Holy crap I'm getting married!
[June 16, 2009 -- 9:33 pm]
Sorry my website has been in disrepair as of late. It's just, with Facebook and all, I don't really need you anymore.
Anyway, I just got engaged! I proposed to Kristine on her 21st birthday, at the Gandy Dancer in Ann Arbor. We've been together for 5 years, and I've known for a while that she's the one for me, but we always seemed way too young to get married. Now that we're both legally unrestricted and almost done with college, the timing was perfect. I can't wait to take on life's great adventure with her by my side!
Check out a2coma's website!
[May 11, 2009 -- 2:53 pm]
If you want to see a good example of my html/css/php skills, check out my work for the Ann Arbor College of Martial Arts.
Everything worked out!
[April 22, 2009 -- 7:42 pm]
I don't know if anyone even reads this thing anymore, but I figure if anything deserves posting, it would be this.
I got an internship for the summer, and it's awesome! Previously, I was screwed by the economy and Toyota's deadlines, but everything worked out for the best because instead of working at some lame office I'll be at Pratt & Miller.
:D
Oh yeah, I can call my car to start it now.
[March 3, 2009 -- 10:46 pm]
So yeah, I got my cellphone car starter working. It's in version 0.1 Beta right now though; it doesn't have any security features or do anything besides start the car when you call it. Also, I don't have anywhere warm to take apart my dashboard for a power connection, so I just taped it to a battery and dropped it in my center console. Incidentally, it looks like I have a bomb in my center console now. I'll post pictures and a worklog later.
Why not some updates?
[January 28, 2009 -- 11:47 am]
I apologize to my loyal readership, who I'm sure have been wearing out their F5 buttons refreshing my page over and over again, waiting for an update.
Anyway, the Death Laser project has been stalled for a while, mostly because I'm too discouraged to try buying another diode, and I found 2 other projects to occupy my time.
I finished constructing a Lithium-Ion battery pack for my bike, out of necessity after the Lead-Acid one shorted out and destroyed itself. I haven't completed building a charger for the pack yet, because it is too snowy to use the bike, and I found another project to occupy my time.
So I got a remote starter installed on my car over Christmas break (thanks Kristine!), and I also got a PIC-based cellphone development board. My current project is to combine the two into a cellphone-based car starter, that I can call from anywhere I happen to be and start my car by entering a touch-tone password.
Perhaps when I finish this project, I'll throw up a worklog so others can follow my lead. It seems like I could make millions selling something like this on the mass market, but right now it just consists of two off-the-shelf systems, one programmed to control the other.
Countdown to being 21:
[September 17, 2008 -- 12:58 am]
[Counter disabled.]
115 days ago! w00t!
Fucking fragile laser diodes.
[August 24, 2008 -- 6:04 pm]
So my Death Laser is really close to being done. I was literally a few grams of glue away from having a complete laser when I burned out the diode.
My battery pack, enclosure, and constant-current power supply are all perfect, but I have to buy another diode (I think this is number 4) before I can finish it.
Oh, I've also been toying with the idea of a Lithium battery pack for my electric bike. Maybe I'll even post a picture of it at some point.
The Race -- Owned.
[July 24, 2008 -- 6:39 pm]
Winning feels good.
Winning by an entire race day feels better.
This has been the most amazing thing I've ever been a part of, and likely will be for a while. It taught me, among other things, the importance of "Not Fucking Around." We were NFA in everything we did, and it certainly paid off. We spent 15 minutes on the side of the road the entire race, and it was because the CAN connector on our MPPTs (one of the few electronics we didn't design ourselves) was poorly designed. We were ready for virtually anything to go wrong on the car, with a spare ready to swap in, and a spare for the spare. If we had had Principia's DC-DC converter failure, it would have been a 10-second fix. As it turned out, we did such an NFA job designing everything, we didn't have any problems.
That's just one example of our NFA, others include:
- Testing our suspension by catching air off speed bumps,
- Using so many amber lights that people pull over for us,
- Sending up weather balloons to 40,000 feet,
- Knowing at all times the voltage of every single battery module to the millivolt,
- Getting new suspension parts machined during qualifying so we could swap in a higher torque motor if need be.
