# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

# @name: highscore.py
# @summary: This is a simple Python module using SQLite to store and retrieve highscores
# @author: Morten André Steinsland 
# @contact: www.mortenblog.net 

# @license: GNU Lesser General Public License
# @copyright: Copyright 2009 Morten André Steinsland
# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
# along with this program.  If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/

# @version: 1.3
# @since: 25.10.2009
# @status: Working, Not perfect

# @note: Examples
# DATABASE = HighScoreFile('highscores.dat')
# DATABASE.addscore(3543,'PlayerName')
# DATABASE.gethighestscore()
# DATABASE.getlowestscore()
# DATABASE.gettopscores(10)

import sqlite3
from os import path

class HighScoreFile:
    def __init__(self, filename):
        """Does the connecting and construction if database does not already exist"""
        self.databasename = filename

        if path.exists(self.databasename) and path.isfile(self.databasename):
            # database already exist, go ahead and connect
            self.database = sqlite3.connect(self.databasename)
            self.dbcursor = self.database.cursor()

        else:
            # we need to construct the database for the first time
            # @todo: create some default data(?)
            self.database = sqlite3.connect(self.databasename)
            self.dbcursor = self.database.cursor()
            sqlstatement = u"""CREATE TABLE highscores(score INTEGER, playername TEXT);"""
            self.dbcursor.execute(sqlstatement)
            self.database.commit()

    def getlowestscore(self):
        """Returns the lowest ranking player and his score"""
        sqlstatement = u"""SELECT score,playername FROM highscores WHERE score = (SELECT min(score) FROM highscores) LIMIT 1;"""
        self.dbcursor.execute(sqlstatement)

        for row in self.dbcursor:
            return (int(row[0]),unicode(str(row[1])))

    def gethighestscore(self):
        """Returns the highest ranking player and his score"""
        sqlstatement = u"""SELECT score,playername FROM highscores WHERE score = (SELECT max(score) FROM highscores) LIMIT 1;"""
        self.dbcursor.execute(sqlstatement)

        for row in self.dbcursor:
            return (int(row[0]),unicode(str(row[1])))

    def gettopscores(self,scores):
        """Returns top X scores"""
        # @todo: handle scores variable being bigger than number of rows(?)
        sqlstatement = u"""SELECT score,playername FROM highscores ORDER BY score DESC LIMIT %s;""" % scores
        self.dbcursor.execute(sqlstatement)
        toplist = []

        for row in self.dbcursor:
            toplist.append((int(row[0]),unicode(row[1])))

        toplist.sort(key=lambda x:x[1].lower()) #sort by name
        toplist.sort(key=lambda x:x[0], reverse=True) #sort by score

        return toplist

    def addscore(self,playername,playerscore):
        """Add the players name and score to the database"""
        sqlstatement = u"""INSERT INTO highscores(score,playername) values (%s,'%s');""" % (int(playerscore), str(playername))
        self.dbcursor.execute(sqlstatement)
        self.maintenance()

    def maintenance(self):
        """Sorts the highscorelist , removes duplicates and commits changes"""
        keeptopscores = 10 #keep this many top scores
        sqlstatement = u"""SELECT DISTINCT score, playername FROM highscores ORDER BY score DESC LIMIT %s;""" % (keeptopscores)
        self.dbcursor.execute(sqlstatement)
        highscores = []

        for row in self.dbcursor:
            highscores.append((int(row[0]),unicode(row[1])))

        highscores.sort(key=lambda x:x[1].lower()) #sort by name
        highscores.sort(key=lambda x:x[0],reverse=True) #sort by score

        ###DELETES THE CONTENTS OF THE highscores TABLE###
        sqlstatement = u"""DELETE FROM highscores WHERE rowid > -1;"""
        self.dbcursor.execute(sqlstatement)
        #########################################################

        del highscores[keeptopscores:] #remove unwanted scores

        #insert sorted data into score table
        for each in highscores:
            sqlstatement = u"""INSERT INTO highscores(score,playername) values (%s,'%s');""" % (int(each[0]),str(each[1]))
            self.dbcursor.execute(sqlstatement)

        #finish up
        del highscores
        self.database.commit()

Get the list here. It includes among others; Vangelis, Jesper Kyd, Danny Elfman, Jerry Goldsmith and Philip Glass.

