in the Pinnacle discussion forums.
Install Non-NTSC TV Tuner Hotfix for DirectX 9.0b (KB825116) - DirectX9b-KB825116-x86-ENU.exe
Reboot PC.
Check Hardware Device Settings under Control Panel - everything reported as working correctly - no device or other conflicts.
Run DXDiag and check everything out.
Full Scan TV - Australia, Antenna, PAL - still nothing but static - no chanels found.
So far I've spent well over 10 hours on this, and I'm just about ready to forget the whole thing as a bad joke.
Either that or I'll completely reinstall Windows XP onto a fresh hard-drive and try again with a clean system.
I've started to suspect that there could there be some sort of unreported issue / conflict between :
my PowerColor TNT2 M64 AGP video card with Video IN/Out and TV Out
and the Pinnacle PC TV Pro card ??
However, Windows' Hardware Device Manager reports none, and the Pinnacle software reports none.
Or, could there be some conflict / mismatch between the TV areal and the card ??
N.B. I also purchased a V-Gear PC TV card and this could not find any
channels either - no matter what I tried. So, the problem must be with my PC ???
What could be wrong ? Anyone got any ideas ?
Should I forget this card and buy and try a Leadtek TV2000 XP Video/TV Deluxe
instead (for less than half the price) ??
Has anyone had any experience with the Pinnacle PC TV Pro card or the Leadtek TV2000 XP Video/TV Deluxe ?
MAME32 INI Tools is an unofficial companion utility / tool for the official
MAME 32 Arcade Machine Emulator for Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000,
which can be downloaded seperately from :
http://www.mame.net
This new version adds support for Official MAME 32.
Since MAME v0.65 onwards, I have only used MAME 32 PLUS.
But, today I downloaded the Official MAME 32 to check
this program worked with it, and I was shocked to find
lots of differences. Never mind, Official MAME 32 and
MAME 32 Plus are now supported.
Official MAME 32 and MAME 32 Plus both store the ROM
information in different INI files, in different locations,
and they have different formats and keys.
I don't know if this program works with Stretch MAME 32,
Thunder MAME, Fast MAME or any other versions
of Windows 32 GUI MAME, and I
haven't got the time or energy to check this.
If anyone uses a version of Windows GUI MAME 32 that
does NOT appear to be supported by this program, then
please let me know and
Email me
a copy of the INI file,
and I will add in support and email you a new version
of the program.
Between 1963 and 1989,
700 episodes were made, and they are now all being shown again on
ABC TV
here in Australia - starting tonight at 6:00 PM.
I'll certainly be tuning in an watching at least some (and maybe all ;) of them again.
Ahhh, it will be great to see Romana again -
incredibly intelligent, beautiful, loyal, blonde,
mysterious, slim, interesting, strong, independent, resourceful, ...
what more could a man want !! ;))
15-Sep-2003 ::
Holy Mackrel, yet another MAME ... v0.74
Vince Briel (a computer technician, based in Cleveland, Ohio) plans to sell
$200 US replicas
of the Apple I computer from his garage -
and he has Steve "Woz" Wozniak's (the Apple 1's inventor)
full blessing to do this and use the Apple 1 ROMs.
And, just like the original Apple I, this replica will come without a keyboard, case,
monitor, or power supply - customers will have to add their own !!
Unlike the original Apple I, the replica machine does NOT have a casette tape interface - so you
will need to type in BASIC and assembler programs by hand - just like almost
everyone had to do in the "good old days" !! :)
Stop Watch
is stop watch program with a memory to enable you to monitor
internet connection time, benchmark tasks / activities, etc.
The program keeps a detailed log of each Stop / Start event.
27-Aug-2003 ::
200+ GHz Diamond CPUs ???
TOKYO - Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) has developed a diamond semiconductor
device that operates at a frequency of 81 GHz.
Diamond is expected to be the next generation semiconductor material because of its high
thermal conductivity, high breakdown voltage, and high carrier mobility.
200-300 GHz devices are planned for the future.
In comparison, the latest Intel Pentium 4 CPU operates at just 3.2 GHz.
These images were generated courtesy of my
Solar System Simulator
program, and they are the result of simulations of the orbit of Mars over
32 and 108 Earth years respectively of elapsed time
(but calculated and drawn in a few seconds on my PC).
Every 2 years or so, Mars' orbit brings it relatively close to Earth.
(In the first image above,
you can see that Mars has approached closely to Earth 15 times in 32 years).
Actually, even at its closest approach, Mars is still 55.8 Million Kilometers
from Earth - which is still 142 times further away than the Moon.
Every now and again, because of the effects of the Sun, Jupiter, etc, Mars may
approach slighty closer to Earth than normal. (Don't get too excited,
we are only talking about 20,000 kilometers closer at the very
most folks - which isn't much compared to 54.7 Million Kilometers).
According to NASA, Mars is now (i.e. today !!) closer to Earth than
it may have been for 60,000 or so years.
A series of unmaned probes from NASA, the European Space Agency, and Japan are
streaking towards Mars as we speak.
Hopefully, these missions will all be successful, and we can answer some
important questions, such as : Is there or was there ever life on Mars ?
Hopefully these missions will pave the way for setting-up a human colony on Mars
in the future, so that the human race can begin to learn to live and travel in space.
And, to celebrate all of this, I have created the above images, uploaded a new version of
Solar System Simulator (a few days ago),
checked out Mars through my own telescope (and stared at it for hours at
night over the past few weeks),
and tonight I'm heading to a little observatory at Central Queensland University
(where I work as a lecturer / tutor) to study Mars through a series of telescopes.
And, to round this off, I will probably rewatch the awesome
BBC series "Planets" and Sam Neil's "Space" -
both of which I have on DVD and thoroughly enjoy watching.
(They are the most watched DVDs in my collection ;)
Text Buttons enables you to place often used pieces of
text behind anything up to 750 buttons, and view 1, 2, 3, or 4 columns of
15 of these buttons at any time, so that any text you need is very easily
and quickly obtainable when required.
Solar System Simulator
is a program to help you visualise
the solar system, compare the planets, and find out more about
the planets, or help you produce your own reports or assignments on the planets.
This program includes :
An animation of the Solar System, with the planets rotating
around the Sun - and you can alter the speed of animation, and
choose which planet to "stand on" and the perspective of the rotating
planets and Sun is adjusted accordingly. And, you can also trace
the orbit of each object - great for helping to visualize /
understrand the various orbits.
Many dozens of Planetary Comparison Graphs (with various options) to
let you compare dozens of criteria, such as mass, radius, volume,
distances from the sun, atmospheric composition, visits by
space probes, wind speeds, and many other criteria for each planet.
Planet Reports containing statistics and detailed information
on each planet or our Sun - including size, mass,
length of day, temperature ranges, density, volume,
surface area, orbital velocity, space craft visits, moons,
discovery details, and many dozens of other measurements,
statistics, and interesting facts.
A Weight Calculator to enable you to enter your weight
and calculate your weight on each planet.
Extract Data : you can copy and paste any or all selected
data values into a spreadsheet or your own reports
at the click of a mouse button.
Planet and Solar System Images.
This program should be interesting to people of all ages !!
Enjoy !! :)
14-Aug-2003 ::
MAME 32 INI Tools v1.1
Update last night's release of
MAME 32 INI Tools (v1.1)
to include the processing of
a new key in MAME 32's INI files. (Keeping the same v1.1 version number).
MAME32 INI Tools is an unofficial companion utility / tool for the official
MAME 32 Arcade Machine Emulator for Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000,
which can be downloaded seperately from :
http://www.mame.net
This new version supports the latest MAME 32 INI file keys and values -
which (for some known reason) were changed recently.
It seems that Linux wont be quite so "FREE" after all ... Well, that's
if SCO Group Inc. gets its way.
SCO's lawyers are claiming that the Open Source OS isn't so Open Source
after all. Things have been brewing behind the scenes for several months,
and now SCO's lawyers have come out with all guns blazing.
In March 2003, SCO hit IBM with a $1 billion US lawsuit, and later
increased this to $3 billion US.
Then, in May 2003, SCO sent letters to 1,500 companies warning them that
they could be held liable for IP violations in Linux.
Now, it looks like SCO have got the rest of the Linux world in their sights,
including desktop Linux users.
SCO is giving Linux users a chance to "go legal" on their OS if they pay
$699 US to SCO now (for a single CPU server).
Or, if you wait until after October 15, 2003, prices for the OS
for a single CPU server will start at $1,399 US.
Pricing for desktop, embedded, and other systems are still to be announced.
So, you can imagine just what kind of bruha this is causing amongst
Linux Users on the internet ... ;)
To top this off, according to the blurb at the bottom of SCO's Press Release :
About The SCO Group
The SCO Group (Nasdaq: SCOX - News) helps millions of customers in more than 82 countries to grow their businesses with UNIX business solutions.
Yeah, right - haaah hah - good one guys !! ;)
Ahhhhh, I can already smell the sweet stench of Reverse Engineering .... ;))
This new version just fixes an icon and a tool tip on a button - thanks goes to
Twisty at Mame World
for reporting this !! :)
29-July-2003 ::
Intel Vs AMD - CPU Wars
Intel and AMD are both releasing a new generation of processors in the near future,
and a whole new round of CPU wars are about to erupt.
The coming fight will be between Intel's latest
Pentium CPUs and AMD's long awaited Athlon 64.
For the past few months, everything has been quiet on the CPU front,
and this situation looks set to continue for another few months,
but all this is just an indication of how big the coming storm is going to be.
Performance will skyrocket again, but, as usual, this performance
will carry a premium price tag - at least for a few months ....
It wont be long before 5+ GHz Pentium 5 machines will be classed as "entry level" ... ;)
And, in just a few short years, we will be able to buy machines with 10 GHz CPUs,
advanced 1,200 MHz Quad Pumped DDR II memory, with a range of advanced
features and mind-boggling performance.
And, best of all, it's all good news for us consumers ! :)
MAME Benchmarker is utility / tool which can help you
benchmark the running of the Windows Command Line MAME
or the DOS MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) :
MAME Benchmarker enables you to choose which games
to benchmark, which command line parameters to use
when running MAME, and then benchmark these games
within MAME.
After the benchmarking is complete, a TAB separated
report is displayed and you can easily copy and paste
this into a spreadsheet to allow you to compare
these results with other benchmark results, graph
the results, etc.
This is my 75th program to be hosted on
Moose's Software Valley
(47 Shareware + 25 Freeware + 3 Apple 2 programs) ! :)
Hope you find it useful !
MAME32 Screen Shot Organiser
is an unofficial companion utility / tool for the official
MAME 32 Arcade Machine Emulator for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, etc
which can be downloaded seperately from :
http://www.mame.net
MAME32 Screen Shot Organiser simply enables you to view and drag
and drop (with the mouse) screen shots so that you can arrange your
screen shots for each parent game and its clones with ease.
This could be useful for anyone who wants to arrange their screen
shots in a certain way. e.g. show the title screen for each
parent game of each set, and then show various screen shots of
each game in action for the clones.
This is my 74th program to be hosted on
Moose's Software Valley
(47 Shareware + 24 Freeware + 3 Apple 2 programs) ! :)
Hope you find it useful !
MAME32 INI Tools is an unofficial companion utility / tool for the official
MAME 32 Arcade Machine Emulator for Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000,
which can be downloaded seperately from :
http://www.mame.net
This is my 73rd program to be hosted on
Moose's Software Valley
(47 Shareware + 23 Freeware + 3 Apple 2 programs) ! :)
Hope you find it useful !
30-June-2003 ::
Regional Settings Issues
Regional Settings can be a bit confusing at times.
For example, in some countries, a decimal point is a full stop while in others it is a comma,
and the thousands separator is a comma in some countries and a full stop in others.
e.g. 1,234.567 or 1.234,567 could be correct depending on your regional settings.
And, this is just to name some of the many variations.
Don't even get me started on dates ... ;)
In a world that has gone mad on standards, this confusing state of affairs
sure seems a little bizzare ... ;)
Anyway, I've fixed some Regional Settings issues in the following programs :
Over the weekend, I saw the Honda Accord's amazing "Cog"
commercial on TV for the first time, and I was pretty impressed,
but I assumed that they had used trick photography or computer
graphics or something like that to help make it.
But, I have just found out that the commercial was all
filmed in 1 take in studios in Paris,
after 605 previous takes where something went wrong.
There is little doubt that this commercial will win awards and
will be shown for years on "best commercials of all time" TV shows.
Because this commercial is so clever, within the coming days / weeks, these numbers will probably increase !!! ;)
N.B. If you want to watch this movie on your PC, then various internet
sites - including
Honda's own WEB Site
- will enable you to download the commercial.
Note that there are high resolution versions of this commercial
floating around on the internet - with file sizes bigger than 11+ MB -
and these are much better quality than the far more common 3 MB and 5 MB versions.
Sanitize Disk Space
enables you to select any drive on your PC,
such as a floppy disk or any of your harddrives or harddrive partitions,
and then sanitize the free / unused space on this drive.
The following sanitization levels are supported by this program :
Basic / Quick
Medium
High
Industrial Strength
Department of Defense
You've Got to be Joking
Once sanitized (at the highest sanitization level), the data in your
deleted files can never again be recovered, and no hacker - no
matter how clever - should ever be able to view any data contained
in your deleted files.
This processing should be highly desirable for anyone who is
selling or replacing their PC - especially if the PC contained
any sensitive or personal or confidential data.
Price rise from $5 AUD - this program is now a $10 AUD program.
RAM / Swapfile Monitor
displays details and graphs
of the Physical RAM and SWAPfile (Page file) usage,
the free / used space on a selected Disk Drive,
and the CPU and Average CPU usage on your PC.
The program also contains Mouse Odometer functionality.
i.e. it can display the number of left / right mouse botton
clicks and/or the distance the mouse pointer has travelled in Km or Miles.
Also, the program contains a CPU Usage Drop Adviser
(which is great for knowing when your PC has finished a big job -
like virus checking your PC, defragmenting the harddrive, etc).
Sixty percent of all Americans age six and older, or about 145 million people, play computer and video games.
The average age of a game player is 28 years old.
Forty-three percent of game players are women.
The vast majority of people who play do so with friends and family.
(Almost 60% of frequent game players play with friends, 33% play with siblings,
and about one-quarter play with their spouse and/or parents.)
Computer and video game software sales grew 8% in 2002 to $6.9 billion and are expected to show
strong growth over the next few years.
Over ninety percent of all games are purchased by adults over the age of 18.
Fifty-six percent of the most frequent computer and video game players have been playing
games for six or more years, while 60 percent expect to be playing games as much or more
ten years from now as they do today.
During the year 2000, the computer game industry generated jobs for 200,000 people and
$9 billion dollars in sales - and that's just in America !!
The vast majority of computer games sold are NOT violent games.
Forty percent (40%) of all PC game players are 36 years old or older !
The above is completely contrary to the usual stories we read in magazines and newspapers - where
journalist's sensationally claim that computer gamers are all teenage males, who play nothing but violent games,
and sit around on their own in dark rooms - becoming angry and anti-social - a time-bomb waiting
to go off and start shooting up yet another high-school - all thanks to computer games.
Maybe its time that some journalists actually looked at some facts instead of
spouting the same old half-baked non-sense over and over again ??? What a novel idea ! ;)
For the record, I'm 38 years old,
I've been playing computer games regularly since 1974 (thanks to the Hanimex Pong console),
I've purchased 4 computer games in the past 2 days (but I usually only purchase 6-12 computer games per year),
I own well over 100 PC games and
I only ever buy games for the PC (but I do have an old Playstation with eight old games),
and I mostly play computer games on a home PC network with friends / family -
it is a nice, social activity for me and my friends.
So, according to the IDSA, I'm (almost) completely normal - which is kinda nice to know ...
but it's a bit of a shock after all these years of being told otherwise ... ;))
To make my web site easier to navigate and download more quickly to your PC,
I have created two new sections :
Software Updates
i.e. the WEB Page Updates that relate just to my software.
(This is no longer downloaded by default - in the left-hand frame - when my page loads).
Backup Again
is a program that makes backing up your files a breeze.
More specifically, Backup Again allows you to :
specify the directories to backup,
specify whether you want to backup each directory or each
directory and each of their sub-directories,
specify whether you want to backup all files, or just
those modified after a certain date,
and then you simply press the "Backup and ZIP" button
and all files are backed-up and compressed into a single
ZIP file which is automatically named according to the current
date / time.
With Backup Again, backing up your data need never get
you down !!
This is my 72nd program to be hosted on
Moose's Software Valley
(47 Shareware + 22 Freeware + 3 Apple 2 programs) ! :)
Hope you find it useful !
24-Mar-2003 ::
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator (v3.0)
More specifically, this computer program calculates the sag of overhead conductors and earthwires
for transmission and distribution lines, enabling you to use a variety of methods to calculate
the sag, and also generate a report and save the data for virtually any number of spans and cables
within any number of projects.
New features for version 3.0 of the program include :
the ability to work in and change between metric or imperial units,
new sag calculation methods,
context sensitive help,
improved span navigation,
better support for colours and contrasts on laptop and other screens,
detection and automatic compensation for the Pentium CPU floating point bug,
and many, many other enhancements and improvements.
Pricing, upgrade costs, and all other details are
available here.
If any new or existing users have any comments or questions, or would like to place
an order for this upgrade, then please
Email me
Print and PDF Pictures
enables you to drag and drop a whole
bunch of pictures from Windows Explorer, move or sort these
into the required order, and then either :
Print them all out to a printer,
Or, if you have
Adobe Acrobat Distiller
installed, then then you can print them all
to the Acrobat Distiller, which places all of the
images into a PDF (Portable Document Format) file.
This program should be useful to anyone who wants to print a number of images, or get
them into a suitable format that enables easy reading "on screen".
This is my 71st program to be hosted on
Moose's Software Valley
(46 Shareware + 22 Freeware + 3 Apple 2 programs) ! :)
Hope you find it useful !
10-Mar-2003 ::
Farewell Pioneer 10 ...
Sadly, it appears that the
Pioneer 10
space-probe has sent its last signal back to Earth.
Pinoeer 10 is now almost 12 billion kilometres from Earth - which is the same as :
129.03 times the average distance between the Earth and the Sun,
2.05 times the average distance between Pluto and the Sun,
or, 340 million times the average distance between my home and work !! ;)
A mind-bogglingly vast distance for us, but an insignificant distance in Astronomical terms ... ;)
In recent transmissions, it was evident that Pioneer 10's radioisotope power source was
seriously decayed. On 7 February, 2003, it had finally degraded to the point where
the signal to Earth had dropped below the threshold for detection.
There has been no contact with Pioneer 10 since 7 February, 2003, and it
is very unlikely that Pioneer 10 will have enough power to send additional transmissions to Earth.
Pioneer 10 will continue to coast as silently as a ghost ship through the lonely, freezing cold void of deep
interstellar space, heading in the general direction of the red giant star
Aldebaran,
which forms the eye of
Taurus (The Bull). Aldebaran is about 68 light years away and it will take Pioneer over
2 million years to reach it.
Launched on 2 March 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through
the Asteroid belt, and the first spacecraft to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter.
In 1983, it became the first man-made object to leave the Solar System when it passed the
orbit of the most distant planet (Pluto).
Over the past 30 years, Pioneer 10 has continued to send back a priceless wealth of information on
the outer solar system, Jupiter, magnetic fields, radiation levels, the heliosphere, and the solar wind.
Not bad for a craft originally slated only for a 21-month mission to Jupiter !!!
Pioneer 10's sister ship, Pioneer 11, was launched on 5 April 1973, and journeyed to Jupiter (1974),
made the first direct observations of Saturn (1979), and studied energetic particles
in the outer heliosphere. The Pioneer 11 Mission ended on 30 September 1995, when
the last transmission from the spacecraft was received. There have been no communications
with Pioneer 11 since.
Mouse Odometer
is a "for fun" program that simply keeps track
of your mouse clicks and mouse cursor movement and converts this to a total
distance travelled in kilometers or miles.
Prices are high - around $3,800 US for the recorder and $30 US for blank Blu-Ray discs -
which is an absolute shitload of Aussie Dollars !! ;) -
but this is only to be expected for dazzling new technology.
I'm sure that it wont be long before the prices are much more affordable.
5-Mar-2003 ::
DNA Computer - 100,000 times faster than current PCs !
Building on the previous work of scientists around the world,
Israeli scientists have devised a computer that can perform 330 trillion operations per
second, more than 100,000 times the speed of the fastest PCs of today.
The secret: it is a nanocomputer that "runs" on DNA.
As of now, the DNA computer can only perform rudimentary functions, and it has no practical applications. "Our computer is programmable,
but it's not universal" said Shapiro. "There are computing tasks it inherently can't do."
The device can check whether a list of zeros and ones has an even number of ones.
The computer cannot count how many ones are in a list, since it has a finite memory and the number of ones might exceed its memory size.
Also, it can only answer yes or no to a question. It can't, for example, correct a misspelled word.
So, it looks like it'll be years before we can play 3D games or run
MAME
on a speed demon like this ... ;)
But, it'll sure be interesting to see how this technology evolves in the future
and what tools develop so that people can program such a computer.
Real Estate Calculator
enables you to perform a number of
calculations which should be useful to anyone who is involved
in buying or selling properties or houses, such as first home
buyers, investors, real estate agents, solicitors, etc.
More specifically, this program allows you to calculate :
Real Estate Agent's Commission, Government Stamp Duty,
adjustments (for rates, rent, etc) due at settlement,
calculate the mortgage / loan details, and generate a
detailed mortgage / loan report.
Call-A.P.P.L.E.
- a long running Apple ][ magazine - is celebrating its
25th Anniversary, which is an incredible achievement !
Call-A.P.P.L.E.
started as an Apple ][ user group / club news letter
way in February 1978, and in February 1979, as club membership
soared, it became a glossy magazine.
The magazine became very successful, and was one of the leading
publications for the Apple ][ computer. I certainly remember reading
it in the early 1980's.
However, by the late 1980's, the reign of the
mighty Apple ][ computer was well and truly over,
but the magazine soldiered on and persevered with a loyal
base of hard-core Apple ][ users and subscribers until late 1990,
when the magazine closed-down and ceased to exist.
However, after a 10 year hiatus, and against all odds,
the magazine sprang back to life in early 2001,
thanks to the growing interest in the Apple ][ computer
mainly as a result of fans re-discovering the
machine through emulation.
And, to top this off, the magazine is about to celebrate
its 25th Anniversary !! Congratulations to all the people
involved in
Call-A.P.P.L.E. !!
Bill Martens, of
Call-A.P.P.L.E.,
contacted me a few days ago and asked if he could use some of the old
Apple ][ programs I had written, such as :
on the magazine's 25th Anniversary cover CD, and ofcourse I agreed immediately.
In addition, I have also written and submitted an article for the
Call-A.P.P.L.E. : 25th Anniversary Edition,
which is titled "The Apple ][ and Me : Rambling Reminiscing from an old Apple ][ user".
I am quite excited by all of this, and can't wait to see how the
25th anniversary of the magazine turns out.
So, if you are an old Apple ][ fan, then please make sure you check out
Call-A.P.P.L.E.,
it is well worth subscribing to, and you can also buy scanned copies
of past issues of the magazine on CD.
29-Jan-2003 ::
One Month's Holiday ...
From today (Wednesday 29-Jan-2003) until Friday (28-Feb-2003)
I am on holidays from my lecturing / tutoring work at
Central Queensland University.
My "holiday" plans include opening up the veranda on my house and installing
new veranda rails, stair rails, etc, installing a new bay-window in
the master bedroom, installing some exterior power-points,
install a new bathroom (toilet, shower, basin, etc),
lining the interior of a shed to make it "liveable",
travelling to Brisbane and the Gold Coast to kick back with an old friend
or two, buy some PC upgrades, and hunt around some Brisbane arcades
for the elusive Choplifter 1987 machine (which I have been
trying to find or buy for the last 5 years), check out a few property investments, and a whole lot of other things.
So, it definitely wont be a "sit on my arse" holiday !! ;))
I'll be busy, busy, busy - which I prefer anyway.
I'll still be around most of the time, but I'll only be checking my
email once per week or several times per week at most.
So, if you need to contact me, email is still good, but just don't
expect the super-fast replies I normally provide. :)
Computers users must clean up their act if they do not want their data falling into the wrong hands.
The warning comes after two computer science students (Simson Garfinkel and Abhi Shelat) found
a wealth of confidential information on 158 second hand hard drives that they purchased on
eBay
for $1,000 US - including credit card numbers,
financial information, emails, and a year's worth of financial transactions
from an old harddrive that apparently was once in a certain bank's ATM machine in Illinois.
I personally cannot believe that this problem is still occuring, and that people and
companies can be so stupid and so lazy as to not properly erase disks before selling
them or throwing them out.
So, I guess that this is as good a time as any to remind everyone out there,
that I have written a program called
Sanitize Disk Space
which will clean up all erased data on your harddrive.
Once sanitized, the data in your deleted files can never again be
recovered, and no hacker - no matter how clever - will ever be able
to view any data contained in your deleted files.
For a lousy $5 AUD, you and your company could avoid the embarassment,
disgrace, and law suits that not erasing
sensitive / confidential information could cause.
21-Jan-2003 ::
Blu-Ray - Moving Closer to Reality ...
As I have
reported here previously
the "Blu-ray Disc" enables the recording, rewriting and play back of up to
27 GB of data on a single-sided, single-layer 12 cm disc using a 405 nm
blue-violet laser (in comparison, DVD-Video uses a 650 nm red laser,
and can only store 4.7 GB of data on a single sided, single layer disc).
In competition to Blu-Ray, Toshiba and NEC have proposed their own format, called
Advanced Optical Disc Technology (AOD),
and this alternative format is currently incompatible with Blu-Ray.
A quick search in
Google
a few minutes ago revealed 12,900 results for "Blue-Ray", but only 552 results for "Advanced Optical Disc".
In addition, many companies are also demonstrating prototype Blu-Ray player / recorder products at computer shows and fairs.
So, at this stage anyway, I believe that Blue-Ray is clearly the dominate player.
Hopefully, the format wars will all be sorted out soon - yeah right, and pigs might fly ... ;)
Apparently both groups are rushing to be the first to bring products to market so that they can
gain market share and become the dominant standard.
