Codes For Us

What News About Dysprosium?

2011-10-31T12:26:00.035Z

(For the latest PDF files Merger Software please have a look at the top of the left margin, inside the red box.) I promised a release of Dysprosium Suite before the end of this 2011. I could not eliminate a serious hurdle on the way. I could not find a PDF viewer that seamlessly joins to Java. I mean a free viewer. There had been an excellent free Java viewer by Adobe developed ten years ago. It means it is based at best on works started before the millennium. It works still perfect if your created PDF be of the type you might create by the latest LaTeX tools (such as MiKTex) or by Adobe Professional tools. It does not even load a blank page which is not created in this way. But most of the people use everything to create PDF; such as, Google Docs, or Open Office, and many scanner to PDF software. Such cases crashes the Adobe Java viewer. Adobe for unknown reasons did not continue the development of that software, and its present free software SDK is pure C++. I worked to switch to that tool but there is a further hurdle since this SDK utilizes MFC proprietary libraries and include files. I tested every available claimed free Java PDF viewer, but actually they all have a mistake. They are not Java Swing. Adobe viewer is a pure Java Swing. It is so malleable that you can give them the "group layout;" a very Java Swingish layout. But I had some minor success in pushing the limit of merge to astonishing 3GB in 64 bits versions of Windows 7 and Windows 8, with enough RAM memory. I had 8GB installed and put 4GB of it available for Java heap. CPU was quad core and never exceeded in 10% usage for each core. FSB was 1333MHz. This is the biggest PDF file you might find. The other reason that I did not switch to C++ is the belief that I have on Java programming. It is much more natural than C++. (I am a C language fanatic, but not C++) Well, C# is somehow Java. But it is not free, for full blood development. (It was a strategic mistake, in terms of nerds commenting, that Sun pushed against usage of Java by Microsoft. Otherwise, there could be more harmony in the present sphere of development tools.) Switching to C++, or to C# will change my work as a retired person to a full time professional developer. I am going to create a separate package with Adobe Java viewer with no guarantee of being usable on loading every PDF. I am going to develop one without viewer, besides. Please have a look at the snapshot.

It is a document created by the LaTeX (using MiKTeX). Book includes extreme fonts and sophisticated images. All 74 pages are loaded nicely. Yellow color has been used to create contrast for this demo. The next document is a one page document created by Open Office. Only one word is written on it. It dispatches error upon loading.

There was, another disappointment, too, in lack of much progress in breaking the password of PDF. I was interested in its mathematical side. A brute force multi threading could break a password of 5-character length created out of 64 characters in a reasonable time. Hence, we have "Remove Password" button (on condition that you have the owner's password) but not the "Unlock Password" button.

I have had 23000 downloads from 156 countries. Only 2 countries in South America (Paraguay, French Guiana) and 4 countries in Asia have not used Dysprosium Software, yet. The remaing countries not downloaded to this date(less than 30 of them) are from the central Africa.

How to Create a Free Web Hosting in Your Home? (2)

2011-08-07T17:08:00.015+01:00

(For the latest PDF files Merger Software please have a look at the top of the left margin, inside the red box.) Next you need to test your IP address on the Internet. (Please also read the previous post.)This is different with your private hub IP addresses. It is the unique address given by your broadband service provider to the location of your router on the entire Internet.You can get it on different places.
For example, log into your router and click on "Basic Setup" you find it as

It is something like "98.227.112.49" This number is as good and working as any important site such as www.un.org or other sites. Ask a friend to type that IP address in their browser and voila! He will be directed to your hand-made web site. Remember from the previous post that if your default home page is not "index.htm" you have to configure "httpd.conf" file accordingly, or type "http://98.227.112.49/home.html". You have a web hosting of your own free. This IP address is subject to arbitrary change by the provider. It is dynamic for ease of maintenance. People join to and opt out from a provider and their address will be given to others. You also may change the provider or your residential. It also cannot be remembered easily. It needs a mnemonic to help to memorise. There are companies on the Internet that provide you with a free client software for maintaining a constant connection of the Internet with your potentially changable IP through a mnemonic of your choice. These companies are called "Dynamic DNS Provider" or such. You can use your favourit search engine to find one. By client I mean the old PC that is being used for your in-the-home web hosting. It is necessary that you subscribe to such a free service. Then download and install the client software on the "client" following their simple instructions. This mnemonic is not a top level domain such as www.anexample.org. It is a subdomain such as "subexample.anexample.org" Mine is messiah.webhop.org. I got webhop.org from free DynDns' many available options. I mention their name as a gratitude to the free service. If you like to have a top domain name, then you have to buy one by paying £5 ($8) a year. Many of more attracting names are being used by others or are bought to be kept to sell for higher prices. After purchasing that domain name or if you already have one, then you can redirect your top domain name through that dynamic IP provider to your home made web site. dynamic IP provider tells you how you should do that. (ZoneEdit.com starts by default from a top domain name of yours. Their dynamic DNS service is also free.) You should follow guidelines to maintain your down-time to minimum per year. It is easy to surpass in quality over an expensive web hosting if you minimise load of that web server machine. Do not use it for other purposes and do not put more than the minimum of operating system software on it. Uninstall additional software (sometimes called bloat-ware) that comes with an operating system and has not any use for your web server. It is possible to gain an old PC with an OEM Windows XP installed under £20 ($30) or sometimes drastically less than that on the eBay now a days. You can upgrade it to a 3GHz CPU, 3GB RAM. The bad thing about a desktop PC is its electricity consumption and noise that it creates. Bad thing about old laptops is that you cannot upgrade its cpu easily and old laptops normally cannot accept more than 1GB of RAM. By end of 2012 Britain will be the first country that all its communication network will be on the Internet. There will remain no conventional telephon switching after that. Thanks to optical fiber on your door, speed of connections are not subject to trafic load and distance and is constant all around the clock. Hosting at home is the next asset that you can have besides being just consumers of the other web sites. At the end this is very pleasing job to accomplish. It is fulfilling like ham radio and DXing, when you were producer of your own equipments instead of buying them. After preliminary set up of the site, there'll be many Elmer's notebooks on the Internet that paves the way towards full professionalism. For example, click on this link, http://messiah.webhop.org/CodesForUs.html. You can find that I have moved part of this blog on into that web site at my home. (Thanks to Grant Hardy who edited this post from the US)

Moving from Microsoft Office Live Web Hosting (3): How to Create a Free Web Hosting in Your Home (1)?

2011-08-07T13:35:00.016+01:00

(For the latest PDF files Merger Software please have a look at the top of the left margin, inside the red box.) If you are on a broadband and have an old computer or laptop and have a taste of hobbyist tinkerers jobs, you might be eager to become your own host for your website. (This is a continuation of two previous posts in moving from OL.) That could become more powerful than a purchased hosting. You need to download the Apache http Server which is a free software (GPL compatible) for serving your website to public. Install Apache server on your old PC. Well, my platform is a Windows XP Professional SP3. I have not tested that on a Unix yet. I'll do it and update this blog. I double click on downloaded software (it is Microsoft Installer file format, .msi). After some routine procedures, this dialogue asks me for some information.

Information I put could be arbitrary. Later, I can configure them if I like. Next I select a custom install.

I have an Apache home directory already in my computer as "C:\JavaHome\ Apache Software Foundation" inside my Java home directory. I change the default of http server to this directory, as "C:\JavaHome\ Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2"

Yours also could be any directory of your choice. After finishing installation, an "Apache Server Icon" appears on the quick launch tray of your desktop. Inside the Apache2.2 folder there are other folders. Please open "htdocs" folder and double click "index.html" it opens in your default browser showing "It works!" as the sign of success in correct installation of Apache http server. Next to "htdocs" you may notice the "conf" folder. Please open the directory to find the "httpd.conf" file inside it. Add a ".txt" extension to its name (i.e., httpd.conf.txt) to be able to edit the file in a notepad. (Frequently I open many of such files in NetBeans IDE). Find this line inside the document (it is line 179):

You have to change the "DocumentRoot" to your desired directory. I have created a "C:\Web\MyWeb" directory on my old laptop. Hence, I change to:

Please not I made the original one commented out by putting pound (#) in front of the line, and added my own home server directory in its place. I immediately make "C:\Web" directory shared in my Windows "WorkGroup" such that I can work on it from my desktop PC. In this way I never have to go physically to that laptop anymore. This sharing is only on your own Work Group and is nothing to do with public network. Please go further down in the Config file to get to:

Change it as to your newly created root directory of yours,

Now save and close this file and remove the ".txt" extension from its tail back to its original "httpd.conf" Left click on the "Apache http server icon" on your desktop tray and then click on "Restart" on the drop down menu choices. tool tip text shows "All Apache Services Running" Now start to create your web site. Open "C:\Web\MyWeb" directory and on a note pad create any simple html. Then "save as" it as a index.html, or default.html, or home.html. I am running everything from default.htm as I have transported my web site from Microsoft Office Live (OL) and like to minimize my workload during the transition. I have created all three with similar content. That makes it more transportable. But, please note that "httpd.conf" file has a default of its own as the "index.html" that serves on connection. You know that when you type "http://www.anexample.org" in your browser. It brings a default page such as " http://www.anexample.org/homepage.html. " This can be determined in the "httpd.conf" file as we can see,

You can change it to home.html or default.html or comment it out by putting a pound (#) sign in front of the line 242. If you do not create an "index.html" page as your default home page, the www.anexample.org opens a page with a folder/file tree of your websites including everything you have in the "root directory" you created above. To check that I delete my index.htm page. I have three links here for the test: http://messiah.webhop.org/ and http://messiah.webhop.org/Home.html and http://messiah.webhop.org/Default.html (These as I said could be slow or down due to I turning off the old top.) Later, I explain where "webhop" comes from.
In the same directory I create four folders as, "documents" and "images" and "cgi-bin" and finally one I need as "PDFs" One might like to have other folders such as "downloads" or "stylesheets" or"JSes" and so on. In contrast to that, I put my css files naked next to index.html, also if any js file. I have none of this type yet. Next I should open the firewall to allow access of the Internet into that server. I log into my router. (I can log from any computer on my hub.) I click on "Port Forwarding Option/Port Triggering" in my NetGear router it is like this:

Your port forwarding could be blank, so you need to "Add Custom Service." Fill the necessary fields, as described. "Server IP Address" is the fixed IP address given by the hub of your broadband router to the old computer that you are using for your home web server. You can find it by clicking on "LAN Setup" on the left hand pane of the router. I found it as "192.168.1.7" for me. It almost always starts with "192.168.0" for all connected device. Mine starts with "192.168.1" for all device. After configuring the "Port" please type http://localhost/ in your browser (local host is the loopback to your web server) or if you have a "home.html" type http://localhost/home.html in your browser that takes you to the home page of your "Home Made" website. Next, "How your site becomes visible on the Internet?"

Moving from Microsoft Office Live Web Hosting (2)

2011-07-13T12:29:00.022+01:00

(For the latest PDF files Merger Software please have a look at the top of the left margin, inside the red box.) Already I have checked that how far my web pages are relying on Microsoft Office Live (OL) css files on the host servers. Wherever I go I should have access to these files. I know that those files and their paths remains on-line for a while but if in a weekend the host decides to deprecate all of them, decommission the old servers then I'll be in trouble. Although some people have put them available online, I should have a copy of my own site saved on my own desktop or somewhere in my possession. It is easy to extract them. I give their paths to W3 CSS validator, (click) here. To find the path you can right-click on your pages in the browser and open "View Source." In the document, inside the <head> part of the document. You will find the links to css files like this,

<link href="http://cdn1.officelivecontent.com/2.02.4131.0/WebHosting/_layouts/1033/wh/stylesV2/masterroot.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" />

Copy http://cdn1.officelivecontent.com/2.02.4131.0/WebHosting/_layouts/1033/wh/stylesV2/masterrootto .css part and past it on the text field of W3 CSS Validator and press "Enter." All the CSS file content comes on the page. Copy them and paste on a notepad. Save it as, say, masterroot.css and keep it. I have put my used files, MasterRoot, Tables, and Theme available if you like save them and open them on notepad or using your favourit editor. The file can inspire you, later, when you become more aggressive towards building your site with richer interactions, to modify it and customize it and perhaps correct it on established standards (e.g. use % for font size rather than px or pt) for your personal requirements. Look inside the CSS files, find out what you do not have as your own asset such as, url('../../../wh/images/icons/slideshow_buttons.png'), but you are using them in your pages. Right click on that resource on your related pages and save the pictures with its defult name on your own computer. Later, chang that URL to url('/images/icons/slideshow_buttons.png'). Now, you are ready to be weaned from free milk and it is necessary to pay couple of pounds (you might have to pay dollars or euros) per month. It's worth having it if you gain ad-free hosting, with unlimited disk space, bandwidth, and diversity of uploading file formats. So far my website was very simple. I even could not add a download counter to it. It was enough for me since I do not have a business to promote it on my site as a show window. I do not want to be employed either to attract the head hunters. Nevertheless, I like to experiment new ideas and write them down. After lot of research I could find a place to meet my demands in having a hassle free hosting. That gives me a free domain name if I need one. But I did not need another domain but what now I have and easily can transfer to them as registrar of the domain after now. I can keep the present registrar but my selected web hosting has a scheme that helps a life time free domain name registering. As I am a retired person I like to have a guaranteed place to keep my website at least for ten years after me. I had to select a place that already has shown that resilience not like mushroom firms that come and go without being adhered to any liability. The very cheap hosting I found is the oldest in the market too. I liked to have the best customer service. I have many questions and cannot adventure on googling questions and ramble through forums that you see questions are asked in 2005 and by now has not received any answer. I did not like to receive everyday an unsolicited email to ask me to upgrade to a VIP or pro or such type of equivalent products. I needed to have secure place with up-time almost near to 100 percent. I found it here. I am paying £3.0 ($4.5 US) a month. I paid $162 ($132 +$30 VAT) for three years. At the portal there is no mention of VAT. Therefore the VAT is hidden from the potential buyer, which is not acceptable for me with the ethics of a teacher. Also this is an introductory fee. Renewals are as much as twice of this price. I might decide to renew after three years or even make it automatic due to my age. However, many of the people now a days use the "switch-to-next-cheapest-offer scheme." Competition is fierce and diverse in webhosting and gradually in cloud computing in general. See, purchasing car fuel or domestic utility or even Internet Service Provider or cable TV normally narrows down to limited sources but it is not for things such as the web hosting. There are cheaper introductory offers but not as good as this one with such a long track record of hosting. Immediately after subscription I uploaded all of my OL pages as html to my dashboard into the root and into the folders that I have created. I uploaded my CSS files into the root directory. Using their robust editor, I corrected the above mentioned codes to

<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="/MS_MasterRoot_CSS.css" />

Purposefully I changed names of the CSS to my desired ones. I uploaded all the images, too. In contrast to OL, I could organise files into the subfolders. I uploaded CSS files into the root. In half a day my site was up and running with a look completely similar to my OL site. You can compare this two sites at (click here please) OLSB and at its new (click please) host, or even on my in-the-home toy Apache web server that I have implemented on an old laptop (please click here; this could be slow and sometimes down due to turning off the laptop).Structure has completely migrated in half a day. Details, I have time and gradually do them. I have left the green default of OLSB background as it is (when you refresh a page it flashes green). It is for the test of my codes. Later I change it to transparent in the CSS. Please look at the bottom of the page it is validated by W3C, both for html code and for the CSS. I put this page for comparison since in its creation I only had used OL default aspx editor, not my own html pages launched from the "Documents Gallery." Due to more control on style, my new page is more meticulously designed. Bulk of my work have been done. I am enjoying my new freedom. I have loads of things ahead to do and to learn (thanks to my friend "Phoenix" for his discussions). A panic has happened among some, perhaps more than half of the OL free guests. It is as easy as this to solve. I have worked on Google hosting almost from a year ago. It is very basic and rough and inflexible. It is good to practice things around but not rely on it to be used as a host. It has no place for any adventure and is far more basic than OL with no guarantee of any customer service. Next, How to Create a Free Web Hosting in Your Home?

