shameen.info/wp

Basic guide to League of Legends

Shameen — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:30:13 +0000

Sign up with my referral: http://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4e8320a8cabd4899284673
Download client: https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/en/signup/download

I’d recommend playing the tutorials with each of the three characters to get a feel first, then play your next few against bots (Co-op vs AI). Remember that the bots will behave differently to real players.

Three lanes, one goes in the middle lane, the rest decide where. Buy an item from the shop by clicking on the purple dude or pressing P, the first recommended item should be fine. Spend your skill point on one of the skills and pick a lane. (this is covered in the tutorial)

At 1:30, minions will spawn from both sides and attack each other. Get the last hit/killing blow on them to earn money for the kill. Stay behind your minions and retreat if the enemy champion is aggressive (do what you can to not die)

Behind you is a friendly turret which does serious damage to anything that approaches it, and ahead of you is an enemy one. They prioritise minions unless a champion was attacked.

Your goal is to get a lot of money by killing enemy minions, then to go back to base and buy something. Following the recommended items is not a bad idea.

Soon you should be thinking about destroying the enemy turret so kill the minions more quickly than before, but watch out for enemy champions. (If your turret is under attack, prioritise the champions; if they fight back theyll get a beating from the turret.)

If you destroy the enemy’s turret you can either go back and buy more items, farm some more minions, help another lane, or grab a few teammates and try and kill the dragon (between middle and bottom lane).

Once you’ve taken down more turrets, there’ll probably be a lot of team fights against the enemy champions, make sure to stick together and don’t forget to protect your turrets and try taking dragon when it’s available.

If all goes well, you can probably take more turrets as a team, and eventually their base. If everyone’s level 18 you could try taking Baron Nashor who’s in the river between middle and top lane.

When you move onto PvP Normal games, you’ll find it much more difficult as they’ll do things like use the brushes and be more coordinated, but after a few games you’ll be matched with other people of similar skill so you should be fine.
You can learn a lot by playing the ‘free champions of the week’ at least once each.

HTML/CSS Tips and ‘cheatsheet’

Shameen — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 12:30:27 +0000

I’ve done quite a bit of work on websites now, and along the way there were a few things that really helped or that I needed to double check every time I used it. I might keep this list updated, if I find some more nice tricks.

HTML

Document Type Definitions (DTDs)
- HTML4 Strict:
- XHTML 1.0 Strict:
- HTML5:
Icons
- in head:
- favicon.ico in the website’s root works in all major browsers
- Animated GIF:

CSS

anchor

Four states available:

a:link {text-decoration:none;}
a:visited {color:gray;}
a:hover {text-decoration:underline;}
a:active {color:red;}

shorthand for margin,padding,etc.

two args: vertical horizonal
three args: top horizontal bottom
four args: top right bottom left

positioning:

set margin:auto or margin:0 auto to center horizontally
float and clear work well together
making line-height = height will center vertically

HTML5/CSS3

Easy way to do cross-browser CSS3: http://css3please.com/
Rounded corners: border-radius.com generator
Make IE6,7,8 support some CSS3: fetchak.com

Notepad++ – Ctrl+S showing a DC3 character?

Shameen — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:37:05 +0000

If you’re on Notepad++ and suddenly your Ctrl keys stop working properly, showing ‘DC3′ for Ctrl+S and a bunch of other characters for other hotkeys,it is usually just a simple problem:

99% of the time, you’ll have a dialog box open that you didn’t know about. Closing that should fix the problem!

(for me it was the ‘no results found’ dialog from using search)

Notepad++ is a free text editor available from notepad-plus-plus.org

Common Programming Mistakes

Shameen — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 17:58:11 +0000

So you’ve written up a nice piece of code, checked and double-checked it. When you run it, everything seems fine to start with, but nothing’s actually happened. If you’re completely stuck and wondering why it’s not working, here’s a few steps to follow to try and get back on track:

Run the code through validators or code quality tools

If you make the code using a simple text editor without error detection, you may have missed something important in your code. In many cases, running the code through these checker tools will give you information on errors and possible problems that could occur.

Try the W3C validator for HTML and CSS, or JSLint for Javascript. For most other languages, you may consider getting an IDE such as Visual Studio Express or NetBeans.

