Topics

[In my own opinion, the registry is part of my computer, so I can edit it as I see fit. Of course, this is just my opinion.]

This does NOT work anymore. Most (all?) of their software has been updated leaving this method unusable.

In my own opinion, the registry is part of my computer, so I can edit it as I see fit. Of course, this is just my opinion.


Step 1:

Download the trial software for any maker you choose.

VX, XP, and IG Maker
http://old.rpgmakerweb.com/download

RPG Maker VX Ace
http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/download

For XP, VX, and IG Maker, you will receive a serial in your e-mail to activate your 30-Day trial. You won't receive a serial to activate your trial for VX Ace. After installation, run your selected software and click Activate. For VX Ace, check the "Trial" radio button. For the other three, enter your name, e-mail, and serial number you received in e-mail. This will activate your 30 day trial. After that, go ahead and close the program.

Step 2:

Enterbrain's new activation software isn't very secure or hidden. It keeps all the values in plain sight and its pretty easy to find. Open up regedit. Traverse to the following location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > CoGenMedia > DRM

Here you should see the sub folder for the maker you installed. Traverse through all the sub folders of the maker you installed. Once you reach the final sub folder, you will see various entries relating to the Trial. You should see a "Trial" value. If you have enough common sense, you'll know what to do. Due to the new activation software Enterbrain implemented, they basically gave their software for free.

step 3:

???

Step 4:
Profit.



Whether or not this is legal can be looked at from different points of views. I will leave it up to the administrators to take it down or not. This thread isn't to fight about the legality of this find, but to share info that I discovered and wanted to share for educational purposes. In all honesty, Enterbrain should have made sure their activation system was more secure or hidden and in their attempt to prevent their software from being cracked, they sure as hell made it easier to get it for free.

I have this female friend. Known her about two years now. About 4 months ago her attitude shifted completely and to put it bluntly, she's changed to a total bitch. To explain this a bit, she doesn't like any of my friends that I sit with at lunch. These friends I've known longer than her. I really don't understand her logic here but when she acts bitch towards them, she expects me to defend her and back her up. None of my friends have ever done anything bad to her or gave her a reason to act as she does. That's not all. About every other day she finds a reason to bitch at me and I'll just be sitting there doing absolutely nothing, which leads to me to ask her to stop being "bitchy" and then gets mad, calls me an ass, then leaves me alone for the rest of the day. Then the next day, she acts as if nothing even happened. And apparently whenever I have food, I'm under the obligation to share it with her and gets pissed off at me if I don't. This isn't just a "once-a-month" thing either because it happens way too frequently and it has been for the past 4 months. Like today, she kept talking, I buried my face into a book, but then she started playfully kicking me. I asked her to stop and she wouldn't. 10 minutes later of putting up with her poking at me, she called me an ass and left me alone.

Essentially, I'm at a very stressful part of my school career, and having to deal with her everyday is increasing my level of stress which I don't need. I don't want to be friends with her anymore because of the way she treats me and my friends. I've tried several things and none of which are working. I've tried ignoring her, but she's one of those people who will keep talking if she notices you're not paying attention to her. I've tried intentionally acting like an ass towards her in hopes she'll leave me alone, but again, the next day its like her previous day was completely erased. I've asked her to leave me alone and I've even told her I don't want to bearound her. I've told her why. Yet the next damn day, she's right there being an attention whore around me. I'm basically here asking for advice on how to solve my problem.

I decided I want to expand my skills beyond programming. So I'm gonna work hard to push my skills into some basic spriting. I've said this before and I'm trying to get better. I'm currently working a tree trunk and I think its coming along pretty well so far. I'm currently working on the inner rings of the trunk, which I've applied some basic shades. I'm pretty happy with the result so far.

[Universal Theme Patcher]

This threads all about collecting and sharing utilities to customize your look and feel of Windows 7 in any aspect possible. If you have any tools you'd like to share, please post and I'll be sure it gets added to the thread.