The good news is that, hopefully, it appears that the high capacity optical disks
are very close to becomming a real product that we may soon be able to buy -
perhaphs even as soon as mid 2003.
File Mover / Copier
is a program to help you move or
copy files from one or more directories (and, if you
desire, all of the sub-directories in these directories)
to a single target directory.
Screen Machine
is a program that captures screen shots of
the full screen of your computer in action at 1 minute,
5 minute, or whatever intervals you choose.
This program might be useful for anyone who wants to
check what someone is doing / typing on your computer.
e.g. keep track of what your teenage kids are typing
while using the internet or any other programs.
File Mover / Copier
is a program to help you move or
copy files from one or more directories (and, if you
desire, all of the sub-directories in these directories)
to a single target directory.
16-Jan-2003 ::
Email Sent to All Registered Users ...
The email below was sent to all of my registered users, however, many email addresses
in my list are no longer valid - so if you did not get this email, then please
email me your latest contact details, so I can update my list.
I have copied this email below to help ensure that the message
gets to all of my registered users :
From: Mike O'Malley
Sent: Thursday, 16 January 2003 13:40
Subject: Mooses Software Valley - Stopping the Hackers ...
BCC: ** To All of my Registered Users **
Dear Registered Users,
In an effort to thwart hackers and people ripping off my work, I have added a great deal of security and anti-hacking measures to all of my software, and recently (on 25-Nov-2002) I changed the Registration Code Algorithm for my software slightly.
So, if your registration codes don't work in the latest versions of my software, then email me and I'll provide updated registration codes / details.
As an example of the piracy problems I am facing, during the past month, there have been over 8,500 program downloads from my web site, and not a single registration. Cracks and hacks for my software are everywhere on the internet, so many people are using these instead of handing over a lousy $5 or so.
For every honest user - like yourself - that paid for the software, there are many 100's of freeloaders.
None of the security measures I have implemented so far have stopped the hackers, so I am also trialling a new system where none of the software publicly available on my web site will be registerable or fully functional - no matter what the hackers do to it.
That is, I will physically remove 1,000's of lines of code from each new executable program so that no matter how much hacking or cracking is done they will never be fully functional - unless the hackers want to fill in the gaps for many 1,000's of lines of missing code - something they cannot easily do. ;)
At the moment, I am trialling this strategy with 2 of my latest programs :
Screen Machine
and
File Mover / Copier
- so I can see how things work out, what feedback I get from users, etc - and if all goes well, I will roll this out for each of my programs over the course of 2003.
So, if you ever download a program from my web site and it has "Trial Version" in the application title - i.e. in the program window's title when the program is running - then this is a trial version that cannot be registered. So, email me and I'll provide a fully functional registerable version of the program.
In addition, if your registration codes don't work, then email me and I'll provide updated registration codes / details.
I am doing my best to ensure that honest registered users are not inconvenienced.
N.B. This email has been sent out via Blind Carbon Copy to ensure you're your email addresses are kept private. The only email addresses you should see are mine.
All the best,
Mike "Moose" O'Malley
____________________________________________________
Moose's Software Valley - Established July, 1996. ____________________________________________________
9-Jan-2003 ::
Not a Single Sale during the 2 for 1 Chrismtas Specials ... :/
My recent Christmas Half Price sales (where all of my software was half-price)
were a dissappointment again this year - no-body purchased a single program (again) ...
However, downloads are up, and there have been almost 2,000 visitors and
more than 8,500 programs have been
downloaded from my WEB site in the past 28 days (since Dec 11, 2002).
So, 1,000's of people are downloading and using my programs,
but for some reason people aren't handing over a lousy $2.50 AUD
(that's $1.25 US or about 0.80 UK pence during the half price sale)
to support my efforts ... Hmmmm ....
9-Jan-2003 ::
All Shareware Sales Income for the past 2 years donated to The Guru
In an effort to help
The Guru
and other MAME Devs preserve ancient video arcade games,
I have donated all income received from the sale of my software
over the past 2 years to The Guru.
I actually made this donation way back in August 2002 ... However, I wasn't
going to mention it here until
The Guru
put a "thanks" on his
web site
(like he usually does). However, for reasons unknown, none of his
"thanks" messages have mentioned me ... So now I am wondering
"what have I done to piss him off ??" ... ;)
ROM Clone Zip Manager can delete redundant / duplicate files
from inside Clone ROM ZIPs.
That is, ROM Clone Zip Manager scans your Clone ROM ZIP files
(in all directories you specify) and compares each file
inside these against the files inside the Parent ROM ZIP
file, and if an identical file is found (with the same
name and CRC) then it is deleted from the Clone ROM ZIP file.
In adition, you can backup the files (and extract them to
another directory) before they are deleted from inside the
Clone ROM ZIP file.
ROM Clone Zip Manager also enables you to move all Clone ZIP
files to another directory of your choice.
I wrote this program and ran it against my MAME ZIP files,
and, in less than 2 minutes, it had saved me a whopping 191 MB
of disk space !
After being broken for around 6 months, and not-working properly for many months and maybe even
years prior to this, I have changed counter scripts and counter hosts and
my WEB Page counters are now working again.
However, unfortunately this means that all counters must start at zero again ... :(
My Main Web Page had 489,951 visitors from late July 1996 to 2-July-2002
(and that is with broken / unreliable
counters which reset or were often unworking or missed counts - so the real number of visitors
is probably a lot more than this !! :)
11-Dec-2002 ::
Christmas Specials - Sale, Sale, SALE !!
My (very basic and minimalist) Christmas Decorations are now up, and
this can only mean one thing - Christmas Specials !
Yes, from now until Sunday, 5-Jan-2002
you can order two programs for the price of one.
For example, if you order two $10 programs, then you pay just $10 AUD
in total (which is about $5 US or $3 UK pounds).
Or, order four $5 programs and pay just $10 AUD
in total (which again is about $5 US or $3 UK pounds).
So, if you have ever wanted to buy any of my software,
then now is the time to do it.
The only catch is that I will be away until 6-Jan-2002, so I will not
be processing any orders over Christmas. i.e. you will have to wait
until until 6-Jan-2002 or 7-Jan-2002 to receive
your registration codes / confirmations.
Hope you have a peaceful and enjoyable Christmas and New Year ... :)
Zip Password Cracker Pro
enables you to generate
passwords and apply these to password protected
ZIP files. This can be an incredibly useful thing
to do when you have backed up data to a ZIP file
and mistyped or forgotten the password.
The program has many useful password generation features, and
also saves Restart information as it tests
passwords so that if the power fails, you switch off your PC,
your computer crashes, etc then this program can continue where
it left off at the click of a mouse button.
Solar System Simulator
is a program to help you visualise
the solar system, compare the planets, and find out more about
the planets, or help you produce your own reports or assignments on the planets.
The program includes :
An animation of the Solar System, with the planets rotating
around the Sun - and you can alter the speed of animation, and
choose which planet to "stand on" and the perspective of the rotating
planets and Sun is adjusted accordingly. And, you can also trace
the orbit of each object - great for helping to visualize /
understrand the various orbits.
Many dozens of Planetary Comparison Graphs (with various options) to
let you compare dozens of criteria, such as mass, radius, volume,
distances from the sun, atmospheric composition, visits by
space probes, wind speeds, and many other criteria for each planet.
Planet Reports containing statistics and detailed information
on each planet or our Sun - including size, mass,
length of day, temperature ranges, density, volume,
surface area, orbital velocity, space craft visits, moons,
discovery details, and many dozens of other measurements,
statistics, and interesting facts.
A Weight Calculator to enable you to enter your weight
and calculate your weight on each planet.
Extract Data : you can copy and paste any or all selected
data values into a spreadsheet or your own reports
at the click of a mouse button.
This program should be interesting to people of all ages !! :)
File Synchronizer
allows you to sychronise some or all
of the files in 2 directories, and if you like, all of
their sub-directories.
File Synchronizer is (hopefully) extremely useful for people
who (like me) have their data spread over multiple PCs - such as Work
and Home PCs, along with work on floppies, removable harddrives,
ZIP / JAZZ / SyQyest / Orb drives, rewritable CDs, or other media.
This program enables you to easily and quickly make sure
you have the latest versions of files on all machines / media,
and that your master directory contains the latest versions
of all files.
I have spent many hours recompiling and refreshing almost my entire library of
freeware and shareware for Windows PCs so that all programs are
all up-to-date with my latest code libraries and have the latest
functionality common to all of my programs.
Advanced features common to all of my programs now include things like the ability
to determine and report if a virus or something else has tampered with them.
Registered Users : Please
Email me
for updated registration details, as the old
registration codes will no-longer work with new versions of my software
(this is something I have resisted doing for 6 years simply
because the last thing I have wanted to do is inconvenience my Registered Users.
However, overhauling the registration system was unavoidable).
The following programs were enhanced and improved with new functionality
and features:
And, the following programs were simply recompiled and brought up-to-date
with my latest code libraries (the "b" or "c" in the version number of the program
indicates this minor update) :
4 programs where significant work and
enhancements are still underway (Check Sum Calculator, Solar System Simulator,
File Synchronizer, and WEB Form Formatter),
2 old freeware Windows 3.x programs that
I wont update any further (Memory Monitor and Prototype Game),
and a bunch of ancient DOS freeware which wont be updated further.
It has been around 131 days since the last release (v0.61)
which is the longest time between releases in the history of the
MAME project.
It is a very big and complex release though - lots of changes, additions,
and improvements, as well as drivers and support for 73 new games.
Zip Password Cracker Pro
enables you to generate
passwords and apply these to password protected
ZIP files. This can be an incredibly useful thing
to do when you have backed up data to a ZIP file
and mistyped or forgotten the password.
The program has many useful password generation features, and
also saves Restart information as it tests
passwords so that if the power fails, you switch off your PC,
your computer crashes, etc then this program can continue where
it left off at the click of a mouse button.
Nixie Clock
is a "for fun" program that displays a re-sizable
clock made out of images of Nixie Tube and LED digits.
The program now contains the following digit types :
Valvo ZM1000 Nixie Tubes (Red and Orange)
Z568M Nixie Tubes
Red and Green LED clock digits
Unknown Nixie Type
ZM1020 Round Nixie Tubes
Enjoy !
5-Nov-2002 ::
Melbourne Cup 2002
Whoooo Hoooo !! Everyone had a good time at the Melbourne Cup lunch at work today,
loads of chicken and champagne, plenty of sweeps, etc and
I even managed to win the "Best Hat" contest amid some fairly tough
competition (well, actually, only one other person entered this year …. ;)
I intend to put a big sign on the gatepost at home which features
this picture
with the heading "Beware of the ????".
He Heeh, that should keep the bible bashers and insurance salesmen away ... ;))
I also did OK in the sweeps. Man, it just doesn't get any better than this ... ;)
Benchmark and evaluate the performance of various selected
aspects of your computer.
View the results of this benchmarking in a graph.
Save the results and compare them against other selected
benchmark results.
This program should be useful to anyone who wants to
evaluate or test the performance of their computer or
tune up or fine tune the various aspects of their PC.
Text Buttons enables you to place often used pieces of
text behind anything up to 750 buttons, and view 1, 2, 3, or 4 columns of
15 of these buttons at any time, so that any text you need is very easily
and quickly obtainable when required.
File Tools
enables you to grab a list of files, stamp files
with the current date and time, make text files from Mac
or UNIX environments readable, test the integrity of a
bunch of ZIP files, rename a bunch of files, search and
replace the contents of a bunch of files, word wrap and
un-word wrap the text lines in files, and much, much more !!
All at the click of a button !!!
File Patcher modifies another file according to the values
contained in a patch file. This is useful for automating the
modifications / updates of .EXE or other files for games /
applications. File Patcher can also compare two files and
generate a patch file. i.e. a list of differences between
the files being compared.
This new version again features many usability and functionality
enhancements and additions.
24-Oct-2002 ::
All HTML Verified and 100% Correct
I have been noticing lots of HTML errors on the various emulation and other
WEB pages I have been visiting lately - mostly, these are due to unterminated strings,
but there are other errors as well - and many of these errors are serious
enough to cause error dialogs to popup when visiting these sites - which is
a very poor state of affairs indeed.
Some of these WEB sites get many 100's of hits each day, so why these web
site "maintainers" don't get off their arses and fix these errors,
I'll never know !! ;)
Anyway, I started thinking about developing a HTML checker to send to
some of these WEB sites to get them to clean up their acts, but before I
started down a road that what would have resulted in weeks of work,
I thought I would just have a look around the net and see what else was available.
And, in a few minutes, I had found, downloaded and installed :
a terrific FREE program that checks your WEB page's HTML code and tells
you precisely what is wrong
and where your code deviates from the HTML standard.
Within minutes I had verified all of the 17,486 lines (821 KB in 41 files)
of the HTML code that make up
Moose's Software Valley
and I can now confirm that all my web pages fully
conform to the HTML standard. (But even prior to this, no errors
were evident when visiting my web pages with Netscape or Internet Explorer).
If anyone else wants to check and verify their WEB pages, then I can
highly recommend
CSE HTML Validator.
I'll certainly be making a dozen or so web site maintainers aware of this
tool over the coming days !! ;)
Checksum Calculator (v4.2)
calculates checksums for user-selected
files and directories, and enables the user to compare
checksum results against previous calculations.
Great for checking if files have been tampered with !!
Nixie Clock
is a "for fun" program that displays a re-sizable
clock made out of images of Nixie Tube digits.
The program currently has the following digit styles
available :
Valvo ZM1000 Nixie Tubes
More digits / styles will be made available in future versions
of this program. (If you have a set of images for each digit
- then please email them to me, and I will add them into
the program).
Periodic Table of Elements
is a program to help you investigate, look
up, or compare the details for all known elements. e.g.
Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, etc.
This program contains a standard Periodic Table of Elements -
and if you click the mouse on an element, then a report for
the selected element is displayed. You can also find an
element by name or abbreviation - which can help find / look
up elements.
Many Element Comparison Graphs are provided to help you compare
criteria for each element. e.g. Atomic Radius, Atomic Weight,
Boiling Point (K), Melting Point (K), Electrical Conductivity,
etc.
Massive changes for this release. Hope you find it useful !
17-Oct-2002 ::
WEB Site Move - to Reduce Banner Ads ....
I have moved WEB servers again - simply to reduce the number of
Banner Ads you guys see. (It took a bit of time to move 80 MB of data !!)
As you all well know, my WEB pages are totally 100% Ad banner and pop-up free
(and they have been for well over 2+ years now),
and any banner ads you see are due to the sites hosting
my pages and are nothing to do with me at all, and I get no income from them at all.
The new server isn't FREE - but it pops up no banner ads,
so the only banner ad you should
see now is due to the V3 URL people when they redirect you to my
new server when you use the
(web page location / url - edit: removed, no longer valid)
link.
And, I cannot avoid this until I get my own stable domain - such as
www.moosesvalley.com or something nice like that - but
this and web space cost a lot of money - far more than
my shareware sales generate.
So, it is up to you folks - buy more shareware and you will
see faster servers and no banner ads at all - the ball is in
your court ... ;)
16-Oct-2002 ::
Another Joke of the Month ...
A mother was working in the kitchen while her son was playing
in the lounge room with his toy train set.
When his train was pulling to a stop, she heard him saying :
"All of you sons of bitches who want to get off, get the
hell off now, cause this is the last stop !
And all you sons of bitches who are returning and want to get on,
get your asses on the train
now, cause we're going down the tracks !"
The mother was understandably shocked by this, and she went into the
living room and told her son :
"We don't use that kind of language in this house. Now go to your room and stay
there for TWO HOURS. When you come out, you may go back and play with your
train, but only if you use nice language."
Two hours later, the boy came out of his bedroom and resumed playing with his train.
Soon the train stopped and the mother heard her son say :
"All passengers who are disembarking the train, please remember to take
all of your belongings with you. We thank you for riding with us today and hope
your trip was a pleasant one. We hope you will ride with us again soon.
"For those of you just boarding, we ask you to stow all of your hand luggage under
your seat. Remember, there is no smoking on the train. We hope you will have a
pleasant and relaxing journey with us today.
"And for those of you who are pissed off about the TWO HOUR delay,
see the bitch in the kitchen."
Thanks to Ed D for emailing me this terrific joke !! ;).
Periodic Table of Elements
is a program to help you investigate, look
up, or compare the details for all known elements. e.g.
Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, etc.
This program contains a standard Periodic Table of Elements -
and if you click the mouse on an element, then a report for
the selected element is displayed. You can also find an
element by name or abbreviation - which can help find / look
up elements.
Many Element Comparison Graphs are provided to help you compare
criteria for each element. e.g. Atomic Radius, Atomic Weight,
Boiling Point (K), Melting Point (K), Electrical Conductivity,
etc.
Solar System Simulator
is a program to help you visualise
the solar system, compare the planets, and find out more about
the planets, or help you produce your own reports or assignments on the planets.
The program includes :
An animation of the Solar System, with the planets rotating
around the Sun - and you can alter the speed of animation, and
choose which planet to "stand on" and the perspective of the rotating
planets and Sun is adjusted accordingly.
Many dozens of Planetary Comparison Graphs (with various options) to
let you compare dozens of criteria, such as mass, radius, volume,
distances from the sun, atmospheric composition, visits by
space probes, wind speeds, and many other criteria for each planet.
Planet Reports containing statistics and detailed information
on each planet or our Sun - including size, mass,
length of day, temperature ranges, density, volume,
surface area, orbital velocity, space craft visits, moons,
discovery details, and many dozens of other measurements,
statistics, and interesting facts.
A Weight Calculator to enable you to enter your weight
and calculate your weight on each planet.
Extract Data : you can copy and paste any or all selected
data values into a spreadsheet or your own reports
at the click of a mouse button.
This program should be interesting to people of all ages !! :)
Periodic Table of Elements
is a program to help you investigate, look
up, or compare the details for all known elements. e.g.
Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, etc.
This program contains a standard Periodic Table of Elements -
and if you click the mouse on an element, then a report for
the selected element is displayed. You can also find an
element by name or abbreviation - which can help find / look
up elements.
Many Element Comparison Graphs are provided to help you compare
criteria for each element. e.g. Atomic Radius, Atomic Weight,
Boiling Point (K), Melting Point (K), Electrical Conductivity,
etc.
Solar System Simulator
is a program to help you visualise
the solar system, compare the planets, and find out more about
the planets, and includes :
An animation of the Solar System, with the planets rotating
around the Sun, and you can alter the speed of animation.
Many dozens of Planetary Comparison Graphs (with various options) to
let you compare dozens of criteria, such as mass, radius, volume,
distances from the sun, atmospheric composition, visits by
space probes, wind speeds, and many other criteria for each planet.
Planet Reports containing statistics and detailed information
on each planet or our Sun - including size, mass,
length of day, temperature ranges, density, volume,
surface area, orbital velocity, space craft visits, and
many dozens of other measurements, statistics, and
interesting facts.
A Weight Calculator to enable you to enter your weight
and calculate your weight on each planet.
Extract Data : you can copy and paste any or all selected
data values into a spreadsheet or your own reports
at the click of a mouse button.
This program should be interesting to people of all ages !! :)
04-Oct-2002 ::
Michael O'Malley's Irish Drinking Songs ?!?!
I have never been much of a drinker or a party animal - well, not since my Golden
University Days (Daze ?!) anyway ... ;)
Since then, my hands have always been happiest on a
computer keyboard - not wrapped around a beer glass.
However, earlier today I received an email from
Timb in America
asking if I was the "Michael O'Malley" that he knew from his past. To cut a long
story short, I wasn't, but Timb has written a bunch of
Irish Drinking Songs, and a couple of these are about Michael O'Malley - and
they are a reall hoot !! ;)
You can check these songs out for yourself and download the lyrics and 100% legal MP3's here :
Have a beer for all us "Michael O'Malley"`s tonight, and, here in Australia, I'll get some mates around,
and we'll have a few bevies and play your songs !! ;)
Solar System Simulator
is a program to help you visualise
the solar system, compare the planets, and find out more about
the planets, and includes :
An animation of the Solar System, with the planets rotating
around the Sun, and you can alter the speed of animation.
Many dozens of Planetary Comparison Graphs (with various options) to
let you compare dozens of criteria, such as mass, radius, volume,
distances from the sun, atmospheric composition, visits by
space probes, wind speeds, and many other criteria for each planet.
Planet Reports containing statistics and detailed information
on each planet or our Sun - including size, mass,
length of day, temperature ranges, density, volume,
surface area, orbital velocity, space craft visits, and
many dozens of other measurements, statistics, and
interesting facts.
A Weight Calculator to enable you to enter your weight
and calculate your weight on each planet.
26-Sep-2002 ::
A Frightening Future with TCPA / Palladium ??
I have been reading a lot lately about TCPA / Palladium -
the determined effort by Intel, Microsoft, and others to control
what you do with your PC, what software you can run, what music you can play, etc.
I do admit that there are potential benefits for everyone,
but the potential for abuse and the inevitable tightening
strangle holds of monopolies are terrifying.
And, it all certainly sounds like a lot hassle and complexity for
good old end users and consumers.
Given that such a system will reduce piracy to zero
I wonder how much cheaper our movies and software are going to become
in the future. (No longer will companies be able to claim damages
or lost sales as a result of what they estimate to be 95%+ piracy ).
Oh, that's right, here were are dealing with the likes of Microsoft,
Disney, etc - so I bet nothing will get cheaper ...
The Greek government, in an effort to curtail illegal gaming, passed a
law earlier this year (see my WEB site update on 10-Sep-2002)
which banned the use of ALL electronic games, including popular football
and motor racing simulators.
But on Tuesday night, the Greek Finance Ministry gave the green light for
the use of electronic games on condition "no financial benefit" was involved.
So, it appears that it is now safe to play games again in Greece -
for the momnent anyway ...
File Tools
enables you to grab a list of files, stamp files
with the current date and time, make text files from Mac
or UNIX environments readable, test the integrity of a
bunch of ZIP files, rename a bunch of files, search and
replace the contents of a bunch of files, word wrap and
un-word wrap the text lines in files, and much, much more !!
All at the click of a button !!!
This new version provides a whole raft of usability and functionality
enhancements and additions.
13-Sep-2002 ::
Blu-Ray - the New Storage Hope ??
In mid-1996, I remember hungrily awaiting the promised imminent release of
affordable DVD RAM and DVD Writers which would be capable of storing 18 GB
of data on a single disc.
However, this didn't happen, and instead I watched in horror as a bodged
roll-out of DVD occured.
Instead of the promised release, what happened instead has been a
hodge-podge, half-baked, glacial paced, drawn out release
of incredibly incompatible and unsatisfactory products :
DVD, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM, all with
single sided / single layer limitations.
Back in mid-1996, CD Burners (for CDs with a 640 MB capacity) were becoming
affordable (but were still expensive), and harddrive sizes
averaged 1 GB. So, it took 2 CDs to back up your entire harddrive.
Today, six years later, DVD Writer drives are finally becomming affordable
(they are still expensive, but are now breaking the $1,000 barrier)
but they offer a capacity of only 4.7 GB (single layer, single sided),
which is pitiful and paltry when you think that an average harddrive
these days has a capacity of 80 GB.
So, it would take 17 DVDs to back up such a harddrive (or a
whopping 124 x 650 MB CDs).
Back in February-March of this year I found out about something new in the pipe-line, and
I have been watching things carefully since then, and
there may soon be hope that this situation will improve in the near future.
The "Blu-ray Disc" enables the recording, rewriting and play back of up to
27 GB of data on a single-sided, single-layer 12 cm disc using a 405 nm
blue-violet laser (in comparison, DVD-Video uses a 650 nm red laser,
and can only store 4.7 GB of data on a single sided, single layer disc).
(Higher capacities, such as 50 GB for a single layer, single sided Blu-Ray disc,
are already on the drawing board).
Pretty exciting stuff, and this could indeed have a big
future - if the roll-out of this technology happens properly,
and if the sea of incompatibilities are avoided, and if things happen
in the near future instead of years down the track (when average hard drive
sizes will be 100's of GB or even measured in terrabytes).
Don't hold your breath though - the same gang who completely bodged
the roll-out DVD are also involved in this.
For now, all we can do is watch, wait, and hope that they have
learned from their past mistakes ....
Key Stroke Recorder (v1.01)
enables you to log all key presses
and mouse button clicks on your computer so you can keep track
of what has been typed on your computer.
This program might be useful for anyone who wants to check
what someone is doing / typing on your computer.
e.g. keep track of what your teenage kids are typing while
using the internet or any other programs.
10-Sep-2002 ::
Greece Madness ??
The Greek government wants to ban all gambling machines, but it admitted that
it was incapable of distinguishing innocuous video games from illegal gambling machines,
so it has taken an unbelievable step and banned ALL video games from ALL public and private places.
According to a report in the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, Greek police will be
responsible for catching offenders, who will face fines of 5,000 to 75,000 euros
(about $4,980 to $74,650 USD) and imprisonment of one to 12 months.
Game / Sprite Engine (Prototype) (v0.05)
is a "work in progress" game which has been developed to allow me to develop and test
my prototype sprite engine.
This prototype game is not polished or even fully playable, and
is severely lacking in many areas.
However, it serves as a basis upon which I can further develop my
game and sprite engines.
As far as I can determine, it is the first computer game to feature aliens
attacking over a steaming bowl of pasta !! ;))
File Patcher modifies another file according to the values
contained in a patch file. This is useful for automating the
modifications / updates of .EXE or other files for games /
applications. File Patcher can also compare two files and
generate a patch file. i.e. a list of differences between
the files being compared.
This new version again features many usability and functionality
enhancements and additions.
1-Sep-2002 ::
Words Worth - Crossword and Scrabble Companion (v1.4)
Words Worth - Crossword and Scrabble Companion
provides some very useful searching and word list
maintenance functionality and is especially suited
to people who like playing scrabble, or doing
crosswords, or anyone who needs to look up words
or use words in other ways. The program comes with
various massive lists of up to 263,535 words - available for use by Registered Users - which includes all
words used by tournament scrabble players.
