Do you ever get sick and tired of openning the same exact programs over and over again?

For example, if you are playing a video game, you want to launch a game and voice chat at the same time. Maybe you want to load up aim and an IRC client at the same time. Or perhaps whenever you talk on aim, you surf the internet at the same time.

For scenarios such as the ones listed above, the "program" you're looking for is called a batch file.

What is a batch file?

According to wikipedia, "a batch file is a text file containing a series of commands intended to be executed by the command interpreter"

In other words, you write a set of instructions that cmd.exe follows.

Lets get familiar with cmd:

The focus is on folders and their executables. Although you may be used to starting a program from a desktop shortcut, you should also know that there is a folder in your c:/programfiles directory that contains the actual .exe (executable) file.

The two basic functions you will need to know are "cd" and "start"

Cd is short for "copy directory"

Contrary to its name, you will not be copying any folders. The cd function is merely used for telling the command line where to look for the program you want to launch.

Start simply tells the command prompt to run the selected program.

Lets start by making a file that opens up windows media player and notepad.

1. Open Notepad
2. Find the directory of windows media player executable file. You should find the directory to be C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player
3. Find the name of the .exe file. You should find it to be wmplayer.exe (it is obviously not the other .exe files because their names indicate a setup or something strange - i.e. wmsetsdk.exe < Probably not going to run main application with a name like that. If you are ever unsure of the correct .exe file go to your shortcut's properties and find the target application.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for Notepad. You should find the information to be: Directory - C:\WINDOWS\system32 ;    and the .exe is notepad.exe
5. Now we write the program: First alert the command prompt (via notepad batch file) what directory it should look for WMP in by typing: cd C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player
6. On a new line tell the command prompt to start wmplayer.exe which is in the directory you specified above by typing: start wmplayer.exe
7. On the next line repeat step 5 for "notepad": cd C:\WINDOWS\system32
8. On the next line repeat step 6 for "notepad": start notepad.exe
9. Save the file as <yournamehere>.bat
10. Wait for it to create the program

Congratulations! You have created your first batch file!!!

If it doesn't run when you click on it make sure your slashes are backslashes and make sure that you saved it as a .bat file (not a .bat.txt <<

Here it is again as a full file:

cd C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player
start wmplayer.exe
cd C:\WINDOWS\system32
start notepad.exe

as long as you type it in like that, notepad and wmp will both launch when you click on the batch file!

Pop-Quiz:

What programs would this batch file open?

cd C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player
start wmplayer.exe
cd C:\WINDOWS\system32
start notepad.exe
cd C:\WINDOWS\system32
start minesweeper.exe


Scroll down for answer
.
..
...
..
.
..
...
..
.
The answer is: WMP, Notepad, and Minesweeper

Hope this is useful and in the future I will show you how to do more complicated things with .bat (batch) files!

What can I do now?

Now you have been certified by G-engineering to create your own batch files to open a group of programs at a single time. If you are feeling risky and you know cmd/the DOS command line pretty well, you can tell your batch files to do more complicated things such as opening up several webpages at once - simply write a different command you want the command prompt to perform on a different line of notepad.

To get started with advanced ideas try integrating some of these commands into your batch files:

http://www.cknow.com/tutorcom/advdos.htm

http://www.computerhope.com/overview.htm

Both are comprehensive lists of most of the DOS command line commands.

---

I wrote a program using one word that launches the command prompt and displays the time and date:

date

and I saved it as Time.bat

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Sorry if this tutorial was a little choppy. It is my first one and I am really tired :)

Enjoy

-Evan

Some of you out there will recognize the characters represented in the above windowshot. If not then you've missed out on one of the greatest fantasy stories ever to be published. There's some out there that may whine that I'm not coming up with something original, however, I beg to differ. This is something that has been brewing in the back of my mind for well over two decades. For the most post, this game will be programmed in 100% 6502 assembler language using some fine Atari related tools that are available on both Windows, Linux, OS-X (and other systems to be compiled on as all these tools are Opensource).

