No more cAPS LOCK

The only time I hit the Caps Lock key is by accident. Well, the only time I used to hit that key was by accident.

After sitting down for a little think, I decided it would be good to remap the key to Enter. With the help of US Netizen's Fix Caps Lock page, I was well on my way.

Adding the above key to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout and rebooting gave me another Enter key. It adds a certain symmetry to the keyboard.

And it still gives me happy jollies every time I hit it on purpose. Synapse-creation ahoy!

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xgame: An update

I've done very little poking around on gravitas in the last year, my SVN repo only saw commits in September last year and March. Recent changes:

• Physics works well enough to set up orbits.
• New models. (for the observant, the red planet is the ball from the dx samples)

XNA 2.0 might be part of the reason for stalling, I've been pondering the move to there.

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XMPP Message Update: Sending

I've gotten off the starting block with implementing the message update JEP. The implementation has matured in the 2 years (!) since I drafted the JEP and it's become a lot simpler.

What I've done so far: use gajim's sent message history to select a message, then insert the replace element when retransmitted. The replace element is all that we need to correct typos.

The image also illustrates the elegant degrading as neither client supports the protocol. Yet.

Gajim tx done. Gajim rx and Psi tx/rx to come. And a shiny new XEP

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xgame: Hellish Heli

So I dug up the ol' gravitas solution and decided it was time to load a mesh in there. Coding4Fun again proved helpful. Unlike the very uninformative error messages from DirectX. With some playing about, I managed to get the sample heli.x to load and render in stark white.

Then I had to turn on the lights. (device.RenderState.Lighting = true; device.RenderState.Ambient = Color.White;)

For some reason my point list is now ignoring its colours and using the last one that heli did. Sheep.

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picturesofwalls.com

Title says it all. Pictures of walls.

Man some of these are funny.

Great content, amusing presentation, and occasional irony. Nothing quite like the venting of profound, repressed, anonymous vandals.

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TeamPlain Opensearch

TeamPlain has a goto work-item search that opens up workitems, oddly enough. I wanted to use the Firefox search box to fire this off.

Using the guide: Creating OpenSearch plug-ins for Firefox, I started putting together an XML OpenSearch description in notepad.

Needing an icon, I Gimped out the logo from the TeamPlain site, took it past the data: URI kitchen and popped it in.

data:image/png,%89PNG%0D%...
Okay, so it's fugly, but it doesn't look too bad on the search bar.

A glance at the OpenSearch Specification provided final tips when deciding what data should go where. Now I had an XML file and needed someway to consume it

I tried installing the OpenSearch plug-in. I used the Error Console in Firefox, running the command window.external.AddSearchProvider(engineURL); using a file:/// URI for the engineURL, but kept getting a URL formatting error.

Error: Invalid argument passed to 
  window.sidebar.addSearchEngine: 
  Unsupported search engine
Source File: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Gran%20Paradiso
  /components/nsSidebar.js
Line: 114

Initially I thought this was due to the URL in the XML definition file, so I hacked around with that for a bit, then when that yielded no fruit, I extended the error message in the mentioned .js to include the invalid URL. This was the URL to the XML doc, not the search URL inside the XML. Turns out the URL check in the .js that was throwing the exception was only regexing https?|ftp, so needed a |file appended.

Now that Firefox was playing nicely with the XML, it was happy to load it up and prompt me to install it.

And it worked!

Final code: (adjust search URL to your liking)

