Category Archives: Check This Out!

Best-of-Explosm Web 2.0

Yahoo Pipes are an interesting concept, as are the other existing mashup tools (like Microsoft's Popfly or Ubiquity), and it is amazing what can be done with a few clicks with them.

Because I've wanted to learn how to work with Yahoo Pipes (before the Google Mashup Editor is released to the public), I've decided to take my best-of-explosm viewer to a different level and prototype it with Yahoo Pipes.

This just shows the first page (it's easier to view - and create - the feed in groups of 20 pictures than all at once). You can follow the link if you want to view more pages.

Stay tuned for more.
Cheers,
Andreas

More WordPress Pimping

PHP and CSS and all that funky web design stuff are funky, because they are so easy to use and you quickly get results. I like it.

I've decided to release my first plugin into the world (it's big hack, but it has turned out to be very useful on my other blog http://info1.blackhc.net).

It supports 3 text replacements:

Xkcd-style Tooltips as Replacement for Footnotes

Example:

[[:This is a default footnote. Hover over it to display it.]]

Result:

´

You can use a different marker, too:
Example:

[[:My Footnote#This is a default footnote. Hover over it to display it.]]

Result:
My Footnote

Linking to Wikipedia

Example:

[[wikipedia:Pie]]

Result:

Pie

The link text can be changed, too, of course.
Example (you can use : as seperator, too):

[[wikipedia:pi#Fake Pie]]

Result:

Fake Pie

Expandable Text

Example:

[[expandable#Expandable Text...]]

Result:

The link text can be changed, too:
Example:

[[expandable#Click me! Click me! Pleeease!#Yay!]]

Result:

And we can nest it and it works with other tags.
Example:

[[expandable:#Expandable Text...

[[expandable:Click me! Click me! Pleeease!#Yay!]]
// some Java code

]]

Result:

We can also use a Heredoc-like mode:
Example:

[[expandable_ex:EOD#Heredoc-like Expandable#[[[[[[[]][[EOD]]

Result:

Escaping [[ and ]]

Example:

Escaping [[escape_left]] and [[escape_right]]

Source Code

Hopefully this can be useful for somebody else, too.
Cheers,
Andreas

Olympics in the PRC '08

Human Rights, Executions and the Beijing Olympics 2008

Short Note: This totally sums up what I think of the Olympics in China this year..

And the strip is really funny :D

Best of Cyanide & Happiness

Long ago (about three weeks ago to be correct) I still had lots of free time and no university lectures yet, so I decided to look at all - I repeat: at all 1000-something - Cyanide & Happiness comic strips on www.explosm.net and make a collection of the ones that I liked the most. Of course my collection isn't complete and I got pretty tired at the end but I still think I've found quite a few gems among the strips.

I've stored them as a list of links in a raw txt file (it can be found here, if you want take a look a it) and it wasn't really usable the way it was. I wanted to put it on my blog though to let others view it in a comfortable way but since I didn't have enough time I postponed it.. till yesterday. Yesterday I've finally found enough time to sit down and think and code something nice to let you (and myself, too) browse through my favorites.

You can find the final page here: http://www.icculus.org/~black/stuff/explosm/explosmviewer.html

How does it work?

It uses AJAX! Well actually it only uses XMLHttpRequest to query the .dat file that stores a preprocessed list of C&H links (plus the respective image links) and uses that data to let you browse my favorites dynamically but it contains the code to create the said .dat file out of my raw .txt file.

Consequently if I ever update my list I can do so simply by updating the .txt file with a few links and regenerate the .dat file with all additional information.

I'm mostly using some RegExp to parse the Explosm pages and my .txt and .dat files. If you want to try the code out yourself, mind that you need to uncomment the compileList( true ); line and use Internet Explorer to run it because FireFox doesn't allow cross-domain access which is naturally needed if you want to parse the pages on explosm.net. The result is copied into the clipboard and can be then saved and uploaded to the webspace of choice (if you adapt the links in the script, too).

Enjoy :-)

Cheers,
Andreas

SplashDamage Photos on Flickr

I guess you don't know what a games company looks like. And even if you think you do, let me add some adjectives that will change everything: an great games company. a cool games company. a SplashDamage-esque game company.
You get the idea.

We, that is the #q3mods channel, had a meeting recently at Arnout's, Gordon's and David's place on the 8th and 9th of March '08 - it's like Friends, the tv series, only they have got a house, a bigger TV, lots of game and Guitar Hero 3 \o/ They were so kind to let me stay in the dungeon - the basement - for a week and I spent all of my free time playing Guitar Hero or watching them work at SplashDamage's office, which was grand. I can't really say a lot more, otherwise I'd get torn to pieces by some attorneys for violating the NDA I've signed but let me repeat: It was awesome. I took quite a few pictures of the office though (and the people in it) and have even uploaded them to flickr, so here we go. Enjoy.

The meeting itself was also awesome. We all at the their place, played games (Guitar Hero!! and lots of Wii games), watched movies, ordered pizza and Chinese and even ate it all up, too, and had a splendid time.

Cheers,
Andreas

I've linked to a few pictures directly, in case you're too lazy to follow the other link and only want to see the office ASAP.

Read more »

Final Java Homework at uni.

This is the final Java homework in our Java introductory course at university. Enjoy :-)
Click here to play the game
Greetings,
Black

xkcd \o/

Today I was waiting for the care-taker to arrive and take a look at some installation issues and while I was waiting I decided to browse a bit around in xkcd. And well... there are a few links that might worth sharing - and I'm not going to link Cat Proximity again this time!

And here are the other ones that I've found interesting while randomly browsing through the archive:

So enough of that, there's more work to be done!

Cheers,
Black

I have a problem that I cannot explain - I have no reason why it should have been so plain...

Hump yard (copyright: trains.com)I have a problem and a solution, but the problem is nice, so lemme tell you about it first..
The problem is as follows:

We have got 31 tracks and 10 trains, Each train is so big, that between two there needs to be at least one free track.
Now, how many valid combinations do exist to place the 10 trains on the 31 tracks?

Read on if you think that you have got the solution and want to compare it with mine (no guarantee that I've got it right though..)
Read more »

Puzzle Piece #1

Ok, lately I didn't have enough time to update this blog and right now I'm still busy with uni and other stuff. What I refer to with "other stuff" is for example:

One of the first screenshots with Gecko support in Darkplaces.

or:

http://vpod.tv/loiclemeur/135867

BTW does anyone want Torque support for Gecko, too? ;-)

Anyway, more updates soon (hopefull).

Cheers,
Black