20-Aug-2002 ::
Asteroids : The Next Big Impact
On August 17, 2002, an asteroid known as "2002 NY40" -
with a diameter of 800 m (2,600 feet)
and a speed of 40 Km/second (90,000 miles/hour),
approached within 530,000 Km (330,000 miles) of the Earth.
That distance was outside the orbit of the Moon (which is 384,000 Km -
or 240,000 miles - from Earth), but it was still a "close shave",
astronomically speaking.
Another asteroid, named "2001 YB5" - which had a diameter of 250m (820 feet),
missed Earth by 600,000 Km (373,000 miles) in January 2002.
There are possibly around 100,000 Earth-Crossing Asteroids (ECAs)
(i.e. asteroids with paths that cross the Earth's orbit)
which have diameters of 100m (330 feet) or more.
Even these "small" Earth-Crossing Asteroids (ECAs)
pose a serious threat to life on this planet, and
one of these could destroy the largest cities on Earth if it scored a direct hit.
There are possibly around 1,000 Earth-Crossing Asteroids (ECAs)
with a diameter greater than 1,000m
(3,300 feet) which regularly cross the Earth's orbit.
If one of these hit the Earth, then a large proportion of the
world's population could be wiped out, and
the collision could have very serious short and long-term after effects.
The
Spaceguard UK
and
Near Earth Object Program
are currently tracking more than 360
Earth-Crossing Asteroids (ECAs)
which have a diameter of 500 m (1,600 feet) or more.
Let's hope that the human race can put aside its petty differences, and stop the
squabbling, fighting and back biting long enough to actually learn how to
work together so we can (at least) be prepared the next time an asteroid comes knocking
at our door ...
After all, we are all stuck on this hunk of rock called "Earth"
as it hurtles through space,
and I believe that it is high time that we all actually started working together,
instead of erecting more barriers between ourselves, as all these do is
generate hostility and "Us Vs Them" attitudes.
But, then again, the way the world's going, maybe this is too much to ask ...
Check out these links for further information about this asteroid or Nearth Earth Asteroid Detection programs :
Not many people seem to know this, but Albert Einstein had a
very good sense of humour.
For example, a well-known Einstein quote
is his attempt to make relativity more accessible to the layperson :
"When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute.
But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour.
That's relativity."
Check out this
Scientific American
article for the entire short and funny and entertaining paper that
Einstein wrote on this topic way back in the late 1930's.
12-Aug-2002 ::
Ex-Government Computer Auction : PCs and Macs
Last Saturday, I went to an Ex-Government Computer Auction near where I live in
Central Queensland, Australia.
These auctions are very rare around here because we
are so far from the nearest capital city (Brisbane is 8 hours drive away).
There were over 500 lots for auction, and there were over 1,000 people at the auction
- and all of them were hungry for bargains. It was like sharks in a feeding frenzy.
Prices soared and fluctated wildly, as people got caught up in the bidding
stampede - especially for the first half of the auction.
It took over 4 hours to auction all 500 lots, and I stayed from start to finish,
for the most part shaking my head at the crazy high prices people were paying for stuff,
but I ended up buying 5 desktop PCs and a monitor at the end of the auction.
The most common PC systems at the auction were IPEX Pentium II 333 MHz PCs with 64 MB RAM,
CD-ROM, 2.1 GB HDD, sound card, video card, and network card.
The average price for these PCs was around $250 AUD - much higher at the
start of the auction, and lower at the end of the auction.
These are pretty basic machines by today's standards - especially for hardcore gamers,
but they still make very decent internet PCs or home / office / student PCs.
DELL and Compag 17 inch monitors were selling for an average price of $150 AUD,
and once again, they were much more expensive at the start of the auction and
cheaper than this at the end of the auction.
There were also a bunch of Apple Macs and Mac monitors at the auction.
Lovely sparkling colourful G3 Macs (350 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 6 GB harddrive, CD-ROM) were
going at prices averaging around $200 AUD - much cheaper than the less
powerful and older Pentium II 333, 64 MB RAM, 2 GB HDD PCs above.
And, colourful Apple 17 inch monitors were going on average for $110 AUD -
much cheaper than DELL or Compage 17 inch monitors.
Considering that these G3 Macs costed well over $6,000 AUD when they were new, and that IPEX Pentium II
PCs costed $2,500 AUD when they were new, then the Mac price drop was
$6,000 -> $200 - or 3.3% of its original value - and the PC price drop was
$2,500 -> 250 - or 10% of its original value.
File Patcher modifies another file according to the values
contained in a patch file. This is useful for automating the
modifications / updates of .EXE or other files for games /
applications. File Patcher can also compare two files and
generate a patch file. i.e. a list of differences between
the files being compared.
This new version again features many usability and functionality
enhancements and additions.
6-Aug-2002 ::
Viva Nonno Emulator
A few weeks ago, an awesome new arcade emulator appeared right
out of the blue. It was called
Viva Nonno
and this emulator enables you to run some Namco System 22 games right
on your own PC. To put it simply, the Viva Nonno emulator
is an astounding achievement !!
At the moment, only Ridge Racer 2 is emulated / available - but it runs at
full speed and with great sound on my Pentium III 700 / TNT2 system.
A few days ago, a second version of the emulator was released, so work is
proceeding nicely as we speak.
The future possibilities for this emulator are quite mouth watering.
Namco System 22 games
include :
Ace Driver, Cyber Commando, Prop Cycle, Rave Racer, Rhinoceros Bar Command,
Ridge Racer, and Ridge Racer 2.
In the mid-1990's, the Namco System 22 architecture was updated to
Namco Super System 22,
which includes :
Ace Driver Victory Lap, Air Combat 22, Alpine Racer, Alpine Racer 2,
Alpine Surfer, Aqua Jet, Armadillo Racing, Cyber Cycles, Dirt Dash,
Downhill Bikers, Ray Blurring, Time Crisis, and Tokyo Wars.
These are some of the most impressive and exciting arcade games developed so far.
It is still early days, but
The Guru
is already taking donations at
Emulation Unlimited
to buy and dump these games and other games.
If you are into arcade emulation, and you have some spare dollars,
you might like to help out.
Keyboard Mapper (v1.0)
enables you to create keyboard maps - that is,
diagrams showing you what particular keyboard keys do for a
particular computer program, application, or game.
You can save and load the keyboard maps to file, and you
can also save a bitmap of the entire keyboard to file
and copy it to the Windows Clipboard.
Keyboard Mapper is hopefully a powerful and useful
program that will enable people to quickly and easily
create diagrams showing you what particular keyboard keys
do for a particular computer program, application, or game.
To give you an idea of what this program can already do, here is a
MAME Keyboard Map.
(Setting up this
MAME Keyboard Map,
selecting fonts, colours, and typing in the controls, heading, etc all took
less than 1 minute with Keyboard Mapper).
RAM / Swapfile Monitor (v4.4)
displays details and graphs
of the Physical RAM and SWAPfile (Page file) usage,
the free / used space on a selected Disk Drive, and the CPU and Average CPU usage on your PC.
The program also contains a CPU Usage Drop Adviser
(which is great for knowing when your PC has finished a big job -
like virus checking your PC, defragmenting the harddrive, etc).
17-Jul-2002 ::
NEC Builds World's Fastest System !!
NEC has just built a supercomputer, called Earth Simulator, which is 5 times faster than
the IBM "ASCI White" system that was (until recently) ranked No. 1.
This system was built for the Earth Simulator Center in Yokohama, Japan, and
has as much computing power as the next 12 systems on the
Top 500 Supercomputers List
combined. i.e. more power than the total combined computing power of
the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, ..... 12th, and 13th most powerful computers on the planet !!
The computer's 35 teraflops of performance, 5,120 CPUs and 10 terabytes of RAM are used to
model a virtual earth down to a 1-km resolution. The simulation will be studied by researchers
to examine the effects of global warming on climate change, acid rain and other types of air
pollution, tectonic plate movement, and other earthwide phenomena.
(Yeah, right, and I bet they have some pretty decent games running as well !! - Moose ;)
The world's now-second-fastest system, ASCI White, is located at the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, and is used by the U.S. Department of Energy to model the
effects of nuclear explosions.
The fastest PC-based supercomputer (at No. 35 on the
Top 500 Supercomputers List
) is an AMD Athlon MP-based cluster at the University of Heidelberg, in Germany.
There are actually fifty (50) IBM-PC Compatible based systems in the
Top 500 Supercomputers List.
However, 9 years ago (June 1993) and even just 5 years ago (June 1997), there
were no PC based systems in the list at all.
There are zero Mac or 68k or PowerPC based systems in the
Top 500 Supercomputers List
- sort of says it all about the Mac doesn't it !! ;)
17-Jul-2002 ::
Joke of the Month
An airplane was about to crash; there were 5 passengers on board but
only 4 parachutes.
The first passenger, said "I'm Kobe Bryant, the best NBA Basketball
player, the Lakers need me, I can't afford to die...". So he took the
first parachute and jumped out of the plane.
The second passenger, Hillary Clinton, said "I am the wife of the
former President of the United States, I am the most ambitious woman in
the world, I am also a New York Senator and a potential future
President". She just took the second parachute and jumped out of the
plane.
The third passenger, John Howard , said "I am the Prime Minister of
Australia, and I have a great responsibility being the leader of a great
nation. And above all, I'm the most intelligent Prime Minister in
Australian history, so Australia's people won't let me die". So he put
on the pack next to him and jumped out of the plane.
The fourth passenger, The Pope, said to the fifth passenger, a 10
year-old school boy, "I am old and frail and I don't have many years
left, and as a Christian I will sacrifice my life and let you have the last
parachute".
The boy said "It's OK, there's a parachute left for you. Australia's
most intelligent Prime Minister has just taken my school backpack !"
Note that this is a Q&D (i.e. Quick and Dirty) audit. i.e. I did not personally inspect / audit
every line of every file - or even look at most files - I simply ran my
Program Code Auditor
to generate some stats against MAME's source code.
So, the comment counts above do not take into account whether the comments are good or meaningful - indeed they could just be commented out code.
However, the small parts of the source code I have looked at in detail are fairly well commented and there is certainly a good use of white space (blank lines, indentation, etc).
That is not to say things aren't incredibly complex - understanding large chunks of 35 MB of source code is probably not for the faint hearted ... ;)
(Indeed, to fully understand large chunks of this source code, I would recommend that you have a brain the size of errrm say Mercury - like Nicola, Aaron, and the other Devs must have).
Revamp the
Links
section of my WEB page and verify or update or delete *ALL* links - all links should now work 100%.
I've also added a bunch of new links to some of the great new sites out there that I visit often.
I have got to admit that the
Links
page was a very smelly, musty, cobweb filled corner of my web site,
but it has now had a good spring clean, and now smells as fresh as a daisy !! ;)
26-June-2002 ::
Keyboard Mapper - W.I.P.
As always, I am currently working on a whole bunch of new programs at home,
and one of these has been an interesting little project.
Keyboard Mapper is a program I am currently working on to help people create keyboard maps -
that is, diagrams showing you what particular keyboard keys do for
a particular application or game. (Special thanks to Bill T for thinking
of this program and inspiring me to write it !!)
The Keyboard Mapper program is still "work in progress", and I probably have another
week or 2 of part-time work and testing to do on the program before I release it.
But to give you an idea of what this program can already do, here is a
MAME Keyboard Map.
(Setting up this
MAME Keyboard Map,
selecting fonts, colours, and typing in the controls, heading, etc all took
less than 1 minute with Keyboard Mapper).
(For those who don't know,
MAME
stands for
Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator,
and it is an incredibly clever piece of software that lets you run old
video arcade games on your PC, Mac, etc. In my opinion, MAME is the most amazing
and exciting software development project on the planet).
21-June-2002 ::
Ray's Bobcat Hire
I have designed and built a really simple web site for my friend Ray and his
Bobcat and Dumptruck Hire
business.
If anyone needs a Bobcat in the Capricorn Coast area of Australia, I can highly recommend
Ray !!
Key Sound Generator (v1.2)
is a fun program that plays a particular
sound effect each time a mouse button or keyboard key is
pressed. Different sounds are played depending on the type
of key or button. Various sets of sounds are available for download,
and you can also add your own !
In this new version, the TAB key uses the same sound file as the Spacebar.
(Until now, the TAB key had no sound allocated to it, and it
made no sound at all). (Thanks for reporting this Bill !!).
21-June-2002 ::
ROM ZIP Differences Manager (v1.0)
automatically extract the files that are different between all
changed ROM sets, and,
automatically apply these differences to existing ROM sets.
This means that you can extract all ROM ZIP differences with a few
mouse clicks and within seconds / minutes (depending on files sizes).
And, this also means that you can use and apply all differences to update
your ROMS with a few mouse clicks and have all your ROMs updated
within seconds / minutes (depending on files sizes).
This should help with what was previously a nightmarish, manual job of
using "Fix Files" to update your existing ROM sets.
ROM Clone Zip Manager
can delete redundant / duplicate files from inside Clone ROM ZIPs.
That is, ROM Clone Zip Manager scans your Clone ROM ZIP files
(in all directories you specify) and compares each file
inside these against the files inside the Parent ROM ZIP
file, and if an identical file is found (with the same
name and CRC) then it is deleted from the Clone ROM ZIP file.
In adition, you can backup the files (and extract them to
another directory) before they are deleted from inside the
Clone ROM ZIP file.
I wrote this program and ran it against my MAME ZIP files,
and, in less than 2 minutes, it had saved me a whopping 191 MB
of disk space !
21-June-2002 ::
One Must Fall - 2097 - Now Freeware !!!
One Must Fall 2097
was a great little game that was developed by
Diversions Entertainment
in the the mid-1990's and distributed as shareware - so you could take it home and try it out
before you bought it.
OMF:2097 was a 2D beat-em up, somewhat like
Mortal Kombat
or Street Fighter, but featured
robots instead of people.
Now a new version of the game, called
One Must Fall : Battlegrounds,
is in development and will soon be released, and
this features a whole host of improvements :
Battlegrounds is a fully 3D game !!
Multiplayer mayhem : 8-player brawl, or a 3-on-3 team-based fight - Cool !!
Lots of new stuff : fighters, arenas, hazards, and more !
which all sounds like great fun and it looks amazing, and
to celebrate / advertise the coming release, Diversions Entertainment are
kindly giving away the original game for FREE, and you can download it here :
Big Mouse Pointer (v1.4)
This program sits in the tray bar (with the clock, etc) and enables you to
use a BIG arrow (of just about any size and color) as the mouse pointer.
Great for demonstrations, presentations, lectures, or people who get sick of hunting
for Microsoft's miniscule mouse pointer on their lovely new 21 inch monitors ... ;)
RAM / Swapfile Monitor (v4.4)
displays details and graphs
of the Physical RAM and SWAPfile (Page file) usage,
the free / used space on a selected Disk Drive, and the CPU usage on your PC.
The program also contains a CPU Usage Drop Adviser
(which is great for knowing when your PC has finished a big job -
like virus checking your PC, defragmenting the harddrive, etc).
13-June-2002 ::
Public Liability Insurance Madness - The Death of Fun ??
In the 1970's and 1980's I remember hearing and reading about wacko insurance claims in America - where
people get on buses after they have crashed just so they can act hurt and sue somebody,
or people get so drunk that they can barely walk and they crash their car and kill some people and then they turn around and sue the bar tender that served them,
or people who take short cuts across roped off construction areas and fall over and sue the construction company,
or people who buy hot coffee at McDonald's Drive Thru and nurse it in their lap while they try and drive their car and then sue McDonalds when they spill it and burn their pink bits off,
or parents who sue computer games developers when their fucked-up, drug-addicted sons go on killing rampages, etc.
Back then I used to shake my head and hope that this scurge of human behaviour never reaches Australia.
But alas, like most things American, this scourge has now well and truly reached our shores - with a vengance.
If people spill hot coffee all over themselves because they are nursing it in their laps while trying to drive their cars,
then these cretins deserve all the burns they get, and they should have absolutely no right whatsoever to sue McDonalds.
If people drink all day in a bar and walk outside and fall down and hurt themselves, then, these days,
the chances are that
they will try and sue the bar tender or the bar manager or the local council for putting a gutter in the wrong place or somebody else - anybody else - just so that they don't have to face responsibility for
their own actions.
In Australia now, schools are finding it next to impossible to employ Physical Education Teachers, because
if little Johnny or little Mary gets hurt or pulls a muscle while playing sport then the
parents are suing the PE teachers.
Soon kids may no longer be doing sport at all in school. What a rotten thing this would be !
Scout Halls all over Australia are closing down. Where I live in Central Queensland, all of the Scout Halls
are being borded up and sold off. This is a travesty of justice - the kids of today are being deprived of
the enormous fun and social stimulation that scouts and guides and similar groups can provide
- the camping, the camp fires, the sing songs, the games, etc - may now all be lost forever simply because
kids and parents want to sue everyone when something goes wrong.
In addition, Go Cart Tracks, Sky Diving Clubs, Scuba Diving Clubs, Gymnasiums, local Swimming Pools,
local soccer and football clubs, cricket clubs, shopping centers, restaurants, motels, etc are
all starting to close down simply because
they cannot afford the sky-rocketting insurance premiums.
And worst of all, aparently
the waiver that people must sign when they do something incredibly dangerous - like sky diving - is
often not worth the paper it is written on. How the hell can this be ???
But, this rediculous situation is now getting worse.
National Parks in Australia may soon be closed to the public because of sky-rocketting
insurance premiums - and some parks cannot even get insurance because some insurance companies
say that wild kangaroos are a risk to the public and they will not insure you at all unless
all kangaroos are in cages. These are wild animals running in their natural bushland for heaven's sake !!!
Zoos will be next.
If this situation continues, then pretty soon, there will be no point leaving your house -
as everything will be boarded up or closed down.
If I have a party at my house, and somebody gets drunk and drives their car home and kills somebody
on the way, then the drunk driver could turn around and sue me - even if I
had done everything possible - short of tying them up - to stop them driving and
even if I wasn't even serving alcohol at my party.
i.e. they brought their own booze with them and drank it at the party.
Every business - small or large - and every person in Australia is being affected by this scourge.
People are now falling over while walking down the street or on slippery tiles in shops or
cutting through construction sites just so they can fall over - simply as a scam to sue somebody
and get some "easy money".
And there's the rub - it is always about the money. Always !
The combination of greed and the lure of easy money is apparently too much for some
stupid / lazy / greedy / rotten people, and
they will stoop as low as they possibly can to get their dirty greedy hands on it.
If I am doing some work inside my house and I have ladders and work tools setup so I can do the work, and
somebody breaks into my house to steal everything I have worked so hard for and they trip on something,
then these slime-bags can now turn around and have a good go at suing me.
If they can't afford a lawyer, and they are on the Dole or other Government benefits, then my
taxes pay for their lawyer to allow them to take me on.
Or, if they prefer, there are now armies of "Accident & Injury" lawyers in Australia that advertise on TV
all day and all night long, and they will work on a "no win, no fee" basis. So, these people have nothing
to lose - apart from every last shred of common decency - by making up false or bogus or
unethical claims against others.
If money is tight for me, then I don't get a free lawyer - I own a house and work for a living,
so no-body will help me out. So, while I am being sued by a sumbag who has lawyers that are paid
for with my own tax money, the chances are that I'll be taking the day off work and
representing myself in court.
Public Liability Insurance Claims are killing Australia - they are ripping the heart out of our once
great country.
This situation has got to stop.
People must be made accountable for their own actions or inactions.
If this doesn't stop soon, then I might just have to sell everything I own and move away from Australia
and start my own country on a deserted island somewhere - or better yet, a colony on Mars - just so
I can keep away from the lowest possible forms of life on this planet.
I would deeply love to be a Court Judge.
If anyone brought any claims like this before me, the smartass lawyer
involved and the asshole making the claim would both face massive fines and 20 years of hard
labour and any other penalties I could think of - and yes, I reckon that I could think of plenty.
Then we could stop this madness, and see a return to basic human decency, and having fun may again be an
option for our kids and families and neighbours.
12-June-2002 ::
Windows XP - Entering the Brave New World ...
I have now installed Windows XP on my home Pentium III 667 MHz PC, and am ready to
make a preliminary report.
It is still early days, but so far things are looking extremely promising, and the
transition from Windows 98 to Windows XP has been incredibly painless.
The only problems I have had are that I will have to to upgrade my version of WinDVD DVD Player,
the drivers for my internal modem, the drivers for my parallel port flat bed scanner,
and the drivers for my Intel QX3 USB Microscope.
Oh, yes, and it has also been impossible to replace the shitty Windows Notepad.EXE
with the much better EditPad Notepad.EXE, as XP keeps restoring the old one - which
I guess is cool because it is protecting its own system files,
it is just a shame it doesn't ask the user what the hell they want first.
Apart from that, everything else - MAME, games, WinFax for Windows 3.x,
and everything seems to be working fine.
And, I have also breathed a massive sigh of relief - all of my
shareware programs trialled so far work flawlessly under Windows XP.
But, I will ofcourse be testing my programs out pretty thoroughly over
the next few weeks to make sure there are no nasty issues.
On the whole, Windows XP does not seem much faster than Windows 98 on
my Pentium III 667 MHz 256 MB PC, and I don't particularly like all the
extra flashy bits - the art for art's sake stuff that soak up system resources - but I will be seeing
how far I can customize things over the next few days to see if I can
get things more to my tastes.
My new USB digital camera was installed in seconds, and I can copy or move photos
directly from it just like any removable drive - amazing !! Here's a photo of
my puppy Boogle - he's one of my best friends. (He has his woolly coat on because
it is Winter here in Australia - and even in the tropics things are getting
down to a chilly 5-10 degrees Celsius at night - which is cold for us Queenslanders. ;)
But, so far at least, I can report that Windows XP is not the frightening
unforgiving demon that some people have tried to make it out to be.
Program Code Auditor
is a tool specially designed for programmers
or the managers of programmers or the teachers of programming students
to analyse the program code that has been written, and
see how many lines of code there are and how much white
space and comments there are in the code.
The program produces a summary of all source files
audited. All of this information is written to a report that
you can copy to the Window's Clipboard, print, or save it to disk.
Built into this program is support for 17 programming languages
such as Delphi / Pascal, C / C++, Java, HTML, COBOL, Fortran, etc.
There is also an option for you to specify the
comment start and end delimiters, etc, and this should make
Program Code Auditor work with any programming language !!
This new version fixes a bug in the registration functionality - thanks for reporting this Randall !!
10-June-2002 ::
Incredible Pace of Technology
I am always amazed when I stop and look back on how computers have developed
and how quickly tecnhology is advancing.
For example, take the last 6 years. In July 1996, I purchased a Pentium 100,
with a 1 GB harddrive, 16 MB of RAM, a 6x CD drive, a 15 inch monitor, 1 MB S3 Trio graphics card.
It was a mid-range machine for its time. The P-60's and similar were entry level machines
and you could buy super fast Pentium 133's and Pentium 150's - but these were
much more expensive.
A few years later (in 1999), I purchased a Pentium III 667, and its TNT2 graphics card alone
had twice the memory of my entire Pentium 100, and I could use it to watch
TV or videos on my computer - in any sized window or full screen. Or, I can plug a cable into my TV,
and play DVD's, games, etc on my computer and see these on my big screen TV.
Its harddrive was 40x the size of my P100's.
It's CD drive was 10+ times faster and it could read DVDs.
And, it had 8x more system memory and a 17 inch monitor.
As I always do nowadays, I built the machine myself from components.
All up, the new machine was about 15 times more powerful than my P100, and infinitely more useful.
But, it costed less than my Pentium 100 did a few years before. Amazing !!
A few days ago, I ordered a whole bunch of new "toys" - an extra 60 GB of harddisk space
(meaning that my desktop machine at home has more than 126 GB of harddrive space),
a 1.5 mega-pixel digital camera, a new optical mouse (I keep wearing the buttons out on my mice ;),
a faster modem, etc.
A 60 GB harddrive was something I dreamed about having in 1996 - but you couldn't buy
harddrives with that capacity for desktop machines at *any* price -
the highest caspacity back then was around 18 GB, and these were hellishly expensive.
But, now I can buy 60 GB harddrive for AUD $185
which is about $90 US or 60 UKP - incredibly cheap.
Next on my list (for the end of this year) is a new PC with a RAID motherboard,
twin 120 GB 10,000 RPM harddrives,
a 21 inch monitor, and, ofcourse, a DVD writer.
And this awesome new rig will probably be cheaper than my
Pentium 100 was in 1996 !! ;)
10-June-2002 ::
X-Box and MAME
I've got to admit that the X-Box is an incredibly attractive games machine,
and has suddenly become even more attractive with Microsoft's aggressive pricing
and recent price cuts.
($629 -> $399 AUD). I have also been extremely impressed with Microsoft's
customer care and service. My brother purchased an X-Box back in March
(when he was up visiting) and back then the price was high ($629 AUD) but
a few weeks later the price dropped (to $399 AUD) and he was understandably
pretty annoyed about that.
But, then Microsoft wrote to him and gave him free games, a free controller, and
other things to make it up to him. I have never heard or seen Sony or Nintendo
(or anyone else for that matter) do anything like that. This is super service !
He also purchased and hired a bunch of X-Box games,
so I have played on the X-Box quite a bit.
However, even though games like Halo and Wreckless are great,
there is still no killer application for me on the X-Box.
I wish Microsoft would relax their developer licensing rules so that people
could run Windows 98, Linux, or whatever they liked on an X-Box.
If I could legally run
MAME
on an X-Box, then this alone would tip the scales for me,
and I would purchase one tomorrow.
Because of limitations with the X-Box hardware
(the 64 MB of memory would be the biggest problem for emulation fans),
MAME will never be able to run the latest arcade games on the X-Box,
but it will be able to run Space Invaders, Pacman, Galaga,
Tutankham, and the other golden oldies from the late 1970's
and early 1980's - which is perfectly good enough for me.
There apparently are people on the internet working on porting
MAME to the X-Box, but these projects will probably never see
the light of day - they are illegal under Microsoft's licensing rules.
It would also be nice if more arcade game companies came to the party and
realised that they were turning their back on a growing market, and
started selling legal ROM packs - like
Capcom Coin-Op Classics (14 great games on CD for $10 !!)
- for use with MAME - or better yet, got together and came up with a legal / commercial version of MAME with
several hundred games. Then everyone could be 100% legal with MAME.