<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/"
                       xmlns:moz="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/">
<ShortName>TeamPlain Item</ShortName>
<Description>Load items from local TeamPlain</Description>
<Image width="16"height="16">
data:image/png,%89PNG%0D%0A%1A%0A%00%00%00%0DIHDR%00%00%00%10%00%00%00%10%08%06%00%00%00%1F%F3%FFa%00%00%00%06bKGD%00%FF%00%FF%00%FF%A0%BD%A7%93%00%00%00%09pHYs%00%00%0B%13%00%00%0B%13%01%00%9A%9C%18%00%00%00%07tIME%07%D7%05%08%14%0D(U%8F%FC%B3%00%00%00%1DtEXtComment%00Created%20with%20The%20GIMP%EFd%25n%00%00%03%D9IDATx%DA%25%CD%D9SUu%1C%00%F0%EFo9%F7%2C%F7%C0%85%CBv7%B8%C8%A6%80%2C%CA%92%2CS%86%25%C94%9A%19%92%8D%CD%80a5M%0F-%D34%95V%0F%3Dd%F1%D0%83H%93%83%93%E2LS4c6%26%88T6%23%13h%0B(%16b%5C%20%05%94%ED%02%F7r%B7s~%BF_%0F%7D%FE%81%0F%02E%D5%B1E%00'%08%B0%10%80%88%80%C7%1F%DD%EB%AA%DB%B5%DB%93%E6pj%CB%8B%F3%A1%BE%8B%DF%DF%BD%DCsn%16!%0E%00%18%B0%84%20*%24%C0FD%60%20%00%1C%10%00%07%E0%04%030%02%C9%DE%7C%C7%E6%ED%0Du%17%2C%B1%AA%EC%EA%9D%B5vO%AE%8B%23%0A%18K%C0%23B0%03%83%14%8D%82D9%A2%98%0B%E0%F0%FF%CE1%80%10%1CVW%FC%B1%D3%96%07%D2%A52%FB%86%85%D1%C1%F5%B8%15%7F%9F%C4%23%20%04%05BM%10%94%80%A1Y%81%98%01%81%85%10%08%13%86%B9%82%00%9B%02%803%B9%B5%B9%B9%ACQM%A9%8E%9FYZmN%CF%F7%B6%B6%B4%94%9A%26%969%05%00L%11%B0(%81p%08%0BF%10y%EE%C57%F2%DF%7C%FB%C3%B2%D9%09%9Fp%3B%5Cq%C7%DA%DA%AB%AA%B7%D5%BC%EE%95Tg%AB%3D%DB%91%A7%258%DD%8E%B4%92-%E5%E5%F7%EENLE%5C%9E%8C%C4%8F%DANV%A4o%C8%B3%5C%BF%FA%E3%02%EA%1E%B8sTNZ4%03%E1%2F%A1%D8%F1~F%92%EEj%00%60%BE_~%EA%BB22%3CL%0B%0A%0B%CD%9D%F5%0D%B5%80h%C1z%C4%E8%1D%EF%B8%F5%3B%2F%B3%A7%80%03kO%D6%E6%B5Q%87%CB%93%B3%E4%AC%1B%84%05%FF%E6%A9%F9%F2%A4%E4%B8%D6%FBG%8E%BC%F5i%E7%E7'%261B~!%C0%F6L%D3%81%C1%F6%8ES%EF%B2%81%90%BF%B8%D3%A5%FC%FC%F1P0k%AC!gc%CD%0E%1By%A8~oE2)u%AF-%07%D5m%B9G%BD%91%08%BB%FAJ%EB%C1%CB%20%C3%2C2D%0Cd%12%18%1B%BD%11j9%F4%92%23%C1%9DP%F3%CF%AF%E3AyO%0ALX%E7%B8%CF7%ED%03%90%B5%CA%AC%D2%CA%3D%DF%5C%F9%F3%BD%7F%D7%C4%9D%1B%BE%D9N%A4%D14%9A%A4%E9TUtl%B3%EAD%C5%C9%BF%FD5%D95%13%10%93%3F%0C%FD%FD%C1%D6G%1E%DB%07%B2V%89%AC%9A%07%40Uu%D0%15%1BM%F3n%19_b%E7%E7%82%FCRaEE.%8E%D7uK%A2%A4%D3DU%CF-)%CA%9CY%89%5C%9C%F4%B3%9E%B8%EC%82%ADT%93%E3I%7C%9CUN%94%AD%18c%01%00%88%99k%8B%81%A8%C9V%98%40%1B%BB%CE~%DB%A2%11)%C9%08%09%2B%8B1%FB%99%D3_%1F%C2T.%8A%9A%2C%14%98%9D%0A%80baB%A5%60Z%40P%C1%11%60%99%83%96%98%8A%23%E1u%D5o%C2P%AA3%E3%E9%DBS%0F%AA%40%B0%01%82q9C%96%AC%95%D5%C0%CD%18%03%C9%EE%CE%40%C1%A5i%60%0C%012%10%60%C4%05%08Ch%C7%BF%F8j%87v%EB%C0%9A%D1%E3%8C%AE%AC%CF%F7F%85%E4%8E%81%B2%3F%CC-%D9%A1%B5%60%BF%F1%7C%D1%D8Zs%C5%FD%E3%1D%5D%DB%8D(X%11cB%20%02%94c%04%0DM%AFffm*-w%8F%8F%E83%C4p%AD%07%E6%A6%8E%7D%D2%FE%D9%ED%9B%7F%90%CC%EC%3C%F3%9D%C3%87%3D9%A1%A5%82I%93%AA%D2%A6%12c%FF%0B%AF%8Dv%9F91%22%A10%00%B6*%3A(%AA%B3%A0%B6~%DFw%FD%E7%DB%AE%0F%F7%9Fz%E2%E0%CB%CF%12%C5%EA%25%AAd%C3%0Au%3D%BC%BB%E9%A9k%17zO%9E%3B%DB%DDQ%B9%AB%B1%11%5B%157I%B1Y%B1C%D6%10h%AA%8E%25%01%9CqE%92l%C5i%E9Y%A9%B3%D3%13%D7%90%14%9A%87%00%07%A1%08%101%9C%E8%CE-%A9%9E%BF%E7%5B6%C3%91aI5BQ*%03%8D%86%C5%7Fs%3B%AAS%D9I.%22%00%00%00%00IEND%AEB%60%82
</Image>
<InputEncoding>UTF-8</InputEncoding>
<Url type="text/html" method="GET"
template="http://05rnb-dev02:8090/workitem.aspx?id={searchTerms}" />
<moz:SearchForm>searchFormURL</moz:SearchForm>
</OpenSearchDescription>

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hp nx9420: Screen broken & fixed!

So my screen went on the blink; more like the scramble. It was very upsetting, and it carried on like this for a few weeks. I used an external monitor and sometimes the regular screen would work. It was very unpredictable and would break without any cause, which frustrated the hell out of me.


Eventually while sitting in a friend's loungue I decided I really just had to see my screen. So I grappled with her rather useless screwdrivers and took out the retaining screws for the keyboard. After this was done I flipped the keyboard open, gave the internal screen connector a poke and turned it on.


And it worked. Just like that. And it's been working ever since.

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