mormanski

I recently switched from using Ladbrokes Poker Client to using Party Poker. I use linux and so I have installed it using Wine. Here’s how I did it.

1. Install wine
2. Configure wine
3. Install Mozilla
4. Install Mozilla ActiveX Control
5. Install Shockwave plugin
6. Install Party Poker Client

1. Install wine

I have installed wine version 0.9.29. My distribution is Gentoo and so as root I simply typed

emerge -av wine

2. Configure Wine

Wine has a new configuration tool since the last time I used it.

winecfg

This launches a gui and sets up a folder structure under ~/.wine. You can choose the correct sound drivers at this point and which version of Windows you want to emulate. I chose Windows XP.

3. Install Mozilla

Download the latest version of the Mozilla browser (I used version 1.7.13) and install this in wine.

wine mozilla-win32-1.7.13-installer.exe

4. Install Mozilla ActiveX Control

Before installing Mozilla ActiveX Control we must first install runtime60.zip. Unzip the contents of this file and put them in .wine/windows/system32.

unzip runtime60.zip

cp MSVC* ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/

Now we can download the Mozilla ActiveX Control and install using wine.

wine MozillaControl1712.exe

5. Install Shockwave plugin

Download the latest version of the Shockwave plugin amd install it using wine.

wine Shockwave_Installer_Slim.exe

6. Install the Party Poker Client

wine PartyPokerSetup.exe

And that is it. You can now login and play Party Poker on linux. Here’s a screenshot. It works quite well although sometimes it’s not possible to play on more than one table at a time due to the main Party Poker window not refreshing.
7628

Useful Links

• winehq
• http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/wine/24436-mozilla-activex-control-2.html
• http://www.iol.ie/~locka/mozilla/mozilla.htm
• http://www.iol.ie/~locka/mozilla/runtime60.zip
• Party Poker

If you have to run a server, having Putty installed on your mobile phone can be invaluable. Before you begin, it is worth making sure you have the latest firmware version of the N73 from Nokia. You can check which version you are using by typing *#0000#. My current version is V3.0638.0.0.1. Unfortunately you need to use Microsoft Windows to do this. Putty may work with the older firmware version but I can’t check this.

1. Download the correct version of Putty for Symbian OS
   
2. Deactivate Signed only applications
3. Install Putty

1. Download the correct version of Putty

I have installed Putty version putty_s60v3_1.4beta1_20070303. The previous version did not work on my phone. Unzip and transfer the .sisx file to your phone. I copied it to my mini SD card but you may be able to use bluetooth wizardry.

2. Deactivate Signed only applications

This version of Putty is unsigned and so we must make sure your phone will allow the installation of unsigned applications. This can be done by going to the Menu->Tools->App.Mgr, pressing Options and then pressing Settings. Change the Software installation tab from “Signed Only” to “All”. That’s it.

3. Install Putty

Now just use the File Manager to go to where you saved the .sisx file and click on it. Putty will then be installed.

Useful Links

• Nokia N73 Software Upgrade
• Putty
• A Blog on Nokia N73 Mobile
• Installing Unsigned Applications

Last week I had the flu and was stuck in bed for a whole week. This meant I ended up watching a lot of television. I even watched a lot of bad television. Here are the three worst comedies on television. Comedies, so bad, you wonder how they ever got made in the first place. How an unholy alliance of awful writing and worse acting combined at a moment in time where some drunk somewhere said we will put that on t.v. I don’t know how t.v. programs get made but it baffles me that not only are these programs ever commissioned but some of them actually get another series.

3. My Hero

My Hero. Have you seen it? It’s shit. The premise is that a superhero from another planet falls in love with a woman from earth. This leads to all sorts of comic misunderstandings between superhero culture and earth culture. Except it doesn’t. Not a one. Instead, the same joke is thrashed to death over and over and over. Then over again. And then some more. For six series. Six series. Why? I always suspected that it was because after Father Ted the BBC signed up Ardal O’Hanlon for a million years and were financially forced to make this program. However, when he left, they replaced him and continued to thrash that single unfunny joke to death for another series.

2. Will and Grace

Unlike the other two shows Will and Grace is American. It’s a lot slicker than the other 2 shows and does have a few vaguely funny moments. However once you find the formula the show becomes unwatchable. Are you ready? Let’s call the three main characters A,B and C. It doesn’t really matter which is which.

A – Says something.

B – Laboured bitchy putdown.

A – Laboured bitchy retort.

C – Says Something.

A – Laboured bitchy putdown.

C – Looks incredulous while pausing for canned laughter.

This is repeated, the only humour is in the bitchy putdowns. It’s funny for five minutes then it’s boring then you drink every drop of nightnurse available and it’s still shit.

1. Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps

If two 13 year olds had to write a comedy for 8 year olds and they had to do it in their lunch hour between double maths and double physics and one of them was retarded then they would still write a better comedy than TPOLAAPOC. It’s awfulness is unsurpassed. It’s almost fascinating to watch. Do the actors know how shit it is? Do the writers know how shit the actors are? Who’s watching it? Apart from me of course but I had an excuse, I was dying from suspected bird flu.

Why is it so bad? It’s simply not funny. I defy anyone to watch it and laugh. If you were laughing at something else and someone switched it on then you would stop laughing. Then you’d switch it off and find yourself unable to laugh for at least an hour. Is there anyone left in Britain who thinks words like flaps or jokes about arse shagging is risque then they should go back to 1954 and join a convent. It tries hard to identify with it’s target audience, presumably 16-24 year olds, but fails utterly. It’s like some 70 year olds have got together and thought what do young people identify with? Binge drinking and shagging. The characters are less then one dimensional, they provoke mathematicians everywhere by being zero dimensional. It’s the shittiest thing on the t.v. and it’s still being made.

Here are some screenshots of what the excellent Grow series of games look like when completed.

Grow Ver.1

7456

Grow Ver.2

7459

Grow Ver.3

7462

Grow RPG
7453

Grow Cube

7450

This error was bugging me for ages when trying to create a table using MySQL Query Browser. The problem lies in the fact that you are using a VARCHAR for one of the columns data types. MySQL query browser adds this datatype to your query and the query will then fail with this error message.

MySQL Error Nr. 1064

This is quite a cryptic error message but the solution is simple. Valid SQL requires a value for VARCHAR so you just add a value in brackets after VARCHAR.

VARCHAR(32)

This should fix it.

Useful Websites

• http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/en/char.html
• http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/char.html