An Australian spammer (T3 Direct) is
suing
an anti-spam advocate (Joseph John McNicol of Southlake, Western Australia)
for AUD $43,750 in damages plus interest after being
blacklisted by a spam prevention Web site, in what is believed to be the first case of its kind
in the world, and one that could end up “bigger than Ben Hur”, according to
sources close to the proceedings.
Here are some other links to various WEB sites who are running the story :
It is interesting stuff indeed. But, to my way of thinking, it is a waste of the court's
time. IMHO, the case can only end one way : the Spammer must lose.
Maybe this case will lead to other court cases involving Spammers, and
maybe one-day Spam will be gone from the internet.
(Yeah, right !! And pigs might fly ! ;)
Key Stroke Recorder (v1.0)
enables you to log all key presses
and mouse button clicks on your computer so you can keep track
of what has been typed on your computer.
This program might be useful for anyone who wants to check
what someone is doing / typing on your computer.
e.g. keep track of what your teenage kids are typing while
using the internet or any other programs.
Words Worth - Crossword and Scrabble Companion
provides some very useful searching and word list
maintenance functionality and is especially suited
to people who like playing scrabble, or doing
crosswords, or anyone who needs to look up words
or use words in other ways. The program comes with
various massive lists of up to 263,535 words - available for use by Registered Users - which includes all
words used by tournament scrabble players.
This new version adds the ability to exclude words containing certain letters from each search, and other
enhancements.
MAME32 Tools is an unofficial companion utility / tool for the official
MAME 32 Arcade Machine Emulator for Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000,
which can be downloaded seperately from :
http://www.mame.net
Once again, this new version adds a whole range of new features
and use-ability enhancements.
3-June-2002 ::
Readme Text File and Program ZIP File Maintenance
I went through all of the text files for all of my programs, and added in
a Table of Contents, and fixed a couple of typos, and added a single space at the
start and end of each readme file to make it display better on my web page.
Then I updated the ZIP files for all of my programs
with the latest versions of these text files and my Shareware Catalog, etc.
This required a few hours of work - but the text files, etc look much nicer now.
Enjoy ! :)
29-May-2002 ::
Apple Mac OS/X Seminar - Formal Complaint to Apple Corp.
Last night and during today, I have kept thinking about the ridiculously unprofessional
Apple Mac OS/X Seminar that I went to yesterday,
and today I decided that I just could not let these matters / issues rest.
So, I have now copied and pasted all of my comments below into a Higher Education Staff Feedback form on
Apple's WEB Site
and added my full name and email address, and the seminar's location and date,
and bundled this up into a formal complaint against Apple's disgraceful behaviour and forwarded this to
Apple Corp.
I will keep you posted about any replies I receive.
28-May-2002 ::
Apple Mac OS/X Seminar
Today, I went to an
Apple OS/X
seminar - presented by Apple's own employees - and I was impressed with some of what I saw, but sadly, I was also
disgusted with other parts of the seminar.
These days, I am not normally all that interested in the Mac computer.
However, I was an Apple Mac user for over a year
in the mid-1980's, and I also developed [Windows and] Apple Mac and PowerMac client front ends
for a massive data wharehousing client-server system that I was working on for a client in the mid-1990's.
So, I have used Macs quite a bit in the past - although I have never liked them much - too overpriced,
too slow. The Mac OS operating system is flashy - but it always seems to be incredibly limited,
patronising and annoying.
And, then we come onto Mac Users - who often seem to be the most rabid bunch of people on
the planet - most seem to be incredibly arrogant and opinionated and many seem to swallow whatever
lies or rumours Steve Jobs or Apple's "Well Oiled" mis-information machine cares to put out.
Even if the Mac and its OS were perfect, the attitude of many Mac users alone would probably be enough to turn my stomach
and keep me away from using the computer.
Anyway, I had heard bits and pieces about
Mac OS/X
(mostly from a Mac user down the corridor from me at work),
and I still have a soft spot for Unix - following my many years of
work and experience on Unix servers - so I jumped at the chance to attend a FREE Mac OS/X seminar
(partly because there was the promise of free pizza ! ;)
As always, Apple's new User Interface is very flashy. Apple have produced a beautiful interface.
The support for X-Windows was very impressive,
the UNIX command line was great, and I seriously liked this aspect of the OS.
It is funny however, that Mac Users have continuously jeered and sneered and looked down their
"stuck up" noses at Unix (with the X-Windows GUI)
and DOS / Windows users since 1984 because of our easy access to (what they called) "archaic command lines" from
inside our GUI operating systems.
But, when Apple turns around and develops a GUI with a command line, all of a sudden millions of
rabid Mac-heads proclaim this as the "greatest invention since sliced bread".
Ermmmm, what drugs are you on guys ???
I just don't understand their hypocrisy or their conveniently forgotten or rewritten past.
Apart from the X-Windows / UNIX support though, I was not impressed with Mac OS/X.
It seemed to be overly flashy. It was all style and little substance. It was all art for art's sake.
This is not my cup of tea. I much prefer performance and functionality over looks - especially
when the flashy looks are only there to satisfy some designer's ego and provide no benefit to the user.
In addition, the seminar presented the results of various Apple sponsored "studies"
by Apple's "Yes Men" into Total Cost of Ownership, performance / benchmarks, etc
for Mac Systems Vs Windows Systems,
so you can just guess what rubbish these "studies" discovered.
As usual, Apple didn't compare similarly spec'd computers - and they never, ever mention the prices.
They even had the gall to compare a top spec dual CPU PowerMac against a hamstrung single CPU P4 PC.
Shame on you Apple !! Shame on you !
The seminar's presentations were slick in parts - but various apps crashed several times within a single hour -
which was shocking for such a canned and carefully orchestrated seminar.
And, to cheapen the seminar even further, the presenters hadn't even registered their use of Dreamweaver
or some other programs, so these programs had expired and completely refused to run - so we had to skip
that part of the demonstration . (The guy said he would hunt around and delete the files that told Dreamweaver
that it had already expired and re-install it later on to get another 30 days of free use).
This was just plain ridiculous.
This seminar is travelling up the east coast of Australia - presenting
to potentially 1,000's of people at universities and large companies -
so, I would have thought it would have been more professional
and that the presenters would have actually done the honourable thing and
registered and paid for their software - instead of hacking it
to get more free use and screwing over the developers - and worse still -
making jokes about this during the presentation.
(Needless to say, these "jokes" fell completely flat - there was just stunned, uncomfortable silence
from all 14 people in the audience. And I certainly gave the presenters my best "angry glare" !)
But, the Pizza Hut pizza was beautiful and fresh, and there was tons of it - 12 large pizzas
- almost a pizza per person for the 14 seminar attendees.
Based on what I have seen and read and experienced so far, there is NO WAY
that I will be moving to the Mac or Mac OS/X - it offers nothing that I can't do better
and cheaper and easier in Windows or Linux.
But, I will be eating more Pizza Hut Pizza !!! ;))
25-May-2002 ::
Microsoft .NET Seminar
In late-April, I went to a 2 day
Microsoft .NET
seminar, and was blown away by the sophistication and maturity of the product.
For those who don't know what .NET is, here is a summary I prepared for my students
following the seminar :
Part of the seminar involved showing source code from various languages - C#, COBOL, and Visual Basic - all working together within a single program.
Developing WEB Services, WEB Applications, Windows Applications, Console Applications, etc within the unified .NET framework all appeared to be incredibly easy - compared to how it was in the "old days".
There is a JIT - Just In Time Compiler - that takes the MIL code (which is intermediate p-code) and compiles it "on the fly" on target platform.
This means that if you are running on an AMD processor, or Strong Arm processor, or DEC Alpha, or Pentium 4, or 68k, or Power PC chip, then the application will compile to run the best on your machine. If you had a certain graphics card, etc, then it should also compile best for that hardware as well.
This part of .NET is (I believe) still in development for most platforms, and getting the .NET Common Language Runtime / JIT onto all of these other platforms may take a few months - but I would be very suprised if M$ aren't working hard on this right now - as it is a huge selling point for .NET.
The other exciting part was that if you write a WEB application or service in .NET, then it should automatically look at the client's browser and check what it is capable of - all "on the fly". If you are running an early version Mosaic or Netscape (say v1.x - which don't support JAVA, or XML - from the good old Windows 3.x days - or should that be "daze" ?), then pure HTML should be downloaded to your browser, and the server will automatically pick up the slack and do the validation / etc work that the client could do under more recent browsers (which may support Java and/or XML).
This means that you can write a WEB application once, and it should be pretty well browser and platform independent.
.NET seems to be exciting stuff indeed : support for 26 programming languages so far, integrated language independent IDE, drag and drop development, multi-platform applications - compiled and tuned for the client machine "on the fly", virtually zero browser compatibility issues for web apps and services. And, support for Delphi is on the way ... ;)
The gap between programming languages also seems to have narrowed considerably. For example, Visual Basic has been extended enormously, and the gap between what it can do and what C++ can do has apparently narrowed a great deal. The syntax of various languages has also been brought much more into line. So, the differences between VB and C++ may now be mostly just the symantics. Anything Visual Basic cannot provide could be provided by some C++ code within the same project. The exciting part about this is that you can now pick your language and develop with it regardless of the target platform / environment / application type.
For example, if you love COBOL, then (after taking your medication ;) you apparently could do pretty well everything in COBOL - WEB services, WEB applications, GUI applications, console applications, databases, reports, etc - just as you could in other languages. People may no longer need to learn Java or C++ or PHP and a swag of langauges to develop "exotic" applications, such as GUI apps or WEB apps / services.
Amazing stuff - especially if it all really does work the way it is intended to.
If all of this does pan out, then all of a sudden multi-platform / multi-language / multi-application type development has (or soon will have) become a heck of a lot easier.
I am hoping to put together a very quick and simple .NET demonstration for part of a Business Programming lecture later this term - showing, for example, Assignment 1 running as a WEB application and as a Windows Application - which I think can be done in .NET with just a few clicks of the mouse button and a few lines of code for a driver.
.NET appears to be a quantum leap over anything else out there and it certainly seems like it could be Nirvana for software developers - but I can't say for sure until I have a darn good play with it ... ;)
The seminar was well over 2 weeks ago, but I am still astounded by what I saw.
I now have the
Microsoft .NET
CDs, and the Windows XP install CD, and pretty soon, I intend to bite the
bullet and check out the brave new world of Windows XP - just so I can do some .NET development.
(My PC needs to have either Windows 2000 or Windows XP installed before I can install
or do any development in Microsoft .NET.
At the moment, I am still using Windows 98 at home and Windows NT at work - which are rock solid
and perfectly suit my needs - and I wouldn't be upgrading at all apart
from the need to have XP installed on each .NET development machine).
Zip Password Cracker Pro (v1.0)
enables you to generate
passwords and apply these to password protected
ZIP files. This can be an incredibly useful thing
to do when you have backed up data to a ZIP file
and mistyped or forgotten the password.
The program has many useful password generation features, and
also saves Restart information as it tests
passwords so that if your computer crashes, etc
then this program can continue where it left off.
This is my 37th Shareware Program ! :) Hope you find it useful !
22-May-2002 ::
Don't Forget Your Towel on May 25th !!
Join your fellow hitchhikers on towel day to show your appreciation for the
humor and insight that the late, great Douglas Adams brought to all our lives by
carrying your towel with you everywhere on May 25th.
March - May-2002 ::
My Father
In mid-late March, my father - Frank - died, and that is
the reason why things have been so quiet around here lately.
Work, etc have been very busy lately, but this is nothing new.
The wind has been gone from my sails a lot lately - and it is not because of work ....
Frank loved a beer and a cigarette, that is no secret.
His drinking and smoking caused
the steady decline in his health - paticularly over the last 6 years - and
this caused great hardship and pain for Mum - especially after his stroke.
His "drinking" caused a lot of friction and tension between Frank and I,
particularly in more recent years - mainy because I could see what
effect this was having on Mum.
But drinking and smoking is what he liked and not who he was.
For the most part, Frank was a very kind and generous and loving and
good father, and I am extremely grateful for his
limitless help, guidance, and advice throughout my life.
He was also a very good friend, and I enjoyed his company a great deal
(when he wasn't "drinking").
He did have a fiery Irish temper - especially when his family or friends
were under threat of attack - and I certainly
take after him in that regard.
He had a good sense of humour and a ready laugh, and he always liked
to talk and listen.
He had an awesome memory for facts and figures,
He had great philosophys of life, and a great
attitude about things :
work hard,
save your pennies,
keep a positive attitude,
roll with the punches,
give things another shot when you fail,
the massive importance of friends and family,
never spounge off other people,
work hard and be responsible for and provide for your own future (so that you
never ever need to go on unemployment benefits or a government pension),
always be honest and honourable,
always be yourself,
what's right and what's wrong,
always be 100% responsible for your own actions or inactions.
i.e. don't start suing people when I do something stupid or careless or reckless.
(There are 1,000's of people out there that should particularly heed this advice !)
etc.
Where the hell would I be today without these pearls of wisdom ?
They are my mantra.
Frank worked as a Civil Engineer (for many years) and a Real Estate Agent
(his own business - for about 5 years), but mostly he
worked for himself and purchased old "run down" houses, did them up,
and then sold them again.
He did a lot of tiling, painting, and handy man work himself. Mum helped
enormously as well. And, for as long as I can remember, I helped as well.
Some of my earliest memories are from when I helped Mum and Dad
rennovate old houses - I was so young that I could barely walk,
but I had a tiny red steel wheelbarrow and I wanted to help out,
so Dad would load a little bit of rubble into it, or
half a brick (from a brick wall he was removing), and I would
wheel this outside to the rubbish pile, and then go back for more.
And 30+ years later, I was still helping when I came back home for a
visit - re-roofing houses,
tiling bathrooms and floors, building partition walls, etc. I learnt
a great deal from these adventures. And, I learned a great
deal about real estate, houses, and business as well.
When Mum and Dad were first married (in the early 1960's) - they were so poor that they
could't afford new clothes or shoes - and my father had to stick bits of cardboard in his shoes
to keep the water out. They both worked full time jobs as well as 2 or 3 part-time
(nighttime or weekend) jobs - office cleaning, etc -
to try and make ends meet and to get the deposit together for a house.
When my brothers and I were all at primary school, Frank missed us so much,
that he would often come and collect us from school at lunch time, and
take us to a local park and kick a footy with us, and then we would
have party pies or fish and chips for lunch, and then he would take us
back to school again. This was all great fun, and
I have such fond memories of times like this.
When I was about 10 years old, Mum and Dad purchased 10 little fibre glass boats
- named Snow White, Prince Charming, Wicked Witch, and the others were named
after the seven dwarfs : Doc, Sleepy, etc - which people rented by the half-hour.
We ran these as a family over the 2 month
School Christmas Break. We had great times and loads of adventures with these boats.
And, every time we switched on the radio David Essex was singing "Hold Me Close"
- a song that will always have enormous nostalgia for me.
When I was 12, my family moved from Victoria to Queensland, and we had
loads of adventures in the sunshine state - "Beautiful One Day, Perfect the Next"
or so the slogan for Queensland goes, and it is almost always true.
My parents kept doing up houses during my high school years, and I helped out
at every opportunity. Then, after working on a farm for 2 years,
I went to University, working up to 40 hours per week in a university
bar to put myself through university,
and when I graduated, I got a job "down south"
and later on overseas, and moved away - visiting on holidays when I could.
Later (in the early 1990's), my parents purchased a motel, and ran this -
which was something Mum had always wanted to do. It was hard work - especially
for Mum - who did the lion's share of the work - my father's
health was declining. They did everything on their own - making beds,
laundry, breakfasts, cleaning, reception desk, etc.
Poor Mum was working about 18 hours a day most days - up to cook breakfasts at 5:00 AM,
cleaning rooms and doing laundry and ironing all day, tending to guests,
and staying up until almost midnight
in the hope of renting the last room or 2.
Running a motel definitely isn't a picnic.
Then, a few years ago, Mum and Dad sold the motel and retired,
but by now Frank's health was bad and getting worse each day
- he'd had a stroke and his short-term memory was gone.
Their plans to retire and travel around the world together were
scuppered - which was very sad - but this often seems to happen
when people work too hard for too long.
Mum and Dad always seemed to work, and I can count on one hand the
number of times they actually took a proper holiday.
(I intend to take Mum around the world later this year - England
and Egypt are the two places she wants to see most).
My parents have never been on any form of pension or government subsidy or unemployment benefit
or any other benefit.
(When I look around the Australia today, half of the country seems to be "on the dole",
or on some form of pension - and very very few of them deserve it - and to my eyes this
is absolutely disgusting and disgraceful - but this is something I will rant
and rave about some other time).
Frank was the most honest and honourable person I have ever known.
His word was always his bond.
He never ripped anybody off, or lied,
or stabbed anybody in the back, or failed to keep his word.
Even when other people were ripping him off or lying to him, he always kept his
word - he always kept to his side of the bargain - no matter what.
And, he was never anybody's "Yes Man".
I wonder how many people can claim these things at the end of their days ?
I wonder how many of these things I'll be able to claim at the end of my days ?
So long, father ... rest in peace ...
18-Mar-2002 ::
Words Worth - Crossword and Scrabble Companion (v1.2)
Words Worth - Crossword and Scrabble Companion
provides some very useful searching and word list
maintenance functionality and is especially suited
to people who like playing scrabble, or doing
crosswords, or anyone who needs to look up words
or use words in other ways. The program comes with
a massive list of 263,535 words - available for use by Registered Users - which includes all
words used by tournament scrabble players.
This new version adds Phonetic "Sounds Like" word searching and speeds up some of the
existing searches by up to 25 times.
File Synchronizer (v1.1)
allows you to sychronise some or all
of the files in 2 directories, and if you like, all of
their sub-directories.
File Synchronizer is (hopefully) extremely useful for people
who (like me) have their data spread over multiple PCs - such as Work
and Home PCs, along with work on floppies, removable harddrives,
ZIP / JAZZ / SyQyest / Orb drives, rewritable CDs, or other media.
This program enables you to easily and quickly make sure
you have the latest versions of files on all machines / media,
and that your master directory contains the latest versions
of all files.
Quiz Master
is a program that enables you to easily set-up
quizzes - either for fun, or to test or build knowledge of
particular subject areas, or to help with assessment of
student / employee achievement.
Included with the program is a set of 45 Sample Questions,
but many more questions may be made available in the future.
You can also set-up your own quizes on any topics you like.
The program also includes basic sound effects, which you can
replace with your own sounds.
File Synchronizer (v1.0)
allows you to sychronise some or all
of the files in 2 directories, and if you like, all of
their sub-directories.
File Synchronizer is (hopefully) extremely useful for people
who (like me) have their data spread over multiple PCs - such as Work
and Home PCs, along with work on floppies, removable harddrives,
ZIP / JAZZ / SyQyest / Orb drives, rewritable CDs, or other media.
This program enables you to easily and quickly make sure
you have the latest versions of files on all machines / media,
and that your master directory contains the latest versions
of all files.
This is my 36th Shareware Program ! :) Hope you find it useful !
11-March-2002 ::
New Apple 2 Pages
Upload a new version of my Apple 2 WEB pages
which contains a long rambling and rather pointless history of the Apple 2 and it's influence on my life,
complete with pictures.
Program Code Auditor
is a tool specially designed for programmers
or the managers of programmers or the teachers of programming students
to analyse the program code that has been written, and
see how many lines of code there are and how much white
space and comments there are in the code.
The program produces a summary of all source files
audited. All of this information is written to a report that
you can copy to the Window's Clipboard, print, or save it to disk.
Built into this program is support for 17 programming languages
such as Delphi / Pascal, C / C++, Java, HTML, COBOL, Fortran, etc.
There is also an option for you to specify the
comment start and end delimiters, etc, and this should make
Program Code Auditor work with any programming language !!
Price rise : due to the massive amount of work I have done on
Program Code Auditor
, this program is now a
$20 Australian program. (which is only 7 UK Pounds or $10 US dollars approx).
18-Feb-2002 ::
Words Worth - Crossword and Scrabble Companion (v1.1n)
The shareware version of
Words Worth - Crossword and Scrabble Companion
now uses 938 words, which are the exact same word list my Apple 2 version of the program had in 1982.
(Registered users of the Windows version of the program can use a massive list of 263,535 words -
which includes all words used by tournament scrabble players.)
So, the 938 word data file now spans generations of computers,
generations of operating systems, and more than 20 years of time. Pretty cool hey !
And now, just for a bit of fun, you can also download the original Apple 2 version that I wrote way back in 1982,
download my Apple 2 BASIC Source Code, download my original Apple 2 Word List, view screen shots,
and even run the original Apple 2 version under emulation right on your own PC.
Text Buttons enables you to place often used pieces of
text behind anything up to 750 buttons, and view 1, 2, 3, or 4 columns of
15 of these buttons at any time, so that any text you need is very easily
and quickly obtainable when required.
I use
Text Buttons
all day every day - for holding email sigs,
standard emails, various WEB site addresses, and various
details and notes I need all the time at work and at home.
Why I haven't sold 1,000's or even dozens of copies of this program around the world,
I just can't understand. Maybe the many dozens of hours of work I have put into
this new version will help boost sales.
6-Feb-2002 ::
Greatest Products of All Time : Lotus Improv
Update my review of
Lotus Improv
and include some excellent comments about Improv from Simson L. Garfinkel (simsong@vineyard.net)
and also include an email that I have just sent to
IBM's Lotus Software Group
in Australia and the United States.
6-Feb-2002 ::
New Hacker Resistant Versions of 5 of my Programs
After recent searches on the internet, I have found lots of cracks for my programs.
To counter this, my programs now feature new and more advanced anti-hacker / anti-cracker
counter measures.
Release new anti-hacker / anti-cracker versions of :
Big Mouse Pointer (v1.3)
This program sits in the tray bar (with the clock, etc) and enables you to
use a BIG arrow (of just about any size and color) as the mouse pointer.
Checksum Calculator (v4.1)
Checksum Calculator calculates checksums for user-selected
files and directories, and enables the user to compare
checksum results against previous calculations.
Great for checking if files have been tampered with !!
Key Sound Generator (v1.1)
Key Sound Generator is a fun program that plays a particular
sound effect each time a mouse button or keyboard key is
pressed. Different sounds are played depending on the type
of key or button. Various sets of sounds are available for download,
and you can also add your own !
RAM / Swapfile Monitor (v4.3)
RAM / SWAP Monitor displays details and charts of the Physical RAM and SWAPfile (Page file) usage
on your PC, and of the free / used space on a selected Disk Drive, displays the CPU usage
on Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000 PCs, and also contains a
CPU Usage Drop Adviser (which is great for knowing when your PC has finished a big processing job -
like virus checking your PC, defragmenting the harddrive, etc).
Talking Clock (v3.4)
Talking Clock does just what the title says - it reads out
the current time according to when and how often you want
to hear it.
You can download pre-recorded sounds and even add / record
your own sounds !!
My programs are far from being 100% hacker / cracker proof.
No program will ever be ! However, these counter measures
should slow the crackers down, dance on their nerves, and hopefully
give them a nasty headache ! ;)
Of course, I will not say what these counter measures are -
as I do not want to make it easier for hackers / crackers.
It is a shame things have come to this - I would much rather spend a weekend adding great
ideas and new features into one or two of my programs, than spending the weekend making it so that a
small minority of people can't profit from or rip-off my hard work. Such is life ...
5-Feb-2002 ::
Greatest Products of All Time : Lotus Improv
Add a new section to my
Reviews Page
- where I plan to discuss some of the
Greatest Products
I have ever seen, and share some of my experiences over the years with computers, operating systems,
applications, and utilities.
Kick off this new section with a review on
Lotus Improv
and an essay on a segment of PC history.
If you have never heard of
Lotus Improv
or if you have ever wondered why Lotus 1-2-3 or WordPerfect disappeared
or if you have ever wondered why PC users were so slow to jump on the Graphical User Interface (GUI)
bandwagon in the 1980's, then this essay should be very informative for you. Enjoy !
5-Feb-2002 ::
Words Worth - Crossword and Scrabble Companion (v1.1)
Words Worth - Crossword and Scrabble Companion
provides some very useful searching and word list
maintenance functionality and is especially suited
to people who like playing scrabble, or doing
crosswords, or anyone who needs to look up words
or use words in other ways. The program comes with
a massive list of 263,535 words - which includes all
words used by tournament scrabble players.
28-Jan-2002 ::
Words Worth - Crossword and Scrabble Companion (v1.0)
Words Worth - Crossword and Scrabble Companion
provides some very useful searching and word list
maintenance functionality and is especially suited
to people who like playing scrabble, or doing
crosswords, or anyone who needs to look up words
or use words in other ways. The program comes with
a massive list of 263,533 words - which includes all
words used by tournament scrabble players.
21-Jan-2002 ::
Answering Machine Messages
Upload a brand new WEB page containing a bunch of my favourite
Answering Machine Messages.
Check them out if you are looking
to change the message people here when you're not home. ;)
File Tools
enables you to grab a list of files, stamp files
with the current date and time, make text files from Mac
or UNIX environments readable, test the integrity of a
bunch of ZIP files, rename a bunch of files, search and
replace the contents of a bunch of files, word wrap and
un-word wrap the text lines in files, and more !!
All at the click of a button !!!
This new version again features many usability and functionality
enhancements and additions.
17-Jan-2002 ::
Military Battlezone now in MAME !!!
MAME's WIP Page
was updated on 15-Jan-2001 with the news, along with a screen shot of
Military Battlezone in action within MAME.
I am as suprised as anyone of this ! I still had no idea the ROMs were already or
soon to be publicly or feely "available", and I am not sure how this came to be.
However, as part of the
Campaign to Preserve Old Arcade Games
several Arcade and Game industry people have been working
working towards this for several months, but I don't think these people
have succedded yet, as they haven't contacted me about any major successes yet.
So, I sincerely hope this is not another "non-legal release"
of ROMs to the public - otherwise it could threaten to undo a lot of very
hard, long, and delicate work behind the scenes over the past 12 months.
17-Jan-2002 ::
Campaign to Preserve Old Arcade Games : Update
I must say I am worried about the above news. This is not a victory for the campaign.