Moving from Microsoft Office Live Web Hosting (1)

2011-07-13T12:28:00.005+01:00

(For the latest PDF files Merger Software please have a look at the top of the left margin, inside the red box.) Frequently in the past I have written about tuning of Microsoft Office Live web hosting. This was a generous flexible tool offered by Microsoft essentially for small businesses to help them to have a decent hassle free presence on the web without cornering them to buy anything from the host. You even could remove that small font link and logo of the host at the bottom of created page. (I never removed it, as I believed that should be promoted; when one gets one should give.) Its editor was the best in terms of robustness and flexibility and design among any on-line editor I ever had experienced. One could bypass that editor by creating his own page and launching them from the "Documents Gallery" of his own. Not that you could produce one of those aggressive websites with different capabilities that is possible to run from a full blooded paid hosting, still enough to learn and keep the fire aflame. Besides tens of thousands of small businesses using that facility for income, there were ten folds of them used the hosting for personal non-profit applications such as educators, charities, different churches of different religions, artists, writers, political protagonists, anybody who wanted to have a voice on the Internet or had something to offer free to the public. This was a great altruism. And one knows that altruism pays. When a computer enterprise promotes free presence of public on the Internet, at the end there'll be a queue of enterprises in some indirect manner in front of its own sales department. But should not forget the lesson of Sun Microsystem. Sun was a computer "Robin Hood," earning from big enterprises but lavishly spending for any geek (perhaps I mean cool) ideas around. It was a funky cafe, in the eyes of nerds to come and test their tastes. I frequently had received free Amazon vouchers, tee shirts, mugs from Sun just for writing a couple of lines as a comment, or a good bug report, without ever asking. There were supports for hundreds of projects without obligation to finish them. Free software, tools, and tutorials were available in every corner of Sun Microsystem, in galore. Return was good as Sun was enjoying having seven billion dollars just in cash in its backroom safe. But when enterprises started to fall, that cash was spent in few months without Sun having a cushion from backbone of more population. Oracle took over the Sun and accepted prudently many of the legacies of Sun Microsystem. Oracle has not any bad reputation as an aggressively business oriented company. Even I do not believe, in spite of many contrary ideas, that such a bad reputation exists for Microsoft. Essentially IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun, Intel, Google, and many other similar companies are based on a founder and a population of employees mostly from the nerds with deep tendency to fulfill a mathematical curiosity than earning the money. Still, I believe, Oracle should keep the name of Sun in a similar way to that of Ohm, Siemens, Volt, Watt, Ampere, and such reputable names. I fell a bit far from my original discourse. Now, Office Live is being shut down. At first, I was somehow bitter, hearing the news. However, now I understand why Microsoft has made such a decision. It was not possible for Microsoft, especially in present financial situation of the world to maintain an activity which is not part of its expertise and statement of mission. Add the fact that most of those customers are not deeply engaged in design of a website. Microsoft has offered a paid hosting as part of the Office 365 on-line suite. That Office 365 is a good and well designed product seamlessly coordinated with Microsoft Office, but its web hosting is far weaker and more basic than Office Live and for one who needs only web hosting is useless and expensive. Therefore, many of OL users are decided to move. Thank you Microsoft for hosting my site. I learned many things from you and received support of a paying customer, but now it is time to adventure in open space and stand on our own feet. How can we move? It is subject of the next post.

W3C Validator Compliancy for Microsoft Office Live Web-Hosting and Facebook Buttons (2)

2011-03-16T11:37:00.016Z

(For the latest PDF files Merger Software please have a look at the top of the left margin, inside the red box.) I needed to add few words to my previous comment when I was experiencing for compliance of my website. First, I said that I use Microsoft Office Live (OL) templates. That is a good practice. Design of OL templates are done by the very competitive professionals in the industry. Thus should not be retired easily. An example is implementing the idea of "zones." That makes doing things easier. Or the site maps so neatly designed. Or the OL visitor reporting Java Scripts. I keep as much of them as possible. I use all the facilities provided by OL such as their css and js files. I learn lot from them. Still, if I would not create my web, based on pages loaded from Document Gallery and I had limited myself in using pages created solely by the Microsoft Office Live, then I could not use a panoply of editors and other tools that I have on my ease in my local computer, without being have to sign in and open the OL console. I create my page, on my own desktop, by adding an "_AA" to the beginning of the file name. That takes it to the top of the list of OL Document Gallery and when I delete it to put a new one I do not delete a working page inadvertently. I test the page and debug it completely. I add the validator codes to it to be able to test it frequently. W3C validator also helps in finding and removing errors of the page. I delete and upload again and again and when I become sure about all aspects of the page then I add its file name to the directory of my web site. I change its name to whatever it should be, and then I upload it. On the other hand I have implemented an Apache web server on an old laptop at my own home. That mirrors my OL website and is connected to the Internet by a DynDs free domain name (perhaps later I can convey my observations about how to set up such a facility at home). My OL site pages, both root and Document Gallery pages have dependencies to different css and js and asp files from Microsoft hosting servers. On my toy home server I try to reduce all those dependencies to nill. I do it in a very neat manner with a system analyst approach. For example I do not create new dependencies to new providers, say free cgi hosting or other freely offered servers or thirty days trials. It has one root page, and a document gallery (Documents folder), and an image gallery (Images folder). I can add my own css, js, cgi, name space, and experience with ajax. I try to make it robust and be validated with strict standards. It is said that web designers should not have qualm with W3C validator or other strict QC criteria, and it is a geek obsession to meet such strictness. As an example you frequently hear that an average Amazon page has 17000 error and warnings through a W3C validator gauging. This is not a relief. Computer is the product of very well organised people specially pioneer system analysts. If during the design we follow few easy steps then the entire Internet becomes more smooth and cheaper to experience for those who are only users and actually pay back the expenses of the producers and have not time for technical difficulties that might be the result of relegating the standards. After all, I backup my entire site on a DVD. In this way my web site will be completely migrate-able in a snap of finger. It is like a duffel bag ready to be deployed anywhere. My next goal is to validate this blog spot.

W3C Validator Compliancy for Microsoft Office Live Web-Hosting and Facebook Buttons (1)

2011-02-16T21:09:00.036Z

(For the latest PDF files Merger Software please have a look at the top of the left margin, inside the red box.) I already had some of my experiences with Microsoft Office Live (OL) web hosting, which came useful for some of the visitors of this Blog. Recently my daughter had a look at my website with her FireFox browser and noticed that some pages of my site was not much readable from non-IE browsers. That gave me the idea that I should make my site standard based on the WWW authority criteria. I already had used the generic ASP template of OL, but with the loading of my designed pages from Documents Gallery of OL rather than the root directory. That makes the custom design more practicable. I can keep a couple of pages or even only one page in the root and the remaining pages of my site in the OL Document Gallery. (Even if you had an Apache server as your own personal host you would do that. This makes migration and other tweaking easier, too) Yet, using a note-pad for design meant no way of controlling it for the errors and we know that browsers are robust entities that interpret and run any design without much taking heed to errors or informing us about them. To control the errors I needed an intelligent IDE for design of pages. There are few free IDE's available, including Microsoft Visual Express Studio (now version 2010). I preferred to use NetBeans (NB) IDE latest version. Both IDE's have intelligent interfaces with capability to suggesting a list of possible codes and showing errors. NB shows mis-spelled words too. Hence, I opened one of pages with that IDE. Lo, and behold! All the lines were underlined with red as the error laden codes. Tables were not nested properly, tags were not furbished with correct way of tag-ending. Tags were used in wrong positions. Some tags and attributes were deprecated. A mixture of capital and lower cases were used for some tags. But the most important I found was the "Standard" that you declare at the top of the document from the W3C source. Some people have got the wrong idea that if you declare, say, two standards as HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0, it is helpful for interpretation by browsers. They say if you forget "/" at some tags like <img> then the page complies. This is not a correct way of practice. Hence, I decided to select one that looks easier to follow. I typed <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd" >. I knew that there is no compromise on capitalisation. For example, if I write "/tr/" in place of "/TR/" an error occurs. That forces me to change <html> beginning tag to <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">. Having typed that, all the error points changed and their number reduced but new errors came out. <br> without ending "/" is not allowed. I used the "Edit -> Replace" command of IDE to do that job for me. Another simple change is that no tag or attribute or its value is allowed to remain capital. You cannot type <TABLE> or FONT-SIZE. They should be <table> and font-size, respectively. The funny thing happened when I used "Replace" command to change table row tags from capital "TR" to lower case "tr" Suddenly number of errors rocketed up. Yes, the before mentioned file path, "/TR/" in the topmost declaration for using transitional XHTML also had been changed to lower case. Using the "Replace" command should be acompanied with caution to prevent damaging capitalisation of the content of the page already written. If I want to change all the paragraph tags and their end tags from capital to lower case with one command and with no qualm about the content I should say (to include end tags, as well) replace "P>" with "p> " Then no capital P at the beginning of a sentence will be changed. (Peter will not come as peter!) I changed all the deprecated attributes to correct ones, as well, without being worried about any mistake. I changed obsolete "name" attributes to "id" attributes. I followed the rules of W3C in using the correct literal adjectives instead of using those which looks correct to a coder's mind. For instance nowrap="true" should be replaced by nowrap="nowrap". Align attribute for image tag is "middle" but in other places it should be "center". I could not use <li> </li>without nesting them in <ul></ul>. I used the automatic intelligent tabs of the IDE to gradually correct my tables nesting structures by checking the returning columns of line-feeds until each table and each row and each column of it become closed at the right position symmetric to opening tags. Once you put the "id" of a data column in a row of a table it is not necessary to repeat it in other columns (one of the common errors of my OL template). I continued until my file opened in the NB IDE didn't show any error or any warning. I deleted the old file from the Microsoft Office Live Document Gallery and uploaded the new file then I went to W3C site and checked my newly uploaded page. Congratulation page appeared for my web page. Now, gradually I am refurbing other pages. There are some tag extensions out there not in coordination with W3C bodies. One of them is the <fb:like> for facebook's "Like" button. or tags for embedding objects. If your page fails only for using tags like that but in terms of everything else is correct, use the W3C emblem. The visitor can check and appreciate that you have been meticulous in your design, but only failed for a widely used tag not yet been standardised. At the same time time put pressure on developers of Facebook, Creative Commons and some other important web entities to standardize their codes with neater extensions by offering them through RFC or other means to decision making committees of www. (I haven't checked, yet, if I can nest them as CDATA inside a script tag as work-around to pass the validator check, but I'll do and inform you later.)
Update 17/Feb/11: I worked it out now.
Change your <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> tag to <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:fb=http://developers.facebook.com/schema/> to accommodate for Facebook extension. Then at the place that you wanted to plug the Facebook button in add the following Java Script:

<div id="fb-root"></div><br /><div id="fblike"></div><br /> <script type="text/javascript"><br />  //<![CDATA[<br />                doc = document.getElementById('fblike');<br />  if (doc != null) {<br />   ele = document.createElement('fb:like');<br />   ele.setAttribute('href', 'http://messiahpsychoanalyst.org/');<br />   ele.setAttribute('action', 'like');<br />   ele.setAttribute('width', '100');<br />   ele.setAttribute('layout', 'button_count');<br />   ele.setAttribute('font', 'tahoma');<br />   ele.setAttribute('show_faces', 'true');<br />   doc.appendChild(ele);<br />   }<br />  // Facebook initialise<br />  window.fbAsyncInit =<br />   function () {<br />   FB.init({<br />   //appId: '123456789',<br />   status: true,<br />   cookie: true,<br />   xfbml: true });<br />   };(<br />   function () {<br />    var ele = document.createElement('script');<br />    ele.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js';<br />    ele.async = 1;<br />    document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(ele);<br />   } ());<br />  //]]><br /> </script><br />

Change attributes according to your requirements and taste. Please note that CDATA is commented out. My "Downloads Page" with "Facebook" button, now have passed the W3C Validator check successfully.

Dysprosium: Messiah's "Codes For Us" PDF Software Package Under Way

2011-01-31T15:25:00.016Z

(For the latest PDF files Merger Software please have a look at the top of the left margin, inside the red box.) Now I have fulfilled part of my promises for a free PDF software suite, without overly bloating it. Under different stress tests I have done , there appears a couple of issues. For example, some rare happening exception would not report them in a relevant dialogue. As the software, in contrast to some other software, keeps the original file untouched, these exceptions have not a damaging edge. But, in principle, they should be reported. Other important issue is when PDF files exceed a size of 0.5 GB. One needs to have enough resources in their computer to handle them. All other applications should be closed. I have tested merging of two 450 MB files with 4GB of RAM and effective CPU speed of 4.5 GHz that takes almost (less than) ten minutes. (18/March/11: New findings show it in 3 minutes, gives 1 GB, and even 1.5 GB. 25/October/2011: 3GB using Windows 7 64 bits, 8 GB ddr3. Please have a look at new pictures at the tab page at the top of this blog) Consider that for ordinary documents that size is equivalent of tens of thousands of pages (6 k per page makes 450 MB equal to 75000 pages. 100 k per colourful pages of pictures makes 450 MB equivalent to 4500 pages.) We still do not work on powerful algorithms that can rival with Adobe very recent standards in level of two or three GB or even larger files. Files of these sizes, are barely used by public. They could be high resolution scanned files of 600 dpi many of them concatenated already together. We also have not hardware resources to check if we can use "Dysprosium" PDF suite of ours to be used in traditional barrier of 1.5 GB. That should be checked with at least a dual core CPU (effective clock of 5.2 or more) and minimum of six GB of physical memory (in a 64 bits OS). Hence, if an exception of "failed map" were thrown by very large files, it is likely due to lack of hardware resources thrown by native operating system, rather than my PDF merging software. [You might like to increase your Java "heap." In Windows 7: Click on "Start" Select "Control Panel" Click on "Programs" Double-click on "Java" Select "Java" tab. Click on "View" Double click on the text field in "Runtime Parameters" column. Type "-Xmx512m" Change 512 according to your requirement.] We are on the course to be assured on those targets in first release candidate of "Dysprosium" in this current year. There are buttons in different places disabled for now. Their functions are under construction. Software will always remain free. "Free as we have in freedom and as we have in free beer;" quote from now a lost link on the Internet. We humbly become happy if we understand our work is of some benefit to other people and they are using it in ease. We have this powerful means and the related tools of communication thanks to millions of hours of free work offered by hard-working individuals all around the world.
(Dysprosium is registered to be used as the name for Messiah's "Codes For Us" PDF Software Package.)

Encryption Tablet (Version 1)

2011-01-09T22:54:00.016Z

(For the latest PDF files Merger Software please have a look at the top of the left margin, inside the red box.) Now the encryption tablet (version 1) is out. You can use it to create a keystore and public private keys with different key algorithms, key sizes and signature algorithms. Also it is possible to create a secrete key from the keystore. Utility can be used to create PFX (PKCS#12) files from the available public-private key pair files. You might use the software for creation PEM files from the PFX file, or convert the PEM file to a DER file. Other features of the software includes printing the Finger Print of the certificate to a text file (.fp file can be read with a notepad). You can create a request CSR file for getting a certificate and then importing the certificate to the keystore. Another desireable feature is "JAR Signing," using any of the certificates you might have imported or created in the key-store with the known alias and passwords of yours. There are other features, as well, to utilize. At this date (11/January/11) help page is mostly ready, but under development. Please download from here (deprecated).

(15/January/2011: reported issue resolved. Although it is decades we have the poor "DOS" behind, still it shows itself here and there. Yes, it is recommended to install in a folder with no blank character in its name; perhaps, not even in parent path. Its own default unzipped folder is the best.)

