Grumpy Gamer has a nice article about copy protection, as well as a solution to the problem 😉
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Category: Blog News
News about me, my family and anything I comment on from the global news fronts.
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Anti-telemarketing
I can confirm that the anti-telemarketing script works, even if you just use part of it. You can feel the hesitation entering the conversation when you start deviating from their script !
This first time, I kept it short. Started asking questions, and when ‘Elizabeth’ told me that she just got my name from a computer I asked her to delete it from there. She even said ‘Thank you and Good day’ before she hung up.
Very funny. When she first introduced her she said her full name. When I asked her her name again, she gave me the company name. I asked her again for her name. This time I only got her first name.
I’m definitely going to try this again next time I get a telemarketing call.
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Python and cx_Oracle
Recently I have taken over the maintenance of an application at work that was written very quickly and, to be honest, rather badly. A department needed the app badly.
I hasten to add that it is bad because it was done so quickly. Plus the person who wrote it is not used to writing EndUser applications.
It uses an ODBC connection to an Oracle db, plus an Access db to connect, plus Excel to show the final info in. Inside the MSAccess db are 4 different queries all building on each other, each one paring information away from the previous query using left joins. To refresh the data the user must do a manual refresh and each time input the password.
Adding a component to monitor to it involves updating the Access db (easy) and then recreating at least two pivot tables as well as adding the component to other excel tabs and fields, easely 15 minutes of work. And the problem is that this is probably only going to get more critical…
So I’ve started to investigate if I could do something about this, like rewriting it in Python and then compiling it in an end-user application using py2exe. I’ve rescued all the sql queries and table connections from MS Access.
One thing is very clear : SQL queries made from Access suck ! They are like the html docs that MS Word makes – full of useless cruft everywhere
I am now trying to remake the program using Python 2.4.2, cx_Oracle for the Oracle connectivity and PySQLite. So far I’ve managed to connect to the database and execute the first query.
Note to self :
- when debugging an SQL query, cx_Oracle or even Oracle itself, who knows, does the query evaluation backwards. It will start evaluating your SQL expression from the back. Usefull to know when you get an error, you need to look from back to front !
- also, you don’t need a ; at the end of your SQL query for cx_Oracle. In SQLite you do. In Oracle you do not. Two days, mate, two days before I found this.
Next up : trying to get the Left Join to work as well a Tkinter window setup to show the user something. Luckely I’ve got a knowledgeable sql guy not far from me… and I am not even sure that is the way to go, just emulating what has been done before…
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WordPress upgrade from 1.5 to 2.0
I just made the upgrade to WordPress 2.0 – so far so good. I have lost my default header, will have to fix that (update : fixed) and see what else is new. So far lots of changes in the admin interface.
Things I’ve noticed that are still not ‘there’ :
– an addition to the menu to let you determine the width of the screen space your blog uses on screen; I would like my blog to be a bit bigger on screen, I find those empty bars on the side a waste of screen. Not completely, mind you, but still, a bit less empty
– still no menu bar when you write a post on a mac using Safari. In windows you have all these buttons, on a mac you need to do it all by typing html. UPDATE : this seems to be Safari not following closely enough. Firefox 2.0 does give you the menu bar !!
– a way to specify your header image for the default theme from the admin menu. It’s only the most changed thing in the universe of wordpress blogs… UPDATE It seems that since 2.0 theme designers now can create an optional functions.php file in their theme that will let you do custom configuration of that theme. See also what’s new in WordPress 2.0 for an overview.
All in all, those 3 things I’ve noticed are actually already solved in 2.0, if you use the right software/theme !
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Laurent au pays des Sushis
The title says it all : a good buddy of mine is on a trip to check out Japan and New-Zealand, with the option of staying in NZ.
What is the difference between you and one of those legendary historical figures who did have such an impact? You both had many of the same fears. You both were born with talents in some areas and weaknesses in others. The only thing stopping you is fear, and the only thing that will get you past it is courage. What you do with your life isn’t up to your parents, your boss, or your spouse. It’s up to you and you alone.
Yes. I’ve gone through a period in my professional life that I consider to be ‘less’ than what it could have been, but accepted it because of several reasons : new life to take care of and a don’t-rock-the-boat,we’ll-take-care-of-you mentality that I believed. But in the end, even with the best of intentions, it’s me that has to decide what I want.
It’s only now that I have made a change myself in my professionnal life that I realise again that I have the freedom to do what I want and that it is that that I need.
It’s me that does the deciding, not anybody else.
I love this. Next time I get a telemarketer on the line for the latest new sofa, I’m gonna try this.
The PSP fansites are abuzz with the fact that Sony has announced new memory stick produo cards with a capacity of 4 and 8 Gigabytes. I’ve seen several reactions in the bulletin boards by crazed iso collectors (aka pirates) that are just craving for these capacities to store their whole collection of games and ripped movies.
Too bad they will probably need a firmware upgrade to use the 8 GB stick, which will render their isos useless.
(Unless ofcourse, they will write their own firmware – now that I’ve read about what some of these coders are doing, I won’t underestimate them !)
And of course, for all of us : the godawful price you’ll have to pay to get one !
HOWTO: Be more productive (Aaron Swartz: The Weblog)
Quite a good essay and something that I’ve been trying to ‘live’, with varying success.
“With all the time you spend watching TV,” he tells me, “you could have written a novel by now.” It’s hard to disagree with the sentiment — writing a novel is undoubtedly a better use of time than watching TV — but what about the hidden assumption? Such comments imply that time is “fungible” — that time spent watching TV can just as easily be spent writing a novel. And sadly, that’s just not the case.
Time has various levels of quality. If I’m walking to the subway station and I’ve forgotten my notebook, then it’s pretty hard for me to write more than a couple paragraphs. And it’s tough to focus when you keep getting interrupted. There’s also a mental component: sometimes I feel happy and motivated and ready to work on something, but other times I feel so sad and tired I can only watch TV.
If you want to be more productive then, you have to recognize this fact and deal with it. First, you have to make the best of each kind of time. And second, you have try to make your time higher-quality.
In my web statistics I’ve recently noticed several Google searches that look for more info on what you can do with a psp and at what firmware.
For those people, following PSP Firmware Comparison Chart will help you get a better picture of which firmware can do what.
And for all those people looking for UMD-launchers or how to run pirated games from a memory stick, I’ll complete the overview from the above website :
- You can only run pirate copies of software from a 1.00 or 1.50 firmware. Why ? Because you need kernel access to use an UMD launcher, and from 2.00 upwards the kernel is encrypted.
- Certain games already *need* 2.00 to run, and you can expect newer games to require 2.50 or higher and you can also expect that this will keep happening.
- New PSP’s in Europe have firmware 2.00 or later installed on them.