The actual cross-assembler I'm using is called xasm that is based upon Quick Assembler's syntax. This is an excellent cross-assembler as it has built-in macros for handling loops, 16 bit addressing and math, and many other wonderful little abilities that an assembly language programmer from the 70s or 80s would have loved to have. For all you brave enough to compile your own version of xasm you'll need some form of a D language compiler such as the Digital Mars version or an Opensource version such as gdc for you Linux and OS-X users (Windows users too!)

For redefining the character set I used an Opensource tool called EnvisionPC by Mark Schmelzenbach that is available for Windows, Linux, and OS-X. This is basically a PC/Mac version of an excellent tool released on the Atari in the 80s called Envision. It allows you to redefine the character set of an Atari computer and also generate a character map. It outputs into many different language formats for the Atari programmer as well.

When it comes to sound, I'll be using the excellent Raster Music Tracker by Radek Sterba. This is a Windows only program that takes music tracking on the Atari to a new level. This tracker handles stereo sound for those that upgraded their Atari systems with a second Pokey chip. Another shining feature of this program is it's ability to manipulate envelopes for some truly great sound that in some circumstances sounds very close to the competitions sound chip, the MOS-Tech SID chip used in the Commodore 64/128 computers.

Any other tools will be Atari 8-bit based.

I believe that learning a programming language or in a general view learning every new concept or skill needs to prepare some prerequisites and preliminary skills which called fundamental skills. For example if you want to learn driving, at first you must to learn driving rules and laws. Same as this for learning programming you should take proficiency in some things such as: problem solving techniques, presenting solutions in unambiguous ways, acceptable knowledge in mathematics and some other parameters which discussed about them later in this post.

I believe that programming is some how depends on two important abilities. The first one is mentality abilities and the other one is knowledge. We can say that the first factor is not acquired while the second one is. It means that if you are not a talent person in solving problems you can not remedy this deficiency easily, but if you are in lack of knowledge about a technical filed you can try to equipped with the necessary skills easier than the mentality abilities. Although psychologists now days proved that we can increase our mentality and behavioral abilities easier. Surly this is a subject which we can not discuss about it here.

As I mentioned to learn a programming language or more than this to learn programming and achieve the ability of writing software programs in every computer programming language, you must learn some general techniques and concepts, before beginning with the syntax of a certain programming language like C#, Java… So we are decided to discuss briefly about these techniques and concepts here. I named some proficiency around learning programming, now I want to complete and detailed them.

1. Problem solving strategy: In our ordinary life we use some fixed and predefined ways or on the other hand strategies totally unaware. It means that we did not any education for learning these ways. Scientists in mathematics, psychology and other related sciences worked on these techniques and formulated them and released them as Problem Solving Strategies. Some thing interesting is that animals use problem solving strategies instinctively too. For example now days in Computer Network one of the famous algorithms for routing is "Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm (ACO)" which is inspired from the process of finding nest in ants. I think a useful and famous book around Problem Solving Strategy in mathematics is "How to Solve It" by George Polya from Princeton University Press in 1945. Problem solving strategy is a deep and huge major which we can not detailed it here.
2. Problem Solution Presentation: Because of the ambiguity of natural languages like English language, it is not suitable to explain the solution of problems with the sentences of natural languages. Especially this situation will be complicated when problem or solution will some how difficult. To prevent ambiguous in problem solving it is better to define the problem solution with diagrams or flowcharts in a step-wised way. Now days in Software Industry before implementing the software system, means writing the codes of software, the development team working on an important phase called Requirement Analysis. In this phase Analyzers present and model the requirements of the system with different and various diagrams. Same as this phase development team repeat this job in the other phases.
3. General Knowledge about PCs: for a person who wants to be a programmer it is necessary to have a general knowledge about the functionality of PC's hardware and software. It is not important to know the details, only knowing the structure and the relationship of different units or the communication process of hardware and software will be sufficient.
4. Average knowledge in Mathematics: we know that mathematics is master of all sciences on the world. The relationship among computer and mathematics is undeniable. I think for succeeding in computer programming an average knowledge in mathematics, especially in a new branch of this major named Discrete Mathematics is needed. Now days in public education systems like high school or college period teaching these courses in most of the countries all over the world. Computer programming is related to Discrete Mathematics and Mathematical Logic directly.
5. Behavioral skills: emotional and behavioral skills are very important in every technical field. In programming to be a successful programmer you must have a personality with some highlighted characteristics such as: perseverance in problem solving, attentiveness, regularity and patiently. Surly these characteristics are not restricted only to computer programming while the effective role of them is observable in almost every job.

