sToChAstIC rANdOmnESs

Some suggestions for an improved Cashflow 101 game

2010-03-08T22:30:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog.

Today's post is dedicated to a great Financial Education game: Cashflow 101 by Robert Kiyosaki.

After having played a few sessions of Cashflow 101, I realized there's something missing in the board: Financial education.

Here are a few ideas to improve the Cashflow 101 game:

* Financial education cards.
And add a set of "financial education" cards. Rich dad poor dad readers get a free financial education card. Financial education cards allow you to find better deals (i.e. you can reduce the downpayment for an offer, or perhaps increase the cashflow by 10, 20 or 50 dollars) or perhaps make a deal without having to roll the dice. Wait, why not make the last one a separate card.

* Opportunity plus cards.
An opportunity plus card allows you to make a deal without having to roll the dice (costs 2 turns). Useful when you're approaching a "doodad" square and want to make an investment first.

* Financial Education quizzes
Perhaps the cards could contain a basic question, and if the question is answered right, the user gets an "opportunity plus" card.

* Specialized investment cards.
If you answer a Financial Education quizz, you're allowed to purchase specialized investment cards (for a price). These cards represent books, magazines and mentors' advice on a deal of your choice: Real Estate, Businesses, Stock investments (I've seen these in the Cashflow 202 game). With these cards, you can choose what kind opportunity to search for (it must match the specialized investment card you have): Real estate (choose between house / apartment capital gains, real estate cashflow, or farm lands to sell later), royalties (book / software / movie / recording / patent), or small businesses (direct marketing / startup).

. To make things interesting, you must roll a 4 or greater to find the deal of your choice. If you roll a 3 or less, you find no deal.

* "Wisdom" cards. These cards represent financial advise and serenity against doodads. As some doodads can really be expensive, purchasing these cards allow you to save yourself from spending your money on a doodad. You can play this card when landing on a doodad. If you play this card, lose 3 turns.

* Health insurance cards. We should add some medical emergency doodads to the board, and of course, allow people to pay for insurance. This will make the game more exciting.

And now that I think of it, why not add some "entrepreneur" module for Cashflow? (say, Cashflow 303?). You make your own startup, and add some rules based on the B/I triangle. When your company goes public, people in the rat race can purchase your stock.

Well, these are a few ideas that I think would enrich the Cashflow 101 game. I hope that if Robert Kiyosaki likes them, perhaps we can see them in a later edition of the game.

Making money out of flying pantsu

2010-01-31T15:03:00.000-08:00

If you're an avid anime watcher, perhaps you have read of the fanservice-filled anime called "Sora no Otoshimono". It's basically "boy meets girl", well actually "boy meets magical girl who happens to be a cybernetic angel that can grant him unlimited wishes" plus "hilarity ensues".

What is curious about this anime, is the ending theme, which features flying panties in what seems to be a touching piece of art about world peace... or something.

So far, so good, right?

Wrong. A guy took the design of those flapping paper planes and modified it so it would use pantsu-shaped paper. The result can be seen below:

But it seems that the idea was too great to stay as a single garage project. Just a few days ago we see a whole website announcing the mass sale of these "flying panties", selling for 1000 yen each. And behold, they will be holding an event this March 6th. Panties will come in two models: Colored stripes, and colored dots.

I can just imagine how many "flying pantsu" the guys will be able to sell. Knowing how Otakus are able to buy all the DVDs for Endless Eight, I can predict that the company will make millions of yens in only one day.

Sounds perfect for a mastercard commercial, don't you think?

Moebius

2010-01-21T19:00:00.001-08:00

"Moebius".

(An interpretation of the song "Under Moebius" under the light of "disappearance")

By Rick.

Under the moebius strip of time and space, two worlds have now collided.
One world has just been vanished, while another one is born.
The girl that wasn't, now exists,
The smile that wasn't, now screams.

Chaos is spread, a man's poor mind is upside down.
He hunts for madness, that's his reason, for the world has now gone mad.
His fears alive, the boogeyman is now behind his back.
But fear is only inside his mind. The cat is mute, the magic's gone.

In the labyrinth of madness, a light shines upon the man.
Collect all keys. Your chance is slim, and time is short.
The keys are found, enjoy your triumph. Now, here, or there?
You must now choose. Stay, go back? In three, two, one.

Madness has come back, and all is fine. But normal must stay away, do not come back!
I must go back to the moebius, to be precise, just at the core.
Tell me the answer, oracle, tell me, please kill my doubts.
Who will do this? Name me the one, who'll turn the world from inside out?

Armed with knowledge and "rewind", we must now go.
What will be the outcome of this race? Who will win? Us, or it?
Naked feet walk on the snowy road, all is cold, and they're not seen.
Now, there's the thief! But it can't be, the thief is her... yes, it's herself.

Under the möebius strip of time and space, two worlds have now collided.
One world has just been vanished, while another one is born.
The girl that wasn't, now exists,
The smile that wasn't, now screams.

A frightened girl wakes up in time. A gun is aimed, and tears are shed.
The poor girl thinks, it's all gone mad! What's going on? And you, why you?
Why she woke up, she doesn't know. She knows one thing: "Don't want to die!"
I'm glad you're here. But not like this. Don't kill me, of all, not you!

A knife is thrust, and blood is shed. The boogeyman has saved the little girl.
What have you done? You've killed my love! I want to die, just kill me, please.
The boogeyman is vanished, but how, and when? Facing her savior, the girl is thinking, "it can't be."
What am I doing in here? Who are you? Answer me, who are you then? Are you myself?

The savior picks the gun, and now proceeds. The girl thinks, screaming, who are you!?
At the core of the moebius, the world is safe, and smiles are lost. It was my choice.
The frightened little girl is calm again, but hesitates. Explain to me, what's going on?
Her other self does not respond. Why won't you talk? Because I won't.

Under the moebius strip of time and space, two worlds have now collided.
One world has just been vanished, the first one is now reborn.
The girl that wasn't, now exists,
The smile that screamed, inside, lone, cries...

Moebius.

Disappearance of Haruhi trailer released!

2009-12-17T18:50:00.000-08:00

Enjoy! ^_^

Welcome to my youtube channel!

2009-11-25T23:18:00.000-08:00

Hi all! I've finally created and customized my official youtube channel.

You won't see my videos there, but my favorites. Why? Two reasons. One, I have very few videos of my own :P. And two, I want to share what's in my mind. I've created organized playlists out of my favorites, and I hope to expand them so you can know more about me.

See ya!

http://www.youtube.com/user/rickg22

Looking back at my previous posts...

2009-11-15T22:45:00.001-08:00

It's no use hiding it. This year has been the worst year of my life. So painful that my desire to live had just vanished for a while. But after all the problems are gone, and after starting to get my life back (starting with a new take on the Code::Blocks IDE - I'm adding some new features to the Search & replace dialog), I read my previous posts on this blog.

And you know what I found out? That all the suffering these past few months had just felt like a nightmare. Like a horrible nightmare that I was just waking up from.

I really don't know if you understand me, but if you're on the edge of desiring to die, please, gather all your strength and live! There IS light at the end of the tunnel. It's just hard to struggle and to cope with the aftermath, but there is hope.

Well, it's getting late and I need to finish this programming thing by monday. Maybe tomorrow I'll read chapter 2 of Blade Runner.

Good night.

"Disappearance" Haruhi movie: 150 minutes long!

2009-11-10T21:43:00.000-08:00

I'm glad I've been paying attention to the news. After the Kyon-kun-denwa ... ahem, Endless Eight fiasco, it seems that Kadokawa are looking to redeem themselves. So, the good news, is that in the Disappearance movie, we'll have TWO AND A HALF HOURS of fun! Yay!

Source: Official Haruhi website - via Cartoon Leap.

The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi: Coming soon!

2009-10-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

Just to keep us excited (or trolled?), Kadokawa has brought us a commercial for none other than the Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi - coming up, in 2010!

Konsole numpad fix for KDE4

2009-08-31T04:15:00.000-07:00

In /usr/share/kde4/apps/konsole/default.keytab, search for "Keypad keys with NumLock On". After that section is finished, add the following lines:

# Keypad keys with NumLock Off
key Up -Shift+Ansi+AppCuKeys+KeyPad : "\EOA"
key Down -Shift+Ansi+AppCuKeys+KeyPad : "\EOB"
key Right -Shift+Ansi+AppCuKeys+KeyPad : "\EOC"
key Left -Shift+Ansi+AppCuKeys+KeyPad : "\EOD"

key Up -Shift+Ansi-AppCuKeys+KeyPad : "\E[A"
key Down -Shift+Ansi-AppCuKeys+KeyPad : "\E[B"
key Right -Shift+Ansi-AppCuKeys+KeyPad : "\E[C"
key Left -Shift+Ansi-AppCuKeys+KeyPad : "\E[D"

key Home +AppCuKeys+KeyPad : "\EOH"
key End +AppCuKeys+KeyPad : "\EOF"
key Home -AppCuKeys+KeyPad : "\E[H"
key End -AppCuKeys+KeyPad : "\E[F"

key Insert +KeyPad : "\E[2~"
key Delete +KeyPad : "\E[3~"
key Prior -Shift+KeyPad : "\E[5~"
key Next -Shift+KeyPad : "\E[6~"

Just installed KDE 4.2 over Mepis 8

2009-08-30T20:31:00.000-07:00

It cost me a lot of effort and several misconfigurations, but it was worth it.

First of all, I needed to change my debian repository from Lenny to Squeeze. This is where problems started. I didn't like having all those new packages to upgrade, so I decided to upgrade most of them. The problem was that one of those packages overwrote my libglib, and suddenly I couldn't get any GTK applications to run. Like, you know... synaptic - the package manager.

Oops.

