Uplink Labs.

From the Uplink Labs site:

Welcome to Uplink Laboratories. Since 1996, we have provided software for cryptography, security, benchmarking, and gaming. In 1996, we launched our first release of CryptoPad v1.0. In 2000, we released CryptoPad.NET, which was our first product created on the .NET framework. In 2004, we released CryptoPad Classic, which was a complete rewrite of CryptoPad outside of the .NET framework. Also in 2004, we released the first build of Cobalt, our gaming client.

Cobalt is the project I'm working on and I'm involved with the conversion of it from Visual Basic to C++. It's going well so far with a few of the server commands already implemented. Hopefully by September we can replace the Visual Basic servers with C++ ones. The point is to get Cobalt running on all platforms, something that XFire and Gamespy Arcade haven't done. I'll give some more details on the development in the next few posts.

I also have the idea of converting CryptoPad to Java or another platform-independent language (C/C++ would also be suitable for the task) and having it available on all platforms. The cool thing about it is it works like the Ordo Emacs program from Cryptonomicon. It encrypts the data you just typed using the specified key and lets you save it like that. I know PGP does that for you, but CryptoPad lets you do it with different types of encryption schemes. All in all, a pretty cool thing to have.

Anyway, I'm going back to work on the Economics presentation that's due on Monday.

Coding + Cold = Not so good.

Yep that's right. I think I may have a cold. That could explain the pile of tissues in the trash can. It could definitely explain the slimey crap all over my keyboard. Coding has never been more fun. My nose was dripping with sarcasm...

Anyway, I thinking I'm making a lot of progress on my programming side project, but that's not what people tell me. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the implementation of everything and I'm afraid that this will get too big too fast. So, I'm taking it one line of code at a time. I have been randomly starting and stopping on certain portions of the project, namely the linked lists and file I/O functions, but I haven't code that stuff for a few months so I have to re-learn it.

Back to sleep :/

Okay, I've started typing up a post three times now. I couldn't think of anything then, but now my brain is finally co-operating...

My computer science project (Phoenix, strategy game) is going fine. I had to switch to using a text-interface because the GUI (Graphical User Interface) code won't compile. There's a problem with MinGW, Cygwin and GCC. Instead of installing all the native windows stuff, I've dealt with the Cygwin version. It looks like it came back and bit me in the ass :/ Anyway, I've chosen to install Slackware Linux. Hopefully I can get that done this long weekend on Monday 23rd, but it'll be too late to get the GUI working, seeing as the project is due on Tuesday 24th. I've also made sure that the teacher marks based on the mechanics of the game, not on the appearance.

On the bookish side of things, Cryptonomicon just keeps getting better. Neal Stephenson is a great writer and I think I'm going to have to read every single one of his books :) . Same with Haruki Murakami, the Japanese novelist who wrote Sputnik Sweetheart and Norwegian Wood. I gotta check out a few more of his books...

Hmm, I think it's time to get back to coding :/ *whip sounds in the background* Yes it's definitely time.

Microsoft, IE, Bullshit

As you may already know, I do not like Microsoft very much. Sure I may be using Windows 2000 to write this, but I have one very good reason for that: Games. Anyway, what I want to discuss is the recent slamming of Firefox's security and the new Internet Explorer (IE) coming sometime this year.

This is just stupid. Apparently, in the last six months, there have been more higher-risk vulnerabilities in Firefox than in IE. Big friggin' deal. How many more high-risk vulnerabilities have there been in IE over the years? The last six months doesn't count for jackshit. It only serves to point out that IE still has vulnerabilities.

Also, if you look at the IE Blog at Microsoft, you can see M$ is a little behind...So what if you can inspect your pages in IE? It doesn't matter because Firefox already had a DOM inspector. Also, do the DOM checkers for IE account for the fact that IE doesn't properly support CSS/HTML standards? And what is this "working...on CSS and platform support" mean? Well then, get back to work and stop telling us about your damned 3rd party DOM inspectors! Start building in proper support of CSS and remove those 'vendor-specific' CSS functions like the image thingies and the scrollbar color changing bullshit.

Anyway, I picked bought some books at Indigo on Friday. They are: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt, The Most Common Mistakes in English Usage and 2600 Magazine. On Bullshit is a great treatise on bullshit :) It discusses the way it's been used, and how bullshit is different from lying. It's a great difference as bullshit is a general disregard for the truth while lying acknowledges that there is a truth. Cryptonomicon is just great. In my opinion, Neal Stephenson is one of the best writers of the last few decades. This book doesn't disappoint..Everyone go get a copy now! The English Usage book is pretty useful.

And 2600 The Hacker's Quarterly is always filled with some awesome information. For example, HP Printer servers have FTP and HTTP servers running. And they run Java. Think of the fun you can have :) I was reminded about that April Fool's Day joke back during the First Gulf War about how they shut down an Iraqi computer center by putting viruses on printers being shipped there. It's amazing how 15 years later we can actually do that. Sort of.

Okay, back to work.

Grr...

Why is it so difficult for people to validate their HTML and CSS pages? I mean, you just zip over to the W3C website and use their validator. Easy as pie. It'll tell you everything that's wrong. Also, why don't people actually learn the standard instead of just bumbling about.
What really bugs me is when a website has "technical requirements". WTF?! I mean, your website should be working with everything. Even plug-ins such as QuickTime, RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, etc. should work in all browsers. AccuRadio for example has a technical requirements paragraph at the bottom of their main page. Instead of trying to make it work with all the functionality that they already have, they're sticking with Windows Media Player. I have news for you guys..If I wanted to use ActiveX I would use Internet Explorer. I use FireFox so I do not have to use ActiveX and all the other Microsoft Garbage(TM). This is the future, shit should work when I want it to.

Links
- HTML 4.01 Standard
- HTML Validator
- CSS1 Standard
- CSS Validator