Stuart Hacking

They’re bad, okay?

Self me, sick

Ok, some new stuff:

1. BT sent us a new router
2. The router actually has useful features like port forwarding
3. I have the admin details for the router

Playing Nethack via ssh on iPhone

Regards.

Self fun, iphone, nethack, ssh

Or rather, here are a couple of images. Sweet, Innocent images of Apple keyboards. The first of which has been left blank, for your enjoyment; the second is a rendition of the Dvorak layout on OS X (as best as I can map it – it seems to be correct on my MacBook)

These images are fairly harmless.  They go from being harmless to useful if you drop one of them into “/Applications/Mavis Beacon/Resources/English.lproj/Keyboard.png”.  (Substitute the correct path to Mavis Beacon if necessary, and don’t forget to back up the original keyboard image.)

Ok, Part 2 went pretty well.  At least I’m now looking at the correct layout on screen.  I’ll do a bit more work to neaten it up at some point but for now I’m happy it’s there at all.  Now if only it were possible to remap the positions of the keys themselves.  Stay tuned.

Hope this was helpful.

Self, Software dvorak, hack, typing

There is now an update to this post.

This is a quick tutorial post for anyone requiring convenient pre-configured Nethack Files. Nethack comes from a tradition of Hack’n'slash adventure games known as Roguelikes. They are similar to text based adventures in that, originally, grapics were rendered using ASCII characters. This is still a popular way to play the games. This is the end of the similarity, though, as the gameplay is more like that of Dungeons & Dragons or other Role Playing Games.

Personally, I enjoy using ASCII graphics because I think it makes the games more readable, imaginative and because nicely rendered fonts just look better than tiny 16×16 tiles. (How can a mighty dragon be crammed into a small 16×16 bitmap?)

Nethack in Terminal.app

So, here are some things I have done to pretty up Nethack a bit for OS X. Many other people, I’m sure, use a similar setup, and many others probably differ. For added convenience I’ll include my configuration files for download.

1. Build Nethack from source. There is a good tutorial for this on the Nethack Wiki
2. Apply the following Source Code patches: hpmon, Menucolors and rebuild. (They provide groovy abilities like menu highlighting for easy reading)
3. Download a copy of my .nethackrc to configure- this already has decent settings for Menucolors and well as some traditional options: (keybindings, graphics mode, etc). You can get the file here: nethackrc (save it into your home directory as .nethackrc)
4. Make a custom Terminal.app config ad export it. I use Monaco 18pt font, no-blink cursor, autorun /usr/games/nethack. You can grab a copy of this file here: nethack

Gaming, Self fun, Gaming, mac, nethack, RPG

In order to cast off the shackles of messy typing I grabbed a copy of Mavis Beacon 2008 for Mac- only to discover on installation that Dvorak support has been dropped since version 5.  The website has this to say:

 
After installing Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing® 16, you want to know if practice lessons for the Dvorak keyboard layout are available in the program. The remainder of this note provides additional information.

The Dvorak layout is an alternate keyboard layout. Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing® 16 does not include lessons for the Dvorak keyboard layout.
 

Notice an interesting use of past tense in this statement but I guess I should have done the research first.  Who’d have known the #1 typing software didn’t support Dvorak?

Here is part one of a solution to fix the problem.  Downloading mb_abcdvorak will give all the lessons (1 – 29) of A Basic Course in Dvorak already converted to The Mavis Beacon custom lesson format.  You can import these by going to the Media Center.  If you wish you can also download txt_adbdvorak which simply contains the text for the lessons.  All I’ve done is the boring work of conversion – Many Thanks to Dan Wood for producing the course.

This is all well and good but when you are actually running Mavis Beacon that little helper keyboard still shows qwerty layout.  How can one get to the stage of learning the Dvorak layout without learn it separately first?  In Part 2 I will provide an alternative keyboard graphic using the Qwerty layout.  (I will peobably also explain how to use this within Mavis Beacon unless the EULA explicitly states not to – but providing a picture of a keyboard violates no EULA!)

Further to that I will investigate changing the positions of the keys used by the animated fingers and highlights which appear in the software.

Self, Software dvorak, hack, typing

I just went over and picked up On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness Vol. 2 (The new Penny Arcade adventure) from Greenhouse Games. So far I’ve only watched the opening cutscene but it looks like it’s gonna be both awesome and hilarious.

These guys are delivering serious fun for only $14.95!

Gaming, Self, Software fun, Gaming, webcomics

I read an article a while back by Steve Yegge.  In case you don’t know, Steve is a programmer.  He is also a blogger.  A big blogger.  I don’t mean simply that he really likes to blog- I mean he writes big blog entries. He also tends to write very good blog entries and if you have an interest in programming or business or just want a good read then I highly recommend checking him out.

I read an article.  It didn’t leave me with the warm glow of a satisfying read.  It left me with a guilty, hollow feeling.  This article might have been called “Stuart’s Story: The death of typing”, or “Stuart, I know all about your lazy habits.” Or… you get the picture.  The point is, Steve was talking directly to me.

You see, I’m also a programmer.

