Tic Tac Toe game made with Unity3D

Few years ago I was trying to get a job as a game developer. My test task was to make the Tic Tac Toe game using Unity3D game engine.

I didn't get the job but the game worked and looked good. Moreover my C# source code of Tic Tac Toe game is simple and well commented.

So I decided to publish the Tic-Tac-Toe project on GitHub.

Hope the sources of this game project for Unity3D will be a useful tutorial for some game developer or other person who want to learn the programming. Enjoy :)

No Sound from Speaker but Headphones Work?

Some notebooks manufactured by ASUS (maybe by other vendors too) have strange issue with sound output. When all required drivers are installed and everything is properly set, you can not hear any sound from the internal speakers. Only plugged headphones or external audio works...

I was trying different tricks. Even soldered new audio jack connector to the motherboard of my ASUS U36SD notebook. I've spent lots of time, but found the solution! It is not a hardware issue. It is software/driver glitch :)

So if you have the same issue with your notebook: no sound from speakers, but headphones works. Here is the solution:

1. Restart computer.
2. Open BIOS/Setup console, by pressing F1, F2, F10 or Del key depending on your notebook model.
3. Choose "Load Default Settings" option at the beginning.
4. Then search for "Ring on Boot" or "Boot Sound Volume" option(s) and TURN IT OFF or set the volume level to ZERO!
5. Save BIOS/Setup settings and restart computer again.

Now you can hear sound from the internal speaker of your notebook, laptop or tablet :)

Let me know if this workaround helps you and please specify the model of your notebook in comments. Thank you.

BTW, do you know about my Auto Mute software utility to make computer silent by default? :)

Skype freezes and hangs your system?

The best solution is uninstall the Skype and never use it again!

But if you still need Skype application to contact your siblings and co-workers, here is a useful trick

Touchpad Scrolling doesn't work on Windows 10?

If two or even single finger scrolling doesn't work after update to Windows 10 and your touchpad is manufactured by Synaptics company, download and install driver for touchpad version 16.2.x. Everything will work like a charm.

Open this link Synaptic Touchpad Driver 16.2, supports scrolling on Windows 10, check "I agree" options on the bottom of page and press "Submit" button. The driver will be downloaded.

Bad Key Hash for Facebook Apps

When you are creating application for Facebook on Android platform, Developer Website requires the Key Hash for every development device.

This secret stroke is automatically generated by Eclipse or other dev studio in "debug.keystore" storage.

You can obtain Key Hash via command line:

keytool -exportcert -alias androiddebugkey -keystore debug.keystore | openssl sha1 -binary | openssl base64

or sample code:

...
   @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        // Temporary code to print out the key hash
        try {
            PackageInfo info = getPackageManager().getPackageInfo(
                    "com.Your.Application.Package.Name", PackageManager.GET_SIGNATURES);
            for (Signature signature : info.signatures) {
                MessageDigest md = MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA");
                md.update(signature.toByteArray());
                Log.d("KeyHash:", Base64.encodeToString(md.digest(), Base64.DEFAULT));
            }
        } catch (NameNotFoundException e) {
        } catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException e) {
        }
...

You have to add all you developer and release key hashes into Web panel of your Facebook Application. Everything looks simply enough.

But, if your hash key contains / (slash) or + (plus) symbol Facebook integration will not work! You'll get error message, something like that: "Key hash Fj2DQ/kUxqHuaTq1jy9iTejN2Uk= does not match any stored key hashes".

I've spent few hours to understand the problem and find a workaround :( Here is an easiest way:

1. Delete "debug.keystore" file in your "[%USERNAME%]/.android" folder.
2. Rebuild project to get new "debug.keystore" file with new key hash.
3. If new hash contains any symbol (= at the end is OK :)) repeat again

Hope this tip helps other developers! Sometimes, development for Android and Facebook is a pain...

Cannot format flash drive or delete partition from SD card? I will help you.

Sometimes Flash drives, storage sticks and cards become useless even if they are not physically damaged. Such drive is recognized by operating system, but the size is wrong (less than should be) and very often the user cannot even format the disk.

