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]

I believe there are many people out there, which did not think this day would come. To all of those, I like to kick you in your shins, at least virtually. If I say I am doing something, then I will do it!

BurnsTOK_3_0_49_0.zipBurnsTOK_3_0_49_0.zip Mr. Burns TOK
There is a newer Version of this File available
[129 KB; MD5: 7868fdb2a0f1c26d28cb88c618bf21e3; More Info]

Therefore, here it is: Mr. Burns TOK (Version 3.0)

Completely rewritten in C# for better maintainability and future bugfixing. Simply download and run (no Setup).
All you need is the Dotnet 2 Framework, which you most probably already have on your machine.

 

While I was coding for Mr. Burns 3 config-dialog window I realised that I made a silly mistake in the GUI of Dib. Sometimes, reading or writing the desktop icon information takes several seconds and the Dib GUI did not show that the program was still busy. I mean, how stupid is that.

Dib.1.3.15.0.zipDib.1.3.15.0.zip Desktop Icon Backup
There is a newer Version of this File available
[377 KB; MD5: 82bb2c82aeaf070412c40192fbe3390e; More Info]

So I loaded the Dib project and made this little change (less than 30 minutes of work). Therefore, here it is: a mini update for Dib.

I updated the rules of KDD (still don’t like the Name).

The extension rules are now removed. Neighbor-Attack and Switch-Move are now allowed special moves, while Single-Pawn-Block and Second-Free-Pawn are removed. These two where to fast to block the board (boring). Apart of that, my implementation of the Neighbor-Attack in the online prototype had a bug, allowing the enemy player to counter on a not performed neighbor-attack. I liked this, so I changed the rules to make this the actual correct behavior.

KDD_Rules_2011_11.pdfKDD_Rules_2011_11.pdf Knights Double-Duel Rules (November 2011)
[383 KB; MD5: b76e1d4489614ae95cfcf716663980ca; More Info]

Of course, I also updated the Online-Prototype.

Last week I tried to use DIB to restore the icon positions on my computer at work. However DIB told me that he couldn’t find my desktop. … wut?

So, I debugged a little and checked what was happening. Actually, the desktop window was really detached from the desktop’s process main window. I have no idea what happend, but since this strange state survived even a reboot of my machine, I decided to update DIB to be able to work with this situation as well. Here it is:

Dib.1.4.16.0.zipDib.1.4.16.0.zip Desktop Icon Backup
Selected File Version not found, showing newest Version instead
[378 KB; MD5: 846a6d216e74ad0f09eae94f1f2279d7; More Info]

In … April, *omg* that was a long time ago, … whatever … I wrote I’d like to re-work and extend my websites. On my wish list were bullets like user comments and RSS feeds. Long story short: I ask myself recently if I am a complete idiot. I mean … *wtf* … what I have here is pretty exactly a Blog and nothing else. Therefore I am currently looking at existing, free Blog-Engines and I will switch to one of these.

Nevertheless, as I am writing an entry here I thought I use this opportunity to update my project list:

  • MegaMol
    My huge project at work: MegaMol; That project is now in the hands of my successor. I am not doing any big changes there any more, just some minor fixes.
  • Exoworlds
    There is nothing new here. I got my ideas. They are rather complete. I simply have to do it. *sigh*
  • MILC
    “… but stay tuned.” What a joke. Whatever. Does not evolve and is problably going to get canceled.
  • Nameless Board Game
    Well, I can actually tell you something new here! In May I wrote that the rule set is making good progress. Now I got a first version (with some possible variants).You can take a look:

    KDD_Rules_2011_6.pdfKDD_Rules_2011_6.pdf Knights Double-Duel Rules (June 2011)
    There is a newer Version of this File available
    [378 KB; MD5: b76e1d4489614ae95cfcf716663980ca; More Info]

    Now, the problem remains, that I am not sure if the game is fair with these rules. At the moment it looks like the second player as a slight advantage (when played without the variants. I am currently checking if this is really the case.
    I also named the game “Knights Double-Duel”, because this is basically it. Both players play each with two knights similar to chess.
  • NSB
    NSB is officially dead for now.
  • Kanoneur 2
    Kanoneur 2 is also officially dead for now.
  • My Website
    Now, I am not going to say something.
  • Mr. Burns TOK
    *sigh* I don‘t know.
  • All my little Tools
    Yeah, there are some I am writing every now and then. (No mail), no plan, no goal

Here is, once again, a small tool the world does not really need.

UrlCollector.zipUrlCollector.zip UrlCollector
[158 KB; MD5: c7b75fcfbd602beec5902f8019f14ebb; More Info]

The UrlCollector is a very small and simple utility. It simply checks whether the windows clipboard contains a single line of text which looks like a Web-URL. If it does, that text line is copied from the clipboard into the program window. E. g. that way you can easily collect several download links from a website for later download, without hitting “Ctrl+V” all the time. Just “Copy link location” does the job.

About two years ago I was tinkering with code for changing the resolutions of my monitors. Of course, I screwed up several times and broke the layout of the icons on my desktop. So I searched the internet for a tiny as-simple-as-it-can-get tool to store and restore the layout of my icons. I did not find any. I mean, I found hundreds, but some were to blown-up by functions I don’t want (background services automatically detecting screen resolution changes, or something like that) and some were shareware.

Shareware!

I mean … WTF?!

Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against someone earning money with a useful and good-written software, but such a tiny little icon tool. I mean, it’s far less complex than Calc.exe of Notepad. I was really miffed and so I decided to write such a tool by my own and to give it away as freeware. Yes, freeware. Just, because I can.

Dib.1.4.16.0.zipDib.1.4.16.0.zip Desktop Icon Backup
Selected File Version not found, showing newest Version instead
[378 KB; MD5: 846a6d216e74ad0f09eae94f1f2279d7; More Info]

And here it is: Desktop-Icon-Backup (DIB). Written in C# with Windows Forms and a whole bunch of P/Invoke. It only took me two or three afternoons to make it work. I am absolutely sure that somewhere out there a tool like this exists, and that I missed it, like I missed many others. Who cares? Now the world is blessed with one more freeware. Get it and have fun with it.