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List of Reasons I hate Java

Music:

Falcon - 'Twixt cup and lip...

I'm going to use this entry to compile a list of reasons I hate Java and everything remotely related to it. I doubt it'll be useful to anyone, but I want to keep my sanity.

Background: I got fed up with all the crappy IRC Java Applets out there, so I've decided to roll my own. I found a nice library called IRClib that's very clean and logical. I figured I'd use a Java Applet to do all the server-side communication, and then do all the user-interaction in JavaScript and CSS. Java Applets can call JavaScript code, and JavaScript code can call Java methods, so in theory this should work. And by using the ExtJS framework, I don't even need to design that much; all I do is slap in a tab control for the channels and a tree panel for the nick list, and I'm set.

So much for the theory.

Continued...

August 28, 2008 01:40 AM CET by zabadab

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PHP5 Connector for Defensio

Music:

Crystal Score ^ TBL - World of Noise

I've written a connector for Defensio in PHP5.

Defensio is a solution against comment spam that creates a personalized filter just for you, and will (for most people) thus work better than any other comment spam filtering system currently out there. I'm not using it on my weblog because the blogging software was written in line noise before the turn of the century. But hey, it (still) works, so I'm a happy camper.

You may download the connector at http://zabadab.eu/defensio/

I'm going to be using Defensio at hArtists, so I can get rid of the annoying multiple-choice "Spam Prevention Questions". From my initial testing with live a few spam samples, the filter's accuracy is simply stunning. I'll be running hArtists' entire comments database (30,000 comments, both legit and spam) through it as a final test before the end of the month and update this post with my results. It'll take a while since I don't want to hammer their server with comments; that'd be rude considering the service is free.

August 22, 2008 09:54 PM CET by zabadab

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Royal Holloway? More like Royal Fail, amirite?

Music:

Reed Richards - Meet the Family

How hard is it for a university to accept or decline a prospective student? Very hard.

I'm going to study Computer Science in England and put down Royal Holloway and Reading as my firm and insurance choices, respectively. The latter received my AP scores and accepted me on July 31st. The former said that it would decide on my fate once my AS-Level maths scores came in on August 14th. Well, August 14th came and went, and I didn't hear anything.

On August 15th, I tried to call Royal Holloway's admissions office and was greeted by an answering machine telling me to E-Mail them instead. I went ahead and fired off an E-Mail, and received a half-assed reply from "Admissions" fifteen minutes before they closed their offices:

From: Admissions
Date: 15.08.2008 16:41

Dear Nils, 
It would appear that we don't yet have notification of your
Maths AS results. [...] 

Regards, 
Admissions

Okay, so my scores didn't reach them. Considering I only did the C1 and C2 modules, and not a full AS-Level, I figured that made sense and quickly sent them the "Statement of Results" I had received.

The weekend passed, and I figured that they would've made up their mind about my fate on Monday. I logged in to UCAS Track to check and behold — nothing changed. -_-; I tried calling Royal Holloway at 9:00am, 1:00pm, and 3:00 pm, and was always greeted by the same answering machine message every time. I sent off another E-Mail, asking them whether they've received my scores and got no reply at all this time.

If Royal Holloway doesn't want me as a student, why can't they go ahead and just reject me? Updating a record on UCAS isn't rocket science. They have time to update their answering machine message every other day, why can't they update my UCAS record?

August 18, 2008 10:21 PM CET by zabadab

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Discipline Yourself

I need to get used to this web log thing again, but I digress.

The , , and tags have been deprecated in favor of , , and for quite a while now. Here's a great way to force yourself not to use the old tags when you're transitioning away from them.

b, i, u {
	font-size: 300px;
	color: white;
	background: red;
}

That CSS will render those tags using a huge size, and a red background.

August 10, 2008 09:21 PM CET by zabadab

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You Never Answer Our Emails

Music:

Midtown Madness - Loading Screen

Mood:

Busy

While searching for a good way to make web forms look pretty, I came across the following example form:

spam (8k image)

I sniggered...