Indeed, I hope releasing these copyrighted,
ultra-rare ROMs to the public like this doesn't undo a lot of hard work by a lot of people
working in the
Campaign to Preserve Old Arcade Games .
One angle we were looking into (among many others) was the "Freedom of Information" act,
where some government and military material becomes "public domain" after 25 years.
The ROMs for Military Balltezone may fall come under this act.
We were also looking into many other angles - especially purchasing the rights to
the games - particularly MM2.
File Patcher modifies another file according to the values
contained in a patch file. This is useful for automating the
modifications / updates of .EXE or other files for games /
applications. File Patcher can also compare two files and
generate a patch file. i.e. a list of differences between
the files being compared.
This new version again features many usability and functionality
enhancements and additions.
16-Jan-2002 ::
WEB Page Enhancements and Frames
Do many hours of work and exploration on my WEB pages behind the scenes
to improve the look, feel, and navigation of my web pages.
Add in a top frame, so that my title area remains visible always.
Fix some links, and update various details on my pages.
15-Jan-2002 ::
Synchronised Frames
Change over to using Syndhronised Frames for my WEB page. This looks a little better (but this approach
still has its own issues and drawbacks), and there is no "extra" scroll bar on the mid-left hand side now,
and my web page now looks more like most other WEB pages out there.
Windows Wallpaper Changer
randomly selects a Bitmap file from a directory you specify and
makes this the new Windows' Wallpaper (i.e. the picture you
see behind the icons on your Main Windows Desktop).
You can easily specify directory from which Bitmaps are
randomly chosen, and the interval (in Seconds) in which the
Windows Wallpaper is changed to the new bitmap.
Never have a boring static Windows Desktop again !!
2-Jan-2002 ::
Christmas Decorations and 25% off Sale
My 25% off everything sale did NOT result in a single sale of any of my programs ...
Put the Christmas decorations away for next year ...
Hope everyone had a great Chrismtas / New year ! :)
2-Jan-2002 ::
MAME v0.57 out NOW !! ...
A new version of the fabulous
Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME)
was released a few minutes ago, and supports 3,229 arcade games
(1,843 unique / originals and the rest are clones).
Thanks again to the MAME Team for working towards ensuring the preservation of all of these
very old and very rare arcade games.
31-Dec-2001 ::
Looking Back on 2001 ...
2001 was an interesting year, but on the whole it was not a good year for the human race.
On a personal front, work was very busy (nothing unusual there),
time flew by (definitely nothing new there), I did lots of programming (an activity I love),
and there were also some interesting things in my personal life :
I moved into a new house (after I had tiled all of the floors), my brother visited from Melbourne
(hadn't seen him for 3 years), I brought a new PC and added it into my home computer lab which now has
an Apple ][c and 3 PCs and a bunch of older PCs (XT's, AT's, etc),
my friend was involved in 2 car crashes (one with a kangaroo and another with a car),
a horse kicked the shit out of my brand new car while it was parked in a carport - for no reason,
a close friend of mine had a heart attack, etc.
In the scheme of things though, all of this is relatively minor, and the single biggest event of 2001 was of course
the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and passenger jets by terrorists.
Even though this all happened on the other side of the planet, the shock waves still reached us here in Australia.
It happened at about 11:00 PM at night (Australian time), and I was messing around on my PC and
watching TV in a small window on my monitor - which is the usual thing for me to do at night. And, I just
couldn't believe what I was seeing - the looks on peoples faces, the planes crashing into buildings, and
then the most shocking thing I have ever seen - the twin towers falling to the ground with
thousands of people (innocent public, brave firemen, and courageous policemen) all trapped inside.
And, then there were pictures of idiots and delusional fools in Pakistan and Afghanistan
cheering at the destruction and death - somehow believing that they had won some sort of victory -
and I began to fear that World War 3 was coming and that the perhaps the end was nigh ...
5 hours later - at 4:00 AM, I was still glued to the TV in a state of shock. And, when I finally
went to bed, I couldn't fall asleep for ages. When sleep finally overtook me, it was a very disturbed sleep.
Sadly, this tragic event will probably be what the start of the new millennium will be most famous for.
Since then, the gutless prick who is responsible for all this has been hiding and skulking in
caves, while sending 1,000's of his brain washed followers to their deaths against American forces,
and trying to call himself a "freedom fighter" - what a joke ! - even his brain washed followers are
having a hard time believing this.
What freedom did you gain from this Osama Bin Laden ? What good did this achieve for your "followers" ?
What did this terrorist attack achieve ? How have you helped the human race ?
How many millions of homeless, starving refugees do you want to create ?
How many people are going to die because of your perverted, twisted delusions ?
You orchestrated an attack on 1,000's of unarmed, innocent people, while you hide in a cave.
You are a gutless terrorist. When you are dead, the world will be a better place.
31-Dec-2001 ::
File Patcher (v2.3)
Could this be my last program update of the 2001 ??
Well, it could well be - unless New Year's Eve
is a fizzer or I feel like doing some more coding. The later is particularly likely
in spite of the very hot weather we have been having here in Australia -
40+ degrees Celsius (104+ degrees Fahrenheit every day) - so I need 3 big fans in my computer
room to get the heat out and keep things workable. A nice split system air conditioner
is being looked into as we speak ... ;) I spend most of my time in my computer room,
so I might as well be comfortable. ;)
File Patcher modifies another file according to the values
contained in a patch file. This is useful for automating the
modifications / updates of .EXE or other files for games /
applications. File Patcher can also compare two files and
generate a patch file. i.e. a list of differences between
the files being compared.
This new version features many usability and functionality enhancements and additions.
I've been doing a lot of File Patching lately - e.g. removing
the CD checking for my new Christmas PC Games ;)
I hate having to put the CD in the drive every time I want to play a game.
So I have added some improvements in to File Patcher,
which has been getting a hell of a work out lately.
14-Dec-2001 ::
Christmas Specials - 25% off !!
OK, my Chrismtas Decorations are finally up - Woo Hoo !! ;)
And, to celebrate the Christmas Season, I am now having a 25% off everything sale until 1-Jan-2001.
So, all orders placed for any of my programs on or before 1-Jan-2001 will receive 25% off !
And, this 25% off ! is on-top of the usual "bulk buy" and "site license" discounts that I offer.
The only catch with this is that I probably wont be my usual speedy self in sending out registrations,
because I will be enjoying Christmas parties, BBQ's, etc. So, if it takes me a few days or even a week to
process and forward out your registrations, then I apologise and thank you for your patience and understanding.
Have a happy Chrismtas everyone !! :)
13-Dec-2001 ::
Apple 2 Disk Drive Sound Simulator (v1.1)
Apple 2 Disk Drive Sound Simulator
does just what the title says -
it simulates the sound of Apple 2 disk drives by playing back
sounds I recorded of my Apple 2 disk drives in action.
I have had some great feedback about this program already - and it has only been out a few days. ;)
This new version features some sampled digitised speech and an improved user-interface.
Program Code Auditor
is a tool that lets you see how many lines
and what percentage of programs are comments, code, white space,
or code with comments (on the same line) for each source
code file, and it also produces a summary of all source files
audited. All of this information is written to a report that
you can copy to the Window's Clipboard or save it to disk.
Built into this program is support for Delphi / Pascal,
C / C++, COBOL, and Fortran. There is also an option for you to specify the
comment start and end delimiters, and this should make
Program Code Auditor work with just about any programming
language !!
12-Dec-2001 ::
Brisbane Shopping Trip and Sea World
Just had a great weekend - packed up the car and drove to Brisbane and the Gold Coast - a
16 hour round trip by car from where I live. Luckily my car's air conditioner works well, because
it was a hot weekend here in Queensland.
Went to Sea World and saw the Polar Bears - bless 'em all !! - and saw the dolphin shows,
penguins, seals, etc and went on all the roller coaster, flume boat, and other rides, etc.
All great fun ! ;)
Also, picked up the components to build a spare PC at home - for those network gaming sessions
my friends and I love so much ... ;)
I purchased a Celeron 900, Asus motherboard, 16 Speed CD Rewriter, 17 inch monitor, 128 MB RAM,
cheap mains powered speakers, and a great case with the clip off side panels - all for under $900 Australian,
which is about $450 US, or 300 UK pounds (approx.). Tonight I will put it all together, plug in my
spare 20 Gig harddrive, and hook up a spare floppy drive, keyboard, wheel mouse and network card
I have lying around, and whammo - my spare PC is ready to rock'n'roll.
The PC is far from leading edge - in fact, anything based on a Celeton 900 is barely even an
"entry level" PC these days, but it is great for my needs as a spare PC.
On special occasions (upcoming X-Mas / New Year's Eve BBQ's, parties, etc), the PC will also
sit nicely in my MAME Arcade Cabinet. ;)
Also purchased some new games (neither of which are recent games) :
Battle Zone 2 : I loved Battlezone 1 so much when I purchased it 18 months ago that
I just couldn't resist BZ 2 - especially since it was reduced to an amazing $9.95 ($5 US, 3 UK) !!
I couldn't believe my luck ! :)
Power Slide : a great Australian developed driving game - which I have been looking
for in shops for well over a year - but they are always sold out of this game.
But, I finally found it and, to top it off, it was reduced to just $19.95 ($10 US, 6 UK) ! :)
This brings my total PC game purchases in 2001 alone to about 12 games.
Also, went to a great Mexican restaurant (on the Broadbeach / Surfer's Paradise border) which
had "all you can eat" ala carte beautiful mexican food for $16 ($8 US, 5 UK) per head. Needless to say,
we could barely walk when we left the restaurant ... ;))
7-Dec-2001 ::
Apple 2 Disk Drive Sound Simulator (v1.0)
Apple 2 Disk Drive Sound Simulator
does just what the title says -
it simulates the sound of Apple 2 disk drives by playing back
sounds I recorded of my Apple 2 disk drives in action.
Sanitize Disk Space enables you to select any drive on your PC,
such as a floppy disk or any of your harddrives or harddrive partitions,
and then sanitize the free / unused space on this drive.
Once sanitized, the data in your deleted files can never again be
recovered, and no hacker - no matter how clever - will ever be able
to view any data contained in your deleted files.
Ideal for use by anyone selling or replacing their PC - especially if
the PC contained any sensitive or personal data.
This is my 33rd shareware program (and there are also 15 freeware programs) here on my web pages.
27-Nov-2001 ::
First Human Clone
Yesterday, Dr. Michael West and his team at
Advanced Cell Technology Inc.
in Massachusetts,
managed to create a clone of Judson Somerville - the first human clone ever made. The clone embryo
only lived a short while and only reached 8 only cells is size - but it proved that the technology
works and it is a giant step for mankind.
This is great news for the human race, and it means that :
many people who cannot have children may one day be able to have children,
that people who have lost children or loved ones in accidents may
be able to clone them and lessen the impact of their loss.
Imagine losing your baby girl at birth and the pain you would suffer.
Imagine being able to clone her - wouldn't that help reduce your loss and pain ?
and it will also have enormous medical uses and benefits.
However, instead of reviling in this research, many people and religious and other fanatics have already
jumped on their little band wagons and spoken out against the research. Even George Bush, America's President,
is apparently trying to push through legislation to penalize human clone researches with
$1 million US dollar fines and 10 years in prison.
Here in Australia, John Howard (Australia's Prime Minister) also seems to be against
human clone research - but we could almost expect this sort of stupidity and knee-jerk reaction
from John Howard and most of the other politicians here in Australia !
I had hoped for more brains and vision from George Bush however.
In my opinion, anybody or any country or any president / prime minister who is
against this research is a short sighted fool !
I personally give my full support to Human Clone Research.
27-Nov-2001 ::
Dr Moller's Skycar
Dr Moller
has been working on his
Skycar
project since the 1960's, and it now looks
like it will finally become a reality, and that people may soon be able to actually buy their own Skycar.
I have been a fan of this project for many years and have quietly watched its developments from afar.
However, the project now appears to be tantalisingly close to completion, and the skycar could
(if all goes really well) hit the market within the next few years.
cruise at 390 miles / hour when flying (630 Km / hour),
have an operational flight ceiling of 30,000 feet (9,150 meters),
will run on normal automotive fuel,
be roadworthy and be able to be driven like a normal car,
be capable of vertical take off and landing (VTOL),
cost no more than the average family car to run or buy !!, and,
be powered by a single Wankel Rotary Engine.
(I guess this means that you should be able to fly it one handed ... ;))
The world's virtually stagnant airline and automotive industries should be
turned upside down and given a real wake up call. That'll teach them to buy up
inventions and sit on them and do nothing with them. e.g. the orbital engine.
Complete travelling freedom in 3 dimensions - this should really be amazing !!
At least until personal, fusion powered, spaceship submarines become available ... ;)
I cannot wait for this to be released on the market, and, if the above claims / plans are true,
then I will be buying one as soon as they hit Australia.
(In fact, if there are any delays in the release in Australia, then I will probably
travel to the US and buy one as soon as they are released there ...)
This program calculates checksums for user-selected
files and directories, and enables the user to compare
checksum results against previous calculations.
Check Sum Calculator also includes a great Command Line mode to enable
automatic, periodic checking of files, with any
mismatches reported to the user.
Checksums are very useful for making sure files have
not been corrupted, changed, or tampered with.
This new version features many usability and functionality enhancements and additions.
Windows Wallpaper Changer randomly selects a Bitmap file and
makes this the new Windows' Wallpaper (i.e. the picture you
see behind the icons on your Main Windows Desktop).
You can easily specify directory from which Bitmaps are
randomly chosen, and the interval (in Seconds) in which the
Windows Wallpaper is changed to the new bitmap.
Never have a boring static Windows Desktop again !!
This new version features many usability and functionality enhancements and additions.
26-Nov-2001 ::
Bigger and Better Rewards for Your Suggestions
Give you credit in the readme text file that accompanies the program.
However, I have now made this even bigger and better, and have added the following :
If the program sells well (more than a few copies a year, or more than
enough to cover my efforts), then I would be willing to reward you further.
e.g. pay you a percentage of sales, send you a gift, etc.
So, put your "Thinking Caps" on now, check out my
Program Suggestion Form
, and send me your ideas !! :)
Talking Clock does just what the title says - it reads out
the current time according to when and how often you want to
hear it. You can even add / record your own sounds !!
This new version features many usability and functionality enhancements and additions.
Registered users of this program can enjoy a whole range of additional speech packs,
such as Duke Nukem, Yoda, Mrs Doubtfire, Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery, and others.
File Patcher modifies another file according to the values
contained in a patch file. This is useful for automating the
modifications / updates of .EXE or other files for games /
applications. File Patcher can also compare two files and
generate a patch file. i.e. a list of differences between
the files being compared.
This new version features many usability and functionality enhancements and additions.
Not many people are into messing around with patches, so I know that very few people
are likely to use this program. Indeed, there are probably free programs that do this
already on the internet. It's hardly suprising then that I have never sold a copy of this program
in the 5 years it has been for sale on my web pages ....
Never mind, I use it occasionally, so my efforts are not in vain. :)
And, this new version might inspire some people to register. *Shock* *horror* !! ;)
22-Nov-2001 ::
New Page Change Notification Style
From now on, I think I will notify page changes with this cute little banner table.
It looks a bit better than the old bland style I was using.
20-Nov-2001 :: Gridlee Arcade ROMs
OK, this is ancient news, but the rights to the
Gridlee arcade roms
were released to the public domain
by the copyright holders Dale Luck, Roger, Ed, and Howard on April 27, 2001.
You can now use this ROM along with
Robby Rotto freely with the
Arcade Machine Emulators.
Is this a sign of things to come ?
Will more and more copyright holders release their rights to ROMs to the Public Domain ?
16-Nov-2001 :: 235 Program Updates Since July 1996
As you may know, this WEB page and the distribution of my computer programs over the Internet
began way back in July 1996.
Anyway, last night I went through and
updated the change history for all of my programs (see the scrollable frame down the side
of the screen) going right back to the start, and I now know that I
have updated my shareware and freeware programs 235 times
over the past 5 years. That's almost 47 changed / new / updated programs a year on average,
or almost 4 a month.
Some of these updates were due to bugs / errors / problems on some systems or
incompatibilities between different versions of Windows.
Most of the updates were because I am continually improving
my programs as I use many of them regularly as well. However, many of these updates were
in response to feedback and requests from other people who use my software.
Good software, great price, excellent support, regular FREE upgrades - what more can I say ... ;)
This program displays your PC's CPU usage and average CPU usage. It has been almost 4
years since I last updated this program !!
15-Nov-2001 :: Campaign to Preserve Old Arcade Games : Update ...
The last update to this
campaign
was on
21-Feb-2001
, and boy has time flown .... ;)
Earlier today, I received an email asking what was happening, and I have just
replied to a post
on the
MAME Message Boards
as well, so I thought I should do an update here as well.
Sadly, the
campaign
has sort of ground to a halt - I tried all different avenues
of attack - but could not make much headway. Geography (being based in Australia)
didn't help much. I think the best course of action would be to turn up in person
and then it is much harder to fob you off or ignore you.
The
campaign
is not over though, and the
Campaign Page
still stands as a testament to anyone
who thinks that arcade emulation fans don't care about the machines or games or doing things legally.
At the moment, my highest hope is for
Military Battlezone
- the rights to this are
apparently owned by the US Military, and the rights might revert to the Public Domain
under the 25 year Freedom of Information policy. (Not sure on the correct names there -
this is all from memory, and it may all be completely wrong, as I have not verified this yet).
So, we may be able to legally play Military Battlezone soon.
I did have some contacts to follow this up, but this hit a brick wall as well - emails
weren't answered, and my dozen or so letters were returned unopened or were not answered.
But, I haven't given up the faith, it's just that my spare time has become very scarce ... ;)
One thing is for certain - the campaign is still **NOT** dead !
This program sits in the tray bar (with the clock, etc) and enables you to
use a BIG arrow (of just about any size and color) as the mouse pointer.
Great for demonstrations, presentations, lectures, or people who get sick of hunting
for Microsoft's miniscule mouse pointer on their lovely new 21 inch monitors ... ;)
All Diablo II Set Items. e.g. Milabrega's Regalia.
My review / comments about the game.
I was going to forget about this help file, but I have seen a resurgence of Diablo II
in the games magazines lately - years after it was released - so
some people may find this help file useful, and if so, then that is great.
Mouse Odometer
is a "for fun" program that simply keeps track
of your mouse clicks and mouse cursor movement and converts this to a total
distance travelled. This new version adds support for Metric (centimeters, kilometers)
and Imperial (inches, miles) units of measure.
7-Nov-2001 :: Various WEB Page Changes
Upload new versions of many of the graphics and screen shots on my pages - to
show more of my programs in action to order to give people a better idea of how
they work or what they are.
Also upload a new transparent version of my "Animated Moose with Machine Gun" logo, which
has been a hallmark of my pages since I first created the animation on 10-October-1996.
He Heeh ... ;) Maybe it's time for a change, and I have been searching through many mega-bytes
of logos and cartoons lately to find a better logo, but the current
logo is easily recognisable to many people (even people who visit my site once a year or less),
and sometimes that is nice in this world of change ... :)
Stay On Top (v1.0)
displays a list of all windows programs (and their
individual component windows), and allows you to double click
on one or more to make that window awlays stay on top of all
other windows. This can help improve unfriendly or badly written programs.
MAME32 Tools is an unofficial companion utility / tool for the official
MAME 32 Arcade Machine Emulator for Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000,
which can be downloaded seperately from :
http://www.mame.net
This new version adds a whole range of new features and use-ability enhancements.
20-Oct-2001 :: Minor Name Change
Moose's Shareware and Emulation Valley is now named Moose's Software and Emulation Valley .
This makes things more generic, and avoids confusion.
RAM / SWAP Monitor displays details and charts of the Physical RAM and SWAPfile (Page file) usage
on your PC, and of the free / used space on a selected Disk Drive, displays the CPU usage
on Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000 PCs, and also contains a
CPU Usage Drop Adviser (which is great for knowing when your PC has finished a big processing job -
like virus checking your PC, defragmenting the harddrive, etc).
The new changes / enhancements include :
Add in support for "Big Fonts" and "Other Sized Fonts"
Add a "Sound Test" button to the CPU Usage Drop Alarm screen.
Add in the following File Menu options :
Snap Program to Top Right of Screen
Snap Program to Bottom Right of Screen
Snap Program to Top Left of Screen
Snap Program to Bottom Left of Screen
Keep Program Inside the Screen Bounds
which make the program automatically control its position
no matter what screen resolutions changes you make.
Brand New About Screen and associated functionality.
Add in support for the Maximise icon in the top right
Mouse Odometer
is a "for fun" program that simply keeps track
of your mouse clicks and mouse cursor movement and converts this to a total
distance travelled.
Post Code Lookup
enables you to search on postcodes, locations,
and states / regions in your country to find the place name or
postcode for the locations you are interested in - all at the
click of a mouse button. This program comes complete
with Postcode data for : Australia (16,308 postcodes / locations),
New Zealand (2,219 postcodes / locations), and United Kingdom (27,195 postcodes / locations).
More postcodes for more countries will be added in the future !
11-Oct-2001 :: Talking Clock Speech Packs
Upload new versions of the Clint Eastwood, Yoda, Sean Connery, Mrs Doubtfire,
and Duke Nuke'Em speech packs for my
Talking Clock
program.
These are the same as previous speech packs but are split up into ZIP files that are smaller than
900 KB in size to (a) make the downloads easier for you, and (b) to conform to the 900 KB file size limit
of my new web site host.
10-Oct-2001 :: The Big Come Back
Moose's Shareware and Emulation Valley rises from the ashes !!!
For the past week, my site has been down, and for the past 6 months, I have not been able to
access or update my WEB pages - thanks to idiots at Xoom / NBCi who don't answer emails
or respond to account queries.
For some reason, 6 months ago, Xoom / NBCi decided to change my account password,
without warning, and then refused to answer my dozen or so very polite emails or queries.
Last week, they cancelled my account and erased my WEB page without warning.
But, I am back. And, as you would expect, I have updated dozens of programs in the past 6 months,
but have not been able to upload any or notify you of any changes - which has been incredibly frustrating.
And, I am back with a new WEB Site host - TopCities - which I hope offer better customer service than
Xoom / NBCi - heck, they could hardly offer worse service !! ;)) And, for the first time in years, I will
be able to have all of my shareware on one site thanks to the free 150 MB of disk space
- instead of my files being spread across multiple sites (behind the scenes)
- which I am also very excited about.
To think, I uploaded my first shareware program and started my arcade emulation pages way back in July 1996.
What an interesting time this has been ...
This program includes loads of improvements over version 2.0 - released 6 months ago. So, if you need to
calculate the sags of cables, and store or report this information, then give my program a try.
Program Code Auditor
is a tool that lets you see how many lines
and what percentage of programs are comments, code, white space,
or code with comments (on the same line) for each source
code file, and it also produces a summary of all source files
audited. All of this information is written to a report that
you can copy to the Window's Clipboard or save it to disk.
Built into this program is support for Delphi / Pascal,
C / C++, COBOL, and Fortran. There is also an option for you to specify the
comment start and end delimiters, and this should make
Program Code Auditor work with just about any programming
language !!
Upload changes to most of my shareware and ALL of my freeware programs.
The main across the board changes are that :
my programs now support big fonts, and other sized fonts,
all of my programs have been brought up to date with my latest code libraries, and,
nearly all of my programs have moved to support native Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, ME, etc -
that is, I no longer support Windows 3.x by default. (However, if you want a
Windows 3.x version of one of my programs - let me know, and I'll see what I can do -
for most programs, I can still do this !).
but, individual programs also have other changes, improvements, and enhancements.
The following shareware programs have been changed so far (more to come soon) :
People who purchased the above programs (which are now free), please choose another of my programs
to the same value, and email me, and I'll send you a replacement registration for Free !
In addition, I have also updated all of my Windows Freeware programs :
Key Sound Generator is a fun program that plays a particular
sound effect each time a mouse button or keyboard key is
pressed. Different sounds are played depending on the type
of key or button.
Typewriter sound effects are included with the program free
of charge.
When you register, you will receive a password that will unlock
the other sound effects during installation : Electronic Sounds,
Wind (very funny !), Arcade Sounds #1, and Arcade Sounds #2, and also unlock
the "How To" text file that explains how this program works
so that (if you desire) you could write your own key sound program.
Key Sound Generator is for Windows 95, 98, NT, and 2000.
This program sits in the tray bar (with the clock, etc) and enables you to
use a BIG arrow (of just about any size and color) as the mouse pointer.
Great for demonstrations, presentations, lectures, or people who get sick of hunting
for Microsoft's miniscule mouse pointer on their lovely new 21 inch monitors ... ;)
Big Mouse Pointer is for Windows 95, 98, NT, and 2000.
This program sits in the tray bar (with the clock, etc) and enables you to
use a BIG arrow (of just about any size and color) as the mouse pointer.
Great for demonstrations, presentations, lectures, or people who get sick of hunting
for Microsoft's miniscule mouse pointer on their lovely new 21 inch monitors ... ;)
Big Mouse Pointer is for Windows 95, 98, NT, and 2000.
28-Mar-2001 ::
Upload new version of
Stop Watch (v3.1)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
Stop Watch is a utility with a memory to enable you to monitor
internet connection time, benchmark tasks / activities, etc.
The program keeps a detailed log of each Stop / Start event.
This program includes loads of improvements over version 1.0 - released 6 months ago, and also
holds 2 fingers up the the hackers who cracked this program and distributed it all
over the internet before I had sold a single copy.
Try and crack this new one you filthy bastards !! Bwa Ha Haaaa !!!!
14-Mar-2001 :: Keyboard and Mouse Button Odometer (v1.0)
This program sits in the tray bar (with the clock, etc) and keeps track of :
how often you hit each key on the keyboard,
how often you press the left, right, and middle mouse buttons.
The program shows you the total clicks, and the clicks for each
key / button. You can sort the data by ASCII Value, Key / Button
Name, or Number of Key Presses, in either in ascending or
descending order.
To celebrate the release of my 30th Shareware Program - the first FIVE people to
Email me
and say that they love this program will receive a FREE registered copy of
the program - FREE OF CHARGE !!
Hope you enjoy the program !! :)
13-Mar-2001 :: The Battles Rage ...
