MAME Arcade Machine Update

Many Readers have been contacting me with questions about follow up articles on projects I have started so I thought I would fill you in on a recent project, The MAME machine project. I have already completed the software portion of it using a torrent download of bundled roms and a nanocade layout I found. The nanocade can be found here and the torrent here. All it took was some extra .ini and .dat files and a bit of configuring before I had MALA up and running MAME with over 6000 roms.
(Note: This took approximately 20 gigabytes of space on my computer and the torrent did take over 48 hours to download even on my machine.)

It was actually a very simple project after some messing around with settings. All i have left is the hardware portion which will most likely take up the majority of the time spent on the project. I love hardware assembly but I am much more cautious going about it then programming because it has no backspace. Not to mention it is much more expensive. I am going to have to hunt around for parts and pieces to get this machine up and running for under $400.

I hope to post about more project updates soon and I am glad to see readers so interested in articles.  If you have any questions or suggestions you can comment below. Also don't forget to follow this blog by becoming a subscribed member in the sidebar. Lastly, if you want, you can receive blog updates via twitter by becoming a member through your twitter account or receive email updates via the gadget in the sidebar.

Popular Site Hacks: Blogger

This post is about more the hacking a blogger blog but also about how to make it look as professional and successful as possible. We will work on your page from top to bottom (literally) to hack and critique it to look amazing.

1. Favicon
The first thing on top to fix is your Favicon. If you don't know what that is, its the small icon right next to the title in the tab of your browser. The Default will look like this. It is a very easy process to change this because there is now a tool to do it. All you have to do is enter the layout and click Favicon and upload one. The hardest part of this step is to find a Favicon to fit the size. The best way to do this is to make a square icon in any photo editing program and upload it to www.favicon.cc to adapt it to a Favicon before uploading it to your blog.


2. Domain
Another thing they will notice is your domain. I kept the .blogspot.com domain for financial purposes as it is completely free. But if you want there are many ways to set up a custom domain. One way is to simply register for a redirecting domain at www.co.cc of www.dot.tk because these are both free as well. The more expensive yet more professional way is to purchase a .com domain from a server site such as godaddy.com and use the domain tool to set it up like shown in this video (Attention! This is not my video but was found in the public domain of YouTube.).

3. Removing the Blogger Toolbar
This next step is where the hacking comes in, the Blogger Toolbar. Many people think that in order to have a professional style blog, you must distinguish it from the rest and one way to make it look less like the traditional "blog" format is to remove the blogger banner from the top. To do this we will have to edit the HTML code of your page. Go to Dashboard, Layout, Template, edit HTML. Next navigate to where you see something like this:

...
<b:skin><![CDATA[/*
-----------------------------------------------
Blogger Template Style
Name:     Rounders
Designer: Douglas Bowman
URL:      www.stopdesign.com
Date:     27 Feb 2004
Updated by: Blogger Team
----------------------------------------------- */

Next Paste this directly under it to successfully remove the banner:

#navbar-iframe {
   display: none !important;
}


4. Theme
The next thing people will see is your theme. I find that the best themes are modified ones that stick to a constant efficient layout and color scheme. Another big part is to get eye catching fonts while keeping them easy to read. All of these are fairly easy to figure out but it sometimes takes some time to make it just right. If you want a good wallpaper for your blog I suggest either a simple pattern or using a Google search to find seamless wallpapers.

5. Title
Next they will see your title and it will make or break the professional view of your blog. What I did was make a word art title in Photoshop and added effects before saving it as a interlaced .png to give it multiple effects that regular text formatting couldn't. Besides the look of your title, you must also think of the content of it. Yes that's right, Ramblings of a Geek is not a suiting name for a blog about cat videos. However it does match perfectly with posts about intriguing and intellectual topics that society might view as "geek talk". Pssh society!

6. Content
Next we have, believe it or not, the content! Yes, shockingly people actually read the posts and judge the content of them. It is important to keep all subjects closely related yet distinct in order to create interest in your already targeted audience. Also, when writing posts you must be professional about your wording, structure, and grammar while at the same time giving it a spark of your personality. Without personality people will become bored in your work and think tat you don't care about it and as any good writers knows, you have to LOVE what your writing about weather it be computers, cooking, or even yourself. If you don't love what your writing about nobody else will either.

7. Extras
The last view things they will take at your site is at your gadgets and other extra items added. I suggest using default gadgets as well as adding an email subscriber one to bring back readers. One of the major items to include is an About the Author page to let them know more about you. While filling out the information, be sure to be professional as this is the over all goal but also include personal things to find common ground with readers.It is also a plus to setup a mobile view for your site which is configured the same place you enter the HTML like we discussed earlier.