I managed to reinstall the previous glib by switching repository back to Lenny, and doing some package juggling in aptitude (the commandline package manager).

Okay, we're safe again, I can boot up firefox.

But oh, no, another problem. The Squeeze version of Synaptic has a segfault problem on certain packages, so I had to update with the SID (experimental) version, where the bug had been fixed. This one gave me a lot of headaches.

After I managed to get it fixed, I updated most of all the applications (except those with CVS / SVN numbers in their versions).

So far, so good.

Finally, there was KDE. First I downloaded all the pertinent packages in synaptic by choosing "download packages only".

I backed up my ~/.kde3 directory...

And updated.

Most of my settings were saved - except the keyboard. And some autostart files that I had previously disabled also ran, so I had to remove them by hand (I forgot which file I edited).

Next, I realized that the settings weren't so easily found. I still can't find where the "start feedback bouncy icon stuff" is located.

I had to reboot because a game messed up my display (hint: Don't try to run KQ, it forces the full screen on you, and if you kill it, the screen keeps being messed up).

I also noticed that my numpad doesn't work so well in konsole. Why is that? I don't know. I guess I'll find out later.

Another setting that I had to reset was the shortcuts like "execute", the task manager and the "start menu" (the big "K" button).

After setting those correctly, I also realized that some settings in the System / System Settings are set to read-only, there's no way to run the program in root mode, I don't know how.

Another downside is that the quicklauncher widget is quite hard to set up, you can't just drag and drop like you did in KDE 3.5. You need to navigate through the right click menu.

The new Plasmoids are pretty cool. Unfortunately, there are too few of them. I guess KDE 4 is still seen with bad eyes by devs.

Another quirk (in my last reboot) is that you need to click twice on the quickstarter to actually see your apps. I hope this happens only in THIS boot.
Other than those quirks, I find the overall look-n-feel to be quite pleasing to the eye.

I think the upgrade was worth it. I was getting bored with my old kde 3.

Endless Eight: The aftermath

2009-08-06T22:27:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard of "Post traumatic stress disorder"? It's a kind of mental illness that affects people exposed to trauma. It has happened to rape victims, and to veteran soldiers. Even after the suffering is gone, the pain remains.

This is how I feel right now. Not to a great extent (it wasn't a real trauma), but i feel a huge disappointment at the second season of Haruhi.

I'm disappointed. Because I expected the best series on Earth, and a peak in the popularity of Suzumiya Haruhi. A new life to a myriad of fans crying for the airing of Disappearance, and much more exciting content to calm them down.

Alas, this has not happened. Like a war prisoner who has escaped his imprisonment, the free world seems suddenly void of meaning, and the pain of the times in prison keeps haunting him at night.

That is the feeling. Terrible boredom. "The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi" will never be the same after this disaster. The purity, the enjoyment, the happy times are now long gone. All that remains is a bleak image in a painting stained with blood and tears.

A crumbling monument to what once was the greatest anime series on Earth.

Re-reading the novels no longer feels "magical" or "special". It's just "more of the same".

If "The Sighs of Suzumiya Haruhi" had been aired as the third, fourth, even sixth episode of the new season, this would still feel great and we would all be waiting in hope for the airing of "The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi". We would be waiting for the new episodes. We would experience a newfound love for Nagato Yuki, seeing her blush and acquire emotions. We would see a boom in Haruhi fanfics and fanart.

But all of that is... gone. Like trying to hold a diamond that has now become sand. It's gone... slipping through our fingers... into the ground, to become nothing but dust. Instead, mediocre stories about schoolgirls founding a music club and having fun will become this year's fad.

And now, let's say farewell to The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, and make a toast. For what it could have been.

But then again...

Do the novels deserve this treatment? No. It's just that this feeling of hopelessness will be very hard to go away. It's a terrible aftertaste. I really don't know how to feel right now. Angry? Mad? Sad?

I'm too exhausted to get mad. Maybe this is what Kadokawa wanted. But why? Who cares! Fuck you Kadokawa! FUCK YOU!

Maybe we'll be able to enjoy the novels by reading them again. But don't expect to gain one cent of our money. You've gone too far this time.

Endless Eight finally ends!

2009-08-06T13:58:00.001-07:00

HURRAY!!! THE ENDLESS EIGHT TROLL IS OVER!

(Image courtesy of 4chan)

After 8 horrifying and shameful repeats of practically the same episode, Endless Eight finally arrives to a conclusion!

(WARNING: Spoilers ahead)

How does it end? Well, Kyon finally gets the guts and yells that he hasn't finished his homework. In front of Haruhi, he asks the rest of the brigade if they haven't done theirs. He starts planning, and Haruhi gets upset at him taking the lead, so she helps them finish their homework (she already finished hers, so she got to play videogames with Kyon's sister).

(Sorry for the bad quality image, this snapshot was taken from a low-resolution raw).

After Haruhi was finally satisfied with the summer vacations, Kyon (and most important, Nagato) could finally wake up on September the 1st. Yay!

What's next? Disappearance?

The next question is whether we'll have only one Sighs episode (the making of the adventures of Asahina Mikuru) and then we can witness the long-awaited Disappearance Arc, with only four episodes left for the new season, or if we'll have to bear with 5 episodes for Sighs.

Whatever the result is, we can only be sure of one thing: Disappearance will have to be aired, AND have top-notch quality. Otherwise, heads will start rolling at Kadokawa.

Update: Continuity error? (in a time loop? HAH!)

I just spotted a continuity error. In previous episodes of Haruhi, Kyon's alarm clock RANG. With a bell. In this episode, Kyon's alarm clock BEEPED!

Maybe I'm the first one to spot this subtle difference?

Can't watch Disappearance? Make it, then!

2009-08-04T21:05:00.001-07:00

Today I found a very pleasant video on youtube. After being trolled so much by Kadokawa and their evil KyoAni minions with Endless Eight, I wanted so much to see a blushing Nagato Yuki.

And behold - I found a video where she does blush!

This video was made in 2007, and is a reenactment of a scene from The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi.

WARNING: SPOILERS.

In this scene, Kyon wakes up in a world without Espers, Aliens or time travelers. A normal world. And in this world, there is no Suzumiya Haruhi. At least, not in North High.

But there is a character whom he knows: Nagato Yuki. In this world, Nagato had met Kyon when he helped her get a library card. She was too timid to get a card herself, so he had helped her out of compassion.

When Kyon enters the literature club room, she recognizes him, but wonders why he keeps staring at her. Trying to hide her emotions, she goes back to reading her book. But he's still there, looking at her. Anxious, she starts blushing more and more, as Kyon enjoys the view.

I'm sure this fan-altered scene will please all the Nagatoists out there. Enjoy!

Update: Japanator accepted my submission, and made it into an official news story. Hurray!
http://www.japanator.com/the-fans-bring-us-what-kyoani-won-t-see-yuki-nagato-blush-in-this-video-10796.phtml

Impossible! I'm enjoying Endless Eight!

2009-07-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

And here I thought there was no way in the world I could actually enjoy Endless Eight. And yet, I did. So, what happened?

I downloaded episode 6 of the "second season" of Suzumiya Haruhi. I did this because I needed the rotating clock scene for an AMV I've been wanting to do for a few months.

After I finished downloading the episode... I put play and chose a scene randomly. And I was amazed: I actually enjoyed it!

How can this be? Because the background music, the character expressions, they were done amazingly well.

Maybe it's like the baby food commercial: By hearing that song so many times, you're actually starting to enjoy it (by Menem!). Let's just hope Endless Eight doesn't become this year's George Constanza.

However, it's still a waste that KyoAni is putting so much effort in practically identical episodes. Sigh. I still wish I was able to watch "disappearance" later. I hope a miracle happens and Disappearance finally airs.

For now (newest japanese word I learned while watching anime: Toriaezu - meanwhile, for now, right now), I'll use the little free time I have to make my Haruhi AMV, and finish my fanfic: The Alternate World of Nagato Yuki (an alternate version of The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi. The premise is: What if Nagato could remember something she had forgotten?), available on fanfiction.net. In any case, this endless eight troll has given me a few ideas to put on the story.

See ya next iteration!

Endless eight STILL not over.

2009-07-16T21:06:00.001-07:00

I just watched episode 16 online, and the time loop is STILL NOT BROKEN!
We'll have to suffer another groundhog day next week!

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

On the other hand, this week's episode provided me the material I *just* needed for my future Haruhi/Alphaville AMV.

Oh, boy.

It's groundhog day for Haruhi!

2009-06-27T22:44:00.000-07:00

Finally! The moment I've been waiting for, for nearly 600 years: The time loop episode, yay!

Being a die-hard fan of the Suzumiya Haruhi Light Novels, finally we could experience Endless Eight in all its glory.

What's more, we can finally see Nagato ACTUALLY showing emotions. Who can NOT feel compassion for this poor girl?

Nagato! Don't despair! We love you!!!

The depression is over!

2009-06-07T11:47:00.001-07:00

NEW LIFE, HERE I COME!

A week ago I joined okcupid.com, an online dating site based on questionaires so that you can find your match based on politics, moral, hygiene, religion, common interests, sexual tastes, attitudes towards life and whatnot. Answering over 1000 multiple-choice questions has helped me know myself and boost my self-esteem. I no longer feel lonely or doomed to die abandoned by everyone. I go to bed with hope instead of pain, and wake up with joy instead of the burden of having to live another day.

FINALLY, I am free!!

If a nerd girl (otaku preferred) wants to become my girlfriend and lives in Mexico City, feel free to visit my dating profile.

Anyway. My current job is still going to be very demanding for the next two weeks. Maybe then I'll be able to resume work on my open source projects.

Until then, so long!