At the moment, there are major public battles between members of the
arcade emulation community, fights between Arcade WEB Sites,
fights between banner advertisers and Arcade WEB Sites, and a whole lot more.
A bunch of emulation WEB sites have closed down very recently, and a bunch more
are on the verge of closing down.
All of this fighting and site shut downs is very sad.
Things were starting to look real nice in the emulation community. We had
people who showed they gave more than a damn about the games and the copyright
holders, and were prepared to put up money to preserve the games. Emulator
development was goiong ahead full steam. CPS2 encryption was solved. Etc.
And now all this happens ... This has made old Moose very sad indeed ....
As someone who has been through quite a few battles on the net, I would
urge everyone concerned to switch off their PCs, and take a 6 pack of beer
down to the beach and sit and have a quiet think about things.
Hopefully, things can be patched up before the lawsuits start flying ...
Because when this happens, the only winners will be the lawyers !
13-Mar-2001 :: MAME V0.37 beta 13
For what its worth, MAME v0.37 B13 is out now. I don't have
time to check it out right now (see below), and with all the site wars above, I don't think that
I can get the downloads anyway.
13-Mar-2001 :: Busiest Time of my Life ...
At the moment, and for the past few months, my life has been the busiest
I can ever remember - and this is saying something.
The biggest problem is work, where I have been required
to put in loads of extra hours after time and over weekends. At the moment,
I am working 100+ hour weeks.
Hopefully, this will end in a few weeks.
In the meantime, I will try and get a chance to
release some of the great new shareware programs I have been working on.
And, I will also be changing some of my shareware to freeware !!
The "Campaign to Preserve Old Arcade Games" is still "ON", but I have run up against
many brickwalls, and I am running out of leads fast ...
MAME32 Tools is a companion utility / tool for the Official
MAME 32 Arcade Machine Emulator for Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000,
which can be downloaded seperately from :
http://www.mame.net
This new version adds a DOS MAME Front End, filtering of Unsupported Games, and
support for Multiple ROM Directories. These features have been requested by a lot of
of people.
21-Feb-2001 :: Campaign to Preserve Old Arcade Games : Update ...
OK, I warned everyone *not* to expect updates for a month or so, but I am starting
to get emails from people asking what has been happening, so here's a mini-update ....
Since Jan 25 (the last update), the first thing that happened (for several weeks)
was nothing : on purpose I slowed things down to remove the heat that was being generated.
However, I am now in contact with Midway staff, ex-Midway staff, other people
(e.g. those involved with Wiliams Arcade Classics, etc), people at Videotopia, and others.
I have met some very helpful people, and have got help from some unexpected places.
Things are proceeding very slowly, and it has been difficult to contact the right
people - all of the key people that others suggested I contact seem to have left Midway.
The general feeling is that Midway isn't the company it once was. However, things
are still looking reasonably promising.
On purpose, I have slowed things down and I am also treading very lightly - I will
only get one shot at this, and I don't want to upset anyone or rush things and make mistakes.
I have also found out some very interesting things about Military Battlezone - in fact,
it could make a great basis for a book.
I have also found out some fascinating things about Marble Madness 2.
I'll elaborate more on these in the future ... ;)
Anyway, I am not sitting back - everyday I am sending more emails or writing more
letters, following up on leads and trails, and making contact with more people.
Hopefully all the effort will pay off ... ;)
One thing is for certain - the campaign is **NOT** dead !
MAME32 Tools is a companion utility / tool for the Official
MAME 32 Arcade Machine Emulator for Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000,
which can be downloaded seperately from :
http://www.mame.net
MAME32 Tools is also compatible with the various Unofficial MAME 32
emulators out there, such as UOMAME, MAME Screen Saver, etc.
MAME32 Tools provides a range of functionality that is not provided by any other
ROM Tool or Front End, and should be useful to
people who want to better manage their MAME 32 installations.
This new version adds a whole range of new functionality, and fixed a problem
that has been troubling Andy M, which was due to invalid data in the Registry.
01-Feb-2001 :: Last 12 Months : 27 New / Updated Programs
Well, it turns out that the last 12 months have been a reasonably busy time.
20 updates occured to my existing programs, and
7 brand new programs were developed / invented.
I am the first to admit that none of my programs are perfect.
All of my programs are developed using the "80 / 20 principle", which
says that 80% of the work can be done with 20% of the effort, and that the
last 20% of work takes 80% of the effort.
In addition, the programs that people support (or I use) most are the ones
that tend to be developed and enhanced most.
These contain fixes to NTDLL errors (which occur under some versions of Windows NT,
and that I had fixed in all my other programs ages ago, but
had somehow missed with these five), and other improvements / enhancements.
Program Code Auditor
is a tool that lets you see how many lines
and what percentage of programs are comments, code, white space,
or code with comments (on the same line) for each source
code file, and it also produces a summary of all source files
audited. All of this information is written to a report that
you can copy to the Window's Clipboard or save it to disk.
Built into this program is support for Delphi / Pascal and
C / C++. There is also an option for you to specify the
comment start and end delimiters, and this should make
Program Code Auditor work with just about any programming
language !!
Clean-Up Old Files
enables the user to specify one or more directories,
and then periodically clean out / erase / delete files that
haven't been modified for a certain number of days.
The program can run automatically at Windows startup
and also automatically exit after the clean-up, if desired.
25-Jan-2001, 3:33 PM :: Campaign again passes $10,000 in Pledges !!!
OK, we are now well back over the $10,000 mark in pledges.
We had some "glass jawed" people drop out recently when the machines were
removed from sale, and this took us back down to around the $9,700 mark.
But, within seconds, Antonio Gerli and Stephen Mayba had stepped up to the
plate and increased their pledges to more than cover the drop outs.
Please note that the campaign's targets / aims have now changed.
Originally, this campaign aimed to purchase the actual physical ultra-rare arcade machines
(Military Battlezone (Bradley Trainer) and Marble Madness 2 (Marble Man) of which only 2 or 3 were ever built).
However, these machines are no longer for sale, so the campaign has been changed to try and purchase the rights
to these games direct from the copy right holder (Midway).
This is a very delicate process, and I am now in the process of tracking down the right people to talk to
and write to at Midway (the company that own the rights to the games).
N.B. Please do not contact Midway about this - this must be done *very* carefully.
We don't want the price going up, or Midway getting pissed off at us !!!
This process may take several weeks, or even longer, and I certainly don't want to rush things and stuff
things up. I also want to give things time to calm down and reduce the heat caused by the removal from
sale of the above machines.
OK, so please don't be suprised or angry if there are no updates to this campaign for several weeks.
MAME32 Tools is a companion utility / tool for the Official
MAME 32 Arcade Machine Emulator for Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000,
which can be downloaded seperately from :
http://www.mame.net
MAME32 Tools is also compatible with the various Unofficial MAME 32
emulators out there, such as UOMAME, MAME Screen Saver, etc.
MAME32 Tools provides a range of functionality that is not provided by any other
ROM Tool or Front End, and should be useful to
people who want to better manage their MAME 32 installations.
This new version adds a whole range of new functionality, and fixed a problem
that Karlo reported last week, where the buttons remained grayed out under Windows 2000.
24-Jan-2001, 2:59 PM :: Campaign ON but Sale OFF !!
Over the course of Monday and Tuesday, I received 5 (FIVE) emails from the owner of
the machines who progressively answered my questions about the machines,
provided more information, etc - all indicating that the deal was still on,
and that everything was going OK.
Then, at 6:49 PM on Tuesday night (after I had left work), I was sent a 6th email from
the owner stating that the machines are no longer for sale and never were for sale.
This again confirms that he was indeed lying and misleading me in all of our private emails.
Read this for details.
As you can imagine, after being lied to and misled,
my reply to the owner was short and sweet and too the point.
Read my reply here.
Don't panic though, we still have Plans B, C, and D, and we still have $10,000+ in pledges !!
The Campaign ain't over yet !! Not by a long shot !! :)
23-Jan-2001, 6:05 PM :: Campaign - Bad News but Game NOT Over !
Bad News !! The owner of the machines has (apparently) posted a message on
rec.games.video.arcade.collecting
stating that the machines are NOT for sale and that they never were for sale.
For now, I am prepared to believe that it is just the owner blowing off steam.
If I believe what he says in his
r.g.v.a.c.
post, then it would mean that *everything* he has said to me in private emails was downright lies.
So, I am still not prepared to believe this until I receive some confirmation directly from the owner.
So, I urge everyone to just stay cool until I can get a definite answer straight from the owner.
Even if he has changed his mind (and no longer wants to sell), then don't panic -
Plan A may or may not have failed, but
I still have Plans B, C, and D, and we still have $10,000+ in pledges !!
Plan B is to buy the rights to the games from the copyright holders and then release them to the public domain.
N.B. Please do not contact Midway about this - this must be done *very* carefully by a small team of people. We don't want the price going up, or Midway getting pissed off at us !!
Plan C is to buy another MM2 machine (yes, I have got name, address, and phone number for another MM2 owner).
(I haven't contacted him yet, but he may be willing to sell or help preserve the machine through emulation).
Plan D is to contact one of the original programmers of MM2 (yes, I have got name, address, and phone number for an original MM2 programmer)
and see what they can suggest.
In fact, there are several other ideas floating around, and there are some really good people
coming forward with real help. People who own arcade machines or who are members
of arcade preservation groups are also coming forward and helping.
Even more exciting is the fact the original developers for some of the other
ancient machines are coming forward and offering help and advice.
So, please, keep the faith !
Remember : Even if the campaign fails, we have still conclusively proved one
thing : The emulation community is not full of freeloaders.
Many people (including me !) were skeptical about the chance of success of this
campaign, at least initially. But, it was successful even if we *never* buy a machine.
It has now been proven that we are NOT all freeloaders.
Emails containing the above details have been sent to ALL campaign pledgors, and
I have also posted several messages on the MAME Message Boards on the above.
OK, so the Campaign ain't dead yet !! Not by a long shot !!
In addition, I have also emailed the owner of the machines to confirm our very serious
intent to purchase the machines, ask some detailed questions about the machines,
get some answers with regard to some rumours flying around about the machines and their sale,
and request detailed photographs, serial and product numbers, etc for the machines.
I have also provided the owner of the machines with my address, phone number,
and contact details, and I am now waiting for the owner of the machines
to reply with his address so I can send him a holding deposit for the machines.
Anyone who thought that this could not be done or that the emulation community
was full of freeloaders who would not pay for anything, THINK AGAIN !!
22-Jan-2001 :: Campaign to Preserve Ultra-Rare Arcade Machines
The campaign is really taking-off, with around 45 new pledges over the weekend.
I will update the
Campaign WEB Page
when I get some time to update the spreadsheet (tonight looks good).
The new unofficial total for pledges is now well over $6,000 US !!!
22-Jan-2001 :: Apple ][ and Arcade Emulation
Fixed a link on my
Apple ][ Emulation
page (thanks Kate J), and uploaded a new version of my
Arcade Emulation for Newbies FAQ
which now answers "Mike-ro$oft"'s question "Can I email an arcade game company for
permission to download an emulated game from the internet ?".
RAM / SWAP Monitor displays details and charts
of the Physical RAM and SWAPfile (Page file) usage
on your PC, and of the free / used space on a
selected Disk Drive, displays the CPU usage
on Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000 PCs, and also contains a
CPU Usage Drop Adviser (which is great for knowing when your PC has finished a big job).
This new release (just a few days after the last) fixes CPU usage reporting under Windows NT, and
if your PC contains multiple CPUs, then the average CPU usage
across all CPUs is displayed. (In the future, or if anyone wants this,
then I could add in a seperate usage graph for each CPU).
This release also contains "Auto-Run" at Windows Start-Up functionality.
Due to the massive amounts of work I have now put into this program, and because
of some of the great new functionality I have built into the program,
the price (as previously suggested) has now gone up to
$10 Australian (about $5 US or about 4 UK Pounds).
19-Jan-2001 :: Campaign to Preserve Ultra-Rare Arcade Machines
I have now setup a WEB page for this campaign, which is
located here.
(Note that the WEB page is generated by my Excel spreadsheet of pledges, so you
may need Internet Explorer or a recent version of Netscape to see it properly).
If you think that this cannot campaign be achieved, then think again, we already
have more than $4,000 US in pledges.
If anybody out there would like to help contribute towards the preservation of these machines
by pledging a donation,
Email me
ASAP.
18-Jan-2001 :: RAM / Swap Monitor (v3.0)
Upload new version of
RAM / Swapfile Monitor (v3.0)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
RAM / SWAP Monitor displays details and charts
of the Physical RAM and SWAPfile (Page file) usage
on your PC, and of the free / used space on a
selected Disk Drive, and also displays the CPU usage
on Windows 95 / 98 PCs. (Win NT support coming soon !)
RAM / SWAP Monitor also contains functionality to make the
PC's Speaker Beep or make some sound whenever the CPU usage
drops below a user specified level for a user specified number of
seconds. This could come in handy for telling you when a big
job has ended, such as a Virus Scan, Disk Scan, Disk Defragment,
CD Burning, etc. This functionality is available under the
"Make PC Speaker Beep when CPU Usage Next Drops" menu option,
under the "File" menu.
(I use this all the time, so I can watch TV or do something else,
and my PC will beep and tell me when it has finised the job !!).
18-Jan-2001 :: MAME V0.37 beta 11
The fabulous Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator MAME V0.37 beta 11 is Out Now !!
This is the first MAME release of 2001, and is called the "This is the mysterious IT(32) / VS NES / Taito F3 with sound" release.
It has been about 6-7 weeks since the last MAME release (5-Dec-2000 or thereabouts), so this release was eagerly awaited.
This new MAME adds support for 74 new games, and fixes to others, and also
apparently supports newer games (like recent Neo Geo Games, etc) that were previously disabled
due to them being too recent. (MAME's philosophy is NOT to encourage ANY piracy, especially of
recent arcade games where money is still being made by the operators / developers,
so these are disabled in MAME's software, even though they could already run under MAME).
This brings the total number of arcade games supported by MAME to well
over 2,200. The following new games are supported :
Akkanvader [Bryan McPhail]
Arabian Magic [Bryan McPhail]
Arkanoid Returns [Bryan McPhail]
Arlington Horse Racing [Aaron Giles]
Atari RBI Baseball [Howie Cohen]
Bal Cube [Luca Elia]
Battle City [Howie Cohen]
Black Panther [Eisuke Watanabe]
Block Carnival [Luca Elia]
Blood Storm [Aaron Giles]
Bubble Bobble 2 [Bryan McPhail]
Bubble Memories - The Story Of Bubble Bobble 3 [Bryan McPhail]
Butasan [Yochizo]
City Bomber [Eisuke Watanabe]
Cleopatra Fortune [Bryan McPhail]
Clu Clu Land [Howie Cohen]
Daitoride [Luca Elia]
Darius [David Graves, Jarek Burczynski]
Dharma [Luca Elia]
Dr Mario [Howie Cohen]
Duck Hunt [Howie Cohen]
Excitebike [Howie Cohen]
Grid Seeker: Project Stormhammer [Bryan McPhail]
Gunlock [Bryan McPhail]
Hard Yardage [Aaron Giles]
Hogan's Alley [Howie Cohen]
Ice Climber [Howie Cohen]
Jump Shot [David Widel]
Kaiser Knuckle [Bryan McPhail]
Kirameki Star Road [Bryan McPhail]
Kyukyoku Tiger 2 [Bryan McPhail]
Lady Golf [Howie Cohen]
Last Fortress - Toride [Luca Elia]
Lightbringer [Bryan McPhail]
Mach Rider [Howie Cohen]
Moriguchi Hiroko no Quiz de Hyuuhyuu [Bryan McPhail]
Need ROMs ??
then
click here
to keep your emulation 100% legal by supporting legal
commercial arcade emulator products and legal commercial rom compilations.
16-Jan-2001 :: Campaign to Preserve Ultra-Rare Arcade Machines
The aim of my campaign is to buy these very old and ultra-rare
machines so that the ROMs can be dumped and preserved before they
fall victim to the ravages of Bit Rot and ROM Decay, and so that images of the ROMs can
be made available to the emulation community. What happens to the machines after this
will be up to the people who donated the money to decide. Donating the machines to
a museum like the
Video Arcade Preservation Society
is a possible outcome.
Since then, there have been several supporters and several detractors / negative people,
and sadly the campaign has received NO help from the big Arcade Emulation web sites, like :
Dave's Vintage Gaming
or
JoseQ's EmuViews
and they have ignored ALL of my emails.
In spite of all this, I have already raised $500-1,000 US in pledges towards
these ultra-rare machines.
On 16-January, 2000, following 30 or so replies to my previous update,
I again updated the status of the campaign on the
MAME message Boards
with this message.
If anybody out there would like to help contribute towards the preservation of these machines
by pledging a donation,
Email me
ASAP.
16-Jan-2001 :: Email Problems Fixed
Since last Thursday (or thereabouts), I have been having bouncing email
problems. These should now be fixed. If you tried to email me,
or submit any of the forms on my WEB site, please try again.
Sorry for any invonvenience.
10-Jan-2001 :: Mouse Odometer
Upload New version of
Mouse Odometer (v1.1)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
Mouse Odometer is a "for fun" program that simply keeps track
of your mouse clicks and mouse cursor movement and converts this to a total
distance travelled in Kilometers by the mouse cursor, based on
the screen resolution of your current display.
9-Jan-2001 :: Mini-Face Lift
I have updated my pages quite a bit including :
Simple Java script buttons in the side frame.
Updates to many of my pages.
Also, I have also removed the crazy "Specials" I have
been offering on my software for the last 10 months (since 2-May-2000).
Virtually giving away my programs for FREE did NOT increase sales one bit, and
I now know for certain that any low sales problems are NOT due to the price
I am asking for my programs.
I have also moved some of my best programs to the more reasonable
$10 (Australian) and $20 (Australian) price range (up from $5 or less).
(With the falling value of the Australian dollar, $10 = $5 US = 3.50 UK Pounds
so even these more "expensive" programs are still at bargain basement prices.)
Upload Brand New program
MAME 32 Tools (v1.0)
to my FREE Computer Programs (Freeware) Page.
MAME32 Tools
is a companion utility / tool for the Official
MAME 32 Arcade Machine Emulator for Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000,
which can be downloaded seperately from :
http://www.mame.net.
MAME32 Tools
is also compatible with the various Unofficial MAME 32
emulators out there, such as UOMAME, MAME Screen Saver, etc.
MAME32 Tools
provides a range of functionality that is not provided by any other
ROM Tool or Front End, and should be useful to
people who want to better manage their MAME 32 installations.
8-Jan-2001 :: I'm Back ...
Well, I haven't really been anywhere - just having a relaxing time, and doing a lot of thinking about
the state of the planet, the future of the human race, computer programming, and other things ...
Oh, yes .... I have also been playing some great (and some not-so-great) games - Diablo II, Blade Runner,
Wing Commander Prophecy and Dune 2000.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas / New Year !!
Sorry for the lack of updates recently - but rest assured that a lot has been going on
behind the scenes, and that my pages are far from dead.
24-Oct-2000 :: Upload new version of
Text Buttons (v3.5)
to my Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
Text Buttons enables you to place often used sections of
text behind 15, 30, 45, or 60 buttons so that it is very easily
and quickly obtainable when required.
I use
Text Buttons
all day every day - for holding email sigs,
to standard emails, to various WEB site addresses, to various
details and notes I need all the time at work and at home.
Why I haven't sold millions or even dozens of copies of this program around the world,
I just can't understand.
It really is superb to see my fellow country men and women going so superbly in the
Sydney 2000 Olympics.
I have really loved watching the Olympics over the past week, the opening ceremony was the best I have ever seen,
and I have heard nothing but great reports from visitors / people in Sydney about the whole organisation of the Olympics.
I also have the TV or radio on most of the day when I can to catch all of the updates.
It is still early days ... Just hope Australia keeps going great, and if Australia doesn't win
a gold medal in an event, then I hope Great Britain gets one instead !
There was something in the pool that night, in black and white, Thorpedo !!!
As of 15:08 20/09/2000, Australia has 17 medals (6 Gold, 5 Silver, and 6 Bronze) - coming second only to the USA !!!
This is an astonishing feat for a country with a population of less than 20 million people !!
5-Sep-2000 :: Overhead Cable Sag Calculator (v1.0)
Sorry about the complete lack of updates lately. I have been extremely busy for several
months working on a great new program :
Overhead Cable Sag Calculator
- which was a huge piece of work
and soaked up loads of weekends and what little free time I had for many months. This program calculates the
sag of overhead electricity or other cables using a variety of methods. Unlike my bargain
basement $5 shareware, this program is selling for $350 Aus ($200 US or 140 UK Pounds approx) (with a special
introductory offer of $250 until Dec 1, 2000).
Work on
v1.0 of this program
is now done, and I have a few new
shareware programs and new versions of existing programs in the pipeline - so please stay tuned ...
12-July-2000 :: Upload Brand New program
ROM / File Chopper (v1.0)
to my FREE Computer Programs (Freeware) Page.
ROM / File Chopper allows you to quickly and easily chop
files in half and throw away the second half. This is great for fixing
ROMs with "INCORRECT LENGTH" errors (as reported by MAME and other emulators).
This program supports full drag and drop, so you can drag and drop individual files
directly from ZIP files !!
30-June-2000 :: My Brand New Pentium III PC !!!! I have just purchased a new PC to replace my poor old Pentium 100 that I have been
using at home. My new PC isn't quite leading edge
(i.e. it doesn't have a 1,000 MHz Pentium III - for which you pay an enormous premium),
but it is perfect for what I want :
Pentium III 667EB,
128 MB 133 MHz RAM,
TNT2 2D / 3D Video Card with TV In / Out,
20 GB HDD, twin removable HDD racks (for extra space ;),
8x DVD-ROM Drive, 24x4x4 CD-R/RW,
17 inch monitor, full tower case (with ultra-cool clip on side panels),
network card, sound card, mains speakers, fax / modem,
and all the usual bells and whistles.
All up the new machine costed me about $2,700 Australian ,
which is about 1,080 UK Pounds or $1,620 US.
All components were specified by me and they are all trusted brand name parts -
that won recent Editor's Choice awards in recent PC magazines -
like the ASUS P3V4 motherboard (rather than a No-Name Tiawanese special for one-third of the price).
I purchased the PC from a wholesaler, who did most of the assembly, but they did it
so badly (using 1 screw instead of 4 to hold a drive in place, etc),
that I rebuilt the entire thing at home the day I got it (which I love doing anyway).
If I purchased the same PC from Dell or Gateway, then it would have been 50% more expensive (or more !).
24-May-2000 :: Upload New version of
Checksum Calculator (v3.5)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
This program calculates checksums for user-selected
files and directories, and enables the user to compare
checksum results against previous calculations.
Great for keeping a watch on sensitive / important data / files !!
2-May-2000 :: Super Deals on My Shareware !!! Now it is even cheaper for people to Register my Programs.
I have introduced this
Super Cheap Pricing Structure
to really boost sales.
Programs now get much cheaper the more you buy.
For example, at current exchange rates :
Any 10 programs / licenses will now cost you $27.50 Aus, $16.50 US, or 11 UK Pounds.
And, any 20 programs / licenses will now cost you $34 Aus, $20.40 US, or 13.60 UK Pounds.
That's a huge saving, and an incredible deal !!
The more you buy,
the cheaper it gets !
So, please, if you have been considering buying, now is the time, my programs will not get any
cheaper than this !!
28-Apr-2000 :: Upload Brand New program
Post Code Lookup (v1.0)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
This is my 27th Shareware program - and I have still got dozens of ideas and loads of programs
on the burner at any one time. I just love programming !! Anyway ....
Post Code Lookup enables you to search on postcodes, locations,
and states / regions in your country to find the place name or
postcode for the locations you are interested in - all at the
click of a mouse button. This program comes complete
with Postcode data for : Australia (16,308 postcodes / locations),
New Zealand (2,219 postcodes / locations), and United Kingdom (27,195 postcodes / locations).
More postcodes for more countries to be added in the future !!!
24-Apr-2000 :: Play 10 Storey High Tetris !!!
BBC News
have this terrific article on the classic Tetris game but with a massive twist - this time people are playing it
on the side of a 10 storey high building with more than 10,000 Christmas Tree lights
lighting up the building's windows to form the Tetris shapes.
This is a really cool project, but I can't help thinking that they could have done it a
lot simpler - coloured translucent light boxes would have been much better,
and a hell of a lot simpler. You would have also got a coloured shapes then as well.
Anyway, a great project and idea - read all about it
at BBC News.
18-Apr-2000 :: Upload new version of
Stop Watch (v3.0)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
Stop Watch is a utility with a memory to enable you to monitor
internet connection time, benchmark tasks / activities, etc.
The program keeps a detailed log of each Stop / Start event.
18-Apr-2000 :: Upload new version of
RAM / Swapfile Monitor (v2.5)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
RAM / SWAP Monitor displays details and charts
of the Physical RAM and SWAPfile (Page file) usage
on your PC, and of the free / used space on a
selected Disk Drive, and also displays the CPU usage
on Windows 95 / 98 PCs.
14-Apr-2000 :: Upload Brand New program
Mouse Odometer (v1.0)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
Mouse Odometer is a "for fun" program that simply keeps track
of your mouse cursor movement and converts this to a total
distance travelled in Kilometers by the mouse cursor, based on
the screen resolution of your current display.
If you register this program, you will receive a password to the
"how_to.txt" file (included in the mouse_od.ZIP file) which tells
you exactly how this program works, so that you can use this
information for your own programs.
12-Apr-2000 :: Upload a full review of
Alien Rampage
with loads and loads of screen shots. Alien Rampage is a terrific platform
game by Inner Circle / Softdisk that came out in late 1996, but I have only just
got around to playing (and really enjoying) the game.
12-Apr-2000 :: Upload new version of
Text Buttons (v3.2)
to my Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
Text Buttons enables you to place often used sections of
text behind any of 15 buttons so that it is very easily
and quickly obtainable when required.
12-Apr-2000 :: Moose's Shareware Lives On !! Well, what can I say, the encouragement of my loyal band
of registered users and others has been overwhelming. You people
have really made my day. This site will not close down, and
I will continue to provide useful programs at great prices
and with the best possible service to everyone who registers.