Yesterday I've got 2 such devices at once! I was trying to install Chrome OS on my netbook, so wrote the image of Chromium bootable drive to 4GB flash stick and 16GB SD card…

As I understand Google developers think (can they?) that having many partitions on disk is a cool true hackers way! They use 10 (Ten!) partitions on a small 4GB drive!!!

The biggest problem is that you cannot delete all these strange partitions and unallocated spaces using standard programs. Even Disk manager administrative tool will not help :( So here is a step by step instruction on how to clear unnecessary partitions on the disk and get flash drive or memory card back to normal life.

• Press Win+R.
• Type DiskPart and press OK or Enter.
• Push Yes button in UAC warning window.

DiskPart.exe console should appear, next steps could damage your computer data, so be very careful!

• list disk - shows the list of all disks in the system.
• select disk X - where X is a number of disk you want to fix.
• list disk - call this command again, to make sure you've selected the right disk! You'll see * mark near the selected disk.

Next steps will destroy all data on the disk! Do you want to continue?

• clean - cleans the disk in 90% of cases.

If clean command fails, you have to delete each partition on the disk manually, by repeating the following 2-3 commands until all partitions are gone.

• list partition - shows the list of all partitions on the disk.
• select partition 1 - selects the currently first partition.
• delete partition override - override parameter allows deleting a locked partition.

When the disk is cleaned, you should create a primary active partition, then format the drive and assign some letter to it. Follow these commands:

• create partition primary - creates a partition for the whole disk.
• select partition 1 - choose current partition to perform other operation.
• active - makes partition active, so it could be a bootable one.
• format quick fs=fat32 - formats the disk, FAT32 is a standard file system for Flash Drives and SD cards.
• assign - sets some letter name for the logical drive.

That's all. Now you can close DiskPart.exe console, in a hacker style, by typing exit command or by clicking common x button on the right top corner of the Window :)

Hope this tutorial will help people to get disappeared megabytes back from memory cards and even fix some of "dead" flash drives.

How do I make software products?

Here is a screencast on x8 speed of all processes are required to create the software product and to publish it online:

As you see coding takes less than half of time. Making of screenshots is more important than programming. Pages in social networks are more important than pretty looking website. And so on...

Program in this video is a first public version of Missing Buttons software

New software for hidden features

I was not able to find "Monitor Off" feature on any notebook while are using external keyboard. Lots of PCs have no "Hibernate" button even if this feature is turned on. Working on computers using remote desktop software disallows many of system shortcuts. You cannot switch Num Lock or Scroll Lock if there is no hardware buttons for that. And so on...

I've created small software utility to have all missing features right under the hand. Missing Buttons is software for Windows, maybe I'll create a Mac OS version in the future.

The product is distributed as try before you buy, the license costs $9.95 per user.

If you have ideas for other "missing buttons", let me know. I'll add them into the future versions.

Software product in less than 1 hour!

There were about 3 hours of free time before visit to the cinema. So, just for fun, I've decided to measure the speed of my work. Also I was planning to record a screencast movie "how to make software products" :)

Unfortunately CamStudio recorder sucks for high resolution screen, so there is no movie :( But in less than 1 hour I've finished following tasks:

• Purchase domain for new site and setup Wordpress there
• Create Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts for new software
• Make a copy of Caps Lock Indicator software for Scroll Lock key
• Setup trial protection routines
• Build installation package and upload it to the website

Not bad, isn't it? ;)

So, here it is: Scroll Lock Indicator software for Windows.

Software offers two Scroll Lock state indicators: Tray Icon and On-Screen Display. Notifications by different sound when On and Off are also available.

The product is distributed as try before you buy (shareware) with 30-day trial period. The license costs $2.95 per user.

Back to Shareware :)

I have never ever planned back to shareware business, but one of my technical tasks requests testing of modern software protection and integration with billing services. So I've decided to make a small utility and push it to all required tests.

I have many ideas and feature requests form users of free Keyboard LEDs software, so there was no problem with idea of new software. So, here it is: Caps Lock Indicator

Software for Windows, offers two Caps Lock state indicators: Tray Icon and On-Screen Floating Text. Notifications by sound are also available. The product is distributed as shareware with 30-day trial period. The license costs $9.95 per user.

