Archive for the ‘software’ Category

Adobe vs. Apple

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

I think we all know that Adobe and Apple don’t have the best relationship. I am of course not talking about Premiere, Photoshop or this creepy piece of software called Dreamweaver. I am talking about Flash.

My point of view

I don’t like flash. I recently uninstalled the Flash plugin in my browser. After tweeting this I received some – let’s call them unfriendly – DMs that I have no idea what I’m talking about and that I should just shut up.

Let me give you a short version what I really think of Flash

IT JUST SUCKS

I said I’ll go with the short version. If you want more details read on, if you don’t care skip to the next headline.

Everything Flash does is consuming valuable system resources. I still work with my HP/Compaq NX7000. I have a Pentium M 1.5GHz, 2GB Ram and a Radeon 9200 mobile graphic chip. This notebook works for me. I can do all my work, I can surf the web, work on my projects and do everything else except browsing websites that use Flash.

Okay enough drama. I can, of course, browse pages that use Flash. But my CPU is running at 100%, my battery runs dry and my legs are warming up.

I have only seen one website I find at least a bit useful using Flash and that’s YouTube. Yes I know there is Vimeo and other sites that do exactly the same but let’s just stick with the big one. I can live without YouTube. Yeah, call me crazy but this is no joke. I am still not as 2.0 as I wanted to be and somehow I am thankful that I missed my goals. I don’t feel the pressure to publish new content, to take a vacation from Twitter or to run away from my blog.

Short version as conclusion

I don’t use Flash, I don’t like Flash, I don’t need Flash.

Maybe now some of you understand why I don’t care about iPhones and iPads without Flash.

Mac improvements are coming

You may ask why I write this post and that’s okay. I just hit word 346 and still did nothing beside flaming Flash. There is an article on AppleInsider and I just cannot resist writing a comment that wouldn’t fit in the comments on AppleInsider.

I won’t comment Jobs statement that Adobe is lazy. I know many things I’d call them, lazy is not included.

“If Flash stayed stagnant, it would certainly go away,” he said. “But it’s not going to stay stagnant. We’re going to keep innovating.”

Flash is innovative. Great joke. What’s the next one? Windows is the best OS for every task?

What can Flash do?

  • act as a media player for sites like YouTube
  • eat up a lot system resources
  • crash
  • security holes for free
  • you can create advertisements using many sound files so you cannot surf the web without muting your speakers
  • always require an update when you need fast access to your browser

Yeah Flash is innovative and China is a democracy.

Why did Flash become famous?

There is only one reason why Flash became famous. Well, maybe two, but number two is YouTube and I am sure they would have found another way to deliver videos.

Back in the dark days of the internet there was only one easy way to create interactive content. Flash. Everyone started using it, many people were not happy but there were no viable alternatives.

Some competitors appeared but they had no chance. Requiring additional addons, new development environments and a total new syntax without giving something back, no overvalue, is no way to attract developers.

Why Apple is doing it right

Apple is going for HTML5. With HTML5 there is no need for Flash if you want to provide videos for your users. And as I just said, this is the only reasons why we still see Flash on websites (okay maybe also because some people still didn’t get that Flash sucks and that there is no reason using it). Webdesigners understood that using standards is a good idea. And now they’ll get a alternative that will work on standard compliant browsers. What do you think they’ll do?

Many users are not happy about Apples decision. I can understand this. I don know what sites they are visiting but if they think they need Flash I can understand it.

But thinking about future Apple is doing it right. They don’t waste resources on a technology that should be dead for at least 5 years now. They work on a new technology that will bring benefits for everyone using it. They focus on standards that can be used by everyone.

That’s what I call innovative.

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Teamspeak 3 server on Linux

Monday, December 28th, 2009

I cannot remember how long I am using Teamspeak. But since I use it I don’t like it. I looked in many alternatives including Ventrilo and Mumble but in the end we always went back to Teamspeak. It seems to be a standard for gamers today. Now that TS3 is released we wanted to give it a try.

How to test new software

If I test a new server software I start my good old IBM T21 notebook, login and run one of my shell scripts “createvserver foobar 10.0.0.3” and after a short time I have a new shell and start installing the new server.

