Intelligent Design

Have you ever had one of those days where you feel like you are getting progressively more stupid? I think I have been having more and more of those lately. It's not much of a comfort, but apparently, there are different types of intelligent, and I believe I just need to find the one that fits me best. In the meantime, damn, do I feel dumb.

I know I said this was a work in progress, but honestly, I didn't have much else to say. I had an awesome idea that I would love to make come to fruition, putting off the robots for a while. It's good metal work practice though, so pictures to come if I can get it together. Secret-ish Project! Oooh!

I finally have a Java book headed my way, so we'll see if that fits my intelligence style. Joy!

Off to sleep!

-Theo

Vexing

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-The0

Alien Apartheid

I saw District 9 recently, and I feel like I have to put my stink of opinions on the Internet. This is one of the better movies of the year. Let me expand into the themes I noticed.

The aliens decided to come to a stop over South Africa, which already has a history of intolerance on par with that of the US before its civil rights movements. The film cleverly defused the "first contact" glitz by making it so that the aliens had to depend on humans for survival. In a militarized slum, we see echoes of concentration camps, Warsaw ghettos, and recent disaster relief efforts.

Aliens quickly become second class citizens, addicts to high cholesterol puréed meat products and scarcely capable of producing in our world economy. Much intolerance brews. A desk worker who has a job essentially keeping aliens down has to interact directly with them. A moral is learned through this man later in the film. I've spoiled enough there.

One of the key trends in popular media lately seems to be demonizing corporations. District 9 did not disappoint those looking for such a trend. MNU (the company for which the aforementioned character works) has programs in alien weapons research. It is here that we see the only example of real percieved value in this great extraterrestrial contact.

What I'm getting at is that I think D9 really underlined what our human nature can be at its worst. Here is an example of something that doesn't even come from our planet, and we took the opportunity to chain down the potential new alpha species, and try to get their bigger, pointy-er sticks. We took non-humans, made them sub-human, and despite having accomplished the feat of intergalactic travel (as a species,) all we wanted to do was get their weapons to work for us. Is this what really motivates us humans? Dominance? Greed? History seems to say yes.

On a side note, exactly what kind of ship was this? I like to think that this giant ship was some sort of scout ship, one of many the aliens sent through the galaxy. Maybe even a a colonization ship, which would've put just as much desire for domination on their egos. Interesting to ponder, that's for true.

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post contains some spoilers.

-The0

Cupcake Games #1

After an insane writing hiatus, I return, with insight into several lovely little games.

Darwinia: Adorable real time strategy. Lead little AIs to recapture their (virtual) homeland from the virus which they discovered when they became too curious. On that note, our own malicious software may be our salvation when computers and robots attempt to take over the world. A good strategy that works with almost every level is: Build a massive army, and overrun the enemy. They meow with delight, and you have fun. Joy.

Audiosurf: Make a racetrack of that song during which you always get pulled over. Collect blocks for points! Get a global high score! Get angry when your friends beat that high score! Seriously though, this game is great. I have a good amount of driving music, and now I'm experiencing favorites in a whole new way. It's a good game when you've logged 25 hours into it after only having it for 11 days. You can get in a quick song before work, or unwind with slow songs afterwards. Seal of Approval.

Gish: Life as a 12 lb. ball of tar. Save your kidnapped owner. Use the sludgy properties of tar to navigate the levels. Sadly, enemies seem invincible, which is one step away from the unforgivable sin of infinitely spawning enemies. Still, it's kind of cute, and the Flash-y physics make it fun to watch.

World of Goo: Impermanence in a permanent world. It seems the idea of this is to build (semi-) rigid structures with little stretchy, ductile goo balls. Reach a point, and your score is how many goo balls you have left over. I haven't done too much of this game, but it seems fun.

Braid: Time-travel Mario. Fuck this Game! I have been pulling my hair out trying to figure out this stupid puzzle nonsense, and I'm not even halfway through the game. While this is normally very indicative of a "good" game, I do NOT like being made to feel stupid. And while I'm on the tear, I might as well commit blasphemy. I hate Mario Bros. It was annoying, nothing but frustrating, hand cramping repetition. Braid is more of the same, only now I can rewind and watch it fail all over again. On a positive note, the story is very nice.

End Review Mini-Series #1. Cupcake Games: When you simply don't have the appetite for a whole freaking tiramisu.

-The0

WIP-Lash

I have been meaning to make a new post for a good few days now, but I always am so damn busy and tired lately. After a small musings post, I plan to do another arts review post. After sleep and work, of course.

* * *

And we're back! I broke down and bought the most recent Steam weekend deal. A bunch of games are cheaply available, 10 indie games in total. I had just a bit of cash laying about in various depots, so I deposited that and bought it. I am absolutely glad I did. 2 minutes into Audiosurf, I was giggling with what fun it was. Have you ever driven quickly on the highway to a song you really love? In Audiosurf, you get points for it. I'm very happy with this purchase. More mini-reviews to come, be assured.

