Why Linux Failed

Because it assumes the user is root on his system and most stuff people design isn't Lite. You need to do a heavy, full-fledged install of everything. So, if you're not a super-genius, goodbye.

RealPlayer Woes

VLC Media Player gets RealPlayer to display video. Who would guess?

http://tersamgt.blogspot.com/2010/01/when-realplayer-wont.html

Why Linux is For Geeks

If you want to use Autokey :

First of all, this is a very old version. You should get the latest one from the home page at autokey.googlecode.com

On the home page there is also a link to the users group ("Help for users"), please consider joining this group and posting there for any future help you need, rather than contacting me directly.

Some people have had success installing on Mandriva (redhat-based). First you will need to install the dependencies. The following packages are needed, install them with whatever package manager is in your distribution (probably yum):

python-gtk2, python-gtksourceview2, python-glade2, python-xlib, python-notify, wmctrl, python-setuptools

Then once you have extracted the tar file, cd into the directory created by the extraction process, then:

python2.6 setup.py install
cp debian/autokey.init /etc/init.d/autokey
chmod a+x /etc/init.d/autokey
chkconfig --add autokey

service autokey start

This last command starts a daemon that does the keyboard monitoring. With any luck you should now be able to start the program using the shortcut in your main menu. 


Bottom line - Linus Torvalds did something good, but we need someone to do better - make linux accessible and edible by the masses. User experience is the key. Until then, Apple, Google and Microsoft will keep getting your money without being evil.

Reverse Proxying

Whatever that means:)
Here's what needs to be done :

Install a piece of software on one machine on which you have administrator rights. This is a daemon of course - runs all the time as a server.
Know the IP address of this machine, which has internet access.

Enter this IP address in some field of your Mozilla Firefox browser setup/preferences/options/etc and access the internet through the first machine.

How?

Tell me and see your name in big lights - or get another equivalent reward in the case of identities that need to be protected:)

Processing's Serial.available()

How do they do it? They use java of course - and there's an input.available() in their source. But how do you do with Win32 C++ DLLs? I only see CreateFile, ReadFile and WriteFile.

Dear RealTerm

Is it possible somehow to run realterm from the cmd line on a one-shot basis

realterm -hidden -com28 -baud9600 -hex f3 0 f3 1

that is, have it run like a command line program - do its job and exit?

if not, can you suggest a way I could write such a program?

Missing printf()

What the world needs is a simple program that can be run from the MS-DOS command prompt like this :

writeCom -id com28 -parity none -baud 9600 -stop 1 -data 8

Apparently, even with millions of smart people loose out there, we don't have something as simple as this that people can use. !$@!$#!$#!

The google search that finally got me somewhere was :

dos command line com port writing

Here are some resources :

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/C/Q_21148982.html

http://electrosofts.com/serial/index.html
( conio.h outportb bios.h bioscom )

Available ports?
http://electrosofts.com/parallel/

As it turned out later, all of this stuff is utter crap if you're on WinXP. Why don't people update stuff?