Samuel Gomes

Permanently overclocked my NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT (Dell Inspiron 1520)

2011-04-03T18:08:00.001+05:30

I seem to be on a Video BIOS flashing spree. First my Radeon HD4670, and now my GeForce 8600M GT. Well, I thought of breathing new life to my ageing Dell Inspiron 1520 and here is what I accomplished...

I downloaded an overclocked version of the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT BIOS from techPowerUp. After a few hours of research I came to a conclusion that 490 MHz core clock and 490 MHz memory clock should be stable on this system. For some strange reason Dell used DDR2 memory for the video cards on the Inspiron 1520 which severely bottlenecks the performance. Overclocking the memory and the GPU can do wonders. I downloaded the Windows version of the NVFlash tool from techPowerUp and flashed the OCed video BIOS.

Permanently overclocked my Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4670

2011-03-30T07:09:00.001+05:30

Permanently overclocked my Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4670! How? Ripped the video BIOS using GPU-Z. Downloaded a factory OCed BIOS for a Sapphire HD4670 (Core Clock 775 MHz, RAM Clock 1000 MHz) from techPowerUp. Opened both BIOSes using RBE (Radeon BIOS Editor) and copied over the original BIOS identifier to the downloaded one. Adjusted fan speed setting in the new BIOS to linearly scale with the temperature. 0 C : 0% speed - 100 C : 100% speed. Save the new BIOS and flashed it using ATIFlash. Restarted system. Result: Old GPU Core Clock = 750 MHz, New GPU Core Clock = 775 MHz. No overclocking software required. Damn thing overclocked in hardware! Did not stop there though. Enabled AMD OverDrive in CCC and set the damn thing to auto-tune. Turns out the card is stable at CC of 790 MHz and RC of 1130 MHz. Finally called it a day!

Using Threads in Visual Basic

2011-02-07T06:46:00.001+05:30

Threads in Visual Basic are not commonly used because of complexity. In a 32 bit Windows environment (talking about Windows 95/98/NT) it has become a necessity to use more than one thread for each process. But is it true that creating threads in Visual Basic is tough? Not really! Visual Basic has its own feature of simplifying Windows 32 bit API calls. Think about a long backup procedure, which needs to be intervened in case the user wants to suspend or stop the backup procedure. If you have not implemented a separate thread for this copy purpose, you will not be able to stop the process until and unless you kill the process forcefully or you restart your machine (Windows 95 non-OEM versions might show endless blue screens). This is not a good idea for a professional grade application. Therefore let us talk about creating threads.
We will look at creating free threading model (and not apartment model of threading) in Visual Basic using the 'CreateThread' Win32 API call. Those who are familiar with creating Win32 applications using Visual C++, will be able to recognize this little function which helps in creating a new thread within a process very easily. In Visual Basic, it is also pretty easy to create a thread. I will take a look at the example code ExCopy (which is supplied with this article). This code is used to break a long file into several small 3¼-inch high-density floppy disks (similar to what you see in WinZip utility). An independent thread handles the copy process. Therefore you can see that during the copy process, you can easily move the ExCopy window.

How the thread is created:
Let us have a look at the following function written in the example code…

'StartCopy
'Thread creation helper function
Public Function StartCopy(clsObject As clsExCopy)
    Dim NewThreadID As Long
    Dim Threadhandle As Long
    Dim Param As Long

' Free threaded approach
Param = ObjPtr(clsObject)

    'Create a thread with no security attribute but
    'with default stack size and default creation flag
    Threadhandle = CreateThread(0,_
        0, _
        AddressOf ThreadFunction, _
        Param, _
        0, _
        NewThreadID)

    If Threadhandle = 0 Then
        ' Return with zero (error)
        Debug.Print "Unable to create the free thread"
        Exit Function
    End If

' We don't need the thread handle
CloseHandle Threadhandle

'Return the created ID
StartCopy = NewThreadID
End Function

This public function is used to create the thread. StartCopy takes only one parameter of clsExCopy type. The class clsExCopy is defined in the ExCopyFile_IO.cls module. This class is used to copy data to the disks. You should call the StartCopy function with a valid clsExCopy class object. For example you might want to call this function when the user clicks on 'Start' button…

Private Sub StartBtn_Click()
    'Create a new Thread object
    If ExCopyObj Is Nothing Then
        Set ExCopyObj = New clsExCopy
    Else
        Set ExCopyObj = Nothing
        Set ExCopyObj = New clsExCopy
    End If