So what if there are no banners - nobody really clicked them
anyway, and they just slowed down the loading of pages.
I was never going to stop writing and developing programs
regardless of whatever happened - I love it too much !!
At the moment, I am reading some advanced Windows API
and Direct/X books - so stay tuned for some even cooler
stuff in the future !!! Wooo hooo !!! :)
31-Mar-2000 :: Is it time to Close Down ???? The pitance I got from Eads, and the pitance I make from my shareware sales
means that
Moose's Shareware and Emulation Valley
is making me about $0.00001 for every hour of effort I have put in.
Now, I love writing programs, and I will happily do it all night every day of the week,
but there comes a point when the freeloading has to stop.
When I visit a WEB site and I like what I see / find, then I click the Ad banners on the site - it
is the least I can do for them. I kind of hoped other people would do the same on my site ....
Maybe it is time to close this site ... After nearly 4 years of stability - which is virtually
unheard off on the internet - and after the years of Rolls Royce service I have provided to the few who
have bothered to registered their use of my shareware, this would indeed be a real shame ...
Any ideas, suggestions, alternatives, comments,
Email me
31-Mar-2000 :: This is once again a BANNER FREE Zone !! Removed all links to Eads my supposed sponsor.
In 18 months of having their crappy banners on my pages,
I hardly got any money from them. If I were to believe Eads' reports, then this means that
less than 1 in 6,000 visitors to my page actually clicked my Ad banners.
(Yes, this was adding up to a few clicks a month - or about $0.40 - folks !!).
I only ever received 1 cheque for Eads in all this time.
The reports of clicks on Eads WEB site did not add up, and they didn't answer any of my emails
concerning these discrepancies in their reports.
And, to top it all of they have now terminated my account - well good riddance Eads !!
Good service Eads ? I think not. Do I recommend them ? I think not.
29-Mar-1999 :: Upload new version of
File Tools (v1.2)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page. File Tools
enables you to grab a list of files (with long or short
directory path and long or short file names), stamp files
with the current date and time, make text files from Mac
or UNIX environments readable, test the integrity of a
bunch of ZIP files, rename a bunch of files, search and
replace the contents of a bunch of files, word wrap and
un-word wrap the text lines in files, and more !!
All at the click of a button !!!
24-Mar-2000 :: Email Address Problems and Change - Entire Site
I wish to apologise profusely to anyone who has emailed me or filled out
any of my on-line forms (Program Suggestion Form, Registration Form) -
I have been living in E-mail hell for the past couple of months. First,
my ISP suddenly stopped allowing me to check my email another server
(so I had to dial in - but I don't have a home phone, and my work PC wouldn't
work with my modem), and then my
Email me
account sends me
notifcations of emails but not the actual e-mails
themselves. The V3 URL people have not been able to help so far with this.
As a result, please use this e-mail address from now on :
Email me.
I am currently going through a mountain of notifications and emailing people
who look like they had sent me legitimate emails (not junk / spam mail), and trying
to make contact with people directly - with a working email address :
Email me.
Once again, I apologise for any incomvenience / delays.
If you have sent me an email recently, please email me again at :
Email me,
and I will be able to reply very promptly.
(BTW, thank God for
File Tools
as it has made the change very simple to do !!!)
23-Mar-2000 :: 1,000 MHz Pentium III Processor Released !!
Intel have released a 1 GHz (1,000 MHz) version of their Pentium III processor,
which is built on a 0.18-micron process, contains 70 new instructions.
WOW !!! And here I am, still using my good old Pentium 100 and 486-33 at home ...
But, I do have a Pentium III 450 at work ... ;) I feel the need, the need for a new PC !!! :)
10-Mar-2000 :: Fight Against Skyrocketting Petrol Prices
NO Petrol: 14-16 March 2000 !!!
Where I live in Australia over the past couple of weeks, Petrol prices have
risen from $0.72 / litre to $0.875 / litre - an increase of over 21 % !!
Forecasts say that prices will soon exceed $1.00 / litre !!
If you live in Australia, support the Fight Against Skyrocketting Petrol Prices
by refusing to buy petrol on : 14-16 March 2000 .
*** Do NOT Buy Petrol on : 14-16 March 2000 !!! ***
8-Mar-2000 :: Upload new version of
Text Buttons (v3.1)
to my Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
Text Buttons enables you to place often used sections of
text behind any of 10 buttons so that it is very easily
and quickly obtainable when required. Lots of usability enhancements for this release !
29-Feb-1999 :: Upload new version of
File Tools (v1.1)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
Version 1.1 contains a few minor "behind the scenes" improvements.
File Tools
enables you to grab a list of files (with long or short
directory path and long or short file names), stamp files
with the current date and time, make text files from Mac
or UNIX environments readable, test the integrity of a
bunch of ZIP files, rename a bunch of files, search and
replace the contents of a bunch of files, word wrap and
un-word wrap the text lines in files, and more !!
All at the click of a button !!!
24-Feb-2000 :: Fastest Disk Drive in the World !!!
Seagate
have just announced a new 18 GB disk drive called the
CHEETAH X15.
This drive features a rotation speed of 15,000 RPM, an average seek time of
3.9 msec, data rates of up to 48MB/sec, 4 and 16MB cache options,
Ultra160 or 2Gbit Fibre Channel interfaces, and a 3D Defense System.
This unit should blow any other disk drive out of the water at the current time.
Pretty exiting stuff, huh ??
If any of you boys & gals at Seagate would like me to review this disk drive
for ya, ship a couple my way and I'll put 'em through their paces !! ;)
22-Feb-1999 :: Upload Brand New program
File Tools (v1.0)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page. File Tools
enables you to grab a list of files (with long or short
directory path and long or short file names), stamp files
with the current date and time, make text files from Mac
or UNIX environments readable, test the integrity of a
bunch of ZIP files, rename a bunch of files, search and
replace the contents of a bunch of files, word wrap and
un-word wrap the text lines in files, and more !!
All at the click of a button !!!
18-Feb-2000 :: Windows 2000 Bugfest - 63,000 "Defects"
These days, I mainly concentrate on Windows as my development environment
of choice, and except where absolutely necessary, I try and make all of
my shareware programs run on any version of Windows from Windows 3.0 onwards,
as this covers virtually all PC users since about 1989. i.e. Windows 3.x, 9x, NT, 2000.
However, according to this
ZDNet Article
Microsoft Windows 2000 currently has 63,000 'defects'. To quote from the article :
Urging developers to clean up their code, a Microsoft exec
says: 'How many of you would spend $500 on a piece of software
with over 63,000 potential known defects?' It ships this Thursday !!
Pretty scary stuff huh ?? I personally have not moved to Windows 2000 yet.
I am currently using Windows NT at work and Windows 98 at home, and unlike
Windows 95, I have not got involved in the BETA testing program this time.
17-Feb-2000 :: Flourescent Memory Disks and RAM !!!
I don't usually have reports of new technology on my Hallowed Pages, as
so many new technologies sound so tantalising and exciting, but never appear,
or else appear so slowly that by the time they are affordable they are barely
useful, or else have so many conflicts in standards and compatibilities that
they are more trouble than they are worth. DVD-RAM is a case in point.
However,
Flourescent Memory Disks and Cubes
(if they come to market on time, at a good price, and deliver what they promise -
these are very BIG IFs !!) then they will be a very exciting technology for
140+ GB disk drives (for starters) and RAM memory.
16-Feb-2000 :: US Video Games Postage Stamp !!!
After a heap of voting, the US postage stamp to commemorate the "1980s"
turned out to be on video games !
The stamp shows two kids (complete with early 1980's haircuts)
playing Defender on the good ole Atari 2600.
US Mail's quote about the stamp is as follows :
(Click to See an Enlarged Image)
"With the rise in popularity of video games, Americans spent
more than 20 billion quarters and countless hours in arcades
in 1981 alone. Home video games, with consoles plugged
into TVs, turned living rooms into personal arcades.
Celebrate the Century - 1980s."
Is this cool or what ?
Competition: The first person who sends me a letter with this stamp on it
(I live in Australia -
Email me
for details.),
will receive a free registration of one of my shareware programs !!
1-Feb-2000 :: 100% Correct !!!
What I predicted below with my Millenium Bug Predictions has indeed come to pass.
We are now over 1 month past the millenium, and it was all an extreme mountain
out of a mole-hill, and all of the 1,000's of self-proclaimed experts have indeed
crawled back under their rocks, changed their stories,
or claimed that they were misquoted or misunderstood (yet again !!).
But, we all know better, don't we !!!
Oh, yes, and I have taken my Christmas Decorations down as well.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas / New Year.
28-Dec-1999 :: Moose's Y2K and Millenium Bug Predictions :: 28-Dec-1999 @ 2:00 PM
I have made no secret about my feelings about the so-called
Y2K / Millenium Bug. To put it simply, I believe that those with axes to grind
and $$$ to make out of gullible people are whiping up hysteria that
is well over the top. In newsgroups and email lists, my feelings of
the millenium bug have been made known from time to time.
I have refused to put any "Y2K Certified" or similar logos on my
shareware or freeware. Any software written by a competent programmer
will be Y2K OK, and Y3K OK, and Y10K OK, and I refuse to provide any support or add any credence
to the hysteria surrounding the 1999-2000 year rollover.
In July 1999, I made formal written public
statements about the millenium bug on my Staff WEB page at work.
Recently, however, the hysteria has got far worse, with 2 families of people
that live nearby me selling up, moving out to mountain retreats, massively stocking
up with food and water, buying their own generator, and stocking up with
guns and amunition to fight off the hungry hoards that will no
doubt rise up as a result of the so-called Y2K / Millenium Bug.
On TV there have been reports of many dozens of people
behaving similarly - mainly in America. What makes my
experience so amazing - with the 2 families I know selling up,
moving into the mountains, battening down hatches,
and preparing for war - is that I live
in a very sleepy seaside town on the Barrier Reef in Australia !!!
(Watch the movie Flipper to see almost how sleepy my town is !!)
In addition, airlines are so worried about the millenium bug
that they are not flying for an hour or so each side of the 1999 - 2000 rollover.
Hospitals all over the world are shutting down all of their computer equipment
during the 1999 - 2000 rollover - even people on life support are going to
have to do their best and survive during the few seconds before and after the
change over.
Perfectly good VCRs, washing machines, TVs, computers, etc are being scrapped in
their thousands and new models purchased because of fears of the millenium bug.
Many thousands of self-proclaimed experts in computer magazines,
newspapers, web pages, on the TV, etc have peddled their increasingly dire
predictions about the millenium rollover - which state that electricity,
gas, bank accounts, phones, etc, etc and nearly all computer systems around the world
will no longer work, and the resulting millions of starving people
will riot and rape and pillage.
BULLSHIT !!!! BULLSHIT !!!! BULLSHIT !!!!
Yes, there will be some millenium bug problems, but to suggest
that complete failure of electricity or banking or nearly every
computer system on the planet will occur or that a large chunk of the
population will riot or that the world will end is simply rediculous.
Still, I appear to be a lone voice crying in the wilderness
trying to calm people down about the Y2K.
Either I am right or the thousands of self proclaimed experts
in the computer magaines, newspapers, on TV, etc are right.
We shall see. In just less than 4 short days, we shall see.
Right or wrong - I stand by my predictions.
If the thousands of self proclaimed experts are wrong, I
bet they will crawl back under their rocks, change their stories,
or claim that they were misquoted or misunderstood.
These sort of people always do !
Remember all the virus hysteria that is generated every couple
of months with the next killer computer virus ? Out of my 20+
years eating, sleeping, and breathing computers and downloading or
trying out and running many Gigabytes of software - I have only encountered
2 viruses in my life. Many people who use Macs love to gloat about the
thousands of viruses on the PC - but where are they ? Anti-virus developers
and virus writers seem to have a wierd relationship where many viruses
are sent directly to the Anti-virus developers but are never released
to the public. Why ? A new version of the anti-virus software and which will generate
more sales means that the Anti-virus developers aren't complaining. But the public should !
Many people also believe that the first virus was written on a PC, but there were
a few viruses "out there" on the Apple ][ way back in 1981-82 !
Also, remember the 9-Sep-1999 ? This was supposed to be a miny "Millenium Bug"
type event, where software all around the world would crash which was written
to set a maximum date of all 9's - 99/99/99 - if you are using COBOL or similar languages
that cater for 2 digit centuries by default or 99/99/9999 otherwise.
Clearly 99/99/99 and 99/99/9999 aren't the same as 9/9/99, so the people who predicted severe
computer problems here were so wrong it was tragic ! But where are they ?
They have gone back under their rocks or
changed their stories with the benifit of 20/20 hindsight.
As I said earlier, these sort of people always do !!
Hopefully, people will long remember who the scaremongers and profiteers are this time !!
The many thousands of people who have done their best to whip up hysteria
and make a profit from this hysteria over the millenium changeover -
the same people who I say are wrong - should long be remembered for their "advice".
In short, my advice is don't panic about the millenium changeover.
And, most importantly, don't buy any crappy Y2K software to test your computer - you
will only be supporting the scaremongers and profiteers.
Test the computer yourself - it is fairly easy ! Simply change the date to 31-12-1999
and the time to 11:55 PM and load all of your favourite sotware and use / test it for
10 minutes. You will soon see what works and what hasn't and what is realy a problem
and what isn't, and can take appropriate action (upgrade, delete, fix, etc) to
fix the problem.
27-Dec-1999 :: Back Again !!
I have finally got my email / net access sorted out from home.
My ISP suddenly and without warning stopped allowing
all of its users from checking their email from other
servers - so we need to dial in to check our email now.
It was difficult for me as I only have a mobile at home.
Anyway got the phone on, and all is OK now !!
29-Nov-1999 :: Christmas Decorations Up.
Hope you like the Christmas theme and decorations.
Would like to take this opportunity to say
"Merry Christmas" to everyone - especially those
who have Registered any of my
$5 Computer Programs (Shareware)
or clicked on my Ad banners.
A great Christmas Sale is coming up soon -
as soon as my Email is fixed - so stay tuned.
25-Nov-1999 :: Upload yet another Brand New program
Windows Wallpaper Changer (v1.0)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page. Windows Wallpaper Changer
randomly selects a Bitmap file and
makes this the new Windows' Wallpaper (i.e. the picture you
see behind the icons on your Main Windows Desktop).
You can easily specify directory from which Bitmaps are
randomly chosen, and the interval (in Seconds) in which the
Windows Wallpaper is changed to the new bitmap.
Never have a boring static Windows Desktop again !!
22-Nov-1999 :: Email Problems.
I am having severe problems with Email at the moment,
as I can no longer check my Email from my ISP without
phoning in - I used to be able to just link to my
ISP's Mail Host from anywhere on the net - but not now.
I am trying to get a phone line installed
at home ASAP. (I only have a mobile at the moment).
22-Nov-1999 :: Upload Brand New program
Quiz Master (v1.0)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page. Quiz Master
enables you to easily set-up
quizes - either for fun, or to test or build knowledge of
particular subject areas, or to help with assessment of
student / employee achievement.
02-Nov-1999 :: Upload yet another New version of
Talking Clock (v3.1)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
Talking Clock does just what the title says - it reads out
the current time according to when and how often you want to
hear it. You can even add / record your own sounds !!
New features in
Talking Clock (v3.1)
Add in "Inform Me of Missing Sound Files (During
Playback)" option onto the Settings Screen, also
some sound sets have no PREFIX.WAV, so see if
PREFIX0.WAV, PREFIX00.WAV, or PREFIX1.WAV exist
to use instead when the Settings Screen option
"Prefix.WAV / Suffix.WAV only" is selected, and,
Fix a small bug in the Prefix sound selection.
29-Oct-1999 :: Upload New version of
Talking Clock (v3.0)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
Talking Clock does just what the title says - it reads out
the current time according to when and how often you want to
hear it. You can even add / record your own sounds !!
New features in
Talking Clock (v3.0)
Add in Ships 8 Bells method of saying the time,
Great new Tabbed Notebook style Settings Screen,
Ability to have "No Prefix and No Suffix" Option,
Enable the user to select the "Sound File (WAV)
Directory" so that multiple sound sample sets
can be kept on your harddrive in different
directories - making changing sounds easy,
Improve main window, add tool tips to time, etc,
Much better and smoother PlayBack of sounds -
many improvements internal to Talking Clock, and,
Implement Full Main Window scaling - so you can
resize the window and everything will re-scale.
A Hell of a lot of work went into this release !!! :)
calculates the distance that the storm is from you, and,
determines whether the storm is moving away from or towards you.
21-Oct-1999 :: Not sure what
Talking Clock
is ? Like to hear a demonstration / sample ?
Click here
to listen to output of Talking Clock
using Robert's great
Clint Eastwood
impersonations.
21-Oct-1999 :: Upload New
Talking Clock
speech files
Clint Eastwood
(Robert Moon's excellent and very funny impersonations)
and
Sean Connery
(Robert Moon's great impersonations)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
Thanks a million to Robert for doing these impersonations !!
Both of these are an absolute must for all registered users of
Talking Clock.
Now Registered Users can listen to the time being spoken by Clint, Sean, Yoda,
Mrs Doubtfire, Duke Nukem, and others - along with their catch phrases that we
all know and love. Download them now !!
Could this mean a new version of Talking Clock is due out soon ???
YES - So, watch this space !! ;)
20-Oct-1999 :: Upload New program
CPU Fault Detector (v1.0)
to my FREE Computer Programs Page.
CPU Fault Detector executes dozens of floating point
calculations that are known to generate incorrect results
on some Intel Pentium Processors from the mid-1990's.
26-Aug-1999 :: Upload New versions of
RAM / Swap Monitor (v2.3)
and
Disk Monitor (v3.2)
with fixes to another bug in Borland Delphi so that they can
correctly handle drives infinitely larger than 30 GB.
(Fix required due to errors in Borland's suggested fix
FAQ2552D on their WEB site).
25-Aug-1999 :: Upload New version of
Disk Monitor (v3.1)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
This program enables you to monitor the free and used disk
space on up to 26 drives connected to your computer,
displays the free / used space in TB, GB, MB, KB,
or bytes (whatever is suitable), displays the disk space used as
a percentage of the total disk space, and displays the overall
totals for all drives you are monitoring.
New features in
Disk Monitor (v3.1)
include a 32-bit version of Disk Monitor
which handles harddisks greater than 2 GB in size,
works around another bug in Borland Delphi
to fix NTDLL.DLL errors on closedown which
occured on some Windows NT configurations,
contains an enhanced "About ..." window,
and gives the user the ability to drag and drop files onto
Disk Monitor to automatically start monitoring
of the drive that the particular files appear on,
and other enhancements.
24-Aug-1999 :: Upload New versions of
RAM / Swap Monitor (v2.2)
and
Checksum Calculator (v3.3)
which now report the correct "About ..." dialog's free resources %
under Windows NT and an enhanced "About ..." window with
buttons to copy my email and WEB page address to the
Window's clipboard, so users can simply
paste them into WEB Browser or Email program.
20-Aug-1999 :: Upload New version of
Checksum Calculator (v3.2)
to my Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
This program calculates checksums for user-selected
files and directories, and enables the user to compare
checksum results against previous calculations.
New features in
Checksum Calculator (v3.2)
include the ability to calculate 32 bit CRCs,
addition of an "Expert Mode",
the ability to Drag and Drop Files and
Directories from Windows Explorer / File Manager
onto the main Checksum Calculator Window,
remember the Dir you last checksummed,
and the ability to use "Send To" menu when
you right mouse click on a group of files / directories.
20-Aug-1999 :: Upload New version of
RAM / Swap Monitor (v2.1)
to my $5 Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
RAM / SWAP Monitor displays :
pie charts and numerical values for the Physical RAM and
SWAPfile (Page file) usage in your PC, and
the free space and total capacity of any single drive
selected by the user.
New features in
RAM / Swap Monitor (v2.1)
works around a bug in Borland Delphi so that the
program can correctly handle harddisks
greater than 2 GB in size,
puts a comma seperator in the 1,000's
in RAM and Swap File usage numbers, and
works around another bug in Borland Delphi
to fix NTDLL.DLL errors on closedown which
occured on some Windows NT configurations.
19-Aug-1999 :: Upload New version of
Text Buttons (v2.1)
to my Computer Programs (Shareware) Page.
Text Buttons enables you to place often used sections of
text behind any of 10 buttons so that it is very easily
and quickly obtainable when required.
New features in
Text Buttons (v2.1)
enables you to move / reorder your
text buttons, Right or Middle mouse click on a button
to enter set-up mode for that button, enables you to
load button text from a file, and other improvements.
18-Aug-1999 :: Fix Up Site - fix up the
frames / links internal to my site, restore old
animations, etc.
I didn't get 1 cent from Eads, and they didn't bother
responding to my recent emails, so they can take
their hollow promises and go jump in the lake !!
18-Aug-1999 :: Welcome Back-
I can finally update my pages again !!
Circumstances (such as the death of my Pentium PC,
my moving to a house without a phone,
work pressures, and other things)
have conspired to prevent me from updating my WEB pages
for about 6 months ! I have been busy programming and
improving many of my programs behind
the scenes though ! As a result, there are loads of
great new versions of many of my programs - which I will
be uploading in the coming days !! Stay tuned !
2-Dec-98 - Upload New version of Stop Watch (v2.2)
to my Shareware Page.
This version adds in an Expert mode.
8-Nov-98 - Upload New version of Morse Code Explorer (v1.3)
to my Shareware Page.
This version adds support for the Norweigan character set.
5-Nov-98 - Upload New version of Astronaut's Chronometer (v1.2)
to my Shareware Page.
The enables you to explore the effects on time when a space
ship travels at speeds up to 99.999999% of the speed of light.
29-Oct-98- Add in links to
my sponsor at
http://www.eads.com/.
If you enjoy my pages, then please click on the the
"Click Here to Visit Our Sponsor" links on my pages,
as I get a few cents each time this happens.
21-Oct-98- Re-Upload all the sound samples for my
Talking Clock
to my Shareware Page.
These samples enable the program to speak the current time
with wise cracking sayings in the voices of Yoda, Duke Nukem,
Mrs Doubtfire, Darleen, Moose - Sean Connery, Clint Eastood, and
more coming soon !!!!
25-Sep-98 - Upload New version of Life Clock (v1.5)
to my Shareware Page.
The new version includes displaying your current age, as well
as other enhancements - so you now see your life remaining,
age, and todays date in the main window.
24-Sep-98 - Upload New version of Stop Watch (v2.1)
to my Shareware Page.
The new version enables people to run this program on multiple
PC's and synchronise their stopwatch times and
log details accross multiple PC's by adding in :
"Copy Stopwatch Times To Floppy Disk A:" and
"Copy Stopwatch Times From Floppy Disk A:"
menu options. (Specially for Nancy S !)
27-July-98 - Upload new versions of ALL my pages, with frames,
updated links, latest info, better navigation, etc.
26-July-98 - Upload New version of RAM / Swapfile Monitor (v1.1)
to my Shareware Page.
20-Apr-98 - Upload Brand New program RAM / Swapfile Monitor (v1.0)
to
my Shareware Page.
RAM / SWAP Monitor displays pie charts of the Physical
RAM and SWAPfile (Page file) usage in your PC,
and displays these details textually as well.
19-Apr-98 - Upload Brand New program Directory Usage Monitor (v1.0)
to
my Shareware Page.
Directory Usage Monitor enables you to analyse the
disk space used and the number of files present in a
directory and all of its sub-directories on a harddisk,
floppy disk, CD ROM, Network Drive, or any other form of disk.
30-Mar-98 - Upload Brand New program Text Buttons (v1.0)
to
my Shareware Page.
Text Buttons enables you to place often used sections of
text behind any of 10 buttons so that it is very easily
and quickly obtainable when required.
22-Mar-98 - Upload new version of Talking Clock (v2.2)
to
my Shareware Page.
14-Jan-98 - Upload new version of Talking Clock (v2.1)
to
my Shareware Page.
11-Jan-98 - Upload new version of all of my shareware to
my
my Shareware Page -
a update of all programs was done to fix an elusive DateEncode error
that occurred on some machines.
20-Dec-97 - Upload new version of Talking Clock (v1.7)
to
my Shareware Page.
17-Dec-97 - Fix
my Shareware Page's Download
Links. (People should now be able to download more succesfully !!).
27-Oct-97 - I am back on the scene again !!!!!
Things have been incredibly busy at work since early July, and I have been and
still are working 16+ hour days 6 days per week.
But, hopefully, I will now be able to update my pages every now and then.
Sadly, the days of 3 page updates per day may be gone for at least a few more months.
- I probably won't be able to update my
Arcade Emulation
pages for a while, as
A.) Spare time is very scarce and B.) the number of emulators is still growing
exponentially. But, I am still following what is happening and trying out most
of the new emulators.
- Please note that
Data Fellows,
are NO LONGER providing mirroring for my pages,
so, the only place to access my pages is here in Australia. Please
Email me
if you can provide some fast &
free FTP space.
- Upload new version (v2.7) of Checksum Calculator to
my Shareware Page - Many new features !
02-July-1997 - Upload new version (v2.3) of Disk Monitor to
my Shareware Page.
- MAME v0.25b out now !
01-July-1997 - Upload new version (v2.4) of International Clock to
my Shareware Page.
30-Jun-1997 - Neil is BACK !!! New version of Emu v2.2, by Neil Bradley - out now !!
27-Jun-1997 - SAGE is BACK !!! New version of SAGE emulator v1.16, by Paul Johnson - out now !!
- New version of M-ulator v0.14, by Martin Scragg out now !
23-Jun-1997 - Add links to the New Emulation Programming Repository, and others.
19-Jun-1997 - New version of Tutankham emulator v0.2b, by Janne Korpela - out now !!
- New version (v0.45) of MGE (Gauntlett emulator), by Neill Corlett with speech support - out now !!
- New version (v0.54) of System 16 Emulator, by Thierry Lescot - out now !!
17-Jun-1997 - Upload new program Lottery Number $elector to
my Shareware Page.