(17/March/11: Now a visual help page is available here for converting PFX to PEM and to DER format part of the (deprecated version) software. Please have a look for further assistance.)

(1/April/11: An improved version uploaded this weekend. All bugs fixed; very stable. Interface as shown below. Visual help click here.)

How to Digitally Sign a PDF Document?

2010-12-07T12:51:00.013Z

(For the latest PDF files Merger Software please have a look at the top of the left margin, inside the red box.) Now this basic signature manager is ready in Codes For Us PDF Merging utility, beta_6_3 (here). It is yet far from being complete. You notice that to use it one needs a PFX (PKCS#12) to have ready somewhere either self-signed or CA signed. I have a humble tweak GUI to create that PFX at home using self signature, available in download area. My 'uber-geek' friend Grant Hardy (who is a microwave engineer and has implemented Messiah's Calendar [he sleeps on a Smith's Chart at nights]) has promised to give a hand to meet our promised milestone around the Christmas, for further features to be accompanied (e.g., a password remover is ready now done by him, a password unlocker he is also interested as a matter of algorithm tests, not by using a brute force). With this Signature Manager one cannot put her seal emblem on the digital signature. It is just a standard digital signature of PDF documents as it is defined. The Water-mark utility provided by Codes For Us might meet that demand, if one is interested. But people are interested to have emblem next, or as under-layer to their digital signature, too. Hence, I try to add that feature, later to the manager (04/Jan/11: Now the feature is added)). I hope you enjoy this version for now.
Update 04/January/11: Now notarize PDF with external timestamp, seal emblem under-layer, and few other features are included. Codes For Us PDF Merging utility, 01/March/11, beta_6_7 (here).
Update 05/March/11: Now with a visual help page (here).

How to Make a PFX (PKCS #12) File for Encryption for Free?

2010-11-14T15:05:00.062Z

(For the latest PDF files Merger Software please have a look at the top of the left margin, inside the red box.) There are many situations that you use Java to create public and private keys to be exported as PCKS#12 encryption file for certification. (Please also read "How to Digitally Sign a PDF Document?" here.) Perhaps, there are commercial software for this end. An Internet search for this subject shows that doing that in free open software normally is not easy without much tweaking. This package of mine (Download here) is a self sufficient (and tweak-able, for interested people) light package for that. We know that PFX format for certification is the only format that supports export of a private key together with its certification. This make this format more important than the other formats. One can create public and private keys using Java Key Tools, but exporting them in form of PFX file format is not an easy job to do, if you like to do it free. I gathered available free tools to do it on Windows 7 (and other Windows down to Win98), without need to install anything else and in a self sufficient way. Regretfully, I have many professionally-hobbyist software on my computer and have not much clue that if some of them is being evoked (should be some Microsoft Visual C++ library, look into the C drive Windows folder and then in the "winsxs" for an x86_microsoft.vc90 something files) in handling my small package. I included a copy of "Redistribution," in case you need, but I believe the interested people already should have those libraries somewhere in their windows. If you received the message as, "Windows cannot do the specified job." Or something like that then you need to install that Redistribution from the "Software" folder available inside my package. The arranged package should be able to work with all the Windows(R) operating systems after Win98. To utilize the command line version of my software, you need to unpack the zipped folder (I use the open source free 7-zip utility as the best to pack and unpack zipped file folders). In the unzipped folder there is a batch file "pfx_util.bat". You can double click on this file and then follow instructions. There is also a help text file for further clarification. Please go here to download and for visual help here (18/November/10) Simple GUI version of the software is available now. You can use either of command line version or GUI "jar" file version (an improved version is on the way) (11/01/11: Now it is out).
Sorry! If you have downloaded before mid-night (00 GMT) 06/April/11, please download again. An important user reported issue fixed.
New! (06/April/11) Simple Encryption Tablet, very stable, very simple to use, here. For a step-by-step Visual "How to?" here
Previous! (29/March/11, 14/March/11, 11/Jan/11, 18/Nov/10; deprecated. Use Encryption Tablet, please.) Simple GUI version, download here. For a step-by-step Visual "How to?" here
New! (15/March/11) Command line version improved, here. For a Visual "How to?" here
Please Note! Having Java Key Store is not necessary. These are working independent.

To make a PFX simply use "File Format" tab left panel: get your private and public keys enter a password of your choice for the created PFX and click on the build button.

If you like, you may use Java Key Store to produce public/private key pairs.

How to Watermark and Stamp a PDF File for Free?

2010-10-17T12:36:00.013+01:00

(For the latest PDF files Merger Software please have a look at the top of the left margine, inside the red box.) Now this first version of software for watermarking, stamping pdf files with text and image is ready. User can change font size of the text and decides for the font and style. They also can decide for the position and the angle that text appears on the page. Some PDF creators such as the scanners create PDF's which are completely opaque. In such PDF's watermarks go under the PDF box becomes hidden and unseen. In such cases my software allows users to put the watermark on the top of the pdf over the box. If the watermark obscures part of the texts then you can reduce the opacity of the watermark to become transparent enough to make the underlying text visible for reading. Then looks as if it is under the text. You can reduce opacity to zero to create a hidden watermark later can be recognized by you. If you use a hidden watermark "web URL" on your PDF, at its position a link becomes created that shows itself with the small "clicking" hand.cursor. In this way you can make your document active. User can change direction of the stamp or the watermark text between 90 degrees clockwise (-90) and 90 degrees counter-clockwise (+90), perhaps to be used for the landscape pages. The position where you put the watermartk is selected visually on the "measurement board" by a "double-click" on the "Get Mouse" button. Measurement board shows relative places of your document. Precise coordinates in terms of the size of the page of your document are shown in the X and Y text boxes at the bottom of the GUI. If you "double-click" on the cross hair point, those coordinates will be registered for the watermarked document. Then press on the OK button to have your stamped document. The resulting document comes with a filename that does not exist in the directory hence, your original remains as before untouched.
You can select to use an image for the watermarking. If you decide to put the image as the over layer on your pdf document there is an option in this software such that you can change its opacity to make it transparent and to be able to see contents underneath of the page. You also can choose to blow up your image in terms of the percentage, by adjusting knob. Enjoy!
Please go here
18/March/11: Now with a Visual Help page here.

PDF's Bookmarks, Outlines and Table of Contents

2010-10-06T16:02:00.020+01:00

(For the latest PDF files Merger Software please have a look at the top of the left margin, inside the red box.) The merge software is like a clip or staple that people use in offices to attach separate pages with different dimensions and content. The software does not change them or enhance them in any way as it should not and is not intended, except that you decide for it. One kind-hearted user's asked me if the bookmarks emerge as they were before the manipulation. The answer is affirmative. Please, have a look at this video, consolidating three files one of them a tome of one thousand page attached to two other book. As one of the books has not originally bookmarks in its PDF creation by the author, it remains without a bookmark in the merged volume of total 1600 pages.
How one can create an outline of a book after having an "engraved frozen" PDF depends on the author. One example is when you have a volume of your old diaries scanned into the PDF and you like to create an outline for it to make it more lively for navigation. You like to click on the "Christmas of 1989" and go to that page immediately without having to search many random pages. In the road map for developing this package, I have that target to hopefully implement but for a while later (4/Jan/11: from version beta_6_4 implemented ). That also can create a table of contents (12/Feb/11: from version beta_6_5 implemented) as a by-product. (11/March/11: Visual Help is now available.)

How to merge PDF files for free?

2010-09-03T00:13:00.027+01:00

(For the latest PDF files Merger Software please have a look at the top of the left margine, inside the red box.) Google has advised me to write a blog with this title to help search engine crawlers find this place for relevant software. Since if I do not put that question directly on the title then search engines are not able to recognize that. I wrote this software as a demo and for my personal usage many years ago, perhaps 2003 or 2004. I had not any idea that it could be of some assistance to public. Recently, my daughter, Mercedes, mentioned me that it could be useful making it available for public. When I put it here, swiftly few hundred downloads reported to my blog stat in Google Analytic. Having noticed the interest, I started to test the software with the stress tests of a user not the way that I could use it personally and I noticed many bugs in it. Immediately I removed the bugs and deprecated the alpha version. Then I received few further issues and on a nightly basis newer versions uploaded to Messiah's Site. A help and issue page also was established. I noticed that for a full utilization of the software I needed to have a PDF file splitter and a software to inject a PDF file into a certain page of another PDF file. Some of the users kindly have advised me for creating some other PDF software. I am a retired teacher and a retired System Analyst. But to fulfill that demand I am busy to do that task. I have two gadgets at hand right now that prevents my full-time endeavour on the PDF software. One is related to control systems theory which I have written in java language at the moment but I like to rewrite it in assembly code to be readily usable for embedded systems and the other is an educational gadget. All will come free on public domain. So obeying the advice to help the crawlers to come here I have a humble answer for "How to combine PDF files, how to join PDF files, how to split PDF files and how to insert one PDF file inside another PDF file." By the way during this period of six months there have been more than 7500 downloads from 115 countries. (9/Dec/10 I do not update this post any longer; latest statistics available at the Download page. ) I also have received encouraging comments here and on the Internet. You overwhelmingly obliged me. Let's hope I have as many happy users as that. Enjoy!

I Needed more Software for Working with PDF Files

2010-08-05T19:43:00.101+01:00

Perhaps you are here for PDF software:

Stable PDF file Merger free software now available from Messiah's download page at, here. Latest stable beta_5_4_4, 1.9 MB; new build with additional "page-numbering" feature, based on iText (02/Oct/10, rev.05/Oct/10, rev.06/Oct/10, minor rev. 21/Oct/10, rev.25/Oct/10)NEW: The first free software for Insertion PDF file, here Stable beta_4, 1.9 MB; based on iText, (24/March/11).

Stable PDF file Splitter free software now available from Messiah's download page at, here. Stable beta_6, 1.9 MB; new build, based on iText (21/March/11).

Please click on the "Question Mark" at the bottom right of the software to learn how to use it.

I was scanning my old writings to pdf files. They are my handwritten diaries, or lecture notes and some of them are typed with old type-writers. When I was arranging them, consolidating files on some supposed order, I noticed that I had forgotten to scan some pages. I could scan those individual pages to pdf and then I could split the previously scanned files put the new scanned pages between them at the right places and merge them. Instead of that I created a software to inject or rather insert the skipped pages into their places in my volumes of scanned material. You can download that software free if you, too, have that requirement. All software have a visual help here.

A Free Software to Merge (Attaching) PDF Files Together

2010-06-13T10:35:00.082+01:00

(For the latest PDF files Merger Software please have a look at the top of the left margine, inside the red box.) Frequently in academic places you might need to consolidate or technically speaking you have to concatenate two or more pdf files together. It is due to the fact that you are creating or downloading a work, such as a series of lectures during a period of time then you would like to make them in one big volume. I have created a software to do that job for me. I used iText software and some Java Swings to create GUI for that job. I put it here for your usage. It is in alpha phase so far. It has no risk using it. It does not do anything with your pdf files. In the worst case scenario that never happens (since that iText is very noble a software) the concatenation might not happen. I have tested it and am using it for a long time with different files I have downloaded or scanned from the books with no problem. It is a pity not to make it available for others. I have used iText 2.7 for implementation. I am planning to use iText 5 now with all details of open source and other fusses to become available later. Meanwhile, please enjoy this humble version, by clicking here (Latest stable beta_5_4_5, 1.9 MB; brand new, even better build with yet another new features for "page numbering" and previous features for "re-size" and "zoom", and "rotate"based on iText : 02/Oct/10, rev.05/Oct/10, rev.06/Oct/10 minor rev.21/Oct/10, rev.25/Oct/10, rev.24/March/11). Another "in-progress" version includes "Signature Manager," and "Bookmark Manager." (Stable beta_6_7 rev.11/March/11 here) For simpler versions please go here (Latest stable Release R1 safe to use and stable, works similar to Adobe combine feature, finalised based on iText : 03/December/10). This place includes a help and Visual Help, and encountered issues page, as well.

NEW: The first free software for Insertion pdf file 01/October/10 here.
Stable pdf Splitter free software now available from Messiah's download page at,
here. (Stable beta_6, 3.85 MB; new build, improved bookmark split based on iText, 21/March/11).
Please click on the "Question Mark" at the bottom right of the software to learn how to use it.

All older versions removed.
For Merge software:
You should have all the pieces of pdf files in one place, perhaps in a folder of their own, somewhere next to each other. (Still, do not worry; software won't include any non PDF files around there.) When application opens, click for "brows" and take the "file-chooser" to where you have your pdf files and then select one of them and click "OK" on the "file-chooser." It pops up for a name to choose for your consolidated file. The default consolidated pdf file name I have chosen starts with "ZZ" such that later you can recognize it easily among other pdf files. Still, you can write your own choice of name in the red highlighted text field but do not add pdf extension. Software adds it automatically. After clicking "OK" on the "name-chooser" pop up, all the pdf files in the directory comes in the "List Area" of the application. You can remove those you do not need from the list and arrange files in the order that you prefer to consolidate. Then click on the "Merge" button. It brings progress GUI for you and after few seconds or few minutes, depending on the size and number of files, you have your consolidated pdf file in the same directory as the others. Next "dialogue" box offers you more concatenation or exit, whatever you choose to do.
Please check for improvements. You might like to use "subscribe feeds."
Please note, Pdf calculations and regenerations take resources from your computer, sometimes for more than a minute, in particlar, if the size of files are greater than 50 MB. Allow enough time to the software to crank and to crunch the job. All the default created files begins with "ZZ" to make it easier to find them.
Please check this place for newer versions and newer software for PDF.

Using Thread in Java to Create Animation, Example 5

2010-04-30T19:01:00.010+01:00

I said we use the paint() method to have a corner to creat my objects. Further I can have a class for my objects and create images there and bring them on my frame. I need only to pass the graphic of canvas to that class. Then I can even create more than one similar objects on the canvas and put them next together. I can have them resized and rotated and deformed. Now, I use some simple drawings and my aircraft bomber looks more real. I create it in a small sub-class to my canvas. Then I can call it from my paint() method. From this point you can use formalities of object-oriented languages for data encapsulations. But I prefer to experience with animations and put details of software engineering aside until I become fully fluent and in command of more basic details.

package Forward;

/**
 *
 * author Peter Jones
 */
public class Ex5Thread extends javax.swing.JFrame implements java.lang.Runnable{

    /** Creates new form Ex5Thread */
    public Ex5Thread() {
        super("Example 5!"); // A title for the frame
        T0=System.currentTimeMillis();
        x=X0;
        y=Y0;
        aPanel = new javax.swing.JPanel();
        setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(300, 150));
        add(aPanel);
        pack();
        start();
    }

    /** Start when browser is loaded or button pushed. **/
    public void start() {
        if (fThread == null){
            fThread = new java.lang.Thread (this);
            fThread.start();
        }
    } // start

    /** The thread loops to draw each frame.**/
    public void run() {
        //j=0;
        // Loop through animation frames
        while ( fThread != null){
            // Sleep between frames
            try{
                Thread.sleep (1);
                t=System.currentTimeMillis()-T0;
                t=t/1000; //convert to seconds
                x=(int)(V0*t);
                y=Y0+(int)(G*t*t/2);
                paint();
            }
            catch (InterruptedException e) {break; } //break stops the loop
            // Now go to other frame
            other();
            isDone();
        }
    }// run ends

    // Your other frame comes here.
    public void other(){
        //
        // Sleep between frames
        try{
            Thread.sleep (25);
            aPanel.repaint(); // meanwhile repaint the panel.
        }
        catch (InterruptedException e) { }
    }

    // Boolean allows you to terminate this thread, 
    // if you like,and go to other tasks.    
    // I used it to provide a flag for counting.

    public boolean isDone() {
        boolean temp=false;
        if(x==300) {//if reaches end of panel
            temp=true;
            T0=System.currentTimeMillis();//reset time origin
            x=X0; //initial x
            y=Y0; //initial x
            aPanel.repaint(); //reset the panel
        }
    return temp;
    }

    //Create some graphic
    public void paint() {
        java.awt.Graphics g=aPanel.getGraphics();
//        new airCraft().paint(g,x, y, Y0);
    }

    public static void main(String args[]) {
        new Ex5Thread().setVisible(true);
    }

    /* Variables declaration - do not modify
     * For simple GUI
     * For thread animation
     */
    private javax.swing.JPanel aPanel;
    private Thread fThread;

    // Variables declaration - do not modify

    double t=0; //seconds
    double T0=0; //seconds

    int x=0; // X-coordinate of a point
    final int X0=10; // pixels

    int y=0; // Y-coordinate of a point
    final int Y0=30; // pixels

    final int V0=25; // pixels/second
    final double G=0.98; //pixels/second/second
    // End of variables declaration

//sub-class creates some graphical object
class airCraft{

    airCraft(){//Costructor

    }

    protected void paint(java.awt.Graphics gr, int x, int y, int Y){
 
        gr.setColor(java.awt.Color.green);
        gr.fillOval(x, Y+10, 100, 20);//fuselage

        gr.setColor(java.awt.Color.red);
        gr.fillArc(x-20, Y+5, 40, 20, 0, 100);//tail
        gr.fillArc(x+10, Y+3, 60, 15, 0, 135);//far wing
        gr.fillArc(x+35, Y+10, 35, 20, 0, -135);//front wing

        gr.setColor(java.awt.Color.gray);
        gr.fillArc(x+55, Y+10, 40, 10, 0, 100);//cockpit
        
        gr.fillOval(x+30, Y+y, 10, 5);//bomb

   }
}

}

Click here to see the application. If you save the "jar" file in your computer you can use "7z" decompression utility to extract source file and image files.