- Practicing a motor swap enough to do it in under 6 minutes.
- Being the first team to ever qualify for NASC with a single-wheel-front design, simply because it's more aerodynamic.
It's been a remarkable journey, being on this team, and I've learned so much about engineering, teamwork, human nature, sacrifice, and leadership. Not to mention all of the industry contacts I've accumulated. Alas, it's now time that I take my lessons and move on with my life. I've got two years of school left, and while I probably can't go on any more solar car races, I'm confident that I can do anything.
The Race -- Day 10: Taking off from Medicine Hat
[July 24, 2008 -- 5:36 pm]
[This post was recorded earlier.]
So it's the last day. We're about 8 hours ahead of the second place team (Principia) at this point, because they had a pretty crappy day yesterday. I guess they had some brake scrub caused by a bent rim which caused them to undervoltage a battery module, and then they blew out a DC-DC converter. They did end up rolling into the stage stop without trailering, they just got an hour penalty for showing up late. I have to applaud their "never trailer" policy and unwillingness to give up.
Anyway, we just have to cruise the speed limit to Calgary so nobody can cockblock us and roll across the finish line before us.
12 minutes to Go Time.
The Race -- Day 8: Winnipeg to Regina
[July 21, 2008 -- 1:51 am]
So we're camping about 20 miles outside Regina, having found a pretty sweet charging spot at a lentil farm. Today went nice and smooth, the only problems being staying awake. This is much preferable to any other type of problem.
So far in this leg we've gained about 40 minutes on Principia, and we'll roll into Medicine Hat tomorrow afternoon and find out exactly what our lead is. Then the next morning we cruise into Calgary.
Also, there is a friendly cat at this farm, and I took the opportunity to degrade the credibility of our team's blog: permalink .
Oh, and also the didn't-have-to-trailer club is down to 4 members: Us, Principia, Bochum, and Waterloo.
The Race -- Day 6-7: Sioux Falls to Winnipeg
[July 19, 2008 -- 4:48 pm]
We're in Canadia! We arrived at the stage stop at Red River College today at 11:32, beating Principia by 56 minutes.
We spent 4 minutes off the clock at the border crossing so the international student on our team could get her passport stamped. Also we got to be in the "Morris Stampede" which is apparently a parade to celebrate the dairy industry in the town of Morris (crazy Canadians).
I have definitely noticed an increasing level of stage stops one-upping each other. The first stage stop in Neosho was a parking lot with some tents, and Missorri S&T bought dinner for everyone. Sioux Falls was made into a big deal with police escorts and press, and the city bought us pizza and t-shirts. Here, the college is throwing a BBQ for all the teams, letting us use their computer labs and CNC machine shop, putting on games of floor hockey, and showing a movie. I can't wait to see what Medicine Hat has to offer, and I hear the finish line should be pretty insane.
Anyway, we get to sleep in a hotel again tonight, which should be a nice improvement over the potato farm we camped at last night.
Side story: Ferman was talking to a newspaper and said "It's not like the university expects us to bring home a fifth win," and they quoted him as saying, "The university expects us to bring home a fifth win." I love reporters.
The Race -- Day 5: Waiting in Sioux Falls
[July 18, 2008 -- 3:04 am]
Sioux Falls is pretty cool. Well, except for the slaughterhouse that was upwind of us today. The smell complemented the disturbing squeals nicely.
Oh, also we got some penalties, so Principia technically won this leg of the race. We're still ahead of them overall though. The biggest penalty was an hour because our hydraulic brakes wore out and we drove for a few miles with only regen before stopping. It's a pretty excessive penalty considering we slowed down to about 15 mph, increased our distance, and stopped as soon as we found a suitable location. We can't really fight it though, since it was for "operating an unsafe vehicle" which is technically true even though we did so as safely as possible.
Anyway, we're still leading, we've got a full battery pack, and we're going to keep cruising all the way to Calgary.
