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!

Visual Studio is a non-free environment for the Visual language series.

It’s Good to Know

I had no idea about the differences between languages when I started to program. At first I learned HTML, then I went to Visual Basic. That was the mistake. Visual Basic is only available on Windows. After that, I seemed to want to continue to step down to lower and lower-level languages until I got to the base of it all. I’ve nearly succeeded, and went to C++, tried some Assembly, then turned to chip languages. I’m so far at Arduino/Wiring and some C. So, I want to give a ultra-quick comparison between common programming languages.

Visual Basic

Based off of original BASIC, Visual Basic is Microsoft’s .NET version. Compiled programs will only run on Windows or emulating environments, such as WINE. It’s a very simple yet powerful tool that can produce very nice GUIs.

Java

Cross-platform, Java is slightly slower, requires a JRE on target machines, is harder than most to learn, and requires skill to produce neat GUIs.

C++

Pure C++ has no built-in UI functions. Usually, OpenGL and other libraries are used. Very powerful, unmanaged code requires you clean up your memory mess or else the used RAM is not usable until reboot.

Python

Another powerful scripting language. Very popular, simple.

Lua

This is a very minimalistic language. I’ve only seen it used in odd little places like World of Warcraft addons and game scripting interfaces. In both cases, special functions are introduced to do other things in different languages. Lua interpreters can be integrated in many places where simple scripting is required.

Processing

Processing is very commonly used to create mathematical art, due to the easily accessible drawing functions. It is also used for interfacing to serial port devices and graphing or manipulating the data they send back.

Synopsis

From a job perspective, you should learn what the market seems to need at that particular time. For hobby things, use whatever you can do and think you’d like. You can almost always learn something different later!

Creative Xmod - poor lighting, extremely grainy. Sorry...

The Xmod

This is yet another great example of a device with no proof if it works other than to try it. The Xmod is a USB sound card from Creative, which has two sound “restoration” features: the Crystallizer and CMSS-3D. The Crystallizer, in the marketing department’s words, “intelligently restores the highs and lows for rich, crystal clear music playback.” I didn’t believe it. Nor did I believe that it “features smart technology that turns your plain stereo sound into rich virtual surround sound by centering vocals and moving ambient sounds all around you.” Whatever. The real reason I bought it was because the internal microphone jack had a weird hum I couldn’t get rid of. Also, I could get it for $25, $55 dollars off, direct.

Microphone Sound

It worked great with my lavaliere and unidirectional microphone. No hum! Already worth it. The Crystallizer and 3D effects thankfully do not apply here.

Headphone Sound

The Xmod comes with a dandy pair of earbuds which I immediately started using over my iPod ones. They’re better and don’t hurt my ears, fit-wise. They do look quite a bit like the iPod ones, also. With the Xmod, however, they make a killer combination. While Crystallizer and 3D can make some things sound really distorted, they can be disabled independently with two switches. Most music will sound great with it, though, and you’ll want to know how to increase the intensity. By tapping the whole upper plastic section twice, with the LEDs, you can control the Crystallizer intensity with the built-in volume knob. Tap again to change the 3D setting. It will then either time out or you can tap again to get out of the adjustment mode.

Other Things Worth Noting

The Xmod requires USB power to run, so, independent from a USB port it’s useless. Get around this with either a mini-USB AC adapter, or something similar to a MintyBoost. It works as a USB sound card, but, should you wish to use an iPod or other non-USB-sound-card-compliant device, connect the headphone jack on your device to the line-in on the Xmod. Like I already said, you still need power though. The volume knob works via USB, so it won’t work without a computer. That said, this device is a wonderful addition to anybody’s toolbox!

My journal is a Moleskine with squared paper.

Why is a Journal Important?

A journal can be important for many reasons. Unlike the stereotypical idea of a diary, you need not write about your life in a journal. For the most part, I actually don’t. I do tend to carry it around everywhere, often along with a key chain, wallet with no money, a cellphone, and a mechanical pencil. Most, if not all, famous thinkers kept a journal of some kind. Even if you don’t plan to be the next “famous thinker” you can still write ideas and things you want to do down.

What Do You Write?

I’ve already published one scan of my Steadicam plans. That was from my journal. As a matter of fact, I have two journals; one that fits in my pocket and one that’s a lot bigger. I mostly write in the pocket one, as I rarely carry around the big one.

Any Recommendations?

I have found, and I think many will agree, Moleskines to be just about the greatest notebooks on Earth. One of the reasons I’m attracted to Moleskines is because I love nice paper. It tends to be cheap, and feels so good to write on. Moleskines come in many different varieties, and can be used accordingly for what kind of writing you do. Write stories? Use lined paper. Technical sketches? Squared. Doodles or drawing? Blank. Music? Staff.

Where Does One Buy a Moleskine?

I believe you can purchase online, but I have found it often more convenient to buy from my local Borders who has begun carrying them. Another important thing is to carry a pencil or pen, because borrowing one from a stranger, for example, doesn’t always work.

A Mechanical Turk Visualization

What? Mechanical Turkey?

