Maybe you’ve tried to update Eclipse to 3.5.1 and … you failed. Maybe it’s because the update site has gone. I’ve opened bug 290723. See you there.
Updating Eclipse to 3.5.1 with p2
28. September, 2009
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Posted by digulla
Adobe Flash 10 Just Sent me Through the Roof [Update]
17. September, 2009I just got the latest security fixes for Firefox 3.5.3. Finally, the browser warns me about outdated and insecure plugins. I like it!
Top of the list? Adobe flash player. Hm. The page needs JavaScript. Guys, other people managed to build click buttons with an image without JavaScript. *sigh* “Temporarily Allow adobe.com”. Huh? What’s that? “Free McAffee security scan (optional)”? Optional my a**! Die, die, die!
So I click the link. “get.adobe.com tries to install software on your computer. Enable?” Sure.
WTF? What the hell is “getplusplus”? And what’s it doing on my computer? *lot’s of swearing and cursing that you don’t want to hear* I hate it when someone smuggles unwanted software on my computer. Adobe, if you’re listening: THIS IS MY F***** COMPUTER! SO HANDS OFF!!!
After a restart, I can finally download … ah, crap, again this stupid McAffee! *ARGH*
Ok, it’s downloading. *grmbl* … installing. Hm. Well? Now, what? Anything happening anymore? Let’s check … nope, FF is still unhappy and about:plugins says 9.x.
Again. “Installer was already downloaded”. Really? So why isn’t it installed? Has Adobe finally managed to write software that can lie? Great. That’s what I really needed first thing in the morning.
Okay, np_gp.dll obviously isn’t worth the disk space it occupies. But since Adobe managed to infest most web pages on the Internet with their flash crap, a solution is necessary. Here goes:
The download shit from Adobe puts the files into %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\*\NOS\Adobe_Downloads\. Replace “*” with “Application Data” or “Anwendungsdaten” or your local name for that folder. In that folder, you should find a file “install_flash_player.exe”. Save that somewhere.
Open the addons and delete “getplusplus”. Exit Firefox. Now delete “np_gp.dll” in the plugins folder of Firefox. That should get you rid of that unwanted crap.
Before starting Firefox, run the installer manually. Check the details. Make sure that the installer installed the plugin in the Firefox directory instead of somewhere else. On my computer, it ended up in Opera’s plugins directory. If that’s the case with you, too, then copy the files “NPSWF32.dll”, “NPSWF32_FlashUtil.exe” and “flashplayer.xpt” manually.
Start Firefox and open about:plugins again. Search for “flash” and make sure that the version is 10.x. To make 100% sure, visit http://en.www.mozilla.com/en/firefox/3.5.3/whatsnew/. The security warning should now have gone away.
[Update] Apparently, the download manager is a security risk. So remove it ASAP.
Leave a Comment » | Software | Tagged: Adobe, Flash Player, getplusplus, np_gp.dll, Security | Permalink
Posted by digulla
Marketing in the 21st Century
16. September, 2009If you ever wanted to know everything important about 21st century marketing (especially for software), there is a great 1 hour talk by Seth Godin which sums it up in a really funny and understandable way.
Note: The socks are great, aren’t they?
Leave a Comment » | Software | Tagged: Marketing, Software | Permalink
Posted by digulla
Wanna Make The World a Better Place?
15. September, 2009If you’re in the world improvement business, you’ve probably already heard about “microcredits” – money lent to people that banks rather wouldn’t call “customers”. Because they are poor. Most often, they are poor because they can’t get credit. That doesn’t allow them to buy something like a cow or a mule or some basic tools to start a business. We’re not talking about a lot of money, some of these people just need a few dollars. $100 can make a lot of difference.
Kiva is working on changing this. Take $115 from your Paypal account and help four projects ($25 each and $15 for Kiva itself) to make the world a better place.
“Die Welt ist freundlich, warum wir eigentlich nicht?” — Herbert Grönemeyer, “Lied 1 – Stück vom Himmel”
“The earth is friendly, why aren’t we” — Herbert Grönemeyer, from the song “Song 1 – Piece of Heaven”
Leave a Comment » | Philosophy | Tagged: credits, funding, funds, kiva | Permalink
Posted by digulla
Powerful Wiki Engine for Eclipse
1. September, 2009I’m toying with the idea to write a powerful wiki engine for Eclipse. What I have in mind should
- Allow multiple markups (because all markups suck, so there is no point to prefer one over the other)
- Should offer a side-by-side editor (source and preview because WYSIWYG is impossible to get right)
- Should support automatic links (just like in the Java editor)
Right now, I’m not sure whether I should start with Mylin WikiText or Xtext.
