Some soft considerations...

fort minor

2006-06-19T00:50:00.000+03:00

This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will
Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name!

internauti in romania

2005-06-04T22:09:00.000+03:00

Nu este nici un secret pentru nimeni ca romanilor le place internetul si ca in ceea ce priveste IT nu stam deloc rau.Avem multi oameni talentati si in general exista un numar mare de oameni care sunt pasionati de acest domeniu.
Ceea ce nu inteleg eu este cum se face ca nu exista portaluri /site-uri destinate comunitatii IT.
Si nu ma refer aici la site-uri ca vand componente de calculatoare ,ca de astea avem destule.
Ma refer la site-uri care au ca scop crearea unei comunitati in care membrii sa poata sa participe la discutii, sa publice articole, sa schimbe pareri , bucati de cod, tutoriale e.t.c in genul www.codeguru.com sau altora asemenea lui.

swiching to romanian

2005-06-04T21:59:00.000+03:00

Am stat mult si m-am gandit de ce naiba scriu eu pe blogul asta in engleza?
Nu am avut niciodata intentia de a face din acest blog unul popular, mai ales la nivel international,ca urmare nu are nici un sens sa scriu in engleza.
In plus am sa scot de pe pagina google ads pentru ca oricum nu da nimeni click pe ele, si nu prea vad ce sens are sa fac reclama la google degeaba.

future plans

2005-06-04T21:25:00.000+03:00

I plan to revise my online presence so I’m glad to announce that I’ll update more frequently this blog ,also the post will be more personal and less technical , because I’ll put the technical stuff on the brand new website I’m going to launch.

Java ECC Blog

2005-05-17T13:55:00.000+03:00

Java ECC Blog: "JasperReports is a powerful open source Java reporting tool that has the ability to deliver rich content onto the screen, to the printer or into PDF, HTML, XLS, CSV and XML files.
Its main purpose is to help creating page oriented, ready to print documents in a simple and flexible manner."

Java ECC Blog

2005-05-17T13:54:00.000+03:00

Java ECC Blog: "JFreeChart is a free Java class library for generating charts, including:"

Java ECC Blog

2005-05-17T13:53:00.000+03:00

Java ECC Blog: "iText is a free Java class library to create PDF files."

St. Justin

2005-04-11T12:37:00.000+03:00

Born: c.100
Died: 165
Canonized:
Feast Day: June 1
Patron Saint of: apologists, lecturers, philosophers
Justin is given credit to be the very first Christian philosopher. He was born into a pagan Greek family in Palestine and studied the great philosophers. Upon learning of and accepting as his own the Christian faith, he turned his skills and energies toward the philosophy of Christianity, debating that faith was compatible with rational thought. Justin never shied away from a public debate, despite the fact that Christians were being actively pursues and persecuted. His first public debate was before the Emperor Antoninus Pius, the second was addressed to the Roman Senate. In AD 165, he was arrested and martyred by beheading along with six other Christians who refused to make sacrifice to idols. Two of his extant works are still used today: Dialogue with the Jew Typho and Apologies for the Christian Religion."

This week in developer news | CNET News.com

2005-03-20T19:41:00.000+02:00

This week in developer news | CNET News.com: "More than 100 influential developers using Microsoft products signed a petition demanding the software company to reconsider plans to end support for Visual Basic in its 'classic' form.

The developers, members of Microsoft's Most Valuable Professional program, claim that the move could kill development on millions of Visual Basic 6 (VB6) applications and 'strand' programmers who have not been trained in newer languages.

The problem, they say, is that when Microsoft made Visual Basic .Net (or Visual Basic 7), the successor to VB6, it actually killed one language and replaced it with a fundamentally different one. It is effectively impossible to migrate VB6 applications to Visual Basic .Net, they say. And for VB6 developers, they add, learning Visual Basic .Net is as complex as learning a completely new programming language.

'The .Net version of Visual Basic is Visual Basic in name only,' wrote developer and author Rich Levin in a recent blog. 'Any organization with an investment in Visual Basic code--consultants, ISVs, IT departments, businesses, schools, governments--are forced to freeze development of their existing VB code base or reinvest virtually all the time, effort, intellectual property and expense to rewrite their applications from scratch.'

Despite the outcry, Microsoft remains 'firm' in its plans to end free support for Visual Basic 6 at the end of the month, S. 'Soma' Somasegar, corporate vice president of Microsoft's tools division, told CNET News.com."