- Upload new versions of CPU Monitor (v1.8),
Date & Time Clock (v1.5), Disk Monitor (v2.2), WEB Form Formatter (v1.5),
Life Clock (v1.4), Memory Monitor (v1.5), Morse Code Explorer (1.1),
Parrot Trainer (v1.5), Moose Pong (v1.2), Stop Watch (v1.95),
and Talking Clock (v1.6) to
my Shareware Page.
15-Jun-1997 - Upload new version (v1.1) of Astronaut's Chronometer to
my Shareware Page.
- Upload new version (v1.2) of File Usage Monitor to
my Shareware Page - now includes
a 32 bit version which resides on the Windows 95 / NT Icon Tray.
- Upload new version (v2.2) of International Clock to
my Shareware Page - now
has a great Time Table comparison chart to enable you
to easily compare times at any of your chosen locations.
- Upload new version (v1.1) of Sort It Out to
my Shareware Page -
a useful list sorting utility.
14-Jun-1997 - Add a few new links.
- KEM v1.0, by Mike Cuddy, is out now !!!!!
- New version of BTishger emulator v0.2 - out now !!
- New version of Tutankham emulator v0.2, by Janne Korpela - out now !!
- MAME v0.24b out now !
07-Jun-1997 - Add a new story to my Arcade Annecdotes page
about coins on strings and similar tricks ....
05-Jun-1997 - Add a link to the Neo*Geo emulator, by
Brian Verre and Jeremy Deats - now under development !!
03-Jun-1997 - Upload new version (v2.0) of Checksum Calculator to
my Shareware Page - now has for multiple
files and directories, and will save and compare checksum results against
previous runs of the program ! Many new features !
- Upload new version (v2.1) of International Clock to
my Shareware Page - now has support for
up to 5 time zones at once, ability to show dates as well, and has an LED style clock.
02-Jun-1997 - Update my page on the Dig Dug Emulator (Dig-u-lator)
which is still under development - but getting close to a release !!
- MAME v0.23 out now !
26-May-1997 - Add "Notice to other Shareware Authors" (below).
- MAME v0.22 is out now !
24-May-1997 - Fix all MIRROR problems - all
Shareware now correct !
- Upload Mrs Doubtfire and Yoda voice impersonations for
use with my Talking Clock program on
my Shareware Page .
23-May-1997 - Add a Link to
Tripod Software's
great FREEware game
Rocket Raid
- a brilliant missile command type game for the PC - definetely one to check out !!
20-May-1997 - Increased Internet charges in Australia are rearing their
ugly greedy head again - see further petitions below.
- Great new Ghosts'n'Goblins emulator, by Roberto Ventura - out now !!
Fully playable and an excellent emulation !!
17-May-1997 - New version (v0.89) of Rockulator, by Brian Levine - out now !!
15-May-1997 - Ghosts & Goblins Emulator (v0.1), by Paul Leaman - out now !!
13-May-1997 - New version (v0.88a) of Rockulator, by Brian Levine - out now !!
- MAME v0.21 emulator - out now !!
12-May-1997 - Updated Arcade Game Survey Results.
- M-ulator v0.11 by Martin Scragg out now - plays Galaga beautifully with full
sound on my P100 !!
09-May-1997 - Upload new version (v2.0) of Disk Monitor to
my Shareware Page - now has support for up to
26 drives !
07-May-1997 - New version (v0.88) of Rockulator, by Brian Levine - out now !!
06-May-1997 - Upload new version (v1.5a) of Talking Clock to
my Shareware Page.
- New version (v0.4) of MGE (Gauntlett emulator), by Neill Corlett with
sound support - out now !!
05-May-1997 - MAME v0.2 emulator - out now !!
- M-ulator v0.1 by Martin Scragg out now - plays Galaga beautifully with full
sound on my P100 !!
- Add new arcade emulation links.
04-May-1997 - Upload new version (v1.9) of Stop Watch to
my Shareware Page.
02-May-1997 - Upload new version (v1.5) of Talking Clock to
my Shareware Page.
- Upload hillarious Duke Nukem sounds for use with
my Talking Clock shareware program.
01-May-1997 - Add yet more links to other Arcade Emulation pages.
29-Apr-1997 - Upload new version (v1.1) of "Moose PONG" to
my Shareware Page.
28-Apr-1997 - Upload new version (v1.6) of CPU Monitor to
my Shareware Page.
- Upload some new pics of my shareware and make sure all version numbers are correct.
27-Apr-1997 - New version (0.85) of Missile Command, by Patrick J. Maloney, out now !
25-Apr-1997 - Upload new version (v1.3) of Life Clock to
my Shareware Page.
This version fixes an error experienced by USA users.
- New Vulgus Emulator (v0.1), by Paul Leaman, out now !!
24-Apr-1997 - Upload Darlene's Sexy American Voice WAVs to
my Shareware Page -
for use in my Talking Clock program.
- Updated Arcade Game Survey Results.
- Remove Neil Bradley's EMU mailing list - it has just been deleted.
23-Apr-1997 - Upload new version (v1.8) of Stop Watch to
my Shareware Page.
- Upload new version (1.2) of "Arcade Emulation for Newbies FAQ" - more Q's answered !
22-Apr-1997 - New version (v0.05) of M-ulator (Galaga !), by Martin Scragg !
21-Apr-1997 - Change over EMU's authorship from Neil to Mike Cuddy.
- New QIX emulator (v0.1), by Ed. Mueller, out now !!
18-Apr-1997 - Upload new program File Usage Monitor to my shareware page.
- Naughty Boy emulator (v1.05), by John Bugliarisi, out now !!
17-Apr-1997 - Upload new version (1.1) of "Arcade Emulation for Newbies FAQ",
with answer to "Is it illegal to download and use ROM Images".
- New Space Harrier Emulator, by Simon Cooke, now under development !
16-Apr-1997 - Add link to "Burn-In : The Arcade Emulator Archive".
14-Apr-1997 - Upload new program Sort It Out to my shareware page.
- New version (0.9a) of Rygar Emulator, by Jean-Marc Leang, out now !!
- New version (1.0) of Cinematronics Emulator, by Zonn Moore, out now !
- New version (0.8) of Missile Command, by Patrick J. Maloney, out now !
13-Apr-1997 - New version (0.7) of Vanguard Emulator, by Brian Levine, out now !!
- Add a link to "Mikko's Arcade Emulators for Other Platforms" page.
12-Apr-1997 - Update status of Dig Dug emulator - Info on where the palette is stored is
needed urgently.
08-Apr-1997 - Upload new version (v1.7) of Stop Watch to my shareware page.
- Upload new version (v1.3) of Talking Clock to my shareware page.
- Upload Moose Speech WAVs for Talking Clock to my shareware page.
- Add 2 new Annecdotes to my Arcade Annecdote page.
06-Apr-1997 - Updated Arcade Game Survey Results.
05-Apr-1997 - Upload new version (v1.2) of Talking Clock to my shareware page.
04-Apr-1997 - Add in my new Arcade Emulation for Newbies FAQ .
- Remove Altered Beast, Galaga, and Space Invaders animations
from main page - these were putting too much load on the
US Mirror - so (sadly) they had to go !
- Add in Emulator Programming WWW Board on "Mailing List" page.
- Add in link to Kaptain Koin-up's page.
- Update information needed for Sea Wolf Emulator (by Johan Stenfors).
03-Apr-1997 - Add in new Dig Dug emulator - now under development !
Help is needed on Custom IC's).
30-Mar-1997 - Improve presentation on some of my pages.
- Make my page counters far less obtrusive (by putting
them at the bottom of each main page).
- Add a Quick Start menu at the top of my main page.
- Upload a full set of optimised graphics which are faster
to load / animate and much smaller in size - thanks very much
to Torkel Odeen !!
- Continue splitting down big pages to make them load faster.
29-Mar-1997 - Add new shareware program "Moose PONG"
(a PONG game) to my Shareware page.
- Completely revamp / reformat my shareware page - only load thumbnail
graphics now to speed up page loading.
- Add in several additional ways / options to registering my shareware.
28-Mar-1997 - Add new shareware program "Astronaut's Chronometer"
to my Shareware page.
27-Mar-1997 - New "New Zealand Story" emulator, by Alan Pope, is well under way, but
Schematics and Sprite info needed urgently.
- New Sea Wolf Emulator now underway - by Johan Stenfors.
25-Mar-1997 - New version (0.3) of 1942 emulator, by Paul Leaman, out now !!
24-Mar-1997 - Updated Arcade Game Survey Results.
21-Mar-1997 - Add a story about the Pornographic star field
in Star Castle to my Arcade Annecdotes page.
- New version (0.4) of Nemisis emulator - by Johan Köhler - out now !!
- Popeye emulator now under development.
20-Mar-1997 - New version (0.6) of Vanguard Emulator, by Brian Levine, out now !!
19-Mar-1997 - Commando emulator, by Juan Carlos S., now under development.
- Cinematronics Emulator, by Zonn Moore - out now !!
18-Mar-1997 - Add book review : Accidental Empires by Robert X. Cringely, the
book on which the TV series "Triumph of the Nerds" was based.
- Add book review : Bit by Bit, An Illustrated History of Computers, by Stan Augarten,
a great book that charts the development of the computer from Abacus
to PC.
- New version (0.3b2) of Nemisis emulator - by Johan Köhler - out now !!
- Johan Köhler's Nemisis emulator has now been ported to DOS - by David Valdeita.
- New version (0.2) of 1942 Emulator - by Paul Leaman - out now !!
- Private BETA of a Moon Patrol emulator is now being tested !!
16-Mar-1997 - Williams Emulator (by Tom Seddon) moving to new site soon.
- Emulator mailing lists moved to new servers !!!!
- 1942 Arcade Emulator by Paul Leaman - out now !!
- Rename "Tosser's / Pirates Page" to the "Hall of Shame".
- Add Link to Daniel W. Moe's arcade site.
13-Mar-1997 - New Nemisis emulator - by Johan Köhler - out now !!
- Vanguard Emulator (v0.5) by Brian Levine - out now !!
- Update Link Page link to Stereograms - thanks Brad Mosch !!
12-Mar-1997 - New Nemisis emulator - by Johan Köhler - under development !!
- Update Vanguard Emulator info (under development), by Brian Levine,
to reflect current status - should out real soon !!
- Another Vanguard Emulator (v0.1), by Martin Scragg, - out now !!
- New version of Galaga Emulator (0.2), by Martin Scragg - out now !!
11-Mar-1997 - Add link to homepage for Bubble Bobble emulator (under development).
10-Mar-1997 - Update Arcade Game Survey Results - 500+ votes received !!
- Add a new Arcade Game Annecdote under the "Crime & Punishment" section.
07-Mar-1997 - New version of Rygar Emulator (0.7a), by Jean-Marc Leang - out now !!
06-Mar-1997 - New Vanguard emulator - by Brian Levine - under development !!
- Galaga Emulator (v0.1) by Martin Scragg out now !!
03-Mar-1997 - Fix link to my Tempest Emu page - sorry about that !!
02-Mar-1997 - New version (v0.3) of Guantlet I/II emulator, by Neill Corlett, out now !
Rygar Emulator (v0.6a) out now - by Jean-Marc Leang. I am a BETA Tester for this emu, and it looks promising !!
Upload new Sparcazde RATs ZIP - all known working RATs.
28-Feb-1997 - Upload new shareware program "Life Clock" - displays the time you might have left to live !
Updated Arcade Game Survey Results.
26-Feb-1997 - Update Links page. Fangz ROM mirror has moved.
Add link to MacMame on my "Emulators for other Platforms" page.
New version of Guantlet I/II emulator, by Neill Corlett, out now !
Add link to PacMan by Wierd Al song lyrics.
24-Feb-1997 - New version of my shareware program "CPU Monitor" now out.
Update "Arcade Songs" page - more songs available for download now and
heaps more coming real soon !! ;))
23-Feb-1997 - Give the Gauntlet emulator the nick name :
"Green Elf, your Life Force is running out-a-lator" - thanks Chuck for the idea !!
Updated Arcade Game Survey Results.
22-Feb-1997 - New Emulator under development for City Connection.
Another R-Type emulator is now under development as well.
Updated ROMs needed page - now got complete R-Type ROMs - Thanks Paul !!
20-Feb-1997 - Guantlet I/II emulator, by Neill Corlett, out now !!!
16-Feb-1997 - Update "Arcade Songs" page - add additional info / downloads.
Updated Arcade Game Survey Results.
New version of Pengo Emulator (v1.0) by Sergio Munoz.
15-Feb-1997 - Add in a Red Alert game review to my Review Page.
Update "Arcade Songs" page - add additional info / downloads.
14-Feb-1997 - Blue Print Emulator by Patrick Hesemann and Clint Taylor updated with current progress / plans.
Update "Arcade Songs" page - add additional info / downloads.
11-Feb-1997 - Another New Emulator under development for Bubble Bobble.
New version (0.2) of Xevious Emu out now - by Ruckeshaeuser Heinrich HR.
New emulator - Multi-Arcade Emulator out now - by Kevin Brisley.
Update "Arcade Songs" page - add Atari Missile Command and additional info.
10-Feb-1997 - New Emulator under development for Bubble Bobble / R-Type.
Added "R-Type" to ROMs needed urgently page.
Switch Settings and/or Pinouts now found for Rastan, I,Robot,
Juno First, and Ghost & Goblin emulators.
Updated Arcade Game Survey Results.
09-Feb-1997 - Streamlined my pages - split up emulator pages.
Add in new "Arcade Songs" page for PacMan Fever, Space Invaders, etc songs -
PacMan Fever is downloadable !
New version (1.2) of Small Space Invaders Emu by Ignacio Escalza - out now !
New version of Arcade Emulator FAQ (v0.3).
All ROMs needed for Cinematronics Emu (not out yet) are now on archives.
The Burgertime Schematics are now available (JRok's page) -
updated Burgertime Emulator page to reflect this.
Added Manuel Ruiz to Tosser page - he is just a 1 Star Tosser right now.
08-Feb-1997 - Add in "Known Tossers / Pirates" page.
07-Feb-1997 - Upload new shareware program "Morse Code Explorer".
06-Feb-1997 - Create a page for the Small Space Invaders Emu -
this one is by Ignacio Escalza and is out now !!
Change some downloads to use Links - due to shrinking disk quoata with my ISP.
Add "Most Heroic Act" and "Spell Checker" poem into "About .." page.
05-Feb-1997 - Create a page for another Bomb Jack emulator -
this one is by Jakob Frandsen and is out now !!
Space Panic and Crazy Balloon images are required URGENTLY !!
Good Gorf, and good Moon Quasar images are required URGENTLY -
the images for these on Tant, etc are (apparently) bad.
Updated Arcade Game Survey Results.
03-Feb-1997 - New version of Thierry's Shinobi Emulator.
Add in QBert Jap ROM images only message to Lee's Q*Bert Emulator page !!
01-Feb-1997 - New versions of Mike Cuddy's excellent Time Pilot and Gyruss emulators out now.
Add in Multi-Invaders Emulator by Mark Hazelwood.
Add in link to BeeBox Defender Emu.
Add in link to MacMoon Emu.
31-Jan-1997 - Lee Taylor's Q*Bert Emulator now out !!
Atari System II emulator - new project underway.
Solar Warrior emulator - new project underway.
Updated Arcade Game Survey Results.
30-Jan-1997 - Change Wiretap site on Links page.
29-Jan-1997 - Update On-Line Registration Form for Shareware.
Add several more paragraphs into my Quake review.
28-Jan-1997 - Upload new versions of *all* my Shareware programs -
with some major improvements on many programs.
Upload new shareware program "Talking Clock".
Xevious Emulator v0.1 released !!
25-Jan-1997 - Added new emulator : Williams Arcade Emulator -
*Not* WAC.
Updated Arcade Game Survey Results.
24-Jan-1997 - Added EMU v2.0 info / download.
Updated Arcade Game Survey Results.
21-Jan-1997 - Created & Added Altered Beast Animations.
19-Jan-1997 - Added Sparcade RATs section / download.
Added PacMan Annecdotes and a Fiction notice on
"Watch Out those machgines are Fragile" story.
Add a link to my LBRY channel at the top of my main web page:
Everyone - EVERYONE - needs to watch this video immediately:
Until this morning, my web site was hosted with 000Webhost,
but they like to play UPSELL games.
A real pain that made it hard for people to find my web site for a while.
Upload a brand new program,
to a brand new section of my web site, my
Not bad for a lone developer.
Upload a new version of
to a brand new section of my web site, my
Some Sag Calculator questions / discussion points .... can you help ?
But, apart from being a powerful, awesome, and beautiful piece of kit,
it's also got something quite interesting.
As well as having a gorgeous main screen, I can connect
3 external monitors at once - making a really nice 4 screen set-up.
Getting fonts, sprites, etc moving on screen, animating, bouncing around, is very easy.
Within an hour or so of discovering HAXE, I had worked out enough to bounce a
bunch of heads round my browser window.
As well as completing all of the course work, assignments, and
getting top marks for everything, I did tons of extra side projects
and explored way beyond what the course covered.
I really went at it full bore. The whole hog.
But, at the end of the 4 weeks, I had barely scratched the surface
of what Unity provides, and I was still a long way from being confident ...
Fix links to
Well, I finally did it .... after many years of browsing
Wikipedia and thinking
"Why the hell does this person / company / software developer have a
Wikipedia page and not Moose's Software Valley ????",
I have decided to go through the process of creating a
Wikipedia page for Moose's Software Valley.
I have just created a brand new
discussion forum on Reddit
But recently I have started watching videos of people playing games, mostly
Now, how can this information help the average Jane or Joe?
I could provide a nice GUI application where you could
type in or paste in a bunch of passwords, click the "Check"
button and it could check each using the above processing.
But, why would you trust me ?
I'm just a guy who loves developing software, and has been
doing so since 1980, and have released over 100 free software titles
onto my web page since 1996, and none have ever been
malicious, deceptive, or contained any viruses or malware in any way, shape, or form.
I could tell you about all of the clients I have developed software for around the world,
the work I have done, and convince you that I have a *great* track record, etc, but
this still wont be enough for some people to trust me.
(And I applaud people for being skeptical and careful).
Rapid Rise and Mania:
When things have a very rapid increase, and every person you meet is talking about Bitcoin,
and they all have greed in their eyes and "get rich quick" hopes in their hearts,
then you have to be very careful. Very, very careful indeed.
Every up has a down. Every boom has a bust. You do not want to be left standing
when the music stops.
I keep thinking about the "shoe shine" boys giving stock tips in the 1920's just before
the stock market crashed, causing The Great Depression.
And, I keep thinking about this graph ....
we are definitely in the "Mania Phase" of the graph - we have certainly seen
plenty of "media attention", "greed", and "delusion".
But, we may already be "near the top" and may soon perhaps be "over the top" and heading down .... yiikes!
Thanks to the OpenALPR, a free, open source Automatic License Plate Recognition system (web link:
Upload a brand new program,
Upload a brand new program,
Upload a brand new program,
Upload a brand new program,
I've been doing a lot of coding in Java lately
(my 2nd favourite programming language after Delphi/Pascal) ...
Well folks, we had plenty of warning (since 12-Oct-2015) that
I've been reading back through
In the weeks prior to publicly launching Moose's Software Valley, massive changes - seismic shifts - had taken place in my life:
Further to my last update (see
I first played 
About 10 years ago (???), I decided to try and find the answers to these questions.
However, my Apple Panic disk image must have been damaged, because the game crashed to monitor after many, many levels and I could not proceed.
Upload a new version of
As always, I'm working on several projects behind the scenes, and one of these projects is getting close to a release ...
Well, 
Upload a new version of
File Usage Monitor (v2.0f)
Upload a brand new program,
Upload a new version of
File Usage Monitor (v1.6f)
Upload a new version of
Clipboard Tools (v1.2f)
Upload a new version of
Mouse Odometer (v1.7f)
The best video player on the planet bar none is
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Re-design and modernise my web site to make it sleek, clean, and professional.
Also, streamline the navigation (menu bar at the top, rather than a list of links down the left-hand side).
This is the 1st time that my web site has had a major face-lift since it first went live over 18 years ago, way-back in July, 1996.
So, this re-design work was certainly way, way, way overdue, and it is something I have been wanting to do for a long time.
I always like to try out and test out new versions of Windows well before they are released to make sure there aren't any issues with any of my software. I especially like to make absolutely sure that my
Back in 1995 and '96, friends and I frequently played a Mac game called Infotron -
we loved the game and played it every chance we got for ages (months).
My Disk Usage Logger program logged the lowest disk space usage at 24,702 MB.
At the start of install, (before I had written let alone run my Disk Usage Logger program) there was: 36,002 MB of disk space.
So, Delphi XE5 required 11,301 MB of disk space to install. This is a lot different to the 3,288 MB claimed on the install screen.
The last version of Borland Delphi I purchased (and the version I still use) is Delphi v5, which was released way back in 1999.
And it is this version that I still use for all of my Delphi development. It does everything I need, and I know it like the back of my hand.
It feels like a comfortable old pair of shoes. So why change ?
Scott over at 
Further to my
Further to my
Further to my
Generally, I don't post general news on my web site anymore.
I used to do this for many years, and often many times a day, especially in the early days of
Moose's Software Valley
.
But there are now millions of web sites posting general news, and the last thing the internet needs is another.
So these days, I usually only post news about my own software updates.
After many years of searching, he has recently found the "ancient" floppy disks containing
his long lost source code for the original version of
According to
Added
Shoegazer's Confessions of an 80s arcade nut: Scramble's landscape of fuchsia - fuchsia !!!
to the
Arcade Games Annecdotes section of my web page.
My Daewoo Lanos car died on the side of the road last Thursday night ... :( The oil problems that had been haunting
it for years (that mechanics told me could only be fixed by completely rebuilding the entire engine)
finally ended it's life when the engine finally siezed up. I purchased it brand new in mid-1999,
it had never been driven hard or thrashed, and it had only done 205,000 Km.
Are the people at work annoying you ? Playing practicle jokes ? Bombarding you with wadded-up
pieces of paper or paper aeroplanes ?
Seeing that I mentioned this on the
Yak Yak forums
earlier today, I thought that I should probably mention it here as well ... ;)
Or, at least, that was the theory. The reality turned out to be very different ...
Anyway, 85 programs is pretty impressive.
This volume of shareware and freeware software by a single author is (as far as I can tell)
completely unheard of on the internet, and there is a chance that
I might just be the world's most prolific (and also least successful !) shareware / freeware author.
Actually the exact number of visitors as of today is 534,735 visitors, which
consists of 489,951 visitors up until December 10, 2002
and another 44,784 since December 11, 2002 = 534,735 visitors -
and that is just on my main Index page,
which many visitors bypass as a result of clicking on links in search engines.
Apart from discussing the topic, this topic also provided links to two truly inspired and hilarious new
machinima videos (produced using the
Ever Quest 2 game engine I believe):
Just updating the "progress" of my previous comments about a
Stunt Cycle Simulator on 29-Apr-2005 ....
SunRaycer is an ancient program for
For the past few years I have been trying to play SunRaycer again under
emulation on my PC. However, NONE of the disk images on
In the meantime, back in Hawaii, Mike Ching was having problems setting up
ADT on his Apple ][, so I sent him over my Apple ][ floppy disk containing
ADT, SST, Copy ][+, DDD, etc. i.e. everything needed to transfer disk
images between the Apple ][ and the PC. The disk image for this disk has
been available on
The next morning, Thomas forwarded me working Sunraycer disks. According
to Thomas :
Robot Simulator allows you to simulate and control
your own virtual robot(s) on screen - aka Leggo
Mind Storms robots, but without the flat batteries
or the other hassles.
By using a simple command language (called RoboSlang),
you can control your virtual robots on screen, to make
them move around, dance, follow lines, and explore
their virtual world.
This program has been in "on again / off again" development for over
12 months now, and I have put an enormous amount of effort into this program.
demonstrated and show cased on a big projection screen
before current and prospective students, staff, and the general public all day
during
Included with the program (after installation) are sample scripts, a
sample robot, a selection of background images, a full on-line help, and
a RoboSlang script reference manual with loads of examples.
The TRIAL version of the program is fully functional with the exception that you cannot change robots.
.
Today is Doom's 10th Birthday. It was on December 10, 1993 that
Doom was a true killer application,
and many 1,000's of people purchased PCs and network cards / cables (or null modem cables)
just so they could play Doom in the comfort of their own homes.
Many (like me) had been using the PC as a games machine for many years (in my case, since 1985),
but the users of other systems - Amiga and Atari users in particular - used to try and bash the PC
at every opportunity by saying that their games were so much better, or had
more colours on the screen at once, or had better sound / music.
At the time, stores like Electronics Boutique had almost equal shelf space dedicated to PC and
Amiga games - the two kings of home computer gaming at the time.
However, after Doom was released, the Amiga declined very quickly, and pretty soon, PC games also filled
the game shelves which were previously occupied by Amiga games.
So, after work, I went and purchased a PC magazine with the shareware Doom on the cover.
That night, I played it and (by about 3 AM in the morning) I had finished and explored all
10 levels of shareware Doom and found quite a few of the secrets.
At 8:00 AM the next morning,
I was waiting outside Electronics Boutique to buy the full version of the game.
I was well and truly hooked !!
Within a very short period, 3 other friends and I were regularly meeting at each other's houses and playing 4
player network games of Doom all night, while having a few beers, and eating snacks and pizza and
gulping down coffee in between games.
It was a real social event - and that was the real beauty of Doom - it was a great single player game,
but it was an awesome game to play with friends.
And, by finally making the PC the undisputed king of home computer gaming, PC games and
capabilities hit high gear, and many game developers switched to support the PC, and/or gave
the PC a lot more respect as a games platform.
The glacial paced, half-baked, ill-conceived roll out of DVD technology looks set to
continue - ermmm, at an even slower pace.
NEC has just built a supercomputer, called Earth Simulator, which is 5 times faster than
the IBM "ASCI White" system that was (until recently) ranked No. 1.
The computer's 35 teraflops of performance, 5,120 CPUs and 10 terabytes of RAM are used to
model a virtual earth down to a 1-km resolution. The simulation will be studied by researchers
to examine the effects of global warming on climate change, acid rain and other types of air
pollution, tectonic plate movement, and other earthwide phenomena.
(Yeah, right, and I bet they have some pretty decent games running as well !! - Moose ;)
Now a new version of the game, called
