Tuesday, September 20, 2016

The best and most reliable 3GB hard drive

I need a 3GB internal harddrive. Looking through statistic data from BackBlaze, it seems that Seagate is the worst solution because of it HUGE failure rate. Yes the prices are good for this drive but you don't want a cheap drive that will fail after 2 years. Right?
The next brand with high failure rate is Western Digital.
Both Seagate and WesternDigital drive have price in the 100 euros range.
Toshiba has a much better failure rate.
But the winner is HGST. It has a significant higher price (126 euro) but totally worth it.

Friday, August 19, 2016

Top Windows, HTML 5, WYSIWYG HTML editors


Do you need a free web editor that supports HML5? I needed one and I really had to waste some time to review some. Here are the conclusions (and the conclusions only). NOTE: See the 2017 update at the end of the post!

BlueGriffon  
2015
Price:  Free or 70 euros: http://www.bluegriffon.org/#whatsinside
Comment: Seems robust and mature

Maqetta     
Discontinued may 2013, but still online
Price: free
Kit size: 86MB
Conclusion: Difficult to Install. Needs Java 6!

LibreOffice 
2015
Price: free

OpenOffice.org     2014
It only has a web page editor (not web site builder)

Dreamweaver 
2015
Conclusion: Nice but way too expensive!

Microsoft Expression 2012
(discontinued)

openElement  2014
Free
Kits size: 47MB
  
oXygenXML Editor 2015
Conclusion: not tested yet  

TOWeb  2013
Conclusion: not tested yet  

WebStorm IDE
2013
Conclusion: not tested yet 

Based on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_HTML_editors
______________

UPDATE 2017

Stormy Website Builder is the ultimate tool for building a web site (CMS). It has a beautiful WYSIWYG html editor. You can have a site up an running in only 4 minutes.
Stormy Website Builder wants to be a lightweight alternative for Joomla CMS.


Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Delphi is still in Top 20... barely

Delphi is still in Top 20... but barely. It is the last one. It may fall any time.
Too sad....


Saturday, August 6, 2016

Embarcadero finally decided to fix SOME bugs in Delphi


In the new road map, Embarcadero finally decided to fix SOME bugs in Delphi.

It seems good news but hold your horses:
1. They not always keep their promise related to the road map.
2. There are not so many bugs
3. They won't do all the fixes at once, but until 2018
4. Until 2018 another 500 new bugs (AT LEAST) will be introduced
5. We have to pay (not 59 bucks but HARD money) to get that non-buggy version of Delphi.

And in the end, what the fuck are we so happy that Embarcadero is fixing some bugs? Is not a present, a gift from heavens! Those bugs SHOULD NOT BE THERE anyway!

So, thank you Embarcadero for finally thinking to fix some bugs and FUCK YOU.

PS: In the next road map maybe you will introduce an item likes "free updates".

http://community.embarcadero.com/article/news/16418-product-roadmap-august-2016

Monday, August 1, 2016

Computer Virus that infects real-world DNA?



A computer code that is supposed to be able to infect DNA was found.
The corresponding article posted ~2.5 years, and some c++ codes.
Citation:
 The computer code, written in C++, hosts the DNA sequence of M.mycoides
 JCVI-syn1.0. At runtime it acts as follows:

 1) Preparing the DNA sequence of M.mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 in the memory,
    (with slightly modified watermarks).
 2) Encoding own file-content in base32. The base32 code is then encoded in
    JCVI's DNA-encoded alphabet.
 3) This representation of its digital form is then copied to a
    watermark of the bacteria's genome in memory. With this, a fully
    functional bacterial DNA sequence including the digital code is
    generated.
 4) Next it searches for FASTA-files on the computer, which are text-based
    representations of DNA sequences, commonly used by many DNA sequence
    libraries.
 5) For each FASTA-file, it replaces the original DNA with the bacterial
    DNA containing the digital form of the computer code.