Missing or extra quotation marks

You should double check all variables and make sure you aren’t accidently outputting a variable’s name instead of the contents of the variable itself. Especially if you’re using SQL, make sure there are quotation marks in your query, or it may not execute at all.

Variables and capitalisation

Make sure your variable names don’t mean anything to the language you’re using, and make sure your variable names are acceptable. Most languages won’t allow a variable to start with a number, so double check the documentation (there is almost definitely an online database for the language you are using).

The syntax highlighting should make it very easy for you to spot mis-spellings and capitalisation errors. Capitalisation is quite tricky to spot, and can mean something quite different (eg. in C#, ‘String’ refers to a class, and ‘string’ a data type).

Also, make sure you don’t miss out the important hash(#) or dollar sign($) that is required before a variable name, or you may be unintentionally doing something completely different.

Missing spaces or brackets/parentheses ()[]{}

The simplest problem could be having the wrong number of brackets, and it groups the code in some sort of crazy mess. Syntax highlighting should help you out with this, most text editors have it.

I have had quite a few times where in PHP using a number next to a period(.) would turn it into a decimal instead of joining strings together. Make sure you have spaces, line breaks, and indentation where appropriate, it will be easier to read.

Another problem is forgetting to add brackets to a method. Adding brackets to the end will ‘invoke’ the method, instead of treating it like a variable. Also make sure you use enough brackets, especially for math equations, or it may not calculate in the order you want.

Using undefined variables or methods

If you are using a variable in different parts of your program, make sure you define it first (such as setting a loop counter to zero) so it will be able to use the variable correctly.

This is especially important in JavaScript, make sure all functions used by the code are added BEFORE it is called.

Cross your fingers and test again

I hope this guide has helped you out a bit. If you are new to programming and hit one of these annoying bumps then post your problem and code in the comments below and i’ll try to help out

Clean up and Speed up your PC for Free in 4 Steps

Shameen — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:09:04 +0000

You’ll need to install some programs, which are free, and free up space on your hard drive. Here are 4 easy-to-follow steps to speed up your PC:

1. First, download CCleaner from ccleaner.com. Install it, then right click your recycle bin and click ‘Open CCleaner’ (if it isn’t already up). Click the ‘Run CCleaner’ button in the program and wait for it to finish. This will remove a HUGE amount of unnecessary data.

2. When that’s finished, click on ‘Registry’, Scan for Issues, then ‘Fix Selected Issues’. Press No when asked to backup, then click ‘Fix all selected issues’, and close.

3. (This step is optional) Now, go to tools, and uninstall any software you don’t use anymore. This will free up more space. (Click the application name then ‘Run Uninstaller’).
Restart your computer if you’ve uninstalled quite a few programs.

4. Then, download Spybot Search&Destroy from safer-networking.org.
Install it, Run the immunize tool, then do a complete scan and remove/fix any results. Restart your computer.
Be sure to run the updater at least every other week, then scan after updating.

If you want your computer to run faster for a temporary time (eg. Playing a Game) then download ‘Game Booster’ from iobit.com.

Twitdraw: How to recover a ‘broken’ drawing

Shameen — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:05:32 +0000

If you’ve used twitdraw before, you’ve probably encountered a problem where you drew a nice picture, entered your twitter login details, then nothing happens, and all of the buttons are disabled.

Fortunately, it is still uploaded, but it isn’t easy to find, and sadly, doesn’t know the user who uploaded it.

What to do first

If you get this problem, don’t close the page. If you do, you won’t be able to find it. The first thing you should do is to take a screenshot of the page (so you don’t lose it ocmpletely) with the Print Screen button on your keyboard, then paste it into an image editor like MS Paint (Start – Programs – Accessories – Paint) and save it. This is just a backup, you won’t be able to put it back on twitdraw, but you can upload it to other websites like twitpic or photobucket.

Recovering the twitdraw URL

You will need to find the webpage’s source code. Webpages are written in a language called HTML. You can find the source by going to File – View Source, or View – Page Source, depending on the browser. (you can also usually press Ctrl+U)

This code may look scary, but you don’t need to worry. Go about a fifth of the way down until you find the line on the screenshot below. (Click on the picture to view it in full size)

At the end of the line which is highlighted is a group of six letters/numbers (eg. /abc123.png) that represents your URL. Add those six characters to make it look like http://twitdraw.com/abc123 then navigate there on your browser.