For completing this list we can mention many other parameters yet, especially from Engineering view point. But in this post our objective was surveying the crucial skills of computer programming. After receiving the feedbacks and comments of readers and visitors I will write down about Modern Computer Programming Skills and it's prerequisites from Software Engineering point of view.

IDA Pro is much more than a simple debugger. It is a programmable, interactive disassembler and debugger. With IDA Pro you can reverse-engineer just about any type of executable or application fi le in existence. IDA Pro can handle fi les from console machines such as Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo, to Macintosh computer systems, to PDA platforms, Windows, UNIX, and a whole lot more.

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SELECT
    Products.ProductID,
    Products.ProductName,
    SaldoIn.[In],
    SaldoOut.Out,
    Saldo.saldo
FROM
    Products
    LEFT JOIN SaldoIn ON Products.ProductID = SaldoIn.CodProd
    LEFT JOIN SaldoOut ON Products.ProductID = SaldoOut.CodProd
    LEFT JOIN Saldo ON Products.ProductID = Saldo.codProd
GROUP BY
    Products.ProductID,
    Products.ProductName,
    SaldoIn.[In],
    SaldoIn.Bln,
    SaldoOut.Out,
    SaldoOut.Bln,
    Saldo.saldo,
    Saldo.bln
HAVING
    SaldoIn.Bln="12"
    AND SaldoOut.Bln="12"
    AND Saldo.bln)="12";

hasilnya ketika salah satu tabel tidak menemukan record yang bersangkutan, bisa jadi hasilnya kosong

untuk itu bagaimana bila query tersebut saya modifikasi seperti ini

SELECT
    Products.ProductID,
    Products.ProductName,
    SaldoIn.[In],
    SaldoOut.Out,
    Saldo.saldo
FROM
    Products
    LEFT JOIN SaldoIn ON Products.ProductID = SaldoIn.CodProd and SaldoIn.Bln=12
    LEFT JOIN SaldoOut ON Products.ProductID = SaldoOut.CodProd and SaldoOut.Bln=12
    LEFT JOIN Saldo ON Products.ProductID = Saldo.codProd and Saldo.BlnJ=12
GROUP BY
    Products.ProductID,
    Products.ProductName,
    SaldoIn.[In],
    SaldoIn.Bln,
    SaldoOut.Out,
    SaldoOut.Bln,
    Saldo.saldo,
    Saldo.bln

atau selengkapnya dalam Script SQL server adalah:

declare @Bulan as Byte;
set @Bulan=12;

SELECT
    Products.ProductID,
    Products.ProductName,
    SaldoIn.[In],
    SaldoOut.Out,
    Saldo.saldo
FROM
    Products
    LEFT JOIN SaldoIn ON Products.ProductID = SaldoIn.CodProd and SaldoIn.Bln=@Bulan
    LEFT JOIN SaldoOut ON Products.ProductID = SaldoOut.CodProd and SaldoOut.Bln=@Bulan
    LEFT JOIN Saldo ON Products.ProductID = Saldo.codProd and Saldo.BlnJ=@Bulan
GROUP BY
    Products.ProductID,
    Products.ProductName,
    SaldoIn.[In],
    SaldoIn.Bln,
    SaldoOut.Out,
    SaldoOut.Bln,
    Saldo.saldo,
    Saldo.bln