Universal Theme Patcher

This program allows you to install 3rd party themes that basically can skin any aspect of Windows 7. Its a fantastic tool and can make your Windows 7 look visually appealing. Face it, that old aero look can start to get old. This supports Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7.
More info and download.
Visual Styles for Windows 7

UxStyle (posted by NAMKCOR)

A tool that tricks the system. It allows you to use visual themes without the patching process. Probably a lot safer than Universal Theme Patcher.
More info and download.
Visual Styles for Windows 7
Alternate Download (Provided by NAMKCOR)

Windows 7 Start Orb Changer v4

There really isn't anything to explain other than this changes the start orb in the lower left corner. Its a pretty simple program.
More info and download.
Windows 7 Start Orbs

7CONIFIER

This program is probably the easiest way to change programs icons in the taskbar and start menu. With icon packs already pre-packed with the program, you can easily change the style of your icons. The program easily allows you to create new packs and choose which applications to target.

A while ago I became interested in changing the icons on my Windows 7 Taskbar. Unfortunately I had to do it manually which required a lot of work. After much blood, sweat and tears I decided it was time for a change. It was time to create 7CONIFIER.

7CONIFIER is a tool is capable of changing all your taskbar and start menu icons in a single click (and key press)! All you need to do is select the package you would like to use and hit "Apply".

More info and download.

Logon Screen

This nifty program lets you change the background of the logon screen. Or the "Welcome" screen on startup.
More info and download.

Win 7 Nav Buttons Customizer

This awesome tool lets you change the navigation buttons you find throughout Windows 7. Explorer window, control panel, even IE (if you use it).
More info and download.

Network Activity Indicator

Remember back in XP how it had that lovely network graph displaying network activity? This tool brings the functionality back to Windows 7. Giving you details and usage for your network.
More info and download.

Windows 7 Tray Icons Changer

Now you can customize the default icons displayed in your Icon Tray. You can change the Network, Wifi, Action Center, and Volume Icons.
More info and download.

Windows 7 Boot Updater

This tool allows you to change the generic boot skin for Windows 7. The tool allows you to change the animation and text.
More info and download.
Windows 7 Boots

Winlaunch (Found by Tuggernuts)

Its a launchpad for Windows 7 cloned from Mac OS X. Its an extremely easy to use tool and definitely a time save. The GUI is simplistic and nice looking.
More info and download.

Theme Manager for Windows 7 (posted by ForeverZer0)

With this tool, managing themes for Windows 7 hasn't been easier. I've only just discovered this and I'm already in love with it. Thanks ForeverZer0 for the find. I honestly don't know how I missed this.
More info and download.

Classic Shell (Found by Tuggernuts)

Miss some of the old Windows XP nostalgia? Classic Shell restores quite a few features missed from classic operating systems.
More info and download.

Wallpapers

Wallbase (posted by NAMKCOR) - A fantastic wallpaper site. After browsing for a few minutes, its definitely a great source for wallpapers.
4Walled - Another great wallpaper site. A lot more simpler than Wallbase but its still another great source.


Thats about it for now. If you happen to run into any tools or utilities, post them here and I'll add them to the list! Hopefully this'll help a few people out when it comes to customizing their Windows 7 experience.

*erm herm*

Dear Blizzard,

I recently have taken notice that both Ryex and I missed out on the joys of the nice blue color you once had for Global Moderators. While the purple is nice, both Ryex and I already once bored the color purple back when Remoxes was still around. I'm positive you had a logical explanation for changing the colors in the first place (though I can't remember why) and I completely respect your reasoning. Now, I'd like to file a change in job color as I'm not happy with this purple. I'm hoping you will see to providing our usergroup a better, more comfortable color or we may just have to go on strike here. And by we, I mean of course Ryex and I. I made a petition and all Global Moderators signed it (the whole two of us) and even ForeverZer0 signed it, which should prove furthermore that our working conditions aren't comfortable.

Colors that I'm Rejecting:

• Purple
  
• Green
  

Petition:

Spoiler: ShowHide

While this post is a complete joke, it would be awesome if you could change the usergroup color for GMods. The purple bugs me! xD Of course I'm not trying to force you.

[SharpDevelop]

SharpDevelop

#develop (short for SharpDevelop) is a free IDE for C#, VB.NET and Boo projects on Microsoft's .NET platform. It is open-source, and you can download both sourcecode and executables from this site. In addition, you can find the latest information and changes on #develop, as well as get in touch with the team in the forum.

