Truben's Journal

Emulators in JavaScript!

admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:35:57 +0000

I have in the recent past been made aware that it’s actually possible to create emulators in pure JavaScript. Along with the “new” canvas-tag, it turns out that the newest and fastest web browsers actually manages to emulate old game-consoles in an impressive manner. Some even with sound!

Here’s a list of some emulators created in JavaScript:

JSGB – Nintendo GameBoy emulator
JSNES – Ninetendo 8bit emulator
JSC64 – Commodore 64 emulator
JSSpeccy – Sinclair ZX Spectrum

Unfortunately these emulators works best in Apple Safari and Google Chrome, but they’ll work in Firefox too, only slower.

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Brand new Latex Tools page

Brand new Latex Tools page

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:05:01 +0000

For about six months ago I made a JavaScript program that could help me to produce Bibtex entries. It has now been on truben.no for a while, and I have certainly benefited from it!

Two days ago I started to argue with Latex again, and this time it was because of how latex markup tables. Bacause of this I’ve created yet another javascript program that aims to help users with this issue. Check it out!

Do you have a feature request or other comments? Please leave feedback here!

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Stay away from this game!

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:09:10 +0000

I can honestly say that I very rarely play “Flash” games on the web. I typically think they’re too simple, and you’re rarely left with the feeling to have accomplished anything afterwards. This game is no exception. The problem with that is that it has managed to lure me to play it over and over again. 316 times to be exact.

I lost two hours of my life. If you don|t want to suffer the same fate as me, I advise you to stay away. Can you do it? Not? Thought so!

(Click on the image above to start the game)

Here’s what I accomplished:

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How to run Windows 3.1x in Dosbox using D-Box

admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:54:24 +0000

Today I tried to run good ol’ Windows 3.1x using D-Box. I was impressed by how easy it was to get it running! So please feel free to follow along this set by step instructions!

Get D-Box and Windows 3.1x.
If you have the diskettes for Windows, copy all the files to a directory on your hard drive. If you’ve downloaded a ISO file, extract the files to a directory on your hard drive (MacOS and most Linux distros have built-in support for ISO, just double-click on the icon, and drag the contents into a folder on you hard drive. Windows users can use WinRAR.)
Start D-Box, and drag the file Setup.exe from the Windows directory to D-Box’ application list. Click the OK button a few times.
Select the newly created item in the application list in D-Box with your mouse, and right click on it to get a pop up menu. From this menu click on “Edit Game”. In the new window, drag the slider under “How fast would you like the computer” as far right as it gets. Click OK.
Double click on the Windows application item in D-Box’ application list. Follow the setup’s installation steps. The defaults are good. Do not try to change the screen resolution. Leave it at VGA. Don’t bother with the network settings either.
When the installation is finished close the Dosbox window and return to D-Box. Once again, get the Edit game window (same procedure as in step 4), and change the text in the field Executable to:
```
WINDOWS\WIN.COM
```
and click OK.
Now you may use Windows 3.1x on your new super computer, and play, not only DOS games, but also 16bit Windows games! To add a new Windows game, just copy the files to the folder where you left the Windows 3.1x installation files.

Update: Do you want sound or better graphics?

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D-Box 2.2

admin — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:50:39 +0000

After 3 months of work I’ve released D-Box 2.2. It’s a quite large update, although the versioning doesn’t indicate it. Check out what’s new here, and grab your own copy here. It’s possible to skin D-Box 2.2, so it’s possible to get the old D-Box 2.1 look back if it’s more your cup of tea.

D-Box 2.2

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Auto hide tab-bar in Mozilla Thunderbird 3

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:27:03 +0000

Today Mozilla launched a new version of it’s fine e-mail client Thunderbird. Thunderbird 3, as it is called, includes a lot of new features, such as a very quick search, great integration with Spotlight, and tabs. Tabs is a feature that we generally associates with browsers such as Firefox and Safari, but it’s actually very useful in an e-mail client as well. If you for example double-click a message, it will open in a new tab. Searching will also bring up a new tab.

The problem with tabs in an e-mail client, is that you generally don’t need them for a longer period. In Firefox I usually have 10 to 15 tabs open at all times, but in Thunderbird I usually stick with one. Since the tab-bar takes up quite a lot of valuable horizontal space, it would make sense to hide the tab-bar when you don’t need it. Firefox has a nice feature called “auto hide”. It makes the tab-bar disappear when the window only have one tab open. I’ve browsed through Thunderbird’s settings window, but haven’t found anything similar. Fortunately, I’ve found a “hidden” setting that allows you to turn on auto-hiding.

Here’s how:

Open Thunderbird’s Preferences window (Tools -> Options on Windows, Edit -> Preferences on Linux and Thunderbird -> Preferences on Mac)
Click on “Advanced”
Click on the “Config Editor” button (which is under the “General” tab)
Search for “mail.tabs.autoHide”
Double-click on the setting so that it becomes “true” (and the font changes to bold)

Voilà!

The Configuration Editor in Thunderbird

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D-Box 2.2 Beta

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:18:11 +0000

Prepare for the new D-Box 2.2! It is simply amazing. Trust me! Some of the changes are:

The application data are saved at more sane places
Built in support for screenshots (very easy to browse them and to set one as the application’s icon)
Much work to make D-Box fit better on OS-X
Support for custom themes (if you i.e. want to have the old D-Box look on Mac)
No DosBox console by default
GUI for choosing between icon and text, just text or only icon display in application list
Automatically check for new versions
And a lot more!

This is, by far, the best release yet, but to make sure it keeps up to my expectations I’ve decided to arrange a little beta period. So take it for a spin, and leave some feedback in the comment field!

D-Box 2.2 on Mac

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New D-Box Page

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:07:45 +0000

D-Box logo

Now that I finally managed to release D-Box 2.1, I’ve dusted off an old project: Creating a new and exciting product page for the application. I think it’s at least a bit cooler than the old google style page, and hope you feel the same:) It isn’t exactly an encyclopedia of fact, but it contains the most useful stuff. I will still keep the old page, but just for developing and wiki related stuff. Thanks to Gisle it now has it’s own subdomain under the truben.no umbrella.

Take it for a spin! – dbox.truben.no

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D-Box 2.1 Released

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:48:25 +0000

I have just released D-Box 2.1, my front end for DosBox. Take it for a ride!

D-Box 2.1

It has, among many really usable features, a cool new look called “Floppy Flow”. Although it’s highly experimental, it’s worth trying:) Access it by pressing the Prefrences icon (the gear in the toolbar) and select “Flow View”.

Other new stuff:

New improved popup menu
Upgraded internal DOSBox to 0.73
You can change the application-list’s icon size in the preferences dialog
New expert mode: You can now change every single configuration that DOSBox provides using a new expert mode.
Only writes the application-list to disk when you quit the program -> Increased performance
D-Box caches icons for increased speed
Possible to drop folders. D-Box will search for correct files
Possible to drop multiple files or directories
Support for DVORAK keyboard layout (US only)
Possible to add a label to a CD-ROM drive
Double speed on game list reading
Changed keyboard acceleration key to run a game to Enter
Lot of refactoring and rewriting of rotten code

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wisdomTeeth.length() == 0

admin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:59:16 +0000

This morning I had my final wisdom teeth (or mandibular third molar if you prefer) removed. Not surprisingly, my mouth has seen better days. Thanks to Ibuprofen for making the day better

Me & Ibuprofen

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