Both look promising. WikiText support multiple markups. I just don’t like the two-page editor (where you have to flip pages to see what you’re doing). Also, I’m not sure how flexible the whole framework is.
Xtext would allow for much more complex markups but I’ll probably have to start with a more basic framework.
Links: Extending RIM with Xtext
2 Comments | Software | Tagged: Eclipse, Java, wiki | Permalink
Posted by digulla
Code Generators
26. August, 2009Code generators can save a lot of time and effort which leads to the question: Why isn’t everyone using them? A lot of code in any project is repetition.
The main reason: With todays IDEs, you can’t debug generated code. Well, you can debug the result of the code generation but when hunting bugs in generated code, chances are that you want to hunt them in the input and/or the transformer and no IDE has a notion of “this line of code came from these inputs, so show them as well”.
Example: You need POJOs which map database tables. Easy enough: You create a small program that connects to the database, maps the types in the tables to types in your favorite programming language (or rather the one you have to use for your project) and dump some code.
But unlike C/C++, modern languages don’t have a #line directive which says “this piece of code was originally part of another file” let alone “this information came from the database XXX”. So when there is some problem, you need to dig through the layers of the code generator, the templates and the input (the database) yourself, running the transformation in your head. Bad.
Approaches like MDD will keep failing until they support this.
2 Comments | Software | Tagged: Code Generator | Permalink
Posted by digulla
Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3)
24. August, 2009Even for the many definitions of fun. For example, there is a new game “Batman: Arkham Asylum”. I was really hesitant to download the demo. And then, I was hesitant to install it. Why? Because the trailer gave me the impression “another super hero beat ’em up”.
Okay, the in game cut scenes look great. Clothes have texture and the outline of the characters doesn’t reveal the 17-poly mesh. During the demo, it quickly becomes evident that a lot of resources went into the combat scenes where Batman does move pretty smart. You select a general direction and the type of attack and the Bat will do some serious damage. It feels like you actually control someone who spent years training martial arts, not some stuffed puppet. Using the grappling hook works like charm, even without much aiming. It’s enough to be close one of the gargoyles and it’ll work like a charm. Well … gargoyles in the building? Anyway.
That changes when you start walking around the compound. Here, the stuffed puppet is back. You can run which makes things better but the walk cycle looks really unbelievable. Did you know that Batman can’t jump? Maybe it’s because of the heavy belt? Or the muscles are all part of the suit’s armor? No climbing either. If you don’t have something where your grappling hook can attach to, you can’t even climb on a chair.
But what I was most afraid of: “The world’s greatest detective.” Remember? After taking the first round of inmates down, I almost gave up on the game. Only it does get better. There is something called “detective mode” which highlights interesting features around you (like enemies, things you can use your grappling hook on, etc). So after the short scene with Victor, the game turns into something that resembles Metal Gear Solid. Not bad. While you can try to take down everyone with a gun, you probably shouldn’t. Just as in reality, when you beat up one out of five people, four will start shooting you in the back.
There is still hope.
1 Comment | Game | Tagged: Batman, Game, PS3 | Permalink
Posted by digulla
10 Ways to be a Better Thinker
20. August, 2009There is an article on CNN about ten ways to be more happy with your brain.
Leave a Comment » | Philosophy | Tagged: Brain, Science, Thinking | Permalink
Posted by digulla
UI Design: Why is That Button Gray?
13. August, 2009Here is one tip for your UI design that can really make life easier for your users: “Why is that button gray?” – or smart tooltips for disabled elements.
One additional comment: The tooltip shows a lot of information why the button is disabled. Why not simply set the right tooltip in the save place where you disable the button? At that time, you’ll know exactly why you do it and you can give the user specific directions what to do now (instead of having her read and pick from a list).
Leave a Comment » | Software | Tagged: Design, UI | Permalink
Posted by digulla
Two Jokes
6. August, 2009Announcement from [your-favorite-dictatorship-of-the-week]:
After years of scientific progress, we finally managed to turn a wagon load full of human waste into butter. A great day for our country and the whole world. Next, our scientists plan to work on the color and the taste.
A man suspects his mother-in-law trying to poison him. To confront her, he feeds the lunch to his dog. The dog drops dead instantly. The man, mad with rage, stabs the mother-in-law to death. As he stands over the corpse, breathing heavily, the dog jumps up and barks: “YES!”
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Posted by digulla
Dark Views 