Unfortunately, the Facebook developers have not responded to my email about this project. And I am convinced that they will not respond to only a few emails. I urge any of you who would like to see this project come to fruition to please shoot an email to the Facebook staff, pestering them about the "Facebook Chat, Calc Edition." Cite ClrHome Productions in the email, link them to our website, and encourage them to contact acagliano.blast@gmail.com, as I am the one currently organizing info for this project. Thank you all for your support.

Ever notice how logos are getting more "modern"—flatter, more symmetrical, and lighter? In some cases it really is an improvement, like with the Firefox 4 logo. In most other cases, though, I think their owners should have stuck with the old ones. Take Internet Explorer as an example (since we can always laugh at IE):

Old	New

Sure, the second one looks shiny and all, but it just doesn't look— Not sure how to say it, but the old one just plain looked better. To me, at least.

Maybe it's because the old one looks more solid. True, but the second one's realistic too, especially in the new angle of the faint shadow caused by the golden ring. Yet the first one just looks right for some reason.

And Micro$oft isn't the only one doing these redesigning "improvements." Even Google Chrome's logo has been updated, as I'm sure all Chrome users have noticed by now:

Old	New

I know Google cares a lot about simplicity; its homepage is a testament to that, a perfect example of the way a webpage should be limited to exactly what needs to be there. That's what I love about the company, and Apple too: they got the design right. Still, the Chrome team's come up with a new logo that just doesn't look as good. It's not as realistic, certainly, but I don't think that's the problem. Maybe, like with the IE logo, it's not as solid and tangible anymore. Maybe it's too plain. Or maybe it's just that it doesn't look as much like a Pokéball anymore.

There's another problem I've noticed with the new Chrome logo. It now seems to be lighted exclusively from the top, without that nice reflective shine at the bottom of the old one. That change, plus the fact that the human eye has an affinity for reddish hues, means the top looks larger than the bottom. Not much of a problem there, but when the logo is scaled down to fit on the Vista Quick Launch bar (and yes, I use Vista), it looks like it's looking downward. It's depressing.

Luckily, it seems like Google's switching back to the old logo with the next release of Chrome, version 12. That means this downward-facing plate's only here for Chrome version 11, which I really think is a relief. I miss that old logo a lot.

What do you think?

(All images are from Wikipedia uploads.)

If you're reading this you've probably noticed there's a new design at ClrHome made by Deep Thought.

We hope you all like it and would like to receive any comments you have on it. I personally really like the new design!

I saw a bit of the Oprah show today, and it inspired me to write this. On the show, she said two very important things. Her message is clear. We all have talents and gifts. It is up to us how to use them. We may have different strengths and weaknesses, but each of us have one thing in common—we all give off energy. The energy we give off has a direct effect on the lives of others. Whatever you give will be given back to you.

What will you give? The forums of this and the many other calculator sites are your platform. You have your calling and you have your gifts. It is up to you to take charge of your life. Only once you realize that your life is yours, and your gifts are yours, can you achieve your full potential. In doing so, you inspire others to find themselves.

This is my plea to all of you who read this post: Use this blog, and this website, to broadcast your own identity. If you are a programmer, let your creations broadcast yourself to your users. Be unique. And most importantly, be you. Every time you sign your name to something you have done or made or helped with, do it with pride, for it becomes part of your legacy in the world. Never let anyone tell you that you are not worth it or that you or your skills are not good enough. You are worth it, simply because you exist.

Let this message be my legacy in this world.

~ ACagliano

I seriously doubt anyone reading this blog isn't well-acquainted with TI community news, but just to have this in even more places, there are two big TI calculator contests going on right now. The first one's the massive trading-card game (TCG) competition sponsored by Revsoft, UnitedTI, and MaxCoderz. All 83/84+ languages welcome! TI-BASIC, Axe, ASM, whatever. It's been going on since March 7th, but you have until June 6th to submit an entry, so go on and join!

The other contest is Omnimaga's annual programming competition. This time it's actually the first of three, possible thanks to the brisk activity there. Like last year, it's an Axe contest, but some things have changed. First off, there's a theme. You can choose between making a puzzle game or a platformer (or both), but you need to get it done by the middle of July! Another change this year is that you're allowed to have ASM code in your program provided it doesn't exceed 10% of your source program's size.

So join! The prizes are pretty awesome this year: a brand-new TI-Nspire CX (color, crap, and all) for the RS/UTI/MC contest, and a $100 gift card for the Omnimaga one. Even if you don't think you have a chance, you should still join. They're a great way to get some motivation to make something awesome!

And yes, for once this isn't fake news. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

I am hoping this may be a possibility in the future. I have been interested in this ever since CALCnet 2.2 enabled limited internet functionality on the z80 line of calculators. I know that CALCnet has a very strict way in which it handles its data packets during transmissions, and I am relatively certain that Facebook Chat does as well. This morning, I sent an email to the developers of Facebook, inquiring about this. Hopefully they will be of assistance and that this dream may soon become a reality.

Full speed ahead to the future.

Pretty, eh? Post your comments and suggestions below. It's our first real webapp that works perfectly in every browser, so no need for voices there!

It also marks the opening of the new Resources section (main page not yet finished), where all our tutorials have already been moved. This section will hold all our future online tools and guides.

Much of the table structure was taken straight from David's Z80 Tables. Thanks for letting me use it!

Don't worry, it's just for me.... And that's bad. About 95% of the time I get on Omni is at school, and now they've gone and blocked it. So, help? I've tried using Google translate as a "proxy" but I can't log in....

