Thanks to everyone who tried/solved my DP.Challenge #1. Your solutions were so inspiring that I decided to create another one.

Level (0-5): 1

Restrictions: None

Target: Attached

Scenario: Remember our programmer from our previous challenge? Well, he was secretly hired by the IT Head of DMMA IT Department to write a program that would shutdown terminals remotely (with a click of a button), since as we already know, most of DMMA's employees and head are... well, lazy.

So what happened is that the time that the programmer left the company, the IT department Shutdown Utility was also in its beta stage. Yes, it works, but not as expected to - there was also a bug. A bug much bigger than the DMMA Accounting Software.

Following the decision of the accounting department, the IT department also ran ads to find someone to repair the buggy software.

Fortunately, you are reading the ad right now. You know you can do it and you know that nobody else can. So... will you take it?

Goal: Find the bug(s) and fix it. There are no restrictions. Anything goes. Good luck and enjoy.

START: HINT! HINT! HINT! SPOILER ALERT!

END: HINT! HINT! HINT! SPOILER ALERT!

Welcome! I had nothing to do, so I decided to put up a very newbie challenge. Please read specifications.

Level (0-5): 0-Newbies
Restrictions: None
Files: It is attached.

Scenario: DMMA Corporation, a company whose accounting personnel cannot add numbers, hired a programmer do code a software specifically to add integers. After a few days, the programmer has partially finished the software and submitted the executable for beta testing. At that time, the company is in the brink of bankruptcy. This event prevented the company to compensate the programmer for the work he has done.

Of course, the programmer got furious when he learned about this. So what he did was he permanently deleted all his source files, making sure that it cannot be recovered in any way. Then he simply left the company.

The company, after learning about the disappearance of the programmer had no chance of getting another programmer (of the same caliber) to do the job, start from scratch again (since the sources were all deleted beyond recovery). All they had was the unfinished build that was submitted to the beta testing department, which after a few sessions -- they found a huge bug.

So they though, why not make use of the existing build? So they spread the word, looking for someone who could do just that.

And you. Yes you. You heard the news. It's your decision to grab the opportuniy or not. Are you gonna take it?

Goal: Find out what the bug is, then repair it without the original source code by any means necessary. Once done, write a simple tutorial or article how you did it, then post in your devpinoy blog or devpinoy forum. Write a comment saying that you have solved it and link to your article. Good luck!

Please note that successfully solving this problem will not get you any prize, not that I don't want to, I just can't, BUT what you get is knowledge. Sabi nga ni ka-Ernie, "kung walang knowledge, (all together now) walang power". This is just for fun, so... have fun!

The contest has ended.

Norton Security 2009 -- Ok, you know the brand, so what's new with 2009? Here's what the site says:

• Innovative new architecture dramatically reduces the boot time impact, the scan time, the memory usage as well as the system footprint and the install time.
• Smart Idle Time Scheduler runs quietly in the background to let you work and play without disruption.
• Silent Mode ensures your games and movies are never interrupted by alerts and security updates.
• Enhanced Browser Protection blocks browser exploits and protects against infected websites (now supports Firefox).
• Expanded SONAR Protection offers real-time protection against new and unknown threats without requiring the user to make confusing security decisions.
• Enhanced Identity Safe now includes an interactive tutorial to get users up and running, cloning of your cards importing your data from Internet Explorer and more....

So, what's the deal? Ummm... The beta is out, you can actually get it from http://www.symantec.com/norton-beta/internet-security/

But wait, there's more!

Why get the beta if you get the full version for FREE? Yes, for FREE! Wanna learn how, then read.

In this contest, all you have to do is earn points. Don't worry, it's easy.

Actual prize may vary from the product above.

How to earn points:

1. Tell us about an encounter you had with a computer virus or hacker or security threat. Post it here. Points will be awarded based on how interesting your story is. [Up to 20 points]
2. Blog about this contest and link to this page. Then inform the contest holder by posting a comment here. [5 points]
3. Answer four questions on Internet security. The questions will be released within the contest holder's daily blogs. Once you have all four answers, e-mail them to the contest holder. You can get the email address here. [5 points per correct answer].

Rules:

1. Last day to complete tasks is Sep 15, 2008.
2. In the case of a tie, a randomiser will act as a tie-breaker.
3. When sending e-mails, please state the name you used to comment if you want your points credited correctly.
4. You do not have to perform all tasks to qualify for the contest, but you want as many points as possible to win!

That's it! The top five point-earners will win the NIS 2009!!!