The list will be evolving as i come across good albums or tunes. If you know an album or song that would fit amongst the others i would appreciate feedback. I apologize beforehand if any tunes are unsuited for RPG, as i've grabbed whole albums and have not listened to the entire collection.

Spam in a can

Lately I've received a number of messages from bots using other people's hacked MSN accounts. The link they were pushing was basically an email confirmation link, clicking it would have told them that my e-mail address was valid, and surely landed me in some spammer's e-mail lists. So instead i decided to try and mess around a little, and thus this little Python program was written.

It generates random fake e-mails, from three text lists, and sends them to the spammer using their own validator link, trough the Tor proxy network; making it harder to block  or locate you.

Download it here . Use it at your own risk or don't use it at all, read the disclaimer in the source. Feel free to do whatever the heck you want with it, just don't come back crying if you make a booboo.


Below is the source, name lists excluded (included in the zip).

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

# SpammerScammer.py
# Copyright (c)2009 Morten André Steinsland

# THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS"
# AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
# THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
# PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS
# BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY,
# OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
# SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
# INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
# CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
# ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
# POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. USE THE SOFTWARE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

import random , time , urllib

preURL = "http://www.wespamandscam.com/?youremail=" #First part of the URL
proxy = {'http': 'http://127.0.0.1:8118'} #Local Tor proxy address

##[ Open the text lists ]##
FileFirstNames = open('first_names.txt', 'r')
FileLastNames = open('last_names.txt', 'r')
FileDomains = open('domain_names.txt', 'r')

##[ Generate lists ]##
FirstNames = FileFirstNames.readlines()
LastNames = FileLastNames.readlines()
DomainNames = FileDomains.readlines()
Separators = ['_' , '.' , '-' , '']

##[ Set the User-Agent ]##
class UserAgentHack(urllib.FancyURLopener):
    version = "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; it; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11"
urllib._urlopener = UserAgentHack()

##[ Functions ]##
def GenerateMail(firstnames, separators, lastnames, domains):
    """This returns a random email address generated from four lists"""

    RandomFirstName = firstnames[random.randint(0 , len(firstnames)-1)].rstrip('\n').lower()
    RandomSeparator = separators[random.randint(0 , len(separators)-1)]
    RandomLastName = lastnames[random.randint(0 , len(lastnames)-1)].rstrip('\n').lower()
    RandomDomain = domains[random.randint(0 , len(domains)-1)].rstrip('\n').lower()

    return RandomFirstName + RandomSeparator + RandomLastName + '@' + RandomDomain

##[ Main ]##
print "Choosing among " + str(len(FirstNames)) + " first names, " + str(len(Separators)) + ' separators, ' + str(len(LastNames)) + " surnames and " + str(len(DomainNames)) + " domains."

print str(len(FirstNames) * len(Separators) * len(LastNames) * len(DomainNames)) + ' possible combinations.'

Number = 0
while True:

    URL = preURL + GenerateMail(FirstNames, Separators, LastNames, DomainNames)
    urllib.urlopen(URL , proxies=proxy)
    print str(Number) + ' ' +  URL
    urllib.urlcleanup()
    time.sleep(1)
    Number = Number + 1

Spotify logo

This is a pretty easy way to automatically rip music from Spotify using AV Voice Changer 6. DO NOT DO THIS, YOU WILL BE IN VIOLATION OF THE SPOTIFY END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT!

What you would need:

• A Spotify account and the Spotify client
• Audio4fun's AV Voice Changer Software Diamond 6

Voice Changer is intended to be just that, a voice changer. It can make you sound like a cartoon mosquito or one of those creepy kidnappers from the movies, in real time. But the feature we would want is Voice Changer's sound recording function which would allow us to record the tunes streamed from Spotify into separate files with the compression method of our choosing.

