the aj blog

An image released days before the game, hinting at it. Copyright Zach Barth, used without any known permission.

Who’s Zach Barth?

Zach Barth is the creator of zachtronicsindustries.com. He was most widely known when hackaday.com published a quick article about his awesome reverse engineering game, Ruckingenur II. That was also when I discovered his site. Unfortunately, I managed to defeat the game in less than a day. But it was still cool, and I also loved the music. So, I decided to scan his page with an RSS reader and wait until something new came. After that, he introduced the Ruckingenur Challenge. The Ruckingenur Challenge was a competition to design and code a level for a new Ruckingenur game. I did so, which’ll remain a mystery until it’s published in a complete form by Zach himself. It involved the infamous OMISSAT, which is (partly) based on a real hack.

Russian? WHY?

Well, I don’t actually know why the title’s in Russian. Everything else is English. It’s about creating chips, like those inside your computer. No potatoes. Although they’re good too. You get a goal of a signal to reproduce, and make little transistors on the grid to work with and manipulate the stuff. It’s so cool. Best of all, it’s flash, unlike Ruckingenur which was written in .NET limiting it to Windows. Great stuff so far!

Skype, as seen in a gloomy room. Classifiable as "blah photography."

Skype - Awesomeness

Skype has existed for quite a while. So this is truly nothing new to majority of the world. However, I’m really actually sometimes skeptical about technology, and had refused to bow down to it. Then, one day, I had to collaborate with a friend who also used Skype. That was when it all started. They really got me with that free phone call. Of course, I called my house, and that really stunned me. Mostly it the fact that I had pressed a button on my computer and managed to cause all the phones around me to start to ring. I tried it again, and it replied to say that I needed to buy “skype credit.” Buy? Nope. And that was the way it stayed for a few months. I used it here and there, nothing big. Not enough to buy anything. One day, out of curiosity, I checked out the pricing. Again, I was stunned. Only ~$2.50/month for unlimited US/Canada (real phones)! I jumped onto the Skype bandwagon from there onward. Purchasing a subscription, I then called my house again. And again. And again. It worked, and cost nothing beyond the monthly fee. It worked! The only downside was that finding a local area code was nearly impossible for an Online Number. Even finding one in my state was hard! And, getting a number is like buying another subscription, after the discount, money-wise. So, I didn’t. But now, my skype forwards to my cell, and I am very happy. (Hopefully not) the end!

An application I created to control a USB7 from a computer's serial port.

The USB7

Quite a while ago, I discovered the USB7. It wasn’t until recently I actually thought I would have a use for it if I were to buy it. I was working on a website project due at midnight on a particular day. I was thinking how awesome it would be if I could have a bunch of LED 7-segment displays counting down the days, then hours, then minutes, then seconds, and finally hundredths of seconds. That was when I remembered it, the USB7. The USB7 is a relatively inexpensive, usb-controlled kit with six 7-segment displays. I haven’t seen many popular projects for it, though, so what does one do when there’s a need for something but it doesn’t exist? You make it! I bought a kit online, so it’ll arrive sometime later.

The Programming

Turning to Visual Studio Express 2008 and my brain’s Visual Basic abilities, I created this super-simple application that continually updates the display with the time remaining, fitting as much data as possible. For example, it can show up to 99 days, 24 hours, and 60 minutes when there’s more than 24 hours left. When there’s less than that, but still more than an hour, it’ll display a 2-digit hour code, a 2-digit minute number, and a 2-digit second number. Once you’re down to minutes, it shows minutes, seconds, and hundredths of seconds. Down to seconds, it’ll drop the minutes. Finally, once the timer’s up, it plays a crazy alarm sound and flashes constant zeroes all across the display. Now just to wait until it arrives!

My First Dorodango

Mud Balls - Awesome!

After seeing a dorodango featured on Mythbusters (End With a Bang, November 12, 2008), I became quite intrigued by the concept. It fascinated me that using nothing more than average dirt, one could produce something of such beauty and shininess. Shortly later, I came across this site which gave me some hints and eventually led me to this site.

The Quest

I went out and dug up a bag of dirt (it’s winter, the ground is hard.) After letting it dry out for a while, I began with my core, which took me about an hour. I put it in a bag to cure overnight.

The Next Day

I slept in late. Waking up around 10, I began the final capsule and polishing process. Around an hour and a bunch of rubbing later, I took the photo featured above. Success!

Reflections

There were many things I would do differently next time. I’ll describe them so that hopefully, if anybody takes up this wonderful and calming hobby, they will know. The first and probably biggest issue with what I did was the quality of dirt. You should let it dry out, sift it, and get out all the rocks. otherwise, you get something like mine, with little bits of hard stones sticking out. Second of all, don’t get your dirt on anything white. Couches, towels, rugs, shirts; they’ll never be the same. Third, make a bigger ball. Although the photo has little scale, the ball is actually about the size of a golf ball. It was quicker, but smaller. Oh, and don’t use contaminated soil, it made mine smell nasty.

So, take a couple hours with a pile of dirt, make a dorodango, and have a happy soon-to-be new year!

Photo, and other works in this post , are under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.