Deranged Ramblings

Yakama Indian Reservation

2006-07-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

The Yakama Indian Reservation is a United States Indian reservation located on the east side of the Cascade Mountains of the state of Washington. According to the United States Census Bureau the size of the reservation is 2,187.56 mi² (5,666 km²) and the population in 2000 was 31,799. It was created in 1855 by a treaty signed by Washington Territory Gov. Isaac Stevens and represenatives of the Yakama tribe. A dispute over the treaty led to the Yakima war of 1855.

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1 Express Editions and Tools - Community Technology Preview (CTP) March 2006

2006-03-19T14:45:00.000-08:00

This is just out.

I'm quite happy that msft are offering more services with the express edition (Reporting and Full Text Catalogs) and I'm sure it will help win over more people.

Can't wait until it goes RTM:

SQL Server Express Edition with Advanced Services (SQLEXPR_ADV.EXE)
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Services is a new, free version of SQL Server Express that includes additional features for reporting and advanced text based searches. In addition to the features offered in SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, SQL Server Express with Advanced Services offers additional components that include SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE), support for full-text catalogs, and support for viewing reports via report server. SQL Server Express Edition with Advanced Services also includes SP1.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=57856cdd-da9b-4ad0-9a8a-f193ae8410ad&displaylang=en

P.S Is it me or is 600GB Hard drive a bit high for system requirements :D

Enjoy.

Even easier high speed reading/writing of binary data files with C#

2006-03-19T14:44:00.000-08:00

In my previous posting I presented a way to avoid unnecessarily copying data during read/write of binary files by using low level C CTR file functions like fread() instead of System.IO. This works just fine - but requires you to link in an unmanaged code C DLL if not even doing programming in C yourself.

Now, thanks to Christof Sprenger at Microsoft Germany, this hurdle has been removed. He showed me how to use the existing low level file handle of a stream with the kernel32.dll ReadFile()/WriteFile() functions. No more C programming is necessary, although unsafe code is still needed. But that´s ok, I´d say.

Here´s an example how simple your code is if you use the new BinaryFileStream class:

struct ID3v1Tag
{
...
};

ID3v1Tag tag;

BinaryFileStream bfs = new BinaryFileStream("track01.mp3", System.IO.FileMode.Open);

bfs.Seek(-128, System.IO.SeekOrigin.End);
unsafe
{
bfs.Read(&tag);
}

tag.Title = ...;
...
bfs.Write(&tag);

bfs.Close();

And here´s the BinaryFileStream itself:

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace System.IO
{
public unsafe class BinaryFileStream : FileStream
{
#region CTORs

public BinaryFileStream(string path, FileMode mode)
: base(path, mode)
{}

public BinaryFileStream(string path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access)
: base(path, mode, access)
{}

public BinaryFileStream(string path)
: base(path, FileMode.Open)
{ }

#endregion

public int Read(void* buffer) where StructType : struct
{
return Read(buffer, Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(StructType)));
}

public void Write(void* buffer) where StructType : struct
{
Write(buffer, Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(StructType)));
}

#region Low-level file access

protected int Read(void* buffer, int count)
{
int n = 0;

if (!ReadFile(this.SafeFileHandle, buffer, count, out n, 0))
throw new IOException(string.Format("Error {0} reading from file!", Marshal.GetLastWin32Error()));

return n;
}

protected void Write(void* buffer, int count)
{
int n = 0;

if (!WriteFile(this.SafeFileHandle, buffer, count, out n, 0))
throw new IOException(string.Format("Error {0} writing to file!", Marshal.GetLastWin32Error()));
}

[DllImport("kernel32", SetLastError = true)]
private static extern unsafe bool ReadFile(
Microsoft.Win32.SafeHandles.SafeFileHandle hFile,
void* pBuffer,
int numberOfBytesToRead,
out int numberOfBytesRead,
int overlapped
);

[DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
private static extern unsafe bool WriteFile(
Microsoft.Win32.SafeHandles.SafeFileHandle handle,
void* bytes,
int numBytesToWrite,
out int numBytesWritten,
int overlapped
);

#endregion
}
}

Copy and enjoy!

Installing Vista Feb CTP inside VMWare

2006-03-19T14:42:00.000-08:00

It took me four times to fail installing Vista inside VMWare till I figured out that I should google for the answer…

So here it is… the steps you need to do in order to install Vista inside VMWare:

Installing the Guest Operating System
1. Insert the Windows Vista CD in the CD-ROM drive (or just mount the ISO image).

