blah? bleh? blahbleh.
All's bleh in love and war
Molecules in 3D with Javascript, yay!
Ho, ho, ho! Early Christmas present, boys and girls! It's an interactive molecule viewing page! See valence shell electron pair repulsion theory in all its glorious beauty! Please note: this page has only been properly tested on Firefox 2 – other browsers will be coming later (Opera seems to work), and well as more features, so please check back later.
molecools
blahblehpwnz
Sooo blahbleh.com. Um... hey....... *ahem*
Err, this is awkward.
Yeah, I know I haven't posted in more than a year... it's kinda embarrassing. I've been longing to post in you, and put Javascript pages on you and everything, really, I have! It's just that I never seem to have the time anymore. I'm sorry.
Here. Um, have a cube.
Pong. In. Excel.
Well... I do a fair bit of Javascript game coding... which is a weird coding platform. Now for some MS Excel action! Pong - it's you v. wall in this action packed, VBA game! It's been done in Excel before... I found that out later... but never with MOTION BLUR! By the way, CLICK ENABLE MACROS when you open it. Otherwise it won't work, and das ist bad, ja? If you don't get some dialog asking you, click Tools->Macro->Security->Medium, then OK. This setting will not put a virus on your computer, so do not panic - it merely asks you whether to open it.
Pong it to the max!
IE sucks.
Why? Well, there are sites aplenty that discuss that, so I'll discuss three of its annoyances here. The second one may not apply if you're using an uber-fast computer with IE7.
1) VML. VML, for those forunate enough to have never seen such a ghastly mess, is Microsoft's pathetic attempt at web graphics. In a nutshell, Microsoft got the method they used for their normal Office graphics, and decided to just stick it into HTML. They must've realised how dodgy it is anyway, because the documentation has more holes than Swiss cheese without the cheese. Did you know that the co-ordinates specifies for a shape are not in pixels, or percent, or even Smoots, but per mille? Now, Microsoft may be crazy and revolutionary enough to define such a concept ? they have billions of dollars backing so everyone has to do just about whatever they say in terms of web standards, however bizarre ? but can't they at least tell anyone? The MSDN documentation for the item in question mentions nothing of the sort, other than numbers should be in the "relative coordinate space". Relative to what? What unit? Pixels? Centimetres? Cents? Good to see Microsoft's attempt at a web standard (that they submitted to the W3C, by the way) is so well documented. But hey, we're Microsoft!
Did you know that some VML elements CANNOT BE MODIFIED AT ALL with Javascript? Some can, come can't. VML has the consistency of five-day old milk left on the back lawn. Try to access the attributes innocently for writing and IE screams in rage, "Attribute only valid on v:line or v:curve". Now, let's think about this for a moment. This is an attribute I have already set through HTML. I can even read it in Javascript. Why is it invalid? Nobody knows. So, when in doubt, one should Google the problem. No results. Then one Live Searches the problem. Alas, even Microsoft's own search engine can't find its own tail. All we get is someone else complaining about the issue. Many documentations are works of art, showing the beauty and grace of a system. VML documentation is human waste smeared onto a web page. They ban some elements from changing, but SHHH! It's a secret which ones!
2) Tabs. IE never used to have tabs, as you may well know. Then, like a dot-com boom investor, they pulled their heads out of the ground and found out that other people had these strange, time-saving devices! Now, there was no need to be all that up-to-date with browser features, because IE has the benefit of its big sister Windows to make sure everyone with Windows is forced to at least be exposed to it. And unfortunately for most people, users are too naive to realise that they do not have to endure such maltreatment and pain from their own computer every time they surf the net and download their "YOU HAVE 1,337 ERRORS. HONEST. CLICK OK TO FIX THEM." software. So, it took a while, but eventually Microsoft figured out they couldn't sit around forever, so they added tabs. Now, I love tabs, don't get me wrong. Before I switched to Firefox, I would never have dreamed of loading/browsing 20 sites at the same time. IE would start coughing at 4, gasp for air at 8 and turn blue at 12. BUT, Microsoft nonetheless managed to royally screw the concept of tabs. Middle-click on a link, or close a tab, and you get a pause. Now, it's not too long a pause, depending on your computer, but it is a very painful pause that stops my scrolling. I middle-click, and I expect to keep browsing as though nothing happened. I want responsiveness. I want a browser that will let me browse. I couldn't care less that you removed the handy menu-bar for a supposedly cleaner interface. It doesn't matter to me that you have a zoom; if I wanted it bigger, I'd use the scroll wheel or the menu, and if I had the visual acuity of a dog, I would either have software for it or have added a stylesheet. Put them in, sure, but I want to browse, and for a small period of time every time I open (or close) a tab, you deny me my God-given right to scroll. For the love of all that is efficient, dsitribute the loading so I can surf freely.