Yahoo launches mobile video game studio | CNET News.com

2005-03-15T22:44:00.000+02:00

Yahoo launches mobile video game studio | CNET News.com: "Yahoo has launched a studio to develop video games for mobile telephones, marking the search giant's most aggressive step yet into the multibillion-dollar gaming market.

Yahoo Games Studio has already developed games for Verizon Wireless and will soon make games available for other wireless carriers, the company said on Friday.

Yahoo also said it has acquired a company called Stadeon to enable people to play games on their phones online against those playing through the Web. Compatible games include titles like 'Chess' and 'Poker.'"

FCKeditor - The text editor for Internet

2005-02-26T19:49:00.000+02:00

FCKeditor - The text editor for Internet: "This HTML text editor brings to the web many of the powerful functionalities of known desktop editors like Word. It's really lightweight and doesn't require any kind of installation on the client computer.
As it is Open Source, you are allowed to use it for free wherever you want."

IBM backs open-source Web software | CNET News.com

2005-02-26T19:12:00.000+02:00

IBM backs open-source Web software | CNET News.com: "IBM is putting its corporate heft behind a popular open-source Web development technology called PHP, in a move meant to reach out to a broader set of developers."

adaptive path � ajax: a new approach to web applications

2005-02-26T18:59:00.000+02:00

ajax: a new approach to web applications

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | A genius explains

2005-02-20T02:25:00.000+02:00

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | A genius explains: "Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant. He can perform mind-boggling mathematical calculations at breakneck speeds. But unlike other savants, who can perform similar feats, Tammet can describe how he does it. He speaks seven languages and is even devising his own language. Now scientists are asking whether his exceptional abilities are the key to unlock the secrets of autism."

Google + Firefox= LOVE?

2005-02-13T13:50:00.000+02:00

In his blog the lead enginer of Mozilla Firefox stated: "As of January 10, 2005, my source of income changed from The Mozilla Foundation to Google, Inc. of Mountain View, California. My role with Firefox and the Mozilla project will remain largely unchanged, I will continue doing much the same work as I have described above - with the new goal of successful 1.1, 1.5 and 2.0 releases. I remain devoted full-time to the advancement of Firefox, the Mozilla platform and web browsing in general."

FREE computer books and Internet books: Read online, or download a computer book

2005-02-12T15:26:00.000+02:00

FREE computer books and Internet books: Read online, or download a computer book: "The following list provides links to FREE books available online.
All our titles are full-text online editions unless otherwise indicated.
Click on the title to view the free full-text online edition of a book."

A great free book

2005-02-12T14:03:00.000+02:00

C++ in action

Mobile Phone Games Survey

2005-02-11T16:26:00.000+02:00

Overloaded, a leading developer and publisher of video games for mobile phones and InsideGamer (www.insidegamer.nl), a leading online video game news and community portal, today released their first mobile phone games study into the habits and trends of mobile game consumers in the Netherlands and Belgium (Dutch speaking).

The survey of a representative sample of 1.000 hard-core gamers in the Netherlands and Belgium reveals that 20% of mobile phone gamers would be interested in a games subscription when offered by operators or portals. Next to that, mobile phone gamers are not frequent users of other mobile phone content; 58% indicated to never download ringtones and 79% indicated never to download wallpapers.

Summery of some other key findings:

29% of hard-core gamers download games to their mobile phone on a regular basis

18% of mobile phone gamers are female

72% of mobile phone gamers are between 14 and 25 years old

Mobile phone gamers prefer Nokia (41%) and SonyEricsson (17%) phones to play games

52% of mobile phone gamers uses a pre-paid phone

48% of hard-core mobile phone gamers indicated to download on average 1 game every month and 19% indicated to download on average 2 games per month

38% of hard-core mobile phone gamers indicate to download games based on reviews and recommendations from friends

Retro Game Developers and Hackers Delight with Release of New Book

2005-02-11T11:56:00.000+02:00

Retro Game Developers and Hackers Delight with Release of New Book "Design Your Own V - GameDev.Net Discussion Forums: "'Design Your Own Video Game Console' is written for the programmer and/or hobbyist interested in software game development, but also wants to understand the hardware games are implemented on. This book assumes no prior knowledge of Electrical Engineering or Computer Architecture, but takes you on a breathtaking journey from atomic semiconductor theory to the design and construction of basic video game consoles that you can build and write your own games for! Included in the book is the entire design of numerous embedded game systems including the XGameStation Micro Edition and much more. "