Using Thread in Java to Create Animation, Example 4

2010-04-16T15:19:00.011+01:00

In the previous example we introduced a simple graphic work. We introduced a paint() method in a cosy corner to create the image we need without interfering with other parts of application. Then we call it back and forth in our thread tick-tacks. To render that graphic to realize the graphical object on our canvas¹ we need an instance of java.awt.Graphics which is always present there from deep down the system and easily we catch it from the things that native methods create for us. It is like palette of painters with color pastes on it and different brushes. Once you catch an instance of that you can use it everywhere. The best is to take it from the container that you are working on it. Here I took it from the javax swing panel that I had on my Frame. Once you put the paint() on your canvas to remove it you have to repaint() your canvas; other wise its effect remains there and in the next tick-tack you have still there. In this way you have a moving brush that creates some other type of animation if you are interested. It is like a trajectory you are watching. In this example I have created that effect. Nevertheless, I have to repaint() my panel at each renewal of the thread when the trajectory reaches to the end of canvas, somewhere in isDone() method. You can de-comment and re-comment related instructions to watch its effect. This Blog is the simplest explanation you ever could find anywhere for java threading and painting and animation. Please, have a look at Example 4.

package Forward;<br /><br />/**<br /> *<br /> * author Peter Jones<br /> */<br />public class Ex4Thread extends javax.swing.JFrame implements java.lang.Runnable{<br /><br />    /** Creates new form Ex4Thread */<br />    public Ex4Thread() {<br />        super("Example 4!"); // A title for the frame<br />        T0=System.currentTimeMillis();<br />        x=X0;<br />        y=Y0;<br />        aPanel = new javax.swing.JPanel();<br />        setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);<br />        setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(350, 120));<br />        add(aPanel);<br />        pack();<br />        start();<br />    }<br /><br />    /** Start when browser is loaded or button pushed. **/<br />    public void start() {<br />        if (fThread == null){<br />            fThread = new java.lang.Thread (this);<br />            fThread.start();<br />        }<br />    } // start<br /><br />    /** The thread loops to draw each frame.**/<br />    public void run() {<br />        j=0;<br />        // Loop through animation frames<br />        while ( fThread != null){<br />            // Sleep between frames<br />            try{<br />                Thread.sleep (1);<br />                t=System.currentTimeMillis()-T0;<br />                t=t/1000; //convert to seconds<br />                x=(int)(V0*t);<br />                y=Y0+(int)(G*t*t/2);<br />                paint();<br />            }<br />            catch (InterruptedException e) {break; } //break stops the loop<br />            // Now go to other frame<br />            other();<br />            isDone();<br />        //if (this.isDone()) fThread = null;<br />        }<br />    }// run ends<br /><br />    // Your other frame comes here.<br />    public void other(){<br />        //<br />        ++j;<br />        // Sleep between frames<br />        try{<br />            Thread.sleep (1);<br />            //aPanel.repaint(); // meanwhile repaint the panel.<br />        }<br />        catch (InterruptedException e) { }<br />    }<br /><br />    /* Boolean allows you to terminate this thread, if you like, and go to other tasks.<br />     * I used it to provide a flag for counting.<br />     */<br />    public boolean isDone() {<br />        boolean temp=false;<br />        if(j==COUNTS) {<br />            temp=true;<br />            j=0;<br />            T0=System.currentTimeMillis();<br />            x=X0;<br />            y=Y0;<br />            aPanel.repaint();<br />        }<br />    return temp;<br />    }<br /><br />    //Create some graphic<br />    public void paint() {<br /><br />        java.awt.Graphics g=aPanel.getGraphics();<br />        g.setColor(java.awt.Color.red);<br />        g.fillOval(x, Y0, 2, 2); //Object one (aircraft)<br />        g.fillOval(x, y, 2, 2); //Object two (released bomb)<br />       // g.setColor(java.awt.Color.gray);<br />        //g.fill3DRect(300, 80, 15, 30, true);<br /><br />    }<br /><br />    public static void main(String args[]) {<br />        new Ex4Thread().setVisible(true);<br />    }<br /><br />    /* Variables declaration - do not modify<br />     * For simple GUI<br />     * For thread animation<br />     */<br />    private javax.swing.JPanel aPanel;<br />    private Thread fThread;<br /><br />    /* Variables declaration - do not modify<br />     *<br />     */<br />    int j=0; //counter<br />    final int COUNTS=3500;<br /><br />    double t=0; //seconds<br />    double T0=0; //seconds<br /><br />    int x=0; // X-coordinate of a point<br />    final int X0=10; // pixels<br /><br />    int y=0; // Y-coordinate of a point<br />    final int Y0=10; // pixels<br /><br />    final int V0=25; // pixels/second<br />    final double G=0.98; //pixels/second/second<br />    // End of variables declaration<br />}// End of class

Click here to see the application. If you save the "jar" file in your computer you can use "7z" decompression utility to extract source file and image files.
The first trajectory is simple and similar to previous one. It hs a constnt speed of V0=25. Second trajectory follows some rule of mathematics as y=(1/2)g.t² It is an aircraft bomber with speed of 25 pixels per second and releases a bomb. I assumed the gravity should be one tenth of the earth gravity. It is 0.98 pixels per second per second. x-ccordinate of the bomb remains the same as x-coordiate of the bomber aircraft, that is x=V0*t, but its y-coordinate changes according to law of gravity.
It is important that you make a formula such that it could be cosistent with the dimensions of canvas. You also should consider for how long your frame remains in the sight. For that it is necessary, too, to know how long the effect of an exposure remains in the eye. It is 20 milli second.

==================================
1. I mean canvas of painting. I do not mean Java AWT Canvas.

Using Thread in Java to Create Animation, Example 3

2010-04-12T17:56:00.002+01:00

Now, we are at a point to create animation on our canvas without using an image; doing it just by painting. Still we use the tick-tack technique between run() method and the other() method. Here we have to add a paint() method to create the desired object for us, we put a small red blob, an oval shape on the canvas, moving from left to right. The canvas is a java swing panel.

package Forward;<br /><br />/**<br /> *<br /> * author Peter Jones<br /> */<br />public class Ex3Thread extends javax.swing.JFrame implements java.lang.Runnable{<br /><br />    /** Creates new form Ex3Thread */<br />    public Ex3Thread() {<br />        super("Example 3!"); // A title for the frame<br />        aPanel = new javax.swing.JPanel();<br />        setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);<br />        setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(200, 100));<br />        add(aPanel);<br />        pack();<br />        start();<br />    }<br /><br />    /** Start when browser is loaded or button pushed. **/<br />    public void start() {<br />        if (fThread == null){<br />            fThread = new java.lang.Thread (this);<br />            fThread.start();<br />        }<br />    } // start<br /><br />    /** The thread loops to draw each frame.**/<br />    public void run() {<br />        j=0;<br />        // Loop through animation frames<br />        while ( fThread != null){<br />            // Sleep between frames<br />            try{<br />                Thread.sleep (100);<br />                x+=3;<br />                paint();<br />            }<br />            catch (InterruptedException e) { }<br />            // Now go to other frame<br />            other();<br />            isDone();<br />        //if (this.isDone()) fThread = null;<br />        }<br />    }// run ends<br /><br />    // Your other frame comes here.<br />    public void other(){<br />        //<br />        ++j;<br />        // Sleep between frames<br />        try{<br />            Thread.sleep (200);<br />            aPanel.repaint(); // meanwhile repaint the panel.<br />        }<br />        catch (InterruptedException e) { }<br />    }<br /><br />    /* Boolean allows you to terminate this thread, if you like, and go to other tasks.<br />     * I used it to provide a flag for counting.<br />     */<br />    public boolean isDone() {<br />        boolean temp=false;<br />        if(j==COUNTS) {<br />            temp=true;<br />            j=0;<br />            x=10;<br />        }<br />    return temp;<br />    }<br />    <br />    //Create some graphic<br />    public void paint() {<br />        <br />        java.awt.Graphics g=aPanel.getGraphics();<br />        g.setColor(java.awt.Color.red);<br />        g.fillOval(x, 25, 5, 5);<br />    }<br /><br />    public static void main(String args[]) {<br />        new Ex3Thread().setVisible(true);<br />    }<br /><br />/* Variables declaration - do not modify<br />* For simple GUI<br />*/<br />private javax.swing.JPanel aPanel;<br /><br />/* Variables declaration - do not modify<br />* For thread animation<br />*/<br />int j=0; //counter<br />int x=10; // X-coordinate of a point<br />Thread fThread;<br />final int COUNTS=50;<br />// End of variables declaration<br />}

Click here to see the application. If you save the "jar" file in your computer you can use "7z" decompression utility to extract source file and image files.

Using Thread in Java to Create Animation, Example 2

2010-04-07T21:25:00.025+01:00

We could run the thread by tick-tacking between the run() method and an auxiliary other() method, each take the thread to a certain sleep duration. You can test if you can remove the sleep from the other() method. Still you have tick tack but not smooth to create animation. The high of the clock pulse is equal to run() duration say 100 ms but the low (I measured using system time) is 3 to 4 milliseconds. you can add yet another anOther() method and a third image in your resources and get a better effect. you also can play with sleep duration to reach more smoothness in terms of visual subjective effects. you can consider the duration of effect when human eyes switches between two scenes. Now I make a more complex animation. I make these like the old neon lamps rather than using maths calculation and rendering graphics. If I use painting then my attention would be diverted to force correctness of java codes when running in hand in hand with the native operating system. That frequently needs adjustments which is not related to the job of animation. I should be confident that my animations work and encourage me to step forward rather than becoming disappointed. Then I can add other elements to them. This example put pieces of a whole picture consecutively and creates animation similar to the book-flicking through animation that children make using corner of pages of a book.

package Forward;

/**
*
* author Peter Jones
*/
public class Ex2Thread extends javax.swing.JFrame implements java.lang.Runnable {
    /** Creates new form Ex2Thread */
    public Ex2Thread() {
        aPanel = new javax.swing.JPanel();
        aLabel = new javax.swing.JLabel();
        setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(50, 110));
        add(aPanel);
        aPanel.add(aLabel);
        pack();
        start();
    }
    /** Start when browser is loaded or button pushed. **/
    private void start() {
        if (fThread == null){
            fThread = new java.lang.Thread (this);
            fThread.start();
        }
    } // start
    /** The thread loops to draw each frame.**/
    public void run() {
        j=0;
        // Loop through animation frames
        while ( fThread != null){
            s = mString(j);
            // Sleep 100msecs between frames
            try{
                Thread.sleep (100);
                aLabel.setIcon(new javax.swing.ImageIcon(getClass().getResource(s)));
            }
            catch (InterruptedException e) { }
            // Now go to other frame
            //++j;//
            other();
            isDone();
            //if (this.isDone()) fThread = null;
        }
    }// run ends
    // Your other frame comes here.
    public void other(){
        //
        ++j;
        // Sleep 100msecs between frames
        try{
            Thread.sleep (100);
        }
        catch (InterruptedException e) { }
    }
    // Boolean allows you to terminate this thread, if you like, and go to other tasks.
     // I used it to provide a flag for counting.
     //
    public boolean isDone() {
        boolean temp = false;
        if(j == COUNTS) {
            temp = true;
            j = 0;
        }
    return temp;
    }

    // This method creates strings "Sun0.gif", "Sun1.gif", ..., to "Sun7.gif"
    public String mString(int n){
        String aSt = "";
        aSt = "Sun".concat(java.lang.String.valueOf(n)).concat(".gif");
    return aSt;
    }

    /**
     * Next main
     */
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        new Ex2Thread().setVisible(true);
    }
    // Variables declaration - do not modify
    // For simple GUI
    //
    private javax.swing.JLabel aLabel;
    private javax.swing.JPanel aPanel;
    // Variables declaration - do not modify
    // For thread animation
    int j = 0;
    String s = "";
    Thread fThread;
    final int COUNTS = 8;
    // End of variables declaration
}

Click here to see the application. If you save the "jar" file in your computer you can use "7z" decompression utility to extract source file and image files.
I took small image of "Helios" (Sun personified) in form of an icon. I used the Windows(R) Paint utility and sliced the icon in desired forms. In this way I got eight icons; from "Sun0.gif" to "Sun7.gif". I could make an array of images but I preferred to create a method mString(int n) to fetch the icons one after the other. Then I adjusted my counter from zero to seven to bring images one after another andput them on the java swing label. I could terminate the animation here and go to other jobs by calling isDone() method within the "if" statement and killing the thread; instead of that, I reset my counter back to zero to start it again. I used the isDone() method in a void type fashion. You know in java many boolens can work as void as well without their return value becomes utilized. Hence, I commented the "if" to prevent killing the thread and keep the tick-tack going on and on. If you de-comment this line and comment "j=0; statement" in the isDone() method, then the animation runs only once.
You can also put the "++j" before call to the other() method inside the run() method and then make the call to other() method commented and see the effect. It works but not as smooth as before. Best is to give your clock one tick and one tack; one run() and one other(). Then go and adjust the desired timings inside each state of the run() and the other().