ExCopyObj.bStopNow = False

'Create a new thread
StartCopy ExCopyObj

'Can not click on Start now
StartBtn.Enabled = False
End Sub

Therefore you are passing an object value to the StartCopy function. In this function the Win32 API CreateThread function is used to create a new thread.
Now take a closer look at the call to this function.
The first parameter is actually a pointer to the SECURITY_ATTRIBUTE structure. We are passing zero to avoid any security feature.
The second parameter is used to represent the stack size of the newly created thread. We are passing zero to let Windows Kernel determine the stack value.
The CreateThread function uses the third parameter as a function pointer, which it calls when the thread is created. The third parameter uses the 'AddressOf' unary operator which returns the pointer to a function (acceptable by the API). Therefore AddressOf ThreadFunction will return the actual pointer to the function 'ThreadFunction' which does the Win32 API very well accept.
The fourth parameter is used as a pointer to the arguments passed to the function mentioned in third parameter. Visual Basic has a function ObjPtr which returns the pointer to memory object which I have used to pass as a parameter to the function ThreadFunction.
The fifth parameter is used to specify how you want the thread to behave. For example you may set the thread priority of a particular thread to a higher value by specifying THREAD_PRIORITY_ABOVE_NORMAL to this parameter. This is a bit field where several options can be OR-ed.
The CreateThread function returns the thread identification value in the sixth and the final parameter.
The StartCopy function returns the handle of the thread which you can destroy using the CloseHandle Win32 API call after the thread is successfully created. Destroying this handle does not destroy the thread. This merely frees the handle associated with that thread.
The CreateThread function returns immediately after it creates the thread. The newly created thread runs as an independent thread.
As you have noticed that we have passed a pointer the function ThreadFunction to the third parameter of CreateThread function, let us see what it looks like…

'ThreadFunction
'The thread entry point
Public Function ThreadFunction(ByVal Param As IUnknown) As Long
    Dim clsObject As clsExCopy
    ' Free threaded approach
    Set clsObject = Param
    clsObject.ExCopy
End Function

Pretty small, isn't it? ThreadFunction is used to call a method (ExCopy in this case) from the clsExCopy class. This function accepts parameters as IUnknown which represents the basic interface supported by Visual Basic COM layer. The value from this parameter is copied to a clsExCopy class object. Remember that once you go out of this function, the thread is destroyed.
This is all about creating multiple threads in Visual Basic. Remember to create the project as 'ActiveX EXE'. The rest of the example code deals with form controls and the copy technique (in clsExCopy). This way of creating a thread is called 'Free Threading', which is not supported by Visual Basic COM/DCOM layer. Visual Basic COM/DCOM uses either 'Single Threading' model or 'Apartment model' threading. But free threading models are very fast compared to Apartment model threading which uses marshalling technique to transport data between two objects. Anyway we will discuss about this approach later.

Article by:
Samit Ray
Consultant
Price Waterhouse Associates (P) Ltd.
Samit_Ray@india.notes.pw.com SamitRay@cal.vsnl.net.in