The Front Controller Pattern: Removing redundancy in web applications

2009-06-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

Hello, everyone! I'm here posting from my new job. In my frist day I've been given a series of documents to study. Turns out that we'll be using a front-controller architecture.

In my previous job, I used an MVC approach to design our web applications. But I noticed that there was a lot of redundancy in the "main" scripts. Basically, I did the following:

Define the used variables
Access session data
Call the appropriate method based on the current action
Process the results

The only necessary part for each script is step 3. Call the appropriate method based on the current action. So what am I doing with a bunch of nearly identical scripts that have to be customized?

This is where the Front Controller pattern comes in.

The Front Controller Pattern

In a nutshell, a Front Controller is a single script that serves as a front-end for all your applications. All the other scripts are called through some parameter (usually defined in the URL as a query string variable, or some path to a "script").

The trick is that the front controller already handles authentication, session, etc. If you want to add, for example, a traffic control routine to limit the number of calls per second, you can do it in the front controller.

For more information about the Front Controller pattern, check out these links:

http://java.sun.com/blueprints/patterns/FrontController.html

http://w3style.co.uk/a-lightweight-and-flexible-front-controller-for-php-5

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/os-php-designptrns/

http://evolucionphp.blogspot.com/2007/09/front-controller-pattern.html (spanish)

Cleanup time = 4 liters of dust!

2009-05-29T22:38:00.000-07:00

Finally I moved out some of the stuff that were in the storage house -er, my room, and moved it to the other room that I began to rent to store... stuff.

Several briefcases, several bags of old clothes, old video recordings, more bags, and one piece of furniture. Now I know where all that dust that kept appearing in my room came from: It was hidden under all that baggage!

Let's hope that this cleanup can finally give my lungs some rest.

After 3 years of trolls, Haruhi is back!

2009-05-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

Finally! After three long years of promises, promises, and promises, we're now able to watch the first episode from the long-awaited Haruhi Season 2.

This episode is "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody". I chose this screenshot to compare it to the "leaked screenshot" I showed earlier, that turned out to be an independent CG art for an anime magazine. Personally, I liked the CG art more than the new animation. I didn't like the new character designs, they look too "K-On'ish" to me.

In any case, this is a wonderful day for all Haruhiists, and personally I congratulate the pilgrims - er, fans who traveled all the way to Saitama to watch the earliest broadcast for this episode.

Update: The videos of this episode that were posted on youtube are now removed thanks to a copyright claim by Kadokawa.

I guess this is what "the disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi" really means :D

May 24: More evidence of New Haruhi episode?

2009-05-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed that Haruhi-chan episode #25 has "24 May" as the date when Kyon met Asakura?

As we should probably all know, May 24 is the date when the Haruhi Season 2 first episode will be aired.

I find this very suspicious. Because in Nagato's game, the date is related to Asakura's DECEPTION AND KILLING of Kyon.

Or maybe it's just another subtle hint at Season 2?

Well, Kadokawa, you better not make fun of us. Because we might turn into an angry mob of Asakuras at you!!

It's cleanup time!

2009-05-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

Having passed the worst part of my emotional crisis, I realized there was a lot to clean up in my room. I had purchased some fansubs recently (I don't have money to purchase originals, and I consider fansubs to be of better quality, for reasons that I won't explain here), but I had forgotten to cut the covers from DVD size to CD size.

I keep my fansubs in transparent CD envelopes, and they fit all in a small box designed for CDs. Well, I had these fansubs all piled up in their "original" boxes, and they use up all the space. So this is one of the things that I'm going to do right now.

My room is a mess.

Haruhi second season: Leaked screenshot?

2009-05-09T21:19:00.000-07:00

Browsing the web, I found this picture (courtesy of the somethingawful forums). It's a scene that takes place in the third novel of Suzumiya Haruhi, in chapter "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody". This chapter sets the stage for the fourth novel: The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi, which will be covered by the Haruhi season 2.

With all the hype behind the second season, my question is: Is this a real screenshot that was leaked from the season 2, or just a (very high quality) artist's rendering?

I hope I haven't got the swine flu...

2009-05-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

I woke up with a terrible headache this morning. And yesterday I had a sore throat (not right now, thankfully), but this has raised my suspicions. If tomorrow I wake up with fever, I'll get a doctor right away.

Did I mention I live in Mexico city?

I hate this! :(

The Literature of Suzumiya Haruhi

2009-04-16T19:10:00.000-07:00

Introduction.

For the past 2 weeks I've been having some headaches - possibly due to the stress of not being able to find a good job, and having your whole family use you as a cheap-o maid replacement to help with the daily chores. So, between the job hunt, helping mom, helping sis, (she's practically a single mother, and I say practically because her husband works all day), getting depressed, getting headaches, I haven't had time to work on my open source project. And then, when I happen have a little time, I find myself blocked.

Fortunately, to relieve the negative feelings accumulated in my right brain, I've had some time to forget about my problems by reading translated japanese novels at baka-tsuki.org. It's not easy to find the novels in English, and that's if you had the luck to be born above the Bravo. What is an international user supposed to do when the international shipping and handling costs twice the value of the books themselves? And here I thought the NAFTA would do something to help. Pfft.

But I digress. The reason that I'm writing here is to promote the not-yet-published (at least not below the United States) novels of Suzumiya Haruhi.

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi

Have you heard about Haruhi? It's an anime show about an obnoxious, freakishly annoying hyperactive girl with no sense of morals who happens to have divine powers that alter reality according to her wishes. The trick is, she doesn't KNOW she has those powers. So her school club, called the SOS brigade, ends up paying for the broken dishes. Ah, isn't that beautiful?

Our stories narrate the misadventures of Kyon and the other members of SOS brigade in the quest to save the world from Haruhi. Haruhi is not aware, but the team members include a time traveler, an alien, an esper, and Kyon, who will later travel back in time to help her three years ago with sending a message to the stars.

So - what does the anime have that makes it so special? To be sincere, I only have a slight idea. But what I came here to talk for, is the novels - and literature in general.

The nauseating misadventures of a literate person in the "wonderful world" of fanfiction.net - part 1 of 1

If you ever set a foot on fanfiction.net, you'll often find a small number of good fan fictions about cartoons, anime, books, etc. Then you'll find a greater number of regular fan fictions, and a huge amount of works whose nauseating bad quality makes the dizziness of Mirror's Edge look like a children's merry-go-round.

So what's the reason for the bad quality? Lack of education. Most fanfic writers are a bunch of illiterate kiddies who think "reading" is browsing the interwebs to catch up with latest gossip of their favorite TV star, and whose concept of "literature" is Harry Potter.

So, here I am, tired of this world filled with a lot of stupid and non-cultivated sheeple, realizing how much Haruhi was right in saying that she's bored of this world (so bored that she nearly destroys it unconsciously).

Suzumiya Haruhi, Yagami Light, Lelouch vi Brittania, I beg you, let me join your ranks and take over the world.

How to write good literature?

A few days ago, to save my mind from boredom and frustration, I decided to let my imagination take off and reach the multicolored skies of the work that humans call "art". I decided to write fan fiction about Haruhi. Having read the novels, I tried to imitate the author's style of narration. After all, Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

It was an interesting and passionate exercise. But after reading my own works, I realized that my writing was very inferior to the original works. Why? Culture.

I'll make a parenthesis to ask this question: Have you ever actually read science fiction and fantasy? I mean reading works of people like H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, Orson Scott Card, Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, George Orwell, and, of course, J.R.R. Tolkien? I don't include J.K. Rowling on purpose, because the level of culture in her works approaches the following formula:

(x!) to the power of -1, for very large values of x.

If the only kind of fiction you've been in contact with, are the latest cinematic adaptations of Marvel stories, and the only superlative of "good" you know is "awesome", it won't require the mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to realize that your fan fiction will be more displeasing to the mind than a hydrogen sulfide cloud is to the nose - and don't get me started on grammar.

On the contrary, if you have read good fictional works, and if you're well-versed in all kinds of science (biology, genetics, math, astronomy, history, geography), then it means that you have many more ingredients and spices to cook your own works of literature.

While Haruhi's creator, Nagaru Tanigawa makes a lot of cultural, astronomical, scientific, science-fiction (this means book science fiction, not cheap TV sci-fi, as I have shown above) and historical references, the only references I could think of were mathematical, computer science, a little psychology, and anime. It was then that I realized that to write good literature, you need to read A LOT of good literature.

Please allow me to repeat that.

To write good literature, you need to read a lot of good literature.

My opinion of the Suzumiya Haruhi Light Novels

Acknowledging the fact that a translated work loses a lot of the original appeal, I feel compelled to take off my hat and give Tanigawa-sama my deepest respect. His writing style is not only amusing (Kyon's remarks achieve a level of sarcasm that would make Gregory House proud), but the story is exciting, well structured, complex, and even romantic. Its characters are anything but two-dimensional (with the exception of Asahina-Mikuru, but what's a meal without a good spice?), and... I simply ran out of words to describe the psychological impact of his novels.

How could I describe the impact that Tanigawa's works had on my mind? Perhaps the only adequate comparison would be the vaporization of a car with a rocket sled at 650 mph.

To paraphrase Nagato Yuki, there are some things that cannot be explained with words due to the high levels of information loss.

My conclusion: If you're an anime fan, are curious about literature, and whose desires for reading are far greater than the desire to put your grey matter to sleep, please read The Suzumiya Haruhi light novels.

Thank you.

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi: Light Novels review

2009-04-08T20:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a small "What I read / expected / got" image I made for TheSomethingAwful forums.

I have to say I finally finished reading the translated novels, up to chapter 9 (yes, all of it.

