H1DD3N.R350URC3 » Misc

Hidden Resource Mobile Version

sascha — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:26:36 +0000

Here’s just a small tidbit about a new Wordpress plugIn named WPTouch I’ve added to Hidden Resource that automatically displays the blog in a mobile-friendly theme on IPhones and Andoid phones. The mobile version is themed in a design similar to Apple’s appstore and it turns out to be a very smooth and slick experience indeed to read posts and comments and also leaving comments. The theme even features selectors to filter posts by tag or category and in fact the whole site feels as if it’s an iPhone app all by itself.
So enjoy reading HDRS on your phone! Oh and if you’re running a WP blog you might want to consider installing the plugin because I might want to rejoice over your site on the phone. Besides installation is as easy as with all WP plugins so there’s virtually no excuse!

10 Days …

sascha — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 04:40:53 +0000

… until the president election! Do the world a favor and vote for the right guys. And by that I mean not for THEM! People with at least a tad of intelligence now that Barack dances better anyway.

Aw Snap! This site is not meant for you!

sascha — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 05:22:12 +0000

Chrome, the new snazzy browser from Google is currently in everyone’s mouth and most people who had a look at it seem to be impressed so I decided to give it a go, after all it can’t be so bad, right?

Chrome installs right onto your system from the website and then takes over (or if you are cynical: steals) all the bookmarks, history, passwords etc. from Firefox (to make your life easier). It then opens with a slick and slender window that lacks all the tackiness of a plugin-convoluted Firefox. When opening a new tab it shows a neat history list with thumbnails of your most recent visited websites. Chrome starts up as fast as a finger snap! Maybe even faster! Can it get any better?

>> Continue reading "Aw Snap! This site is not meant for you!"

Dude, where is my blog?

sascha — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:29:58 +0000

In case you’re wondering what happened on this site besides that it has been visually overhauled … two of my older blogs have now been merged with Hidden Resource. One, Dataleak, was my very first blog that I used for mainly writing about computer games, especially old ones. However Dataleak turned more and more into a abandoned net corpse and because there were quite some articles on it which I found have nostalgic value I decided to take them over to HDRS. Then there was Vista Tweaking, a blog I’ve started to post tweaks for Windows Vista. The few postings from that site have been consolidated into HDRS as well. I also had the idea on the back burner about starting an audio blog since audio production is one of my many interests. But a man has only so much time and maintaining three or four blogs is clearly a chore. Just think about all the updates, handling Spam etc.

>> Continue reading "Dude, where is my blog?"

A Love Letter to Flash

sascha — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:18:29 +0000

Not from myself but I’d like to second his words … A Love Letter to Flash

AIR application: FEAT (Freelancer’s Estimation Assistance Tool)

sascha — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:16:32 +0000

I finally came to play a bit more with AIR and it’s specific features and wrote a small tool that is helpful for freelancers like you and me to make pricing estimation calculations. With FEAT you can calculate your hourly rate based on your expenses and some other factors and it provides a wizard to calculate project pricing estimates (another thing that is hard to get used to for many freelancing starters). It also stores all your values and changes its color if you want and can cook coffee and wash vegetables and …. ok wait, the last part is not true but still, this is a nifty little tool! Find more info and download at this LINK!

Vista Tweak 7: Disabling the secured (dimmed) desktop during UAC consent prompt

sascha — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 04:09:26 +0000

Normally when Vista’s User Account Control (UAC) asks the user for a consent when launching an application that is deemed insecure, the desktop will fade dark while the consent window is shown. While I recommend to always leave UAC turned on, this desktop dimming can get annoying very quickly.
Fortunately this behavior can be disabled so that the consent window is still shown without dimming the whole desktop. To turn this off follow these steps …

>> Continue reading "Vista Tweak 7: Disabling the secured (dimmed) desktop during UAC consent prompt"

Vista Tweak 6: Adding Games to the Vista Game Folder that are not added automatically

sascha — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 08:57:36 +0000

By default Vista adds installed games to the Vista Games Folder when they are started for the first time. However there are many games that are not added automatically. It is possible to drag and drop a shortcut icon of a game onto the Game Window but only the icon is displayed then without any box art or additional information.
There is a workaround to add your own games to the Game Window completely with box art and other infos. This is more of a hack since it is not officially supported and since you have to tamper around in the Registry you should know what you are doing. Also you have to repeat the following steps for every game that you want to add which can be tiresome if you want to add many. Here’s the step-by-step guide to add your games …

>> Continue reading "Vista Tweak 6: Adding Games to the Vista Game Folder that are not added automatically"

Vista Tweak 5: Autologin on Vista

sascha — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 03:36:24 +0000

Despite there seems to be no visible option to turn Autologin on in Vista it is still possible to activate it. The feature is a bit hidden and not directly accessible through the Control Panel. If you ever are the only person using your computer there is no purpose in always having to log into your account. Here are the steps to turn on Autologin …

>> Continue reading "Vista Tweak 5: Autologin on Vista"

Vista Tweak 4: How to make the Vista Experience rating appear again if it disappeared

sascha — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:06:02 +0000

Some people found that the link to rate the Vista Experience Index was gone on their system so they weren’t able to re-measure the Experience Index again after for example hardware changes were made. The following steps show how to repair this. Note that this requires making modifications to the system registry! I recommend to always make a backup of the registry (with regedit) before making any changes to it!

