I started class a few weeks ago and in my Software Development course we are focused on making PC games. So to start playing with the language (GML) which is similar to JavaScript and our first project was to create a simple point and click game.

The obvious choice was something Doctor Who so here it is. The files included are my PSD comps, Game Maker file and the audio files used.

Features:

• Custom Cursor
• Custom Score Text and Title Bar
• Custom Text
• Help File

Download the Finished Game
Download Game Maker 7  Source and Resources

Please leave a comment with all comments/suggestions. There will be no Mac/web friendly version of this as of right now.

Have you forgotten a password that is saved in a program but you can’t find any hack to retrieve it?  Try this tool out Revealer.

Revealer works with Windows 2000,XP, Vista and 7 with most programs and can save you a lot of time scouring through old emails or asking annoyed colleagues.

First off, download the gTranslate PHP class and read about it. Now let’s start to play with it.

Let’s start off simple: Read the rest of this entry »

While shared hosts offer great service for little cost there can be problems with sites timing out when uploading large files or you would like to be in more control of your server a bit. Just change the value for site and you’ll be off to the races. There are some other values you can customize to your needs but only edit and use this script if you know what you’re doing. This was created so I could upload some large files over a 20MB line so if your connection is slower or would like to allow users with slower connections to upload such large files, toy with the time settings a bit till you find the proper values for your system & connection. I take no responsibility for anyone who uses this script, if you break your server contact support and beg them for help. Or ask me and I’ll see what we can do, cheers!

Onto the script! Read the rest of this entry »

If you use the Google Sitemap Generator Plugin for WordPress and receive the following error using WordPress 2.8+ you are not alone:

Warning: mktime() expects parameter 1 to be long, string given in/wp-content/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/sitemap-core.php on line 2438

A solution for this was posted in the WordPress forums and is posted below:

1. Find and edit the plugin file sitemap-core.php then go to line number 2438
2. Comment out the old line:

   • //return mktime($hour, $min, $sec, $month, $day, $year);

3. Then paste this on the next line:

   • return mktime(doubleval( $hour), $min, $sec, $month, $day, doubleval($year));

4. So the two lines should look like this:

   • //return mktime($hour, $min, $sec, $month, $day, $year);
     return mktime(doubleval( $hour), $min, $sec, $month, $day, doubleval($year));

5. Save the file and attempt to rebuild sitemap once more and this time it should work like a charm!

If you are in favor of defending net neutrality, enjoy solid uptime or want an alternative to Comcast here are two services I have used which work wonderfully.

AT&T U-verse

Great fiber optic package with combined internet, TV and VOIP services with solid uptime. AT&T is a corporate defender of net neutrality. They also have reasonable DSL speeds for lower cost and their tech support are some of the smartest I have been on the end of the line with. I previously had their Elite DSL package and regular phone while living in Costa Mesa, CA and never had the net connection drop once. Plus they allow you to run a web server out of your home if you feel so inclined. This is not the story with Comcast which can be helpful for setting a small gaming server or creating a local web server to show off updates on projects without having to upload to a development site or email links. This also allows your clients to see the most recent version of their projects, which my clients loved.

Verizon FiOS

True fiber optic connection until the fiber optic line hits your residence where the signal is converted to copper wires but it hauls and is well worth it. If I remember correctly for internet and VOIP services the bill came out to around $80 a month and once the ‘Spicoli’ installers replaced a bad conversion box it never went down and remained a solid service. I think with the TV services our bill would have rounded out to around $125 so its not a bad deal. Unfortunately, I had some issues using port forwarding for my home web server, Verizon does not support Net Neutrality (Obama does though) and their tech support is rather poor. But once things are setup its very self maintaining, just use your own router and use theirs to act only as modem.

So there’s this wonderful problem that came about with WinAmp and Google Talk. If you try to “Show current music track” in Google Talk while WinAmp is playing some music it will have a cardiac arrest, freeze up and force to CTRL+ALT+DEL it into oblivion. I tried logging into Google Talk via Gmail to change the status message to something else or even opening iTunes (which works wonderfully with Google Talk I would like to add!) just to get Google Talk to stop freezing up. I searched the internets and found some advice around forums and here is what I found that worked for me in less steps than were posted on almost all the forums:

Option 1:

1. Close Winamp and Google Talk (also any other music player type programs)
2. Download and run one of the following files:
   • For Windows Vista 32 bit (x86), Windows 7 32 bit (x86), Windows XP (x86) and earlier versions of Windows
   • For Windows XP 64 bit Vista 64 bit and Windows 7 64 bit versions
3. You’re Done! (hopefully)

Option 2:

1. Close Winamp and Google Talk (also any other music player type programs)
2. Go to the Start Menu (bottom left corner of your screen), click on “Run” and paste in the following: C:\Program Files\Winamp\ then hit Enter or click “Ok”
3. A new window will open and inside of this new window select “File” then “New” then “Text Document”
4. Change the new text document’s name to “winamp.m3u” and re-open Winamp and Google Talk

Hope this was helpful, cheers!

EDIT: 2010-04-20
I have added versions for 64 bit versions of Windows (XP, Vista and 7)

View Example
View Source Code

A simple vertical jQuery accordion with much room for growth. In future version I would like to use a few additional lines of JS to create a cleaner structure but even if only as an example this is a good start. I made a horizontal accordion as well but all things will be made public in due time.

This script creates a cooking and remembers which section was last opened therefore making it a great homepage piece or miniature site navigation.

Cheers!

Firefox is a priceless debugging tool for web developers. However, when it stops functioning properly, daily tasks & work become more complicated.

One day Firefox stopped asking if I wanted to restore my tabs when the program closed. After being annoyed for quite sometime I thought about restoring FireFox to its defaults settings.

Windows XP/2000/Vista:

firefox -safe-mode

“C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe” -safe-mode

OR

Start > All Programs > Mozilla Firefox (folder) > Mozilla Firefox Safe Mode

Linux:

/path/to/firefox/firefox -safe-mode

Mac OS X:

/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -safe-mode

Now, while it is true that somewhere along the way I may have inadvertently unchecked “No, don’t ask me again” the problem was nonetheless frustrating. So, if Firefox does not remember what tabs you had open before on closing it just follow those steps above.

That is unless you don’t want it to remember what tabs were open, browsing history, passwords, cookies, etc because you were looking at skeevy porn or browsing the Jars of Clay ‘Eternal Fanclub of best Friends Forever’, then you probably shouldn’t be using Firefox. Use Internet Explorer and get the viruses God intended your computer be infected with.