The Race -- Day 3-4: Neosho to Sioux Falls
[July 16, 2008 -- 4:41 pm]
Nebraska has to be the hilliest state ever. Day 3 went smoothly, except for the last 15 minutes or so. Because of all the hills, and the fact that we hadn't changed our brake pads after 2 days on the track, our mechanical brakes started failing as the pads wore down to nothing. So we were using mainly regen brakes, and then the motor temp got up to about 103 C (aka 7 degrees from melting), so we stopped for the day just barely within the timeframe you're allowed to stop without penalty. We camped in the parking lot of a Bounce U, which is apparently inflatable fun for all ages.
Then the storm hit. The Base-X shelter stood up to it, but not without the help of 4 team members, 4 sand bags, and 2 bags of 18-inch steel spikes holding down one side of the tent from imploding. Also, camping on concrete sucks.
Today we hit the road early because we stopped early last night, and cruised all the way to Sioux Falls. We didn't get too close to melting the motor, but we did have a lot of fun on the hills around here. Had to use overcurrent regen to keep it under the speed limit a few times, which is actually kind of sweet because you'll see around 4 kilowatts going into the battery pack.
We got into Sioux Falls at 12:35, about an hour ahead of Principia. There are actually people at this stage stop, which is pretty cool. The city is really making a big deal about it, with a police escort, news crews, inflatable Coca Cola tents, and giant crowds. A couple more teams might roll in today, but we're here until Friday morning. You would think that driving a few hundred miles north would help with the temperature, but the Tahoe is telling me it's 101 F outside right now.
Oh, and Chuck Hutchins is buying us dinner tonight, so that'll be sweet.
The Race -- Day 2: Waiting in Neosho
[July 15, 2008 -- 1:12 am]
Today, since we got to the stage stop last night, we basically just sat around all day. We got another morning and evening charge, and the battery pack's about one volt from full.
I went to Lowe's and dropped 80 bucks on hardware to put wheels on the battery lockbox. Now we won't have to carry it and run every time we impound the battery. That is, after I get to installing them.
Now it's sleep time.
The Race -- Day 1: Plano to Neosho
[July 14, 2008 -- 5:53 pm]
Day 1 went very well. We're still out in first, and Principia is about 15 minutes behind us. We were the only two teams to get to the Neosho stage stop on the first day.
The day went pretty smoothly, except we did have to pull over a few times. In the morning we had a problem with our motor controller cutting out, and it was making us incredibly anxious because we couldn't figure out what was causing it. The first time we pulled over, we swapped out the motor controller, but we continued having the same problem. We pulled over again, and I thought to unplug all of the MPPTs' CAN lines to cut down on CAN errors. As it turns out, those stupid connectors were the problem because it worked flawlessly after that.
After we got that sorted, we cruised for the rest of the day, ending up with an average of 41 mph. Mind you, that number would have been a lot higher if we had better sunlight for the first half of the day. We pretty much burned our entire battery pack getting through clouds, until the sun finally came out and we were able to keep going just off array power.
One of my least favorite regulations for this year is the one that states you have to pull over and let traffic pass if there are more than 6 cars behind you. We had to do that 3 times around rush hour. Big waste of race time.
Anyway, we roll out of Neosho Tuesday morning, and hopefully we'll have a fully charge pack by then.
45 minutes to Go Time.
[July 13, 2008 -- 10:15 am]
Sitting on the starting line. Battery's full, and we're powered up. All systems go.
9 hours to Go Time.
[July 13, 2008 -- 2:19 am]
Well we took pole position after about 250 laps around the track. The closest competitor was Minnessota with 220ish. It seems 15 teams have qualified, and we'll be starting at the Plano Center at 9 am.
We got Paula registered as a backup driver, because she was in town for the start of the race, she drove in Australia, and we were down to two drivers. So that's a bit of a relief.
Also we tested our NGM motor on the track, and it works very nicely. Steve was having fun with all the extra torque, passing cars left and ... well just on the left, but over and over again. The idea of the NGM is to sacrifice a little efficiency on stretches where we'll have to battle steep hills.
Anyway, it's less than 9 hours to Go Time, and we're ready to kick some ass.