BSP Trees

2011-02-07T01:28:00.002+05:30

This article explains how BSP (binary space partitioning) trees can be used in
a game such as DOOM as part of the rendering pipeline to perform back-face
culling, partial Z-ordering and hidden surface removal.
To explain the use of BSP trees, it is best to start with an example. Consider
a very simple DOOM level.
     A---------------------------------a----------------------------------B
| |                                                                    | |
| |                                            y                       | |
d1 |                                                                    | b1
| |                               f'                                   | |
| |                                                                    | |
     |          C--------------------f-----------------------D            |
| |          |                                            |            | |
| |          |                    f"                      |            | |
| d          |                                            |            b |
| |          |                                            |            | |
| |       e" e e'                                     g' g g"        | |
d2 |          |                                            |            | b2
| |          |                                            |            | |
| |          |                                            |            | |
| |          E                                            F            | |
| |                              x                                     | |
| |                                                                    | |
     G---------------------------------c----------------------------------H
      ----c1---- ----------------------c2-------------------- -----c3-----
The level consists of a room within a room. The player cannot go outside of the
area within the square ABHG.
First some definitions (sorry :-)
The _vertices_ are marked A-H, the _faces_ are marked a-g.
We define a _line_ by using an ordered pair of vertices, so that
      a = (A,B) e = (E,C) f = (C,D) g = (F,D)
We say a point is to the _left_ of a line if it is to the left of the vector
between its two vertices, taken in order.
So, in the above example, nothing is to the left of line a; everything is to
the right of it. Note that this depends upon our definition of line a, and if
we had defined a = (B,A) then everything would be to the left of line a.
A _face_ is a side of a line which is visible to the player. Wall e above, for
example, has two faces (marked e' and e"). Not all walls have two faces - if
the player can never see one side of a wall it only has one.
A face is fully defined by an ordered pair of vertices and an ordered pair of
faces - a left face and a right face.
The BSP tree for the example above might look like this:
                     f
                    / \
                   /   \
                  /     \
           a,d1,b1       e
                        / \
                       /   \
                      /     \
                 d2,c1       g
                            / \
                           /   \
                          /     \
                        c2       c3,b2
Each node contains a line. Everything to the left of that line is in the left
subtree, and everything to the right of that line is in the right subtree.
Note that face d is neither completely to the right of nor to the left of face
f. To accommodate this, we split it up into two halves, and put one half into
the left subtree and one half into the right subtree. Thus, we have to generate
new faces in order to build the BSP tree.
I will explain how the BSP tree is created later. Firstly, I will give the
algorithm used to render a picture using the tree.
Suppose the player is standing at position 'x', and looking North.
We start at the top of the tree at line f. We are standing to the right of line
f, so we go down the LEFT of the tree. This is because we want the furthest
polygons first.
We come to the left-hand-most terminating node. We write down the faces here
in our notepad. "a,d1,b1".
Since we've come to a terminator, we back up a level. Back to the top, but we
have to go down the right subtree yet. Firstly, though, we look at face f - the
deciding face for this node. We've got everything behind it in our list, we've
yet to look at anything in front of it, but we must put it into our list.
Note that face f has two sides - f' and f". Since we already know we're on the
right of line f, we know that we can only see its right side - so we write
f" in our notepad. It now says a,d1,b1,f".
Note, though, that if we were looking south (i.e. our line-of-sight vector
points away from face f) then we could not see either face f or anything on
the other side of face f - in this case, we just don't bother going any further
down the tree.
Now we go down the subtree and come to node e. We are on the right of e, so we
go down the left subtree and get a terminal node - we just write d2,c1 in our
notepad.
Back up, decide on which side of e to put in. We decide e'. The notepad now
says a,d1,b1,f",d2,c1,e'.
Down the right subtree to node g. We're on the left, so down the right subtree
to c3,b2, up, check g (we're on the left = g'), back down to the final node,
get c2, up, up, up, and we're done.
The notepad ends up saying:
a d1 b1 f" d2 c1 e' c3 b2 g' c2
If we draw these walls, in this order, then we will get the correct scene. I
would recommend using a one-dimensional Z-buffer to get finer granularity than
the painter's algorithm provides, before plotting the walls. Note also that
some walls are behind you - however, since you need to calculate their z
coordinates for the perspective transform, you can merely discard faces with
negative z values.
Creating the BSP tree
---------------------
The BSP tree almost creates itself. The only difficulty is knowing when to stop
recursing. Notice that the terminal nodes are just put into the list - so a
sufficient condition for a group of faces to form a terminal node is that they
can be drawn in a set order without any mistakes occurring in the drawing. That
is, if wherever the player can stand, the group of walls will never obscure
each other.
So let us begin: Choose face f (the choice is fairly arbitrary - it is best
to choose faces which don't split many other faces up. However, in this case
it is unavoidable). Split up faces d and b, because they straddle the line f.
(The line you are splitting along is known as the _nodeline_ in DOOM-speak).
Then put everything to the left of f in the left subtree, and vice-versa:
                            f
                           / \
                          /   \
                         /     \
                  a,d1,b1       b2,c,d2,e,g
We can terminate the left node - because walls a,d1 and b1 form a convex
shape, they can never overlap each other from any point of view. However, on
the other side, face e can obscure face d2 from certain viewpoints (our example
viewpoint above, for one) so we divide along side e. This causes side c to be
split, but side a is not split because it's not in our current list of sides.
The next level is:
                            f
                           / \
                          /   \
                         /     \
                  a,d1,b1       e
                               / \
                              /   \
                             /     \
                        d2,c1       b2,c2,g
Now, c1 and d2 never overlap, so we have another terminal node. We next divide
along line g, splitting c2 into c2 and c3, and the last nodes are terminals
(a node with one face in is always terminal :-).
This is the basic idea behind a BSP tree - to give an example how effective it
is, consider standing at point y and looking North. Because you're looking
away from face f, you don't bother recursing down the entire left subtree. This
then very quickly gives you the ordered list of faces: a,d1,b1.
Refinements
-----------
If at each node we define a bounding box for each subtree, such that every line
in a subtree is contained by its corresponding bounding box, then we can cut
some invisible polygons (ones which lie to the left or right of the screen) out
by comparing each bounding box with the cone of vision - if they don't
intersect, then you don't go down the whole subtree. DOOM does this, allowing
it to store an *entire* level in one huge BSP tree.
Here's some pseudo-code to traverse the tree. The function left() returns TRUE
if the second input vector is to the left of the first input vector. This is
a simple dot product, and by pre-calculating the slope of the nodeline can be
done with one multiply and one subtract.
vector player                         ; player's map position
vector left_sightline                 ; vector representing a ray cast through
                                       ; the left-most pixel of the screen
vector right_sightline                ; the right-most pixel of the screen
structure node
{
vector vertex1
vector vertex2
node   left_subtree
node   right_subtree
face   left_face
face   right_face
box    bounding_box
bool   terminal_node
face   terminal_node_faces[lots]
}
recurse(node input)
if (cone defined by left and right sightlines does not intersect the node's
    bounding box)
return
fi
if node.terminal_node
; terminal node - add faces to list
add(node.terminal_node_faces)
return
fi
if left(vertex2-vertex1,player-vertex1)
; player is to the left of the nodeline
if not left(vertex2-vertex1,right_sightline)
    ; sight points right - we are looking at the face
    recurse(node.right_subtree)
    add(node.left_face)
fi
; now go down the left subtree
recurse(node.left_subtree)
else
; player is to the right of the nodeline
if left(vertex2-vertex1,left_sightline)
    ; sight points left - we are looking at the face
    recurse(node.left_subtree)
    add(node.right_face)
fi
; now go down the right subtree
recurse(node.right_subtree)
fi
return
end recurse
This isn't anywhere near a decent implementation - the data structures, for
example, leave a *lot* to be desired :-)
It should be possible to encode all the functions inline; in fact, it would be
feasible to take a BSP tree and hard-code it into some run-time generated code
which you just call to recurse the tree ... but I'm just a hacker at heart ;-)
Anyway, I hope this helps answer some peoples' questions on this subject. If
you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to email me.
Catch you later,
Eddie xxx
ee@datcon.co.uk
===========================================================================
Official Archimedes convertor of : Hear and remember, see and understand,
Wolfenstein 3D and proud of it!! : do and forget.
=================================: Something like that, anyway.
         ee@datcon.co.uk         ==========================================