Frankly, I expected the same thing I saw in the TV series: A twisted kind of humor about a spoiled little brat (Haruhi) who kept making Kyon's life more annoying everyday (hence, the snapshot). What I got was so awesome I couldn't describe it, so I used a screenshot of Star Wars, but still that's an understatement. Perhaps a video would explain it far better:

Yet another Mikuru Beam Parody

Yup, that's how awesome it was. See, Episode 00 of the Adventures of Asahina Mikuru was just the movie. Knowing Haruhi, the world was turned upside down during the filming of the movie, and kyon was, as usual, in the middle of it. Also, the Mikuru Beam became real. That's why Nagato had to throw Mikuru to the floor. Interesting enough?

Well, that's JUST THE BEGINNING.

I happened to read "the disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi" (the 4th novel) and we get transported to a world where Haruhi didn't have superpowers and everyone was normal - including Nagato. But there was something different with this Nagato: She showed emotions. Anyway, Kyon gets back to the normal world (or he sets the world back to normal ;-) ), and see the first glimpses of Nagato showing emotions.

The first one: "Thank you".

Later in the novels, I witnessed something much more awesome. Nagato faced her self in a past timeplane (they traveled to the past with Mikuru's help).

Past Nagato: Request Synchronization.
Present Nagato: ...
Past Nagato: Request Synchronization.
Present Nagato: Denied.
Past Nagato: ... why?
Present Nagato: Because I don't want to.

So, trust me when I say this to you: READ THE NOVELS!

You learn much more about Mikuru, Nagato, Koizumi, the Organization, Tsuruya-san, and the SOS brigade's enemies (yes, there are enemies now!)

My current thoughts right now are the anxiety for the Season 2 of the Haruhi TV series. Will they arrive this year? I really hope so.

In the meantime, we can enjoy the Haruhi-chan TV series made by Kadokawa for youtube! :) Imagine a mix of Lucky Star and Haruhi, remembering that the actress who voices Konata is the same who voices Haruhi! Hilarity ensues :D

G.I. Joe vs. japanese Godzilla: Ever wondered why?

2009-03-11T23:06:00.000-07:00

One thing I've been thinking about is how 80's TV shows for americans involved saving the world from evil villains who wanted to dominate the world, while japanese cartoons involve saving the city from total anihilation by giant monsters (from space or elsewhere).

After watching a recent movie about the CIA, I realized it was all about war.

For Japan, it was Hiroshima. A city was completely destroyed and the country fell into chaos. On the other hand, the 80's were for the U.S. about the cold war and the cuban missiles looming like Damocles' Sword upon the free world (read-as: The U.S.)

So, we have G.I. Joe, we have the Marvel and D.C. Cartoons (including of course, Captain America), we have space operas, but all of them centered around an evil villain wanting to rule the universe/galaxy/planet/whatever, and a team of heroes wanting to counter them (He-man, Silver Hawks, Blackstar, Bravestarr, etc).

Meanwhile, the Japanese have Godzilla, giant robots fighting giant monsters (again, all in the city) or invaders from outer space...

Notice the difference:

East: The bad guys just destroy the defenseless city.
West: The bad guys want to destroy the government.

East: The bad guys are ALWAYS more powerful than the military (remember, who lost WW2?)
West: The bad guys are ALWAYS less powerful than the military.

East: The bad guys don't care who they kill - the more, the better.
West: The bad guys only threaten to kill - to lure the good guys into a certain death.

East: The good guys defeat the bad guys even at a technological handicap. They're SMART!
West: The good guy can only defeat the bad guys with greater technology (a lesson well learned during WW2: The gun is mightier than the sword!)

This philosophical difference is also appreciated during modern cartoons and TV shows.

East:

Robotech: Aliens come and destroy the planet - well, almost all of it, and the good guys defeat them using their own technology.
Slayers: Demons can only be defeated by summoning even greater demons (and we have to thank they can't destroy the whole world... yet)
Dragonball Z: The (insert your favorite enemy) wants to destroy the Earth.
Voltron: Aliens want to destroy the planet. How to fight them? With a giant robot, of course!

West:
He man vs. Skeletor and his evil henchmen...
Spiderman vs. (insert your typical villain)...
Batman vs. (insert your typical villain)...
Superman vs. (insert your typical supervillain)...
Knight Rider vs. your typical thieves...

Anime is often criticized for its excessive violence. But there's something we have forgotten: We may have been scared about 9/11, but it was the U.S. who put the bomb in Hiroshima and Nagazaki. Do we have the moral right to complain about the excessive violence in japanese cartoons? But I digress.

The main difference is that while we were worrying about the cold war and the russians, the japanese were still trying to cope with the destruction of not only two of their greatest cities, but of their whole civilization. The stigma is still there.

How anime companies are shooting themselves in the foot

2009-03-10T14:36:00.000-07:00

How anime companies are shooting themselves in the foot (oh, and I found a nice anime blog)

I may be preaching to the choir, but I couldn't resist posting about it... again.

This time it's anime companies. I recently found a cool blog dedicated to reviewing anime. It's located at http://vissione.wordpress.com/. So, it's a very nice place to check out for anime you might want to watch.

The problem? Almost all the opening and closing sequences I found were removed due to copyright reasons. Isn't that stupid? The guy isn't stealing anyone's media. He's PROMOTING YOUR ANIME YOU IDIOTS! (i'm talking to the anime companies).

And then I remember Peter's Principle and realize that the owners of anime companies are a bunch of incompetent dummies.

I quit my job, and I feel fine!

2009-03-06T09:43:00.000-08:00

When I signed up for a C++ developer job at the company, the least I expected is that I would be testing webpages and have nothing else to do. I can't say anything more (I don't want to be sued). But I can't stand it anymore. I want a job where I can fully exploit my C++ abilities.

Amazon + 360 game + intl shipping + clumsiness = ARGH!

2009-03-01T20:04:00.000-08:00

Last week something happened that really irritated me. Someone broke an XBOX 360 game that I had purchased online (with LOTS of difficulties).

The game? Guilty Gear 2: Overture. At first I had tried to purchase it through Amazon. No problem there, right? Wrong.

First difficulty: Export restrictions.

There was an export restriction that prevented Amazon from sending me the game directly.

So what did I do? I happened to have a US address so that they could send the package there. It's one of those international services that help you get packages sent to you across the border (legally). Normally it's not easy to get those, because you need to go to the U.S. embassy to sign some bureaucracy papers. A relative of mine happened to have one, so I used that instead.

Second difficulty: Shipping expenses.

Everyone would think shipping would have no problems. But I ended up spending over $150 in shipping for a stupid game. Wanna know how much the game costs? Less than $30. Obviously something VERY WRONG is going on.

Third difficulty: I can't send the package directly to my friend.

As if that wasn't hard enough, I needed to receive the package where I live, because that's a restriction of the international delivery service. Guess what, I had to wait at home to check if the package arrived. What would happen if nobody was home when the package arrived? Fortunately, my parents were home the day the package arrived. But that was a rare case.

What happens next? I have to send the package to my friend, and spend another $30 sending the package to my friend (we don't live in the same city).

The whole transaction took over 2 months.

The next week... my friend was playing the game with one of his pals, when the XBOX 360 fell, and the game got terribly scratched.

I can't ask for a replacement because that doesn't apply to international orders. So I wasted over three hundred dollars total.

What about backups? Now, if the XBOX 360 allowed one to make backups of their games so that they don't get scratched in an accident, everyone would be happy. but oh, no! Piracy!!! Gasp! We need to protect our billionaire investments!

And still, my friend insists that he wants to get ANOTHER copy. Original of course. (I still don't understand why can't we purchase a pirated version of the game, *IF* we could get one. It's for ONE person, only ONE license is needed, right?)

This is the reason why I don't support the videogame industry - or the music or film industries. They don't care about backups. They don't care about replacing your broken discs (even if making one of them costs only one cent). They just care about their money. They're RIPPING US OFF, and then they treat us like criminals.

Well, there's NO WAY IN HELL that I'm going through all that again! Want to get a game? Get some patience and wait for the game to get sold in here. Then, TAKE CARE OF IT!

The whole videogames industry is just a mafia. Export restrictions, anti-backup ("anti-piracy") measures, overinflated prices... I'm sick tired of it. I'm glad I already sold my PS2 and the games I had purchased (first-sale doctrine, hurray!). And I don't plan to purchase another console for me (or for anybody else) EVER.

Congratulations, Microsoft! Your just lost a valuable customer!

YouMute: Destroying creativity online.

2009-02-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning. I recline on my chair to enjoy the delicacies of online audiovisual creativity. I grab the rounded pointing device and control the imaginary arrow known as "mouse pointer" to start up the bookmarks on Firefox.

Today I feel in a good mood, so I thank heavens for allowing me to enjoy the synaptic interconnection between different people in an act known as "video art". To my dismay, there's something wrong. The artist has been muted. What can an artist do without his voice?

I'm talking about youtube muting videos online. My inner peace is gone thanks to the putrid greed that the Warner Media Group, Sony and Universal show. They don't care about artists. They just care about money.

It's no wonder they call themselves "Recording Industry Association of America" instead of "Music Industry Association". Because music implies art. And this is not about art. This is about expoiting random bands, getting all the money that they earned from their hard work, and creating a phantom enemy: Piracy.

It's all a lie. There is no lost sales due to piracy. It's a myth. And the RIAA has kept earning money all along, but they want to make more. So they create in their twisted and retorted minds this make-believe villain.

"ZOMG, teens are steeling our songs from youtubezorz!!!111"

So they start muting the videos created by people, like you or me - videos that took hours, if not WHOLE days to make. What about the effort of those people? They're not asking for money. They just want to express their feelings with everyone in the form of music and video.

That is what youtube used to provide. Creativity meant that you could use someone else's works to create something new and make it 10 times better than the original. This is what remixing is.

