Category: General

Everything “else”…

This weekend I took some work home with me. I am working on an implementation of a code library for research prototypes. However, during the week I can hardly make any progress. There to many different tasks for me to do (e-mails, meetings, funding proposals, reports, etc.).

Yesterday, I literally took the existing source code apart and started rewriting the internals. Why is it, that you always need to write 60% of a program, before you understand how to do it correctly? Year, I know the software engineering drill. I am an experienced software engineer myself and I know how to develop good code. But nevertheless it does not work. At least it does not work if the program is to complex, or gets to complex because I want to be ready for(already known) future uses. It feels like a special version of Hofstadter’s law: A software design has always problems, even if you consider all problems you know. It really would be a lot easier if software could stink. Then you would know when something goes into the wrong direction.

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The development of TheLib continues.

One thing I learned during my work as developer of scientific software is that large software projects at universities are extreamly difficult to manage. Mainly because the people involved are “scientists” and no “developers”. The experience, the processes, and the structures to reach common goals (compromises) are mostly missing. At the same time, many problems of todays sciences cannot be solved without large and complex software. Thus, most software created in academia is pratically not usable. This is a fact I can not accept.

The approach of TheLib is based on the idea of “divide an conquer”. Instead of developing a huge software which can do everything, we concentrate on a clean development of smaller pieces of the software. This way, we can increaste the usablility, the maintainability and thus the re-usability of these components. The TheLib provides fundamental base classes. I see this project as “extension” to existing projects like the STL or BOOST. It is not a competitor and it does not aim to be one. Therefore, we pay close attantion to reach very high interoperability with these projects.

Even so we reduced the scope of the TheLib to a moderate minimum, it still is a lot to do. Whatever. This is how it should be. If it would be easy, anyone could do it. ;-)

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My Harddisk became unpleasently full, therefore I bought an additional one this week and installed in my computer. I noticed again how reluctantly I am tinkerin with my computer’s hardware. Whatever.

My computer uses the ASUS P8Z77-V mainboard, which I can only tell good things about. However, when I inserted the new harddisk and booted my Windows, this harddisk appeard at the tray icon for removable drives. The nonsense.

After some googling I lerned that it is the ASMedia controller, which controls two of the eight SATA ports. And for this controler, the corresponding bios option for drive removal is missing. There are some solutions in the net, e.g. injecting registry hacks at boot time using the task scheduler. What I did not find on the web, but what I found for myself is the “real solution”: simply set the option at the controller:

Device Manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI-Controller > Asmedia 106x SATA Controller > Properties > Policies

What I don’t like, is that this solution was not the first hit at Google. …

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The Windows Powershell is quite nice. Of course, now all the Linux users start bitching around, that they always has something like this and that it is nothing special. And no one claims otherwise. But still, the PowerShell is nice and I enjoy it. :-)

Like today: I needed a simple hex dump of a file:

PS >  $str = ""; $cnt = 0; get-content -encoding byte C:\pfad\zur\Datei.txt | foreach-object { $str += (" {0:x2}" -f $_); if ($cnt++ -eq 7) { $cnt = 0; $str += "`n"; } }; write-host $str

It’s elegance is limited, that I will admit, however, I does it’s job. And, somehow, it is quite nice …

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The year 2012 is almost gone. Let’s use this opportunity to reflect on what’s happend. Ok, ok. No one likes annual reviews (me neither), but still…

Early this year I defended my dissertation, and finished my Ph.D. With this, I also finished my work at the Visualization Research Center of the University of Stuttgart. And I mean “at”, not “with”. I still continue working with the “guys from Stuttgart”, and we have some pretty exciting ideas under development.

Then I moved to Dresden and started working at the TU Dresden in the project VICCI. It’s a great city and a great group working here at the computer graphics lab. I really enjoy working and we have some fascinating science projects going on here.

What else? TheLib started. Together with two friends and ex-colleagues from Stuttgart, we decided to fix the design issues of the VISlib, by creating a new, clean library. It is a lot of work, but it is worth it.

And, of course, there is my private game project: Springerjagd (Knights Hunt). Although, I already started to work on the rules last year, it was this year that the game finally got it’s name. And it’s webseit, although there is not much to see there. But this project is something I will be definitly going to continue.

And, with this we reach the New Year’s resolutions (although it’s 1-2 days early): basically, I only want to do what I can to make 2013 as successful as 2012 was. No, I will make it even more successful. However, I believer there is no need for more detailed plans :-)

And, because I do not plan to post again at New Year’s Eve, I wish you all:

“A happy new Year!”

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I had some very quite days this week. Nothing really happend, and that is a very good thing. Thus, the only thing I have to say this week is:

Merry Christmas!

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It’s the first sunday after I promised to write a post each sunday. Well, at least I warned you that not all posts will be meaningful. So let’s start directly with the non-meaningful ones:

Some days ago I heard a discussion (more like a monolog), where an expert (Linux user, which only touches Windows using thick gloves, and only if he really must) presented his opinion: “Windows 7 was the way it was, but Windows 8 is not suitable for desktop computers”.

Really, I cannot stand this non-sense! Did you ever try using Windows 8? (“Using” not “trying out”!) I did. On my desktop computer. And you know what? It works perfectly! The tile menu in Windows 8 is just fine, the apps can be ignored without effort, and on the legacy desktop there are so many small improvements that I really enjoy working with it. Okey, most of the GUI changes are optimized for touch input. Using on a normal desktop computer you need to use a special hardware called: MOUSE!

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Some of you might have noticed that SGrottel.de was unavailable for about two weeks now.
I am trying to clean up the mess and to reconstruct the lost data (post only. Comments are lost for sure).

Just a quick note: Never NEVER EVER trust a backup system you have not set up yourself.

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I am online again!

Due to me moving to a new city I was without internet for four weeks (ok, I have internet at my work, but this obviously does not count). This is a damn long time! But now, the waiting has come to an end.

Next up:

I got one bug report each for Burns 3 and Dib. I am gonna look into these the next days. For the Burns 3 bug I already wrote a workaround and I am waiting for a confirmation that this fixes the problem.

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The last few weeks were packed with work. That’s why I had to distract myself and power down my brain a bit. So I tried something new and created three little fonts. Each only contains glyphs for the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 and represents them as tally marks. Since these files are simple and small, their are free for download and free for any use anyone would like:

Tally Marks Europa.ttfTally Marks Europa.ttf Tally Marks Europa
[5.69 KB; MD5: beadd7876b05cdfa98a32498fb630ea0; More Info]
 

Tally Marks Asia.ttfTally Marks Asia.ttf Tally Marks Asia
[5.11 KB; MD5: a952cb9ac13ff68b2ada0484bc786e0e; More Info]
 

Tally Marks Spain.ttfTally Marks Spain.ttf Tally Marks Spain
[5.70 KB; MD5: 6219f0201922f513cb3efe0fbd2e1958; More Info]
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