Post 4, Base64

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-The0

1.21 Gigawatts could make a MASSIVE SLI Array

So I'm taking a shower, and I'm thinking, "Alright! I'm going to be early at work! No stress today!" when I hear this loud noise. I thought something had fallen over in my shit storm of a bedroom, or that maybe someone was in house. Not seeing anyone, or hearing a response, I finished up my shower to investigate. Nothing disturbed, no one to be found, but my computer was off. And wouldn't power back on. Something, was wrong.

The LAN jack was still lit, so that meant power must still being flowing in there somehow. I flipped my breakers, nothing. I unplugged it for five minutes, got dressed, re-plugged and tried again. Nothing. I started closely examining the PSU. There it was, the unfortunately familiar scent of ozone and smoke. After a quick disassembly (yes, I'm well aware of the risks involved with that, and what's worse [probably an explanation of why this happened too] is that this wouldn't be the first time I've opened my PSU for repair purposes), I confirmed my fears. My PSU had burnt out with such force that it had made a noise audible over my fucking shower.

So, being as I was already running "behind" for work, I had to make an arrangement. I called up my friend, and explained my situation, he had a bit of time on his hands, and decided to help me repair my system. I emailed him my specifications, and he ran out to Microcenter, shopping for what he would want if he had my system, with the promise to be paid back the instant repairs were complete. "Repairs" to my system is a bit of a misnomer, come to think of it. Every time something breaks on the thing, I make it a point to upgrade to the next level of awesome. I had a 600 watt CoolerMaster PSU, and I'm now I'm running a 750 watt Modular Corsair PSU. My case is already running an average of 9°F cooler, and I will NEVER have to worry about power slip-ups for my SLI array at least 24 months.

If 600W makes that loud of a pop, I very well believe that 1.21 GW could indeed send the DeLorean back into the future.

-The0

Treachery on the 7 Seas

Recently, through a very lucky set of conditions, I was able to obtain a version of Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. I am currently running Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit, and I was actually pretty happy with it. But times, they change, and so must I. I wanted to have the 64-bit capability so that I could expand to more RAM, and be on the curve of 64-bit programming. What I learned may startle you.

YOU CAN'T JUST TRANSFER OVER 32-BIT FILES AND PROGRAMS TO A 64-BIT SYSTEM!!! Who knew?! Not this guy. So here I am, I have cloned my whole full hard drive to one twice its size. The end result I desired was to have a Windows.old folder on my bigger hard drive, not just on my old hard drive. This Windows.old folder would have all my old settings, all my old programs, even all my old music and libraries! I could simply copy and paste those all onto the same drive, and be done with my upgrade. I. Am Stupid.

I went ahead and tried to do most of this. About the only thing that wound out working was transferring my steamapps folder over to the new steam folder. With that setting the precedent, I decided to copy over every program file in it's like program file. Windows 7 64-bit has a special Program Files folder for 32-bit programs. Cramming files like I did messed up a LOT of things. I guess you could say it'd be like trying to cram a Neon onto a V8 engine, even if you get it to friggin' fit, how in the snot will you make it run? Not very well.

So I decided to try and go back and delete these files. This is the most annoying thing about Windows 7. Just because you put a file somewhere, or install a program, doesn't mean that 7 will let you remove it. It's not enough to be the Administrator. You need to have the permission of Trusted Installer. Who the hell is Trusted Installer, and when did he touch my PC?! This probably applies only to direct Windows features though. Still, quite confusing.

The best thing I wound up doing was formatting and starting from scratch. That works well. I'll be careful this time, and copy over My Documents one folder at a time. Then, fresh installs of all my old programs. The most convenient discovery so far is a site called Ninite. It's a site that allows you make one massive download of all the common applications you would want on a new PC or OS. Pretty nifty.

This is going to be a long voyage. All ashore who's going ashore!

-The0

Vexing

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-The0

One Step Forward

In regards to the previous post, I have settled on a leg/body design for my little robot "thought exercise," (since to be considered a project, you need to actually pump some effort, thought, and money into it.) Don't get me wrong, I REALLY want a pet that I don't have to feed, fear, or actually put any effort into, but the raw cost alone will be a while of saving up, and even after that, I have to put a lot of hours into learning how to make it function.

