lolz i fooled you

Because I didn’t post for so long you probably think I’m going to post a lot today but I didn’t haha.

Ha.

Service Pack 3; and trouble with gdi32.dll

Glad I got this one sorted out. I thought I was a goner here.

The problems started right after I installed Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. A restart was required, and just after the Windows XP screen with a shunting blue bar, I get a BSOD. And not a classic BSOD either, a simplistic one, with a few lines on the top. The message said that an error, c0000139 had occurred because gdi32.dll did not have an entry (it was a posh word) of GdiGetBitmapBits or something like that.

I panicked at first.

After that procedure, I booted into my Kubuntu 8.04 KDE 4 Remix. Here I lousily tried to get the Internet connection working, to no avail. I really need to get rid of that goddamn distro. I shut down and thought calmly of my next moves.

I made a quaint search for the file called gdi32.dll and found several instances of it, littered all across the Windows folder. I replaced the ones from the backup folders (called $NTUninstall or something like that) into the default locations. No progress.

I tried a few disks I had in the CD storage, but my PC wasn’t identifying most of them, including the Windows XP disk for which I actually paid some cash. I was clueless and amidst a torrent of disks, BIOS options and Linux without the Internet.

Then I remembered and found my Ubuntu 7.04 disk, which I had fortunately burned to a CD-R. That was good. It ran without a hitch and I got to the Live CD interface. The Internet was not working, most likely because of a server issue. I tried the earlier maneouvre of replacing the file, and again nothing worked. But had some hopes now, with a distro I knew will not disappoint.

And then, after about 5 attempts to do something, or pretend to do something, I managed to get the Internet working. With an oversized resolution and eye-killing fonts, I scrambled into Google and searched it up. The solution was ridiculously simple. It was something I was going to try right before I saw the Internet got connected. I swear.

1. First, find an OS or a medium that will let you copy, paste and overwrite files. In my case, this was a Linux Live CD (*kisses Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn CD*)
2. Next, we go to Windows/ServicePackFiles/i386 and copy the gdi32.dll file.
3. Go to Windows/System32 and paste it there.
4. Go to Windows/System32/dllcache and paste it there.
5. Restart the computer and hope that nothing got screwed up.
6. Party like a geek who has never been invited to a party before.

Right now, the PC has the really ugly Luna theme. It looks unsually brighter than the last time I saw it. It seems that my uxtheme.dll got killed during the upgrade. No worries, now. Rafael here has an excellent collection of fixed uxtheme.dll files for every system imaginable.

Come to think of it, everything does seem a lot more excruciatingly bright… I also don’t see my nVidia and sound controls in my tray. Curse you Microsoft!

Morrowind Impressions

After some suggestions, I decided to give Morrowind a shot. I can say this, that the game can very well be the game that will bring me back to the hardcore gaming that I’ve missed for the last year or so. It is definitely immersive, bombarding you with fiction from an alternate world of fantasy that can arguably be said to be as good as Tolkien’s Middle-Earth.

The biggest problem I first faced with Morrowind was the scale of the game. Morrowind is no ordinary RPG, as anyone with any knowledge of Bethesda Softworks will point out. It is more of a setup, a base for your RPG adventure, which you construct from the actions you undertake. That is, perhaps, the beauty of the game. It has a story, from what I can make out, but the level of freedom is astounding.

A second problem, one that I still have would be that of speed. The PC appeas to move at a lethargic rate, often making going through hallways a very long process. Running causes the PC to get fatigued, which is regenerating. I would personally have preffered at least the running speed to be the minimum walking speed, with an extra ‘Sprint’ functionality, like in Half-Life. Now that it’s on my mind, I really do miss Half-Life’s speed and fluidity of movement.

I love the writing in the game. It is way above the standard RPG fare. The game world is populated by what appears to be at least a hundred different books, each of which either dispense information on the massive game world, or tell a short story, or both. The book aesthetics also make reading a pleasure, and the journal in the game is perhaps the most lovely I’ve seen.

Sound is top-notch, with crisp sound effects, atmospheric sound and a beautfully magnificent soundtrack. It’s really the sort found in movies. Graphics look great as well. Considering the volume of the game, the graphics make a great compromise between performance and appearance, but allow almost no customization - you have to stick with what you get. The water looks exceptionally gorgeous, albeit seems to lack smoothness.

Morrowind is, in every definition of the term, epic. It’s a game you can never completely play in-and-out. But it sure as hell is awesome all the same. I appreciate Bethesda’s efforts in this: they have a truly respectable style of video games.

Tetris: The Movie

Don’t know if I posted this before or not: if I did, this deserves a repost. It’s like nearly the greatest thing ever. When I become a great billionaire, I shall fund these guys to ensure that the film is completed.

While nobody seems to be saying it, I think it’s a spoof of Speed Racer - the ripped off storyline and the visual style being examples.