No, it’s Mechanical Turk. Yet again, I’ve got too much spare time. Yet again, I keep feeling I should do something productive will all this time. Yet again, I had no idea. Then, I remembered about Turk. Amazon, yes, the same people at amazon.com, quite a while ago launched something called “Mechanical Turk” and they describe it as a “Marketplace for Work,” which it is. People, referred to as Requesters, set up HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks) with a monetary reward. Upon a Worker submitting the HIT, the Requester can approve or reject their work. Once approved, the Worker receives payment.

Sweet! Monetary Value!

Yes, this may seem like the greatest thing to come to the world since sliced bread (July 7th, 1928). In some ways, it could be. Unfortunately, unlike most real jobs, the pay is horrible. Majority of the HITs are in the $0-$.20 range. The tasks that are higher paying are correspondingly harder, such as audio transcription or product guide writing. For example, you might get paid $1.30 for an average graded transcript of a 5 minute slice of audio. Say that it takes you 10 seconds for every second of audio, plus a bit more, like me, and then extrapolate the percentage of minimum wage it is. Roughly $1.30/hour. Minimum US wage is $7.15. That means that you are getting 18% of what a extra-low-end job would be. I guess it’s the sacrifice of convenience.

Um, How Do I Get My Reward?

Once in your Turk account, you can withdraw through one of two ways: to a checking account, or an Amazon gift certificate. A minimum of a $10 checking account transfer is required, and only a $1 minimum on the certificate. I guess it’s better than doing nothing, but the work can be tedious.

Deep Freeze, and the Deep Freeze logo are trademarks of Faronics Inc.

Deep Freeze

Yes, it is winter. And no, this has nothing even distantly to do with the climate. Faronics, a company seeming to specialize in computer management solutions, sells and offers trials of various products. One of their more amazing programs is called “Deep Freeze,” and you’ll see why in a minute. Deep Freeze literally “freezes” your hard drive. The genius in in its simplicity. By “freezing” a partition, no changes can be made to it. And since practically everything, except the BIOS, is stored on the disk, nothing can be changed. That means the Registry (if using Windows), Master Boot Record, Windows installation, bootloader, anything. Did I mention it’s available for both Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux?  Perfect.

Testing

I decided it was time to try it out. Faronics had a 30-day trial available, after which your computer would “thaw” and be forced to uninstall it. I made a text file on my desktop and rebooted. Gone. I installed a suspicious codec. Gone upon boot. I even tried to maim Deep Freeze its self and delete where it installed. Wait, where did it install? Hidden. Probably a secret partition not visible through Windows.

Conclusion

But why, why would I want to not be able to save any files? How is that useful? There are many scenarios you’d want this. Take a public computer. You want your computers to remain low-maintainence, but at the same time try not to restrict people too much. Load the computer with basic internet and word processing software, then freeze it with Deep Freeze. Upon reboot, everything is restored normal, history erased, user-generated files deleted. No anti-virus required, just regular reboots. Take your own computer for example. Don’t want to accidentally mess it up? Freeze your system partition, leave a separate “data” partition thawed. Need to install something? Thaw, install, reboot frozen. Finally, take a school. This was actually the first place I noticed it. Freeze the whole computer and put on a BIOS password. Domain login allows controlling your users at once. Use a login script to mount a folder for the specific user on a hosting server. By instructing the students to only save to the network drive, their work can be preserved and the workstation left untouched.

Stained shirt, post-testing.

Synopsis:

• It’s worth carrying around for $4. Although it’s not a washing machine in your pocket, it could just save your dignity after squirting mustard on your collar the day your photo’s being taken. 

Quick Details (of the testing):

• I broke out an old shirt, perfect for such testing, and dug around my fridge for some nice staining liquids. What I decided to use for these tests were tea, mustard, barbecue sauce, and soy sauce. Not in my fridge, however, I also cracked open an ink pen to test the Tide pen against ink despite what the package said.

The picturesque details:

• Really, the testing wasn’t that complicated. It was getting around to writing this that took forever… Sorry about the delay! Anyways, I would put a stain on, wipe as much away as I could, then stab the stain in the heart, releasing the pen’s cleaning agent. Using it like a marker and hoping the results of an eraser, I’d rub it in for around 10-45 seconds. I thought that would be a reasonable amount of time for someone to be stabbing their shirt with a mysterious marker before people started to look at them strangely. The center of the stain in the pictures was treated and the outside left untreated. Hope I was helpful!

                        

My employees for the job...

Tea. Pretty good.

Mustard. Ewww. But ok.

Barbecue sauce. Not great.

Soy sauce. Pretty decent.

Ink. Who knew it'd get worse?

Yep, you’ve probably seen the commercials for them. And yes, they seem cool, that is, if they actually work. And if they do, how well? Honestly, have you ever seen anyone using one? Anyways, I seek to prove the practical usability on the stains they claim it works on, and even the ones they claim it doesn’t! It’s meager list of things it specifically says it doesn’t work on are ink, blood, and grease. Who knew it would be my top three shirt-killers? None the less, a review with lots of pretty photos is up soon!