The best kind of patch is a free upgrade

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008

Reading GMNews, regarding No GM Patches, left me absolutely dumbfounded at how far off the mark they are regarding their editorial opinion.

MarkUp 13 & No GM Patches?

For the record, I do prefer editorial opinion, and not just news, when reporting. But, let’s have a little accuracy, thoughtfulness and reason, when publishing our commentaries. This blog post shows none.

An interesting and valid point this issue brings up has to do with YoYo Games’ (and I would say also Mark Overmars’) inability to patch current/previous versions of Game Maker to correct security or performance flaws.

So far YoYo Games has yet to show any evidence of working on a patch for Game Maker 7 that could render the current decompiler tool inoperable or at least help prevent or secure the executables from such exploits.

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The GM Decompiler

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

It was bound to happen eventually.

A somewhat, fully featured Game Maker decompiler has been released into the wild. It’s kinda happened before. Other decompilers have been released, but they were limited, didn’t work all that well, basically hacks.

This one is different, it’s well written,  decompiles GM 5.x, 6.x and 7, it can also be used to expose extensions. And the GMC community is spooked. Everyone is panicking, and many are trying to be heroes by thwarting the decompiler. Wasted efforts.
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What’s your favorite bible verse?

Monday, October 15th, 2007

A few weeks ago the Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate, moderated by Tim Russert was on.

In the closing minutes Russert asked:

RUSSERT: Before we go, there’s been a lot of discussion about the Democrats and the issue of faith and values. I want to ask you a simple question.

Senator Obama, what is your favorite Bible verse?

He then gave all the candidates an opportunity to respond.

The very question disgusts and saddens me.

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Voting Dread

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

Today in Ontario, are the provincial elections. Added to the ballot was a referendum on electoral reform.

The referendum was to change the current system, to a new system where the boundaries are redefined, and then after the election, members are added to ensure that the house represents the voters wishes proportionately.

This was a no-brainer for me. The very idea of politicians in office that are not elected is repulsive. There isn’t enough accountability now. We need more accountability, not less.

The MMP change was rejected soundly.

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GM Server programs

Tuesday, September 25th, 2007

The following topic showed up on the GMC yesterday:

Run A Gm Program As Server On A Real Server, Did someone try ?

I read it this morning, was on my way to work and therefore didn’t have time to post. Later, when I went back to contribute, to my disappointment it was closed.

@CyberTwister:
You should not be running your server program from an interactive session, you should be starting it as a service.

To install your program as a service, use the Instsrv.exe utility available on the Server 2003 Resource Kit.

If you still encounter problems, then check the event viewer for messages as to why the program failed.

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GMC idiot of the week

Tuesday, September 25th, 2007

This entry could very well could be called “idiot of the day”, or even “idiot of the morning”, “afternoon”, “hour”, etc. I just don’t have the energy to keep up with the prolific posts that are constantly appearing. Plus, I just loose way to much blood from banging my head on the keyboard, reading what they have to say.

I struggled with the decision of actually linking to their post, or just writing a quick management precis. For now, I’ll just summarize. Of course some gems might just be to good to pass up, with out a link.

Today, I’m not talking about any single idiot, but rather a certain breed of idiot. These are the guys who think that after somebody has answered their topic, the topic should be closed or removed. These guys haven’t yet figured out that once a topic is answered and people stop responding it will gracefully descend down into the forum abyss, where all the other topics go to die. It’s a natural process.

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Dick measuring

Thursday, September 20th, 2007

Today, for a few brief periods the Canadian dollar trade briefly higher than the US dollar.

The last time the Canadian dollar was worth more than it’s US counterpart was November 15th, 1976. Almost 31 years ago. Oddly enough, that was also the night René Lévesque, and PQ, his separatist party, were elected in Quebec.

Reactions are funny.

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My Day

Tuesday, September 18th, 2007

Today was my Birthday.

About two months ago, I got a notice that my OHIP card and drivers licence card were expiring and I needed to get new photos. They expire on you birthday. Add to that my yearly car licence tag expires on your birthday as well.

Naturally I procrastinated, so here I am today, scrambling to renew my OHIP, drivers licence and tag. Luckily I had a break between 12:00 and 4:00.

Drove home, scrambled all over the house looking for the documentation from OHIP and Ministry of transport. Looked up all the supporting documentation I would need. Now started looking all over the house for my passport, birth certificate utility bill. I didn’t want to miss anything and have to wait in line at OHIP again.

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