2. Power on the virtual machine to start installing Windows Vista.

3. If using a blank hard disk: When the Windows Vista installer menu appears, choose the first option, Install Now.

If installing over an existing guest operating system: Skip to step 9.

4. Press Shift-F10 to open a command prompt.

5. Start the disk partitioning utility.

diskpart

6. Enter the following commands to partition the hard disk:

select disk 0
create partition primary

7. When the partitioning process is complete, click the Reset button to reboot the virtual machine.

8. As the virtual machine begins to reboot, while the VMware logo appears on the screen, click inside the virtual machine window, then press Esc to get to the BIOS boot menu. Choose CD-ROM Drive as the boot device, then continue installing Windows Vista beta.

9. In certain Windows Vista builds, the installer chooses an incorrect default in the screen titled Choose your installation destination. It shows a partition with 0 MB free and makes that partition the default destination.

At that screen, you must change the choice to the disk (instead of the partition), then click Continue.

10. Follow the remaining installation steps as you would for a physical machine.

Grecian bend

2006-02-26T16:46:00.000-08:00

This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. If you are familiar with the subject matter, please check for inaccuracies and modify as needed, citing sources.

In the late 19th century, the "Grecian bend" was a fashionable manner in which upper and middle class women held themselves whilst walking. It meant bending forward from the hips rather than the waist and keeping the back straight.

It was generated by the use of tight, boned corsets and emphasised by the introduction of the bustle.

The term was also given to those who suffered from the bends or decompression sickness due to working in caissons during the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Such victims walked with a similar leaning posture to that of the "Grecian Bend".

D'ni items

2006-02-25T15:44:00.000-08:00

This article or section needs to be wikified. Please format this article according to the guidelines laid out at Wikipedia:Guide to layout. Please remove this template after wikifying.

Myst franchise

Games and their Ages

Myst	(Ages)
Riven	(Ages)
Myst III	(Ages)
Myst IV	(Ages)
Uru	(Ages)
Myst V	(Ages)

Novels

Book of Atrus
Book of Ti'ana
Book of D'ni
Book of Marrim

Comic Books

#0 #1

Miscellaneous

D'ni D'ni Ages The Art Timeline Items Kings Language Numerals People Wildlife

Organizations

Brøderbund Cyan Presto Ubisoft DRC

Edit this box

Note: Fictional details from the Myst franchise follow, and may sometimes be referred to as facts.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

What follows is a list of unusual or interesting items — objects, devices, machines, etc. — that can be found on the D'ni Ages as described in the various Myst franchise games and novels. Most concern technology that was unique to the D'ni themselves.

1 Culture
- 1.1 The Art
- 1.2 Games
  - 1.2.1 Ahyoheek
  - 1.2.2 Gemedet
2 High technology
- 2.1 Maintainers' tech
  - 2.1.1 Great Zero
  - 2.1.2 KI
- 2.2 Imagers
3 Timepieces
4 Industry
- 4.1 Mining devices
  - 4.1.1 Fusion-Compounder
- 4.2 Mining products
  - 4.2.1 Deretheni
  - 4.2.2 Nara

Culture

The Art

Linking Books (Kor'vakh)
Descriptive Books (Kor'mahn)
Trap books
Nexus Book Machine
D'ni Ink

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Descriptive books, put simply, can be written in to "make" a world, called an Age and to link, or travel, to it; linking books are the counterparts of descriptive books and are a lighterweight alternative that can easily be carried around and used to link as well. Both types of book, however, consist of what would normally be found in regular books, i.e. an ink medium, paper pages, and a cardboard-like or wooden-based binding. The ink, however, is made from a special type of scarab beetle who's properties allows the words written in a descriptive book to actually link to the world described within. To write an Age one needs must describe the world one wishes to visit. The detail of the writing determines how simplistic or detailed the Age will turn out. The more precise the writing the greater detail can be achieved in the making of the Age, though if the writing is too detailed the Age might be unstable and unsuitable for visitation or habitation. A rectangle, which can technically be found anywhere in the book, is called a linking panel. Linking panels show a small, static window into the Age and the point where one will link into it, though in the Myst games it is sometimes dramatized and moves around the Age. If an Age is written improperly it can lead to disaster, as the smallest mistakes such as the degree of the axis or the rotation of the moon can lead to the destruction of the Age. Very slight changes can, however, be made to the descriptive book of the Age to slow the rate of decay if it was written improperly. If, when making changes to an Age, the differences are too large between the Age originally described and that being written, it is possible that the linking book will be directed to another Age entirely that, while still sharing the same characteristics, is minutely different.

