The dSRC team site is custom.. no CMS for me / us (too much bloat for my liking)

No "out of the box" web site is ever going to do _exactly_ what you want without some hacking.. so why not just start from scratch (especially considering the complexity (or lack of) for your average team site). IMO, CMS-derived sites all have the "samey samey" look and feel to them.. even when people "change" the themes, they don't really, they just update some colours and images, the actual _design_ 99.9% of the time stays the same.



Regards,

Ian

You could code a simple script to do it



Regards,

Ian


EDIT: Or wait for Vic's solution

Quote from scania :

I wan't, but I hope that it can turn on\off by host

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

WTF!? Seriously.. WTF!?

Thanks scania.. you made me laugh already this mornin and it's not even 07:00 yet



Regards,

Ian

Hmm, can you laser scan fictional tracks?

Let's face it, the devs aren't serious enough about existing real life content (I'm all for fictional tracks, so it don't bother me, just wish Eric had a bit more imagination).

Could you imagine the speed of development though? Hahahahah.. Eric's progress would be permanently in reverse.. he seems to have enough of a problem with the basics of manipulating vertices with the currently available tools. IMO, it'd be like giving a blind fella a paint-by-numbers book.



Regards,

Ian

Any reason you didn't but it from the official site?

Only place I'd be paying is http://www.lfs.net/?page=shop.

That is instant (unless paying by Paypal, where Vic has to manually process parts, but this is usually done within 24 hours depending on what time of day (for him) you pay).



Regards,

Ian

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Ian - care to explain why using a variable directly in quotes is a bad idea?

As morpha says, single quotes are taken literally by PHP, whatever's in them gets taken at face value. Double-quotes are assumed as possibly containing parsable data (ie: vars) so PHP actually looks to try and parse the entire string, thus being a little slower.. but again as morpha says, you'll never see it, it's just a geeky thing

Same goes for using echo rather than print to display a string. Print returns a true / false value, echo doesn't.. so effectively using echo is slightly more optimised. Again you won't notice it, especially as today's servers are getting more and more powerful, but it's there



Regards,

Ian

Hadn't thought about that shot, I just thought "modern UI". If there was only a few buttons, I wouldn't have bothered I don't think though.

Tbh, I hated the ribbon design originally (I still get lost in Office '07, although I don't use it _that_ often anymore) but it's kinda grown on me a bit.


I've updated a few things for anyone wanting to try it.

New features:

• Will automatically load a .md5 file of the same name as the file being loaded as a 'comparison' hash (ie: foo.exe / foo.exe.md5)
  
• .md5 files are skipped when loading files into the grid (only used for comparisons)
  
• Can now generate .md5 files for all files listed in the grid (will add an option to create files for selected files only in the next build).

I renamed the app to WinHash too due to a naming conflict as pointed out by Ray.

New build available at http://www.clue-by-4.org/proje ... beta/WinHash-2.0.0.32.exe


Due to the new app name, uninstall WinMD5 Pro first if you've already installed that.



Regards,

Ian

Quote from NotAnIllusion :

Could well be, I didn't check them, and I'd use the latter anyway. If not for the right reasons, it makes it easier to spot the $vars

heh actually, single quotes would be even better.. more optimised :nerd:



Regards,

Ian

Quote from Bob Smith :

Ah, thanks Ian, looks handy that.

Is there a way to turn some sort of debug messages on? Every time I add something and I've done it wrong I'm getting this damn unhelpful white screen.

Sure.. you can either set it in php.ini and / or within each script.

If the script way, include this at the top of each one (or preferably, in an include()ed file so that it can be enabled / disabled in one place rather than every file):

That'll enable warnings _and_ notices (ie: use of uninitialised vars etc for strictness).

If in php.ini, look for the lines:


(just search for the strings as yours may well be 'Off' and / or just 'E_ALL' etc).


Remember to restart Apache if you modify php.ini for it to take effect



Regards,

Ian

Sounds like he wants some kind of dynamic forum hosting solution.. ie: you sign up as 'xyz' and you create a 'xyz.some-free-forum-host.org' subdomain with a forum ready to go.

If I'm right, there's noway in hell I'm going to write a post here on how to achieve it.. far too complicated for the OP (no offence) and a summary will lead to wanting to be spoon fed.



Regards,

Ian

Be aware Bob, that the REMOTE_ADDR value may not be what you want or are expecting, for example, some ISPs route all their traffic through their own caching servers. REMOTE_ADDR will return the IP of the caching server, _not_ the visitor's box.