Go fast, go smooth, go Blue.
The Track -- Day 4: Qualifying
[July 11, 2008 -- 1:25 am]
So the mechanical engineers pulled an all-nighter and replaced at least half of the brake system, and we passed the braking test first thing this morning.
Yesterday was pretty sad when the brake handle decided to squirt fluid into Mike's eye right before our braking test, but I guess it was for the best because we were forced to replace faulty components and the car is now safer.
Anyway, after that we got on the starting grid for qualifying and started racking up laps. There is one more day of qualifying tomorrow, and then the starting grid for the race is determined by who completed the most laps. We were the first team to officially qualify for the race, and so far we are way out in front for pole position. We've basically been kicking it Sunrunner style, not going particularly fast, but also not breaking down at all.
It has most definitely been a long day though, especially for our drivers who actually had to steer Continuum around the 1.7-mile road course 140 times. They rock.
Tomorrow will be just as long.
The Track -- Day 3: Scrutineering
[July 9, 2008 -- 12:08 am]
Well, all of the teams have shown up, and our car is almost "all green" in the scrutineering process. We pretty much just have to do a braking test before we can get out on the track and start racking up laps. Of course, we want to let some other teams go out first because there's some really interesting turns and hills, and we're half expecting a solar car pile-up.
Also, we got a good test of our Base-X Rapid Deployment Shelters today when a momentary torrential downpour came, complete with 50mph winds. The only team member to really get wet was Mike, but it was for the greater good (read: burgers).
And we found out who our toughest competitor is going to be, and it's definitely Principia. They've got solar cells that came from the same batch as ours, a really slick aero body, and it's pretty well built too.
Tomorrow we'll finish up getting our car checked off, and take some practice laps in a Tahoe, and then Thursday we start qualifying.
Texas is still hot as balls. Even when it's raining.
The Track -- Day 0: Arrival
[July 6, 2008 -- 10:33 am]
So we got to the track last night just before sundown, and met the only other team here, Durham, who also happens to hail from the farthest away.
The only distinguishing factor I've noticed about Texas is that it's hot as balls. It got up to 101 F yesterday, and there's plenty of ultraviolet light. Thankfully the night offers some relief, as it cooled off rather readily once the sun went down.
Today we took a morning charge with the array to see how much power we can expect on the race, and I practiced playing Revelry on the aluminum battery-lifting bars. Allegedly the officials are supposed to show up around noon, and then other teams should start arriving. I'm anxious to find out which teams are going to be our competition, since most of their websites offer little information.
Go time.
[July 2, 2008 -- 10:40 pm]
So the solar car team is driving down to Texas right now. In 10.5 days we'll be crossing the starting line for the North American Solar Challenge. Between now and then we have to register, pass scrutineering, and qualify on the track. Then we can proceed to rock this bitch.
I'll be posting some updates, but the team keeps a pretty good blog: http://umsolar.com/blog
Mock Race; epilogue
[June 6, 2008 -- 12:32 am]
Welp, we're on the way back to Michigan now, riding in style as usual. For 14 hours.
All in all, it was a pretty successful mock race (you can read all about it on the team's blog). The weather was pretty terrible, but Continuum ran like a champion, and we still got to Fargo in 4 days (including a few hours off to hide from a hail storm).
We've hammered out a lot of problems that would have slowed us down on the race, and we're a lot more confident in our racing abilities now. Continuum had pretty much zero issues the whole time, we just had to fix a few of our procedures and strats. We will just be making one more iteration of our battery protection system and installing the last couple of solar modules that are in the mail. Should be pretty relaxing compared to the few weeks before the last race.
Mock race; preface 2
[May 31, 2008 -- 3:29 am]
Embassy Suites FTW.
Age of Empires copy protection FTL.
Pay wifi FTL.
Cingular 3G internet FTW.
So, we made it to Dallas, and we're chilling in an Embassy Suites, down the street from the Spanish car dealership and the drive-through beer store with the bikini girls out front.
Tomorrow we finish outfitting vehicles, debug the rest of the BPS system, practice putting up our Base-X tents, and get ready to hit the road with Continuum the next morning.