List of software I've created

Another memory for keeping in the same place :)

Software created by KARPOLAN

Keyboard Leds 2.0

Keyboard LEDs version 2.0 has been released.

Program allows you to see the current state of keyboard locks (Caps, Num, Scroll). Information is shown in the system tray or on a floating window over your screen. Also there is an option to indicate the locks state changing with sound.

You can download and use Keyboard Leds program absolutely free!

Function IsValidEmail for Delphi

It's hard to believe, but there is no standard function in Delphi to verify the email address. Also there is no native RegExp support. So I have to create own routine for email verification. It is not fully RFC compatible (there is no support for user@[10.20.30.40] and John Dow <a@b.c>) but is good enough for 99% of end-user programs.

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Verifies is the given string valid email address or not. Domain names without // dots (user@localhost) are acceptable if AllowRootDomain is True. function IsValidEmail(const Value: string; AllowRootDomain: Boolean = False): Boolean; //------------------------------------- function _Verify(const S: string): Boolean; var i: Integer; begin Result := False; for i := 1 to Length(S) do if not (S[i] in ['a'..'z' ,'A'..'Z', '0'..'9', '_', '-', '.']) then Exit; Result := True; end;{Internal _Verify} //------------------------------------- var i: Integer; User, Domain: string; begin Result:= False; // @ is must, but not first i := Pos('@', Value); if i < 2 then Exit; User := Copy(Value, 1, i - 1); if User = '' then Exit; Domain := Copy(Value, i + 1, MaxInt); if Domain = '' then Exit; if not AllowRootDomain then begin // Dot is must, but not first i := Pos('.', Domain); if i < 2 then Exit; end; // Dot should not be first and the last if (Domain[1] = '.') or (Domain[Length(Domain)] = '.') then Exit; // Verify each char of User and Domain Result:= _Verify(User) and _Verify(Domain); end;

Click on code, press Ctrl+A to select all, Ctrl+C to copy the text.

P.S. Does anybody use Delphi in 2011? :)

Keyboard Leds 1.5

Keyboard LEDs version 1.5 has been released.

Program allows you to see the current state of keyboard locks (Caps, Num, Scroll). Information is shown in the system tray or on a floating window over your screen. Also there is an option to indicate the locks state changing with sound.

You can download and use Keyboard LEDs program absolutely free!

Keyboard Leds 1.3

Keyboard LEDs version 1.3 has been released.

Program allows you to see the current state of keyboard locks (Caps, Num, Scroll). Information is shown in the system tray or on a floating window over your screen. Also there is an option to indicate the locks state changing with sound.



You can download and use Keyboard LEDs program absolutely free!




Software works on Windows, there is no MacOS edition. Yet :)

Software to monitor internet usage

What is the best software to monitor internet usage?

I know WorkTime by NesterSoft but I'm not sure that is the easiest one.

Any other suggestions?

ClearType Switch Software for Windows

Options for text anti-aliasing ("Smooth edges of screen fonts") and ClearType are located in different places depending on Windows version. This is very annoying and confuses users much!

So I've create a small program to fix this issue - ClearType Switch.



You can download and use ClearType Switcher absolutely free!

Touchpad Blocker software for Windows

How often your cursor jumps to another paragraph when you are typing a text on notebook and accentually touch a touchpad by hand? Hate this behavior? Me too!

So, I've created a small program to solve this annoying problem. Touchpad Blocker automatically disables mouse events for a few moments if some key has been pressed.



You can download and use Touchpad Blocker program absolutely free!




Wish you happy typing :)

Keyboard Led Software

My new netbook has no keyboard indicators, so I've created a small software to know the state of Caps, Num and Scroll Locks.

Keyboard Leds is a program for Microsoft Windows. Software allows you to see the current state of keyboard locks. Information is shown on a small icon in the system tray or on the floating window over your screen. Works on Wondows platform



You can download and use Key Leds program absolutely free!

Conference ISDEF Spring 2010

ISDEF spring 2010 is awesome! First day of conference was my birthday, so I've drunk lots of alcohol :)

Palmira-Palace hotel near Yalta city, in Crimea, is a nice place to make IT conference and relax in SPA or on a seaside in the same time.

I'm happy to meet all my friends from different places around the world!