 The code has a classical self-replication mechanism as well, to eventually
 end up on a computer in a microbiology-laboratory with the ability of
 creating DNA out of digital genomes (such as laboratories by the JCVI).
So could there really be a computer virus that infects DNA?
Virus code is here: http://pastebin.com/NiQc55rr

Answer:

It is NOT impossible for a computer virus to infect real DNA because 'artificial' life was already created from synthetic DNA by Craig Institute. Proof. That synthetic DNA coming from files that were generated in a computer. So, if the virus happens to be in the right computer, at the right time... But the chance is small.
However, in the next 10 years, that virus might be a real problem as every year it is more and more easy to create 'artificial' life.


IMPORTANT UPDATE!

I have found this comment in the C++ code:
// Encode own file into Craig Venter's DNA encoding language
It looks like this virus was designed expressly for Craig Venter! So the chances for this virus to work (affect real-world DNA) are even more realistic!!


Validity of the code

Less experienced people doubt the validity of the code. However, no proof was brought to demonstrate that the code might fail (and why). Though, I haven't spend hours to read the code line by line and thoroughly analyze it, I did pick a look at it and it seem sound and valid. The fact that the author of the code targets a very specific organization (that "happens" to generate DNA from computer files) tells us that he knows what he is doing.


Purpose

As somebody already brought to our attention, there is no purpose in creating this virus. But this is totally irrelevant to the original question. Even if the DNA virus will destroy the host cell and even if it won't be able to replicate in real world (and it won't) it is irrelevant. If in the right computer, the computer virus will pass from the virtual world to the real world, and this is OP's question (I think).


Conclusion

The question asked was: "can a computer virus could infect DNA"?. The question is ambiguous. If it refers to the DNA of some living cell the answer is no. HOWEVER, if the question refers to a human-created cell, the answer is YES. Craing Venter creates DNA from computer ('fasta') files. If one of those files happens to be modified or 'infected' by the computer virus then the computer virus will have effect in real world (the DNA synthesized by Venter will contain the code injected by the computer virus).

Friday, April 29, 2016

Is (Embarcadero) Delphi's code optimized for speed? No? Here is how to optimize string speed

The short answer is a big NO!

No the long answer:
Today I needed a function that will wrap a string (a contiguous block of characters with no spaces) after 80 characters. Not only that I have found SysUtils.WrapText unsuitable (it can only wrap text IF the text contains spaces) but it is also terrible slow.

So I build my own function:

function WrapString(CONST s: string; RowLength: integer): string;
VAR i, Row: Integer;
Begin
 Row:= 0;
 Result:= '';
 for i:= 1 TO Length(s) DO
  begin
   inc(Row);
   Result:= Result+ s[i];
   if Row >= RowLength then
    begin
     Result:= Result+ CRLF; 

     Row:= 0;
    end;
  end;
End;


Works nice but is is also slow. If you look into the code the problem is Result:= Result+ CRLF . It involves too many memory allocations.

Solution. The solution is to pre-allocate space for the result.
For this I created a new class TCStringBuilder:


TYPE
 TCStringBuilder = class(TObject)
  private
   s: string;
   CurBuffLen, BuffPos: Integer;
  public
   BuffSize: Integer;
   constructor Create(aBuffSize: Integer= 10*Kb);
   procedure AddChar(Ch: Char);
   procedure AddEnter;

   function  AsText: string;
   procedure Clear;
 end;



IMPLEMENTATION

constructor TCStringBuilder.Create(aBuffSize: Integer= 10*Kb);
begin
 BuffSize:= aBuffSize;
 Clear;
end;


procedure TCStringBuilder.Clear;
begin
 BuffPos:= 1;
 CurBuffLen:= 0;
 s:= '';
end;


function TCStringBuilder.AsText: string;
begin
 SetLength(s, BuffPos-1);                    { Cut down the prealocated buffer that we haven't used }
 Result:= s;
end;


procedure TCStringBuilder.AddChar(Ch: Char);
begin
 if BuffPos > CurBuffLen then
  begin
   SetLength(s, CurBuffLen+ BuffSize);
   CurBuffLen:= Length(s)
  end;

 s[BuffPos]:= Ch;
 Inc(BuffPos);
end;


procedure TCStringBuilder.AddEnter;
begin
 if BuffPos+1 > CurBuffLen then    { +1 because we enter two characters into the string instead of 1 }
  begin
   SetLength(s, CurBuffLen+ BuffSize);
   CurBuffLen:= Length(s)
  end;

 s[BuffPos  ]:= CR;
 s[BuffPos+1]:= LF;
 Inc(BuffPos, 2);
end;