Let Us 'C'

2011-02-07T01:12:00.004+05:30

struct Indian_female_professionals {
    double styles;
    short skirts;
    long time_to_understand_problems;
    float mind;
    void knowledge;
    char non_co-operative;
}

struct married_females {
    double weight;
    short tempered;
    long gossip;
    float hopes;
    void word;
    char unstable;
}

struct engaged_females {
    double time_on_phone;
    short attention_on_work;
    long boast;
    float on_cloud_nine;
    void understanding;
    char edgy;
}

struct newly_married_females {
    double dinner_invitation;
    short time_at_work;
    long lunch_break;
    void bank_balance;
    char hen_pecked;
}

struct Indian_husband_wife_professionals {
    double income;
    short tempered;
    long time_no_see_each_other;
    void love_life;
    char money_making;
}

MacOS X on regular Intel compatible hardware

2011-02-07T01:11:00.002+05:30

I think MacOS X running on regular Intel hardware is a great idea. Just think about the kind of interoperability that would offer. I guess I am biased because I think from the developer's point of view (being a developer myself). If MacOS X is able to run on regular Intel compatible hardware, then it can become as popular as Windows is today. And that would give developer motivation to write the same software the write for Windows. Just think about it. Today the best games come for the Windows platform first and then they are PORTED to the Mac. Now, since the Mac is using regular Intel compatible hardware, developers can target both platforms at the same time. Besides if MacOS X runs for regular Intel chips it also means it would run on those sexy AMD chips (which I am a great fan of). Compare to those many OSes out there, the MacOS X really stands out. Take a look. UNIX like core (Darwin), stability, features, performance, looks, it has it all. Not many people can afford the costly (albeit great) Mac hardware. So this would be a real big thing. If I were to rate all those Desktop OSes out there, my rating would go like this (earlier the better): 1. Windows 7, 2. MacOSX, 3. Haiku, 4. ReactOS. Sorry I am not a Linux fan due to the bitter experience I had with it and lack of standardization.

