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Achievement Unlocked: Welcome to Raccoon City

So, I’ve lost half the day to a stupid virus.  WONDERFUL.  After repairing my Master Boot Record from the XP Recovery Console, I’m hoping that it’s gone now.  Of course, I can’t tell because all of the Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware tools I’ve used are COMPLETELY WORTHLESS and didn’t catch it or any of the previous outbreaks there’ve been.  I wonder if it’s been with me for months and can explain these randomly recurring virus hits that come out of nowhere and never seem to die, too.

I’d really like for someone to explain where it came from originally, too.  There has to be something I did wrong, somewhere that I let my guard down, and I’d like to plug that hole.  If I’m going to get randomly hit with no explanation while being safely behind a firewall and anti-virus program, then to hell with it, I’m going to start going to porn sites and start torrenting WaReZ.

February 28, 2010   No Comments

Technical Difficulties

My computer is acting very odd today.  It seems like it can’t go more than five minutes without freezing up.  This is obviously causing a delay in the proceedings.  If I can’t get it straightened out, then I may have to build a robot to repeatedly hit my computer with a hammer.

February 28, 2010   No Comments

Well… That didn’t work.

So, I thought, “Hey, there’s a firmware upgrade for the NXT, maybe that will help.”

So, I installed the firmware update.

So, now the motor doesn’t move at all.

WONDERFUL.

February 26, 2010   No Comments

WaggleBot

[mediaplayer src=’/log/wp-content/uploads/WaggleBot.wmv’ ]

See, here’s the problem.  It moves the distance I’m expecting very fast, a full 360 degrees in half a second, then it wastes another half second waggling to a stop.  And it’s always wasting about half a second.  It can do 90 degrees in about .2 seconds, then it loses another .5 seconds coming to a stop.  The movements I need for games are going to be less than 90 degrees most of the time, too, so the problem gets worse.

You absolutely cannot be losing half a second with every move and still expect to be able to play a game well, especially a game like Kaboom!

Because everything’s better in slow-motion, here’s what it looks like at 1/10th the speed:

[mediaplayer src=’/log/wp-content/uploads/WaggleSlow.wmv’ ]

It’s like it’s doing a binary search for the correct point.  If I could get rid of the waggle, I’d probably have something useful.

February 26, 2010   No Comments

It’s 10:40 PM. Do you know where your Atari is?

I’ve been on this Crazy Weekend Project all day and I haven’t even plugged in the Atari yet.  This sucks.

February 25, 2010   No Comments

Choppy Tunes

My CD-ROM drive is causing my CDs to go all choppy and weird.  Either that or my ears are experiencing a 5 hz glitch.  Not helpful.  Will likely make weekend more Crazy than Project if this keeps up.

And yes, I still listen to CDs.

February 25, 2010   No Comments

Warp Drive Disabled

Well, the upgrade to OpenCV 2.0 went just wonderfully.  Now, instead of having one function that’s not implemented, I have a hundred functions that won’t even run.

OpenCVPInvoke

Maybe I should just give up and go back to playing games.

November 27, 2009   No Comments

Slight Setback

The function I was going to use doesn’t actually seem to exist.  That might be a problem.

November 27, 2009   No Comments

Cloak Engaged

The face detector doesn’t seem to be noticing Geordi or Worf.  That’s understandable, since Geordi has the VISOR on and Worf’s got the ridged forehead.  However, it IS finding a Cardassian, who is completely covered in makeup.  Oh well.  Since the main use of this won’t be for Starfleet Security, I think I can get away without fixing that particular problem…

November 26, 2009   No Comments

Rule #1: The Documentation Must Not Suck

So that’s how you create, initialize, and     a SpeechRecognizer…

WonderfulExamples

Besides the fact that this example is apparently showing something that’s invisible, it’s not even really showing the creation and initialization, either.  Calling your local functions “SetupEventHandlers()” and “LoadInitialGrammars()” isn’t exactly all that helpful to me.  I understand that I need to set up event handlers and load grammars.  THAT’S WHY I’M READING THE DOCUMENTATION:  I know I need to do something, but I don’t know how.  You’ve pretty much shown me how to call the constructor on your class.  I managed to get that bit on my own, remarkably enough.

November 25, 2009   No Comments