Speed test:
  • 500x loop
  • test file: TesterForm.pas 2.7K
  • wrap after 20 chars
Speed test results:
  •   484ms  SysUtils.WrapText - unbuffered
  •   5788ms WrapString        - unbuffered (Result:= Result+ s[i])
  •   31ms   WrapString        - buffered (using cStrBuilder)

I used a buffer of 10K. but the ideal buffer size would be the size of the input text plus 3%.

Please let me know if you can further improve this. Enjoy.

____

Further reading:
https://www.delphitools.info/2013/10/30/efficient-string-building-in-delphi/2/

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Animated desktop wallpaper


BioniX Wallpaper Animator v3 is ready for download. That is great about this new version is that it is (should be) able to paint the animation UNDER desktop icons.

However, since we cannot test it on all Windows operating systems we need some help. If you can run it on any of the following systems please let us know the results.


Download link:
www.bionixwallpaper.com/downloads/Animated Desktop Wallpaper


Win 98 Win 2K Win Me Win XP Win Vista Win 7 Aero Win 7 Aero disabled Win 8 Win 10
? ? ? ? ? OI ? (should work) ? UI

Legend:
   UI = under icons
   OI = over icons
    ?  = unknown (not tested)

______________________________________

Plans for the next version:
  • Support for AVI files
  • Lower memory footprint



Friday, April 8, 2016

Three software programs that [used to] plague our computers: Acrobat, Java, Flash

There used to be three programs that really made our computer miserable. They were slow, bloated, intrusive and a  lot of security holes opened with them when you installed.



Java - Probably Java is the nastiest of all

Until few years ago you could not browse some web sites because some derailed 'web developers' decided to put some 'cool' animations and menus on their web site that required Java, forcing YOU to install Java, this way.
Now, Java is a really intrusive mammoth that starts at computer start up, installs background services, make your browser literary crawl eating A LOT of memory and keep wasting your Internet bandwidth by checking and downloading updates. And boy, Java needs updates because every 3-4 days a MAJOR security hole was discovered! And every security hole in Java is a security hole in YOUR computer.

ACTUALLY, Java is so dangerous for your computer that "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is advising people to temporarily disable the Java software on their computers to avoid potential attacks" floridatoday.com
It is so bad that Firefox won't even let you activate it.

I uninstalled Java maaaaany years ago from my computer and I vehemently refuse to install it. Not a single time! And many others like me have forced the web designer community not to use Java on their web site. Now probably less than 1 in 5000 web sites still have Java. So, you miss it a bit.



Acrobat Reader - Big deal for nothing

Adobe Acrobat Reader is basically a notepad. Its task should be to open a PDF file and show it on screen. It does this in such a bombastic way that 3 minutes later after Acrobat, but it is still crunching data, you forgot why you wanted to open that PDF anyway.

Same bubonic 'features' as Java: eats up lots or memory and disk space, invades you with background services, system tray icons and installs itself to run at computer start up.
Security wholes? Plenty.

Alternatives: Foxit PDF (once a decent and fast PDF viewer, now starting to step on exactly the same sick path as Acrobat Reader), Sumatra PDF. More about these Acrobat Reader alternatives.

And something else: Next time somebody sends you a PDF send him an email back and say "I politely request to send me the document as DOC or RTF. They are as good as PDF" then optionally sign: "Fuck you and best regards retard".