Here's an old function I wrote to help:

This first checks for a vale in HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR which should be the "real IP" if behind some kind of cache etc, if that's empty, then it checks for REMOTE_ADDR, if it's not, it still checks for REMOTE_ADDR and will append that IP to the result separated by a space.





Regards,

Ian


PS: NAI: Isn't the first one missing curly brackets?

Although putting $vars inside quotes is a "bad idea(tm)" anyway



Regards,

Ian

Last edited by Ian.H, Thu 5 Jun 2008, 20:45. Reason : Stoopid semi-colon in wrong place!

Hi lads..

Here's a link to the current version (2.0.0.28). All included functions are complete, but there's no help file yet.

[ Obsolete URL removed ]

No dependencies required, just install-n-go


Ray:
Thanks for the feedback on that. All the text on the ribbon is editable via properties, so I could change those. I guess I picked 'Home' for the tab name as that seems to be the default, much like having a 'File' menu even if there's no actual file functions (I guess it's a windoze thing ). The others are down to my lack of imagination at the time.

The name point is also interesting and something I'll look at and change before a final release.

I'd thought about future comparisons too and was going to add the ability to be able to maintain a database of hashes.. select xyz files and click 'store' or something as comparisons would be useful. Hadn't thought about a side-by-side comparison for dirs, but that sounds like a good idea.. I'll add it to the tracker :up:



Regards,

Ian

Last edited by Ian.H, Fri 6 Jun 2008, 06:12.

Hi all..

Anyone here ever have the need to calculate MD5 hashes on windoze and fancy being a guinea pig?

I coded a very basic MD5 calculator for windoze a while back and have now greatly enhanced it, including ability to work in a batch mode (either including files singularly, or via a directory) for both files and strings. I've also added a hash check for salted strings.. as this is something I use regularly when building web sites and need some data in a DB for testing a login before coding a registration system etc

I've attached a couple of screenshots. Although the files one contains only small files, the lot completed in < 2 secs and even checking my Acronis backups dir with some files being 300Mb+ (and original one > 2Gb), it only took a minute or so on my AMD3000+.

There is a bug with files > 1Gb in that it reports a negative value for the filesize, but it's on the bug tracker to be fixed.

The other features is exporting and copying. You can export the grid(s) to CSV files and also copy various data formats to the clipboard (such as hash only, "std unix format", all data, etc) for either selected or all rows.

If anyone thinks they may have a use for this, I'll post a beta link



Regards,

Ian

Sweet job and great idea. So simple, yet so effective



Regards,

Ian

Quote from Luke.S :

Bit of a bump but does anyone know how to get the roof off the lx4. And is it possible to take the roof off the hardtop cars?

You'll need to select the polys that make up the roof and detach them as a separate object. There's some on the underside of it too.. was a PITA when I did it for my 3DS scene

Same goes for the hardtops, but there's a but more work to do as once you've removed it, there'll be gaps between the outer skin of the car shell and the interior panels along with the possibility of needing to actually slice polys to get it to split at the right places.

How you achieve any of this in blender however, I have no idea.. but the basic principle is still the same



Regards,

Ian

Quote from Becky Rose :

7zip by far offers the best compression of any archive software i've found, followed by rar and zip. Additionally .exe's can be compressed with upx which also has the advantage of making hex scanning a little bit more awkward (until they realise it is upx'd).

I found PECompact to be slightly better here than UPX and offers a few additional options to make it harder to RE it or obtain info in general.. resulting EXE is usually slightly smaller than a UPX'd one too.

Quote :

Thing is both zip and rar are both capable of much better compression than the standard compression they come with, in both cases they default to 'medium' compression. Windows by default (compress as) uses medium compression also. Be sure to check the archiving software to set the compression level - the speed loss is mostly in archiving rather than when unarchiving at the end user end.

Again, compression strength isn't always a fixed value either. Some things compress better when using a mid-point value than the max. IIRC, I set the compression strength to something like '6' in LFS Replay Mgr as it resulted in smaller archives than using max compression when dealing with SPR / MPR files (uses Zip format).

Quote :

Auto extractor facilities are well worth looking into with 7zip because not only do most users not have any unarchiving software but also the 7zip interface last time I used it was quite aweful.

The last solution is to buy better broadboand and bigger hard disk

I'd agree with 7-zip's UI being aweful(sic).. non-bloated, to the point... works for me(tm)

It does miss some useful functions over RAR (like recovery records etc), but I can't think of many times 7z has let me down



Regards,

Ian

Quote from sgt.flippy :

Half the Guinness book of records contains stuff nobody cares about. But once you find something to set a record for, other people will probably try to break it. I'm actually surprised it wasn't in there before.