August 09, 2008 11:41 PM CET by zabadab

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DWord Functions for PHP

Music:

Acclaim Entertainment - Re-Volt - Credits

Here's some PHP code for creating a DWord and getting the individual Words back out of it. While I doubt the average PHP programmer will ever need these, it's sometimes nice to be able to pack two numbers into one... which is exactly what the code below does — in simplified terms.


  function MakeDWord($HiWord, $LoWord) {

    return ($HiWord * 0x10000) + ($LoWord & 0xFFFF);

  }

  

  function HiWord($DWord) {

    return ($DWord & 0xFFFF0000) >> 16;

  }

  

  function LoWord($DWord) {

    if ($DWord & 0x8000) {

      return $DWord | 0xFFFF0000;

    } else {

      return $DWord & 0xFFFF;

    }

  }

Usage scenario: you have an image gallery and need to store an image's resolution. Shifting numbers around using the functions above saves a database field since height and width don't need to be stored separately anymore.

January 23, 2008 10:38 PM CET by zabadab Permalink | Comments?

So I Wrote a PM Client

I managed to bite on my tongue in a way that made it hurt a lot and now I cannot eat properly. Next to that I got a light version of the flu and am battling a running nose using tissues and hot tea as my only weapons. For some reason though, being in this "sickish" state has actually put me in a state where I finish things I wanted to finish a long time ago. One of these things was the hA Private Messages window.

Today
Today on hA, a "private message" is what Jelsoft wants it to be. Since I use their vBull~~shit~~etin forum on my site, the messaging feature was sort of something that I did not care much about. It was there, people started using it, great. Private messages can have recipients, carbon copies, read receipts, folders, etc. The interface vB uses is garbage, but well... you get what you pay for (and sadly, I actually paid a lot for this overpriced piece of rubbish forum.) But I digress.

In the Future
In "New-hA-Land", there are several ways to get private messages:

The "classic" way i.e. someone sends you one
The website sends you an announcements
Someone you watch on your "watch list" updates
You receive a memo from someone through MemoServ on hA IRC

Since vB is out of the question, and I do not want to rely on whatever-forum-script-will-replace-it's messaging system, I decided to roll my own. That way I could also make sure that you could read messages you receive from any of the abovementioned sources in one central location. I hate having to check half a dozen locations only to find out that no, I did not receive any new messages.

But writing a messaging system is easier said than done because you do not just "write" a messaging system. It is -- to state it bluntly -- a huge task. Think about all the features your E-Mail client has for a moment. You know, all the list views, the windows, the buttons, the folder tree. That all needs to be implemented, tested, revised, and fixed.

Well, I did it... and I am glad I did. The messaging system is a hugely important part for any community site because it will be the main means of communication as the community grows larger and new people arrive. When you know everyone, you might discuss private things more openly, but as more and more people that you do not know join in, the urge to have a private discussion gets bigger and bigger.

I will be honest and admit that I stole most of the ideas (and icons) from Outlook Express 5, because for someone who just wants to read their E-Mail without and bells and whistles, Outlook Express is a great client. Because the messaging system is such an important part of hA, I did not want to take any risks by making up my own user interface for it. Sticking with something that I know has worked for many people around the world seemed like a logical choice to me.

I also added a "Report to Moderator" button because I noticed that people only really notify moderators after it is too late to stop something. People usually think that they can deal with it themselves, only to find out how wrong they were later on. I am not talking about suicide, emo, or angst, or anonymous taking over (if that happens... pray), or anything like that.

There is a group of people who -- instead of calling on a moderator to deal with it -- decide it is best to cause drama by making a private issue public, thereby inviting everyone to fuel the drama... Drama 2.0: everyone can participate.

I do not mean to insult that group of people or anything, but it is annoying. The main reason it happens is out of frustration -- they do not know what else to do or how to properly report problems with another member. The "Report to Moderator" button will hopefully make it very easy and obvious.

There, now hA has a messaging system that is really easy to use and much better than the one at... say DevianTART. Then again... what in this world isn't much better than dA?

December 27, 2007 02:49 AM CET by zabadab

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