Adobe Flash Player

The Flash Player literary built and shaped the web as we know it. And this is not the web should be.
Firefox will also deactivate the Flash plugin when a MAJOR security whole is discovered. And boy, coming from Adobe, there are lots of those!
Flash is so wrong in every possible way: difficult to program, terribly slow (and I mean it), bulky and unsafe. But Adobe really pushed money into it so they managed to shovel it down to our throats. 

Alternatives: HTML5 - After all those years, the web community is finally coming to its senses trying to replace Flash with HTML 5, a major update of (too) old HTML. This change should have been done 25 years ago (which on Internet time-scale means 2 eons ago).

Most web sites already abandoned Flash and switched to HTML 5. So, it is not the time to turn off the Flash plugin in your browser and finally take a fresh breath of Flash-free Internet.

Also see "Flash is dying a death by 1,000 cuts, and that's a good thing" by TheGuardia.

Saturday, March 12, 2016

List of microcontrollers that can be programmed in Pascal (and Pascal-like) language


By micro-controller

Arduino
Lazarus?


Cortex-M3 and M4 ARM LPC - 39euro on Amazon
Oberon     Astrobe  (Windows)   


8051  
Turbo51 (Windows)


PascalLite - unspecified price
MicroPascal


Pic 10 to Pic 18 
Pic Micro Pascal


ATMEGA
MicroPascal Pro


XMEGA/XTINY from Atmel
MicroPascal Pro


Raspberry Pi projects (ARM v6/ARM11)
Lazarus


____________________________________________


By language





Pascal-scm for Atml
Amtel AVR(Arduino)


MicroPascal
Free



mikroPascal Pro 
$250
Supported micro-controllers:
Name
 
Pin Count
 
Program
Memory (KB)
CPU Speed
(Mhz)
RAM (KB)
 
