//inconclusive.insanity

I'm so used to using text editors to type up my thoughts and math...

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:19:09 -0700

but DAMN is it so much easier to just write it down by hand. :P

Hrm... is 15MBs too much for DOS? :P

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:21:48 -0700

Making a Minecraft launcher [for GNOME, using Fedora]

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 14:37:00 -0700

So. :D I just created a Minecraft launcher for Linux (for all users).

A small feat, sure, but it’s progress! I’M LEARNING THINGS!

(if you’re interested, read on for a ~~quick~~ excessively wordy, but simple tutorial on how)

First and foremost, you’ll need to download the latest minecraft.jar from here. You can place it anywhere, since we’re about to move it, so I just left it to download to the default Downloads directory (in your home folder).

Now, either crack into the .jar and find the Minecraft icon (which I can’t), or just go online and download one. Here’s a good place to look.

[Protip, when you download an icon, make sure to save it as something like minecrafticon.png, so it’s easier to find than, say, mine-cr23430-12zx34fe24234.png64x64x100billymays.png. Also, I don’t know if any file format other than .png will work (.svg might), so try to find one of those. ALSO, try to get one that’s 256x256x32… always better to scale up. BUT, figure out what your Desktop Environment uses… I’m using GNOME 3, which uses full-size 256x256 icons, hence my decision there. Point is, just be smart, adapt this tutorial to your needs.]

Now, got all that ready?

At this point, you’ll need sudo/root permissions. If you don’t have access to these… go figure that problem out yourself and come back later. :D

First things first! Let’s move that icon to the icons directory! Typically, this is found on /usr/share/icons, and is where I found mine, but if you aren’t sure, open a terminal and type:

whereis icons

This should show you which directory your icons folder is located. If so, let’s get moving! Using the copy (or move) command, let’s get that Minecraft icon where it needs to be… in the public icons folder! (And, if you aren’t root (which you shouldn’t be), you might as well switch over to root with the substitute user command for the remainder of this tutorial)

su
[root password]
cp /home/your-name-here/downloads/minecrafticon.png /usr/share/icons/minecraft.png

Tada! You should now see your brand-spanking new icon in the public icons folder!

Now, we’ll want to go ahead and move our minecraft.jar to it’s appropriate folder. (By the way, I prefer copying over moving, since if something goes wrong, you still have the original in a safe location.) I moved it to the /opt/ directory, since I noticed all my other 3rd-party installed games and packages ended up there. So…

cd /opt
mkdir minecraft
cp /home/your-name-here/downloads/minecraft.jar /opt/minecraft/minecraft.jar

…aaaaand blam-o! You just switched to the /opt directory, created the minecraft directory, and copied the minecraft.jar into a publicly accessible program directory! Go you! :D

Now, finally… to put it all together. You’ll need to find your application launcher folder, so unless it’s not in /usr/share/applications, bust out the whereis again and see if you can’t find it. If you’ve still no luck, just do a filesystem search for foo.desktop files (you’re looking for the folder that has a bunch of them in there). «Sidenote, click that link for a glimpse at what .desktop files are supposed to look like. You should have no reason to see this, but it’s a handy link, and is more for my reference anyway :D»

Once you get there, you have two options. One, you can either copy another .desktop file, open the new file, and edit it to your content, or you can just make a new file and add the appropriate values. If you’re going to copy a file (like I did), try to find a game or something similar… though any will do.

cp /usr/share/applications/pick-any-file-here.desktop /usr/share/applications/minecraft.desktop

Once you’ve got that down… time to bust open vi :D (note, you can use this next command for making a new file named minecraft.desktop too)

vi /usr/share/applications/minecraft.desktop

Once here, you’ll either see a file with lots of values that look similar to the one below, or you’ll see nothing. Either way, you want to make your file look something like this:

[Desktop Entry]
Categories=Game;ActionGame;AdventureGame;
Exec=java -cp /opt/minecraft/minecraft.jar net.minecraft.LauncherFrame
Path=/opt/minecraft/
Icon=minecraft
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Name=Minecraft
Comment=The world's most exciting block simulator!