Mock race; preface
[May 29, 2008 -- 10:10 pm]
So I'm in a Hybrid Tahoe, driving with the Solar Car Team down to Texas for our mock race, using a Cingular wireless internet card from one of our sponsors.
I'm hoping this mock race will be much less of a clusterfuck than the last one, not least of all because its not our first time, which is always kind of painful.
Also, rolling in 4 black Tahoes with antennas and shit on the roofs is kind of sweet.
Yay walking.
[April 6, 2008 -- 1:54 am]
It was so nice out today that I decided to walk 4 miles to my condo from central campus. Well, more like couldn't find a ride back. It was still nice out though. Also, I was returning from Ninjutsu training, so I got to walk through town carrying a wooden sword. Good times.
it's 4:15am the very next day ...
[March 26, 2008 -- 4:19 am]
... son of a bitch.
It's 4:50am ...
[March 25, 2008 -- 4:50 am]
Do you know where your c++ debugger is?
Parking lot theory
[March 19, 2008 -- 8:44 pm]
Today I made a new discovery to contribute to the theory of parking lot dynamics:
The amount of suffering in the cold is equal to the distance from the parking lot you thought you were parked in, to the parking lot you were actually parked in, (in miles), divided by an average walking speed of 3 (miles/hour).
That is:
Suffering = distance(ActualLot, ThoughtLot) / 3
In my case, I spent 10 minutes freezing my ass off.
Toyota
[February 14, 2008 -- 7:02 pm]
Yeah, so I got an internship offer from Toyota Technical Center. I guess this affirms my 1337 status.
Also, I'm officially on the 2008 Solar Car race crew, so I get to go help own the North American Solar Challenge. Should be a good time.
Electroschwinn lives!
[January 4, 2008 -- 6:14 pm]
So yeah, I finally got my electric bike working properly, and rode it a couple miles to the post office. This is a device that will definitely be a lot more enjoyable in the summer months, but regardless I got up to 30 mph on Plymouth rd and had a blast.
I'm definitely investing in a ski mask though. Jesus it's cold.
Netherlands
[December 9, 2007 -- 7:26 am]
So I'm in Dutchland right now, which is pretty neat. I came here to visit my sister, who's studying abroad in Utrecht. Mostly everybody speaks english, but a lot of signs and stuff are in Dutch, so it's a little confusing. Yesterday we went to Gouda, which is where they make Gouda cheese. We went to a cheese shop there and got some amazingly awesome Gouda cheese, and ate it on a train (with beer).
Also, the plane ride here was the first time I've ever finished an entire book in one 8-hour shot. Michael Crichton's Prey is a pretty awesome book. I haven't read any Crichton since Andromeda Strain, because I was pretty bored by it, but Prey is a lot more like Jurassic Park, and I definitely recommend picking it up.
A couple of movie reviews
[November 25, 2007 -- 5:01 am]
So I watched a couple of movies today; Live Free or Die Hard, and Death Proof.
Movie Review: Live Free or Die Hard
I was thoroughly entertained by this movie. There were plenty of highly unlikely action sequences, but I think the best part was the marked absence of a frustrating cliche that appears in almost every action movie: The meat-headed official who has authority but absolutely refuses to listen to the protagonist. That always annoys the hell out of me, and I was able to enjoy the movie a lot more without that crap. Highly recommended.
Movie Review: Death Proof
It'll take you about 45 minutes to figure it out, but the movie is not about a bunch of babbling idiot bitches and their adventures in bar-hopping, but rather it's about an ex-stunt-man serial killer who uses reinforced "death-proof" stunt-cars to murder women. I would highly recommend against watching this movie without a fast forward button, unless you're a cinematography junky or something. there's a couple of good action sequences, but they're adrift in a sea of mindless bitches babbling on and on about stupid shit.
Back in the states
[November 19, 2007 -- 6:38 am]
So yeah, I'm back in America, where I can once again breathe in the sweet air of freedom. Seriously though, there is something missing in American culture, and that absence is troubling. I speak, of course, of an Australian culinary masterpiece, the deep-fried Mars bar. We are falling behind as a people, and this lack of fried candy bars could be the downfall of our great nation.