SoftWIRE is now available for FREE

2005-02-11T11:16:00.000+02:00

SoftWIRE is now available for FREE to any individual or organization worldwide. This is not a time-locked version. This is the full version, and it is available free of charge. Download at: http://www.softwire.com/dot-net/. "

MacUser - Mac News, Reviews and Know-How

2005-02-09T18:36:00.000+02:00

MacUser - Mac News, Reviews and Know-How: "Walt Disney's nephew wants Apple and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs to take over at the top of the famous movie studio, according to the New York Post. "

Free Software Magazine - Free Software Magazine

2005-01-26T18:10:00.000+02:00

Free Software Magazine - Free Software Magazine Issue 1 available online NOW!:
Free Software Magazine is the free magazine for the free software world, available on paper and in electronic format.

Java 1.5 features

2005-01-22T16:30:00.000+02:00

Generics

Autoboxing

Enhanced For-loop

Enumerations

Static Imports

Sun Certified Programmer Exam

2005-01-17T18:10:00.000+02:00

Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform Standard Edition 5.0 exam. The costs is $49 and allows between four and five hours to complete 166 questions. The beta exam will be offered between January 13 and February 13, 2005. Here is a pdf describing how to register for the exam

MIT Video Game Programming Competition in Java

2005-01-17T18:01:00.000+02:00

252 MIT students are spending the month of January writing Java programs to control virtual robots in a videogame environment called Robocraft. These virtual robots will battle each other for cash prizes in a tournament to see who can write the best Robocraft player. The competition is being sponsored by top tech companies including Bank of America, Electronic Arts, BBN, Schlumberger, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Oracle. Only MIT students are eligible to compete, but anyone can read the specs, download the software, and program their own virtual robot using the Robocraft API.

Good old days...

2005-01-17T11:54:00.000+02:00

While browsing the net I’ve found a Commodore64 emulator, and I might say a good one cause after I’ve installed it and playing with it, I had the feeling I was playing with the real thing.
I must confess that Commodore64 has a special place in my hart, since it was my fist personal computer. My parents bought me one when I was around 10 years old, and everything changed after that. I remember countless times when I would stay late in night trying to “poke” some sprites on the screen, or listing the source of the games that I had trying to understand how they were made (since I had absolutely no documentation).
There no doubt for me that I doing what I’ve doing right now , because of my Commodere64,cause once you got the “bug” you have no escape.
Therefore I salute all the Commodore64 community, because good memories die hard!

A Java Games Programming Techniques

2005-01-10T18:28:00.000+02:00

Java Games Programming Techniques I've just found out a great online book for anyone interested in java and game developement.Check it out!

John Carmack's blog

2005-01-10T11:39:00.000+02:00

John Carmack of id Software recently started a blog, in which his initial entry covers a number of issues including some thoughts on graphics, and the status of Quake 3's (eventual) source code release.
Of course, I've updated my links section...

In our way to dictatorship..again

2005-01-07T12:06:00.000+02:00

The psychology of the masses, it is a big subject, but in my opinion the bottom line is:
If you put a really stupid man in the middle of a mass of people, the stupid one becomes their leader.
I wonder, what makes the stupid man so attractive?

This is what is happening in Romania right now and that’s the reason why Basescu a crazy-man, a maniac and a phony politician became the president of Romania.
He cultivated the idea that he’s the second coming of the Messiah of some sort, he will erase all the bad things in the country ,rivers of honey will flow down the Victoria boulevard and so on, and the worst thing is that the peoples believed him.
Blinded by flammable speeches and theatrical appearances, they are unable to see the fact that Basescu is on route to become the next Ceausescu. Fundamental laws of democracy are being crushed, and I will not be surprised if even multipartite will became illegal.

It’s all down hill from here….!

Some 3D

2005-01-03T11:57:00.000+02:00

I’m always out of free time for me and for coding….and this is bad… so I’ve used this small holyday to concentrate myself on coding …3D coding to be more precise.
I’ve read 2 books (Advances 3D Graphics Rendering and Linux Game Programming) ,and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.
The weird thing id that although those books covered aspects of DirectX and OpenGL hardware accelerated API programming ,after finishing reading them , a crazy thought got into my mind …to make a 3D software renderer.
What can I say…I’m crazy!
So I’ve started coding, and the craziest part is that I’ve managed to did it (although is a very basic and slow one). Of course you might say that a software renderer (especially a basic one like this) it almost useless this days, and I agree with you but I consider I’ve learn a lot of things by coding it.
Bottom line it was a fun experience.