Edit: This post was written nearly 5+ years ago and was moved over from Windows Live Spaces to here.

Legacy Free PCs

2008-11-16T16:42:00.004+05:30

Many people don't know it, but today's PCs--including the system you're using right now--contain elements that have hardly changed at all in the last 20 years. Yes, CPUs are faster, hard drives are bigger, and RAM banks are larger. But in many fundamental ways, your PC isn't very different from the PCs of two decades ago.
Although some of the system elements have been modified over time, almost everything in your PC is a direct lineal descendent of the IBM PC AT--a seminal design that still shapes PC architecture two decades later.
In many ways, the PC's hardware consistency over time has been a good thing, a stabilizing force in the otherwise rapidly changing world of computing. It's been a huge positive for businesses and users because this consistency has made many peripherals completely interchangeable. For decades, we've been able to mix and match printers, keyboards, mice, monitors, scanners, modems, and more, largely without regard to the brand of PC.
Hardware standardization also has helped the bottom line by driving down prices: System and peripheral vendors have had a vast and uniform market from which to draw supplies, and to which to sell products, resulting in the commodity-level pricing that's behind today's amazingly low hardware costs. Overall, the PC AT's legacy has been an enormously positive one.
But it also has had a downside, principally in retarding innovation and slowing hardware advancements. The installed base--that is, the mass of existing, older, in-use hardware--acts like a giant speed brake on the computer industry because businesses and users are loath to give up older equipment that's still functional, even if newer designs would perform better or faster. As a result, new technologies tend to emerge piecemeal and more slowly than they would if hardware vendors could make a clean break with the past.
There's even a joke that made the rounds of the computing industry awhile ago: "Why was God able to create the universe in only seven days? Because he didn't have an installed base to deal with."
Despite this backward drag from the installed base, the Grail of many hardware engineers has long been a totally "legacy free" PC that can employ only fully modern, state-of-the-art, high-speed components and architectures. Such a PC would be faster, more compact, more reliable, and less expensive, as well as easier to manufacture and maintain.

- Fred Langa

The IBM PC shipped in 1981 -- over twenty years ago. The PC offered various expansion capabilities, including a parallel port, a pair of serial ports (on a separate card), and a keyboard port. It also supported a 5.25" 160KB single-sided floppy disk. The 8-bit PC/XT bus slots were expanded to 16-bit ISA slots in the PC/AT in late 1984. Later, IBM shipped the PS/2, whose enduring legacy in the PC universe today is a pair of compact connectors for the keyboard and mouse, and the 3.5" 1.44MB floppy drive.
Recently, I dug out an old Northgate Omnikey keyboard that's been gathering dust in my storage area. It's at least ten years old. I plugged in a PC-to-PS/2 keyboard adapter. It still works. This type of backwards compatibility has been the great strength of the PC over the years, but it's rapidly becoming an Achilles heel. Various factors have kept these anachronisms in place, such as corporate IT shops that need to support parallel and serial ports, or users with a pile of floppies that contain valuable data. We've even seen an ISA slots in a few new systems. And no doubt the Super I/O chip is still using ISA signaling to support legacy I/O.
So it's no surprise that a company like Apple Computers can push interesting new technologies into their hardware and software more quickly than PC manufacturers. But the buzz over the "legacy free" PCs is starting to heat up. It began several years ago, with both Intel and Microsoft encouraging PC makers to move away from legacy connections. Back then, the pleas fell mostly on deaf ears, but it's beginning to look like the industry is ready. Dell is starting to ship USB keyboards, Gateway will pay you to delete the floppy drive, and at least one component company -- ABIT -- is shipping a line of "legacy-free" motherboards.
What do we mean by "legacy" here? Specifically, we're talking about a set of I/O options that have been part of the PC architecture for a long, long time.
If you look at "legacy-free" meaning a system that eliminates the entire kit and caboodle of this table, then we're still several years out. PCI and AGP will be around for at least two more years before PCI Express surfaces in force. Even then, don't expect systems to get rid of PCI slots anytime soon. Parallel IDE hard drives will probably be around for a couple more years, but will gradually give way to Serial ATA. Similarly, parallel SCSI will yield to serial-attached SCSI.
Actually, we shouldn't forget that the VGA port is also a legacy standard. In fact, VGA hardware is the only remaining piece of hardware that interacts directly with Windows. There is a move afoot to eliminate VGA, called the Universal Graphics Adapter or "UGA". The firmware-based UGA functionality will be accessible via a UGA driver built into the next version of Windows, codenamed Longhorn. If the graphics chip makers consider removing VGA at that time, we could be completely legacy-free.