Using Thread in Java to Create Animation, Example 1

2010-04-04T14:15:00.060+01:00

I liked to write a short guide for threads in java. It is because I could not find the existing materials much helpful. None of them dealt with this in a pedagogically clear way. They confuse the reader with materials such as "monitor" and native operating system or by mixing the thread usage with other pieces of a complicate program that deviate the attention to those pieces. Many of them want only to demonstrate an animated program is possible without explaining the thread by itself. Here I use a thread for moving from one image to another image. It is like a "Clock Pulse" or a "tick-tack" When it ticks we have one image when it tacks it shows another image. When the clock pulse is up it shows one image. When the pulse is down it shows the other image. When you use a thread in a java class you should implement java.lang.Runnable() interface. This interface contains the signature for the run() method that you write for your class. You also need a start method start() to initiate a thread. As a counterpart to tick of run() method we need a reset() method for tack of our clock. We need a method that, in case, takes us out of the tick-tack into a place that we become in control of doing other tasks. This is normally a boolean flag that tests something we predicted in a corner of the tick or in a corner of the tack. I do it simple by counting the tick-tacks and after certain number of loops I stop the animation, through that counter or through the flag. The quartet of start() - run() - reset() - flag() is all I need. start(): starts tick-tack; run() and reset(): make the tick-tack runs and runs for ever; flag(): stops the tick-tack to go to other jobs if you like to stop it (it inhibits the clock like the hardware inhibit signal). I cannot change names of the run() and start() but I can change names of the other two. I call my reset() as other() to emphasis its job, to prevent confusing it with inhibit. I call my flag() method as isDone() in fashion of java boolean classes. I do not move anything on the screen to demonstrate animation. I only switch between two still pictures to learn how the thread is working between two states. This facilitate my future progress. I had an icon image, "Bella.gif" I used Windows 7 Microsoft Picture Manager and flipped it horizontally and saved the flipped image as "bellb.gif" Then I switched back and forth between these two images. You can see that, tick and tack are both within a never-ending while loop, as far as the thread is not killed; that is, is not null. We call our flag method isDone() to find a way, or rather to arrange, to terminate that loop, for example, if the bell has done fifty tolls. At that time we put the toll counting back to zero for the next round. Here, I embed my code,

package Forward;

/**
 *
 * author Peter Jones
 */
// I do not extend java.lang.Thread, I'd rather to implement java.lang.Runnable to be more straight forward
public class Ex1aThread extends javax.swing.JFrame implements java.lang.Runnable{

    /** Creates new "form" Ex1bThread */
    public Ex1aThread() {
        aPanel = new javax.swing.JPanel();
        aLabel = new javax.swing.JLabel();

        setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(50, 110));
        add(aPanel);
        aPanel.add(aLabel);
        pack();
        // I start a thread just after packing.
        // I could start it from a button or a mouse click
        // or any other event
        start();
    }


    /** Start when browser is loaded or button pushed. **/
    public final void start() {
        // if thread is not active start it
        if (fThread == null){
            fThread = new java.lang.Thread (this);
            fThread.start();
        }
    } // start

    /** The thread loops to draw each frame.**/
    public void run() {
        //  Loop through animation frames
        while ( fThread != null){
            //  Sleep 100msecs between frames
            // Change this value for smoothness
            try{
                Thread.sleep (100);
                // I am counting number of loops
                ++bellTolls;
                // in each loop I "refresh" image icon of the label
                aLabel.setIcon(new javax.swing.ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("Bella.gif")));
            }
            catch  (InterruptedException e) { }
            //  Now go to other frame
            other();
            //  I check if bell tolls fifty times I kill fThread by making it null
            if (this.isDone())  fThread = null;
        }
    }// run ends
 
    //  Your other frame comes here.
    public void other(){
        //  Sleep 100msecs between frames
        // Change this value for smoothness
        try{
            Thread.sleep (100);
            // in each loop I "refresh" image icon of the label to other image
            aLabel.setIcon(new javax.swing.ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("Bellb.gif")));
        }
        catch  (InterruptedException e) { }

     }

    /*  Boolean allows you to terminate this thread, if you like, and go to other tasks.
     *  I used it to provide a flag for counting. Bell stops after fifty tolls.
     *  The true flag kills the thread, returns the counter to zero to be ready
     */
    public boolean isDone() {
        boolean temp=false;
        //COUNTS is assumed fifty times.
        if(bellTolls==COUNTS) {
            temp=true;
            // I reset the toll counting
            bellTolls=0;
        }
        // returning true kills the fThread
        return temp;
    }

    //
    //  Next main
    //
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        new Ex1aThread().setVisible(true);
    }

    //  Variables declaration - do not modify
    //  For simple GUI
    //
    private javax.swing.JLabel aLabel;
    private javax.swing.JPanel aPanel;

    //  Variables declaration - do not modify
    //  For thread animation
    //
    Thread fThread;
    int bellTolls=0; // this is toll counter
    final int COUNTS=50;
    //  End of variables declaration
}

Click here to see the application. Ifyou save the "jar" file in your computer you can use "7z" decompression utility to extract source file and image file.
I have created a Java Swing Ex1Thread.java class to put my animation over it. That Swing comes in the constructor "public Ex1Thread { bloh, bloh, bloh, ...}" up to the line that we see start(). start() method is invoked after packing the Swing frame by pack() method. Up to this point we do not concentrate on given codes. They are already part of our knowledge. From start() the thread task starts. By putting the start() in the constructor we have started our thread from the point that the class becomes created. (That is the reason for modifying start() as a final or as private method. Had we called it somewhere out of the constructor it simply could override the interface. Ignore these details here.) It is easy to start it from other points in the program, for instance, from action of a button. Other tutorials have done it from a button, but it is confusing since we encounter with event dispatching, then. To prove my control over the threads, in the next example I interrupt between tick-tacks with a third thread such that I have a tick-talk-tack. In this fashion I can manage as many threads in my hand. Here, I embed my code,

package Forward;

/**
 *
 * author Peter Jones
 */
public class Ex1bThread extends javax.swing.JFrame implements java.lang.Runnable{

    /** Creates new form Ex1bThread */
    public Ex1bThread() {

        aPanel = new javax.swing.JPanel();
        aLabel = new javax.swing.JLabel();

        setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(50, 110));
        add(aPanel);
        aPanel.add(aLabel);
        pack();
        start();
    }

    /** Start when browser is loaded or button pushed. **/
    public final void start() {
        if (fThread == null){
            fThread = new java.lang.Thread (this);
            fThread.start();
        }
    } // start

    /** The thread loops to draw each frame.**/
    public void run() {
        //  Loop through animation frames
        while ( fThread != null){
            //  Sleep 100msecs between frames
            // Change its value to adjust its smoothness.
            try{
                Thread.sleep (100);
                ++bellTolls;
                aLabel.setIcon(new javax.swing.ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("Bella.gif")));
            }
            catch  (InterruptedException e) { }
            //  Now go to other frame
            other();
            //To appreciate that you can invoke many threads as easy as one
            //create a third thread to interrupt between tick and tack
            anOther();
            if (this.isDone())  fThread = null;
        }
    }// run ends
 
    //  Your other frame comes here.
    public void other(){
        //  Sleep 100msecs between frames
        // Change its value to adjust its smoothness.
        try{
            Thread.sleep (100);
            aLabel.setIcon(new javax.swing.ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("Bellb.gif")));
        }
        catch  (InterruptedException e) { }

     }

    //  Your yet another frame comes here.
    // It is t he third thread comes interrupting inthe middle of tick tack
    public void anOther(){
        //  Sleep 100msecs between frames
        // Change its value to adjust its smoothness.
        try{
            Thread.sleep (100);
            aLabel.setIcon(new javax.swing.ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("Sun.gif")));
        }
        catch  (InterruptedException e) { }

     }

    /*  Boolean allows you to terminate this thread, if you like, and go to other tasks.
     *  I used it to provide a flag for counting. Bell stops after fifty tolls.
     *  The true flag kills the thread, returns the counter to zero to be ready
     */
    public boolean isDone() {
        boolean temp=false;
        if(bellTolls==COUNTS) {
            temp=true;
            bellTolls=0;
        }
        return temp;
    }
    
    //
    //  Next main
    //
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        new Ex1bThread().setVisible(true);
    }

    //  Variables declaration - do not modify
    //  For simple GUI
    //
    private javax.swing.JLabel aLabel;
    private javax.swing.JPanel aPanel;

    //  Variables declaration - do not modify
    //  For thread animation
    //
    Thread fThread;
    int bellTolls=0;
    final int COUNTS=50;
    //  End of variables declaration

}

Click here to see the application. I put a Helios (personified Sun) between bell tolls. It is done by invoking the method anOther()

Google Webmaster Tools for Microsoft Office Live

2010-03-17T12:33:00.010Z

How can you add your site to Google search engine?
Microsoft Office Live is a generous hosting free tool from Microsoft to put your domain there. It has its own editor for the page that you like to create based on their standards, all "aspx" files. It also includes its own tracking system and reports for analysing traffic on your site. If you want to add pages of your own creation, then you should upload them to Documents gallery of Microsoft Office Live and then you add a "/Documents/yourpage.html" to the URL of your site, like this, "http://www.yoursite.com/Documents/yourpage.html" I use the "aspx" for my pages hence my pages are like this, "/Documents/mypage.aspx" Some people, like me, are keen to use Google Webmaster Tools for further information on their sites. To that end, first your site should be verified by Google Tools. For using Google Webmasters Tools and verification you need to have an account in Google. That is possible by a hotmail account or a googlemail account. One can use either of them. You automatically have that account if you are using the Google Blogger (with an hotmail account it is possible to create a Google Blogger). Once you had that account then you are able to sign into the Google Webmaster Tools (GWT). After logging into the GWT please click on "Add a site" button and give your website URL in the text field that appears after clicking. Google Webmaster Tools goes to a next step for "verification" of your website. At that stage, it gives this instruction: "Copy the meta tag below, and paste it into your site's home page. It should go in the <head> section, before the first <body> section." You need to do that for your home page. There is a way that you can put that meta tag, something like this, <meta name="google-site-verification" content="hfxUPa-C1mRTlTS0f_Z45dFZ_8bCUBjHtNy5Z1upn3A" /> in a Microsoft Office Live hosted "home page." (That long string for your site would be different from mine.) When you are editing your website on Microsoft Office Live, it opens an editor as "Microsoft Office Live Small Business Web Design Tool." In that editor, there are two tabs: "Page Editor" and "Site Designer." Select "Page Editor" tab. In the far right, at the top, there is an "Advanced" pane. Still, in the right side of that pane, there are three icons stacked at the top of each other. Click the middle one. When you hover on it, its tool tip shows "Change page title, Navigation order, Meta tags." If you click here, it opens your Home page "Properties" dialogue. Upon opening the "Properties Dialogue" it shows two tabs, "Page Settings" and "Search Engine Optimization." Choose the second one. In the "Search Engine Optimization," there are two panes, two text areas at the top of each other. Paste the Google meta tag into the top one, that is, in the "Keyword metatags." You should change your meta tag to html readable metatags, like this %20 %3Cmeta name=%22google-site-verification%22 content=%22hfxUPa-C1mRTlTS0f_Z45dFZ_8bCUBjHtNy5Z1upn3A%22%3E%20 This is called URL encoding. You cannot use normal HTML tags. You have to use ASCII codes with a "%" sign before them. For example a blank space is shown by "%20" Read more here about them. Then click on "Apply" button and then "OK" As you noticed this is the "Properties" dialogue of your home page, therefore you can bring it, alternatively, by going to Microsoft Office Live Small Business Web Site Page Manager page and in front of your Home page click on "properties" link. If you are designing a page, on your own HTML codes, simply put that metatag after <HEAD> of your HTML that you are uploading to the documents gallery, much easier. Anyway, after these operations, go back to Google Webmaster Tools and click on "Verify" When verification becomes complete click on the name of your site, it takes you to your dashboard. Here, one can find different search items. At the bottom right of the dashboard you can find the place that you can submit your sitemap. It is necessary that the site map to be written on a note pad and saved as a UTF-8 file with extension ".xml" as "Sitemap.xml" and then to be uploaded to "Documents Gallery" of Microsoft Office Live of yours. It has such a structure:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
<loc>http://messiahpsychoanalyst.org/</loc>
<lastmod>2010-03-15</lastmod>
<changefreq>Monthly</changefreq>
<priority>0.8</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://messiahpsychoanalyst.org/Documents/ceramics.aspx</loc>
<lastmod>2010-03-15</lastmod>
<changefreq>Weekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.8</priority>
</url>
</urlset >
My website is http://www.messiahpsychoanalyst.org/. Yours could by "http://www.your&site.com/" (hosted on Microsoft Office Live) But notice that in the sitemap.xml I have removed "www" It is due to the fact that when you click on "Submit sitemap" in the Google Webmaster Tools the place holder for the URL of your site has got the URL by default as http://your&site.com/ and there is a text field in front of it where one needs to type "Documents/Sitemap.xml" and then follows the instructions after. If you do not remove "www" from "Sitemap.xml" an inconsistency will happens with errors. In the above Sitemap.xml I have put only two pages. You can repeat it for as many pages as you have. Please note the format of date items. That should be, yyyy-mm-dd. Other formats create error for Google crawlers. When you are creating pages, it is good to paste the meta tag given by the Google Webmaster Tools inside the "Head" part of each page.

Removing the Virus Called "Security Tool" Malware

2010-02-14T17:09:00.000Z

This is a very annoying malware using the deceptive name "Security Tool" and installs itself forcefully and without informed permission of yours, into your computer on an inadvertent "click" that you might do somewhere in the Internet. This happens for many average users surfing around the free music sites, vulnerable to "ClickJacking". It creates a shield icon that looks like the Windows(R) protection shield but it is not possible to "right-click" it. The malware hijacks the desktop and prevents the Task Manager to open. As much as you select it to "Continue" or "Abort" it keeps popping up preventing any work to be done on computer. It gives a list of non-existing defects with your computer to urge you to buy some fixing software product. It paralyses all the malware removal and anti-virus software that you might have in your computer. There are solutions for removing it from Windows XP on the Internet. None of them mention anything about removing it from a Windows 7. If your Windows 7 is infected with this malware you should restart your Windows 7 in the "Safe Mode" or "Safe Mode with Networking" by pressing "F8" button immediately after BIOS loading finished. By pressing "F8" the booting menu of Windows appears waiting for you to select your desired "Safe Mode." After booting in the safe mode, the malware does not work and you can do tasks around. Open Windows 7 explorer. Go to toolbar option "Tool" and select "Folder Options" from its menu. in the dialogue window click on "View" tab. Down under "Advanced settings" there is a "File and Folders" setting and then a "Hidden files and folders" with two options shown as "radio buttons." Select "Show hidden files, folders and drives." Now click on "Apply" button at the bottom of the "dialogue window" and then on "OK" Now double click on your operating system hard disk (normally C:\ drive). In that you can find a "Program Data" folder. Open that folder and you can find a folder with a number as its name, such as "24849027" Open this folder and find an EXE file with the same name as "24849027.exe" Now delete this file. Then go back and delete its folder too. Then go at other places such as desktop and "Start" menu and find the carcasses of its shortcuts and right-click on them and remove the short cut. Shortcuts lose their original icon after delete of EXE file. Now restart the Windows 7 in "normal mode." That annoying malware has been disappeared. Please note that you do not need to download and install any additional software for this task.

Three Dimensions: Where did they come from?

2009-12-19T12:10:00.000Z

Though it makes me far from the objective of these blogs, as one reader has contacted me regarding the previous comment and has asked me this question I add this short comment here. How man understood that he is living in a three dimension space? It is from builders experience since the ancient time. To build a wall straight we use a piece of heavy plumb and string. To make a floor straight what do we need? A flat floor means for us that water do not flow on any direction on it. It is enough to check only two directions on the floor among infinite directions. It is easier to take those two direction perpendicular, in right angle, to each other. Builders do it by fixing two straightened perpendicular string drawn on two sides of a floor. With these three string we can build a room with straight walls and flat floor. We never need more than that and these tree strings in a corner create a 3-dimensional Cartesian coordinates system for the room, for the space that we live in. Further if you make each of these floor strings in right angle to the string of plumb, then the water will not flow in any direction on the floor. Floor will be "leveled," as it is said. If the floor is small compared with the radius of earth it is consistent with water flow. This floor made by perpendicular to the line of the plumb is actually a surface tangent to the sphere of the earth at the point where the tip of the plumb touches the earth and if it becomes larger in lengths then the water will flow to the tip of the plumb from all directions. It is equivalent of a pendulum, indeed. In imagination, one can use it in ocean for converting very tall water waves, to re-wind up the damping pendulum every now and then, to electrical energy. Locally, it is said, surface of the earth is a collection of these small flat surfaces. Intrinsic geometry of the earth surface can be studied with these two dimensions. This floor also is called to be a chart at the touching point of the plumb. Earth surface is a collection or an atlas of these local charts many of them folded together in the atlas. Hence the earth surface is a manifold.
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(c) Copyrighted materials, Copy rights, Peter Jones December 2009.