Go

Computer programming can be fun. As you get more experienced, you will find out some very special debugging techniques.
For software developers, website designers etc..  Tell us in the comments your opinion or personal techniques for debugging programs.
Especially when programming advanced things, where basic debugging fails... (i.e. My JavaScript permutations calculator).. (I may have overcomplicated it..) But that is besides the point that debugging skills, can really come into play. With every program I write I have been adding some small tips :D .. Well I should have been anyways. There are some quite advanced debugging techniques, that you don't think of until its too late.. So I decided to keep track of some of them.

Your program isn't working .. Now what?

**
=====================================================================

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TIP FOR PROBLEMS WITH READING FILES! [Especially on Windows platform]

Make sure you open the text file in crimson. Because simply saving a file in notepad will have hidden characters.
\r\n (found that on some forum) I believe there is some extra character with windows file system.
if you want to work with a unix based file then..

1) Download Crimson Editor(google it)
2)Open the text file in Crimson
3) Go to Document Menu-->File Format
-->Unix LF Only

It looks like Unix file format for text works with Line Feeds whereas Dos Format (typical when saving in XP SP2..etc. in notepad.. saves line feeds and Carriage returns..) causing problems if you just check for \n...and also more problems if you don't have the file in the string and add extra code to check for 2 characters...
**

=====================================================================

1. Well for JavaScript.. If it is a function make sure you are using the reference and not a copy...you need to use the .splice()  .. To make a full copy of an array( I think..)

2. find out what is wrong and test that rather than working with the entire problem. i.e. cut down the problem to 1 test case  that fails.

3. Do a walkthrough or tracing of your source code..

4. Take a break, and hopefully it will come to you..hopefully

5.  Start at the top error.. if there are many errors. since there may be some useless errors

Use -qstaticinline option to supress warnings when compiling c++ programs.

6. Google the errors... You might find your answer in a forum somewhere for more rare problems.

7. Comment out parts to narrow down the problem

8. Add Print statements everywhere to find out what is going on!

9. Common sense when working with a new language is to memorize what an error probably means. For example, if you forget a semicolon you problem won't get a "you forgot a semicolon error" ..   So try to remember the basics like that.

In the information age, the button that we push is "enter" and the pellet that we get is information in whatever form we requested. Push the button, get the info.

We take that with us. We're out engaging with someone. They aren't moving fast enough--or correctly enough--or they aren't giving us the right information--we've pushed the button, where is your response??!

An example of this is a programmer I used to date many years ago. At the time, I thought he was the odd guy out with his intolerance and impatience if I didn't respond immediately or the way he wanted me to. I thought it was an isolated issue, just with him. However, over the years, amongst working and dating people within the technical community, I started to notice this as a pattern. They'd push the button, they wanted their response. Just like running their programs.

Now with search engine popularity, this has trained the entire computer literate society. Push the button, give us our information. 

A lot of recent news has blamed this on the narcissistic children of the boomers, and I think some of that impatience comes from that, but I'd bet a bigger wager on the collective rat lab training of the computer literate human race to push buttons and get responses.

Trend: as more people come online and are "trained" by pushing "enter" to get responses, the impatience of society overall is going to grow.

Best get your pellets ready.

Today, I'm announcing a new Mac Application I'm making called iBlog. This software is a desktop blogging application, and will be free. I'm making this because all the free desktop blogging software don't really have the whole Mac OS X feel, because they're all cross platform. Keep an eye here for updates, as well as screenshots.

Hmmm, what else? Oh! Recently I was added to the MyBB development team. I sent an application a while ago, but they've finally added more people to the support team, as well as the development team, and I'm one of them. I'm waiting to get access to the SVN, but then I can start developing as soon as I do.