AT90PWM161 20 16 16 1
ATMEGA3250A 100 32 20 2
ATMEGA325PA 64 32 20 2
ATMEGA6450P 100 64 20 4
ATMEGA6490P 100 64 20 4
ATTINY441 14 4 16 0.25
ATTINY841 14 4 16 0.25
ATXMEGA16E5 32 16 32 2
ATXMEGA32D3 64 32 32 4
ATXMEGA8E5 32 8 32 1
ATMEGA168PB 32 16 20 1
ATMEGA3250PA 100 32 20 2
ATMEGA3290A 100 32 20 2
ATMEGA645P 64 64 16 4
ATTINY1634 20 16 12 1
ATTINY828 32 8 20 0.5
ATTINY84A 14 8 20 0.5
ATXMEGA32C3 64 32 32 4
ATXMEGA32E5 32 32 32 4
AT90CAN128 64 128 16 4
AT90CAN32 64 32 16 2
AT90CAN64 64 64 16 4
AT90PWM1 24/32 8 16 0.5
AT90PWM2 24 8 16 0.5
AT90PWM2B 24 8 16 0.5
AT90PWM216 24 16 16 1
AT90PWM216 24 16 16 1
AT90PWM3 32 8 16 0.5
AT90PWM3B 32 8 16 0.5
AT90PWM316 32 16 16 1
AT90PWM81 20/32 8 16 0.25
AT90S2313 20 2 20 0.12
AT90S2323 20 2 20 0.12
AT90S2343 20 2 20 0.12
AT90S4414 40 8 16 0.5
AT90S4433 28 4 8 0.12
AT90S4434 40/44 8 16 0.5
AT90S8515 40 8 8 0.5
AT90S8535 40/44 8 16 0.5
AT90USB1286 64 128 16 8
AT90USB1287 64 128 16 8
AT90USB162 32 16 16 0.5
AT90USB646 64 64 16 4
AT90USB647 64 64 16 4
AT90USB82 32 8 16 0.5
ATmega103 64 128 6 4
ATmega128 64 128 16 4
ATmega1280 100 128 16 8
ATmega1281 64 128 16 8
ATmega1284 40/44 128 20 16
ATmega1284P 40/44 128 20 16
ATmega128A 64 128 16 4
ATmega16 40/44 16 16 1
ATmega161 40 16 8 1
ATmega162 40/44 16 16 1
ATmega163 40/44 16 8 1
ATmega164 40/44/49 16 20 1
ATmega164A 40/44/49 16 20 1
ATmega164P 40/44/49 16 20 1
ATmega164PA 40/44/49 16 20 1
ATmega165 64 16 16 1
ATmega165A 64 16 16 1
ATmega165P 64 16 16 1
ATmega165PA 64 16 16 1
ATmega168 28/32 16 20 1
ATmega168A 28/32 16 20 1
ATmega168P 28/32 16 20 1
ATmega168PA 28/32 16 20 1
ATmega169 64 16 16 1
ATmega169A 64 16 16 1
ATmega169P 64 16 16 1
ATmega169PA 64 16 16 1
ATmega16A 40/44 16 16 1
ATmega16HVA 28/36 16 4 0.5
ATmega16HVB 44 16 8 1
ATmega16M1 32 16 16 1
ATmega16U2 32 16 16 0.5
ATmega16U4 44 16 16 2.1
ATmega16U4 44 16 16 2.1
ATmega2560 100 256 16 8
ATmega2561 64 256 16 8
ATmega323 40/44 32 8 2
ATmega324 40/44/49 32 20 2
ATmega324A 40/44/49 32 20 2
ATmega324P 40/44/49 32 20 2
ATmega324PA 40/44/49 32 20 2
ATmega325 64 32 16 2
ATmega3250 100 32 16 2
ATmega3250P 100 32 20 2
ATmega325A 64 32 20 2
ATmega325P 64 32 20 2
ATmega328 28/32 32 20 2
ATmega328P 28/32 32 20 2
ATmega329 64 32 16 2
ATmega3290 100 32 16 2
ATmega3290P 100 32 20 2
ATmega329A 64 32 20 2
ATmega329P 64 32 20 2
ATmega329PA 64 32 20 2
ATmega32A 40/44 32 16 2
ATmega32C1 32 32 16 2
ATmega32HVB 44 32 8 2
ATmega32M1 32 32 16 2
ATmega32U2 32 32 16 1
ATmega32U4 44 32 16 3.3
ATmega32U6 44 32 16 3.3
ATmega406 48 40 1 2
ATmega48 28/32 4 20 0.5
ATmega48A 28/32 4 20 0.5
ATmega48P 28/32 4 20 0.5
ATmega48PA 28/32 4 20 0.5
ATmega64 64 64 16 4
ATmega640 100 64 16 8
ATmega644 40/44 64 20 4
ATmega644A 40/44 64 20 4
ATmega644P 40/44 64 20 4
ATmega644PA 40/44 64 20 4
ATmega645 64 64 16 4
ATmega6450 100 64 16 4
ATmega6450A 100 64 20 4
ATmega645A 64 64 16 4
ATmega649 64 64 16 4
ATmega6490 100 64 16 4
ATmega6490A 100 64 20 4
ATmega649A 64 64 16 4
ATmega649P 64 64 16 4
ATmega64A 64 64 16 4
ATmega64C1 32 64 16 2
ATmega64M1 32 64 16 4
ATmega8 28/32 8 16 1
ATmega8515 40/44 8 16 0.5
ATmega8535 40/44 8 16 0.5
ATmega88 28/32 8 20 1
ATmega88A 28/32 8 20 1
ATmega88P 28/32 8 20 1
ATmega88PA 28/32 8 20 1
ATmega8A 28/32 8 16 1
ATmega8HVA 28/36 8 4 0.5
ATmega8U2 32 8 16 0.5
ATtiny13 8/10/20 1 20 0.064
ATtiny13A 8/10/20 1 20 0.064
ATtiny167 20/32 16 16 0.5
ATtiny22 14/20 8 20 0.5
ATtiny2313 20 2 20 0.128
ATtiny2313A 20 2 20 0.128
ATtiny24 14/20 2 20 0.128
ATtiny24A 14/20 2 20 0.128
ATtiny25 20 2 20 0.128
ATtiny26 20/32 2 16 0.128
ATtiny261 20/32 2 20 0.128
ATtiny261A 20/32 2 20 0.128
ATtiny4313 20 4 20 0.128
ATtiny43U 20 4 8 0.256
ATtiny44 14/20 4 20 0.256
ATtiny44A 14/20 4 20 0.256
ATtiny45 20 4 20 0.256
ATtiny461 20/32 4 20 0.256
ATtiny461A 20/32 4 20 0.256
ATtiny48 32 4 12 0.064
ATtiny84 14/20 8 20 0.5
ATtiny85 20 8 20 0.5
ATtiny861 20/32 8 20 0.5
ATtiny861A 20/32 8 20 0.5
ATtiny87 20/32 8 16 0.5
ATtiny88 32 8 12 0.5
ATxmega128A1 100 128 32 8
ATxmega128A3 64 128 32 8
ATxmega128D3 64 128 32 8
ATxmega16A4 44/49 16 32 2
ATxmega16D4 44/49 16 32 2
ATxmega192A3 64 192 32 16
ATxmega192D3 64 192 32 16
ATxmega256A3 64 256 32 16
ATxmega256A3B 64 256 32 16
ATxmega256D3 64 256 32 16
ATxmega32A4 44/49 32 32 4
ATxmega32D4 44/49 32 32 4
ATxmega64A1 100 64 32 4
ATxmega64A3 64 64 32 4
ATxmega64D3 64 64 32 4
ATxmega128A3U 64 128 32 8
ATxmega16A4U 44 16 32 3.3
ATxmega192A3U 64 192 32 16
ATxmega256A3BU 64 256 32 16
ATxmega256A3U 64 256 32 16
ATxmega32A4U 44 32 32 4
ATxmega64A3U 64 64 32 4

