Fortress Maximus

Holy crap, I just figured out how to programatically maximize a JavaFX Stage in code. Well, technically a JFXStage from the JFXtras library, since you need access to the Window which also may or may not secretly be a Frame. It's an ugly hack. Hopefully JavaFX 1.5 will have a proper way to do it.

I bet the code will format beautifully...

import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.text.Text;
import javafx.scene.text.Font;
import org.jfxtras.stage.JFXStage;
import javafx.ext.swing.SwingButton;
import java.awt.Frame;
/**
* @author Owner
*/

var jfxs: JFXStage = JFXStage {
title: "Application title"
width: 250
height: 80
scene: Scene {
content: SwingButton {
text: "Button"
action: function() {
if(jfxs.getWindow() instanceof Frame) {
println("hallelujah!");
var frame = jfxs.getWindow() as Frame;
frame.setExtendedState(Frame.MAXIMIZED_BOTH);
} else {
println("boooourns!");
}


}
}

}
}

ISB 2008: All Access pass to crapville

Another year, another blog post. Here's my latest entry into The Invincible Super Blog's 30 Second recap contest. It's pretty crappy but, I don't know, it's got its charm. Let's see, it's based on a mini-series called DC/Marvel: All Access. Written by Ron Marz and drawn by Jackson Guice and Josef Rubenstein. I wish my name was Jackson Guice. Life would be so much better. And it looks like they had the same creative team for the whole four issues. I wonder if that was common back then.

I looked around the old dank local comic shop for something to make fun of for the contest and settled on this. I probably should've went with Brigade or Youngblood but I've got a soft spot for Superman and Spider-man in the same comic. I guess it came after the Amalgam thing where Batman and Wolverine combined into "Darkclaw" and fought "Hyena" (Joker and Sabertooth). I stopped collecting comics in the early 90s so I don't know the exact details, but I've gleaned information here and there. Man, it's such an awesome idea, it's a shame they didn't do more with it. New characters are like crack to me. But I bet the corporate paperwork was a nightmare. It probably kept the New York IP lawyers in business for years. And now that Marvel and DC hate each other it'll probably never happen again. Oh well. Hopefully they'll die soon and get bought up by some dot com nerd billionaire.

I was having some trouble picking funny names for the combined heroes and I knew that as soon as I published it I'd think of some "brilliant" ones. And I did. Batman/Jubilee = Knightlight or Darknightlight? Slightly funnier than Darkshines which is only funny if you're a Muse fan. Also maybe "Brutalitee" might've worked. And the Phoenician Manhurter should probably be the Phoenician Mindfucker. Oh well, those will be in the trade paperback or maybe the Absolute edition...

Use and Abuse

If you live out in the country and you're considering getting Bell's unlimited EVDO plan to replace your dial-up, well think again, Pedro. Unlimited apparently means limited to a very, very low number. No web pages with fancy stuff like "Flash movies" or "images" for you. They sent me a letter saying I was abusing their service and I had to switch to another plan. The only other plans were something like 30 megs for $60 per month or 60 megs for $100. Something like that. I was expecting them to offer me the plan they offered this guy, but I'm kind of glad they didn't because I probably would've taken it. High speed internet is kind of addictive. Poor Bell, I think they got in a little over their head with this thing. I wonder if they know that people use the net for more than just Archie and Veronica these days. Oh well, back to dial-up like a schmuck...

Various crappy epiphanies

Just in case I die in car accident or something I thought I'd better release my wisdom into the world:

To stay with the fatalism theme: Death is the ultimate loss of control. We commit suicide when we feel we have lost control. So we commit suicide to take control of our own deaths. We also join religions for the same reason.

Why do we let kids see violence on TV and in movies but not let them see anything to do with sex? Sex is embarrassing. Violence is not. Blame the Puritans.

Why can't I say the forbidden n-word when black people say it all the time? It's called self deprecation. It applies to groups too.

Spider-man Skating on Thin Ice in 30 Seconds and Crayon

Here's my latest entry into Chris's The Invincible Super Blog's 30 Second Recap Contest. It's really horrible. I seem to have forgotten how to draw a lightning bolt. And everything else, for that matter. Oh well. I also forgot Spidey's costume is mostly blue in that one picture. Also I drew him upside-down a lot for some reason. I guess I just find it funny. Anyways it's based on a 1990 anti-drug comic commissioned by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and Health and Welfare Canada. Written by Dwayne McDuffie and drawn by Alex Saviuk. Cover by Todd McFarlane. I know it's wrong but I love McFarlane's Spider-man. So sue me.

Oh hey look, it's a $13000 Bell Mobility bill

I live on the border between Canada and the States and my Novatel U720 EVDO modem roamed across the river a few times. Six gigs worth. Plus I was using it five days after the bill date so there's another couple thousand. Anyways, I think they're going to waive it but I'm responsible for any more roaming charges I incur from now on. And from comparing dates and times in the Mobile Connect logs to the data usage charges on the bill it looks like it just automatically moves from the Canadian network to the American one without much of a problem. So I'm either going to have to find a guaranteed way to keep it from roaming or just get rid of it. I need to set it to “home only” like a cell phone but all the commands seem to be super secret. And I'd like to use the Kyocera KR1 router so both computers can be on the net but it seems to be impossible to get access to the modem through the router, so there's an added layer of complexity to make this even more impossible.

Oh man, I'd love to get an American EVDO modem since it's so damn cheap over there but I need a US address. Plus I'd worry about it roaming over to Canada. It looks like Nextel's international roaming rates are 3 cents a kb. So that's $30 a meg? Is that right? That can't be right.

Anyways, if you know how to set the U720 to home only or any other way around this problem, please leave a comment or email me.

The Eternal Piracy Debate

Support what you like and encourage others to do the same. End of debate.

Creators: Don't see each illegal download as a lost sale, see it as a potential future sale.

And could we start calling it parasitism? It's a crappy word but it's so accurate.