Hmmm, I think that's about it. Yeah, I still have too many projects. >_<

(Both images taken from sosamartialarts.com and degreedirectory.org)

First and foremost, this is only my own opinion, you not necassary agree with me or maybe you have your own opinion. What I write here maybe not reflect the reality of both (martial arts and computer programming). Second I write this with "As Far As I Know" assumption.

In this post I just tempted to unveil what is reside in my mind. By now I want to talk about equalities and differences between martial arts and computer programming.

Lets start with the equalities:

Sometimes it is suck, but it is rock!
Learning martial arts can be so suck, the same thing happen with computer programming! But best of all both of two things is rock! So your sacrifice is worth!

It is good when you enjoy it!
What is better than do thing that we like? So its really good for us especially when we enjoy doing it!

Both need to be done with "Best Practices"
Practice makes perfect, but best practices can do more! do the best practices and lets hope that it will bring best results!

Now it's the time for the differences

Martial arts is physical activities, computer programming is brain activities
It is clear, I think it is really hard to mastering a martial art just by imagine it, we need physical activities to handle it. Programming is brain activities because becoming a computer programmer will not broken your leg, right?

Martial arts is how to control our body, computer programming is how to control the machine
I just talk in the surface, because in both fields I am not yet a master! What I do when I practice a martial art? I do the physical activities, something that make me full with sweat. What I do when I coding? I write programs to make the computer do what I want.

Martial arts teach me how to life healthier, computer programming teach me how to make money
Maybe it is sound odd but its true. I am a martial arts fans, just like another sports it make us life healthier. Currently my job as software developer, so I earned money from write computer programs.

Sorry, I just kidding.

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The focus of this book is malware, and the techniques which can be used to detect, detain, and destroy it.  This is not accidental.  Of the four  threats listed above, malware has the deepest connection to the other three. Malware may be propagated using spam, and may also be used to send spam; malware may take
advantage of bugs; malware may be used to mount DoS attacks.  Addressing the problem  of  malware  is vital for  improving  computer  security.  Computer security is vital to our society's critical  infrastructure.

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It is maybe why they called it algorithm. The sense or intelligence to breakdown problem by examine it's part into SEQUENTIAL  way of solution. The algorithm way I think is interesting because it always come with logic first. Linear logic. That is the difference with designing. Sometime, or most of time, it's just pop-up in our head without reasoning. Best design not always come with excellent reasoning of what or how, but excellent computer program always comes with par excellent lines of codes.

This time my head spinning because of I had a  lot of algorithm thinking. Smallest problem become great challenge in algorithm way. Algorithm teach us to think structurally, sequential, thorough and complete. I am not birthed in a algorithm brain, I just love my design minded brain. But many people out there  gladly share their idle brain into something new..like...algorithm. Completely different approach, completely different headache.

I plan to play with the program this summer and introduce it to sudents next year. Thank you, Randy!

www.alice.org

Thank you for reading my blog.
Lionello

XLogo is a very simple drawing program that lets young kids easily learn the concepts of computer programming.  XLogo uses a subset of the LOGO programming language and only uses about 42 commands.  Kids write simple programs to draw on the screen using commands like newturtle, showturtle and hideturtle.  Yes, turtles are what you 'control' in order to draw on the screen.

XLogo is great because its interface is so simple, kids can get started in minutes.  XLogo is a fun way to teach logic, creative problem solving and typing skills.  If your child masters this little language, he/she can extend his/her knowledge to more robust versions.

The XLogo version we are using is only available for Mac OS X.  There is an updated version that can be installed on a PC, but we have not tried it.  From looking at screenshots of the PC version, it looks like the PC version is somewhat more complex but also more powerful than the simple Mac version.

If you want to give XLogo a try, here are some resources to get you started:

Mac OS X

• Download XLogo 0.3.5 for Mac OS X
• XLogo Educator Documentation
• XLogo User Documentation (You may want to print this for quick reference)

Windows

• About the XLogo 0.9.92 version
• Download XLogo 0.9.92
• Documentation and Tutorial

Have Fun!