I’m a programmer and it’s been about 10 years since I fell of the touch-typing wagon.

However, I’m not one to stay disheartened.  As of this moment I intend to take the advice given in the article and re-learn to touch type.  Not only that, but I also intend to do it using the Dvorak layout.  Qwerty isn’t a standard- it’s a widely adopted flaw, designed to slow typists to a speed that wouldn’t jam those mechanical typewriters.

In the hopes that my own short experience so far might benefit others I present the steps I’m taking to re-aquaint myself with touch typing:

1. I have blanked the keys on my MacBook – and will do so on any other keyboard I own now.  Here’s a fairly cheap and effective way to do it.  Buy stickers from this site (their P&P is reasonable, even to the UK) – 4Keyboard Blank Stickers. The resulting keyboard looks like this: Blanked MacBook
2. Get a typing tutor, preferably one that will do focussed drills rather than just punching in random strings.  I’m currently trying to demo of Ten Thumbs Type Tutor. Which is rather fun and features a Viking!  (It’s not free but there is a 10 day trial.  So far I’m rather impressed)
3. Learn the drills and common patterns.  Whether on Qwerty or Dvorak, learn patterns like: the, ion, uous, at, in, etc. Building up a good vocabulary of common use strings will help to build up an acceptable speed early on, allowing you to adopt quicker.  (I think I recall Steve mentioning this in his post.)
4. Practice.  This is the stage I am at and will probably be at for a good while to come.  I trust Steve when he says that it only takes about 30 minutes a day to get reasonably proficient – but it goes without saying that this takes a bit of dedication.

This was a useful post for me to lay down some goals for the future.  I hope anyone reading found it interesting too.

Peace.

Self keyboard, life, mac, typing

While my MacBook typically runs as happily as ever, I have started to notice that various folders are becoming somewhat messy.  There is no explanation other than the laziness of the user.

My ‘documents’ folder, for example, is fully of unclassified .c, .h, .tex, .pdf – all the files of the day with cryptic titles to boot.  Such examples include: al_7.aux and booktest.log.  Months on I can’t remember what happened to the ‘Als’ which preceded number 7, nor can I remember which book I was testing.  In short, I really need to clean up my documents.

I’m somewhat reluctant to start though in case I decide to buy OS 10.5 soon – *gasp* yes, ok… My ‘last-year’ MacBook is still running Tiger.  I will join the 21st century yet!

Self, Software documents, laziness, life, mac

I was reading through the usual assortment of RSS feeds and webcomics when I stumbled across this story on Giant in the Playground Games.

To summarize – insofar as Rich Burlew has summarized:

To honour the passing of Gary Gygax earlier this year, participants at Gen-con (A notable gaming convention) raised money to donate to charity- the charity was chosen as Gary had been a keen donator in the past.  The charity was Christian Children’s Fund.

The story goes on to tell that CCF refused the donations offered by Gen-con on the basis that Funding was partly raised by the sale of Dungeons & Dragons based material, which was tainted by evil…

Okay, that last part seems a little extreme and perhaps the idea was simply that in the eyes of some the material might be easily misunderstood or associated to evil.  Nevertheless, this is how things seem to have transpired.

Firstly, I’d like to state that I’m an avid gamer and see no problem with playing Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer or any number of Computer games that are built on Fantasy or Science Fiction themes.  I think the important point to bear in mind is that it is fiction and there’s nothing wrong with a little escapism.

What concerns me about the article is how, in one fell swoop, this organisation seems to have reinforced an old negative stereotype on Christians:  We are judgmental, holier-then-thou, close-minded and hopelessly outdated.  I’m no theologian, so I don’t wish to start filling this blog with biblical references and fire-and-brimstone,  I just wanted to point out that the apparent stance of CCF does not reflect the viewpoint of the majority of Christians.

Another debate has arisen from this event- the validity of CCFs stance to refuse donations which they see as ‘tainted’ (as described by the secondary sources… but for this argument let’s suppose it was true).

To refuse a gift based on the source is, in my opinion, counter-productive.  Much better to take this tainted gift and purify it by putting it to Holy use.  Doesn’t this present an altogether more positive image, while benefitting the children at the same time?

In closing I have received a response to an email I sent to CCF (while typing this post- so please take the preceding musings as hypothetical rather than concrete).  which is posted below this paragraph.  It clarifies the decision by CCF which appears to be more of a misunderstanding – I hope therefore that no ill will remains as a result of this episode.

There appears to be a misunderstanding which I would like to correct. When Gen Con contacted CCF about its auction, we were pleased to accept donations. However, we couldn’t lend our name for publication because our policies have specific criteria for endorsements. We were unaware that this had caused any problem or concern for Gen Con until we began receiving emails. This decision was in no way intended to be a reflection on Mr. Gygax, gaming enthusiasts or the game Dungeon and Dragons. We have the utmost respect for the gaming community and were touched by the generosity expressed through your auction. We were disappointed that we were not the recipients of the donation but we were pleased that another worthy organization benefited.

Gaming, Self charity, Christianity, Gaming, News, religion