Misc Computers and Tech – Page 3

Best Bugs

4 Comments / Gaim, Misc Computers and Tech, Open Source

I was having a chat with my brother earlier about software bugs, and I started trying to remember about the best bugs I’ve encountered in software I’ve had a hand in. Below are my list of favorite bugs that I found entertaining. I’m kind of curious as to what other people would choose for their favorites.

My favorite bug would have to be Gaim’s flying buddies. When the rewrite of the Gaim buddy list was commited, in 0.60, we had a fun little bug where the drag-and-drops weren’t completed. This triggered a Gtk bug (I think it was Gtk’s bug?) where the nodes in the GtkTreeView would fly around the screen a bit from point A (where the node originally was) to point B (where the node is now). When the buddy list was off-screen, this made it particularly fun. As these were flying around, we quickly named them Flying Buddies.

Between classes one semester, I wrote a Snake game for my TI-89 calculator. It was rather easy to do, but I had an off-by-one error that generated what I called “snake droppings.” When the snake ate one of the blocks on the screen, it would of course extend. As soon as the tail started moving again, it would leave a pixel or two behind, hence the name.

My third favorite bug was during the development of my BilliardZ game for the Sharp Zaurus SL-5×00 PDA. Occasionally when hitting a ball, a big black hole would open up on the board, and the ball would disappear in it. Playing pool with black holes littering the table is a little inconvenient. I’m still not sure what caused it, but I ended up fixing it.

Speaking of bugs, something messed up on gnome-blog. I’ve spent over an hour trying to get it working again. Works now though.

(Update: I somehow lost the top paragraph. I don’t know how, but it’s back. That should provide more context.)

Shiny New Battery Back-Up

Leave a Comment / Life, Misc Computers and Tech

For Christmas, my parents gave me a CyberPower Battery Back-Up system. It’s a 410 watt unit, claiming to last 25-50 minutes. I really only need 5-10, since these systems are only off when the power flickers or PG&E screws up somehow. So today I finally installed it, as my main desktop locked up. I figured it was now or never.

What can I say? It works. It’s fun to pull the plug out of the wall while the computer is running (I only did it once!)

This doesn’t even compare to my friend John’s setup. He needed something for one of the businesses he’s a computer consultant for. It had to last 2 hours, so what was his solution? Why, building his own out of 4 car batteries, of course! It generates a bit of heat, but it works, and has worked for some time. I want him to build me one, but then, I only need that 5-10 minutes.

Food For Geeks

Life, Misc Computers and Tech

I’ve been discussing a small site I plan to setup with some people. The site is called Food for Geeks, and is essentially a food donation system for Linux hackers. It works like other monetary donation systems, but instead of specifying an amount to send the person, you’re presented with their favorite foods. You don’t actually donate the food. Rather, you donate the money for a type of food, and it goes into the person’s PayPal account.

Really, it’s a wrapper for PayPal, but more geared toward rewarding food. I feel this would be more personal and fun, and gives the donator some idea as to what the person will be buying with the money.

The system itself will be easy to setup. I have the space and bandwidth, and developing the backend won’t be a problem. It’ll allow users to setup accounts with their portfolio, list of projects, and their favorite foods, along with the prices. They can then place a little button on their site, which other people may click. They’ll be presented with the food the donatee listed. Clicking a link will open up probably a PayPal Donation page with the price for the food and all the relevant information.

It might be crazy, but it’s not like it hurts to try. I just need some good graphics made, and I can do the rest. Failing that, I’ll do some mediocre graphics 😉