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| Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - - Posts by Rydain |
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Rydain Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42  Posts: 463/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours |
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Originally posted by HyperHacker Windows taskbar functionality falls into multiple categories and many of the alternative interface styles use different features to handle each, so I'll address the types of functionality separately. Launching applications Root menu - This menu appears when you click on the desktop. Enlightenment, Xfce, and Blackbox have this. (It's probably in other minimalist window managers as well.) Enlightenment and Xfce's can be hierarchical like the Windows Start menu. (Blackbox's probably has that feature too, but I've never messed around with it, just seen Rando use it.) Dock-like icons - You can put these on Xfce's launcher panel. Each icon can have an optional popup menu attached to it, which can be a helpful space saver. For instance, you can put your browser, email client, LiveJournal client, etc. underneath a single INTARWEB icon. Hiding and keeping track of windows Loads o' desktop space - This and a taskbar are not mutually exclusive, but I'm going to mention it anyway because it gives you options for managing your stuff that can make a taskbar less important (or, in my case, just plain useless). At work, I find that the Windows 2000 taskbar is essential because I usually have a buttload of stuff full-screened and it all overlaps, so it's easiest to click on an item in the taskbar when I need to bring it to the front instead of trying to dig it out from underneath a bunch of other crap. With four desktops on my home machine, I have plenty of space to spread out applications that take up tons of screen real estate. For instance, Firefox is on my main desktop, and I have a text editor on the second and Gimp on the third. I know where everything is, so instead of using a taskbar to get to various applications, I just switch desktops. Iconbox - Think of this as a storage chest for your windows. You put things in the box and then retrieve them when you want to use them again. Enlightenment has one by default. Xfce has an optional one (which can also function in a more taskbar-ish sense if you tell it to show all open applications - I don't do this because I don't need to know where everything is at all times). Menu - In Blackbox, when you hide a window, it disappears, and you select it from a menu to get it back. |
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Rydain Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 464/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours |
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Generally speaking, sending something to the iconbox works just like minimizing it in Windows. You click the appropriate icon on the window's title bar (or select the appropriate option from the menu you get when right-clicking the title bar), and there it goes. Xfce can be configured so you can minimize a window by double-clicking the title bar, too. I wouldn't be surprised if Litestep has an iconbox feature...but it would be nifty to be able to replace the taskbar with one without having to install an entirely different shell.  Minimized applications in Blackbox are accessed through the Workspace List entry of the root menu. Middle-clicking on the desktop brings up the workspace list by itself. (Interestingly enough, I just discovered that middle-clicking does the same thing in Xfce as well!) I forgot to mention that many window managers allow you to shade windows, which works just like the shade feature in Winamp. This is another method of saving screen real estate and temporarily getting things out of the way. |
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Rydain Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 465/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours |
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| Some of the following have been ported to OS'es and environments other than the common Unices (for instance, there's a Cygwin port of Xfce), but since they're mainly developed for *nix, I'm going to list 'em anyway. My two favorite window managers are Enlightenment and Xfce. As I explained in the window manager thread, I like Enlightenment's GUI paradigm and I like how Xfce can be configured to behave in much the same way. They can both be made to look polished, which is important to me because I like to work in a perty environment. My terminal emulator of choice is Eterm, mainly because of the pertiness factor. Most terms have a boring black or white background, but Eterms can be transparent (well, sort of - it fakes it by copying the desktop background, but it still looks nifty) with a specific tint and shade, and they are themable as well. Mine is set up with blue-tinted transparency and a brushed metal theme. I first discovered Eterm over three years ago, and I wouldn't be surprised if other nice-looking terminal emulators have been developed since then, but I haven't felt like messing around with any of the unfamiliar terms because Eterm works for me. If it ain't broke... mplayer fricking rules. It uses third-party DLL's to play virtually any sort of movie file in existence, including the latest versions of Windows Media files, and it works very, very well. You can run it from the command line or with an optional themable GUI. |
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Rydain Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 466/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours |
