A better Windows than MS-Windows

The sole point of contention in our household over the exclusive use of Linux has been a small collection of MS-Windows-based games and educational software. Now with the WINE folks getting all hot under the collar about installer support I decided to have another whack at installing some of these.

In related news, a steadily increasing number of MS-Windows video card drivers no longer support screen depths below 16 bits.

Related?

One of the games refused to install unless it could have an 8-bit-deep visual (in fact, it wanted a 640x480x8 visual, but would settle for the “x8” part).

A steadily increasing number of video cards, including (I was surprised to discover) crappy ones like NeoMagic and Savage, have Xorg/XFree86 support for 8-bit PseudoColour overlays on a 24-bit or 32-bit screen... so... out with Xnest, and now we have a Windows game running (well... mostly running) “full-screen” on its own private 8-bit-deep X server in a window.

My next project will be getting Xnest or the window it’s in to scale (or finding an X component which does scaling) so you can actually see the game. On this screen, 640x480 is not much bigger than a business card.

Comments

every-application-is-part-of-a-toolkit at work

I have a LibreOffice Impress slideshow that I wish to turn into a narrated video. 1. export the slideshow as PNG images (if that is partially broken — as at now — at higher resolutions, Export Directly as PDF then use ‘pdftoppm’ (from the poppler-utils package) to do the same). 2. write a small C program (63 lines including comments) to display those images one at a time, writing a config file entry for Imagination (default transition: ‘cross fade’) based on when the image-viewer application (‘display,’ from the GraphicsMagick suite) is closed on each one; run that, read each image aloud, then close each image in turn. 3. run ‘Imagination’ over the config file to produce a silent MP4 video with the correct timings. 4. run ‘Audacity’ to record speech while using ‘SMPlayer’ to display the silent video, then export that recording as a WAV file. 4a. optionally, use ‘TiMIDIty’ to convert a non-copyright-encumbered MIDI tune to WAV, then import that and blend it with the speech (as a quiet b

new life for an old (FTX) PSU, improved life for one human

the LEDs on this 5m strip happen to emit light centred on a red that does unexpectedly helpful things to (and surprisingly deeply within) a human routinely exposed to it. it has been soldered to a Molex connector, plugged into a TFX power supply from a (retired: the MoBo is cactus) Small Form Factor PC, the assorted PSU connectors (and loose end from the strip) have been taped over. the LED strip cost $10.24 including postage, the rest cost $0, the PSU is running at 12½% of capacity, consumes less power than a laptop plug-pack despite running a fan. trial runs begin today.

boundaries

pushing the actual boundaries of the physical (not extremes, the boundaries themselves) can often remove barriers not otherwise perceived. one can then often resolve an issue itself, rather than merely stonewalling at the physical consequences of the issue.

Plantagenet Penguinista

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