- Loyd Case

Did you know that the latest Intel Macs are actually "Legacy Free PCs"? In case you do not believe me, do a Google search for any Intel Mac's hardware specifications.

Why a Legacy Free PC?
Three words... simplicity, stability and evolution.

How can we define Legacy Free PCs now? Here is an overview:

Must Have

x86-64 Processor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64

EFI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Firmware_Interface

PCI-Express
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI-Express

USB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB

SATA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA

Must Not Have

BIOS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS

ISA Bus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISA_bus

PCI Bus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_bus

AGP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port

Serial Ports
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ports

Parallel Port
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_port

PS/2 Ports
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS/2_connector

VGA Port
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vga_port

Floppy Disk Controller
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk_controller

Game Port
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_port

Indeed, as system designers are freed of the constraints of the past, we'll likely see radical PC designs that will not only be faster, smaller, and better than today's designs, but that will make the traditional beige-box PC seem positively antiquated. And I, for one, can't wait!

Running Blood 2 on Windows Vista x64

2008-05-14T17:30:00.004+05:30

I would like to share my experiences running Blood 2 Chosen and Nightmare Levels on Windows Vista x64. First off the both game installers use 16-bit installer stubs because of which it does not allow you to install the game directly on 64-bit Windows (32-bit Windows should work fine). Anyways, I installed both games and the patches inside Microsoft Virtual PC on Windows XP 32-bit. Then I moved the full game folder out to Windows Vista x64. If you are using 32-bit Windows, you should not face the same problem. To my surprise mostly everything worked out of the box except the music. I cranked the game to it's highest settings and ran it a 1280x960. It looked good for it's standard. But I was missing the music. So I started examining the files. The game uses Microsoft IMA (Interactive Music Architecture - old form of DirectMusic). Then I loaded the game in Dependency Viewer and start profiling it. I found that the Music failed to work due to a missing function "DirectSoundCreate" in the DLL "dslite.dll". Having done some DirectX programming before, I quickly figured that this is a mini version of the DirectSound library. The file that depends on "dslite.dll" is "am18.dll" that you will find in the Blood2 directory. I quickly opened "am18.dll" in a binary editor ("edit.com /72 am18.dll" works good) and binary edited the string "dslite.dll" to "dsound.dll" and saved the file (always remember to be in overwrite mode - this will not change the DLL file size and structure; do not overwrite other parts of the DLL). Then I fired Bood 2 and voila! Everything worked... even the music. :)

Edit:
Find the hacked AM18.dll file here.

Funny, but real spoken english!

2008-02-18T15:24:00.003+05:30

In Tamilnadu, there is a well known person by name, Mr. Jeppier, Chairman of Sathyabama deemed university and some more self financing colleges who always speaks in English. That college students have collected & published a book by name "Jappier's Spoken English". Now, here are some classic English sentences from the great "Jappier's Spoken English".

# At the ground:
-----------------
All of you stand in a straight circle. There is no wind in the balloon. The girl with the mirror please comes her... (i.e. girl with specs please come here).

# To a boy, angrily:
--------------------
I talk, he talk, why you middle middle talk?

# While punishing students:
---------------------------
You, rotate the ground four times... You, go and understand the tree... You three of you stand together separately. Why are you late - say YES or NO .....(?)

# While addressing students about Dress Code: (he is very strict about this)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Every body should wear dress to college.
Boys no proplum.
Girls are pig proplum. (pig=big)
Girls should wear only slawar no nitee.

# Sir at his best:
------------------
Sir had once gone to a film with his wife. By chance, he happened to see one of our boys at the theatre, though the boy did not see them. So the next day at school... (to that boy) - "Yesterday I saw you WITH MY WIFE at the Cinema Theatre".