Supported Programming Languages

• C# (Code Completion, Windows Forms Designer)
  
• VB.NET (Code Completion, Windows Forms Designer)
  
• Boo (Code Completion, Windows Forms Designer)
  
• IronPython (Code Conversion, Windows Forms Designer, partial Code Completion)
  
• IronRuby (Code Conversion, Windows Forms Designer)
  
• F#
  

Full Features List

This isn't no Visual Studio but its a wonderful IDE for those who don't have admin privileges on Windows computers. I use this at school all the time. While it wasn't made specifically for portable usage, it works all the same if you install it to a flash drive or something. It works almost exactly like Visual Studio when it comes to the Form Designer and Code Completion. Its also cross compatible with Visual Studio projects and solutions so you don't have to start your project all over. The only downside is I haven't been able to figure out how to incorporate XNA (for those who are interested). It also seems to load up much faster than VS. If you're looking for on the go, quick C# development, I definitely recommend this tool.

They currently have two supported versions. Older versions exist for older .NET frameworks (2.0 and 1.1 specifically) but these versions aren't supported and I recommend using one of the latest ones anyways.
4.1 Supports .NET 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, and 2.0
3.2 Supports .NET 3.5, 3.0, and 2.0

Post your resolutions or goals you have for the new year.

Mine include

• Get into shape. Lose my chub and maybe get a bit of muscle tone.


• Get a job and save up for a car.


• Get rid of my outside school anti-social behavior.


• Work towards being a better person towards my family and friends.

These are my goals for the year. This is what I hope to accomplish. I really feel 2012 will be one of the best years of my life. Only if I work towards it though. Which will require me to change my lifestyle and step outside my comfort zone.

I've been experimenting with C++ and SDL. Things were going good until I tried to compile it under the "Release" configuration. I simple switched from Debug to Release and got this error.

Error	1	error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _WinMain@16	c:\Users\ronnie\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\SDL\SDL\MSVCRT.lib(crtexew.obj)	SDL

I created an empty C++ project and after doing some googling, I found out that if I want it to be a windows application, it needs to have the function winmain. I've also found posts where people said to put "wWinMainCRTStartup" as my entry point, which didn't work. I managed to get it to run if I set the sub system to Console, but I don't want an annoying empty console behind my game. What I don't understand is how the project is able to run under "Debug" without the WinMain method. What I'd like to know is how to fix the above error and keep the project a non-console application.

Here's my main.cpp file.

Spoiler: ShowHide

#include <SDL.h>
#include <SDL_image.h>
#include <SDL_ttf.h>
#include <string>
#include "SpriteSheet.h"
#include <SDL_mixer.h>
#undef main

const int SCREEN_WIDTH = 640;
const int SCREEN_HEIGHT = 480;
const int SCREEN_BPP = 32;

SDL_Surface* screen = NULL;
SDL_Surface* image = NULL;
SDL_Surface* text = NULL;
SpriteSheet* sheet = NULL;

SDL_Event event;

TTF_Font* font;
SDL_Color text_color = {255, 255, 255};

bool init()
{
	if (SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_EVERYTHING) == -1)
		return false;
	screen = SDL_SetVideoMode(SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT, SCREEN_BPP, SDL_SWSURFACE);
	if (screen == NULL)
		return false;
	if (TTF_Init() == -1)
		return false;
	SDL_WM_SetCaption("Shooter", NULL);
	return true;
}

Uint32 get_pixel32( SDL_Surface *surface, int x, int y )
{
    Uint32 *pixels = (Uint32 *)surface->pixels;
    return pixels[ ( y * surface->w ) + x ];
}

void put_pixel32( SDL_Surface *surface, int x, int y, Uint32 pixel )
{
    Uint32 *pixels = (Uint32 *)surface->pixels;
    pixels[ ( y * surface->w ) + x ] = pixel;
}

SDL_Surface *loadImage(std::string filename)
{
	SDL_Surface* loadedImage = NULL;
	SDL_Surface* optimizedImage = NULL;
	loadedImage = IMG_Load(filename.c_str());
	if (loadedImage != NULL)
	{
		optimizedImage = SDL_DisplayFormat(loadedImage);
		SDL_FreeSurface(loadedImage);
	}
	if (optimizedImage != NULL)
	{
		Uint32 colorKey = get_pixel32(optimizedImage, 0, 0);
		SDL_SetColorKey(optimizedImage, SDL_SRCCOLORKEY, colorKey);
	}
	return optimizedImage;
}

bool load_files()
{
	image = loadImage("001-Fighter01.png");
	sheet = new SpriteSheet(image, 4, 4, false);
	font = TTF_OpenFont("BurstMyBubble.ttf", 28);
	if (font == NULL)
		return false;
	if (image == NULL)
		return false;
	return true;
}

