How to use DOSBox to play old PC video games
If you're like me, you have a box full of old PC CD Roms of games from the early to mid 90's. These games were probably written with DOS in mind; the Windows operating systems of the day were not game oriented. In Windows 95 and Windows 98, you had the options of bypassing Windows at bootup, creating a PIF file, creating a boot disk, or exiting out of Windows altogether. While cumbersome, these options worked.
As Windows has matured, its support for games improved - but not for these older DOS based games. In fact, with Windows XP, Windows Vista, and now Window 7 - these games are pretty much unplayable, at least directly. If you've been tempted to dig into some classics from your PC gaming collection, you may want to look at DOSBox.
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WASTE, private file sharing
I'm a user at a quasi-private message board. The users there may occasionally find a TV Show or a media file that they'd like to share. Of course, with all the hullabaloo about file sharing - some may be reserved about the manner in which these files are shared. You may remember mention of WASTE as an innovative solution, now thriving as an open-source project.
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Ventrilo: Cool Free VoIP for Gaming
I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of teaming in MMORPG games like WoW. It can be enjoyable, but for me - with a crazy schedule, it's rare that I enjoy it. Communication with your team has always been a problem, and some are turning to some VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) to solve this problem. I'm not a big fan of the application, but I am impressed by the technology.
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Creating PDFs, free and open-source, with Ghostscript.
For a file that's an open standard, according to the developer, PDF (Portable Document Format) creation is often not easy for the end user. Case in point: Even big bad Microsoft backed off plans to incorporate "Export to PDF" capability because of disagreements with Adobe.
Today, there are a few free and low cost options out there. I personally haven't tried a product like PrimoPDF. In fact, from what it seems to offer - it may seem to good to be true, but definitely worth a look. However, I'm more comfortable with my free, open-source solution.
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ICECAST: Streaming Static MP3 Playlist
A few days ago, I made mention on my configurations for Icecast/Ices using Ogg/Vorbis. Today, I'll go into a little detail on using the Ices (Mp3 Version) for MP3 streaming of MP3 files. Again: note that proper credit goes to someone else (Probably Kerry Cox for initial documentation efforts).Continue reading "ICECAST: Streaming Static MP3 Playlist" »
Icecast Live Stream: Sample conf for Icecast/Ices
Here's a simple configuration file I use for Icecast for live streaming of audio. I found the original floating around on the web, perhaps in the original documentation, or on a HOWTO website. I know that sometimes a good practical example of Icecast configuration files can be hard to find. Below is a configuration I use for streaming live content, including an icecast.conf and an ices.conf file. (Read On)Continue reading "Icecast Live Stream: Sample conf for Icecast/Ices" »
Movable Type: Berkeley DB Upgrade, Problems Logging In
In this post, I mention how my old web host had upgraded their servers without notifying me, as a customer, in advance. One simple little change caused me to be unable to log into my Movable Type administration altogether.Continue reading "Movable Type: Berkeley DB Upgrade, Problems Logging In" »
Brim: The "Gonzo" of Content Management
If you remember the muppets, you'll remember that no one ever really knew what Gonzo was. The same can be true of Brim; even the developers refer to Brim as a "A multithingy something" - as a category of software hasn't been clearly defined for it.Continue reading "Brim: The "Gonzo" of Content Management" »
Spambayes Anti-Spam as POP3 Proxy
I'd have to say that E-mail spam isn't as big of problem as it was in 2004 or so. Many ISPs have installed software to do the work for you, or some desktop solution has probably been installed on your new computer to assist. However, E-mail spam can still be a problem - and while clever solutions have came and went, the principles of 18th century mathemetician Thomas Bayes seems to still work best.Continue reading "Spambayes Anti-Spam as POP3 Proxy" »
KEGS, and other Emulators
The other day, I mentioned a throwback to early days of BASIC programming. Today, I'll talk about KEGS, which emulates one of my first computers - an Apple IIGS.Continue reading "KEGS, and other Emulators" »
Remote Administration via Webmin
One of my favorite little helper applications for administration is Webmin. It seems to be an often forgotten workhorse. In addition, if you're having trouble understanding all the ins and outs of a certain application's configuration, Webmin takes a bit out of the guesswork for you.Continue reading "Remote Administration via Webmin" »
10 PRINT "HELLO"
Remember that?10 PRINT "HELLO"
Much like retro gaming is popular, I think it's time that retro programming comes into fashion also.
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AJAX, AJAX Agent for PHP
You have undoubtedly heard the buzz about AJAX. I started reading up on this months and months ago; however if you do any kind of development - it's hard for you to get a handle until you actually DO something practical with a new technology. I'm working on a new web site, and I've implemented just a "bit of Ajax" to enhance usability.I'm someone who likes to maybe browse through a book if I'm learning something new (most often some aspect of operating systems or development). Early on, I was disappointed by the books offering information on Ajax, and the websites with information were disappointing also. Read on for some down and dirty information for getting Ajax, or Ajax-like usability enhancements on your web site.
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Audacity, To Record Live Shows and Burn CDs
Some of my buddies are in a local punk band, Hero. (I'm the one behind the website). I also sometimes DV Record their shows, as well as grab live audio off of the live mixing sound board. Open-Source application Audacity was suggested to me by a fellow message board user for this task. I'm now a big fan of the application. It's pretty simple to use, yet offers some powerful configuration settings and output formats. If you've got some live events (or other audio editing needs, such as creating a Podcast, read on.)Continue reading "Audacity, To Record Live Shows and Burn CDs" »
Ogg Vorbis in Windows Media Player/Equalized Ogg Vorbis in Linux
While trying out various video encoding codecs a few weeks ago, I stumbled onto some great DirectShow Filters that support pretty much any Ogg format (Theora and Vorbis).Continue reading "Ogg Vorbis in Windows Media Player/Equalized Ogg Vorbis in Linux" »
Much touted Firefox ad boosts downloads.
According to this article, downloads were up to over 400,000 over a weekend.
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Fedora Core 2, ALSA, and Icecast/Ices
I installed Fedora Core 2 on my home network's Linux server. It serves live streaming audio throughout my network for me. I have an FM radio and a XM PCR unit on this machine, feeding into Icecast2 via Ices2.
I couldn't really Google up much documentation about using Icecast/Ices with ALSA. After some poking around the source code and autogen, I realized installing "alsa-lib-devel" would do the trick. I did, and it works great.
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