I hope you have learned a bit from this semi-tutorial article and will be on your way to a more professional and attractive blog. I would love to hear your thoughts on it as well as suggestions for more tutorials. If you haven't noticed there is a new widget in the sidebar to receive post notifications by email which is a really cool feature that I recommend readers to use. If you have any questions or suggestions you can comment below. Also don't forget to follow this blog by becoming a subscribed member in the sidebar. Lastly, if you want, you can receive blog updates via twitter by becoming a member through your twitter account.

The Pirate Bay View of SOPA

When SOPA was published it was no secret that The Pirate Bay was near the top of it's hit list. Seeing as how big of a subject SOPA has become I had to post on it. While researching, I thought the group over at The Pirate Bay stated it best. The following is copied straight from The Pirate Bay SOPA petition page:

INTERNETS, 18th of January 2012.
PRESS RELEASE, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

Over a century ago Thomas Edison got the patent for a device which would "do for the eye what the phonograph does for
the ear". He called it the Kinetoscope. He was not only amongst the first to record video, he was also the first person
to own the copyright to a motion picture.

Because of Edisons patents for the motion pictures it was close to financially impossible to create motion pictures
in the North american east coast. The movie studios therefor relocated to California, and founded what we today call
Hollywood. The reason was mostly because there was no patent.
There was also no copyright to speak of, so the studios could copy old stories and make movies out of them - like
Fantasia, one of Disneys biggest hits ever.

So, the whole basis of this industry, that today is screaming about losing control over immaterial rights, is that they
circumvented immaterial rights. They copied (or put in their terminology: "stole") other peoples creative works,
without paying for it. They did it in order to make a huge profit. Today, they're all successful and most of the
studios are on the Fortune 500 list of the richest companies in the world. Congratulations - it's all based on being
able to re-use other peoples creative works. And today they hold the rights to what other people create.
If you want to get something released, you have to abide to their rules. The ones they created after circumventing
other peoples rules.

The reason they are always complainting about "pirates" today is simple. We've done what they did. We circumvented the
rules they created and created our own. We crushed their monopoly by giving people something more efficient. We allow
people to have direct communication between eachother, circumventing the profitable middle man, that in some cases take
over 107% of the profits (yes, you pay to work for them).
It's all based on the fact that we're competition.
We've proven that their existance in their current form is no longer needed. We're just better than they are.

And the funny part is that our rules are very similar to the founding ideas of the USA. We fight for freedom of speech.
We see all people as equal. We believe that the public, not the elite, should rule the nation. We believe that laws
should be created to serve the public, not the rich corporations.

The Pirate Bay is truly an international community. The team is spread all over the globe - but we've stayed out of the
USA. We have Swedish roots and a swedish friend said this:
The word SOPA means "trash" in Swedish. The word PIPA means "a pipe" in Swedish. This is of course not a coincidence.
They want to make the internet inte a one way pipe, with them at the top, shoving trash through the pipe down to the
rest of us obedient consumers.
The public opinion on this matter is clear. Ask anyone on the street and you'll learn that noone wants to be fed with
trash. Why the US government want the american people to be fed with trash is beyond our imagination but we hope that
you will stop them, before we all drown.

SOPA can't do anything to stop TPB. Worst case we'll change top level domain from our current .org to one of the
hundreds of other names that we already also use. In countries where TPB is blocked, China and Saudi Arabia springs to
mind, they block hundreds of our domain names. And did it work? Not really.
To fix the "problem of piracy" one should go to the source of the problem. The entertainment industry say they're
creating "culture" but what they really do is stuff like selling overpriced plushy dolls and making 11 year old girls
become anorexic. Either from working in the factories that creates the dolls for basically no salary or by watching
movies and tv shows that make them think that they're fat.

In the great Sid Meiers computer game Civilization you can build Wonders of the world. One of the most powerful ones
is Hollywood. With that you control all culture and media in the world. Rupert Murdoch was happy with MySpace and had
no problems with their own piracy until it failed. Now he's complainting that Google is the biggest source of piracy
in the world - because he's jealous. He wants to retain his mind control over people and clearly you'd get a more
honest view of things on Wikipedia and Google than on Fox News.

Some facts (years, dates) are probably wrong in this press release. The reason is that we can't access this information
when Wikipedia is blacked out. Because of pressure from our failing competitors. We're sorry for that.

THE PIRATE BAY, (K)2012

MAME Machine Project

I have started a new project which excites me greatly which is a MAME machine project. For those of you who don't know what MAME is, it stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator and what it does is it replicates classic arcade games for you. It is a 2 part project which consists of both software and hardware. As have no experience in this field, I have decided to do all the software configuring before I start the Hardware.