bool clean_up()
{
	SDL_FreeSurface(image);
	SDL_FreeSurface(text);
	TTF_CloseFont(font);
	TTF_Quit();
	SDL_Quit();
	return true;
}

void blitSurface(int x, int y, SDL_Surface* source, SDL_Surface* destination, SDL_Rect* srcrect, SDL_Rect* target)
{
	SDL_BlitSurface(source, srcrect, destination, target);
}

int main(int argc, char* args[])
{
	bool quit = false;
    if (!init())
		return 1;
	load_files();
	text = TTF_RenderText_Solid(font, "lol. Animation.", text_color);
	int frame = 0;
	int tick = 0;
	SDL_Rect message;
	message.x = 4;
	message.y = 4;
	SDL_Rect sprite;
	sprite.x = 32;
	sprite.y = 32;
	while (!quit)
	{
		while (SDL_PollEvent(&event))
		{
			if (event.type == SDL_QUIT)
				quit = true;
			else if (event.type = SDL_KEYDOWN)
			{
				switch( event.key.keysym.sym )
                {
                    case SDLK_UP: 
						sprite.y -= 4;
						break;
                    case SDLK_DOWN: 
						sprite.y += 4;
						break;
                    case SDLK_LEFT: 
						sprite.x -= 4;
						break;
                    case SDLK_RIGHT: 
						sprite.x += 4;
						break;
                }
			}
		}
		SDL_FillRect(screen, &screen->clip_rect, SDL_MapRGB(screen->format, 0, 0, 0));
		blitSurface(4, 4, text, screen, NULL, &message);
		tick++;
		blitSurface(32, 32, image, screen, sheet->frame(frame), &sprite);
		if (tick > 100)
		{
			tick = 0;
			frame++;
		}
		if (frame > 15)
			frame = 0;
		if (SDL_Flip(screen) == -1)
			return 1;
	}
	clean_up();
    return 0;    
}

Welcome to game_guy's first Lets Play series. I'll be playing Cave Story Plus. Part 1 is ready for you gents to enjoy. Part 2 is being uploaded, and part 3 has yet to be recorded!

Spoiler: ShowHide

http://www.youtube.com/v/w7wYmXywS1M

Spoiler: ShowHide

http://www.youtube.com/v/jMLvnwxFr4E

I just found this entertaining. Sally had one of her friends message me or something for whatever reason. Here's the result.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Here's sally's profile pic too. They're both in each other's picture. Make it any more obvious? xD

Spoiler: ShowHide

EDIT:
Her response to that last message was "Oh that Sally!".

Not a girl I know but I've been sketching a female on my phone. Now I'm not an artist, I think most of you know that, but I really enjoy how the hair turned out. Ignore the face, I haven't been able to get a good sketch. I'm just curious to see how you guys like it, I'm a bit proud of it since I can't really draw that well...

Spoiler: ShowHide

On Friday I will be giving an informative speech. The speech must last three to five minutes long and I get to stand up in front of the entire class and inform them of my subject. I've gotten in front of people to read things and my voice tends to crack and I tend to stutter, a lot! Now whats worse about this time is I have to memorize my speech and keep eye contact with the audience. (Yikes) I'd absolutely, fucking love it, if you guys could give me pointers on memorizing my speech and to keep my voice as fluent as possible while staring at the judgmental crowd of little asshole freshman. (Failed a class, stuck with freshman now) By the way, imaging the audience is a bunch of cabbage does not work for me!

By the way, if anyones curious my topic is on "First Video Game Inventions" where I inform people of the "first" things. First home console, first arcade, first handheld, etc...

[Info]

Version 0.8

Info

Pirate's Map is a desktop application for Windows based operating systems. It allows you to search for torrents through thepiratesbay.org with ease and speed. Also comes without the advertisements and popups unlike the real site. This was created with experimental HttpRequests and HtmlParsing and the result was promising.

Features

• Search through thepiratesbay.org with ease


• Browse through 6 categories, including an "all" category


• Fully functional page system


• View torrents description


• No bullshit, no ads, no popups

Screenshots

Spoiler: ShowHide

Spoiler: ShowHide

Spoiler: ShowHide

Usage

1. Search for torrent (Don't forget to choose category)
2. Click Search
3. Double click and of the results to bring up the torrent description
4. Click torrent to download the torrent file

In order to use this application, you must have your own Torrent Client. And that program must be associated with the file type extension ".torrent" for it to successfully work. If you have uTorrent installed you should be fine.