True, but for most records, don't people try to actually achieve something? Hoping (and that's all it is on the part of Mozilla.. it's hardly them setting a record anyway) that people download on a certain day is as lame as it gets. Maybe I should set a record of the most drops of rain caught in a 1/2" diameter cup placed on a wall in an hour while I do umm... oh, nothing.. it'll still be _my_ record.. woohoo!.... and I guess I'll just have to hope it rains

Quote :

But if you just take some nude pics of a celeb you'll get more downloads in 24 hours than with any kind of software

Ahh, now we're talking! What day did you say it was again?



Regards,

Ian

Quote from OdeToArsenal47 :

Oh, so it's underneath the wireframe? I'm using GIMP, btw.

Yeah. I haven't done any skinning for a long time now, but IIRC, the layers go something like:


Mask
Wireframe
Shadows


The GIMP can handle layers.. so create a new layer below everything else and start painting away. The shadows layer will be set to 'multiply' as its transparency option, so will shade whatever's below rather than covering it completely and the wireframe.. I wouldn't bother to skin without it personally.. it's a life saver to aligning items up.

When you save the file to check in the CMX viewer.. just hide the wireframe layer before you save it.. then unhide it and carry on with the next part. Lather, rince, repeat



Regards,

Ian

Quote from sgt.flippy :

I know it's marketing, but I already use FireFox, so why wouldn't I help them break the record? I'll download it anyway at some time in the future, so why not that day?
If it doesn't cost me an effort to do and I can help someone with it, it would be kinda lame not doing it..

Break what record? AFAIK, there is no record to break, so even 10 downloads sets the bar. There's probably a reason no-ones gone for this record before.. it's so damn lame!

IMO, this is just some marketing ploy as some kind of "retaliation" against Apple and their stupid Safari stunt.. Mozilla have been up in arms about that since it happened (and thank fsck, none of the windoze boxes I use at home or at work have windoze update enabled).

Think of all the other, far more established open-source projects out there (Apache, MySQL, etc).. you don't see them having "download days" trying to set non-existent records.. a bit like winning a football match, due to the other side preferring to stay in the pub.. it's hardly winning / achieving anything is it



Regards,

Ian

Quote from mythdat :

Opera... used to use Firefox but sadly it was developed into a big heavy bloated hog

I'd like to swap, but unfortunately, Opera has too much missing that I've come to rely on from the Firefox extension repository.

Firefox used to be the dog's danglies.. now it's more like your average M$ product, all bloat and not much additional function.

I'll be waiting a few months after launch to possibly run Firefox3.

As for the "download day".. what a load of marketing bollox! (not that there's any other type of marketing 'anything').



Regards,

Ian

Quote from Dalek0220 :

Why do we all use JPGs?

Because that's what the old format used to be. I tend to save files in the format they expect.. plus I can control the DDS settings to adjust quality etc direct from Photoshop rather than LFS using whatever defaults it has hard-coded in.

I forgot though that the CMX viewer probably still requires JPG files (would be good to have that updated to allow either both, or just DDS) and of course, LFSWorld only handles JPG files (something else that could do with being updated).

If things were updated to use a single format, it'd make life easier and the LFS dir / file structure much tidier.

Maybe saving as JPG is the best deal, unless you're concerned about quality (converting a lossy format to another lossy format (ie: LFS converting from JPG->DDS) is never going to produce the best results).



Regards,

Ian

Quote from hiroshima guy :

IE6 pwns all! Firefox sucked too much ass on my comp because it lagged too much!

hahah... since when do web browsers have these kinds of sexual fetishes?



Regards,

Ian

Quote from mogster :

They are not ZIP-files, they are 7z-files. Winrar is all u need.

Or better still, 7-Zip itself, which is open-source and free



Regards,

Ian

You'll need a gfx app that handles layers (and PSD files).

Each section on Bunta's skin kits are on a separate layer meaning that you could strip the lot down to a plain white skin if you hid / removed the other layers, but the others are there to guide you.. the wireframe in particular is _very_ useful to helping to align logos / design elements of your skin.

In short, you paint on a new layer _below_ the mask, wireframe and shadow layers, then once you're done, hide the wireframe and save as a DDS file. You'll end up with a skin usable in LFS with the design you expect.

This is the basic concept of the skin kits anyway.. and once you understand how they work, you'll find them a _lot_ easier than a default plain skin to work with



Regards,

Ian