A Decimal Calendar

2009-12-14T13:46:00.002Z

I have created a decimal calendar. One might ask what do I mean by a decimal calendar. Making things decimal started from the time of French Revolution. They wanted to change everything to a sacrilegious, scientific and inspired by the enlightenment movement in modern philosophy. They knew the most natural and easy type of division and multiplication can be done if all numbers be in radix or base of ten, using only ten symbol for counting, based on the fingers on a human hands. Before that the roman scales and measures with differences were used in the world. Things such as pound or yard or mile. First they decided to make a right angle from ninety degree to hundred units and they called it hundred grads. So round a circle becomes four hundred grads. And any circle round the earth, including the equator circle, will also be four hundred grads. Then they divided a quarter of that great circle of equator in fractions of ten until it became near the size of a yard. To do that one should divide that right angle length into ten million. They created a rod of platinum in that size and called it one meter. They created units of decimal fractions of one meter and units of decimal multiplication of one meter. They made a cube of water with length at each edge equal to one tenth of meter (one decimeter) and called it one kilogram and made a platinum block of that weight as the new standard. One gram is a cube of water one centimeter in each edge.
Division of a circle into 360 degrees is due to Babylonians. They noticed that the sun rotating round the earth in three hundred and sixty days and night to go back to its last year position in heaven at the dawn. They recognized it was more than that a bit, but 360 had all the divisors from one to ten except seven, and it was good enough. They could not find a number that can add seven to other divisors and be near to 365 solar days. That brought the idea from ancient time that seven should be a sacred number exempted from being a divisor and an exception to that celestial rule. Babylonian further divided each degree of 360 degree into sixty "minutes" and each minute into sixty "seconds" for further precision of their calculations. They had to do calculations in cumbersome 60 radix. To reward the resilience of seven they created "Week" which is "Seven" solar days and seven got its own and unique position of honour among the "ten" numbers.
French revolution could not change number of solar days to 400 days and make the calendar decimal. They wanted to make things more precise not less. Hence, they left it as before. Day is divided into twenty four hours in accordance to idea of Babylonian such that each quarter of day be six hours and each hour be sixty minutes and each minutes be sixty seconds.
As astronomers were dealing with solar 365 days they were reluctant to abandon 360 degrees and adopt the French revolution 400 grads and its decimal fractions. Changing astronomical and naval tables and charts of the world at that time was a formidable task if not impossible. Geometers and trigonometers who were actually workers of astronomers also followed the old Babylonian style of 360 degrees for the circle. Most of the times they even do not need that and they use an intrinsic measure of angles called "radian." Still, all the calculators and computer programs are able to work with any of these three units of angles, though rarely one might find "grad" of any usage.
In my decimal calendar I have not divided the year into 400. I have divided it into twenty months. Each season has five months and year is consistent with real solar day from spring equinox to next spring equinox. Further I have divided each solar day into 20 hours instead of twenty four hours. Then I have divided each hour into 100 minutes and each minuets into 100 seconds. Hence my minutes and seconds are shorter and more consistent with modern usage of more precision in time. In this way each solar day is equal to 200000 seconds of my proposed clock instead of difficult to remember, 86400 seconds of conventional clock. You see in sports, for instance, that many fractions will not need to be used anymore in this way. I also created a five days "Week" that consolidate the sacred day of Christians -Sunday-, Judaism -Saturday-, and Moslems -Friday- in a single common day.
You can download a decimal clock of mine from my Google Code page, or click here. There is also a software for conversion of Gregorian to Decimal calendar for dates after spring of 2000, at the same place, or click here. You can see the length of each months and more details of the calendar by clicking here.

Tuning Google Analytic for Microsoft Office Live

2009-12-01T11:20:00.001Z

I found it more convenient to create an xsl style page rather than using the code lines offered on the dialogue of Office Live "Custom footer." In this way if I need some modification I modify the xsl file on my own computer and then I delete the old xsl file in the Office Live Document Gallery and I upload the new modified file in its place. I do not need to do anything on the web design. The new style automatically comes on-line. It is a good side that you do things on your own computer and then you upload them. Some people say that why the Microsoft Office Live has not its own editor and you have to delete the document and upload it again. Well, in this way I have the choice of using my own favourite editor rather than an imposed editor. I have seen when the Web Hosting Sites offer their own editors. Frequently the compiled result is not what you expect and what you intend and you have to tune things again and again. The HTML does not follow concisely the visual, for instance. You need to do much hacking. So it is better to have them in your computer with your own editor. Perhaps on the good old "notepad." For example, on the advice of Google Analytic I changed the previous style page to following
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
<xsl:output method="text" omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<![CDATA[
<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXXXXX-X");
pageTracker._setDomainName(".messiahpsychoanalyst.org");
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}
</script>
]]>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
The modified part is in bolface letters. I used my own website domain ".messiahpsychoanalyst.org" by dropping "www" from the web address. I did that such that Google Analytic can track the inner pages of my website, too.

Google Analytic for Microsoft Office Live

2009-11-26T21:41:00.001Z

I wondered how I can put tracking code of Google Analytic on a website designed on Microsoft Small Business Live. I found that I needed an xsl style file to embed inside my home page. I copied the tracking code offered by the Google Analytic. It is like this; it is java script:
<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXXXXX-X");
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}
</script>
In the statement "UA-XXXXXXXX-X" the letter "X" stands for the numbers given by the Google Analytic profile for the desired website. Then I put this piece of code inside an xsl document like this
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
<xsl:output method="text" omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<![CDATA[
<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXXXXX-X");
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}
</script>
]]>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
The Google Analytic codes are shown as boldface fonts inside the xls template. I put this in a notepad and saved it as, say, aStyle.xsl. The extension .xsl should not be forgotten and the file format is in UTF_8. Then I upload it to my "Documents Gallery" at my Microsoft Office Live website designing console.
Now I go to my "Page Manager" page in my Microsoft Office Live console and click on "Edit" for my home page. When the "Home Page" opens in "Edit" mode I notice two tabs. I select "Page Editor" tab. There, at the top from the "Insert" pane I click on the second icon with a drop down menu; it is the "Insert Module" menu. I move the highlight down until I get to "Custom footer." On selecting this a dialogue opens. There is an option for "Link to an xslt file" and a "Select file" button. If select this option then it takes you directly to the "Documents gallery" where you already had uploaded your file. You can point to the mentioned "aStyle.xsl" file. If look at the zone that you have selected for the tracking "footer" you can see a dashed border area. That does not show anything in your site. It is merely, the Google tracking snippet resided there. Now go to your Google Analytic and follow their instructions. It immediately informs you of being successful in installing the tracker.

Boot Loaders

2009-07-25T18:47:00.000+01:00

That XOSL loader with all success is not much stable and might start to oscillate between GRUB sector and XOSL sector. That is due to the fact that it is inside an extended partition at the beginning of the disk. That is less likely and less devastating if the extended partition was after primary partitions. A good observation is to go to Windows disk manager and delete the extended unstable partition and create a primary partition instead of that and formatted as NTFS. You become surprised that GRUB will disappear and in its place XOSL safely has kept its place at the beginning of hard disk and works perfectly loading any other bootable NTFS partition on the disk. You can open physical disk by a hex editor and see that affirmatively XOSL files still are there un-deleted, and un-touched. It is not at a place that through a simple reformating gets lost. XOSL is a nice small piece of software and can cosily reside at its snugging home that it has built at its installation and you cannot get rid of it that easily. What does it remind, then? This observation gets to the idea by some users that XOSL is a virus software. Well, it is not the case. But study of its source code is useful for people who are learners for developing anti-virus software against boot-sector-residenting malwares.I could sum it up for me that if I use only different flavours of Microsoft operating systems on the same machine it is wise to follow the procedures of Microsoft as they are well documented by Microsoft and if I use UNIX types only or mixed with Windows I can use GRUB. I know that Solaris of Sun Microsystem manages that automatically, if you follow their Big Admin procedure for multi-booting. Remains no place for good old XOSL.

XOSL: Use or not to Use?

2009-07-19T15:33:00.001+01:00

A simple answer is no. XOSL has been expired in terms of being fashionable anymore. Nobody took that fallen bearing after its original developer. Well, open sources mean “with no guarantee.” But actually it is not the case. That slogan is for legal formalism. I do not believe that a responsible developer means by that phrase that he has created a “crap” application. Open source developers are always around, eagerly waiting for reporting bugs from potential end-users and happy to answer their questions and helping them. One way of becoming rich and a reputable corporate owner or highly demanded employee is to develop high quality, open source, free products. But if a day comes that they say, “Well, now we have some other business and do not have a time to take care of our open product and nobody is interested to continue professionally to support our free applications," then after a certain period of time one cannot and should not use that goods anymore. It is only good for gaining experience, gaining familiarity with some principle or historical background. After that, one should go to living products with the developers around to interact in case. This is why I leave XOSL and go to GRUB boot loader. My XOSL worked fine from the within of an extended partition on a logical partition there and could load a GRUB boot loader for a Linux “Debian” flavour “ex2” partition.

Writing GParted GRUB Menu

2009-07-06T22:47:00.002+01:00

To write the menu for the GRUB we have to invoke a text editor and write the menu.lst file. “Debian” command line has the “nano” editor, same as “pico” Hence, I can use either name. At the command prompt I enter “pico /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst” When the editor opens I write down the following lines. I am careful not to leave spce after end of each line and not a line skipped between line. Only between each section I leave a line. each section starts with the phrase, “title”
default 0
title GParted live
root (hd0,0)
kernel /live/vmlinuz1 toram boot=live union=aufs noswap noprompt vga=normal ip=frommedia
initrd /live/initrd1.img
boot

title CDROM
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/grub/memdisk
initrdl /boot/grub/sbootmgr.dsk

kernel is the core of each operating system loaded to do house keeping jobs such as delegating jobs to the the hardware and doing their requests. initrd job is to intialize physical memory of computer that is to put the image of operating system in RAM. This image is called the system and its job is to boot or make the computer live. I remember that I had the required files “memdisk” and “sbootmgr.dsk” on my customized GParted ISO. I use the copy command
“cp –pf /live/image/memdisk /mnt/boot/grub/memdisk” and
“cp –pf /live/image/sbootmgr.dsk /mnt/boot/grub/sbootmgr.dsk” to copy these two files into the grub boot file. They load GParted from the GParted CD instead of GParted hard disk partition if I opt to. Let me tell you I can add more sections to this grub menu to load any further operating system from GParted partition and add a nice splash to the menu with cool listing and get rid of XOSL! So why not? It is because I do experiment with tools to become more efficient.

Java FX: A new cool platform for developing rich web applications

2009-06-28T22:08:00.001+01:00

It is a while that Java FX platform is available. Already it was part of the NetBeans IDE bundle downloads until it became gradually independent, though one can download it with a NetBeans IDE attached independently designated for developing Java FX or as a plug-in into the newer versions of NetBeans. Now the platform is on its feet and can be used as a platform for its own. I liked this new tool since

I could learn its basic lessons in a morning
I need only a day to learn advanced features such as animation. Actually this feature is the only part that a Java programmer needs to concentrate.
The language takes me back to all memories of C programming days as I notice structure and enumeration and unions have had a comeback from java to C grand-parents.
Ease of using is similar to using Basic programming at its first emergence after horrible punch card programming era.
NetBeans IDE allows me to exploit all the java capabilities, besides the new elegant Java FX.
Events handling Listeners and Adapters are more friendly in FX than Java programming. That is the case with implementing Abstract classes too.

Still, I could not find documentations of classes for Java FX. Also in java projects that one is doing in NetBeans IDE, the IDE does not show the Java classes documents neither for pure Java nor for Java FX. I believe gradually I will use the Java FX platform for most of my work. That animation experience makes it more desirable and faster to be used.

Creating Partition on Virtual Box

2009-06-27T16:59:00.001+01:00

After finishing on creating partition, it is a good idea to roam around “Debian” and become used to its environment. Just enter “ls” to get a list of facilities that I got on the root. if I enter “ls /sbin” I’ll get a list of loads of utilities available for me. One is “mke2fs” that creates Ext2 file system for Linux partition. I can remember that I liked to install permanently a GParted on an extended logical partition at the beginning of my hard disk. I enter “mke2fs –L GParted /dev/hda6” at the command prompt. It does its job and creates a Linux partition on my hda6 logical device. I use option “–L GParted” to have a volume label for my partition, besides. I notice always to keep the required blank spaces. before and after that option in the command and after “L”. Now I run an “–pfv e2fsck /dev/hda6” to have some expert information about my logical device. Again those switches help me to keep things under control and unattended. I should plan everything ahead and leave them to be done without having been around to watch them. At the end I can read the report or any log file to find out what has gone. So “unattended but verbose” is desired. Now it is time to “mount” the logical partition on a directory. I can create any directory that I like, but already there is a directory in “Debian” for that: it is “/mnt” directory on the root. I enter “mount /dev/hda6 /mnt”. At times it is necessary to use “mount –t ext2 /dev/hda6 /mnt” to explicitly guide the commands to the type of mounted partition. Now, everything is fresh and clean and I do not need to do that. I have the device mounted now I start to install my own image and directories. I follow advise of GParted site. I should decompress GParted.zip into the root of “/mnt”. I should find the place of “unzip” command and gparted .zip on the CD image that right now I have live on the RAM disk space. If I enter just “ls” I see a “live” folder in the list. I enter “cd live” that takes my inside the “live” directory. There I have two folders: “cow” and “image” I enter “cd image” Here is the list of all files and folders that I put when I was creating my custom GParted CD ROM. Among them now I need gparted.zip and “unzip”. They are here. Now I follow GParted website command but I should have all paths in commands. Alternatively I can copy these two files to the root of “Debian live RAM” I enter “/live/image/unzip /live/image/gparted.zip –d /mnt”. I note that I should repeat the complete path for each file and folder and unzip is completely case sensitive. Switch “ – d” shows the directory of installation. I did whatever GParted advised. From here, or at the root I check “ls /mnt” and find out every thing is as it should. I have “COPYING” file at the root. From now on it works on the hard disk but now I am in a logical partition and have other plans hence I need a “GRUB” for loading this device from “XOSL” I go into the root and enter “mkdir /mnt/boot” That creates the required “/boot” directory for installing “GRUB”. Then I enter “/sbin/grub-install ––no-floppy ––root-directory=/mnt /dev/hda6 ” Switch –no-floppy shows that I do not use a floppy for loading “—root-directory=/mnt is the place that “GRUB” finds its “/boot” directory as already created and ready and at the end we have installing device. Usually “GRUB” gives a warning about “device.map” that should be ignored. I can inspect “ls /mnt/boot/grub” for installed folders. It is better to sort out things by invoking GRUB command environment by entering “sudo grub” There at the “grub>” prompt, I enter “find /bbot/grub/stage1” It replies “(hd0,5)” It is in the brackets and I know that it means the partition number 6 (5+1) on the device number 1 (=0+1). Grub counts from zero rather than one. Then at the “grub>” prompt I enter “root (hd0,5)” It replies “file system type is ext2fs, partition type ex83” both have the same meaning. Then I enter “setup (hd0,5)” It gives few lines of message and news of successful installation. Then I enter “quit” and back to “Debian” command prompt. So far so good. Now remains to edit the “menu.lst” of GRUbB and a nice splash for it.