• use of brackets
• if statements
• Else if statements
• How to print..
• How to do a website in it?
• database I/O
• File I/O
• How to call a function...

Just some basic things.. To solve a problem in the language can help you truly get it better
...etc.

Basically what I have is an image file, which is the level map, and my screen can only display part of this large image. The screen resolution is the same size as the viewable area. As the bat moves around, this changes the coordinates of the viewable area. I use an SDL_Rect to clip the level map to the same dimensions of the screen. Then I center this rectangle on the bat. It's like a huge bounding box around the bat except that the rectangle will determine what part of the level gets clipped and what part gets displayed. When I move the bat, the coordinates of the rectangle change accordingly so that when I blit the next frame, the new changes will take place.

Of course the hard part is distinguishing between the coordinates of the bat versus the coordinates of the center of the viewable area. These should be the same but they don't have to be. In my case, they are the same so whatever the bat "sees" when it flies around in the level is automatically displayed on the screen.

Doing some programming for a company, but having trouble... Perhaps this tip can help
Programming tip
-Write it down.. Or draw it out
Why?
You can see what you are working with
-By drawing it out or writing it down, you go from a trial and error approach to a more guaranteed correct approach.
-IN order to proceed often you will need to know the required prerequiste information. Thus, writing things down or drawing things out, i.e. Doing a quick walk through or 'tracing' allows you to get the problem solved faster and better.
 
I had a grid of numbers that I was messing up because the array index starts at 0. Basically I need a special if statement

Computer programming is the craft of writing codes used to perform a meaningful task in computing system. Programming a computer can be performed using different programming languages. There are a lot of programming languages available now, ranging from low-level languages to high level languages. Low-level languages like machine language is a lot harder to program. Because it consist of numerous lines of codes to write when it is just a simple command. For instance, in assembly language when you want the computer to clear the lines it would take up to five to six lines of code. But when you are using high-level language like Turbo C/C++ it would just consist of only one word.

There are a lot of high-level languages like JavaScript, Turbo C/C++ as I mentioned earlier, Pascal, Fortran, BASIC and PHP. But for me when I created my software project I used Visual Basic 6. For me visual basic 6 is a lot easier to learn and it’s easier to use. The command is very easy to familiarize and to memorize. It has a user friendly GUI (Graphical User Interface).

Computer Programming is just a part of a much larger field Software Engineering.

a              Array (of any kind)

ch            Single Character

cb            Count of bytes

tp             Function Pointer or FILE pointer 

h               Handle (generic handle, Example - ReadFile(hFile,..))

i                An index

l                Long integer (int C, Pascal:longint, Exmaple - SendMessage(..,lParam))

lp              Far or large pointer (Example - FindWindow(lpClassName,..))

n               Integer

np             Near or small pointer

sz              ASCIIZ String (NULL Terminating String)

w               Word (unsigned int, Exmaple - PostMessage(..,wParam))

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Variable name          Explanation

pfOutput                      Points to output file

szName                       Character value

chInput                       Character

iLoop                          Index Loop  

I had the stupid idea of walking from the metro station to my destination. As I said: stupid idea. The walk was much longer than anticipated and, because I have no familiarity with the place, I ended up going the long way. Long path + feet rather than bus led to my being very much in late, by about 45 minutes. As if it weren't enough, I was only 5 minutes before closure. Fortunately for me, though, the woman I had to meet did not actually finish in 5 minutes, so I could meet her...Much to my disappointment, I had been "summoned" merely to sign something. Great. Marvelous. About 1 hour and 30 minutes of subway and walk just to sign a bloody paper.

At least, it allowed me to see the area for the first time. Not only is there a bus going right from the metro station to the college, but it passes along a beautiful park. Trees, ladies and gentlemen, trees! I love trees.

