Category Archives: Software

Reverse defenestration

Posted on May 31, 2007 by Eric

Around 1992, I started using the term “reverse defenestration.” I no longer remember whether I’d heard anyone else use that term previously. Example usage: “I reverse defenestrated that PC, and now it is faster and more reliable.” Such an upgrade … Continue reading →

Posted in Phrases, Software | 2 Comments

lcdtest now uses SCons instead of make

Posted on May 23, 2007 by Eric

A few people reported problems caused by the “.d” dependency files created by the dependency analysis hack in the Makefile, so I’ve updated lcdtest to use SCons instead of make.  I’ve also now made RPMs for Fedora Core 6 available … Continue reading →

Posted in Fedora, lcdtest | Leave a comment

Closed caption decoder enhancements contributed by user

Posted on May 21, 2007 by Eric

Kevin Timmerman sent me email about having built a USB version of the closed-caption decoder that Richard Ottosen and I developed.  He used an FTDI TTL-232R cable which incorporates a USB-to-serial interface chip.  He has added many new features to … Continue reading →

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Gish – novel computer game, using 2D physics

Posted on May 10, 2007 by Eric

Hanford Lemoore recently wrote about the low sales figures for the indie game Gish. in which the player controls a gelatinous blob of tar, navigating subterranean coridors and traps, dealing with monsters, etc. They actually have a Linux version (as … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Games, Linux | 2 Comments

lcdtest 1.04

Posted on May 7, 2007 by Eric

lcdtest wasn’t working properly with German keyboard layouts.  It was using keysyms from SDL key events, and those only indicate what the unshifted key legend is.  The fix was to enable the optional SDL key event Unicode mapping, and switch … Continue reading →

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C bitfields suck…

Posted on April 30, 2007 by Eric

…and not in a good way. Not only does the C standard, ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E), not specify (or allow the programmer to specify) the direction in which bit fields are allocated in a word, it doesn’t specify (or allow the … Continue reading →

Posted in Software | 2 Comments

New PCs come preloaded with lots of “craplets”

Posted on April 26, 2007 by Eric

I mostly use Linux, but on rare ocassions I do have to use Windows. When I bought a new laptop last year, I was annoyed at how much worthless junk (e.g., limited trial versions of software I don’t want) came … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Portmanteaus, Neologisms, and Sniglets, Software | Leave a comment

It Works on My Machine

Posted on March 19, 2007 by Eric

Here’s a brilliant new application certification program:  It Works on My Machine.

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Software | Leave a comment

Free Software client for Cisco VPN

Posted on March 4, 2007 by Eric

Several years ago I tried to get a Linux system to connect to a Cisco VPN concentrator. There is a proprietary Cisco client for Linux, but it uses a closed-source kernel module, and I an not willing to use such … Continue reading →

Posted in Fedora, Linux | Leave a comment

The suboptimal way to deal with spam

Posted on February 5, 2007 by Eric

When a few people started calling for the death penalty for spammers, my intial reaction was that it seemed extreme. But the more I’ve had to deal with spam, the more I’ve come around to that point of view. Spammers … Continue reading →

Posted in Qmail, Spam, The Suboptimal Way | Leave a comment