But not anymore. The big media groups are demanding to be paid for every single time their song is heard on an online video. It doesn't matter if it's just a small fraction of the video. They shut it down.

This is the end result: Creative expression being completely destroyed.

Because YouTube are shooting themselves in the foot. They're turning from something like this:

(If the video was removed, it was an excellent AMV made by ZephyrStar - the video took him A WHOLE YEAR to make)

Into this:

(A stupid backyard injury)

IF YOU LOVE ART, PLEASE BOYCOTT THE RIAA. If they mute us, they deserved to be muted, too! (Oh, and now that you're at it, boycott youtube, too. It won't take too long before they become a piece of crap)

Cutest anime video ever (featuring Hatsune Miku)

2009-01-27T21:36:00.000-08:00

I was blessed today when I found this music video featuring Hatsune Miku. In chibi version! ^_^

What Stallman said about George Bush

2009-01-21T11:07:00.000-08:00

In 1988, George Bush called Mike Dukakis a "card-carrying member of the ACLU", in effect comparing the Bill of Rights with Communism and its defenders with Communists. This insult to the US Constitution inspired me, as it did many others, to join the ACLU. Let's hope the Shrub will not be president; one Bush was too many.

(Said on a Slashdot interview, on May 1st, 2000)

And there are more Stallman quotes regarding politics:

It's official: Attorney General Ashcroft says that people like me "aid terrorists" because we "erode our national unity". I was wondering how long it would take for the Bush administration to say that its critics are "aiding terrorists", because that follows a global tendency in the "war on terrorism" to attack dissent and criminalize protest. If government condemnation of dissenting views offends you, please give your support to the ACLU, which has spoken out against them.

Some points to think about:

a) Like father, like son. Bush father compared the Bill of Rights with communism - Bush son completely destroyed the rights of the american citizens, and even went to call the constitution a "piece of paper".

b) Geniuses like Stallman are very often right about their predictions. Why is it that common people do not listen to their advices until it's too late? I'm sure right now people would say "Oh my Gosh! Stallman was SO right!" But four years ago, everyone was like "ZOMG! The tarrorists! We must do something!"

c) The people get the government they deserve. Let's hope Obama manages to fix at least some of the mess created by the shrub. And let's hope that this 8-year mistake inflicted upon the world doesn't repeat itself (Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it). But maybe I'm asking too much of the American People.

d) If we let the government control our lives because of "terrorism", then the terrorists have won.

Highlander, Chibi Edition

2009-01-17T16:59:00.001-08:00

This is my latest creation. One of the premises of Rozen Maiden is that all 7 dolls must fight in a duel called "the Alice Game", until only one doll is left. The winner gets "the prize", which is to become Alice, a perfect being full of beauty and majesty.

This reminded me of Highlander, the movie (there can be only one!) Therefore, I hereby present you:

I hate the RIAA.

2009-01-17T05:56:00.000-08:00

Alright, ladies and gentleman, here comes X, the greatest Guitar Hero ever!
(applause)

And now he's gonna interpret you your favorite song, Y!

(applause)

- Wait a minute, where's the song?
- No song. The RIAA accused uploaders of piracy.
- Oh c'mon man, I own the f'ing song!
- Rules are rules.
- But it's FAIR USE! I just want to play the damn song on Frets on Fire!
- Sorry, no official download. You'll have to wait 60 seconds and try again using rapidshare.
- Alright, screw it. I'm gonna burn the song and just download the frets file.
What? No standalone file?
Okay, I'm contacting the author... a couple of days later, I got the file.
Now, to convert the song MANUALLY.
Done.
ARGH, IT DOESN'T SYNC!

(public boos)

*SMASHES GUITAR*

And this is why I hate the RIAA.

More braaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiins....

2009-01-15T20:17:00.001-08:00

I'm so tired I feel like a hungry zombie. And speaking of zombies, here's a great zombie comic:

The Zombie Hunters. Apparently the author has managed to combine the atmospheres of Silent Hill, Resident Evil, VGCats, and... emo. Worth taking a bite at it ;-)

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Treason

2009-01-14T21:50:00.000-08:00

Why, oh why.

Everything was going according to Plan. But now I feel betrayed and full of hate. Dakara, I am now inclined to take revenge. I will take revenge upon Code Geass and spoil the ending! (so you won't have to).

Okay, here goes the plot. Lelouch, a young prince that was betrayed by his father, King of Britannia, swears to destroy Britannia no matter the costs. This happened when he was a refugee in Japan - which was invaded by Britannia with superior technology.

SOMEHOW, Lelouch obtains a mystical power, the Geass, that gives him the ability to give any order to ANYONE, and no matter if that implies something that the victim fights against with all his/her will, the victim will obey.

Now, Lelouch uses that power to take revenge upon Britannia, using the alias of Zero. The 23 most epic anime episodes you could ever watch, take place. This is even better than Death Note. Or is it...?

Near the end, Lelouch's sister, princess Euphemia, starts a new era of peace by declaring the central part of Japan as a special protectorate where no discrimination will happen.

Lelouch is defeated in his purpose of revenge, but he agrees. Then, this is where things get nasty. He tells Euphie about his power. "If I was to order you... to kill all the Japanese...."

And guess what happens? The Geass goes out of control, and Euphie, who had fought against discrimination, begins killing all the Japanese!. Lelouch has to kill her, and now his best friend (who was in love with Euphie) is going to take revenge upon him.

So... this is what I want to say to the creators of this anime.

YOU RUINED IT YOU BASTARDS!!! Code Geass was about to become my *NEW* favorite anime, and you f***ed up it in five minutes!

How exactly do I feel? Like the ending of "Planet of the apes" (the original one, not Tim Burton's mockery).

I'll quote.

You finally really did it...
YOU MURDERERS!
YOU BLEW IT UP!
DAMN YOU!
DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!!

Yes, that's how I feel. To the readers: Do yourselves a favor, and DON'T WATCH THIS SERIES. Ugh.
I want my money back!

P.S. Just in case you didn't get it... Code Geass sucks! (Yes, I admit it, I just typed it to increase the blog rankings :P ) Hey look, 408 results, yay! http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22code+geass+sucks%22&btnG=Search

Day 2 without activities.

2009-01-13T20:12:00.000-08:00

Lately the job has been getting me really busy... and tired. As a result, I haven't been able to work on Saya for two consecutive days. Maybe it's one of those weeks.

On the other hand, I've been enjoying a really interesting anime: Code Geass. Given my fascination for intelligent anti-heroes (or villains) who always think strategically, I love it. At least it lets me enjoy a day that's been filled with frustrations.

G'night.

RedHat reminds me of Microsoft.

2009-01-13T06:55:00.000-08:00

Argh. I absolutely hate CentOS (and redhat). Due to job reasons, I needed to install CentOS 5.2 on a virtualbox VM.

Let me tell you - it's the most unfriendly Linux distribution I've *EVER* tested (yes, even more unfriendly than the first Ubuntu distros that appeared). I was expecting that with the advent of new Linux distros, the RedHat guys would learn something. Guess what? They didn't!

For starters, YOU DON'T KNOW THE ROOT PASSWORD. If you set up a user, the installation just assumes that you don't want to ever log in as root. So it doesn't ask you for the root password. Oh, gee! How am I going to install packages, huh? Ah, guess what, I should have told it to make a root user in the first place. Ugh. At least Ubuntu got it right (relatively) by letting you sudo.

This problem was "solved" by loggin in with a single-user, by entering the boot menu, pressing e, moving down, pressing e again, and adding a "1" (without the quotes) to the command, pressing enter, and "b" (note that I had to Search The Web to find out how to do this. Why don't they provide such a facility? What a user-unfriendly boot menu. So, I booted as root, typed passwd, entered my password, rebooted.
Alright, I can login as root now!

Then more problems arise. As I'm tired of the stupid mouse pointer getting caged in the VM, I wanted to install the VirtualBox additions. I got an error message that said: "/bin/sh: bad interpreter". Googling didn't work. I had to do /bin/sh VirtualBoxAdditionswhatever.run

Then it told me to install GCC because it wasn't installed.

Oh, great. OK, no problem.

apt-get install gcc

bash: apt-get: command not found.

What? No apt-get?

So I tried yum install apt-get, yum install apt, and nothing happened.

ARGH! Do I really have to stick with an awful package manager? Why don't they just face the fact that rpm SUCKS? Install apt, dammit! And synaptic now that we're at it. Oh, but that would be admitting that our package manager sucks, right? Right. This is why I say they remind me of Microsoft: They suffer a terrible case of the "NIHS" (Not Invented Here syndrome), so they throw at us all their proprietary - er... branded software and we have to stick with it. Why didn't they add apt in their damn repos?

So now I'm still trying to find a tutorial on how to install apt on RedHat. And still not succeeding.

I really don't know why RedHat supposedly "improved" on Debian. It's as if they had embraced and extended it, to stall development and make their users suffer with constant annoyances.

So, if you're gonna try a new distro, do yourself a favor. DO *NOT* try RedHat (or CentOS because it's the same thing). It's a piece of crap.

Update: Just what I needed. After installing synaptic, I couldn't install packages from the CentOS repository (E: Unknown signature /var/cache/apt/archives/gcc-c++-4.1.2-42.el5.i386.rpm: (SHA1) DSA sha1 md5 (GPG) NOT OK (MISSING KEYS: GPG#e8562897). After Googling, it turns out that the CentOS signing key does NOT come installed by default! (For security reasons, they say. WTF?)

Just in case you need it, here's the command:


rpm --import http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-5

Sheesh. Fixing a broken registry in MS-Windows is much less frustrating than this.

Interesting discussion about Linux and the GPL...