Creating Partitions on Virtual Disks

2009-06-20T17:05:00.001+01:00

After those calculations, I have better idea of what going on in hypothetical geometry of hard disks. Now I open my xVM virtualBox. I create a “New” machine. For operating system I select “Other.” For the Version, I select “other,” for version. I select a new virtual hard disk for it as much as 16Gb. I mount my custom made GParted.iso as CD on the “Other” machine and then I start the machine. It boots from GParted.iso. I select the second row from the GParted menu, to be able to un-mount the CD if I opt to. Then I select the default key map of GParted. And finally I select the language from the language menu. After that a menu loads that ask me for three options: [0], [1], and [2]. I select [2] to take me to the GParted “Debian” command. Then I type “fdisk /dev/hda” at the prompt and then “enter.” It gives number of cylinders C=33288, and usual Linux warning on exceeding C=1024 and then subcommands for “fdisk” comes as “command (m for help).” If I type “m” and then “enter” a list of available commands and at the bottom “x” for expert commands. I type “x” and “enter.” A sub-subcommand comes for expert commands. In this if I type “m” and “enter” another list comes for available expert sub-subcommands. Now I type “c” to change number of cylinders and “enter.” A prompt offers me possible number of cylinders from 1 to 33288. I type 2088 as my previous calculations show. It accepts. Then I type “s” to confirm number of sectors. I can change it for adventure but not for work. I select the default S=63 without any change by typing 63 at the prompt and “enter.” Then I type “h” and “enter” to change heads. It offers me from one to 255 and default 16. I type 255 for H=255 and “enter.” At the next prompt I type “r” to go back to “fdisk” non-expert subcommand prompt. To do my partitions I type “n” and “enter.” It asks me with a help menu “type e for extended” and “type p for primary.” I enter “e” Then it asks me for partition number (1-4). Here I adventure to put the extended partition at the beginning of the disk contrary to usual practice that puts it at the end. I enter “1” Then it asks me for the size. It asks me for beginning cylinder by offering (1 to 2088). Here I get confirmation that my calculated scheme is under way. I enter “1” and then for the end of extended partition I enter “40” I leave 2048 cylinder for two XP side by side. Then again I enter “n” This time it offers me “l for logical partition” since we cannot have any more extended partition but we can have only logical partitions inside the extended partition. I enter “p” and it asks me for partition number (2 to 4). I select “2” This time it offers 41 for beginning of partition as default that I accept by entering for the end of partition I type 1064 (=40+1024) I confine number of cylinder to its maximum of 1024. I repeat the procedure for the last partition from 1065 to 2088. Then again I enter “n” - what for this time? to create logical partitions inside extended partition. At the next menu, I enter “l” for logical partition. It offers me to select a number (5 and greater) since logical partitions at any situation begin from 5. I enter “5” Then It asks for the beginning that I enter default cylinder “1” and for the end I enter “3” This is my XOSL partition, 24Mb. I cannot have less than this. I repeat the procedure for second logical partition that keeps my customized GParted from cylinder 4 to cylinder 40 in partition “6”. Now I have four partitions ready. I type “a” at the “fdisk” subcommand to make GParted partition bootable. It asks me for the partition number (1 to 6). I enter “6”. To be sure of my operation I enter “p” It gives a list of my partition with their number of cylinders as “/dev/hda1” –the extended partition, “/dev/hda2” – the first primary, “/dev/hda3”, as the other primary, “/dev/hda5” first logical and at last “/dev/hda6” the other logical partition. I can see a “*” is next to “/dev/hda6” showing that it is bootable. I enter “w” to save the partition table and come out of the “fdisk” subcommand.

Installing GParted and XOSL

2009-06-16T17:00:00.000+01:00

In xVM virtual Box I mount the enhanced GParted.iso I prepared as I explained here, and then I start the machine. It loads GParted from ISO image. I continue on defaults of GParted, but for the last stage when it gives me a choice of command line, as choice [2]. After loading the "Debian" commandline, at the prompt I type "fdisk" and then "return". It gives a usage of "fdisk" command. I type "fdisk /dev/hda". It finds the virtual hard disk and describes its specifications. It gives usual warning of Linux regarding violation of 1024 cylinders limit. For this writting I selected a virtual hard disk of some 16Gb. "fdisk" recognizes a default H=16, S=63 and number of cylinders C=33288. This creates later problems for me if I do not correct them. Each cylinder now contains 1008 blocks, each block 512 bytes gives a total of 0.5Mb capacity for each cylinder. I should have an 8Mb capacity for each cylinder. If I keep S=63 and increase H to H=255 then number of cylinders will be 33288/(255/16) or 33288x16/255 which is roughly C=2088 and each cylinder contains SxHx512=63x255x512=8225280 bytes or some 8Mb of data.

Geometry of Hard Disk

2009-06-14T13:30:00.000+01:00

Two weeks I did not write in this Blog. I am preparing a website here. I needed to become used to the Microsoft Office Live tools and editing the files and uploading and changing backgrounds. Now I am smoothly on the track. Hopefully that site includes very interesting pieces regarding hardware and assembly codes and this Blog remains for general tuning of computer and similar ideas. I was talking about the structure of hard disk. Their technology constantly is changing to reduce the size, to reduce access time for retrieving each piece of data, or in other words to increase the speed of data retrieve. At the same time it is desirable to increase the amount of data that one can put on a hard disk. There are also other goals such as reducing the noise created by hard disk and improve its mechanical features such as ambient compatibility and positioning of a working hard disk in different orientations. BIOS of computer and operating system talk with the embedded software of the hard disk and from that point on we do not know how that software handles data that I give to my computer to be saved. Hard disk takes my data and with all honesty keep them and gives them back to me. For that software all of my data are in form of bytes next to each other. It is like the RAM of computer: there is no cylinder or head or anything. From the time of corporate mainframe computers with their stacks of disks we have data organization in form of a three dimensional space. At each point "head" should stop, read the data and after passing certain time move to another point. While moving it cannot read anything. Normally people understand that a cylinder is a solid object. This is not meaning of a cylinder. A cylinder is only the outer surface of a solid cylinder similar to a pipe with no pith. A solid cylinder object is like many pipes, thousands, smaller inside the larger. I can address each pipe or cylinder by counting from the most outer and larger pipe to the most inner narrower pipe. Each disk in our imaginary stack of disks has two sides for putting data: top and bottom. On each side we have an imaginary head. Actually a real hard disk has two disks, called platter with four heads, but these are not our concern. For partitioning practice I assume that I have 128 disks each two heads (two sides), a total of 256 heads. I further assume that the most bottom disk has not a bottom disk and therefore no head. that reduces heads to 255 at the end. Hence, H=255. That gives address to find one side of an imaginary disk. cylinders on each disk can be seen as circular track of a CD ROM. Then I should navigate around over that side. I divide that similar to a pizza or a pie. Normally, you do it by make it half and then half again and further until you get small portions. For hard disk, small portions are called "sector." It is standard to continue to make half until we get 64 sectors; six times halving, one after the other. They are counted from "zero" to 63 included, 64 all together. Hence, S=63. One does not change this default, except to commit him to some adventures not utilizing partitions for daily work. the last thing remains for me to decide that on a specific sector on a specific head how many cylinders, inside each other, I need. With the scheme that I have had so far each of my cylinders contain roughly 8Mb of data. From that I can decide for number of cylinders. For safe experience I never exceed C=1024 cylinder, or around 8Gb. But for real works, I do not care much about these things and allow GParted or Windows or Solaris or other software manage these tasks.

Utilizing Virtual Box

2009-05-31T15:45:00.000+01:00

I have the GParted.iso image saved somewhere in my computer and want to test it and become familiar with it. I have not burnt it yet to a CD ROM. I open my xVM VirtualBox and mount this ISO image on it by browsing to its saved folder. These all intuitively can be done. Then I start my virtual machine. I already had selected "Other" as name of machine to remember that type of my virtual machine is unspecified. When machine starts it automatically finds the mounted image and then GParted loads. I find it better to use graphical default GParted for a non-partitioned hard disk. In GParted GUI menu I create these partitions: first an extended 2GB second a primary 9Gb and third a primary 9Gb. I create three logical partition inside the first extended partition: first a 16Mb FAT16 for XOSL (it comes as 24Mb) then an ex2 logical with 250Mb capacity and remaining FAT32 for Freedos. I format next primary partition with NTFS for my first XP Windows. I leave the last partition for later. That I selected extended partition as first partition was to overpower myths regarding "first partition" usage. GParted promise is that that its partitions are rounded to "cylinder" but I cannot rely on that due to the fact that in its GUI I could not find any option for selecting number of heads. When you normalise the geometry of the partition and read CHS (Cylinder, Head, Sector), say by Ranish partition tools sometimes you get fractions. It is better to do a basic partitioning and then restart GParted in its "Debian" command lines and, using fdisk utility, fine tune partitions based on a CHS calculated as H=255, S=63 and C should be got through calculations, rather than default of GParted that uses only H=16. This default gives thousands of cylinder. For H=255 and S=63 each roughly 8Mb is one cylinder. Hence, for 24Mb I select 3 cylinders, for 250Mb I select 30 cylinders for Freedos I select 220 cylinders and so on.

Working with Virtual Box

2009-05-30T11:32:00.000+01:00

My goal is not to run a virtual desktop in my PC. I do that but not for the jobs I counted in previous post. Virtualization has found its applications mostly in corporate computing from the time that Novell introduced its workstation software for Microsoft server software to be installed in place of Windows 2000 workstation. One good usage of virtual boxes is to test beta and candidate software. For example, now I am doing it with Microsoft's future operating system Windows 7 RC with 30Gb of virtual hard disk. I can have it free for more than a year with VIP services of volunteer users. It is not advisable to install a not very stable operating system on a hard disk that contains side by side the missus's emails and social networking and her daily software, except that you like to sleep on the couch with the pooch. (Well, they don't rhyme.) Ergo, you put it safely on the virtual box and if it doesn't behave you simply drop everything in the recycle bin and start anew. Anyway, I was talking about my GParted virtual experiments. I do them with virtual hard disk and when I become confident that I have done everything correctly and all necessary details have been put on the paper and the risk of doing them on a roaring and working hard disk with valuable assets are almost nil then I transfer my experience on the live and kicking hard disk. This is the way that modern engineers do their jobs. When You send a box round the Mars and it takes five years for such a project you cannot revise it at its destination. Everything should work as it is drafted on the paper. One should predict unpredictable. One way of achieving that is procuring redundancy, that is, having alternative devices and slack paths in the project. Perhaps people can remember story of Titanic ship sank in 1912. In the design of the vessel, modern finance management for optimization of costs had forced design engineers to show their confidence by reducing the number of lifeboats to the half of the necessary items that should be predicated for saving all crews and passengers in a belief of a never-sinking vessel design. To that reason, why any boat should be provided at all; for fishing day-out of some passengers? Actually, a modern engineer should provide more than enough of lifeboats in redundancy, in case some rich people might avoid being crammed with smelly people in the same lifeboat on a sinking accident. That lesson in terms of computer means, "Always keep a backup for your valuable data!" The other trick of engineers is called "simulation." It means repeating the desired job in a safe environment and finding what is not predicted correctly and what goes wrong. Then eliminating those obstacles and moving to the harsher level of simulation such that their design can safely pass the worst case scenarios. My virtual box helps me to simulate things in a safe environment without harming valuable assets of others.

Using Virtual PC Box

2009-05-29T15:55:00.000+01:00

I fell a bit far from my GParted discussion. My goal is to create comfortable environments for writing assembly codes and debugging and writing drivers. Meanwhile, I craft to make hardware more friendly for me. I created a custom GParted.iso that included some additional software to install GParted permanently on hard disk. I need it for partitioning and also to use its good command line "Debian" Linux flavour. If I simply install a GParted on the hard disk, later in case, running it from GParted Live CD may cause complications, such as locking the live version. Hence, I should always keep the option of running both from the hard disk and from the Live CD in my GRUB menu. To do that I put sbootmgr.dsk and memdisk files into the root of my customized ISO. Some advised that I should have memdisk.bin. The correct, as Linux advises, is just memdisk without .bin extension. I can take it from syslinux or isolinux folder in GParted. I get sbootmgr.dsk from here. Now I have my GParted.iso built by ImgBurn ready to be tested on My Sun's VirtualBox. I install VirtualBox and I open it. From the tool bar I select "New" and I follow GUI for creating a new virtual PC. For the type of PC operating system I have different options. I can select a Microsoft Windows, a Sun Solaris, a Linux, a Dos or finally an unspecified shown as "Other." I select this very last one. In this way I do not bound me to later default choices of VirtualBox. I select a 374Mb for the RAM of my virtual PC. A dynamically expandable virtual hard disk with generous 20Gb space later allows me to put my ideas better in practice. The goal is to just install two XP operating systems next to each other and some little things such as a DOS system and of course GParted and XOSL.

Tools That I Need

2009-05-28T18:26:00.000+01:00

I need tools to develop applications. Applications are pieces of software to do a task for me on my computer. I use any computer programming language to achieve that goal. To this end I do not need to use complicated software. Software that by its turn needs time to learn to utilize. I can use a notepad and carefully write my program on it avoiding mistakes, editing it as much as possible. But to test and run this program, I definitely need a compiler to translate my program to codes understandable by my CPU. When I get a compiler, frequently, provider of that compiler put a piece of software for you integrated with compiler that allows people to design and write and then run and test their programs in the environment integrated with the desired compiler and find their errors and correct them and re-run it again and again. This is called Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Some times IDEs can support environments for a panoply of compilers. An example of that is NetBeans IDE that supports numerous compilers such as Java, C (C++), and FORTRAN. There are facilities that shows errors on the fly and intelligently creates codes for you. Together I need tools to create database. With NetBeans I can have access to the very powerful and free database utilities suite, MySql. From within a Java application you can access to database created by MySql. Similarly, one might use Visual Studio free Express edition from Microsoft. It is the case when you like to develop your software in C, C++, or Visual Basic. It is very handy if one needs to develop programs for windows. It is called windows programming. From the Visual Studio suite one can install Microsoft SQL server for creating and running database from within the application. Good thing about Microsoft Visual C++ IDE is that I can write assembly codes and assemble them inside my project. A full blood debugging, that is watching CPU and memory in machine code is another story. One should leave other businesses to utilize them. It is also true for writing device drivers for kernel of an operating system.

Virtual Box

2009-05-26T18:30:00.001+01:00

VMWare has a free virtual machine player. That player is not a virtual machine. Optimum virtual PC that I use is Virtual Box from Sun Microsystems. It is under constant development and informs you in periods of time, quarterly or sooner, of updated versions with enhanced features and is backed by Sun Microsystems technology. If you go here you can have a look at different useful development tools and click on Sun Virtual Box and then be guided to its download area. We know that sun is the first developer of a virtual machine, Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Job of JVM is different from virtual boxes I am discussing. JVM takes a piece of code from an application smashes it into the bytes. In this way that application becomes independent of length of the word of host computer and becomes portable over the Internet into the different platforms. It remains for that host computer to have a small free JVM installed in a corner. In real experience it facilitates things drastically. That said. some believe that it is a matter of habit mostly than technology. You have a set of tools at the Sun's place, you can have a similar set all free from Microsoft Visual Studio Express edition and a similar set free from IBM and similarly from Oracle. And I'll discuss them later, hopefully.

