Ask something - We can help.

[Vince Twelve]

Sounds like flow: http://interactive.usc.edu/projects/cloud/flowing/

[Nikolas]

Thanks Vince! That's it!

[m0ds]

Hmm, a mass of websites have all gone down in the last 10 mins, including Twitter, GLP, ATS.... ?? Did the US of A just sink? Many .coms seem to have flumped and disappeared over the last hour...... mega virus? :/ DOOM

Anyone else having problems..? Try some big .com's. Sky.com, soundcloud (which was working earlier) ..... all gone without a trace, not even a 404 error.......

this is uckin' weiiird man! LOL please someone confirm this or set me straight??

[Mati256]

Both sites working for me. 

[m0ds]

Thanks Mat, must be something my end then. My ISP doing something I presume. Weird!

Edit: Cool, it's all working again this morning

[Ultra Magnus]

Can anyone tell me, in terms of computers, what precisely is an executive?
I know it's basically a kind of user interface, but what's the difference between an executive and a shell, for instance?

[m0ds]

Well I'm going to take a stab at that one Magnus, but I may be completely wrong. I'm pretty sure this IS NOT what you're asking, cos I'd assume you know the difference between EXE and shells.... but yes, If you mean "executable" and shell then one is a file that stores everything and can run standalone - usually (executable) and the other is a small program that LOADS a series of other files or executables (exe's).

For example, an entire game may fit into hello.exe (executable)

Whereas a shell (used to be .bat, not sure what it is these days) would be a very small program to help load things needed to run hello.exe, and then maybe make the computer RUN the executable once it's done loading the other drivers/files etc. The executable would hold a mind boggling amount of data and code, where as a shell would probably be just a few lines:

LOAD C:\DELL\386\SOUND.DRV
RUN C:\MODS\HELLO.EXE

An old game I made worked a bit like this. There was an EXE for it, which you could run, but it wouldn't load the sound drivers and it wouldn't be able to find the root directory for any of the games external data. So I had to write a shell (.bat) to tell the computer to load the sound drivers, register for the session the root directory of the game, and finally, launch the game EXE.

[Ultra Magnus]

Well I'm going to take a stab at that one Magnus, but I may be completely wrong. I'm pretty sure this IS NOT what you're asking, cos I'd assume you know the difference between EXE and shells....

Hey, man. Thanks for the in-depth answer, but you're right. That's not what I'm asking.

What I'm looking for is more info on what is summarised here. That says that an executive is a shell, but I figure there must be a difference or it would just be called a shell, right? I assume it's a kind of "squares are all rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares" type thing, but can anyone give me any more specific info?

[dbuske]

I need ideas for Documentaries to make.  What are all of you interested in knowing about?

[Mati256]

I need ideas for Documentaries to make.  What are all of you interested in knowing about?

Adventure games?

[dbuske]

I need ideas for Documentaries to make.  What are all of you interested in knowing about?

Adventure games?

Probably a tongue in cheek response, but not a bad idea.  Maybe just 2.5 adventures and not commercial.

[Mati256]

I mean AGS Adventure Games. Or maybe AGS itself and it's community.

[Wyz]

Can anyone tell me, in terms of computers, what precisely is an executive?
I know it's basically a kind of user interface, but what's the difference between an executive and a shell, for instance?

As far as I can tell it a bit of a archaic term for a shell. There exist a shell that is called 'Executive', that might coincide with it. I don't know if there is a clear difference between the words, the only thing I could think of is that one might be a rudimentary interface that just fire up programs, while the other also allows basic scripting; but that's just speculation.

[Stupot]

I need ideas for Documentaries to make.  What are all of you interested in knowing about?

I had an idea a little while ago, but I'd never do it myself, so maybe you could consider it.

A kind of meta-documentary documenting the process of making a documentary, using your very documentary as the focus of itself.
You would interview various film-makers and documentists(?) about the processes involved, from coming up with an idea, finding sources, interviewing people, writing, filming, editing, etc.  The film not only documents these techniques and advice, but itself becomes the product of what it is documenting.

It makes sense in my head anyway

[Ultra Magnus]

As far as I can tell it a bit of a archaic term for a shell.

Yeah, as you said, there is an old shell called "Executive", and the Windows interface classified itself as an "MS-DOS Executive" for the first few versions. But more recently there is also the "Windows Executive" that runs between the UI and the kernel in NT, which seems to either be unrelated to the old definition, or is related in a very specific way that I can't figure out.
It's just tough to find anything searching for 'shell' and 'executive' that isn't about oil.

[Ultra Magnus]

I need ideas for Documentaries to make.  What are all of you interested in knowing about?

Bapu 2: Infinitely Superior to the Kaffirs

[Stee]

Can anyone tell me, in terms of computers, what precisely is an executive?
I know it's basically a kind of user interface, but what's the difference between an executive and a shell, for instance?

Hope this helps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_of_Windows_NT#Executive

Essentially a collection of services. Probably things like svchost etc, that are core to the system and loaded first.

[m0ds]

Anyone familiar with 3DS MAX my friend is having trouble importing a simple Wavefront OBJ file. I'm able to import it fine on my old 3D software (Bryce) but she can't get it into her expensive software 3dS Max. Any ideas what might be causing this problem?

[Anian]

Anyone familiar with 3DS MAX my friend is having trouble importing a simple Wavefront OBJ file. I'm able to import it fine on my old 3D software (Bryce) but she can't get it into her expensive software 3dS Max. Any ideas what might be causing this problem?

Maybe a bit more specific? Is there an error message, she can't see the actual .obj file, does it seem like it's importing but nothing happens, are the textures messed up? Where did she get the obj file?

Also, I don't know this for sure, there's supposed to be a plugin for 3ds max for importing obj and it's supposed to be better than the default one, so might try looking into that as well.

[WHAM]

Where can I find a good tutorial on how to make pixellated flames? Or is there a fire plugin for AGS somewhere?