I downloaded Teamspeak 3 server 32bit, unziped it and started the server

Error

I love it when the first lines include a error messages and a notice that you will only have limited functionally.

root@ts2test:/opt/teamspeak3-server_linux-x86 # ./ts3server_linux_x86
Logging started
2009-12-23 14:06:58.260466|INFO    |ServerLibPriv |   | Server Version: 3.0.0-beta5 [Build: 9462]
2009-12-23 14:06:58.261447|INFO    |DatabaseQuery |   | dbPlugin name:    SQLite3 plugin, (c)TeamSpeak Systems GmbH
2009-12-23 14:06:58.261798|INFO    |DatabaseQuery |   | dbPlugin version: 3.6.4
2009-12-23 14:06:58.281278|WARNING |Accounting    |   | Unable to find valid license key, falling back to limited functionality
2009-12-23 14:06:58.284054|ERROR   |Accounting    |   | failed to register accounting service
2009-12-23 14:06:58.285546|ERROR   |ServerLibPriv |   | Server() error while starting servermanager, error: instance check error

This is everything I got.

Doing some research I found a problem that was similar. After running TS3 as root you cannot just start it as a user because you don’t have permissions to write / read / delete a file in /dev/shm TS3 creates.

Got you

Reading the problem with the solution to delete /dev/shm/foobar and everything should be okay I noticed why it cannot work on my test system.

Using Linux-vServer you cannot just mount a tmpfs or create files in /dev/shm. So Teamspeak3 will not work in a vServer. Running it on my host system works. So definitely the problem is /dev/shm.

It took nearly 3 days to find a answer. It was a common problem and many people ran into it. Especially those who just own a vserver with root access. If you register your Teamspeak3 server for free and add a license file to your installation it works.

If your server finds a license TS3 doesn’t use /dev/shm anymore.

Short explanation

The guys from Teamspeak really use /dev/shm to check if there is only one instance of your server running. This is what you are allowed to do with the free version without the free license.

I don’t believe that I am the only one who thinks that this is one of the stupidest ideas ever.

License

There are three different ways to run your Teamspeak3 server.

  1. Without a license. You can run one server with 32 slots I think
  2. With a free license. You can run ten servers with 5xx slots
  3. You pay for it.

No matter what some marketing guys try to sell us – you register your server for free to get free features you don’t have without registering your server. And if you don’t register your server you have to deal with obscure programming mechanics that cause errors on many vservers / wanna be root servers.

After all those bullets on my list why I don’t like Teamspeak there is a new one on top of it.

Configuration

You can configure you server using your client. This is basically a great idea. The webinterface just sucked.

But sadly the new configuration is no advantage.

  • if you add a group you have to set 100ths of different privileges
  • if you want to add users to a group you have to use strange tokens (long strings) or drag & drop them – come on. drag & drop? 2 windows needed to add someone to a group?
  • if you are looking for something trivial like “only this group should be allowed to join that channel” – it isn’t implemented or hard to find
  • 50+ new features / buzzwords no one knows

Configuring TS3 is not funny. I’d rather configure sendmail.

The only good thing is that the client finally got a nice look & feel.

Crashes

Some of my friends that are still into hardcore gaming reported that some games just crash or disconnect while running Teamspeak 3 (client). I don’t see how anything like that can happen if they didn’t screw up the client but it seems to be a common problem shared by many people.

I’m looking forward to some solutions, bug reports and flame wars on their forums.

Best idea ever

Release a beta and take down your site and support forums. I cannot say how impressed I was by that decision.

Let the users fight against our software till one of them gives up or cries around in other support forums so we won’t have to answer questions and help those guys who test our software.

Nearly as intelligent as a bug tracker that is only for internal use,…

If you don’t want to try TS3 but want a conclusion how it feels using the client and server: it is like Windows ME and AOL Dialin Software having a retarded baby that was dropped to often.

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30 days with Windows 7

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

I am now using Windows 7 for 30 days. I didn’t mention it till now for a good reason. Writing a review after 1 or 2 days is pointless. You see all the shiny things and you think it is awesome but you didn’t use it long enough to find some rough edges.

It doesn’t matter if we talk about software or hardware – 30 days of constantly using something before writing a review should help to lower the count of posts that start with “yeah you know I thought it would be cool but it just sucks”.

Back to topic: Windows 7

It works. No joke. It really works – not one crash in 30 days. Enough information, we talk about a Windows system, this is more than you can expect. Okay enough joking and flaming.

Installation

Installing Windows 7 only needs some clicks. If you create a “USB installation device” it is done in 15 minutes. It recognizes most hardware if the system is not bleeding edge and not from yesterday.