Mr. Funny Man

Planescape: Torment running into IRQL trouble with atapi.sys

Finally giving up on Neverwinter Nights for what should rightfully be the very last time, I have installed Planescape: Torment as per Emperor Devon’s prescription. He has promised me a terrific and thought-provoking storyline. The graphics are better and more bearable than Fallout as well, so there’s not an issue there.

I got the 2-CD version, which I’m loading with Nero ImageDrive. After a smooth install, I load the second disk and start playing. The game impresses me right from the start - it has a unique environment, a very intriguing one at that. Great graphics that balance 2D and 3D and much better sound than I had expected. Probably what I like best about it is that the conversation text is large, verbose and easily readable as opposed to the pain-in-the-butt Neverwinter Nights and Fallout.

The problem is, the game seems to crash at random times. It restarted my computer twice, so I disabled that feature in Windows XP. Now I’m presented a scrumptious blue screen that is, in Microsoft tradition, incomprehensible.

The only clues I could gather from it were that it involves “DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL” and atapi.sys. Research tells me that it atapi.sys is related to CD/DVD drives. That would mean the problem can be traced to Nero ImageDrive, which must be having some sort of compatibility issues with Planescape. I’m going to disable it right now, and do a “full install” of Planescape.

This is an unofficial method and from what I gather, works something like this:

1. Copy the CD’s contents to a folder on your hard drive.
2. In the Torment.ini file in your game folder, change the CD2 entry to the path of the CD’s contents. It should be directed to the “cd2″ folder in your CD copy’s folder.

While I have a feeling this isn’t going to work, I still have my fingers crossed. While typing this. Damn I’m good at this.

Concept: Mood-based Music Player

The idea is simple. After generating a music library, the player allows for a mood-based play function. With a keylogger and some sort of a device to scan any visible text or tags on the screen. The songs in your library are tagged (or auto-tagged, with title and artist info, or imported from Last.fm). The tags are then matched and the dynamic library is generated at a rapid refresh rate.

The result? If I’m reading a page on war, I’ll hear Montségur or Paschendale. If I’m entering a lot of expletives in my input, an angry, dark song will play. With calmer, easy pages we have calmer, easy songs.

May be a lot of effort, though and I doubt if anyone will trust a music player with a keylogger and an on-screen information cache.

Security Holes

It’s getting dark

You miss the pristine waters of the stream, glittering in the last rays of sunlight. They go giggling between the eroded and smoothened pebbels that mark the banks and bottom of the lonely stream. You see the trees, dropping the load of light off of their heavy shoulders, letting the last thin threads of orange-yellow rays through their thin leaves.

You hear the rustling of the fallen leaves beneath you, their crunch almost delectable, yet guilt-inducing. You smell the air unpolluted, that which has never been contaminated with human breath for as long as the Maker left it untouched. There is a nostalgic loneliness in them, that makes you stop and open your heart out.

You want to drop on the carpet of autumn’s leaves as the breeze weaves through the woods. As the blooms end and the sunlight is now peeking over the horizon. It is looking back at you one last time, saying goodbye, before it disappears. Twilight follows. It consoles you, takes you in its bosom and cradles you to a sleep.

You close your eyes to the solitary rustling on leaves, as they shiver off of branches, or fly over your soul. Perhaps through you now, because you feel so invisible. You feel so free and yet more chained down than you ever were. You feel like the world is in your stride and you are in its.

You settle into slumber, and let the winds sing you the night’s final lullaby.

Hammerheart

I’ve always regarded Bathory’s Hammerheart as one of my all-time favourite songs. With a profound, reflective meaning and a heroic choir, the songs stirs emotions like no other. It breaks convention while not sounding too alien, and is definitely, in my honest opinion, Bathory’s finest.

I remember first downloading Hammerheart on the day Quorthon died - a truly sad, sad day for Metal. Quorthon was the one-man inventor and maverick of genres like Black Metal, Folk Metal and of course, Viking Metal. This one song seemingly summarizes him perfectly and almost connects you with his soul, almost as in necromancy, without the darker connotations.

I sing in chorus for this one every time, to remember Bathory always. These are some of my most favourite lyrics ever.

Now that the wind called my name,
And my star had faded now hardly a glimpse up in the empty space.
And the wise one-eyed great father in the sky stilled my flame.

For the ones who stood me near,
And you few who were me dear,
I ask of thee to have no doubts and no fears.

For when the great clouds fills the air,
And the thunder roars from O, so far away up in the sky!
Then for sure you will know that I have reached the joyous hall up high.

With my blood-brothers at side,
All sons of father with one eye,
We were all born in the land of the blood on ice.

And now you all who might hear my song,
Brought to you by the northern wind have no fear,
Though the night may seem so everlasting and forever dark,

There will come a golden dawn,
At ends of nights for all ye on whom
Upon the North-star always shines.

The vast gates to hall up high,
Shall stand open wide and welcome you with all its within,
And Oden shall hail us bearers of a pounding Hammerheart.