Monday, March 7, 2016

How to definitively turn off the Foxit updater

The updater in Foxit is really annoying. And even if you turn it off via the GUI the updater application will still run in background. This will delay the main Foxit window start up.

So, here is the trick: the the updater to think that it already checked for updates:
Open the registry (RegEdit) to:

\\\Registry\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Foxit Software\Foxit Reader 7.0\plugins\Updater\LastDay

Edit the LastDay key and put a higher number. In my case, instead of 0518357,1447384350 I put 0618357,1457384350.

If you are lazy, here is the REG file script (copy/paste the text below in a text file and change its extension to .REG then run the file):

 _________________________
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Foxit Software\Foxit Reader 7.0\plugins\Updater]
"LastDay"="0618357,1457384350"
 _________________________

Now Foxit will start almost instantaneously.






Firefox, suck it!

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Adding Windows 10 to Windows' 7 boot menu

So, I installed Windows 10. I didn't liked it (at all) so I installed after that Windows 7 (on a different partition).
Now after 6 months I would like to see if Window 10 has improoved a bit, but Windows 7 won't show it in its boot menu. So, I cannot boot into Win 10 anymore.

Solution: bcdedit
Run the command prompt as administrator. Type bcdedit and it will show all installed operating systems (that it can recognize).

In my case (Win 7 primary, Win 10 'lost' partition) the output is this:


C:\>bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=K:
description             Windows 10
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
default                 {current}
resumeobject            {24334bef-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
displayorder            {current}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 0

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence        {24334bf1-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
recoveryenabled         Yes
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {24334bef-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
nx                      OptIn

As you can see the current OS is Windows 7 on C: partition.





First of all, make a backup copy of your boot entries, in case you fuck up something:

C:\>bcdedit /export c:\bdc_entry_backup
The operation completed successfully.




Then type the following command. It will add Win 10 (identified as 'bootmgr') at the list of available bootable OS's:


C:\>bcdedit /displayorder {current} {bootmgr} 

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=K:
description             Windows 10
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
default                 {current}
resumeobject            {24334bef-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
displayorder            {current}
                        {bootmgr}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 0

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence        {24334bf1-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
recoveryenabled         Yes
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {24334bef-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
nx                      OptIn


Done.
_________

More details about bcdedit here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff541231%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#editing_the_boot_menu_in_windows_vista_and_later