The software will consist of Microsoft Windows XP automatically booting straight into MaLa (a MAME GUI controller) which will hold over a hundred of hand chosen ROMS to play. ROMS are basically the emulated games that have been adapted straight into configuration for playing on a pc.

The hardware end will be built as a classic arcade stand up cabinet that will be adapted and shrunk to fit on a table top or in your lap. I haven't decided weather it will have controls for 1 player or 2 but it will definitely have classic looking buttons and joy sticks to give it that authentic feel.

I have already started the software portion on my spare monitor running a Virtual Machine while I research on this one. I have MAME up and configured with only one working ROM right now. I have had a torrent download going for the past 48 hours for ROMS that hopefully will supply me with a nice selection. As for the interface, I am researching MaLa layouts and configurations to try and get a modern customized look while at the same time meeting that classic feel.

I am quite excited about this project and I can't wait to post more. I would love to hear your thoughts on it as well. If you haven't noticed there is a new widget in the sidebar to receive post notifications by email which is a really cool feature that I recommend readers to use. If you have any questions or suggestions you can comment below. Also don't forget to follow this blog by becoming a subscribed member in the sidebar. Lastly, if you want, you can receive blog updates via twitter by becoming a member through your twitter account.

Next Level Trolling

For all of you that are fans of my viral trolling techniques I have updated my trolling program. This program was inspired by and requested by my C++ programming class mates. It can be downloaded here. It is the same troll bouncing, music playing, nerve racking program, but now it is enhanced to add more troll faces the more you click on them, along with having a troll face follow the cursor and it disables task manager to keep people from closing it. Did I mention it's all disguised as a Google Chrome web browser!? This program is deviously evil yet causes no actual damage to your computer. In order to enable task manager again afterwards use my other script which I put here. Have fun and happy trolling!

***Note: Your computer must have .Net Framework Installed to run these programs***

If you have any ideas or suggestions you can comment below. Also don't forget to follow this blog by becoming a subscribed member in the sidebar. Lastly, if you want you can receive blog updates via twitter by becoming a member through your twitter account.

JARVIS Makes a Comeback

In my last post I proposed the idea of making a virtual assistant not just for a computer but also for a cell phone. I named him JARVIS for two reasons. 1- the virtual assistant named JARVIS from The Ironman Movies. 2- Because my first program I made which introduced me to programming I called JARVIS.

This version of JARVIS I am starting in VB.Net but it will most likely call on other scripts to run as well. The basic principal behind JARVIS this time around is to help me even when I'm no longer at my desktop. He will have a realistic personal assistant like quality along with many other features. I will again use text to speech so that he can communicate out loud to me as well as I will also make him mobile and contactable through text messaging and 0 data transfer.

Why did I make the GUI in VB.Net? Because I would like to consider myself somewhat of an ascetically pleasing GUI design expert and it's my creation tool of choice. That's why. Below I have included a small sneak peak into one of many JARVIS widgets that will be included. You will not notice any functions however as this is a text message widget to send me reminders and updates.

Remember to keep commenting on ideas for JARVIS and for other posts as I take my followers very seriously. Until next time, I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on this. Also any suggestions for functions will also be considered. If you have any ideas or suggestions you can comment below. Also don't forget to follow this blog by becoming a subscribed member in the sidebar. Lastly, if you want, you can receive blog updates via twitter by becoming a member through your twitter account.

Clever Assistant for a Dumb Phone

My cell phone is, a LG Chocolate Touch which is great except for a few things. 1- It's not an iPhone. 2- It doesn't have all the features I would like to have because of its not a "smart" phone. Finally, 3- it's no iPhone.

I will admit that I am partial to Apple's products but why shouldn't I be? They are better products with the only downside the hefty price tags. If it weren't for the stupid data plan now required with all decent upgrade phones, I would be blogging from a new iPhone 4s via Wi-Fi. However, just because my phone is not a "smart" phone doesn't mean it's dumb. It may simply mean that it needs a clever assistant.

When I was a freshmen in high school I designed a complex batch file (or collection of DDOS commands) to help me do different tasks. I named it JARVIS after the virtual life assistant seen in the Iron Man movies. JARVIS was my first program and it has inspired me to continue programming ever since. I have come a long way since JARVIS but I think it's time for a come back. Yes, I plan to program a new JARVIS to run from a computer and through my phone via text message. It will be no easy task but I think I will use VB.Net and an external web mail source to send the messages along with an internal alarm.

I'm looking forward to bringing JARVIS back...

I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on this. Also any suggestions for functions will also be considered. If you have any ideas or suggestions you can comment below. Also don't forget to follow this blog by becoming a subscribed member in the sidebar. Lastly, if you want, you can receive blog updates via twitter by becoming a member through your twitter account.