License

This program is 100% legal. The software presented does not download the files contained within a torrent. It merely just downloads the torrent file and opens it up. This program is in no way affiliated with "thepiratesbay.org" and in no way does the software support or download any piracy. The usage and creation of this software is intended for experimental and educational usage. This software, nor its creator, is not responsible for what you download and any legal issues you encounter. The author is not responsible for any viruses you may concur through torrents. The author is not responsible for failure of computer hardware or software that may occur through downloading torrents.

By downloading this application, you automatically agree to the above terms and can no way at all hold the author responsible for any of the stated claims. This license was put here to protect the author from any legal issues that concur with piracy. Thank you for understanding.

Download

Pirate's Map 0.8 (Direct)

1. Download Zip
2. Extract
3. Run

Notes

The program isn't quite finished yet. I still have to allow browsing of all of the categories. I still have to implement some failure preventions and finish the page system. The page system is completely functional, its just that if theres only 3 pages for a search result, it'll let you go past 3. However, if you do go past the number of actual pages, it'll just display the first page's results. Version 1.0 will come sometime during this week with the full amount of planned features. If you guys have any suggestions or run into any errors, please post here and lemme know. Happy pirating!

Also, I strongly suggest you use the actual website instead of this application. Thepiratesbay.org is much more functional when it comes to browsing. This was all experimental because in an upcoming project, I'm going to have to deal with HtmlParsing and HttpRequests and whatnot.

This is not a torrent client itself, just a search engine more or less.

I'm going through an emotional breakdown right now. I haven't been myself lately. My behavior and attitude towards things have drastically changed over the past couple of weeks. Depression is the most obvious change. My grades in school are slipping, I'm slacking off most of my responsibilities, and overall haven't been very friendly towards anyone in my life. I've decided to take a small hiatus from the internet and try to straighten my life out. I'm planning on being gone for a week but depending on how things go, it might even be longer. I just need to figure things out on my end. Anyways, I'll see ya guys around.

Recently, our staff has been extremely lenient on this whole flaming ordeal. There should be a lot more bans in place then there has been. Constant flaming, rudeness, insulting has been given to members who don't quite deserve it. Then people turn around and claim our staff isn't being fair. While I agree in some cases, our choice of punishment was a bit harsh, but I look around and I can see why. I'm almost 100% sure our administrators are fed up with this constant flaming. I agree dealing with new members and newbies to the RPG Maker scene can get annoying. Its hard to fight against ignorance without showing a bit of rage. Everyone does this, its normal. But when it gets to the point to where you're just flaming someone just because of previous bad experiences, something needs to be done.

Examples sake, Tazero (aka metaknight at one point) was a just plain annoying at one point of time, banned once or twice. (Too harsh maybe?) But he's come back several times, changing his attitude and behavior, yet people still hate on him. Everyone has been given a second chance at one point in their life, so why can't some of the members who feel this is a safe environment, even call this place their home, get one? I'm being a bit of a hypocrite here because I myself have almost refused to give some members a second chance. Then we look at the members who have been given several chances, who's had the luxurious feeling of being showered with chances. As a staff member here at Chaos Project, its in all honesty my duty to try and prevent this. Or to blatantly stop the problem from where its coming from. I myself have flamed members just for being ignorant and stupid. I also took my punishment for it. A lot of you who have been doing it has easily escaped that. I just want to say I myself am not going to tolerate it much longer. I'm tired of seeing silly little arguments in the shoutbox over nothing that even matters. I will start banning people, I will start holding my duty as a moderator.

Now I'm hoping this community can be forgiving, can return to a nice community as it once was. Thriving with activity and everyone getting along, no matter the situation. Now I know I can't just ask for activity back but I can ask for politeness. I want to be able to put everything bad behind us and try and start fresh. Forget about all of the ignorance, forget the fights, the arguments, everything thats negative. We can still be a nice community, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if the flaming is pushing away members. But if we can't be nice, keep our thoughts to ourself, then I will start handing out the proper punishment. Members have been complaining about the fairness of our judgement, including myself, but then I look at what our community is and what makes it, and then I see that our decisions are unfair and work to the benefits of our members and not us. So either be nice or be banned.

Thank you all and have a wonderful day/evening.