Happy new year to everyone!

2005-01-03T11:48:00.000+02:00

Well another year has passed…damn I’m getting old. :)
I was thinking the other day that there are 10 years( this year) since I’ve finished the high-school….and for some weird reason I keep on feeling that was yesterday.
Anyway, a happy new year for all of you!

Another great editor...

2004-12-22T17:44:00.000+02:00

FED is an open-source folding text editor. It has an intuitive user interface, syntax highlighting, the ability to fold blocks of text out of sight, multi-level undo and redo, flexible wordwrap, binary and hex editing modes, macro recordings, and more. Plus, it has a built-in tetris game and screensaver: what more do you want?

back from team building trip

2004-12-20T16:05:00.000+02:00

Just came back from KTB (my company team building trip).
There were 2 crazy days with lot of fun,alcohol(although I don't drink) and sleep deprivation.
On our way back it started snowing,and a tick fog came down over the road.
The temperature dropped down very soon,and mine raised :) ( I've got a cold ).
Inspite all of this I got home safe.
Anyway...a nice way to spend some time with my colleagues.

I've switch to Nedit on Linux

2004-12-20T14:13:00.000+02:00

People already exposed to modern GUIs when introduced to UNIX used to be (and still are) told to use vi or EMACS. If you complained that any product that requires you to invest hours of training just to edit text is a stinking abomination from the bottommost pits of hell and you can't even figure out how to save your document without a manual, you were told that you were wrong, you just had to hit ctrl+alt+meta+escape + the phase of the moon and write a small lisp routine without visual feedback, and that this is in fact a much more powerful and more efficient way to do things, and that GUI editors are baby's toys (since most of the ones on UNIX were)." NEdit was for those who never capitulated to this attitude, and insisted on a proper gui-based editor that works the way they were used to on other systems, with a focus on ease of use and familiarity for new users, so you could be productive right away, without sacrificing power.

flipcode - Development News

2004-12-17T14:47:00.000+02:00

Talking nasty with Tim Sweeney : "GamingGroove posted a new interview with Tim Sweeney of Epic Games, touching on topics ranging from 3D capture technologies to programming languages."

SDL 1.2.8 Released

2004-12-17T14:41:00.000+02:00

GameDev.net - all your game development needs: "A new version of the cross-platform Simple DirectMedia library, also known as SDL, has been released. The new version is 1.2.8 and it contains numerous bug fixes and platform support improvements. The library can be downloaded from http://www.libsdl.org "

a new laptop

2004-12-15T15:12:00.000+02:00

I just bought myself a new laptop.
It’s an Acer Aspire 1362LC , with an AMD Sempron processor 2800+ , 15 inch LCD 40 GB HDD, DVD/CD-RWcombo drive ,256MB DDR RAM.
So far I’m delighted of it, and I really hope I’ll keep this feeling towards it, since it was a big financial endeavor for me.
Anyway….. yoopieeeee !!!!!!!

IT Manager's Journal | Sun Microsystems: Ready for a comeback?

2004-12-07T17:19:00.000+02:00

IT Manager's Journal | Sun Microsystems: Ready for a comeback?: "Key reasons why Sun's on new track
Sun's latest strategy and the Solaris 10 release offer a number of important technical and functional features that may result in producing positive traction in the market:
The announcement of a free version of its Solaris 10 operating system. Anyone who registers with Sun will be able to use Solaris for free on servers with x86 processors. Sun will provide free security updates in the free Solaris version and will charge a low annual subscription fee for fixes and support. This is an ambitious effort by Sun to win back the market share they lost to Linux in the past.
The strategy of targeting Linux market share. Solaris's main rivals are Linux, Microsoft's Windows, and Unix-based products. like IBM's AIX and Hewlett-Packard's HP-UX. Linux is without a doubt an emerging force with a rapidly growing market. According to International Data Corp (IDC), Linux servers posted a ninth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth with year-over-year revenue growth of 42.6 percent and unit shipments up 31.7 percent. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Sun is aggressively going after Linux's market share. It's premature to know how successful will Sun really be in this battle, however, it is clearly a step in the right direction.
Solaris 10 will also run Linux applications. The Sun Linux initiative (formerly called Project Janus) promises Sun
software will allow Red Hat Enterprise Linux software to run on the x86 version of Solaris. This functionality will also allow customers to lower their IT costs in many ways. It will allow IT organizations to run Solaris and Linux applications on a single system, increasing server utilization, creating cross-platform development efficiencies, and flexibility. Sun is offe"

GameSpot

2004-12-03T17:00:00.000+02:00

GameSpot: "The dual goal of creating cutting-edge technology and a cutting-edge game simultaneously is roughly the equivalent of a filmmaker developing a new kind of film on which to shoot his movie or a musician developing a new instrument on which to play his music."