Spoilers end here.

Games

Ahyoheek

An Ahyoheek Table

Ahyoheek is a game table found in public places inside many D'ni neighbourhoods. It is a game for two or more players which has some similarity to Rock, Paper, Scissors. See Ahyoheek for more information.

Gemedet

Gemedet is a two-player game quite similar to Connect 4.

High technology

Maintainers' tech

Great Zero

A Great Zero MarkerA part of the Great Zero Neutrino Dispenser

The Great Zero Neutrino dispenser is a device which emanates neutrinos, which are used by the D'ni location markers.

Maintainer Marks are markers in other Ages, which are connected to the Great Zero in some way. They allow for position tracking and KI communication across Ages.\

Great Zero Markers are markers which can be "collected" with a KI. If all the markers are found and registered with the Great Zero it will be calibrated and can broadcast positional signals to the D'ni cavern.

A Marker Dispenser

The Marker Dispenser is a device which can configure a KI to collect certain groups of Markers.

Maintainer's Suits are the protective suits worn by Maintainers on dangerous missions to untested or unstable worlds. They are created out of Deretheni rock.

KI

D'ni KI interface

The D'ni KI is a handheld device developed by the D'ni shortly before the downfall of the D'ni empire. Its actual name is unknown: KI (pronounced 'key') comes from the D'ni numeral 3 (shaped like the letters KI), found on some of the first KI's found. It is unknown why the devices were all labelled 3. The KI served as a communication device for the D'ni as well as a storage device for images and a positioner using coordinates from the Great Zero and Maintainer marks. KI's could also be used to track and store markers.

The D'ni technology underlying the KI allowed for communication between Ages.

In Uru, it is learned that the DRC rediscovered the KI and managed to partially translate the devices so they could be used by DRC members and authorized explorers. The KI is needed to finish the Age of Gahreesen, and also plays a role in the puzzles in the first Uru Expansion Pack, To D'ni.

Artist's impression of a Maintainer's Suit

Imagers

A D'ni Imager

Imagers, in the D'ni culture, were devices which somewhat resemble television screens. They could either display live data transmitted from a camera placed somewhere or a series of static images (either regular or taken by a KI). D'ni Imagers are found in most neighbourhoods, as well as in Ages, where they are sometimes used to display greeting notices or instructions.

Gehn's holographic Imager

Other kinds of imagers more closely resembled hologram emitters. An examples is Gehn's Imager of his deceased wife Keta found in Age 233.

Timepieces

A D'ni Timepiece, from Aitrus' map

As the D'ni counted time differently than the surface dwellers, their watches and clocks were remarkably different. A D'ni day was divided 5 equal segments of 6 hours each, making for a 30-hour day. (30 hours, 14 minutes in surface time). One example of a D'ni watch can be seen on Aitrus' maps. D'ni alarm clocks/timers are found in various Ages, such as in Age 233. Larger clocks are seen in D'ni neighbourhoods.

Gehn's watch/alarm clock

Industry

Mining devices

The D'ni used several immense machines to create tunnels that connected the diverse caverns that formed the D'ni empire.

The Burrower
The Cycler

The Excavator, from Aitrus' map

The Excavator

The Grinder
Old Stone Teeth
Rock-Biter

Fusion-Compounder

The Fusion-Compounder turned the tunnelled rock into highly compressed molecules, which were used to create the mining products below.

Mining products

Deretheni

Deretheni is a jet-black form of D'ni engineered stone. More malleable than Nara, the strongest Maintainer's Suits were created out of this.

Nara

Nara is a highly compressed form of D'ni engineered stone, which is green-black in colour, and emanated a faint green light. It is approximately 300 times stronger than stone, and was used to structurally support D'ni tunnels.

2006-02-13T16:08:00.000-08:00

For the province of Iraq see al Anbar

Anbar, originally called Firuz Shapur, or Perisapora, a town founded about AD 350 by Shapur (Sapor) II, Sassanid king of Persia, on the east bank of the Euphrates, just south of the Nahr Isa, or Sakhlawieh canal, the northernmost of the canals connecting that river with the Tigris, in lat. 33 deg. 22' N., long. 43 deg. 49' E.