Start up the Spotify client and log in. Find a couple of tunes you like and put them in a playlist. Check that the music plays ok and without lag. Disconnect your microphone, and make sure there won't be anything else making sound on your computer. Start up Voice Changer and verify that the audio from Spotify registers in Voice Changer's volume meter. We don't want our tunes to sound like smurf songs, so just turn off all the effects by clicking the On/Off button.

Voice Changer interface

Stop the music from playing for a moment and click Voice Changer's Recorder button. A small window should open up, looking something like this:

Voice Changer's recorder window

We are going to make Voice Changer automatically record sound coming from Spotify. Click the Recorder Settings button in the upper right corner. Select your output folder, file naming, and the desired Encoder configuration. Then, go to the Autostart tab and add the Spotify executable to the list of programs Voice Changer should automaticly record from. When that's all done, click OK.

Recorder autostart settings

Leave the Recorder window open. Voice Changer will now begin recording the moment Spotify makes a peep. And not only that, the songs would be seperated and encoded into individual files automatically.

The things you will need:

• A Super Nintendo emulator for Windows called ZSnes, coded by zsKnight and _Demo_ *
  
• The ROM image from your favorite SNES game. Look around, they are not that hard to find.
• MEncoder by Gianluigi Tiesi

* At the time of writing, ZSnes has reached version 1.51

Copy your ROM image(s) to any folder. Preferably one that doesn't require you to click trough too many folders to get to it.

Installing the software is pretty straightforward, just extract the two archives, each into their own folders. It might work having ZSnes and MEncoder in the same folder, but i haven't tried it. Also, i think that's a little messy. You are going to add the MEncoder location to window's PATH environment variable instead, so remember the location where you extracted it. Follow the instructions below as the procedure differs a little depending on what version of Windows you are using.

Edit your Path environment variable

For Windows Vista you can go to the Control panel and click on the System icon, select Advanced System Settings in the left menu and then the "Environment variables" button. Then, in the list under "System Variables", look for Path (might be lower- or uppercase). When you have found it, edit it and add the location of the folder where the MEncoder executable file is located. Remember to add the semicolon that is needed to separate the various folders listed in the Path string. Click OK, and your done.

(How to set the path in Windows 2000 / Windows XP)

When that's all done, let's start up ZSnes and configure it a little. The main things to check out is the Screen Resolution, Filters and Input

Choose your optimal screen preferences under "Video" in the Config menu. I have a widescreen and wanted ZSnes to fill the screen completely, so i made a custom screen setting it to 1360x768 with the DS F option (check the legend for description). Choose the Filter that you feel gives the best result. Configure your Input, and let's load up a game already! Click GAME in the top menu, and select LOAD. Then browse to the folder where you copied or extracted the ROM file(s), select the game you want to play and click the LOAD button. If the game runs, great! if it doesn't, seek help!

Let us record a short game session that we will later use to generate the movie. Press ESC, so that the game pauses and the top menu pops out. Under the MISC button, you should select MOVIE OPT. This will bring up the control panel for the ZSnes movie recording feature. There are two tabs in the window, but let's leave it on CONTROLS for now.

ZSnes' movie recording control panel

Select one of the movie slots, and remember which one you picked. Also activate the RECORD FROM:RESET radio button. Finally, click RECORD and start playing! When your done playing, hit ESC again, and go to the control panel and click STOP. You could go straight to the DUMPING tab and encode the video right away, but the output would be of rather poor quality. Let's exit ZSnes for a moment, to configure the way MEncoder will create our movie into a format that can be played in a normal video file player, or uploaded to YouTube.