(If you’ve never used vi before, try hitting the “I” key. I think any letter does it, but once you hit a key and start typing, it enters Insert mode, which lets you change things. When you’re all done with that, hit the Esc key to exit editing mode, then type:

:wq

”:” sends commands to vi (I think?), “w” stands for write (same as save), and “q” stands for quit.)

Tada! Your launcher should be working now! (If not, try running the command you’ve got listed under “Exec” in a separate terminal… if that works, your Path might be wrong (I accidentally had “minecraft.jar” as part of my Path variable). If it doesn’t work, either java isn’t working properly or you did something wrong).

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand… let the magic begin. :D

libpcre.so.3 == libpcre.so.0.0.1

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:19:00 -0700

If you try to install <things requiring libpcre.so.3> on Fedora, you might get an error about libpcre.so.3 not being found. To correct this, just symlink your /lib/libpcre.so.0 to libpcre.so.3, like this:

ln -s /lib/libpcre.so.0.0.1 /lib/libpcre.so.3

And reload your libraries with:

ldconfig -v

You don’t have to download that Debian version of libpcre, they just unilaterally chose to rename libpcre as version 3 for some reason, and because so many people use Ubuntu, it’s starting to creep into common usage.

Photo

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 23:48:24 -0600

suitep: Binta and her cubs, Joco and Zari, sniff a suspicious...

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:05:05 -0600

suitep:

Binta and her cubs, Joco and Zari, sniff a suspicious pumpkin filled with meat before tearing it to pieces at the zoo in Hanover, Germany.

thenextweb: DocScan for iOS will turn photos you’ve already...

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 12:55:00 -0600

thenextweb:

DocScan for iOS will turn photos you’ve already taken or new ones, and turn them into a worthwhile and professional scan in PDF format.

Once you’ve scanned your image, you can then save it as a PDF with DocScan. Saving them items lets you easily bring them back up again to email, upload to Google Docs, or post on Facebook. The easy upload to Google Docs feature alone makes DocScan worth the download.

(via DocScan is your mobile document scanner for iOS - The Next Web)

nerdology: This is insane. Ok, let’s get into it. K represents...

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:09:56 -0600

nerdology:

This is insane. Ok, let’s get into it. K represents potassium on the periodic table, and v is most likely velocity…

Photo

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:03:48 -0600

Almost done formatting... :D

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:34:00 -0600

…

…YAY! :D :D :D

aaaaaaaand, now to format the partition I’m actually going to be using. (silly installer).

Anyway, hi! I’m Rob. I’m a digital citizen (read: addicted to the internet), a gamer, a tinkerer, and a lover of all things. Oddly, as much as I love (and am addicted to) electronics and technology in general, I frequently go on walks through the forest and pretend life as we know it doesn’t exist yet. I despise capitalism, but am looking to climb my way up the ladder. And, I love the benefits of a well-thought out plan… but I love throwing it all to the wind just as much. :D

Now, why does this blog exist? Well, simply enough, the other day, a few friends and I were talking our typical banter, chatting, discussing, debating, and creating… when suddenly, one topic WILDLY led to another, and a billion-dollar idea was formed. Call me cocky… but I’m certain that if we see this through to the end, we could become the next big name in consumer electronics and entertainment. :D

But, don’t get me wrong… while money is definitely one of our motivating factors, we’re not necessarily looking to get rich. We simply had an awesome idea, and we want to see it happen. That… and there’s a few regular practices in our specific industry that we just don’t agree with. Armed with our ideas, we believe we can cast our product into the murky seas of money-making and reform the industry to work the way it should be: focused on entertainment.

Over the course of the next few months, you’ll probably see me rant about the industry (which I’m intentionally leaving out, for now at least, until we gain a better idea of what we’re allowed to say), go on tirades about technology that won’t agree with me (when I probably just skipped over a simple option, hah), and sketch out notes for myself (and possibly even you!).

If you know me, please, feel free to follow me! Don’t know me? Follow me anyway! :D However, just know that once my server is all set up (the very thing that’s reformatting right now), I maaay be migrating this blog to over there. I’ll post a link once it gets to that point, though. :]

[…aaaaaaagh, ONLY 7%? this’ll be a while… time for some quality gaming time? :D]

Ummm… yeah! Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch ya soon :)