Welcome to Hrocdol.net

This is Jason Sherman's personal web site. Just a place on the web for me to share my thoughts, ideas, and stuff on the web. I hope you find something useful or interesting or entertaining here.

Why Hrocdol.net? Hrocdol, as a name, originated as a Diablo 1 character; a warrior, who ended up as a fearsome axe-wielding monster slayer. It was... Early in my college career, as I recall, and I thought it a unique enough name that I kept using it for other things to avoid conflicting with other names; at first games, then eventually instant messaging, web forums, and now, finally, for my web site.

Check the links at the left for interesting stuff. My blog exists below. I intend to use it as a journal of events in my world and my thoughts on them, as well as a place to point out the latest interesting thingy on the web. If you want to respond to anything in my blog, feel free to e-mail me at hrocdol@hrocdol.net or catch me on XMPP (Jabber) as hrocdol@hrocdol.net.

Blog entry 20110509-0957

I've been using AutoHotkey more lately. I find I use it like I might use a batch file, except with its ability to manipulate windows and processes in more advanced manner, I find it can do additional handy things to just make my system work more to my liking.

For example, I use this script to launch the Curse Client:

Run, "Curse Client.appref-ms"

Process, Wait, curseclient.exe, 5
if ErrorLevel
{
	Sleep 1000
	Process, Priority, curseclient.exe, B
}

It forces the process priority back down on Curse Client, so that its CPU usage spikes don't screw with music playback or gaming.

This one launches Plants vs. Zombies, and sends it a spacebar keystroke when it loses focus to unpause the game (so I can let the Last Stand Cash Farm work while I do other things). It also ends itself when it detects that PvZ was closed.

Run PlantsVsZombies.exe

SetTimer ExitMonitor, 2000

Loop
{
	WinWaitActive Plants vs. Zombies
	WinWaitNotActive Plants vs. Zombies
	SendMessage 0x100, 0x20, 0
	Sleep 100
	SendMessage 0x101, 0x20, 0xC0000000
}

ExitMonitor:
IfWinNotExist Plants vs. Zombies
	Exit
Return

Maybe that'll give some others good ideas for what AHK can do and how they might use it.

Blog entry 20110401-0027

Priceless.

Blog entry 20110325-0147

AutoHotKey is an open-source windows scripting tool that I've encountered before, but never really paid much mind to, since I didn't have an immediate need for what it could do.

Today I found a way that it can help force various games into a borderless mode from their normal windowed modes. This is similar to World of Warcraft's "Windowed (Fullscreen)" mode. I've tried it briefly against both ET:QW and Dragon Age 2, and plan to create similar scripts for other games in the near future.

This is the script I used on DA2:

Run .\bin_ship\dragonage2.exe

WinWait, ahk_class DragonAge2
Sleep 1000
IfWinExist
{
	WinSet, Style, -0xC40000 ; remove the titlebar and border(s)
	WinMove, , , 0, 0, 1920, 1200 ; move the window to 0,0 and reize it
}

You'll need to adjust the resolution to match your screen if you use something other than 1920x1200. I also haven't tried to see what happens if you don't set the game to windowed mode and 1920x1200 resolution in advance of launching with this script. Standard disclaimers, no warranty, YMMV, whatever.

As for me, I'm glad to finally have a workaround for a bad old problem. Let's see if it works on NWN2 now...

Blog entry 20100127-0446

The one disappointment that I remember about the book was... Well, I was enthralled in Felix's combat, his speed and skill, his amazing survival against all odds. And then his story was set aside to introduce the character of Jack Crow, who wasn't nearly as action-oriented as the Felix storyline had been... Jack's morally gray character grated my nerves at times. However, the combination of the two stories later in the book, as well as the culmination near the end of the book... I am at a loss for words to describe without ruining it for anyone who hasn't read it.

Of course, it's not like it's a new story, copyright 1984, but it was new to me, and I'm glad I purchased the book. It's a quality work of science fiction.

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