2008-12-30T10:41:00.000-08:00

I was browsing the web about the existence of binary modules for Linux (i.e. nVidia drivers), and I wondered:

The linux headers are GPL'ed. So what happens if I write a program that makes use of those headers, but is not a kernel module?

This led me to find the following 2003 discussion in Kerneltrap:

Linux: The GPL And Binary Modules

What called my attention the most was Linus' closing statement.

From: Linus Torvalds [email blocked]
Subject: Re: Linux GPL and binary module exception clause?
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2003 17:58:18 -0800 (PST)

On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, Larry McVoy wrote:
> >
> > linux/COPYING says: This copyright does *not* cover user programs
> > that use kernel services by normal system calls - this is merely
> > considered normal use of the kernel, and does *not* fall under
> > the heading of "derived work".
>
> Yeah, and the GPL specificly invalidates that statement. We're on thin
> ice here. Linus is making up the rules, which is cool (since I tend to
> like his rules) but the reality is that the GPL doesn't allow you to
> extend the GPL. It's the GPL or nothing.

Larry, you are wrong.

The license _IS_ the GPL. There's no issue about that. The GPL rules apply
100%.

But a license only covers what it _can_ cover - derived works. The fact
that Linux is under the GPL simply _cannot_matter_ to a user program, if
the author can show that the user program is not a derived work.

And the linux/COPYING addition is not an addition to the license itself
(indeed, it cannot be, since the GPL itself is a copyrighted work, and so
by copyright law you aren't allowed to just take it and change it).

No, the note at the top of the copying file is something totally
different: it's basically a statement to the effect that the copyright
holder recognizes that there are limits to a derived work, and spells out
one such limit that he would never contest in court.

See? It's neither a license nor a contract, but it actually does have
legal meaning: look up the legal meaning of "estoppel" (google "define:"
is qutie good). Trust me, it's got _tons_ of legal precedent.

Linus

So yes, userspace programs *ARE* allowed to #include the kernel headers.

Later, some anonymous guy added this brilliant piece of insight:

Including Kernel Header Files
December 8, 2003 - 6:23am
Anonymous

It seems that most of the people on this list have forgotten their compiler design course. If the kernel file only contains things like variable declarations and function prototypes then it will NOT end up in the object code after compilation. It will be used to inform the compiler of things like how much memory to set aside for a particulair variable or to make sure that the correct number of arguments are passed to a function in the correct order. None of that type of "code" from a ".h" file ends up in the executable (unless debugging code is left in - but that's a little bit of a different story).

Where things get gooey, as was being pointed out in one of the comments in the original story, is when you start to include ".h" files that contain things like macro definitions and inline functions. Those two things DO end up in the compiled object/executable code that the compiler produces. When a macro is used in the source code and a compiler comes across it it will be expanded; in other words, the macro in the source will be expanded, or replaced, by the macro's definition as was given in the ".h" file and then it will be compiled and then the object code will be written to the output file. At that point the argument can be made that the GPLed "code" in the kernel's ".h" file made it into the final user space program.

A similair thing happens with inline functions. By definition of inline, the function is expanded inline. This means that when the compiler comes across the function call it is expanded inline; it is NOT called in the normal way that a function is called. A normal function is called by placing the parameters, or variables that you are sending to the function, on the stack, along with the return address and a few other things, and then jumping to the location in memory where the function is stored (by placing a new value in the IP, or Instruction Pointer, register in the CPU). When the function has completed it will issue a "ret" to return to where the function was called from. This is accomplished by looking at the return address that you previously stored on the stack and loading it into the IP register on the CPU.

As you can see this whole process is kind of a pain in the ass; in computer speak: it takes a long time. Macros and inline functions were employed as a way to avoid this process for very simple functions. First came macros which worked well but were sometimes difficult to predict exactly how the compiler would expand them. Further they provided no way to type check the variables that were being sent to them. The solution was inline functions. Instead of having one copy of the function in memory like a normal function, the "code" of an inline function is placed in the program everywhere it is called from. This makes the program a little bit larger but makes it execute much faster because it doesn't have to put a bunch of stuff on the stack and jump all over the place in memory. And macros are expanded and then compiled and put in the code everywhere they are called as well.

This is where the apprehension of including the kernel's ".h" files comes from. If the ".h" file only has function prototypes and variable declarations (and the debugging code is stripped out) then none of it will be in the compiled program. It is used by the compiler and then discarded. But, if the kernel's ".h" file has things like macros and inline functions then some of the kernel's GPLed code will make it into your compiled program and your program will become a derived work and thus must be licensed under the GPL.

Tres

Interesting, isn't it?

Ubuntu Virtualbox problems.

2008-12-18T08:38:00.000-08:00

I hate it! Since I installed Ubuntu I've had nothing but trouble.

Let me show you what my problem is: I need to install Virtualbox at the job to do some VM tests. My first choice was installing the newly-released 2.1 with support for OpenGL and whatnot.

The problem? Virtualbox 2.1 requires libqt-network >= 4.4.3. The one supported in my distro (Hardy) is 4.4.0.

So I needed to install an earlier version of Virtualbox. 1.5.6-OSE seemed fine to me. So I run it, and what happens? the vboxdrv module isn't present there. Alright, I browse the web and i find out I need to run /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

* Usage: /etc/init.d/vboxdrv {start|stop|restart|status}

WTF? Where's the setup command? Whatever, I was told to "apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`"

But guess what, my kernel version is 2.6.24-22-generic. And turns out the packages available DON'T cover 2.6.24-22, just up to 2.6.24-21.

Is it because I installed Hardy and not Intrepid? But Hardy was supposed to be supported until 2010, why is this happening?

In MEPIS I never had these problems. even with the annoying beta bugs. I could install and run Virtualbox in there with no hassle. I keep wondering why Ubuntu is so hyped as "the next big thing in Linux".

I I keep having these problems, I'll download and install debian.

Update:

It seems the problem will solved by adding the "proposed" packages to your repository options (I did it via synaptic). Now it will install the 2.6.24-23-generic kernel (let's hope we don't screw up).

Also, I found a post in the Ubuntu Hardy launchpad page regarding the 2.6.24-22 bug:

Steven Willis wrote on 2008-12-05:

It's even simpler than that:

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose-source
sudo module-assistant auto-install virtualbox-ose-source
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv start

(the last step basically just loads the module with modprobe, but it also does a little bit of house keeping)

And you might only need to run the last two steps from above; according the the module-assistant man page:

"auto-install is followed by one or more packages desired for installation. It will run prepare to configure your system to build packages, get the package source, try to build it for the current kernel and install it."
Clem wrote on 2008-12-05: (permalink)

Thanks Steven, it works !

Let's see what happens after I finish installing this stuff.

Python: Not for real software development

2008-12-08T06:53:00.000-08:00

Some guys at the job wanted to deploy some software they made in Python. And that's when the problems started. Turns out they want to embed all the libraries they used - they want to include all of them so that the end user won't have to move a finger. Just run the binary installer, and voila (just like in Windows).

But guess what, turns out python doesn't let you choose which path you want to run some libraries from (not the .py plugins, but the .so the plugins depend on). They tried setting up LD_LIBRARY_PATH (or whatever it's called, I don't remember), other environment variables, and nothing.

Just because the program in particular depends on some python bindings to some libraries.

My question is, what the hell was Python made for? For quick-and-dirty configuration scripts to come by default in Linux distros? Maybe. For students to learn programming? Probably. For real software development? IN YOUR DREAMS.

See, everything is perfect in Python (metaphorically speaking, of course - NOTHING is ever perfect in Python) until you face the problem of deploying your python program on a variety of machines running different Linux distros, and you want the program to run WITHOUT HAVING THE USER MOVE A FINGER. Turns out you can't. If the user needs to open the commandline, you know you've failed.

So what should I compare Python to?

A sandbox for kids to make their sand castles. Sure, they can be wonderful castles - they can have bells and whistles! Even better, they can be LEGO castles! But try to move them away from the sandbox (your development environment), and they'll crumble.

A sandbox. That's what Python really is about, isn't it? Hey, at least in Java you could embed everything your program needed!

My Solution

My solution is simple: Copy the most used python functions, classes, etc. and their parameters. And why stop at that? You can copy the most useful functions from PHP. Add a variant class, it's simple.

Then bundle all those functions and classes in "libeasycpp".

Voila. You can have all the rapid prototyping you had in python. And it will work on any setup because it's compiled to a binary executable!

There! Was it that difficult?

On Python, unit tests and braiiiiiiiiiiinssss

2008-12-03T18:22:00.000-08:00

This has been a hectic week. I've been staying too much time at work because there's some ... UGH EEW python UGH! work that I needed to finish.

And because bugs are really hard to catch in python, I've even been undersleeping trying to fix at home what I didn't fix at work.

A few surprises about Python.

The good: There's a command line. Just type "python" and a prompt appears.Wow. If C++ had a command line to test your own files, it'd be neat.
The bad: At the office, the team began googling for ways to deliver python binaries with all the dependencies resolved. So we learned about python eggs and easy_install. Congratulations to the developer who did that - but guess what? C++ already solves your dependencies for free. Why can't I just write my C++ program? Whatever, the pay is worth it ;-)
The ugly: Python's archaic attempt at error checking makes it NECESSARY that you not only use the interpreter I mentioned above, but also that you write unit tests to catch all the runtime errors that might come out in your program.

That leads me to my second topic for today: Unit tests.

Coding without Unit Tests is like playing Jenga(TM).

I've also realized that the way I've programmed all my life has been much less structured than I thought. Sure, my knowledge of separation of concerns, patterns, etc. has helped me a lot in coding - making my code heavily resistant to exceptions, memory leaks, etc. However, I haven't been always fond of writing tests for my programs. Which leds to writing HUGE chunks of code that are difficult to debug.