A really cool feature: if you install new device drivers you don’t always need to reboot your system. Install your driver and it works.

Drivers

The system recognized most of my hardware. Since Windows 7 drivers are not available for everything I just used Vista / XP drivers and most of the time it worked.

But that was a exception. Most hardware was recognized and installed correctly.

Eye candy

After many years with Windows XP on my notebook I like the new look.  It is not as colorful as Vista – thanks god – and it also doesn’t require much system resources. The only difference I see after turning off all the stuff is that the system is using 60MB less memory and the fan keeping my graphic card cool runs less often.

Taskbar

The new taskbar is great. I know the application icons so I don’t need names. I have more space in my taskbar and I can really use it. One of the disadvantages of Windows was always that it didn’t support virtual desktops out of the box. I found myself not missing them with the new system.

Another great feature is the preview of your application when you choose a window. I don’t know how but they really did a great job.

Window Manager

Sorry if I don’t use the right term but I am a long time Linux user but I think calling it window manager works.

If you want a window on one half of your screen just drag it to the right or left side and *tatatatadada* your window is maximized using half of your screen. You think this is a useless feature? I love it. Copying many files from one folder to another or watching a video while surfing is done with 2 mouse movements. No resizing and other annoying stuff that takes valuable time if you do it twice a hour.

Application support

Every application I use works without problems and without some additional work like granting permissions. That’s the nice part.

After closing some applications Windows always tells me that the application doesn’t respond – well how should a already closed application respond?! Taskmanager says “no process there anymore” – it is a bit confusing and bothersome but that’s it.

New “security” model

I didn’t really get it till now. UAC or whatever it is called. I am administrator and I am not allowed to browse and edit the whole filesystem.

Yeah I know that there are people out there that don’t know a **** **** and will break a system by looking at it. But I know what I am doing.

If I copy a application to C:\Programme I want to edit the .ini. I don’t want a system that doesn’t allow me to edit it. I am the administrator, if I am dump enough to get a virus I deserve pain.

I also want to browse my application data in my user folder to backup and restore configuration files.

I could live with the fact that the user I create while installing Windows is a unprivileged user. It would be secure and I’d have to grant myself administrator access. If I work as administrator and fuck it up – yeah I know I repeat myself – I deserve pain.

My vote in the category “most annoying feature ever”: UAC. They did it wrong in Vista and in Windows 7 it still sucks.

Conclusion

You’ll need some time to get used to it but I suggest you give Windows 7 a try. It works and provides some new features you’ll miss if you got used to them. In 30 days if found only one annoying thing: UAC. But I believe this is something we’ll be able to deactivate – no matter how, no matter what it costs, it will be gone.

I won’t compare Windows to Linux or OSX. Linux on a desktop is nothing I’d use anymore and OSX is just superior to both of them when it comes down to usability and stability. But if you need or want a Windows system you now don’t have to vomit every time you start your system.

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where have all the themes gone?

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Last night I started to setup Wordpress for our World of Warcraft guild. Some month ago our core raid team did a fraction change and founded Ephedrin – our new guild. We do a pretty good job raiding ToC and ToGC. But since ICC is knocking at the doors we have the feeling that we should extend our member pool.

Installing Wordpress has nothing to do with black magic. 5 minutes and everything works. After those 5 minutes the hard part begins. We want a Warcraft related template. A dark style not this parchment stuff you see everywhere or something neutral white. We are not settled if we go with a Lich King theme, something from classic or Cataclysm based.

After 2 hours we had nothing. Not one theme that worked and looked great.

So we decided to go with a comic based theme. Something totally different. After some research: still no themes that would work for us.

I am honest – I didn’t install or use Wordpress for some time now but when did theme authors stop publishing their work? There are many sites that provide free themes but they either suck and don’t work or the site is down (404, 403,…)

Is there really no option than creating a new theme?

I currently work on a theme for my private blog, it is – like installing Wordpress – no black magic required as well but it has to be done. It consumes valuable time.

Some years ago I always found a great theme for Wordpress, no matter what I looked for. When did this change? Are all theme authors now running a business and only sell their themes? Did 12 year old “web designers” create so much trash that you cannot find awesome work anymore? Or is Wordpress just dead and no one cares to design new themes? *scnr*

NP: Paula Cole – Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?

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