Thursday, May 25, 2006

Formal Languages and Automata

....As a Computer Science student at the Faculty of Computer Science we learn lots of things...some important(for me)....and some...not that important....One of the subjects I studied this semester is Formal Languages and Automata. The course was not that interesting mainly because the professor was not really that excited to teach.....mostly because he did the course...over and over again...the seminar though was quine nice...mostly because I like the practical things of this class and not the theory......The thing is nobody ever told us what we can do with this theory so I started searching on my own....and found.....Petri nets(sounds cool)....also found out something about automata used in many domains such as compilers and games....nice.....better go study for the exam now :)

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

WLM

My Windows Live Messenger updated itself today so...the biggest improvement for me would be the offline messages feature that I love in Yahoo Messenger and Skype(hope Google-Talk will make something even better).......All in all...it looks great and the features it has seem really really useful(especially if you like to keep your conversation boxes small in order to be able to do more things at a time - like me)...The only problem I had was that the setup program asked me to close all the applications running...including the setup program itself...kind of stupid....but i just ignored it :)....You should try it www.live.com

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Programming Languages - a new beginning

Well.....I thought programming languages today had to become more and more object oriented and should have a more English-like syntax....well....I happened to run across a programming language called Brainfuck that now has a .net compiler...The programming language only has 8 commands:
+ Increment value under pointer
- Decrement value under pointer
> Increment pointer
< decrement pointer
. Output the byte at the pointer.
, Input a byte and store it in the byte at the pointer.
[ Jump forward past the matching ] if the byte at the pointer is zero.
] Jump backward to the matching [ unless the byte at the pointer is zero.

If you are interested in writing really small programs...Google it or use this links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck
http://www.soulsphere.org/stuffage/bf.net/
http://esoteric.sange.fi/brainfuck/

Friday, May 05, 2006

Creating a New Folder dialog in C#

I am building a File Manager that may look like Total Commander in C# so I had to implement a New Folder dialog that should be as simple to use as possible...This Is what It looks like:

So...The functionality should be like this...The user enters the new folder name...and clicks Ok if he is ok with what he entered..or Cancel if he changed his mind. Also the user has the possibility to press Enter to accept the text and Esc to cancel...

First Add two buttons to the form and name one OkButton and the other CancelButton,then add a textBox and name it FolderName....if you want....you can add a label that displays the text New Folder but if you do not add it it won`t change any functionality of the dialog.

Now set the Dialog Result of the OK button to OK and the Dialog Result of the Cancel button to Cancel into the Form`s Load event handler. The code should look like this:

this.OkButton.DialogResult = DialogResult.OK;
this.CancelButton.DialogResult = DialogResult.Cancel

Next....set the TextBox`s name proprieties and assign a new event that should handle the Esc and Enter keyPress. So here is the code:

private void FolderName_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)
{
this.OkButton.PerformClick();
}
if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)
{
this.CancelButton.PerformClick();
}
}

In order to make the code simple we just "press" the Ok and Cancel through code using the PerformClick() method.

Another improvement would be: when the dialog opens the focus should be on the TextBox and not on something else...so one line of code should solve that:

this.FolderName.Focus();

Microsoft Virtual Server FREEEEEE

If you worked with Virtual PC from Microsoft or VMware form VMware, Inc.....you should try the new Virtual Sever software that is free.....Seems way too good to be true....but....here`s the proof: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/software/default.mspx

Need to access your ReiserFS(for Linux) partition?...I found a nice tool that lets you do that....Though you may have to do a lot of changes in ther registry.....but....if you have Linux installed you probably know how to use the Windows RegEditor...Check it out here:http://p-nand-q.com/download/rfstool/usage_on_windows.html

Microsoft and In-Game Comercials...

Ok....the big news for today is...Microsoft to Acquire In-Game Advertising Pioneer Massive Inc....so....from now on....no more ads-free games....You`ll see on in-game tv`s..please wait....your comercial is loading...:)..well....if that will lower the cost of games....it could be a good thing...or maybe in-game ads sponsored games(just an ideea...but that`s too good to be true)...
Here is the original press realease form Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/may06/05-04MassiveIncPR.mspx

WinXP can run on.....what....8 MHz???

I couldn't`t believe that either...but it seems true...windows XP can run on virtually any computer that has a processor speed of over 8MHz and 20MB of RAM...niccceeee....
The thing is...The OS is stable but...if it takes 30 min to start windows....you will get a headache if you want to start a program...but...the bottom line is....it WORKS!!!
If you need proof...check this out: http://www.winhistory.de/more/386/xpmini_eng.htm

New Opera Mini on the loose

I just installed the new Opera Mini browser on my Motorola V360 phone and it works GREAT...I had version 1.2 installed but the new 2.0 version really rulz....It has skins....settings for all the data display types....direct file download....and really really nice looks....totally cool browser :) get it here http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/operamini/phones/