I feel like have been working my fucking ass off at my job. Don't you just hate fate when you have a day off, and then, because of the laziness, negligence, or otherwise unfortunate actions of a coworker, you end up getting called into work what he or she would normally work? C'est la vie, of course, but hot damn, is it frustrating. It's fine though, I worked my entire last shift on straight overtime. Yay, bills.

I think it actually is effective to use the little gadgets which Vista makes available to track my account balance. I have a "post-it" with a running transaction log, and my current (underestimated) balance. This ought to help with those overdraft fees, I suspect.

The thought occured that there is great injustice with the coincidence that many leaders are simply filthing assholes. I know a couple of managers and upper managers that artlessly make it a point to get angry or just yell and shout to get what they want done, done. It's the same thing I was talking about before, really. Courtesy is out the window, and there is no hope for revision in the future, I fear. Oh well, humanity has earned its place among the fucked, I think.

Enough of this. Dr. Girlfriend and I recently watched Coraline, and I plan to review that tomorrow.

-The0

Monthly Report 1

It would seem that the month has come to a close again. A small monthly update is in store.

I hate banks, and the exorbanant fees they need to stay afloat.

I was hired on full time at my job.

I have decided, upon the advice of many friends, to start small in the robot business. A two servo quadruped sometimes called a "Laufbot" should be fun and cheap.

The money barely flows enough to supply the rum and whiskey. But! It flows!

Dr. Girlfriend had her birthday last week. Happy Birthday!

That is all.

-The0

Et Tu, Woot-é?

Well, another half-assed Woot-off has occurred. I am a huge fan of Woot.com, and even though it preys upon my impulsive buying habits, I'm never sad for the things I buy.

Woot-offs are a happy time for me usually. The deal-a-day system is pumped onto steroids, and it becomes a "deal-until-we-run-out-of-crap-and-then-it's-a-new-deal" system. Eventually they might throw on the revered "Bag of Crap" for a dollar. That's kind of like a lottery ticket. You could get a European power adaptor, or you could get an LCD TV. Who knows?! At a dollar, who can afford NOT to know?!

Not so this time around. I had gotten into a comfortable pattern of 48 hour woot-offs, and then they pull this. 24 hours, half of which I had to spent at work (which has been very consistent, by the way. I never get to enjoy a full woot-off, because I'm too busy making the money I would otherwise spend) and no bag of crap. Though not promised, I should like to at least SEE one.

Oh well. Maybe they'll run another one in a couple of months.

-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

Apologies shorted

Have you ever had one of those days where everything seems to go pretty well? Then, relatively unexpectedly, one event throws not only the whole day, but your entire perception of self-worth in shambles?

I haven't had many of those, I've always had some kind of fallback or reserved skill that I could bring to the party, and make myself feel better. Not so true now. I had a big one of those days this evening. I've thought about this tonight, a lot, had a good long ride, had some rich-white-kid-no-real-problems thinking time, and realized something. I don't think I'm all I'm cracked up to be. I'm not a baddass, and I'm not really going anywhere very fast. I'm certainly not very honest with myself. Which brings up another point.

This whole avalanche was instigated by some long hidden honesty. Damaging, hurtful thing. I've been a good liar for a long part of my life. Lost a few friends in high school because of it. Ruined a good couple relationships because of it too. Honesty is something that needs to be out in the open from the very beginning, so that if it is hurtful, it doesn't hurt as much. Of course, everybody else my age already fucking knows this. What the hell?

What the hell man?

I'd try self improvement, but to what end? To get better at my job which some younger asshole can probably do better than me anyway? Being a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none is actually kind of a raw deal. No jobs or careers for jacksmen. My confidence is really at an all time low. I'm not really seeing a point, and yet, all I can think to do is sit here, drink, and bitch. Yay! I've become a lazy drama queen.

Fuck This. Don't comment.

-The0

The Butterfly Effect

The idea behind this title is to bring into mind the concept that one little variable can have a profound effect on an environment and it's resultant tangents. I mean this in an ironic sense.

One of my biggest peeves is people. One of the things I hate about people, are the ones who find it totally irresistible to talk about themselves. The ones who can't stand to have any one's ears not tuned to his or her own story. Be it their source of emotional pain, or a string of events that details their personal grandeur, I cannot tolerate it. A note to those like that: You aren't that important. Your variable is negligible at best.

I remember having the displeasure of enduring extended, repeated contact with one such individual. He was an emo, and half of his act was to find some way to make his "emotional pain" apparent or at least come to attention in almost every situation. He also always found a way to make every conversation involve him somehow. His opinions were never far from hand either. "I think that...", "When I do that, I...", "My heart was broken when..." He couldn't keep from talking and smearing himself all over everything.

Now some of this may stem from jealousy, at his ability to capture people's attention. After all, we all want to talk about ourselves, and I started a damn weblog just to talk about my thoughts. After all, I'm being a hypocrite just sitting here and ranting. But in reality, this is why I try not to speak about myself in any situation. This poster tries to avoid words like "I" and Me" in conversation. Ask about the other person in the dialogue. Let them be the center of the attention, the chief of the limelight. Let's be whistleblowers on horn-tooting!

If you can only do one thing, just shut the fuck up.

I'm sorry. I'll be quiet now.

-The0