# Sir at his best inside the Class room:
----------------------------------------
Open the doors of the window. Let the atmosphere come in.
Open the doors of the window. Let the Air Force come in.
Cut an apple into two halves - I will take the bigger half.
Shhh... Quiet, boys... the principal JUST PASSED AWAY in the corridor.
You, meet me behind the class. (Meaning AFTER the class.)
Both of you three get out of the class.
Close the doors of the windows please. I have winter in my nose today...
Take Copper Wire of any metal especially of Silver...
Take 5 cm wire of any length....

# Last but not the least some Jeppiar experiences...
----------------------------------------------------
Once Sir had come late to a college function, by the time he reached, the function had begun, so he went to the dais, and said, sorry I am late, because on the way my car hit 2 muttons (Meaning goats).

# At Sathyabama college day 2002:
---------------------------------
"This college strict u the worry no .... U get good marks, I the happy, tomorrow u get good job, jpr the happy, tomorrow u marry I the enjoy".

# At St. Josephs college of engineering fresh years day 2003:
-------------------------------------------------------------
"No ragging this college. Anybody rag we arrest the police "

Enjoy this English, but don't forget your English!!! :)

Modding your K750i phone to a W800i

2007-09-16T15:49:00.000+05:30

Warning: Do this at your own risk!

This blog explains how you can mod your Sony Ericsson K750i to a Sony Ericsson W800i or just replace the worn out K750i chassis.

Tools that you will need:

Small Philips screwdriver

T6 Torx screwdriver

A small blunt (plastic) knife/shim to pry stuff

Watch this video for further details (sorry audio is in chinese):

The AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor Operational Modes (also applies to Intel chips with EM64T)

2007-08-31T06:56:00.000+05:30

Legacy Mode: Legacy mode is what the processor defaults to in basic 32-bit software. If you run a 32-bit Linux or Windows installation you’ve been running in legacy mode; if you’ve looked at any performance benchmarks it should be obvious that not only is the AMD Athlon™ 64 processor more than happy to run this way, it delivers excellent performance while doing so.

Compatibility Mode: Compatibility mode is designed for a 64-bit processor that still needs the capability to run 32-bit applications. The AMD Athlon 64 processor is capable of this natively, which eliminates the need for 32-bit emulation on the hardware level.

Long Mode: True 64-bit Long Mode is intended for a native 64-bit OS environment where the application is also running 64-bit. Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is capable of using both modes, and the AMD Athlon 64 processor is capable of switching between 64-bit Long Mode and Compatibility mode from within the 64-bit OS.

Why Move to 64-bit?

If 32-bit systems offer excellent performance now, why move to a 64-bit OS at all? It’s a question with a multi-faceted answer, depending on your needs.

Increased Memory Addressing: Standard 32-bit computers have a 4 GB limit on addressable memory. 64-bit computing offers a memory address limitation measured in exabytes that will open this potential bottleneck for years to come.

Increased Computational Power: The AMD Athlon™ 64 processor adds an additional eight General Purpose Registers and eight 128-bit streaming SIMD extension (SSE) registers. Using a 64-bit OS opens these for application-usage for the first time. Increasing the raw computation capability of the processor in turn opens the door to increased visual detail in games, unprecedented scientific modeling, and stronger performance across a wide range of applications.

No Performance Penalty for Running in 32-bit: Unlike computer platforms that emulate 32-bit or x86 compatibility, AMD64 architecture can execute such commands natively. The advantage to this is that even legacy 32-bit code is delivered with no performance penalty. When running in a 64-bit OS, Microsoft’s WoW (Windows on Windows) 64 mode allows the chip to natively access programs; in a 32-bit OS such as Windows XP (standard), no such operating mode is needed. This is in direct contrast to other 64-bit designs, which require emulation (and take a massive performance penalty for executing 32-bit x86 operations).

Moving to 64-bit will not universally improve performance in all applications and test suites, but it won’t degrade performance either. This logically translates into a scenario where the “worst case” possibility is performance equality, and the best-case is a significant performance boost. For end-user, corporation, or major business server, this is a universal win.

This information was taken from a document on http://www.amd.com

Windows XP Product Key Finder

2007-07-15T18:35:00.000+05:30

' Windows XP Product Key Finder
' Copy text and paste it in a vbs file and run it.
' Code found by SaM. EnJoY!
' We work in the dark. We get what we want.