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| This collection of movies depicts someone finishing Majora's Mask in six game days. That is, after doing minimal requirements in the very beginning (and some glitching for $$$), they went back in time and beat the game during a single 3-day period. They started from the part where you talk to the mask salesman and get the Song of Healing and did everything from then on out. As you may guess, they didn't get all the masks, but they did beat the game with quite a bit of time to spare. Basically, they completed tasks in an optimal order instead of beating each area in sequence, ran everywhere as fast as possible using moves like the Goron roll, and obviously practiced an assload to be able to get through everything quickly with minimal screwups. It's quite nifty to watch. I just downloaded them all, and I've been working my way through them. If you search the Speed Runs category on archive.org, you'll find other quick videos as well. I'm going to check out the ~30-minute Silent Hill runthrough next. Here's another movie site I found a while ago. It's in Japanese, but there's enough English for you to find your way around somewhat. As someone who horribly miserably stunk at Devil May Cry, I am fascinated by their videos showing all S-ranks on Dante Must Die mode (which you can download here). The Yaricom page has a nice runthrough of Silent Hill 4 on One Weapon Mode. There used to be a spiffy video walkthrough site at stuckgamer.com, but it seems to be dead.  |
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Rydain Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 467/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours |
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| I forgot to mention that GameFAQs has a mostly complete Majora's Mask 3-day challenge FAQ based on the video sequence. If you don't want to download the movies (and I can't blame you...even on broadband, it takes a while), it gives you an idea of how Dragorn played through the game. I've only seen one assisted emulator speed run (that famous SMB3 video), but I've been curious to watch others because it's interesting to see the absolute fastest path through a game (or close to it). |
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Rydain Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 468/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours |
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| *installs a Bittorrent client* *tries to download an AVI from Bisqwit's* *watches download speed slow to an utter crawl* GAAAAAAAH! Why can't these be more popular? Well, if anyone wants the Addams Family (NES) speed run...I'm going to leave the client up at least overnight. My computer stays up 24-7 and we have tons of bandwidth to spare. Wow...Acmlm has some videos on that site, too.  I saw the Tetris one when he posted it on here a while ago, but I never knew about any of the others. |
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Rydain Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 469/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours |
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Thanks to Bob Whoops, I finally saw the end of Deadly Towers. I'd read the text in the ROM ages ago, but I'd never seen the ever so lovely picture of Prince Myer and the king. Far from the badass you'd expect, Myer looks like the bastard spawn of Charlie Brown and the Wal-Mart smiley face. What, did he get through such a difficult game by making the enemies laugh their asses off and run away? Yeah, I know it was made in 1986, but still...sheesh. And from what I recall, the cover art version of Myer looked like Conan the Barbarian. Talk about a disconnect...  Acmlm - I'll be interested to see the Krion Conquest video. I rented that game years ago thinking it wasn't going to be too bad (I did beat Mega Man 2 and 3, after all), and I don't think I even got past the second level. Bleh. I always wanted to see what the rest of it was like. Also, how exactly does Dragon Warrior's battle action outcome randomization work? Does it use elapsed time as a seed or something like that? |
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Rydain |
Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 471/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours
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OMFG Paint 0wnz j00! |
Seriously...which editor is best really depends on your preferences and needs. Of the choices, Photoshop is the most powerful, and it's also a standard among graphics pros. However, as we all know, it's quite expensive, so it wouldn't be the best choice for someone who doesn't need its unique features or is unwilling to pay several hundred dollars for them. Thus, for the average person, I'd say that Gimp is best because it's quite full-featured, completely free, and available for multiple platforms as well. I know it has an unconventional interface that many people dislike, but I think it offers the best value.
Rydain |
Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 472/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours
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From what I recall reading on various Slashdot discussions, the main gripes seem to be with the way a multiple-windowed application works under a version of Windows that doesn't do taskbar grouping. Every window gets its own entry, and you can't minimize or restore the entire application at once by itself. Putting the windows inside a main root window, like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro does, solves both of those issues. There is a Windows Gimp Deweirdifyer plugin that gives the application a root window. I haven't tried it yet, but people who don't like using Gimp under Windows for the reasons above should take a look. |
As far as the rest of the interface goes, I agree that it depends on what you know and what you started out with. Gimp (even 1.x) has always worked well for me, especially because I'm running it under a GUI with multiple desktops and no taskbar, so the issues mentioned above don't affect me at all. I think it arranges options logically and in a manner similar to Photoshop (which is the first image editor I played with at length), and I like the lack of root window because I can scatter Gimp windows across multiple desktops if I want to (a definite advantage of this GUI style!), and I can see my perty desktop background while working. 
