August 2005 - Posts

• Sometimes you gotta pull out the air guitar

  When it gets late in the day and you still aren't finished it's time to break out the AC/DC and put on your own virtual air guitar concert! Rock and Roll ain't noise pollution! Rock and Roll is a way of life!   Posted Aug 29 2005, 06:12 PM by shedao with no comments

• Chinese Hackers are Advanced!

  From CNN: The FBI Cyber-crime Division, established to combat computer intrusions, has seen hundreds of cases in which hackers using Chinese Web sites have compromised unclassified official U.S. networks. Man, these guys are so far ahead they have web sites setup to hack! (one-click hacking?) Must be the same hackers that use those 3D GUIs in all of those movies when writing "1024 bit encrypted multi-headed hydra/worm/viruses with built in radar detectors". I need some of this technology. I have to look at a screen with text! How antiquated can you get? I need hand-gesture interfaces with true holographic 3D displays, leather pants, and techno muzak in the background if I'm ever gonna reach super star programmer status. Posted Aug 25 2005, 03:11 PM by shedao with 2 comment(s)

• Fundamental Concepts of Mathematics

  I rarely talk about the books I buy, usually a few each month but one is worth mentioning. Last night I bought a book on Mathematics called Foundations and Fundamental Concepts of Mathematics, by Howard Eves, who was once quoted as saying "A formal manipulator in mathematics often experiences the discomforting feeling that his pencil surpasses him in intelligence". This quote above certainly applies to me as I often feel well.. stupid when it comes to mathematics. It's hard for me to grasp concepts if they have no context of use. For instance, if you were to tell me about what's involved in Kalman filtering my eyes would glaze over and I'd probably start daydreaming about being the next real black sheep rapper. But if you showed me a Kalman filter and then showed how it applied to control theory, then used aircraft navigation as an example I would pick it up much quicker. Throw in some history of how it came about and it's locked in. Well this book is a perfect example of how a mathematics book should be written. It will not only give you an idea of modern math concepts but also show you the history of these concepts and how they came about. From Euclid's Elements to complex numbers this book covers a ton of good information for those wanting to expand their math knowledge or maybe just those that like history. For about $15 USD you can't beat it. Posted Aug 24 2005, 01:22 PM by shedao with no comments

• Mono-Live vs Monoppix

  Just a follow up to my last post about Monoppix. Someone pointed out that there is a Mono-Live distro that has a newer version of the mono package (1.0.6 vs 1.1.7). [Edit:] John Galloway pointed out that Monoppix will have the latest version of the Mono package in the next release (1.1.8). I like having the choice of two either way. I'm glad these guys are taking the effort to create these distros. Keeping up with moving targets like Mono and knoppix can be quite a task. But if you'd like a taste of Mono, GNU/Linux, and some other great goodies without the hassle of an install, pick up one of these Live CDs and get to it. Posted Aug 23 2005, 10:07 AM by shedao with 4 comment(s)

• Monoppix

  A friend pointed out that there was a Monoppix distro (Mono + Knoppix). It's a Live CD, so just boot with it and you're running Mono on GNU/Linux. Sounds like a great way to get the Mono feet wet without much hassle. I'll check it out this weekend and let you know how it is. Posted Aug 22 2005, 06:06 PM by shedao with 2 comment(s)

• Robostix is on the way

  Well, I finally got around to ordering a Robostix board today. It is a small stick with an Atmel ATMega 128 8-bit processor and some pinouts. I also acquired a AVR In-System programmer from Digikey so I can program this little board. I will most likely purchase a gumstix board down the road. But for now I get to play around with this and write some servo and motor control software using ansi C. GCC-AVR (aka "Whenever") can be used to compile C code for this device. I'll take some pics and post more details when it's arrived and I've dug into it a bit. Posted Aug 19 2005, 02:30 PM by shedao with no comments

• Aspire to Tasteless

  I'm kind of disappointed. Here at work they have websense setup to filter web content and the domain enemy.org is filtered as tasteless, yet my own site shai.enemy.org is not filtered. I think I need to step my game up. Apparently I'm not tasteless enough people. So I'm thinking of a new design that would be a cross between goatsex (no url needed), fTSoFMS and this chick. Posted Aug 15 2005, 02:21 PM by shedao with 3 comment(s)

• Circuit Schematics

  If you are interested in building your own circuits like I am then you may be interested in these three sites: Discover Circuits has a ton of schematics and instructions on how to DIY. CXI has some great schematics also. Here's one more site for good luck. Posted Aug 14 2005, 01:37 PM by shedao with 1 comment(s)

• IAUV - NCSU competition details

  William Cox has posted some details on GoRobotics.net about the IAUV competition and what went wrong with their Seawolf underwater robot at the competition. The competition was won by the University of Florida's subjugator Posted Aug 12 2005, 11:46 AM by shedao with no comments

• New PC and the move to *nix

  I was having some problems with my machine and after I spent some time trying to diagnose the problem I couldn't figure out what was wrong. It would boot but no video. Tried another monitor, same thing. Replaced video card, same thing. Replaced mobo, same thing.  Tried another CPU, same thing. Swapped RAM, same thing. Different power supply, ditto. So I let it sit for a few months and let me head cool off. But now it's back up and running after I got an entirely new CPU/mobo combo. I'll revisit the old mobo/CPU when I need to,  probably never. But anywho, I decided to get a dual-core Athlon64 3000, on a gigabyte mobo using the nforce 3 chipset. It has been solid so far running a old version of windows 2000 with no network connection. But this will most likely be a linux-only machine running Debian. I have a few reasons to move to linux: 1. I can use Mono for my .Net needs and I get plenty of "windows time" at work. 2. For gaming I have porn. err I mean my playstation and xbox. 3. I support the Open Source philosophy. A part of me understands that some systems need to be closed, and that is acceptable. But I just don't think information or ideas can be kept inside a box. Outside the US the rest of the world is getting this and they are no longer looking to the US for software solutions with strict licensing limitations or what equates to information lock-down. If I want to compete in what is becoming more and more a global market I have to acknowledge this. 4. I want to expand my mental toolbox to include more development on the *nix platform and more lower-level development. There are some that think pointers separate the men from the boys. Man, talk about setting the bar low. I think that in-order to be considered a great developer you should understand how to write device drivers and hack kernels. I may be wrong but thats my opinion. I don't have these skills, so no I don't consider myself a great programmer. I probably will never be considered great, but that's okay with me. My goal is to simply improve my skillset, nothing more. So for now this will be my in-progress experiment. We'll see how it goes. Bacongo. Posted Aug 10 2005, 12:53 PM by shedao with 1 comment(s)