And there you go! you should now have found your twitdraw URL!

Nintendo DS: R4Pro Guide – Tips, Tweaks, and Acekard Firmware

Shameen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:25:05 +0000

The R4DS is probably the most popular ‘flash cart’ for the Nintendo DS, but i noticed that it only supports up to and including 2GB microSD cards. I thought 2GB was pretty small.
I saw another version while I was shopping around that claims to support SDHC Cards (SD cards that have over 2gb memory), so i ordered the R4DS Pro, an unofficial ‘clone’, and after some research:

For some reason, it’s a clone of the Acekard 2 (not a clone of the R4)
the r4dspro firmware sucks:
- There is no way to switch skins (unless you swap the folders, it will only show theme04 for me)
- Regular R4 Skins look all wrong (multicolour and/or shrunk and tiled), fix below
- The firmware can be replaced by the Acekard 2 firmware, which is probably the best firmware
Moonshell and a few other popular homebrew programs don’t work properly (might be my fault)

It’s not all bad: it is compatible with the Acekard All-In-One Firmware, arguably the best firmware available for any flash cart.

Getting themes to work on the R4DSPro (in r4dspro firmware)

you can make themes work if the bitmaps are 16-bit:
if you don’t know how to save in 16-bit, or your program doesn’t support that file type, download/install/run GIMP from gimp.org
it will be on some options which will pop up after you use ‘save as..’ (Click R4G6B5 under 16-bit)

The picture will be ok but some colours will be a little ‘off’, for example, a theme i made in black and white came out creamy yellow and dark blue.

How to install Acekard firmware on the R4DS Pro

Download the AKAIO (Acekard All-in-one) firmware here: http://www.acekard.com/download.php
Extract the zip file (if you’re having trouble try using 7-Zip)
Open the folder you extracted the above to, and rename “akmenu4.nds” to “_DS_MENU.DAT”
Copy “_DS_MENU.DAT” and the “__aio” folder to the root of your MicroSD card. Note: The ‘root’ means the main directory, so you will end up having eg. (assuming your microSD is drive letter F) F:\_DS_MENU.DAT
All done! Put the MicroSD Card back into your R4 Pro and hope everything ended up OK.

Skins/Themes for the Acekard 2 firmware:

Good sites to get skins: (remember, you want Acekard skins, not R4 skins)
http://www.acekard.com/skin.php
http://www.ndsthemes.com/themes/title/ak2

Installing Acekard skin/themes:
Simply copy the folder to __aio/ui/ (in AKAIO you should see ‘Adv.EvoR’ and ‘ZELDA’ in the same folder)

Applying Acekard skins:
Start > System Options > Interface Theme (left/right to select a theme) > OK
on the R4pro, it will get stuck on the loading screen, so wait about 5 seconds then restart your DS.

Links to other R4 Pro guides:

Installing MoonShell – http://damiendempsey.net/?p=18

overall, it still works OK, and I hope I helped any of you guys with an r4dspro (or even an Acekard)
R4DS Pro website: www.r4dspro.com/index_en.html

How-To: Get the original Movie Maker back on Windows 7

Shameen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:37:32 +0000

This is a problem that arises with amateur video editors and YouTubers running Windows 7. As most of you know, the Windows Live Essentials pack has ‘Windows Live Movie Maker’ (and beta), which has been totally stripped bare, and even crashed on me for trying to add a soundtrack.. O_O
And the original Movie Maker is very easy to use and, of course, perfect for youtubing.

Movie Maker is much easier to use than it’s competitors, lack of features makes it easier, but this new version has far too little features. Movie Maker does some things a whole lot easier than professional software, enough for most people’s needs.

You can still get the good old version from Microsoft. However you can’t get the version that was provided with Vista, which was nicer-looking. Here’s the download link for the version found in XP:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=D6BA5972-328E-4DF7-8F9D-068FC0F80CFC

Have fun!

Image is the Windows Live Movie Maker Beta which I didn’t like at all. (although it does look nice)

Source: http://on10.net/blogs/sarahintampa/Miss-the-Old-Movie-Maker-Get-it-Back-on-Windows-7/

VB.NET: Reading from/Writing to a text file

Shameen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:30:06 +0000

This is a simple guide for reading/writing to a text file for a Windows application (similar to notepad)
C# will be almost exactly the same, just add a few semicolons and curly brackets..