Open up the file called zmovie.cfg (located in the same folder as the ZSnes executable) in a text editor. I'm no expert on digital video, i honestly don't have a clue, so check out the MEncoder documentation on how to optimize your settings for your needs. But these are the changes i made:

Change:

md_xvid="-ovc xvid -xvidencopts fixed_quant=2"

Into:

md_xvid="-ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=4200:vhq=1:max_bframes=2:quant_type=h263:chroma_me:me_quality=6"

Change:

md_command="$md_prog $md_other $md_no_sound $md_raw $md_vcodec -o $md_file -"

Into:

md_command="$md_prog $md_other $md_no_sound $md_raw $md_vcodec -vf scale=1360:768 -sws 2 -o $md_file -"

Change the screen resolution (1360:768) according to your ZSnes settings. Save and close zmovie.cfg. Now start ZSnes again, and load the same ROM you used when recording. Press ESC, and go to the movie recorder control panel. But this time you will go to the DUMPING tab.

ZSnes movie dumping settings

Select the movie slot you chose when you recorded. Select the XVID LOSSLESS option, and DUMP AUDIO. This will output the sound and video seperately, leaving the sound uncompressed. You can mix the two together later using your favorite video editor. (If you want to compress the sound using ZSnes, you are going to need the Lame mp3 encoder). Click the START button. ZSnes should minimize and start MEncoder, encoding the ZSnes movie into an AVI file. By default a file called video.avi is created in the same folder as the ZSnes exe file is located. The sound file is by default called audio.wav also located in the same folder.

Nintendo Wii Console

I recently bought the classic game, Bubble Bobble, from Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console shop. But when the game was downloaded, and i attempted to run it, i was greeted with a green crash-looking screen. I could hear the game's sounds in the background, and response from the controller, but the screen was fubar. I was using a component cable, and with a composite cable the problem went away. But after spending 50 bucks on the component cable, and seeing the trashy colors from composite signal, i didn't want to give up right away. I googled long before i found a solution that worked for me:

1. Click Wii Options in the Wii Menu
2. Click Wii Settings
3. Click Screen
4. Click Widescreen Settings
5. Select 4:3 format and Confirm
6. Click Tv Type
7. Select 50Hz and Confirm
8. Exit to Wii Menu
9. The Virtual Console game should now start
10. If not done already, connect your Nunchuck to your Wiimote
11. In the HOME Menu, select Operations Guide
12. Move the pointer away from any buttons on the screen, and press Z+A+1 (or 2) simultaneously
13. If you hear a ping sound, you should be set to go.
14. Exit to Wii Menu
15. Reverse changes made in step 1-7, choosing the correct settings
16. The game should now run fine

This fix might not work with all Virtual Console games. I don't even know what it does, but it worked for my Bubble Bobble.

Screenshot of the map

This is a map for the Half-Life mod called Ricochet. Download the zip file, and follow the instructions in the readme.txt file.

The map was intended to be a team based death-match map, but it also works as a free-for-all death-match map.

Download it here

Ostrov (The Island)

If you are up for a good movie this weekend, i can highly recommend the russian movie "Ostrov", released in 2006.

It's about a sailor named Anatoli (Timofei Tribuntsev), who during the second world war gets captured by a German patrol boat, along with his captain Tikhon on a small coal freighter. He's given the choice between shooting Thikon and live, or die himself.

He shoots, and the Germans leave him on the boat. But not before they've put explosive charges all over the freighter. The boat explodes, and Anatoli is fortunate to be found alive on the beach by some Orthodox munks. And he settles down there after his recovery.

We then follow an older Anatoli (Pyotr Mamonov) from the year 1976, still living at the monastery, in the boiler hut located on a small island. He is constantly haunted by the fact that he shot his captain and friend, Thikon. He has also become quite eccentric over the years, to put it mildly, and a nuisance to many of the other munks. And while he appears at times to be stark raving mad, there is strange logic to his behavior. People come from far away to see him, asking for help with all kinds of problems; from unwanted pregnancies to demon possessions.

The movie shows a man with strong faith and a hunger for salvation. It is full of good moments and humor.

I give it 5 out of 6.