Public Function sGetXPCDKey()

Dim bDigitalProductID
Dim bProductKey()
Dim bKeyChars(24)
Dim ilByte
Dim nCur
Dim sCDKey
Dim ilKeyByte
Dim ilBit

ReDim Preserve bProductKey(14)

Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

bDigitalProductID = objShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId")

Set objShell = Nothing

For ilByte = 52 To 66
bProductKey(ilByte - 52) = bDigitalProductID(ilByte)
Next

'Possible characters in the CD Key:
bKeyChars(0) = Asc("B")
bKeyChars(1) = Asc("C")
bKeyChars(2) = Asc("D")
bKeyChars(3) = Asc("F")
bKeyChars(4) = Asc("G")
bKeyChars(5) = Asc("H")
bKeyChars(6) = Asc("J")
bKeyChars(7) = Asc("K")
bKeyChars(8) = Asc("M")
bKeyChars(9) = Asc("P")
bKeyChars(10) = Asc("Q")
bKeyChars(11) = Asc("R")
bKeyChars(12) = Asc("T")
bKeyChars(13) = Asc("V")
bKeyChars(14) = Asc("W")
bKeyChars(15) = Asc("X")
bKeyChars(16) = Asc("Y")
bKeyChars(17) = Asc("2")
bKeyChars(18) = Asc("3")
bKeyChars(19) = Asc("4")
bKeyChars(20) = Asc("6")
bKeyChars(21) = Asc("7")
bKeyChars(22) = Asc("8")
bKeyChars(23) = Asc("9")

For ilByte = 24 To 0 Step -1
nCur = 0

For ilKeyByte = 14 To 0 Step -1
'Step through each byte in the Product Key
nCur = nCur * 256 Xor bProductKey(ilKeyByte)
bProductKey(ilKeyByte) = Int(nCur / 24)
nCur = nCur Mod 24
Next

sCDKey = Chr(bKeyChars(nCur)) & sCDKey
If ilByte Mod 5 = 0 And ilByte <> 0 Then sCDKey = "-" & sCDKey
Next

sGetXPCDKey = sCDKey
End Function

Public Function Question()

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Dim Ans

Ans = MsgBox("Yes = Write Windows XP Serial key to the C Drive and No =
Prompt with Serial key",4)

If Ans = vbYes then

Set oOutFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile("c:\XP_Serial_Key.txt")

oOutFile.WriteLine sGetXPCDKey
else
wscript.echo sGetXPCDKey
End If
End Function

call Question

' Script ends here

Get the script here.

Change Office 2007 Key without reinstalling

2007-07-15T18:28:00.001+05:30

1. Close all Microsoft Office applications.

2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.

3. Locate the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Registration

Note You may also find another subkey that resembles the following subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Registration\{91120000-0011-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}

4. If you find additional subkeys that reference Microsoft 12.0 registration, open each subkey, and then identify the product by the ProductName entry.
For example: ProductName=Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007

5. When you find the subkey for the product from which you want to remove the existing product license key, delete the following entries:

o DigitalProductID

o ProductID

6. Exit Registry Editor.

The next time that you try to run an Office application, you will be prompted for a new product license key. Then, you can enter the product license key.

Hit the "Install Now" button and you Office app, will be updated with the new key. After updating you can activate your Office app, without reinstalling it.

A feeling which I had long forgotten

2007-07-11T21:16:00.003+05:30

Today after much though, I realized what is actually bothering me. Well, "bothering" would be the incorrect word to use in this context because I believe that I have once again fallen in love! And that too with the person I never expected to fall in love with... a very good friend. I realized that I was missing something after moving away from her and then I realized that I was missing her (a lot). It happens all the time... we never care for things which we can easily avail, but once those things become hard to get we come to know its worth. I never imagined myself falling in love again after I crashed and burned at my first attempt which was very painful to say the least. And now once again I am treading on the same path and guess what... I can't see what's ahead! I guess I would have never felt this way about her unless she allowed me to, so she too must be having some idea about how I feel about her. I guess I should confess to her about my feelings soon before it gets deeper in my head. Love is good and bad at the same time. It gives you that awesome feeling and the same time make you a worthless piece of s**t. So baby here I come and you're going to tell me if "I am in" or "I am out"!

Feedback Please

2007-07-11T20:16:00.000+05:30

I would like to formally announce that right now I am working on my very own website. Please visit http://gomes.samuel.googlepages.com/
I need feedback and support from all you guys out there.

P.S.: It is still a work in progress.