Also, what the fuck happened to the dollar when I was gone? You people can't manage an economy without me here, can you? An Aussie dollar was worth about $0.80 American two months ago, now it's like $0.97. Ridiculous. The Canadians have a stronger dollar than us now. CANADIANS! (as a side note, I'm voting for Ron Paul, because he seems like the only one who'll do something about it)
Anyway, I missed driving on the right side of the road, good Mexican food, free internet, soft beds, and of course Kristine. It's good to be back.
At some point I'll get around to posting all my pictures. There's about 6 gigabytes worth.
Epilogue
[November 1, 2007 -- 1:51 am]
So yeah, I'm sitting in the Melbourne Library, using their public internet terminals. Melbourne's a pretty cool place, the weather's nice, and I don't have to think about solar cars for the next two weeks.
The race was pretty heartbreaking; we had the fastest and most reliable car in the competition, but we got in a traffic accident 4 kilometers from the start line. Basically, the WSC officials did some stupid shit releasing Stanford's solar car right before us and their support vehicles had to do more stupid shit to try and catch up to their car driving down the road, and for whatever reason one of their support vehicles ended up coming to a complete stop in the middle of the road, which caused our solar car to rear-end our lead vehicle. Lots of shattered carbon fiber and crushed dreams. Anyway, we spent the entire day repairing structural damage and replacing solar cells, and hit the road the next morning, then proceeding to go faster than everyone. Also, almost everyone had mechanical system failures except us. There's no doubt in my mind that we would have won the race if not for our extraordinarily bad luck.
It's still pretty amazing that we did as well as we did, we showed great perseverance and teamwork all that, but damnit we should have won. So it goes I guess. We'll just have to annihilate the North American Solar Challenge next summer.
Anyway, I'm going to be tooling around Australia until the 12th, and I get to see the premiere of episode 15 of Pure Pwnage, which happens to be in Melbourne in two days. We don't really have much of a travel plan, so if you know of anything sweet we should do while we're here leave me suggestions on the board.
Australia
[September 10, 2007 -- 1:19 pm]
So I'm going to be in Australia for the next two months, racing in the World Solar Challenge. We should be updating our site regularly: umsolar.com, and we also have a blog going: umsolar.com/blog.
If you need to contact me in the next two months, good luck.
Funny story
[July 29, 2007 -- 6:41 am]
So I was filling up at the Speedway on Michigan Avenue, and a state trooper pulled somebody over as they pulled into the gas station. I watched the situation unfold, and it became clear that the reason the man had been pulled over was that there was a can of beer on the roof of his car.
Genius.
Bonus funny story:
A bearing shattered and I caught some shrapnel on my ear, and got three stitches.
I'm getting fucking sick of Ann Arbor
[July 24, 2007 -- 8:07 pm]
Most of the time, living in Ann Arbor is rather enjoyable. It just makes me want to stomp a kitten when I get fifty dollars of parking tickets for exceeding a "2 hour limit" parking meter. Apparently around here that means even if you keep refilling the meter every two hours they will still give you a $25 parking ticket every two hours your car sits there. Fucking fascists.
So now I got two parking tickets for the same violation, which was written as "Parked over legal limit." To make matters worse, the mythical "parking referee" only works for about two hours a day in city hall, which is completely unfair for people on a nocturnal sleep schedule.
Solar Car Unveiled
[July 24, 2007 -- 7:50 pm]
So we had a pretty sweet unveiling, and we finally got around to posting pictures on our website too. Here's a sweet link: http://www.engin.umich.edu/solarcar/pics_unveiling.html
Solar Car Unveiling
[July 11, 2007 -- 8:44 pm]
So our unveiling for the solar car is this Saturday, so if you want to see what I've been working on for the last several months, you should check it out. Info and RSVP here: umsolar.com/unveiling
Rest In Peace
[May 5, 2007 -- 7:17 pm]
Meh.
[April 19, 2007 -- 7:15 pm]
We shall see soon whether or not I failed the EECS 215 final. Hopefully the curve will fall nicely around 30-40%.