School Rumble (スクールランブル Sukūru Ranburu?) is a Japanese Shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi. First serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine from October 22, 2002 to July 23, 2008, all 345 chapters were later collected in 22 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha. Shōnen Magazine Special published a sequel, School Rumble Z, monthly from August 20, 2008 to May 20, 2009. A romance comedy centering on relationships between Japanese high school students, School Rumble focuses on a love triangle involving the series' two protagonists, Kenji Harima and Tenma Tsukamoto, and one of their classmates, Oji Karasuma. The series often discards realism in favor of comedic effect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_Rumble

I for one absolutely love this series. Has anyone else ever heard of it? I'm about half way through season 1 right now. I absolutely love all of the dramatic irony that takes place in this series. <3

Steven Paul Jobs, co-founder, chairman and former chief executive of Apple Inc., passed away Wednesday, October 5th, 2011. While I hate most of Apple's products and the limitations they have on them, I am deeply sad that such a genius man died. Poor man didn't even live to 60. Cause of death is still unknown.

Apple's board said in a statement that Jobs died "peacefully surrounded by his family," but did not give a cause of death, although he suffered from pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer for years.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/05/steve-jobs-dead-apple-s-great-american-genius-dies-of-cancer-photos-and-videos.html

I found this face maker while browsing DeviantArt. Theres no export function from what I see so you'll have to screenshot it.
http://gen8hedgehog.deviantart.com/art/Anime-Face-Maker-v1-0-75897890

Works pretty good, its got quite a few stuff to customize and whatnot.

Using this code in Ruby I've managed to get the XINPUT_STATE while an Xbox 360 controller is plugged in. I've done several tests while moving the left and right analog sticks and pressing several buttons.

require "Win32API"
module GamePad
  @set = Win32API.new("xinput1_3", "XInputSetState", "IP", "V")
  def self.test
    @get = Win32API.new("xinput1_3", "XInputGetState", "IP", "L")
    state = "\0" * 256
    @get.call(0, state)
    p state.unpack("C*")
  end
end
GamePad.test
gets
exit

After unpacking the pointer, I discovered that the first slot in the array seems to be the Left analog stick. I've also discovered that the Start and Back button share the 5th slot. Start's value is 16 while Back's value is 32. Hold both of them together the value becomes 48. The 6th slot are the left and right bumpers. Left being 1 and Right being 2. In fact I'm positive all buttons besides the Start and Select are on the 6th slot. So I've managed to successfully use the GetState but now I want to use the SetState function to be able to use the Vibration control. And since I need to pass an actual Vibration structure as a parameter I'm completely lost.

As far as my experimenting is going, it seems to be going well. My overall goal is to see how well I can get the xbox controller to work with Ruby.

Also discovered the directional pad is in the 5 slot. It seems the XINPUT_STATE only has 16 values. It doesn't seem to be generating anything past that.

To be honest, not trying to sound cocky, but I think I'm one of the smartest people there when it comes to computers. People make up the stupidest shit about computers to make themselves look cool or whatever. The lies these guys make up are just so funny sometimes. Then when I basically make them look like an ass in front of everyone by proving that they just lied, they scuff me off and act like I'm the dumbass. Even my friends who know I'm a computer expert, still try to lie about crap and act all cool. Its rediculous.

So here I am telling a friend that I'm downloading 11GB of trance music.
"Dude, thats not that much, I have like over 200GB of music."
I highly doubt that, I was on this laptop about a week ago and it only has 300GB of space. I highly doubt 2/3^rds is music. I tried explaining to him that its really not likely he has that much music and I tried explaining to him how many songs that actually is. He just acted like I didn't know crap.

Then I hear these stupid lies about having to "downgrade"? the internet to play a game. Today, this kid was talking about trying to play Daggerfall and this is roughly what he said.
"My computers so powerful, I had to downgrade my internet just so it'd let me play it."
I just facepalmed, and walked away. I wasn't even going to try and explain to him how wrong he is.

I mean I know theres a lot of people know don't know about computers. I don't give them crap about it, I don't expect them to understand what I do. But when dumb people like this come along, its just so hard not to judge them. Its just amazing how stupid people can be. Then again what can you do about it? I'll add more stupid quotes as they happen. I'm losing faith in mankind.

