darkoshi | startlement

I keep being startled by unexpected beeps/chirps/whistles/whatnot in the house. We've got so many gadgets and devices that make noises nowadays, that it's hard to keep track of them all. Especially when it's a noise I haven't heard before, or when I didn't even realize the gadget made any noises.

Sometimes it's been a cordless phone, beeping that is is starting to charge (odd, as it was plugged in the whole time).

One time, the wireless doorbell chose to play a different tune than usual, when my mom came over. I was wandering around the house wondering "what the heck was that?" when she knocked on the door.

One late night at my computer, I heard a nearby whistled tune, as if someone was in our yard whistling nonchalantly. Creepy. Later I found out it was a notification sound on Qiao's new phone.

.

I upgraded my Notepad++ to the latest version today. I won't give it away, but it does something special after the install. You might want to check it out, if you use the program (unless of course, you already upgraded it a month ago when this version came out).

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Well, how 'bout that? Can I give any spoilers away? Because I want to discuss the mechanics behind what that was (just updated it myself a minute ago after reading what you wrote).

Edited 2015-02-10 04:25 (UTC)

Go ahead - anyone who would've been spoiled should have had time to check it out by now.

Just wanted to say that it looks like a macro but says it's a normal text file along the bottom. Is it a normal text file being run through a macro, in that case, for the typewriter effect? To add to my confusion, I know there is JS some people use for that (normally, on their websites), but if it's a normal text file then I'm assuming JS could not have been responsible for it?

I'm not sure what language Notepad++ is coded in, but it wouldn't be JavaScript. The Notepad++ program normally works by taking keyboard input and displaying characters in the window. To do what they did here, they would have had a predefined buffer of characters which they wanted shown in the window, and somehow looped through it, displaying one character at a time, with a pause in between each. The pause was probably done using a timer event.

Interesting to know, as a would-be programmer of some sort (if I could only figure out how to code in something besides HTML and CSS!). When I get a free moment I intend to look at the dev's website to see if I can find out anything more about how he pulled it off. In the meantime my only quibble was I thought the timer event that determined time between characters typed out could've been a little bit faster. I was getting waaaaaay impatient waiting for the entire message to finish displaying on the screen.

Wikipedia says Notepad++ it is coded in C++, and based on Scintilla. The source code is available to download, but I haven't looked at it. Per Wikipedia, I also found out it has easter eggs, which use the same "simulated typing". So the developer Don Ho had already coded that functionality in the past, and was simply making use of it this time with different text.

The Notepad++ website was even hacked because of this version.

Hacked. Huh. Thanks for the link. I uh, yeah...don't think devs should get into such political issues using their program itself (or, to be clear, the release notes for it) as the medium. On his blog, yes, sure! On some other site that's not even his, as a commenter or even a top level contributor of some sort, yes, sure! But as part of the initial startup of the program or as the release notes to it, no. Not that I am against his message or the point he's trying to make. But because as a dev, you have to realize that everyone uses your program, including extremists, terrorists, people who hurt others for disgusting to little or no reasons at all, and so on. This is par for the course! The minute you start telling people who download your program how you feel about such and such issue...any issue - especially within the program itself - you are simply asking for trouble.

I'm not commenting on his right to do so nor saying he shouldn't have or that he did but now he should stop. I am saying I don't think it was the smartest move him or any dev could make, but hey, c'est la vie.

I agreed with the message and was impressed that he used the program to show solidarity with people who believe in the right to free speech. It's precisely because the program is so popular, that putting such a message in it makes it reach a lot of people.

As I said before, I don't disagree with the message, and it's up to him how he chooses to deliver it, but I think he might've avoided a hacking (perhaps more than one, depending on how this all turns out) if he had confined the message to his blog (assuming he has one; I don't even know) or his personal website or anywhere outside of the program itself.

But I mean, there was a time when my other blog was reaching a lot of people but because it was narrow in its topic/scope I did not use it as a platform to announce my candid feelings about/abhorrence of any or every (other) injustice in the world (besides AOL itself) that raged on at the time. When I felt compelled to do so, though, I would air those same views on my personal blog and felt little to no risk in doing so for my other blog.

This is kind of dev 101 to my mind, that the personal and strictly business simply don't mix, especially online where no-lifes just sit around looking for their own "cause" to go completely ballistic over.

tl;dr: Again, I don't care how he chooses to deliver the message, and I don't disagree with the message he has delivered, I simply think there were ways to do it that might've left his website safer from hacking and therefore left him better off.

Edited (typo) 2015-02-12 11:58 (UTC)

Modern fire/smoke alarms are terrifying because it'll be two in the morning and suddenly you hear someone start talking in your house, as you're asleep. Boy what a way to wake up.

I haven't come across any like that yet. Is it only for a low battery, as surely an alarm is still more effective for an actual fire?

Yeah -- the alarm is beeping interspersed with "FIRE! FIRE", spoken. The low battery is often just "low battery" although on somewhat older ones it's a chirp every three minutes -- which is its own special brand of annoying because it's almost impossible to find.

Oh, I'm familiar with the low battery chirps :) We have a smoke alarm at each end of a hallway, so when one starts chirping I position myself in between them and wait to hear from which side it's coming. Got fooled last time though, as it ended up being the carbon monoxide alarm instead.

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