About . . . Neophoric

Welcome to Neophoric — literally, a new direction — in software development. In addition to being a professional software development and consulting service, Neophoric hosts original games and tools. These programs not only show the quality of Neophoric's work, but also serve as fun games and useful tools for the general public.

19 Apr 2009

RenPhoric version 1.2.6 released. Using a more appropriately sized font. (Unlike Courier New, Lucida Console is actually legible at 8pt!)

15 Apr 2009

RenPhoric version 1.2.5 released. Fixed some stability issues and added several new features and improvements.

6 Apr 2009

I seem to get a new keyboard about once a year and this is my latest, the Kensington SlimBlade:

I was using this silly Microsoft keyboard for quite some time and became all but unnerved about the touch-sensitive function keys. I'll admit, touch sensititve is great for a lot of devices, but on a keyboard it flat out sucks! I would have to glance and make a pin-pointed jab every time I'd press a function key, not to mention accidentally press them about 90% of the time when resting my fingers.

The one redeeming quality to the Microsoft keyboard (why I bought it in the first place) was that it had no number pad, or rather that I could reach over to the right-handed mouse without causing tendonitis in my arm and shoulder. (Note: Anyone who uses a computer 8+ hours a day eventually gets some form of RSI and/or tendonitis by their late 20's.)

That led to my search for a keyboard without a numpad or touch-sensitive keys. Alas, the Kensington SlimBlade! The bonus with the SlimBlade is that it has a standalone numpad module which can go on the left side!

The one major problem with this keyboard, for Windows users in particular, is the unusual placement of the Alt keys and the lack of Menu or Pause/Break keys. Fortunately Windows 2K/XP provides a registry key to adjust the key mappings. I created a mapping which maps the Apple keys to Alt (next to space bar where they should be), Left/Right Alt to Windows/Menu, and rearranges the Home/End/PgUp/PgDn keys to a more sensible order:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout\Scancode Map
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 07 00 00 00 5b e0 38 00 5d e0 38 e0 4f e0 49 e0 49 e0 51 e0 51 e0 4f e0 38 e0 5b e0 38 00 5c e0 00 00 00 00

Unfortunately the default Windows key and right Apple key are the "same" key so the default Windows key ends up being another Alt. The only keys missing in this new layout are Right Windows (not that important) and Pause/Break (which isn't missed too much unless you like to hack away at scrolling command-lines).

Keyboard bliss ensues, though I'm sure I'll try the next best thing in 2010!

Update 7 Apr 2009: I was able to pop the keys off and relocate them to the new positions! So now I have a truly "customized" variation of this keyboard.

19 Mar 2009

I wrote this tiny GreaseMonkey script to automatically redirect GMail to the "Older Version" fixing the dreaded "Still Waiting" message that never goes away. Apparently, this problem doesn't affect all users, but it has been driving me up the wall for the last month or so. Note that this fix specifically applies to using GMail in secure mode (https://) which you should be using anyway.

// ==UserScript==
// @name Gmail Older Version Redirect
// @include https://mail.google.com/*
var str = window.location.href;
if (str.indexOf("?ui=1") == -1)
{
    if (str.indexOf("?") != -1) str = str.substr(0, str.indexOf("?"));
    window.location.href = str.concat("?ui=1");
}
// ==/UserScript==

17 Mar 2009

StripPhoric version 0.2.1 released. This is a BETA version which only supports PNG (more formats coming soon!)

2 Mar 2009

RenPhoric version 1.2.0 released. Added a few new features and improved flexibility.

17 Feb 2009

RenPhoric version 1.1.3 released. This is the flagship build which now fully supports Vista and sports an optimized user interface.