So what happens if you DON'T write unit tests? You'll end up adding temporary chunks of code like this one:


curpos = curpos + calculate_something;
# print "curpos right now is %d" % curpos
if curpos > len(s):
   # print "there was an error in here!"
   return None
else:
   blablablah
   some test code
   additional test code
   # commented test code
   # more commented test code

   # here's a huge chunk of temporary "debugging" code
   here's a huge chunk of temporary "debugging" code
   # here's a huge chunk of temporary "debugging" code
      here's a huge chunk of temporary "debugging" code
      here's a huge chunk of temporary "debugging" code
         more code
         more code
         here's a huge chunk of temporary "debugging" code
         # here's a huge chunk of temporary "debugging" code
      more code
   more code
   # here's a huge chunk of temporary "debugging" code
      # here's a huge chunk of temporary "debugging" code
         more code
            more code
               more code
            # here's a huge chunk of temporary code
            # here's a huge chunk of temporary code
            here's a chunk of temporary "debugging" code
            here's a chunk of temporary "debugging" code
            more code
         more code
            more code
            more code
         more code
         more code
         # another temporary test line
            even more code
               even more code
                  even more code
                     even more code
                  even more code
                  # here's old code, just in case
                      # here's old code, just in case
                      # here's old code, just in case
                  # here's old code, just in case
                      # here's old code, just in case
                          # here's old code, just in case
                  even more test code
                  even more test code
                  even more test code
            clippy("hello there! Looks like you're \
            trying to debug some code! Want some help?")

So THAT's what happens when you're not accustomed to writing unit tests. I know it very well, because that's how I've been programming for YEARS!
Just because you remove all that test code at the end, doesn't make it good code.

So, how do you write good code? I found out just yesterday.

When I rewrote the python program I was coding (a lightweight JSON parser, no less, which turned out to be completely unnecessary as I could write the configuration data using plain and simple .ini files, but I disgress), I suddenly decided to write simple use cases (about 10 or 20 sets of three-liners, which made up around 40% of the lines in my code) to see what was going wrong.

Here's more or less what I wrote:


def  myfunc():
    small chunks of code
    small chunks of code
    small chunks of code
    small chunks of code

def  myfunc2():
    small chunks of code
    small chunks of code
    small chunks of code
    small chunks of code

def  myfunc3():
    small chunks of code
    small chunks of code
    small chunks of code
    small chunks of code

def  myhugefunc():
    huge chunks of code
    huge chunks of code
    huge chunks of code
    if blablablah:
        myfunc()
        for blablablah:
            myfunc2()
    huge chunks of code
    huge chunks of code
    # And that's it!

def unittests(): 
    # These are primitive tests that have to be examined
    # by hand - but they're still light years ahead
    # of the ugly Jenga(TM) code I posted above.
    print "Testing KNOWN_INPUT"
    print myfunc("KNOWN_INPUT")

    print "Testing KNOWN_INPUT2"
    print myfunc("KNOWN_INPUT2")

    print "Testing KNOWN_INPUT3"
    print myfunc("KNOWN_INPUT3")

    print "Testing KNOWN_INPUT4 KNOWN_INPUT4 KNOWN_INPUT4"
    print myfunc2("KNOWN_INPUT4 KNOWN_INPUT4 KNOWN_INPUT4")

    print "Testing KNOWN_INPUT"
    print myfunc2("KNOWN_INPUT")

So I ran the unit tests. Wham! Poof! Beef! Zonk! Suddenly, one after another, a horde of lemming-like runtime errors started appearing before my eyes. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I also added some assertions (you knew there was a python AssertionError exception, didn't you? Ah, God bless the Code::Blocks IDE autocomplete, it's shown me some stuff about python I didn't even know) and was finally able to get my parser going. And guess what, turns out that the configuration data I was writing in the first place, had bad JSON syntax, and my program caught it, pointing at the exact line and position.

The moral of the story?

Python sucks. Sorry, had to say it :P
Write unit tests. They're easy to write, and they'll save you HOURS of debugging. No, i'm not kidding. I speak from experience.
Use assertions. They look ugly in your code but they make your code act pretty - which is what matters.
Divide your code in small chunks that can be unit-tested. If those chunks are used in various parts of your code, no matter how easy they are to code, you need to put them in their separate functions so you can test them with the unit tests. Yes, I'm writing it bold because it's THAT important.
No more Jenga(TM) coding! Hurray!!

Now I need to go to sleep, my brain's entering zombie mode now. I have been sleeping 5-hours-a-day for the whole week.

Braaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnns....

I hate python, part trois: The mysterious case of the anorexic syntax checker

2008-12-01T06:32:00.001-08:00

One thing that's really annoying me about python: Python sucks at syntax checking.

Let's say I create a class in python, named myclass:


class myclass:
    def __init(self):
        print "Hello world!"

And I'm using this class for some part in my program. Well, everything goes fine in my program UNTIL I call this class. I get this message:
TypeError: this constructor takes no arguments

I have two problem with this:

First, the message really doesn't tell me ANYTHING. It doesn't say "myclass constructor not defined".
Second, it doesn't even tell me when I START the script! Why, oh why, python doesn't have a correct syntax checker? It should spit out right when I start the script: "Hey, you! You forgot to add the trailing __ to myclass.__init, duh!"

I'm really starting to miss C++. If I compiled a program in C++, I would have gotten an error about an undefined constructor *RIGHT ON SPOT*. There shouldn't be the need for a unit test when the problem is a SYNTAX ERROR!

I don't know who was the moron who said he loved python "because I can start writing the unit tests faster, so my development cycle is more efficient". That's bullcrap.

The speed you gain in omitting the "c++ formalities" is lost tenfold at debugging simple syntax errors... that appeared minutes after you started your application.

Let me say it again: A trivial error like this would be spotted by a C++ compiler INSTANTLY!

Sigh.

I hate python - part deux

2008-11-24T07:20:00.000-08:00

Did you know Python doesn't support these common C++ features?

* Passing variable references to methods (I know, you should return a list so that's not necessary, but what if I pass a reference to a function (you know, like, for a callback)?

* Static class methods. You have to emulate that behavior by using some weird wrapper. And you call yourself an OOP language?

* Static function variables. No, you have to use something called generator functions. WTF?

Pidgin development and author negligence

2008-11-17T05:35:00.001-08:00

Today I'll talk about the development of the (in)famous chat client, Pidgin.

Specifically, I'll talk about a bug: You can't save animated smileys.

http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/2067

Here's a snippet of the conversation:

Description

It would be nice if animated gifs were supported and users could see the animations in their buddy icons instead of a png

Changed 16 months ago by rez

I agree. Seeing there is a "Enable buddy icon animation" under Preferences -> Conversations, I would think this would be supported, but seems its never worked even in older Gaim versions.
Changed 16 months ago by datallah

* status changed from new to closed
* resolution set to wontfix

You can use animated gifs for the protocols that support them (xmpp, aim, icq, silc, yahoo).

The problem is that if the image needs to be scaled to be sent, it will be converted to a png because gtk+ doesn't include a gif writer (for legal reasons). There isn't anything we can do about this.
Changed 4 weeks ago by datallah

Ticket #7292 has been marked as a duplicate of this ticket.
Changed 4 weeks ago by datallah

Ticket #7314 has been marked as a duplicate of this ticket.
Changed 4 weeks ago by IlRazziatore

MSN can send custom emoticons. Now pidgin can to. Sand, save and reuse it. If they are static all was okay. But if i try to save a animated emoticons pidgin say

Unknow file type Will be using the default PNG format

and it save only the first frame of the emoticons. Why it recived correcty the GIF, why it show correctly the gif ( all the frames ) but don't save it as GIF?

I attach an example of GIF emotiocons.
in reply to: ↑ 1 Changed 4 weeks ago by IlRazziatore

Replying to rez:

I agree. Seeing there is a "Enable buddy icon animation" under Preferences -> Conversations, I would think this would be supported, but seems its never worked even in older Gaim versions.

I have this settings enabled. I see the animations incomming but i cant save or use it.
Changed 4 weeks ago by QuLogic

Ticket #5892 has been marked as a duplicate of this ticket.
Changed 4 weeks ago by IlRazziatore

PS: Why this ticket is closed?
Changed 4 weeks ago by IlRazziatore

If the problem is GIF files why Pidgin don't use Animated Portable Network Graphics (APNG) file format or Multiple-image Network Graphics file format?

This is an example of APNG ( .png ): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Animated_PNG_example_bouncing_beach_ball.png
Changed 4 weeks ago by datallah

gdk-pixbuf doesn't support APNG (and it wouldn't be all that useful anyway if other clients can't read them either).

This is closed because, as I indicated in #comment:2 it isn't a Pidgin issue - the GTK+ library that deals with manipulating images doesn't support writing gifs.
follow-up: ↓ 12 Changed 4 weeks ago by IlRazziatore

I read the comment ( and i post the comment about the Animated PNG ).

1] Read and save gif. You nead GTK write/read the file for you? Why? Pidgin can't use other library? If GTK can't sand message pidgin don't send message? Pidgin ins't a front end of GTK, GTK is only one of library Pidgin use. If GKT don't read/write GIF file okay you can use an other library or read/wirte file your-self.

Legaly you can't read the gif as image but no-one can say nothing to you if you semply read the byte and copy it.

When Pidgin recived an gif animated it display it, why not save it? You can't write a simply dump file rutine?

If you want i do it for you ( and i will do that myself but i don't understend wher put it in the pidgin source structure... )

You say isn't a Pidgin problem, I do not agree.

2] The animated emotions how are send? As File ( all the file in raw mode, with header ... ) or as an uncompressed animation?