What? You mean you're too late? Don't worry! Act now and you might still have the chance to accumulate a few points to win some amazing Norton luggage tags! Yes you heard that right, Norton luggage tags goes to the 6th to 10th point-earners! What an incredible offer!

Good luck everyone!

Thanks Sheylara!

The contest has ended.

Whether you're whacking your joysticks in the dark corners of your room, or whacking your joysticks with your buddies online... in the dark corners of your room, there's no denying that sometimes you need a little break. Something to break the ice. Hell, I found a weekly newsletter that does that. It doesn't matter what kind of gamer you are - from casual to hardcore; or 8-bit to next gen.

Previews for upcoming games, witty stories, socially relevant gaming news, and loads of photos literally litter the page. There's also a little Q&A portion for all those geeky questions. Consoles, games, tips & tricks, ask and you shall be answered.

Here's a screenshot of GGF Issue#2.

Note: Not actual size. Click for a slightly larger version. milk is still best for babies.

Since its release last Fri, 16 May 2008 10:01 am (Issue 1), it gained a huge following. People from all over the world got excited on what this weekly newsletter had to offer. And issue number 2 never failed to do that -- GTA4 anyone?

One more thing -- there's something really special about this newsletter. Because of the "connection" between the readers and the author, the experience of reading the columns ain't that passive anymore -- almost turning into a community. There's always something to look forward to.

That's it for now, if you want to catch up with the latest issue of GGF, or even get a chance to read its maiden issue, you know what to do. *hint hint*

• Content (9/10): Well written stories/news/etc. Easy to understand and the flow of information is very consistent.
• Graphics (8/10): Girly Ryu Hayabusa...
• Interactivity (8/10): Very good, as I've mentioned a little earlier.

Well, with all of the crap I've written here, I give GGF a rating of Math.round(8.5) out of 10.

Have you ever wanted to download something, but you just found out that the file was hosted in MegaUpload (One example is from http://gewdlooks.multiply.com -- shameless plug) and sadly you're greeted with the no available slots message.

Fear not, let's fix this.

You have 2 choices -- (a) install the Megaupload toolbar, (b) install a firefox add-on. I'd rather do option (b), hehehehe.

If you decided to do option (b), then just follow the procedure below. This is really really simple. All you have to do is;

1. Fetch a copy of the latest build of Mozilla Firefox.
2. Fetch and install the MegaUpload SX 3.2-fx.xpi add-on.
3. Restart Firefox.
4. Tools > Megaupload 3 > Enabled.
5. Test it. Try to get a megaupload link from Chris' site (http://gewdlooks.multiply.com -- another shameless plug).
6. Cross your fingers.

Great it worked! Heh!?! But my internet connection is unstable... my download never finishes. Could I use a download manager? Well, that's another story. ;)

It was only today that I discovered that once in 2004, there was a game creation competition for the GBA platform.

Now there is a downloadable version that we can all enjoy!  

I just want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May you all have new opportunities to grab and new goals to reach. Have a pleasant day everyone! God bless!

 Have you guys tried the new beta of the famous instant messenger?

 Just installed it and I was blown away with the new look! Take a peek:

The one above has my favorite skin so far, you have 7 default skins available. Aside from that, there are more emoticons to choose from, which I heard were based from the winners in the previous emoticon contest (But I will have to confirm this).

There are also these new technical features like the media player, which can view Yahoo! video and YouTube video directly on the message window. I could not try it out because all my contacts still use the old YM. This will only work between YM 9 Beta to YM 9 Beta chat.

Since it's beta, there are sure to be bugs/annoyances,  I found 3 (Ohhhh, I love beta testing):

• Whenever the client is minimized to the tray, then the ads change,  I get out of focus with other applications.
• When you click a contact, a box pops up immediately, which is a little annoying/distracting.
• Added on 11.07.2007: When you change skins, the contact search bar re-appears when in the first place you have hidden it. And if you check the settings, it is actually set to hide, but its not.
• Added on 11.08.2007: When you're chatting with someone, then he/she logouts, there are no visual signs that he/she did (Unlike the old one, you'll see <nick has logged out>), I don't know if this was intended or they just simply forgot. UPDATE 11.21.2007: Weird, in other PCs I've tested it on, this does not occur, on my office PC and others it does? All OSs are XP...

That's all I've found so far.

If you also wanna try it out, fetch the downloader from this address - http://beta.messenger.yahoo.com/ - :D

See ya! 