OpenGL - The Industry Standard for High Performance Graphics

2004-11-29T11:26:00.000+02:00

OpenGL - The Industry Standard for High Performance Graphics: "The OpenGL Architecture Review Board has released the OpenGL 2.0 specification (pdf format). New features of OpenGL 2.0 include:
Programmable shading - With the new release, both OpenGL Shading Language and its APIs are now core features of OpenGL. New functionality includes the ability to create shader and program objects; and the ability to write vertex and fragment shaders in OpenGL Shading Language.
Multiple render targets that enable programmable shaders to write different values to multiple output buffers in a single pass.
Non-power-of-two textures for all texture targets, thereby supporting rectangular textures and reducing memory consumption.
Two-sided stencil with the ability to define stencil functionality for the front and back faces of primitives, improving performance of shadow volume and constructive solid geometry rendering algorithms.
Point sprites which replace point texture coordinates with texture coordinates interpolated across the point. This allows drawing points as customized textures, useful for particle systems. "

Roaming charges: Taken with BREW

2004-11-26T17:59:00.000+02:00

BREW is a tradeoff. On the one hand, it's a viable choice for the mobile developer, particularly when it comes to breaking into the subscriber services market. The BREW ecosystem combines developmental efforts with an integrated business plan and worldwide delivery mechanism, providing a simple way to get an app from being coded to being a revenue generator. On the other hand, the technology is both proprietary and centralized. This kind of development won't be for everyone. If you want to distribute your code on your own and cut your own distribution deals, you might chafe under BREW's centralized model. Apps written in BREW only run where Qualcomm sends them; and at Qualcomm's discretion. That said, the general consensus on BREW seems to be that it's a proven moneymaker, which is a huge consideration if you're running a business instead of a hobby shop. Once again, Qualcomm has carved its own niche."

Roaming charges: Taken with BREW

2004-11-26T16:40:00.000+02:00

BREW's certified security
The first thing folks at Qualcomm want known about the BREW system is that it has many checkpoints built into it, and not all of them are aimed at filtering the types of apps that get distributed. Some are technical (a BREW application does not run on a handset without a specially assigned ID number, for example), while others are structural. But, first and foremost, Qualcomm plays traffic cop with commercial developers, preventing anyone not meeting its criteria from disseminating a product over the carrier networks.

The fact that Qualcomm uses criteria at all flies in the face of how most developers work. While Sun Microsystems developed the functional specs of the Java platform and its J2ME variant, it doesn't try to officiate which Java-based apps get released. Qualcomm does, and for very specific reasons. It wants to guarantee to the carrier (which is really the end customer to Qualcomm) that BREW-based apps won't harm their networks or the handsets that use them. It's an attractive proposition for the carriers, having quality control as part of the process, and I understand that it can be portrayed as a competitive advantage compared to uncertified programs. It is a radical change in how apps are developed. But then, so is the whole Qualcomm distribution model. When was the last time a language proponent delivered the end product to the distribution channel?

One of Qualcomm's criteria is that commercial BREW developers are required to obtain and maintain (at $400 a year) a Class 3 digital certificate from Verisign. (Note that this is the standard Verisign fee, not Qualcomm's.) This simple requirement serves two major purposes: Qualcomm can use the certificate to derive the unique ID that it assigns to a developer's apps for "non-repudiation," and it adds some assurance (because Verisign does some background checks) that the developer is part of a true business and not a malware generator.

Qualcomm insists that it wants its SDK to be accessible to a wide range of developers and projects, including the "two-guys-working-at-night-in-a-garage" company. But it also wants to ensure that developers using BREW will be around in six months to update or fix the apps that carriers are distributing. So, Qualcomm encourages the casual developer, but it won't do business with you unless you can prove you're serious.

Interestingly, the Qualcomm ecosystem never requires that you reveal your source code. The company might test it like crazy (for a price that starts around $1K per app), but it only uses the compiled binaries for the testing. Qualcomm just wants to see that your app fits into its parameters; it's not interested in how you coded the thing. The company says it doesn't want to compete with its own developers.