My ASUS laptop originally had a sound card driver in Windows 7 that included a technology called ASUS Sonic Focus. Its principle involves adjusting the audio equalizer to create a psychological Dolby surround effect, making listeners perceive the sound as spatial. After enabling Sonic Focus, I found the audio quality significantly improved. (I'm not an audiophile.) However, on Ubuntu, there's naturally no Sonic Focus – ASUS wouldn't bother supporting such a rapidly evolving system. Dolby and SRS also don't provide Linux support, so the open-source community developed Extra Stereo to replicate these features. There's also Crystalizer, which enhances high-frequency loudness for clearer sound. Those who've used Creative Sound Blaster or X-Fi cards should be familiar with this. Meanwhile,...
Bad Apple Command Line Animation Version
Bad Apple is an animation produced by Touhou Project in Japan. The entire animation uses a method similar to shadow play, featuring only black and white colors, yet achieves 3D visuals through entirely hand-drawn frames! The effect is excellent with no frame skipping or dropping. Due to its monochromatic nature, many enthusiasts have ported it to various platforms. I've seen versions running on calculators, Raspberry Pi, and even JavaScript implementations. I also wrote a Pascal program to play Bad Apple, though it operates entirely in the command line. I'm too lazy to provide the compiled binary. Since I use Linux, it would be useless for Windows users anyway. Therefore, I'm sharing the source code below—compile it yourself using FPC. uses crt; var fin:text; i: longint ; s:...
Installing VMware Workstation 9 on Ubuntu
The VirtualBox in Ubuntu's software repositories is becoming increasingly unreliable. Previously, it could at least be installed, but now it fails even to install. The version from the official source works, but it pulls down a massive bundle of KDE components—by the time VirtualBox finishes installing, KDE is practically installed too. So I decided to try VMware instead. Download address: http://download.pchome.net/system/sysenhance/download-10771.html The downloaded file has a .bundle extension, which is VMware's installer. However, you can't run it directly—we first need to grant it execute permissions: chmod +x VMware-Workstation-Full-9.0.0-812388.i386.bundle sudo ./VMware-Workstation-Full-9.0.0-812388.i386.bundle Remember to adjust the filename accordingly....
Solution for SCIM Malfunction
On Ubuntu 12.10, I dislike using the default ibus. Neither fcitx nor scim in the software repositories include a Pinyin package, so I downloaded the Google Pinyin module for scim, compiled and installed it myself. However, during use, scim frequently malfunctions. The symptom is that no matter which input field I click, scim fails to recognize it and thinks Chinese input isn't possible there. This forces me to type in English. During one such malfunction, I was chatting with a classmate via pywebqq. When scim crashed, the subsequent conversation was conducted entirely in Pinyin. It wasn't until the other party stopped responding that I took the chance to log out and log back in, restoring scim. Today, while writing an essay on my computer, scim malfunctioned again....
Reflections on the NOIP Finals
NOIP gets easier every year. After being crushed by problems on XJOJ before, it was finally my turn to dominate the questions. First, Friday. Rumors spread all morning that XXY would rescue us from class. We went to ask our homeroom teacher for leave. Then we AC'd (got Accepted). After lunch, we took our parents' car to XJ. In the car, my dad told me he installed Win8 for me to try. When I booted it up – x64... Turns out my sound card has bugs under Win8 x64 and won't work... Arrived at XJ, downloaded the x86 ISO, and reinstalled. While reinstalling, I pulled out my Nokia N81 to browse XJOJ... Just arrived at XJ, the computer lab was packed. I immediately spotted JC and DZY – those two beasts heading to crush the advanced division....