EnableExplicit
Procedure.i NetPing( IP_Address.s = "209.85.225.105", Timeout.i = 5000 ) ; Timeout in Milliseconds, Defaults to 5 seconds.
 
  ;Returns => 0 Upon pinging. Otherwise returns < 0 -- The actual return value is the roundtrip time in milliseconds.
 
  Define.i hIcmpFile, dwRetVal			= -1
  Define.s DataBuffer 				= "PING"
  Define.i ReplyBufferSize 			= SizeOf(ICMP_ECHO_REPLY) + Len(DataBuffer) + SizeOf(character)
  Define.ICMP_ECHO_REPLY *ReplyBuffer 		= AllocateMemory(ReplyBufferSize)
 
  If ( *ReplyBuffer )
 
	  hIcmpFile = IcmpCreateFile_()
 
	  If hIcmpFile
 
		 If IcmpSendEcho_( hIcmpFile, inet_addr_(IP_Address), @DataBuffer, Len(DataBuffer), #Null, *ReplyBuffer, ReplyBufferSize + SizeOf(ICMP_ECHO_REPLY), Timeout )
			dwRetVal = *ReplyBuffer\RoundTripTime
		 EndIf
 
		 IcmpCloseHandle_( hIcmpFile )
 
	  Else
	  	Debug "NetPing -- IcmpCreateFile returned false."
	  EndIf
 
	  FreeMemory( *ReplyBuffer )
 
  Else
  	Debug "NetPing -- Couldn't allocate memory."
  EndIf
 
  ProcedureReturn dwRetVal
 
EndProcedure

Enjoy! ]]> http://gushh.net/blog/icmp-ping-routine/feed/ 0 http://gushh.net/blog/rac-is-really-getting-on-my-nerves/ http://gushh.net/blog/rac-is-really-getting-on-my-nerves/#comments Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:45:49 +0000 GuShH http://gushh.net/blog/2010/02/20/rac-is-really-getting-on-my-nerves/ While the concept is sound, the actual implementation is lacking many of the important aspects a service of this caliber requires.

For instance buyer/seller filtering, there is no filtering whatsoever; a 5 year old kid can and will outbid you. It doesn’t matter how illegal that is, they can still register and post bids, possibly wasting everyone’s time in the process.

There doesn’t seem to be any way of tracking bids either, you get outbidded and there are no emails sent, the only email sent is the “try again next time buddy!”– once said under-aged kiddo lands the job!

” Notify me if I lose a bid request (that I’ve bid on) ” — Is broken, I never received one email, the only ones I receive are when the buyer accepted a lower bid and someone else landed the job.

To give you a real example: A guy from Serbia with 0 completed jobs (therefore no rating/ranking whatsoever) outbids you (and you never get notified of this) therefore the buyer accepts his bid and the guy lands the job. It doesn’t matter that you’ve got 10+ years of experience in the field, and a 10 solid rating.

For all you know that guy showed him a bunch of renders he found on Google Images and gave him a holy speech about how big his hangers are.

That’s a total and complete pile of bullshit in my eyes. I cannot begin to comprehend how this is even possible to begin with.

It used to be a trustworthy place, but now buyers have to repost their bid requests after wasting a week or two with someone who had no experience whatsoever in the job and didn’t even care to begin with!

Either that or they end up with what I call “code from the past”, ie. unusable code/graphics. Thus wasting time and money.

Now, it’s also the buyer’s fault; They became cheapskates. Most of the time they don’t know what they want and they drive you around town like you’re some sort of puppet.

Or they do know what they want; because they stole every single one of your ideas and they gave them to the 5 year old kid, who obviously steals a template / design and copy&pastes everything together to call it a day.

It’s a shame.

If only I had the capital, I’d be running against RAC. I don’t have the stone face the actual creator of RAC does, but I do have the passion, drive and knowhow to do things right.

That’s just how I see it, but I’m certain I’m not the only one with this point of view. Let’s just hope Karma is real.