Yarvin’s blog

I've moved back to Anchorage, Ak! Although it was a while ago (August 16th) and I've been fairly busy since I've been here. Also I don't have an internet connection at the place that I'm staying at so I can only get online at a cafe or at the university. Which means I can't use my pretty desktop very much at this point. I do hope to have a good connection set up in the next MONTH or so haha. We'll see what happens. I started developing again. playing around with python + pygame and really just learning my way around.

Free refills on drip coffee at Kaladi Brothers cafe = Happiness!!!! makes me staying here for hours on end just that much more enjoyable! haha.

Loving school so far. Only about a week in of course, but my professors are all pretty cool. Classes seem like they're going to be fun this semester. But the homework is going to be a pain in the ass! LOTS AND LOTS of homework. Not that I mind... its just going to mean holding off on the gaming and programming fun!

I got back into world of warcraft AGAIN! Started an Undead Warlock on the Korgath server. I honestly couldn't help it! My love for Richard in Looking For Group (lfgcomic.com) is just too much! He has to be the BEST evil character ever! haha.

But yeah! Back to aimlessly browsing the tubes that we know as the Internet.

I'll post up some screenshots of whatever half assed game I end up creating and mostlikely the source code as well! Sometimes soon :)

I get to see my baby tomorrow!!!:D I can't wait!!

A couple of screenshots of my desktop and programming environment. Fairly simple.

Check out my new sunglasses! :P I took them from the backroom storage at the store that I work at haha.... (boss let me have them) I like them! :P

new sunglasses

Rewritten to make it more modular, basically works the same way as before.

import sys

alphabet = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'
balphabet = 'zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba'

class LetterBack:
    '''Class for Encrypting a string of letters'''
   
    def __init__(self, text='mnm'):
        self.text = text
       
    def encrypt(self, aSentance):
        '''Encrypts a given string by replacing each letter
        with the letter before it in the alphabet.'''
        output = ''
        for element in aSentance:
            for i in range(26):
                if element == alphabet[i]:
                    output += alphabet[i-1]
        print output

    def decrypt(self, aSentance):
        '''Decrypts a given string encoded by the encrypt
         function.'''
        output = ''
        for element in aSentance:
            #print element + ' this is 1'
            for i in range(26):
                if element == balphabet[i]:
                    output += balphabet[i-1]
        print output

def main():
    lb = LetterBack()
    if sys.argv[1] == '-e':
        lb.encrypt(sys.argv[2])
    elif sys.argv[1] == '-d':
        lb.decrypt(sys.argv[2])

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

use:
python letterback.py -e 'alvin'
returns: zkuhm
python letterback.py -d 'zkuhm'
returns: alvin

or in the python interpreter:
>>> from letterback import LetterBack
>>> lb = LetterBack()
>>>lb.encrypt('alvin')
zkuhm
>>> lb.decrypt('zkuhm')
alvin

enjoy :)

Every Inupiaq is responsible to all other Inupiat for the survival of our cultural spirit, and the values and traditions through which it survives. Through our extended family, we retain, teach and live our Inupiaq way. With guidance and support from Elders, we must teach our children Inupiaq values:

Knowledge of Language
Knowledge of Family Tree
Sharing
Humility
Respect for Others
Love for Children
Cooperation
Hard Work
Respect for Elders
Respect for Nature
Avoid Conflict
Family Roles
Humor
Spirituality
Domestic Skills
Hunter Success
Responsibility to Tribe

So I made the switch from Debian GNU/Linux to Ubuntu Linux yesterday during my lunch break... It took about 30 min to install and before I knew it I had all my favorite programs set up and everything updated! This would have taken a while, with a lot of configuration, on Debian. So far I'm loving Ubuntu! :D

I scripted this up really quick last night while my girlfriend and I were having fun sending cryptic messages to each other. Basically all it does is encode or decode a string of letters given as CLI arguments. The program takes a given string and prints out in place of each letter a letter before that letter in the alphabet. For example: a = z, b = a, and so on....

Here is a code:


#! /usr/bin/python
#
# Author: Alvin D. Morris
# Date: August 5, 2008
#
# Program for encrypting a string of text.

import sys

alphabet = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'
balphabet = 'zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba'

def encrypt(aSentance):
    '''Encrypts a given string by replacing each letter with the letter before it in the alphabet.'''
    output = ''
    for element in aSentance:
        for i in range(26):
            if element == alphabet[i]:
                output += alphabet[i-1]
    print output

def decrypt(aSentance):
    '''Decrypts a given string encoded by the encrypt function.'''
    output = ''
    for element in aSentance:
        #print element + ' this is 1'
        for i in range(26):
            if element == balphabet[i]:
                output = output + balphabet[i-1]
    print output

def main():
    if sys.argv[1] == '-e':
        encrypt(sys.argv[2])
    elif sys.argv[1] == '-d':
        decrypt(sys.argv[2])

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()


Usage:
python back.py -e alvin
returns:  zkuhm
python back.py -d zkuhm
returns: alvin

I used the Debian backports since Pidgin isn't available through the Debian repositories.

Using backports is pretty easy.
1. Add this line to your /etc/apt/sources.list:
deb http://www.backports.org/debian etch-backports main contrib non-free
2. Import the backports archive key into apt with:
wget -O - http://backports.org/debian/archive.key | apt-key add -
3. Then update:
apt-get update

Then to install Pidgin use the normal apt-get commands:
sudo apt-get install pidgin

And there you have it. Enjoy :)