If animated emotiocns are sand as raw file, you don't need decopress it you don't need "read" it. You don't need a library ( GTK ) read it for you. You nead only read the file ( and the file system do that for you ) and sand byte by byte the file.

If animated emoticons are sand as uncompressed animations... why don't use APNG localy?

3] You say "APNG wouldn't be all that useful anyway if other clients can't read them either".

I'm not agree again. I use Pidgin, my sister use Pidgin, a lot of my friend use Pidgin. Why we can't use APNG between us?

eMule extend the eDonkey protocol, at the begin no-one have eMule but this did not important. If two people had eMule they used the new feature otherwise no, patience. We don't must run after someone sometimes you can even overcome.

---

There are 3 tickets duplicate of this so the user want this features... You are always convinced that it isn't a Pidgin problem?
in reply to: ↑ 11 ; follow-up: ↓ 13 Changed 4 weeks ago by datallah

Replying to IlRazziatore:

I read the comment ( and i post the comment about the Animated PNG ).

APNG isn't really relevant to this ticket. If you want to add support for APNG, the right place to do so is in gdk-pixbuf.

1] Read and save gif. You nead GTK write/read the file for you? Why? Pidgin can't use other library? If GTK can't sand message pidgin don't send message? Pidgin ins't a front end of GTK, GTK is only one of library Pidgin use. If GKT don't read/write GIF file okay you can use an other library or read/wirte file your-self.

What is displayed in the IMHtml is a GdkPixbuf - that is what is being saved, not the original file; consequently the library needs to support saving whatever format we would like it to save as. Of course it is theoretically possible to change how this works, but IMO it isn't worth complicating life just so you can save animated gifs from the IM buffer.

Legaly you can't read the gif as image but no-one can say nothing to you if you semply read the byte and copy it.

Actually, I don't think there are any more legal issues, it is just a matter of historical reasons that gdk-pixbuf doesn't support it, perhaps they would accept a patch to do so if it was reasonable.

When Pidgin recived an gif animated it display it, why not save it? You can't write a simply dump file rutine?

We actually do, incoming animated gifs will be stored in the icon cache in ~\.purple\icons. Perhaps it would be reasonable to support copying the file from the cache, if present instead of saving the GdkPixbuf that is displayed.

If you want i do it for you ( and i will do that myself but i don't understend wher put it in the pidgin source structure... )

If you feel like working on making the saving of images from the IM history copy the cached file as a preferred method of saving, I think such a patch would be accepted (assuming it is done correctly).

You say isn't a Pidgin problem, I do not agree. 2] The animated emotions how are send? As File ( all the file in raw mode, with header ... ) or as an uncompressed animation? If animated emotiocns are sand as raw file, you don't need decopress it you don't need "read" it. You don't need a library ( GTK ) read it for you. You nead only read the file ( and the file system do that for you ) and sand byte by byte the file. If animated emoticons are sand as uncompressed animations... why don't use APNG localy?

As I mentioned - if the gif you're trying to use doesn't need to be scaled (to fit the constraints of what the protocol accepts) to be sent, it will work as a buddy icon (this may not be the case for custom emoticons, I haven't tested it). If it does need to be scaled, then gdk-pixbuf needs to be able to do that for us to be able to send it.

3] You say "APNG wouldn't be all that useful anyway if other clients can't read them either". I'm not agree again. I use Pidgin, my sister use Pidgin, a lot of my friend use Pidgin. Why we can't use APNG between us? eMule extend the eDonkey protocol, at the begin no-one have eMule but this did not important. If two people had eMule they used the new feature otherwise no, patience.

Your eMule analogy doesn't quite fit - in most cases, the server is involved and only certain image formats (and sizes of images) are supported by the IM protocol; we can't just send whatever we want. Perhaps for some protocols we could do this, but once again, we need gdk-pixbuf support.

There are 3 tickets duplicate of this so the user want this features... You are always convinced that it isn't a Pidgin problem?

Just because people don't like it doesn't mean it is a problem. As always, good patches that do something reasonable (adding a direct dependency to something like a gif library isn't something I would consider reasonable) are welcome.

The author fails to provide interested users what they need to help fix this bug.

He doesn't say:

"In file xxxxxx.cpp, in function yyyyyyy, we call the zzzzzzzzzzz library function wwwwwwww:

(code snip)

No, he just says "this library can't support that". Now my question is - has the bug been filed? Just because you do an open source project doesn't mean you're free from obligations to fix a bug. At least you should do whatever you can to help.

I'm tired of developers playing dumb because a project is "free" and "you get what you pay for". Yeah, yeah, I know, patches welcome, but how am I supposed to work on a patch if you don't at least give us some hint?

The reason people don't post patches is because they're not given enough information. Fixing a couple of lines in a program is much easier than trying to decipher a huge project to learn how it works.

So, Pidgin developer, if you can read this:

Paste the damn code!
Thank you.

Pretty cool Anime blogs

2008-11-15T12:49:00.000-08:00

In another stochastic inspiration, here's two great blogs about anime:

http://www.japanator.com/ - Everything about Anime and the japanese culture. With podcasts, too!

http://www.epicwin.org/ - 100% anime. Very good recommendations, too!

Latest pidgin adds custom smileys! :)

2008-11-15T11:13:00.001-08:00

Finally, the day has come. I added the Mepis community repository to my distro's sources list, and saw that pidgin 2.5.2 has added support for custom emoticons.

When a friend shows you an emoticon, you can right click on it and add the custom smiley to your list or to save it.

Hurray! ^_^

Now I can use my old MSN smileys on pidgin.

Update: Apparently, this doesn't work with animated smileys. You'd need to get them from elsewhere (the web), and add them manually. Let's hope that's fixed soon.

The Matrix Runs on Windows (comedy video)

2008-11-14T17:44:00.001-08:00

I've found this hilarious video done by college humor. What would happen if the Matrix ran on Windows XP?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX8yrOAjfKM

Frets on Fire: A love-hate relationship

2008-11-07T11:44:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone. My name's Rick and I'm here to post my random randomness.

One thing I'd been wanting to say for a long time is that Python sucks. Or actually, Python programs suck. Maybe it's that it's relatively easy to learn Python, that python programs reek of newbiness. And the program I'll use to demonstrate this is... Frets on Fire. Regarding code quality, Frets on Fire sucks.

Don't get me wrong, I *LOVE* Frets on Fire. I even purchased my own Playstation 2 guitar controller to play with it (for only $49.99 + the PS2-USB adapter). But still, the game is a crashing/hanging mess.

So what are the problems I've seen so far?

* Video support. I tried to run the program on a 1024x768 LCD screen and all I got was blank video. I needed to search in the forums and edit the .ini file manually, add a [Video] section, and on the [Video] section I had to add a line saying: "Fullscreen = Off".

* Next, sometimes (I'm using version 1.2.512) the whole program hangs when I happen to press "esc" because I realized I didn't want to change an option. What kind of programmer doesn't take into account the ESC button?

* Next comes the handling of the song packs. I happened to download a song pack from the internet so I could play my favorite songs. I unpacked the rar files according to the description, and guess what happened? I got a python exception!

C'MON! Just because you couldn't read the title doesn't mean you have to crash the WHOLE PROGRAM!
Ok, let's calm down, and try to find out which song title has weird characters on it. One by one of the 179 songs. Finally, after a whole day of searching, I finally... gave up. I decided to move the songs out of the songs directory and copy them one by one to see which ones DID work. This is much safer. But seriously, it's frustrating to get an error just because you didn't find a file.

* Also, some of the songs came with a "guitar.ogg" file instead of a "song.ogg" file. So whenever I try to hear a preview and the song doesn't exist, I get another exception. ARGH! How hard is it to say "if there's no song.ogg, search for guitar.ogg instead"? It's a damn "IF" instruction.

Now I have to copy them manually.

* Next comes the fact that the programmer for Frets on Fire didn't program for GNU/Linux, but Windows only (note that I'm using a debian distro). So now I have to deal with not one, but TWO directories: /usr/share/games/fretsonfire/data/songs and ~/.fretsonfire/songs. Guess what happens when the game can't find the corresponding file to a song directory. I ended up wiping out ~/.fretsonfire/songs completely and turn it into a symlink pointing to the other directory.

If that wasn't frustrating enough, then come the mods. The fretsonfire.net website has a link to (GNU/)linux builds of fretsonfire, but guess what? It sends me to the same page than the windows file. What am I supposed to do with a friggin' .exe file? One of the virtues of python is that it's SUPPOSED to be cross-platform. So here comes a Windows amateur coder, and starts imposing this "it's my way or the highway" philosophy of installing programs.

So I finally got a GNU/Linux install of the FoFiX (formerly MFH mod) modified version of frets on fire, which I had to patch manually by decompressing the patch file - on another folder, ugh. And unfortunately, it doesn't support the ORIGINAL option "enable key tapping". I have carpal tunnel syndrome, and having the keys pressed for a long time hurts. I guess we should rename the mod from "MyFingersHurt" mod to "MyCarpalTunnelHurts" mod.

Why do I have to cope with all these amateurs delivering defective code... WHICH IS NOT MAINTAINED!!?? I'm still waiting for the next update of Frets of Fire.

* About some recent bugs in 1.2.512, guess what the author said: "Oh, that bug belongs to one of the libraries we use, and it's out of our control". In C++, you could just copy the current version and embed it in your own program.

So why do Python programs keep giving me headaches, while C++ programs don't?
Sigh. I miss the "configure / make / sudo make install" ritual. It made things so easy.

If you agree with me that Python Sucks, and/or that Frets on Fire needs a remake, please visit this thread: http://cboard.cprogramming.com/showthread.php?p=795950#post795950 . There's a guy wanting to do a Frets Fire clone in C++. Go give him a hand.