Reading from a text file:

Create a Windows application project
Go to designer mode. Add the rich text box control to your form
Double click anywhere on the bar at the top of the form (the bar that has minimise/maximise)
Paste the code below into the new area that just came out.
Change the bits that are highlighted in the text below suit the program
When you run the program, it should load a text file from the desired location.

Writing to a text file:

Create a Windows application project (or use an existing one)
Go to designer mode. Add the rich text box control to your form (if there isn’t one already)
Go back to designer mode and add a button, then double click it to go back to code screen.
Use the code further down should save to a text file, and replace the highlighted areas if it needs changing slightly. (i quickly typed it up so it might not work)

[Code] Reading from a Text file

Dim Reader As System.IO.StreamReader Reader = New System.IO.StreamReader("C:\Textfile.txt") '<-- where to read from Dim tempstring As String Do tempstring = Reader.ReadLine() richtextbox1.Text = richtextbox1.Text + tempstring + vbLf Loop Until tempstring = ""

[Code] Writing to a Text File

Dim Writer As System.IO.StreamWriter Writer = New System.IO.StreamWriter("C:\Textfile.txt") '<-- Where to write to Writer.Write(richtextbox1.Text) Writer.Close()

Nintendo DS: Comparison of Flash Carts

Shameen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:16:00 +0000

The R4 is the most popular flash cart for the Nintendo DS, a flash cart for homebrew, however the R4 Team is no more, probably because of Nintendo.

There are many clone cards of the well-known R4 that have good and bad points, the most popular R4 clones are the R4Ultra and R4 SDHC. These cards usually have an improved hardware like support for SDHC (4GB+) cards, but they will have downsides such as glitchy firmware. Most people find clone cards to be much worse off overall, mainly because of compatibility issues.

Here is a table showing a large amount of information about the more popular flash carts:

DS Flash Carts	R4 / YDC / M3 Simply & Clones	Acekard 2 / 2.1 / 2i	EZ-Flash V / Plus	iPlayer	Top Toy (DSTT)	CycloDS Evolution	SuperCard DSTWO
Cart Strength & Look	Most are good, but not very durable	DS-Like	DS-Like	Not very flush, White case.	Not very flush, White case	Not very flush, White case	DS-Like
Fully-Functional Firmware	Official firmware is old, Wood R4 is an unnofficial replacement.	Updates are quite frequent	Fully functional, Occasionally updates.	Video playback, supports many video types.	Officially out of date, YSMenu is an unnofficial replacement.	Fully functional, more features than many others.	Frequent updates, more features than many others.
Themes & Customisation	Most have simple theme support	Advanced themes & layouts	Simple theme support	Not much theme support	Simple theme support	Simple theme support	Good theme support
DS Emulation & Homebrew	Some things can be a bit buggy	Yes	Yes	No DS emulation, but supports GBA.	Bugs in the newest games	Yes, has extra ‘real time options’ while in-game.	Supports DS and GBA games. Native SNES support.
MicroSD Capacity	up to 2GB SD	up to 32GB SDHC	up to 32GB SDHC	up to 32GB SDHC	up to 32GB SDHC	up to 32GB SDHC	up to 32GB SDHC
Spring-loaded SD	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
Runs like an original DS game	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Comments	The most well-known flash cart. Very cheap.	Won the ‘Golden Award’ on GBAtemp.	Comes with the EZ-Flash 3in1, the most famous Slot-2 device.	No DS Emulation. Supports GBA Emulation.	Possibly the cheapest Slot-1 device on the market.	Quite expensive, but good amount of features.	Third generation flash cart. Many new features.

I would recommend the Acekard and SuperCard products myself. Remember, if you want a better flash cart you’ll have to pay more.

If you’re interested in GBA features in your DS, You may be interested in the Slot-2 EZ Flash 3-in-1. It will work with most firmware, and it has:

8MB of memory (RAM), same as the Internet Browser expansion
Rumble Pak, vibrates in games that have official rumble support
Supports GBA emulation and homebrew, including the DS/GBA features such as Pokemon’s ‘Pal Park’.

Usually, the EZ-Flash V is bundled with the 3in1.

The best shops i’ve found to buy these from (in the past) are GameKool and 4CoolDay. They are very cheap, but it can take a very long time to ship, since they’re usually from East Asia.