Picture this, you have 9,999 .doc files. You decide to zip/rar it to save space. But you thought, "I want them individually archived so that I wouldn't have to open a huge zip/rar file just to find a file." But doing that could each up your time, doesn't it? Want a solution, read on!

You might not be aware of it, but one of the most famous archiving utility (WinRAR) already has this feature. You can fetcha demo at their site - http://www.rarlab.com - :D

So here's how you do it.

1. Compile all the files that you want to compress individually into a single directory.
2. Select/highlight all the files.
3. Right-click, click Add to archive... (you should enable context menu for WinRAR)
4. Choose between RAR or ZIP (I prefer RAR, better compression level in most instances)
5. Choose a compression level. (I usually go for the slowest/best)
6. Go to the"Files" tab.
7. Look at the "Archive" group, check the "Put each file to separate archive" checkbox. (Check my screenshot below if you can't find it)
   
8. Click Ok.
9. Watch and see the magic happen.

Sorry but I just can't help it.

Happy happy happy birthday, sa'yo ang inumin, sa'yo rin ang pulutan. Happy happy happy birthday, sana malasing mo kami!!

Maligayang bati sa'yo master Keith!
 

Regarding lamia's blog entry Dark_AleX Going Bye Bye... hey, I think we've been had. Remember when Dark_AleX said "goodbye" -- another team called M33 emerged from the scene right? Now, rumors in circulation says that M33 is actually Dark_AleX! Could this be true? Supposing the rumor was true, why did he change his alias? Nonetheless, M33 or Dark_AleX, it doesn't really matter that much, anyways they've "both" have had fine releases. :D

Anyways, aside from this news, another rumor said that after the release of the new custom firmware (3.71), M33 (DAX) will now leave the scene for real. Awww...

Could this mean the end for us? I hope not.

After a year I posted my rounding question in the forums, I finally got it working. Here's the original post I made; http://devpinoy.org/forums/t/915.aspx.

Just this morning, I had nothing to do, so I excavated some of my unsolved sources from my archive. Then I remembered this problem about rounding stuff in assembly. I thought, maybe it's time to solve this, so I did.

The original problem I had was I did not know how to round to a specified number of digits. For example, I have the value 3.1456825863, which I wanted to round to 3 decimal places like this 3.146. For my original code, it always outputs 3. Then it hit me! I already had this problem in flash before, the function Math.round does the same thing, but I already solved it there. So again, excavated the FLA project... and the rest was rounding history. So here's the code using the FPU.

01     .586
02
03     ...
04
05     .data
06     buffer   db    1024 dup(0)
07     fbuffer  dq    0
08     pi        dq    3.14
09     rdigit    dq   10000.0
10
11     ...
12
13     .code
14
15     ...
16
17     invoke GetDlgItemText, hWin, IDC_EDIT_INPUT, addr buffer, SIZEOF buffer
18     invoke StrToFloat, addr buffer, addr fbuffer   
19            fld         fbuffer
20            fmul      pi
21            fmul      rdigit
22            frndint   
23            fdiv        rdigit
24            fstp       fbuffer
25     invoke FloatToStr2, fbuffer, addr buffer
26     invoke SetDlgItemText, hWin, IDC_EDIT_OUTPUT, addr buffer
27
28     ...
29
30     end start

The most important parts for this are lines 09, 21, 22, and 23. Line 09 (rdigit) is the one responsible for controlling the number of significant digits to be displayed, depending on the number of zeroes in it. Example, the input is 3.1456825863 and rdigit is 100.0, the output will be 3.15, since there are 2 zeroes in 100 (My code above will output 3.1457). Lines 21 to 23 simply means that Math.round(ST(0)*rdigit)/rdigit), which is responsible for doing the trick.

So there it is, I hope this helps anyone who will encounter this problem. Please feel free to comment if there are errors in this. I tested it with my scenarios and it worked like a charm, but who knows...

 Creds goes out to cvega for the help I got with this piece. Thanks!

Another one of those. It's really fun analyzing these spams, so let's rave.

First of all, check out the subject, alright! Rod Stewart marries a model? Very catchy, who's the model?

But wait, what's that, it's addressed to a certain Zhirnov Stansislay. The surname is really cool, Is-tan-is-lay, hehehe. So it's not for me eh... but the address is my address? Oh well.

Then let's open up the mail (But I suggest that you don't for safety measures, I'm just doing this for fun). What the... :-o

Just having fun here! ;)

Original Message:

Subject: Reports: Rod Stewart marries model
From: Sales <sales@turningpointprop.com>
To: Zhirnov Stansislay <modchip@xxxxxxx>

Everyone need it Original.

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