This actually requires you to get the file name of the picture. Again its probably not the best way but it'll do it.

module Picture
  def self.dump_picture(filename)
    f = File.open(filename, 'r')
    data = f.read
    f.close
    encrypted_string = Zlib::Deflate.deflate(data)
    return encrypted_string
  end
  def self.load_picture(string)
    data = Zlib::Inflate.inflate(string)
    f = File.open("temp.png", 'w')
    f.write(data)
    f.close
    bitmap = Bitmap.new("temp.png")
    return bitmap
  end
end

So to save it in a serialized file do this.

f = File.open("test.rxdata", 'wb')
picture = Picture.dump_picture("Graphics/Pictures/test.png")
Marshal.dump(picture, f)
f.close

And to load the picture

f = File.open("test.rxdata", 'rb')
bitmap = Picture.load_picture(Marshal.load(f))
f.close

EDIT:
And if its still not working, just dump the contents of "temp.png" without compressing it.

  def self.dump_picture(filename)
    f = File.open(filename, 'r')
    data = f.read
    f.close
    return data
  end
  def self.load_picture(string)
    f = File.open("temp.png", 'w')
    f.write(string)
    f.close
    bitmap = Bitmap.new("temp.png")
    return bitmap
  end

I know dubstep gets a lot of hate since its just a bunch of bass. I happen to be one of the people who enjoy it. Anyways I found this video on youtube called "Dubstep Guns". Its got great visual effects and the guns shoot rays that react with the dubstep. Its a visually appealing video and its entertaining if anyone wants to check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDlif8Km4S4&feature=feedu

When Blizzard said something about it being really difficult to reload scripts while playing. While looking through Blizzard's script extractor, why couldn't we just re-eval all the scripts? For the most part it worked. But then when it reloaded main it went back to the title screen. But then I just added a little check to see if the script name was in the Exclude.

Exclude = ["Main"]
for script in load_data("Data/Scripts.rxdata")
  if (!Exclude.include?(script[1]))
    eval(Zlib::Inflate.inflate(script[2]))
  end
end

Then just for safety precautions, just reload the scene you're on.

$scene = $scene.class.new

It seemed to work alright without any issues. Of course I'm expecting F0, Blizzard, or someone else to come in here and prove me wrong. xD Anyways its a quick workaround if you're tired of reloading your game constantly.

This isn't the full package, you'll have to put this in your own method or event or whatever. And for scripts you don't want to load, put the name that you entered in the Exclude array.

I'm curious how does SMF handle unread topics? Does it store in the database? Where in the database? Does it use timestamps? I've spent an hour looking through SMF tables trying to figure it out. I was trying to set something up on my phone with a small android application.

I can't figure it out. I've tried searching but I've only ran into results talking about people not having their Show unread posts not working.

The third and final episode is finally out. Animator vs Animation has been around for quite some time now, at least a few years. The third episode, and the final, has been released. I've enjoyed this mini-series and the third one is probably the most epic.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/576381

The Xperia Play has a native PS1 emulator to play Playstation 1 games. A couple of days ago a developer known as "yifanlu" released a tool that converted PSX ISOs to an apk for your Xperia Play. He decrypted the Crash Bandicoot PSX game that comes on all Play devices and created the tool. Not all PSX games work 100% and for games that don't work you should use the Android PSX Emulator known as FPse.

I think its awesome that something like this is finally done. Especially since I just got the Xperia Play a couple of weeks ago. :3 Here's the link to the tool.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1201532

FF7 Works Great. Has some sound glitches.

[What are our benefits?]

Branden and I are trying to raise some money for Decisive Media. We setup a WePay donation page. For a one time fee you can get some nice benefits.

What are our benefits?

• Package: Bonus - 15+ US Dollars
  
  
  
  • 50 GB of Web Space
  
  
  • Sub-domain of decisive-media.net
  
  
  • MySql Database
  
  


• Package: Super - 20+ US Dollars
  
  
  
  • Bonus Benefits
  
  
  • Email Account
  
  
  
  

Decisive Media Member Bonuses

• Package: Basic - Any Amount (Receive one of the following)
  
  
  
  • Custom Board + Moderation status of said board.
  
  
  • Custom Group + Management of Group Members
  
  
  
  


• Package: Bonus
  
  • Same as above + 1 basic option
  
  


• Package: Super
  
  • Same as above + Both Basic options

One time fee?
Yes, you will only have to pay a 1 time fee. Then you get the mentioned benefits. No monthly/annual fees.