You can get it at Amazon.com

1. Installing Python

Before we get started, you should check whether or not Python is already installed on your computer. Look for a folder called Python25 or something similar on your C:\ partition, also check the Add/Remove Programs list in the Windows Control Panel for any Python entries.

If Python is not installed, let's go to www.python.org and download a copy. There are newer versions, but we'll download Python 2.5.2 to get compatibility with many extensions. You may want to download a newer release if your not too concerned about that.

Execute the Python installer you downloaded, and follow the instructions. The default installation path is "C:\Python25". And unless that causes problems, leave it as it is.

2. Installing Java

Eclipse requires Java. So unless it's already installed on your system, you need to get it from www.java.com, and install it before you continue.

3. Installing Eclipse

Let's install the Eclipse IDE. Head over to www.eclipse.org and look for Eclipse Classic which will be the release we'll download and use.

At the time of writing, Eclipse for Windows is released as a zip archive. You'll need to extract the folder inside the zip archive, called "eclipse". I recommend clicking on the archive to open it, and just drag the folder to a proper destination on your computer, such as the "C:\Program Files" folder. The path to Eclipse will then be "C:\Program Files\eclipse". If Eclipse comes as an executable installer, run it and follow the installation instructions it gives.

When the installer is all good and done, open up the folder you installed/extracted Eclipse in, and run the file called "eclipse.exe". You may want to create a shortcut to the executable on your Windows desktop so that Eclipse can be started quickly and easily in the future.

4. Running Eclipse for the first time

If all goes well, you should be asked to choose a folder to use as Eclipse's workspace. I recommend making a folder called "Python Projects" or something similar in the "My Documents" folder and use that as your workspace. If you want to use the same workspace folder every time, tick the check-box that says "use this as the default and do not ask again".

Eclipse should now start without any further hassle, and greet you with a nice Welcome screen.

But we are not quite ready to start coding yet. So let's continue.

5. Installing the Pydev plug-in

Eclipse has a nice feature that makes installing plug-ins such as Pydev a breeze. Just open up the Help menu, and select "Software Updates".

In the window that opens up, select the "Available Software" tab and click the "Add Site" button. An input box should open up. Enter "http://pydev.sourceforge.net/updates/" and click OK.

The address you entered should now appear in the site list, letting you select Pydev for download and install. Tick the check-boxes for Pydev, and click the "Install..." button.

Review your choices and the licenses for Pydev. When ready, click "Finish". Depending on your Internet connection, the download can take a couple of minutes to finish and install.

You'll be asked to restart Eclipse, which is a good idea, so let's go ahead and do it.

6. Configuring Pydev

We may need to tell Pydev where the Python interpreter is located on your computer. Select "Window > Preferences" in the Eclipse menu. Eclipse's configuration window will open. Select "Pydev > Interpreter - Python". If your Python interpreter is not listed, we'll have to add it by clicking the "New..." button.

Browse to the folder where you installed Python, in our case "C:\Python25", and select the file called "python.exe". If all goes well, the necessary folders will be automatically included into the configuration, leaving the window looking something like this:

Click OK to save your configuration.

7. Creating your first Pydev project

Eclipse will start again, hopefully without problems. Now, go ahead and create your first Pydev project. Select "File > New > Project" from Eclipse's menu.

A window will open, letting you choose the type of project to create. We want to make a Python program, so choose "Pydev > Pydev Project"

Click Next, and choose a name for your project, location, and the Python version to use (in this case, select Python 2.5).

Click the Finish button, and voila; your project is ready to begin. Let's create a Python source file by selecting "File > New > File" in the menu. Enter the desired file-name (in this case; helloworld.py) and parent project, so it looks similar to this:

Now, let us enter in a standard "Hello World" program.

And for the finale; click the green Run button, the one that looks like a Play button. If you get an error the first time, click on the arrow to the right of the Run button, and select "Run As > Python Run"

If all goes well, the Python program should run fine, and the output should appear in Eclipse's Python console.

Happy hacking!