Zapp ... noticias!

Bem ... já há muito queixei-me do facto da Zapp possuir um limite invisivel (no plano ilimitado) de 300Mb por dia (mais coisa menos coisa), no qual findado provocava um abrandamento da velocidade oferecida... algo que estava em violação do contracto em 2 pontos diferentes. Ao que parece esse limite desapareceu ou foi aumentado (para cima de 500Mb - foi o maximo que fiz até agora)... posso agora fazer update chatos sem preocupação de ficar com a net 'lenta'... provavelmente algum utilizador menos paciente e mais irritado resolveu 'puxar as orelhas' à Zapp e pelo menos para os utilizadores iniciais o limite desapareceu - existe a possibilidade da Zapp ter acrescentado uma clausula nos novos contractos para permitir o limite sem justa causa. Bem... pelo menos posso ir pro tutubas (que não é p2p - é HTTP - por isso não violo o contrato :p) sem me preocupar muito ... :p Boa proclastinação...

Line of code of the day #4

Weee... another LOCOTD ... (no ... that doesn't mean Crazy Tower Defence) ... today i present here the following line of code: 
solution[i] = solution[j] | (~0)&(1<<z)

The most familiarized with C and pointers will notice that if i is not related in bounds with j value (or vice-versa) something really bad will happen with memory access/write... the lovely usual segmentation fault or worse... the line should have look like this:
solution[j] = solution[j] | (~0)&(1<<z)

Or in a more compact form:
solution[j] |= (~0)&(1<<z)

I lost 3h to find where the error on my code was... you see, when instead of j the i was there I was writing in some area, that area was where a pointer inside a struct was, at first I though the error was in functions that manipulate variables of that struct... when I noticed something very strange when I switch some entries on struct... it looked like something impossible to happen, but after I've done it some stuff worked, so struct control looked fine... only answer would me that I was modifying struct data unknowing it... after a bunch of printf's (like... everywhere) I tracked the error down... cost me a lot of time... and now I 'only' have to finish some algorithmic stuff that is implemented, polish some of the code and optimize some memory accesses...

Well... good coding... i hope you have better luck than me...

Vista + ICS + NSU

So... with N97 and a few other touch devices from nokia a new update is to be expected for 5800xm, i was trying to check for updates when NSU (Nokia Software Updater) refused to work... it said some components were missing... and i was like "???" ... how can they be missing this was working yesterday and i didn't shutdown the PC?... hmm.. what i have done that could possible damage NSU instalation? Well.. i have configured ICS (Internet Connection Sharing - or w/e) on Vista, so i could share my conection via wi-fi to my mobile phone... right... well.. after disable it, the NSU worked like a charm. -.-'' Nokia or Windows issue ... that is surelly bad... I really hope 5800xm gets wrt widgets for standby screen and landscape on it as well... is totally possible... is just a matter of Nokia being smart enough to sell some extra 5800xm... samsung and LG are really putting lots of effort in standby interface... nokia did it on N97 ... so why not enable that on a 5800xm? N97 belongs to a diferent market so it shouldn't be canibalized by 5800... yes... they are touchscreen mobile phones with nHD screens, but N97 has a really powerful CPU, hi build quality and a physical thumb keyboard... on a very similar (in size) package... the price is twice the 5800xm... but you're paying for the extras... i'm very happy with my 5800xm ... but improvements are always welcome... and we (5800xm users) sure deserve it since we were guinea pigs for symbian touch interface... Ah well... till next time... code i must, code i will... bye~

Line of code of the day #3

So... remember that little problem i had to 'compact' selected bits? i think i solved it... By using a very special look-up table i manage to do the trick using this 'easy' to read line:
(( f[(m & 0xF0) | (val & 0xF0) >> 4] >> 3) >> (f[(m & 0x0F)<< 4 | (val & 0x0f )] >> 3 ) & 0xF)

Oh, this code is just for 8bits, a simple expansion allows me to use it for 32bits (with look-up table taking up 2Mb)... and no... I won't explain what is in f table has... and yes... I might screw up with the parentesis... I didn't compile that piece of code, but tested it manually instead... it should work... efficiency wise it's better that scan all bits one by one...

You can now commit suicide.

PS: By reading this you agree that i'm not responsible for any harm occoured both physically or mentally when reading the text above... really...

Line of code of the day #2

Who would guess its another LOCOTD, this time we have some C code to show... solution[batch] = solution[batch] | ~((polar_0[batch] ^ polar_1[batch])&polar_0[batch]) | ((polar_0[batch] ^ polar_1[batch])&polar_1[batch]); In case you're wondering ... yes i could load the values of polar_0 and polar_1 on index batch, but since i don't know what kind of effect that will have on performance, i'll try both and see... compilers and assemblers do magic sometimes... :p I leave the moment to show you some magic ... long live to SWAR Algorithms! Jokes aside, using general CPU instructions to make some crazy highly efficient operations is always good, while it is wise to check such approaches also keep moderation in mind, you can end up with some brain damage... Now... a little puzzle for anyone who is willing to take it: I have an array of 32-bit masks, that in reality represents a very huge mask for a very huge matrix, now ... i want to grab those bits masked (the number of masked bits is known) and pack them all in another array, all of that must be done fast, since speed is what we want. I leave a little example for 8-bit masks, 4 length array: mask 01111000 01001001 10101110 10111100 masked 01101011 10100101 11101110 11010010 result 00000000 00000001 10100111 11110100 I do not have a (eficient) solution for this problem (yet - i kinda have an idea), i hope to find one since this is kinda crucial to optimize the speed of the rest of the algorithm. With that said, feel free to comment and give sugestions about it... Good coding...