Finally got around to all these updates.

First off, we moved (again). We're now using yet another host, which isn't as stable overall but is a lot more stable in some important areas, such as in databases. (You may have noticed the Projects and Membership sections going down pretty much once a day.)

Just because we can, we also added more domains to our site. The blog (as you've noticed) is now hosted at http://blog.clrhome.co.cc/ and the Contra project at http://contra.clrhome.co.cc/, and more project subdomains are coming along. Just for the fun of it, we also added clrhome.tk to the site, so you can now access ClrHome Productions with three fewer characters to type. And if for some reason you want to type more, you can also get here at clrhome.heliohost.org.

And remember that checkbox on the signup form? It finally does something. I finally got around to setting up email notifications for blog posts, so anyone who checked that box should be able to see this post in an email soon. Since it's never been used before, the first email (sent today) contained 24 posts from the last four months; sorry about that. Future emails should be weekly digests of one or two posts at a time.

To wrap things up, ACag's set up a Twitter for us @ClrHome, so join if you have an account. We'll be looking into incorporating that into our news feed, too.

Update your bookmarks!

To many people, especially those at TI, the use of a calculator beyond math is simply absurd. But, what is not understood is that the calculator is rapidly evolving into a lot more than a math tool. Within the past year alone, TI graphing calculators became compilers, word processors, organizers, and gaming handhelds. How, you might wonder? With the release of Axe Parser, by Quigibo, users can now write programs and compile them into assembly files directly on the calculator. Before this program, this was only possible on a computer. Many users would not go through the trouble of writing on a computer and then transferring to a calculator. Not only did Axe Parser make the syntax simpler, but preserve the concepts of assembly programming, but he also made it far more convenient to code on your calculator. As a result, larger and better games began to be produced.

On a completely different level, stuff that many people associate with a computer is now possible on your calculator. First, let me give props to the man. Christopher Mitchell, programming alias Kerm Martian, and his god-like creation, DoorsCS7. Remove your sandals and cast your staff on the ground, readers, for you are standing on holy ground. He introduced a myriad of features to the calculator. You can now organize your programs into folders, in a Windows-like desktop. Furthermore, DoorsCS7 has a mouse, operated by the arrow keys. Just like your computer, your calculator can write DOCUMENT files, courtesy of Document DE7 and play music (in 8-bit sound), courtesy of MobileTunes3.0, both of which were designed by Kerm Martian (with help from benryves on the latter). What's more, you can play a .MT3 (calculator sound) or DOC (calculator text) file by simply clicking on the file with the mouse. The calculator will automatically figure out what program is needed to open the file and will open it. Kerm Martian dubbed this the "Associated Program" feature.

Just, when you thought things couldn't get any more awesome, Kerm Martian, with help from a few other designers, released functional internet drivers for the calculator, allowing it to connect to and chat over IRC (the predecessor of IM). While still buggy, the implications of this are undeniable.

Let that be the push the skeptics need to jump on the bandwagon and embrace the full power of their graphing calculator. You will not regret it.

As part of a chain of minor executive reforms in response to the events in the Middle East, an executive order issued today stated that daily conversations in the White House, Pentagon, and other executive offices will soon be conducted in French.

President Obama made the declaration this morning in a televised speech to Congress. "We owe them this much," he said. "The French people have long been our friends and allies in times of peace, and in wartime, our entire military is always free for their own use. It only makes sense that we begin the transition to their language, to help them better coordinate and control our men and women in uniform."

The speech itself did not contain any French, leading some to question whether the President knows any French at all. "Does he actually mean it?" asked Bob E. of Indiana. "I don't think he plans to do it at all. I think he's just trying to cover up for his bigger mistakes by pretending the military is more efficient than it actually is." White House representatives have not publicly commented on his experience in the language.

This decision does not affect Congress in any way because the legislature has no powers in dealing with war.

Read more:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WHITE_HOUSE_FRENCH?SITE=MIBAX&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-04-24-11-32-58

It's not too much of a playable game, but as promised, I finally got enough done to upload the first PAD of Contra. Download it here!

Now I can get back to my other projects. Probably another stretch without an update coming.

By the way, just noticed that contra.co.cc is an available domain. Should I take it?

Still on track to release a little demo on Monday! It won't have much, but lives, enemy displays, and other things are now implemented.

And when I got bored with coding, I made a little sig bar (userbar) for my Contra project. It's still uploaded at the same place it's always been, so make sure you refresh the cache to see the updated bar! To do that, use Ctrl+Shift+R in Firefox, Ctrl+R in Safari and Chrome, or Ctrl+F5 in Internet Explorer (if anyone still uses that after all the warnings, annoying voices, etc.

You can now view my current progress, logs, and some screenshots at http://contra.clrhome.co.cc/. And the weird thing is, it's not all gray! Amazing, huh?

Still no demo, sorry. I've already missed the March 2011 deadline for a demo, but if all goes well I can get one up by April 11.

But anyway, here's a screenshot.

I finally got a TI-Graphlink cable for my TI-83 Plus!

Four years since I started programming, two years since I realized I really needed a cable, and two months after I ordered that cable. It's here.

Due to recent complaints that the site was too plain in its color scheme (until now it had been entirely in black, white, and various shades of gray), I decided to create a more colorful scheme for the ClrHome Productions site. It's not live on the blog yet, due to complications with Blogger, but I'm working on it.



So, what do you think of it? There are some reports that it is slightly too colorful, which may be a problem.