Rydain |
Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 473/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours
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*looks some more* |
Holy crap...Legacy of the Wizard! I rented that ages ago, wandered around, got lost, and accomplished nothing whatsoever. I'm happy to see somebody actually finish it, let alone time attack it in just over 20 minutes... 
Rydain |
Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 474/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours
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People call me Rydian every now and then, but that's more of a typo than anything else. |
Rydain |
Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 475/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours
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You should be proud. That is quite an accomplishment. |
The most difficult "stuff hidden all over the place" game that I essentially finished myself back in the day was Milon's Secret Castle, and even then, I had a couple of hints from Nintendo Power (the location of the Spring Shoes, the Left + Start continue code) and one from Hudson Soft (the third floor boss appears when you get the scepter and crown - I already had them, but for some reason, I'd never tried going back into the empty boss room). Still, I figured out the vast majority of the game just by exploration and trial and error. That sucker took me four months of intensive play to beat.
Rydain |
Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 476/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours
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I could never picture Rydia as a catgirl. She might summon a catgirl or something...but she's a bright green sorceress type of person. She was the inspiration for this nickname, though. I made it up literally a decade ago and I can count the number of other Rydains I've seen since then on one hand. I'm amazed at how rare a simple six-letter moniker that sounds like a "normal" name turned out to be, but it's a major plus because at this point, it's basically another real name to me. |
Originally posted by windwakerHURR HURR ROFFLE WAFFLES!!1!! That reminds me of the idiots who would randomly draw penises on the whiteboards of people's dorm room doors. Every single one of them probably thought they were the epitome of originality and cleverness.
Rydain |
Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 477/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours
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I've seen Rando beat Battletoads on a NES emulator on his GBA, and I'm pretty sure he didn't continue. |
Rydain |
Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 478/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours
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Awwww, poor Yoshi Dude... *petpetpet* I remember a while ago, somebody kept calling you Yoshi Dudette and you weren't too happy. I don't blame you at all. In real life, I sometimes refer to myself as Uncle G-funk, and it annoys me when people point out that I "should" be an aunt. Uncle is a way cooler word, damnit. |
Originally posted by Colleen That was Neopets, where I had to go with rydain_darkstar. There was already a pet named Rydain there as well. Both of those were indeed quite a surprise to me. 
Rydain |
Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 479/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours
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 Ah, OK.I wonder if Broderbund released any other games back in the day that followed the "confuse the hell out of the gamer with a ginormous map with craptons of hidden stuff and give them little clue as to how they should go about beating it" model of Deadly Towers and Legacy of the Wizard. They also made The Guardian Legend, which is a hell of a difficult game, but for the most part, it's difficult for good reasons. You start out in a small area and have an idea of how to proceed: explore, look for corridors to clear, get keys to open more areas. Some of the corridors had to be opened up via "secret" methods (I remember chucking a grenade at one of them and standing around to open another), but I'm pretty sure that you could usually (if not always) find hints in message rooms that would tell you what to do. I never beat the boss at the end of the game or that one stupid miniboss in one of the final areas, but at least I got that far. I was so insanely proud of myself on the day that I finally slew that assbucket Red Grimgrin. If I had a nickel for every time I had to go through that damned corridor... 
Rydain |
Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 480/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours
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I'm impressed...not only does it look exactly like the in-game sprites, it didn't take them too long to put up, either. Nice planning there. |
Originally posted by JDavis Speaking of Legos...have you seen this site, which was also on Slashdot a while ago? It features mathematical surfaces made out of Legos. My head asplode.
Rydain |
Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 481/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours
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I like Atkins peanut butter bars. They taste like an actual candy bar and have 20 grams of protein (and fewer calories than an average candy bar of the same size). Too bad the grocery store has been out of them for a while. |
Rydain |
Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42 Posts: 482/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours
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I don't think I've ever seen cookies and cream Twix or mint M&M's. I've seen other cookies and cream bars, but not Twix. |
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| Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - - Posts by Rydain |