3) Security. Let's ignore, for a moment, exploits. Let's ignore ingenious h4xx0rs (not hackers) finding new security flaws in the program. I'm sure we'll have a fanboy fight about whether this is due to its popularity, and I don't want spilt blood on blahbleh.com. Let's look at ActiveX. Microsoft sat down for a big thinking session, and made a zoning security system; any web app needs to be in the right "zone" (such as trusted sites) to access certain privleges. And they figured that nothing can judge malware like a human can, so they got little boxes that euphemise "Do you want your screen to be splattered with ads while we track what you do to give you even more ads? Yes/No" and ask the user what to do. The guy that made that system, the guy at Microsoft who created this brilliant, human-based system, must have "FGHJ" imprints on his forehead from slamming his head on the keyboard when he realised what he had done. The first thing you learn in Programming 101 is that the user is stupid. The kind of person to whom you spend half an hour explaining how to use the mouse. The kind of person who you would normally not trust with anything more advanced than a toaster. The last person you would want to give even more power to! It's like handing over a thermonuclear bomb to a monkey with a big red button, saying, "Don't press the big red button if it looks suspicious." Admittedly, things have changed with IE7, but you can't un-detonate a nuclear weapon, and IE7 is not without its flaws in any case.
In conclusion, if you see this beast of a browser, run away as far as you can from its Cthulu-like tentacles of doom to the caring arms of anything else. Firefox. Safari. Lynx, for the power users out there. Go retro with Mosaic if you like! Anything, anything that's not IE (or an IE wraparound. Same thing.).Posted 1:59 AM 11/6/2007 (1 year ago) in General, updated 10:07 PM 15/6/2007 (1 year ago) | Permalink | 1 comment
jsoptix - a revolution in Javascript optical system simulators
For all the optix freaks out there, I made a sim. Note that I intend to update this as I find time, so be sure to check back; refraction. predefined objects and possibly dispersion awaits! In the meantime, check the beta (and READ the INSTRUCTIONS) at:
jsoptix
off.my.turf
62 days! Sorry everyone, but I get easily distracted on long projects... Regardless, here's one I spent quite a few days on (not 62). Please, read the instructions! off.my.turf should keep you occupied for a second or two, while I attempt to whip out another game. Enjoy!
off.my.turf
pUll - another JS game
Been working on a game for the EGC3 game competition, so here it is. Very good graphics on Firefox. Opera too. Internet Explorer no. The only reason it works at all in IE was because I wanted you to at least be able to get the point of the game; the real thing's in Firefox. No ads too, by the way. Anyway, here it is:
pUll
More Floppies
Well... what else can you do with lots of floppies? Origami, perhaps? Ah, yes. Depite the countless hours it took to fold a material with the malleability of cold steel, I'll post my labour of love here. Click the link below for some fascinating floppy folding.
Click here for the rest of the article
Man Overboard, Seek Help
Ants. I have posted on them before, but they continue to amaze. Witness the grievous flocking of ants to their departed fellow in this modern art masterpiece, Man Overboard. I would have liked to use HDR, but taking a still photo of ants with no tripod is hard enough. Click for full view, as per usual.
Miniature crane
Been doing a fair bit of origami lately, so I thought I'd post this miniature crane. That coin (an Australian 20 cent piece) is about an inch in diameter, for comparison (I think... I'm not very good with Imperial). I also posted it on deviantART
Toggle CSS
PLEASE NOTE: I very, VERY strongly suggest that you use Mozilla Firefox if you are currently using Microsoft Internet Explorer. VERY STRONGLY! It will reduce your chance of receiving viruses and greatly increase your browsing experience. You may click below to install for free (and I get a cent or two to fund my site :D) Or download it from the Mozilla website. Your choice.