The building itself is quite ordinary. Just a building, with windows, doors and that kind of stuff. The park, however, is very beautiful. There are also lots of trees on the actual lot of the college, which is awesome. Even the parking doesn't look too much like the classic ugly wide parking for well frequented buildings.

Yes, it was my first time going. Actually, up to about 10 minutes before sending in my admission request, I don't think I had ever heard about it. There are quite a few colleges in Montreal, and most of them offer the program I'm going in—it has some fancy and rather odd name for what it is, but is it basically computer programming.

I will admit it to you, whole world: I chose this particular college because it was the first one on the list whose site I could access. I won't go studying computer programming in a college that can't even make a Firefox-compatible website. ;)

Don't worry too much about the state of accessibility in the province though, it was something like the second on the list.

To get started, I downloaded the SDL_mixer library and installed the header files in Mingw's include folder; then I copied the .lib files to the lib directory and the .dll files to the bin directory. This takes care of the installation of the mixer library.

To use the library, I need to include the headers and initialize SDL like before. Instead of putting the header "SDL/SDL_mixer.h" file in my main program, I put it in my contstants.h since all my classes include this particular header. This is my soundboard class I use to instantiate a sound object at run time:

These are pretty self-explanatory. The pointers point to the game music and the sound effect files. The methods are simply wrappers for the SDL library functions. To implement the class, I needed to read the documentation for SDL_mixer to figure out which functions to call:

The constructor initializes the SDL mixer and sets-up a sound object using a sampling of 22050 Hz at 4096 bps using 2 channels. The sound pointers are initialized to NULL. When the game loads the graphics files, I call the load_sound () method and load the game sounds too. I need to have my three wave files in the same directory as the program. Two of them are sound effects while the third one is a music file. When the play_music () method gets called, it plays the music.wav file and loops it until I call the stop_music () method. The sound effect wave files are played when either of the paddles scores. I could also add collision wave files but there are some problems I'm having with that and the mixer seems to delay a bit before playing the wave file.

Since the sound object will be instantiated dynamically on the heap, I have to make sure to delete the resources when the destructor gets called. I have done that in main(). I know this sound system is primitive, but this takes care of the basic sounds for now.

To add a title screen to Pong requires using the GIMP. I am not an artist so this is something which is kind of hard for me. Still, there are a lot of resources out on the internet that teach one how to use Photoshop and the GIMP like a pro. I've been to some of these and I picked up a few tricks. Over the last week, I was fooling around with the GIMP and I managed to come up with some ideas for a simple title screen. Since it is kind of involved though, I will not write about it here but I did upload a Youtube video that shows exactly what I did to come up with my new title screen:

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But last week, a "possibly related link" showed up on my blog that stopped me in my tracks:

I want a baby so badly it hurts.

(As a side note: I would include this link in my blog, but it is no longer appearing on my page and, I could write a weeks worth of blogs detailing what would happen if my boyfriend found "I want a baby so badly it hurts" in the recent searches on his laptop)

Where were we? Oh yes,

I want a baby so badly it hurts.

I stared at the page in disbelief, asking my computer, how do you know that?? I haven't blogged about wanting a baby. I haven't blogged about babies at all! I suddenly felt like I was a character in one of those futuristic thrillers where the government knows everything about you, and the computer was not generating "possibly related links" but actually reading my mind.

Maybe Chris was right when he suggested last Friday that pregnancy was in the water in our small Los Angeles suburb (to which I replied, "I need to drink more water.") Maybe the giant banner outside the new Bellini store that reads The Babies are Coming is actually a warning and it isn't the government hacking into my brain and posting these links on my blog, but an army of mind-reading babies from outer space.

But whether it's a computer program or a mind-reading baby, if whatever is doing this has the power to look into my soul, shouldn't it know that I'm not readyfor a baby? Why can't it be nice like the myspace link generator and just try to send me to acting class or the Oregon Shakespeare Festival? And what if the psychic alien infants have taken over myspace as well, serving to explain why today's link on my homepage reads: Cate Blanchett has Baby?