At any rate, I know which style of legs and body I wish to implement. I have decided to let go of the hamsterball idea, because I theorize that the spherical balance process will eat to much processing power to move as well. It's kind of like a Pogo-robo, I think. One point of contact with the ground, and all 5 pounds of weight precariously balanced above it. I can't expect myself to write a logarithm to balance and move. I can barely remember my trigonometry! Any thoughts or logic against this decision would be lovingly accepted and possibly implemented.

I was browsing the internet, looking for "How to build a robot" resources, when I came across a company called Lynxmotion. They are the only people I have come across so far that offer an Erector set of servos. You can't just use motors, you know. You need a motor that can go on command and stop when you need it to do so. Automatically. Anyway, Lynxmotion's hexapod sets are beautiful and pretty much exactly what I am thinking about now. You mount a Eee PC on top of it and pray for the programming sense to make it a little autonomus, and off you go! Robopet!

On an actual thought progress note, I had an idea for an add-on to the robot idea using computer science that I actually understand. Making a robot play fetch. Half-Life 2 made an NPC do it in game, why couldn't we do the same with a physical being?

Factors in mind are:

• Item recognition (easily embraced with specific colors and good lighting)
• Item tracking (stereo cameras and blotch tracking)
• Item retrieval (a grabbing mechanism)
• Item return (simply making a log of movements and performing them in reverse should do it, I think)

What I understand about electric cameras is that codecs work mostly on recording changing colors. I saw a video of a a paintball sentry gun that worked mostly on that principle. It would track, center on, and fire upon the largest moving splotch in the still image. It should be feasible to use this to find a moving splotch of specific color, and then, well, march toward it. Grabbing would be hard to program, and I still don't know jack about programming. I can turn a wrench and read though. Let's see where that gets me. Motivational video. It would seem a powerful processor isn't necessary for the motion. Maybe for the thinking, tracking, and fetching though. I don't know, this is all way too cool. To quote Freeman's Mind, "Robots are the only friends I need!"

On a related note: XKCD though it may be, this project could take me YEARS!

Sorry for the random spattering of words here. I've been thinking way too much about this. Hope you all are well.

-The0

In Too Deep

So I have decided that a fun, educational hobby would be to turn out a roving robot from my Eee PC Cassima (Yes, I name my possessions and toys. I'm not sorry.) I've been surfing Google results for about 10 minutes now, and it saddens me that I'm already in over my head. To make an obstacle-avoiding self-controlled robot (pet) has more factors than I thought it would.

• Camera Latency
• Image processing (identification of obstacles, or even a path)
• Machinery Control
• Balance
• Power Source
• Body Design
• How to feel Love
• And Much More!

The ONLY robotics experience I have is from when I played around with Lego LOGO back in 3rd-6th grade, and everything has taken leaps and bounds since then. I have no idea how to code, and I don't know but the first thing about how computer imaging works. I do think I could build a steady, stable sextpedal robot body, which would move slowly enough to be able to survey it's surroundings before it's next step or turn. The problem thereof, of course, is programmed control of those sets of legs or each leg (I haven't decided yet.)

I have so much to learn it almost edges on hopelessness. But! It breaks my current funk, and if nothing else, if I can pull this off, it's a whole new world of techno-savvy into which I can finally sink my teeth. Robots, man, robots.

Time to crack open the internet. Let's see what I can find.

-The0

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Well, due to the recent improvements in my job situation, I was finally able to afford something have wanted for a while now. Readers of this weblog will recall a post about how I somehow managed to resurrect a 9 year old laptop. Unfortunately, its little hard drive was just about as old. It has since crashed, and left me without mobile word processing again. Thus, I was in the position to purchase a new laptop. The Asus Eee PC 901 XP (because I still like Windows.)