Virtual Box

2009-05-24T18:53:00.000+01:00

There are many virtual desktops available that I can use them. This software is a piece of application that I can install on my computer like any other application but when I run it, it gives me a virtual PC similar to my own computer. Now I can configure that virtual PC such that it is possible to install any operating system on it regardless your own running operating system. (Perhaps you have seen exotic California oranges that have a full orange inside their cores. I have seen some with a third one inside that core. One told me he had seen four layers to the core and as big as a melon.) For example I have an XP home edition operating system, but I can install a Sun Solaris operating system on my virtual PC and work inside that as if it is a Solaris machine. When you are running your virtual PC you have options to create one or more than one PC on it. They are called "machines." One can find different virtual PC software, some free and some purchasable. Best of them I have experienced with belongs VMWare. One can trial test it free, but after ending the trial period you have to purchase the licence should you opt to use them. Good point about VMWare is that it does not load the CPU much. You see, they are virtual so at the end of the day they have to use your very real CPU. And at the same time your CPU has to run your real operating system in the background for all the real jobs that your computer is doing including running of virtual PC software. The other good thing about VMWare is when you are running your own operating system additionally on virtual desktop. Then a conflict of licence key happens. VMWare can solve that conflict by negotiating the key with operating system vendor. One can configure VMWare as a target machine for debugging when developing driver software. You can virtually null terminate port of your debuggee to the debugger machine. These are somehow advanced and one cannot use a family computer for debuugging. (If you open the door to any debugger then you should separate all ordinary jobs to another computer.) After sometimes ease of working with virtual PC makes you so lazy that you almost forget that you need another machine for experiment or multibooting. Inside that machine any trouble is isolated from your real PC and if trouble continues you can safely delete the machine and its virtual hard disk. See, you have installed Solaris on your virtual machine and now it does not connects to network. You go on the Internet from your background PC and google for solutions. On the other hand, more sophisticated virtual PCs devour your CPU and need almost all of your physical memory. Microsoft virtual PC is free but not designed for my XP home edition. It works on XP-home, but gives you warning every time you turn it on. It also asks for licence key if you install your own XP on it. So you cannot run XP on it for more than thirty days.

Making Enhanced GParted ISO Image

2009-05-20T13:17:00.000+01:00

To make GParted.iso bootable, ImgBurn helps us in finding the image of the floppy which can boot CDROM. Any bootable CD carries such an image. If one is very kin or perhaps uber-geek, he might build that manually himself. Later I delineate my own attempts on that. I already had selected "creating ISO image from a folder" from ImgBurn menu. On the right side of the user interface for this command there is a "tabbed" pane. I open the "Advanced" tab from this. There I can see another "tabbed" system and a "tab" for "Bootable Disc." When I check the box at the top for "Make Image Bootable" then it makes the input fields "enabled." I see that I can brows to target "boot image file" wherever it is. I had created an empty folder, as I already said, and had filled it with extract of original downloaded GParted.iso. I brows into this folder and then open isolinux folder. Inside that ImgBurn picks the isolinux.bin as the boot image for my enhanced Gparted ISO CD image. I leave every other things to ImgBurn defaults and confirm all other dialogues. ImgBurn creates desired image in a minute or two. I do not need to burn this image to test it. I use a virtual machine to that end.

Building ISO Image

2009-05-17T16:17:00.000+01:00

By the way I also need two additional files to be available in my custom made GParted.iso. One is memdisk and the other is sbootmgr.dsk. I need these later when I am configuring GRUB tools to access my Linux partition where I have installed GParted. One might be eager to utilize LILO for that. It is another challenge. GRUB install utility, grub-install comes with the GParted "Debian" terminal, but LILO should be worked out by you. XOSL can load both of them if they become configured properly. Now, I should build the ISO back. For that I use completely free ISO creator and burning tools ImgBurn from here . I believe when I use these excellent free tools it is not a bad idea to donate some money to their cause. It keeps the flame alight and is quite encouraging. I do that if I could. The tool "ImgBurn" has different options. We have a folder of GParted and we need an ISO image of it. We select this option from the "ImgBurn" easy select user interface. I should be careful to make the ISO "bootable."

Injecting Files into ISO Image

2009-05-15T16:25:00.002+01:00

ISO images are read only files and one can't inject files into them. Hence to add some bits and pieces to my GParted.iso I need to extract the ISO into an ordinary folder and then inject, or rather add, extra files and folders to it. To be able to do that extraction I downloaded WinImage tools from here. This tool is not free but you can use it for thirty days free and meanwhile sort out your projects. I created a new folder in "My Documents" named it with GParted ISO file, showing versions and everything similar to my GParted version. Only i deleted .iso from its name. The folder is empty. Then I opened WinImage tool. From the "File" menu item "Open" command, I opened the GParted.iso. All files and folders inside the image appears in explorer frame and navigation pane of WinImage. I notice that the CD image includes isolinux but GParted.zip for hard disk included syslinux as it is obvious from their application. Isolinux puts an ISO image of a CD on the memory, syslinux puts the image from a hard disk on the physical memory. Then I go to "Image" menu item "Extract" command and brows to GParted empty folder I have created in "My Documents" to extract all files and folders of ISO CD in this folder. Now contents of ISO are accessible for adding new items. I added "unzip" file to the root of folder to use it later on my "Debian" command line for unzipping GParted.zip. I also added file GParted.zip to the root. Now I can reconstruct the folder back to a new ISO image of mine, using free "ImgBurn: Image Burn" utility as I explain in the next post.

Using Virtual Drives

2009-05-13T15:40:00.000+01:00

You see, for so many tests I can't burn Cd's and DVDs and then revise my things and throw those out and burn new items. I make everything virtual. I have Daemon Tools from here . There are numerous similar free software for this purpose. With Daemon Tools you can setup virtual DVD drives without actually having need to a hardware. You can put an ISO image on these virtual drives and test it. When I am installing these tools always I am vigilant to custom install them, and to prevent installing items that later might become annoying for me. I do not like having shortcut icons on my desktops and loading memory and CPU with quick launch processes.

GParted Has Commandline Linux

2009-05-10T19:07:00.000+01:00

I always had two floppies of Basic Linux 3 to work on command line Linux. Now by permanent installing of GParted I have a more powerful tools. In due time I write what should be added to these tools to make them more ideal. For that reason I selected a more relax space for GParted. I also couldn't use the tools available in this minimalist Debian to unzip GParted.zip downloaded for installing on hard disk. Gunzip and Zcat give "more than one entry point" error. They cannot decompress Gzipped by "7Z" either. Curtis Gedak from GParted kindly instructed me, by private communication, that to use good old free "Zip" and "Unzip" from here. I selected "unz550x-glibc.zip" from the list. From the unzipped folder I only need to have the file "unzip," some hundred kilo bytes. Other pieces could be useful but not right now.Later I should inject this to GParted CD iso image that I have together with other things.

Installing GParted on a Hard Disk Partition

2009-05-09T17:35:00.000+01:00

A good drill is to put GParted in some Linux partition flavours. If you can force different operating systems and different partitioning schemes coexist or even symbiosis together and you can do it when you are young then later you can force your dog to sleep on the floor instead of on your bed. Hence, my goal becomes to put XOSL and GParted inside an extended partition and have other operating systems in primary partitions. I am interested in using XOSL as the start menu. One bad thing about XOSL is that you are limited to its GUI. There s no way to edit some script to hack things over it. It is another project to search inside its source documents and find things. It has its own dedicated partitioning system with partition type=78 hex. I still have not tested a second version, XOSL2 (Return of XOSL?). But it has many good things such as destroying booting trace of installed operating systems and taking all activities in its own hands. That eliminate need of editing boot loaders of other operating systems. They do not become aware of each other activation and believe that each one of them is the default active operating system. That encouraged me to work with XOSL until I become convinced that it is becoming obsolete and I need to replace it with some new device such as GRUB or GRUB2 and I am still puzzled with GRUB super CD. You notice that I mean GNU and free software. Otherwise, if one pays he can get consultants come and sort things for his computer. Let me tell you what happened next. I reformatted my extended partition (already I called it "Lab" partition) as again 24Mb of FAT16 logical partition for XOSL and a 300Mb logical for GParted with "ex2" partition type. I left this space bigger than required 120Mb because I want to do some other experiment later. I used GParted latest CD to do that. Gparted includes a command line Linux "Debian" flavour, which is crammed with desired tools for experimenting Unix type of operating systems.

Installing GParted and XOSL on FAT partitions

2009-04-23T13:35:00.000+01:00

Alternative way, I liked is to use GParted for all partitioning jobs. I put Gparted Live CD and restarted computer. I select safe mode from the menu. It is more comfortable for sight to have vga normal rather than default vga=791 or whatever it is. In the menu of Gparted I delet any partition I had done from XP, but the XP's NTFS partition. I keep my XP untouched and then choose an extended partition, something more than 4GB from the beginning of the unallocated space. I selected "Lab" as its name since it is the place that I can experiment. For the logical partitions inside the extended partition I started from a default minimum of 16Mb for XOSL that comes out later as an actual 24Mb. I format it as FAT16 partition. It is more than enough for XOSL. Second logical drive I partition in the menu is a 120Mb for permanent residence of GParted with FAT32 format. I leave a 4Gb for FreeDos. If I can find my installed partitions on a DOS prompt by "fdisk" I will find partition letters "C:," "D:" and "E:" for these three new partitions, respectively. Now I should install XOSL and GParted. For XOSL installation I need to have any DOS bootable floppy that gives me a DOS prompt A:\> that is all. I put the entire XOSL folder inside this floppy. When I restarted after Gparted partitioning job I put this diskette immediately in the floppy drive to reboot from the diskette. When A:\> prompt comes I "cd," that is I change directory to XOSL and then I type "INSTALL." After that I follow and accept all defaults. I am careful to have "C" as installation partition. I can change it by toggling "Page Up" on my keyboard, but I don't. When it reboots I configure it to be able to boot from GParted partition or from FreeDos or from XP or from a floppy drive and, of course, any future operating system that I might decide. I check the box for XP to be my default boot and select a hot key such as "x" key for accelerated booting. I'll have XOSL on my hard drive installed forever and whatever happens in future, even if I want to fresh install other things, it remains there. I check "My Computer" to see what letters XP has chosen for new partitions. I notice it has selected "E" for "XOSL" and "H" for GParted and "I" for FreeDos partition. It has left "F" and "G" for my other hard disk drives. I go to disk manager and change "XOSL" to "P" and Gparted to "Q" to keep them away from other drives and daily unwanted manipulations. Now I should install GParted and make it permanent, as well. I go to my XP. From here I downloaded a zipped version of GParted for hard disk drives. Inside that, when unzipped to a folder in any place in XP, there are three folders: "live," "syslinux" and "utils." Inside utils from the folder "Win32" I copy "syslinux.exe" and paste it in "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner" to be accessible from XP command prompt. Then I go to "start" in the XP and "Run" from the right hand pane. When the "Run" dialogue comes usually is on its default "cmd" or in the last command that has been run. In the later case I change it back to "cmd" command and then I "OK" button. In the command prompt window I type "syslinux.exe -sfa Q:" where "Q" is the designated partition for GParted. In this way I install "ldlinux.sys" on Gparted partition to make it linux bootable. Then from the unzipped folder of GParted I copy three folders "live," "syslinux," and "utils" and drop them in the "Q" drive such that they sit on the root of the drive. Now, if I restart and I go to menu of XOSL, I can choose to boot it in GParted partition and voila Gparted boots to its menu and I have it permanently for any future manipulations of hard disks.

Multi-booting Windows XP

2009-04-17T11:39:00.000+01:00

When I installed my XP and fully patched it with all service packs and updates and watched its fresh install then I turn my computer fully off and switch off the main socket and without unplugging the cable I reconnect my spare hard disks; both of their data cables and power cables. Then I switch on the main socket and turn on computer. I allow it to completely loads the operating system and finds back spare hard disks and brings all bubble messages and finishes parking the hard disk. At this moment I point to start and in the menu I right click on "My Computer" and select "Manage" in the context. It opens the computer management window. I select "Disk Management" there to show my installed hard disks. When I find everything sound and safe, I select the unallocated space at the beginning of my main hard drive and partition it with extended partition of some 4Gb (4100Mb). Inside the extended partition I allocate some 4050Mb for FreeDos at the top and the remaining, some 50Mb (it is Mb) for XOSL at the bottom. These two new partitions inside the extended partition should be formatted with FAT32 file system.

Using GParted for Partitions of Different File Systems

2009-04-16T10:54:00.000+01:00

I have a 250Gb hard disk for my operating system(s). I like to put two identical XP's on it. One for me and one for my wife. I do not like to use two different screen names. Let me do with my software developments and she does with emails and photos and social networking and uTubes without friction. But still I have not done that. It is easy to put two instances of XP on two different hard disks on the same machine and then command them with XOSL, but on the same hard disk you should eliminate some hurdles. I also have a free Solaris. So I need a place to exchange files between Solaris and XP. I need a small partition for my FreeDos as much as 4Gb and a tinny independent place as 50Mb for XOSL. I can put it inside the Freedos partition but I'd rather not since I might need frequently erase FreeDos and re-install it for improved usage. XP partition, I keep it within its 128Gb limit of old version BIOS's. This will be partitioned in NTFS. I use GParted to do this partition. I disconnect my other hard disk drives from inside the computer case, both data cable and power cable. Before opening the case I should turn the main socket off but I leave the plug connected, to keep the earth connection as it is. I disconnect the other drives to prevent the complications that occurs when installing operating systems on the main drive when installation reads all the hardware pieces and you might become confused and inadvertently one might format other disks and install operating system there. Then I switch the socket back. I put my latest version burned CD of GParted iso in the optical drive - hopefully now all have a DVD-combo drive at least or better - and restart the computer. When it turns on it goes on GParted Live Cd. It is not necessary to change the BIOS boot sequence. I accept all defaults of the GParted. In GParted menu I can see my main hard disk. I select all partitions on it and remove all of them to have one new unallocated whole disk. Then I select from the menu "partition" then "new" and a dialogue comes out to ask about the size and file system format. I select 120Gb and "linux swap" for the file format and choose SOLARIS for name. For the remaining part I select NTFS file system format and choose XP as name for it. Its size is almost 128Gb. I do this since at the time of installation of XP when it is searching for partition to install, XP completely ignores "linux swap" as unknown partition and without any complication formats its partition and installs on its own NTFS even if it is from an oem cd set. Later I can come back with my GParted Live and partition the first part. I need to put the other things at the begining partition. I can do the other way but when I am more comfortable with these kinds of operations. When XP is installed you can use the disk manager for creating partitions for FreeDos and XOSL.

Back up Is Essential

2009-04-15T09:01:00.000+01:00

I should say that almost I never have much things on my main hard disk where I put my operating system (s). I have one TB spare disks in two other drives, plenty of room for putting everything there. When I install a program I change defaults such that storage materials go into the spare disks. For example, when I create a power point I always save it in a side hard disk in a folder belonging only to power points. In that I have subfolders for different subjects of power points. I regulary burn important materials that I like to keep into these cheaply available huge storage such as CD's, DVD's, double layer DVD's and in future in Blue Rays. I regularly backup my internet favourits folder too. I have a regular picture of Start Menu such that in case I can remember what I had installed. Hence, if I get serious trouble or if I want to do some experiment recovery of operating system is not disastrous.

Partitioning My Hard Disk

2009-04-14T10:55:00.000+01:00

First I backed up everything from my main hard disks into other hard disks. Then I Downloaded The Gparted Live Iso from here. I can use this user friendly software to create my desired partitions. When you get something from Source Forge downloads it means it is free.I need to convert it to a Live CD. Live means a computer can come to life with this CD without having an operating system. They sometimes use the boring, vague term bootable disk for that. To burn an ISO image I installed the powerful Iso burner, Active@ ISO Burner 2.0 (Freeware), advised by Microsoft knowledge base from here. There are also other free iso burners. I found this with less errors. I burned Gparted on a CD.

Using Code View IDE in FreeDos

2009-04-13T11:09:00.000+01:00

I had the companion software "Free Microsoft Visual C++ 1.0" as part of the book "Learn Visual C++ Now," by Mark Andrew, from Microsoft Press, 1996. My daughter, Mercedes, bought the book for me when we were in Exeter many years ago. I liked to install it on my computer frequently, I couldn't succeed. Recently I tried again to put it inside the MASM editor. There is no way to use its compiler. Windows XP SP3 that I have, has nothing to do to chase EMM.386 in a SYSTEM.INI legacy of 16 bits DOS. But the editor loads and saves and it is funny to have it exploited. The CodeView for Windows (CVW) is impossible to be used and CodeView for DOS (CV) takes a hell out of your CPU. The best thing is to install a separate DOS partition on your hard disk and take it there to enjoy. And I did that. I created a FreeDos partition next door to my XP.