>> Continue reading "Vista Tweak 4: How to make the Vista Experience rating appear again if it disappeared"

Vista Tweak 3: Turning ’show File Extensions’ on

sascha — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:39:12 +0000

Why this is turned off by default is beyond me but Microsoft must be thinking this is useful to users. It is not! There are still people who actually don’t know how make the file extensions visible and there are people who don’t even know that filenames normally have an extension. Displaying file extensions has the advantage that you know immediately with what file type you are dealing (that is unless the file extension was set wrong). But if you can see an .exe extension on an unknown file it is a lot more helpful than just counting on the file’s icon. To turn on ’show file extensions’ follow these simple steps:

Go to Start Menu/Control Panel and double click the Folder Options icon
Click the View tab and in the Advanced Settings list uncheck the item called Hide extensions for known file types
Click Ok and you are finished

Vista Tweak 2: Turning off Security Center completely

sascha — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:38:52 +0000

The Security Center is one of the most annoying things in Vista. It not only wastes valueful memory but also sits in your taskbar tray all the time. To turn it off and let it’s tray icon disappear follow these steps …

>> Continue reading "Vista Tweak 2: Turning off Security Center completely"

Vista Tweak 1: Turning off User Account Control

sascha — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 10:53:50 +0000

User Account Control is probably the most annoying new ‘feature’ in Windows Vista and while it provides a good protection against unwanted programs it can become bothersome quickly when many applications have to be installed. I recommend to leave UAC turned on unless you have enough reason to turn it off. To turn off UAC follow these steps …

>> Continue reading "Vista Tweak 1: Turning off User Account Control"

hidden.resource moved to new domain!

sascha — Fri, 25 May 2007 14:35:41 +0000

As you can see hidden.resource has been moved to it’s own domain, namely www.hiddenresource.net. At that opportunity I also gave the site a Wordpress update and a new look (including those slick 16-bit style pictures at the top). Besides that HDRS is going to focus more on Game Development with ActionScript 3.0 in the future as that is what I’m (and probably the readers of this blog are) most interested in.

News Flash

sascha — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 11:44:23 +0000

Been quiet here recently! One who writes code much, writes blog post few! ++ STOP ++ Flash Game Programming Wiki is down! Had my web server package changed which required a physical server transfer. Looks as if something on MediaWiki got broken by that. All stuff is still there but the site doesn’t open on any URL. ++ STOP ++ Alcon 2.0 is in development and will soon be released. ++ STOP ++ Apollo Alpha is out but I still haven’t touched it, no time, too busy! Does Photoshop CS3 is being released on tuesday?!? Who knows? Head explodes ++ STOP ++ …

Need more reason to NOT use Vista?

sascha — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 03:41:07 +0000

… If you use a Logitech mouse you already got it! The company now officially made it clear on their support forums that there will be no support for Mouseware for Windows Vista. Instead they point their customers to use the generic mouse driver that ships with Vista. But have they told you that the mouse movement is much slower with that one, even on highest speed? Or that the middle mouse button will not work? I like my MX310 and don’t plan to buy a new one just for Vista because this mouse fits like a glove. The same goes for my soundcard. M-Audio hasn’t made any official statement about a Vista driver so far.
One might thank Microsoft for this mess because of their ridicolous protection mechanisms but then again companies like Wacom prove that developing Vista drivers for existing hardware isn’t impossible. Seems like Logitech jumped onto the ‘all new and shiny’ banwagon by presenting their newest Vista supporting products instead of writing some drivers for their existing customers! Oh right! I forgot to tell them that some customers like me are left handers and don’t want to use an ergonimic right hander mouse!
No Vista for me until this driver mess has seriously improved, and definitely no Logitech products for me for a while, thanks!

Windows Vista the Protection Monster … and at which costs!

sascha — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 03:30:36 +0000

Still think Windows Vista is a great OS? It might look great but whats going on under it’s shiny surface? Peter Gutmann has written an extensive article about Vista’s underlying content protection systems. If you plan to use Vista, read it! And then think again!

Quote: “The only reason I can imagine why Microsoft would put its programmers, device vendors, third-party developers, and ultimately its customers, through this much pain is because once this copy protection is entrenched, Microsoft will completely own the distribution channel.”

Guerilla Spam

sascha — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 11:09:23 +0000

I’m getting some strange kind of Spam recently. Check out my Photoshop Script Positing! Around every week I’m getting one or two comments saying “great script!” or something similar and the URL obviously point to sites that have nothing to do with design or somebodies personal website. Instead they look like marketing websites. At first I didn’t realize it is Spam but it became more and more obvious.
So far these comments don’t annoy me as they are very subtle and few but if it continues with these ‘camouflaged’ thank you comments it makes me wonder if man or machine is on the other side.

So you want to be an Indie Developer?

sascha — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 07:13:48 +0000

Some links to nine articles about the topic on ‘becoming an Independent Game Developer‘, found via Digg. Some more interesting, some less, the last one from a Mac perspective. There seems to be a lot of discussion about if it turns out to be paying off or not etc., in short, things that don’t interest me that much, I’m just creating games because I have fun doing it and I like the practical side, I’m more of a hobbyist! Either way, here are the links …

Introversion
Cliffski’s Mumblings
GameProducer.net
Lemmy and Binky
Reality Fakers
Zoombapup
BoneBroke
They Came from Hollywood
gusmueller

Using Vista is like walking on thin ice … Vista’s EULA product activation worries

sascha — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 17:51:41 +0000

“…Once you activate the product, then you would assume that you are golden to go ahead and use the product, right? Wrong.

You see, even after you activate the software it will, according to
the EULA, “from time to time validate the software, update or require
download of the validation feature of the software”. It will once again
“send information about the…version and product key of the software,
and the internet protocol address of the device”.

Here’s where it gets hairy again. If for some reason the software
“phones home” back to Redmond, Washington, and gets or gives the wrong
answer – irrespective of the reason – it will automatically disable
itself. That’s like saying definitively, “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I
can’t do that…”

… So basically add some regular activation annoyances to your almost weekly Windows security updates to keep you from working on the PC!
Read more here … Vista’s EULA product activation worries | The Register

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