How long do I keep these?
You keep your benefits for as long as we keep our host. Our next bill is due December, 2012, so you'll get until then if we don't have the money to pay. But! We most likely will.

Downsides

• No cpanel. However you can get your own web/non-web clients for MySql and FileZilla.

I smell a scam
Really? I smell tuna.
I get it, why should you trust an offer that sounds too good to be true? Well for one, I'm an honest person, I'm pretty well known here at Chaos Project, I'm sure Blizzard could at least vouch for me. Its up to you to decide whether or not you trust me. I'm not posting this to scam. I'm trying to improve our site. I'd never do anything to rip anyone off, I wouldn't risk damaging Chaos Project's reputation, let alone mine.

So when will I get my account?
Within 24 hours of payment. It is dirt cheap hosting so we don't have automated servers to do this for us. I'm usually on the computer almost 24/7 and if I can't get to it, Branden will. If you haven't received details about your account within 24 hours, contact either me or Branden here on Chaos Project.

Alright seriously, whats the catch? One time fee? 50 GB of space?
There is no catch. Seriously. This is probably one of the cheapest hosting solutions you'll find.

I might just take you up on this offer, where do I pay?
Our page is setup here at WePay.
WePay.

Note on Donating
When you are donating, you will be brought up a form. If you are not a member of Decisive Media, just put your email as the Username. If later on you become a member of Decisive Media and you'd like the member benefits, just let either Branden or me know, be sure to tell us the e-mail you entered so we can check.

Feeling nice?
If you just want to donate a little feel free! Be sure to join Decisive Media if you're not going to buy a web package, that way you'll get some cool benefits on the site.

More love from us
Due to recent issues and problems with one of our awesome member, Taiine, a chunk of the proceeds will be sent to her via Check through the mail since she no longer has internet.

You see the kind of thing in MMO's. The game is free but you can buy all those things from the item mall with real cash.

Now I wanted to ask a legal question here. Could one get away with this without licensing? Like you're not allowed to sell RPG Maker XP games unless you bought a legal copy, and you get that official license and everything. Would you be allowed to hand out the game for free, but sell add-ons for it legally? Another case would be with Microsoft, you need a license to be able to sell .NET apps or something if I remember right. Me and Branden have a couple of ideas but we didn't want to get legal threats.

[One Game Instance]

One Game Instance
Authors: game_guy
Version: 1.0
Type: Cheating Prevention
Key Term: Misc System

Introduction

Was reading this thread. http://www.hbgames.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=74963&start=0 The guy who resolved it made it way overcomplicated. I decided to make a smaller more compact version.

This script is to prevent multiple instances of your game. This is really only for online games so players can't cheat.

Features

• Prevents Multiple Instances


• Custom File/Error


• XP/VX Compatible

Screenshots

N/A

Demo

N/A

Script

Place at very top!

Spoiler: ShowHide

#===============================================================================
# One Game Instance
# Version 1.0
# Author game_guy
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Intro:
# Prevents players from opening multiple instances of your games.
#
# Features:
# Prevents Multiple Instances
# Custom File/Error
# XP/VX Compatible
#
# Instructions:
# Place as first script.
# Configure the 2 variables and thats all!
#
# Compatibility:
# Works with everything.
#
# Credits:
# game_guy ~ For creating it.
# ZenVirZan ~ For requesting it.
#===============================================================================

# Custom error message.
ERROR = "Instance already running."
# Custom file name, I'd recommend leaving the ENV[Appdata]
TOKEN_FILE = ENV['APPDATA'] + "game_name.token"

begin
  if FileTest.exists?(TOKEN_FILE)
    begin
      File.delete(TOKEN_FILE)
    rescue Errno::EACCES
      if !DEBUG && !$TEST
        print ERROR
        exit
      end
    end
  end
  $token = File.open(TOKEN_FILE, "w")
end

Instructions

In script.

Compatibility

Works with everything.
XP/VX compatibility.

Credits and Thanks

• game_guy ~ For creating it.


• ZenVirZan ~ For requesting it.

Author's Notes

Prevent dem hackahs! >:U

[user_id]

Which way do you think is more efficient? I have my table setup like this.

user_id	awards	points
1	1,2,3	50

Then when querying to get the awards, I simple explode the string into an array. It works perfectly. But would it be more efficient to setup the table like this?

user_id	award_id	award_points
1	1	10
1	2	30