It was captured and destroyed by the emperor Julian in A.D. 363, but speedily rebuilt. It became a refuge for the Christian and Jewish colonies of that region, and there are said to have been 90,000 Jews in the place at the time of its capture by Ali ibn Abi Talib in 657. The Arabs changed the name of the town to Anbar ("granaries").

Abu al-Abbas as-Saffah, the founder of the Abbasid caliphate, made it his capital, and such it remained until the founding of Baghdad in 762. It continued to be a place of much importance throughout the Abbasid period, but now it is now entirely deserted, occupied only by ruin mounds. Their great extent indicates the former importance of the city.

References

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, a publication in the public domain.

2005-12-19T09:43:00.000-08:00

A1 Team Pakistan

Founded	2005
Seat holder	Arif Husain
Chairman	-
Race driver(s)	Adam Khan Nur B. Ali
First race	2005-06 Great Britain
Events entered	5
Championships	0
Sprint race victories	0
Main race victories	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
Total points	4
2005-06 position	20th (4 pts)
edit

A1 Team Pakistan is the Pakistani entry in the A1 Grand Prix, an international racing series dubbed as the world cup of motorsport.

The launch of A1 Team Pakistan was one of the most spectacular, with the A1 Grand Prix Car being presented infront of the Lahore Fort, a world heritage site. President General Pervez Musharraf was the star guest at the event hosted by A1 Team Pakistan Chairman Arif Hussain and its Managing Director Chaudry Salik Hussain.

Drivers

The main drivers for the Pakistan team are Nur B. Ali and Adam Langley-Khan.

Supernova

Super Nova International Racing runs A1 Team Pakistans entry in the A1 Grand Prix series.

Super Nova is one of the world’s most successful racing teams with a staggering history of wins. It has been responsible for developing world class stars such as Juan Pablo Montoya and Mark Webber.

External links

A1gp.com Official A1 Grand Prix Web Site
A1teampak.com Official A1 Team Pakistan Website

Nations and drivers in the A1 Grand Prix 2005-2006 season
AUS Jones Power Davison	AUT Lauda	BRA Piquet Kanaan Oliveira	CAN McIntosh	CHE Jani Grosjean	CHN Qinghua Tengyi	CZE Enge Janis Charouz	DEU Scheider Sutil Vettel	FRA Premat Lapierre
GBR Kerr Lloyd	IDN Mikola	IND Chandhok Ebrahim	IRL Firman Devaney	ITA Toccacelo Piccoli	JPN Fukuda Noda Shimoda	LBN Beschir Shabaan	MEX Diaz Duran	MYS Yoong Fauzy
	NDL Verstappen Bleekemolen	NZL Halliday Reid	PAK Khan Ali	PRT Parente Urbano	RUS Fomenko Vassiliev Aleshin	USA Speed Herta	ZAF Simpson Scheckter

SFA

2005-03-12T14:39:00.000-08:00

SFA can refer to:

Sales Force Automation
Scottish Football Association
Single Frequency Approach, aviation procedure
Surface forces apparatus
Stephen F. Austin State University, in Nacogdoches, Texas
Student/Farmworker Alliance, a national student activism group based in Immokalee, Florida
Students For Action, an American student union based in Boulder, Colorado
Sing For Absolution, a song by the British band Muse
Super Furry Animals, Welsh rock band
Shanda Fantasy Arts, a comic book company
Star Fox Adventures, a video game by Rare
Star Fox: Assault, a video game by Namco
Street Fighter Alpha, a video game by Capcom

This page disambiguates a three-character combination which might be any or all of an abbreviation, an acronym, an initialism, a word in English, or a word in another language. If an article link referred you to this page, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

James Martin Smith

2005-02-18T11:40:00.000-08:00

This article or section does not cite its references or sources.
You can help Wikipedia by introducing appropriate citations.

James Martin Smith (Dallas, Texas, April 18, 1950) is a Texas-based artist, designer, and musician.

He has been involved with the Texas music and art scene since the Texas International Pop Festival of 1969. Smith provided grounds artwork for the Texas Festival plus several other national festivals including the 1970 Second Annual Atlanta Pop Festival.

He is the co-founder of Dallas Backup, Inc. 1977, of a Dallas, Texas based musical instrument rental and sound & lighting company now known as Onstage Systems, and the founder of CreativeSourcing.net in 2001, a Dallas based graphic design company. He is currently Director of Product Development for Jokari/US, Inc. a Dallas, Texas based firm providing home products.