A small review. The 901 has more than enough power to multitask. I can run Steam, Trillian, Chrome and voicechat and still not start to lag overly much. It has a pretty nice webcam, so if I ever get around to trying out Skype, that will be fun. If you're considering, get a RAM upgrade. It helps with that. Half-Life runs at a comfortable 70 fps, and that makes it easy to LAN a Sven co-op, and enjoy other moderate gaming applications. I haven't tried HL2 yet, but that seems well off in the distance anyway. I may even attempt that Eee PC hamsterball robot idea. Thank you, Randall Munroe. At 1.6 ghz, it runs all that I need it to, and again, I'm finally typing outdoors and in comfortable places again.

On that key-note, typing is actually a little difficult on this little powerhouse. The keyboard is very small, and my massive hands are having something of a tough time getting used to how minute these keys are. Still, for just under $300 all told, having an ultraportable latptop is very nice. Chic and sleek, and I finally have something to throw at the TV everytime that ridiculous Verizon/HP commercial comes on.

Bricks.

-The0

Deus Ex Kayceedee

It’s been a good week for me, relatively speaking anyway. Now don’t get me wrong, bills still suck and I’ve been exhausted all week, but I’ve had a number of great experiences that I plan to share with you. Followers of XKCD will nitpick me, and people who have no clue what it is will have a hint at how to learn and follow this glorious mindset.

The most exciting one comes first. In my eHarmony profile it says “I’m kind of looking for an XKCD girl,” which can be kind of vague, not to mention esoteric. That’s the beauty of it though. According to the way XKCD followers work, and indeed, as the rest of the techno-savvy world works, if you don’t know what XKCD is, you’re not an XKCD girl. The glory of this little diatribe is, Miss eHarmony Match did not know precisely what XKCD is or means. Does she give up and ask me about what the hell I was talking? No, no she did not. She googled it. She doesn’t even know that what she did there, perfectly qualifies her. I really hope I can win this time around. It’s been harrowing, and a hot nerdette is hard to come by.

Then there’s the second achievement this week. It can define the movement of the techno-savvy as well the self-motivated person who won’t let financial or technical restrictions stand in the way of what he wants. I was chatting with a friend who informed me several times during the chat of what she was doing at the time. These all involved different locations of a house or apartment. I was confused, and then she explained that she was on a wireless laptop. It made me jealous. I wanted to be able to type in bed, or look up recipes in my kitchen. I used to be a die-hard laptop user, but tides changed. I can’t remember why, but I’m positive it had something to do with gaming. My last laptop was purchased for me in 2000 as a reward for good academic performance. It was shuffled around family hands for a bit, and it was my college laptop from 2003 to its death in 2005 from unknown complications. It sat dead and awaiting parting in various boxes until a couple weeks ago, where I had this conversation with my friend. I wanted a laptop again. I disassembled the laptop in a last ditch effort, and located the problem, a destroyed power jack. Though a network of great friends, not only did it get repaired, but rebuilt and upgraded. I type tonight on a 9-year-old resurrected laptop. Total cost to me on this project? $0. That’s living the life in my book.

My cell phone also ceased to operate this week. I was cut off from my constant texts, emails, and my link to my electronic dharma. It really made me realize just how connected I felt to my small egocentric world and how lost I felt without my material trappings. My mother and I went to see how to get it working again, and found out that it would be an asinine amount of money to replace my phone (side note, everyone should check with their extended warranty or insurance provider on their cellular phone. I was apparently dropped the instant I got my last replacement.) We decided that was just wrong, and to search for parts online. We went and bought a cheap little Nokia to act as a “spare tire” that could be used by the family lines should anyone else’s phone break. I eventually learned that what kept me from fixing the phone myself was that I was simply doing my hard reset incorrectly, and I reset my phone. I did lose all my data though. Numerous text sessions from special people, phone numbers, recipe notes and addresses, all lost. The bittersweet lesson is that now though I have my window to my world repaired, I have lost my view. If you’re going to collect data, back it up, daily.

So, the week in summation. I like this girl a lot and I really hope she really reciprocates, because she’s my kind of people. I have built from ashes a new window to my electric nirvana. I have suffered information withdrawal, and I have learned the hard lesson that if you’re going to be the self-motivated information seeker with an unquenchable thirst for new technical, scientific and practical knowledge, do be certain to have multiple copies of it, aye? Live, learn, and love, ladies and gentleman!

-The0