Fuck chemistry.
[April 18, 2007 -- 6:39 pm]
Yeah, so I got a 70% on the chem125 final. I would be a lot more pissed if I weren't so relieved to never have to look at a periodic table again.
FUCK YEAH!!!
[April 17, 2007 -- 2:32 am]
I aced the shit out of the second EECS 215 midterm! The third highest grade in the class!
This completely cancels out my 51% on the first midterm!
I'm not going to fail the class now!!!
Yellow with a stripe, bitches
[April 15, 2007 -- 9:26 pm]
I got a new belt in Ninjutsu! Huzzah!
Son of a bitch.
[April 6, 2007 -- 4:04 am]
I left my car in the driveway in front of the solar car office for LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES and I got a fucking parking ticket.
Bastards.
Press Release
[April 1, 2007 -- 6:38 pm]
The Solar Car Team decided to release a picture of our car today. Check out the first picture of Continuum.
EDIT: It was a good April Fool's Day joke, but now it's off the front page. The link to the picture still works though.
Damn you, IBM
[March 25, 2007 -- 11:36 pm]
Okay, so apparently reinstalling Windows was the worst thing I could have done. Thinkpads have some magical software and drivers that make Windows able to run on them, and when I reinstalled all of it was lost, and since I got it on eBay, I don't have any of the discs it came with.
Now, it was still under warranty but here's the good part: they would either charge me $45 for a "Recovery CD", or for free they will have someone fix it for me, with shipping both ways included.
Yeah, I'll take option 2, thanks.
My computer has never been this fucked up before.
[March 25, 2007 -- 4:39 pm]
A week or two ago my laptop stopped working. It gets to the XP loading screen and stays there for 8 hours if I let it.
So, after exhausting all my regular repair procedures, I decided to just reinstall XP. I reformatted the hard drive and did a full reinstall..
And it does the same goddamn thing! What the Fuck?
Creepy...
[March 9, 2007 -- 10:02 am]
Another fun fact: at 7:00am all the computers restart themselves.
Homework trumps sleep
[March 9, 2007 -- 4:23 am]
Fun fact: The janitorial staff cleans the FXB computer lab at 4:15am
Piece of shit chair.
[March 8, 2007 -- 12:00 pm]
So apparently OfficeMax uses really shitty foam padding in their desk chairs because I've only had this thing for about 6 months and the butt padding has gone completely flat. It's really uncomfortable now.
"This page has been loaded 13666 times."
[March 5, 2007 -- 5:03 pm]
Creepy.
Back to the routine...
[March 5, 2007 -- 5:00 pm]
Spring break is over, or as I like to call it, "Work on Solar Car for 16 hours a day for a whole week and then get 24 hours of sleep in two days and go back to school."
So, it's back to updating my website instead of doing homework. Sorry I don't have anything of substance to update, just routine news postings.
Gotta love Solar Car
[February 28, 2007 -- 12:34 am]
Yeah, so my dinner today ended up consisting of about half a dozen pastries of various types spaced out over a few hours.
Spring break
[February 23, 2007 -- 4:30 pm]
So yeah, I'm going to be sticking around Ann Arbor during break to work on the solar car. Good times.
Good shit
[February 17, 2007 -- 1:40 am]
Some songs are 10 and a half minutes long, and yet are too short.
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by Santa Esmeralda is one such song.
Fun with bananas
[February 16, 2007 -- 2:49 am]
So yeah, the "National Society of Collegiate Scholars" keeps sending me letters telling me to join their bullshit organization for $75, so I took the "business reply mail" envelope that they included in their last letter, and mailed it back to them with a whole banana in it.
Now they have to pay postage for a banana. Ah, sweet irony.
I made Solar Car Race Crew!
[February 4, 2007 -- 1:31 pm]
So yeah, I'm going to Australia with the team next fall, and I get to spend roughly all of my free time (and some not free time) between now and then working on the car. Today we had our 'initiation' which entailed standing in the middle of the Big House, going into the Wolverines locker room, and a few wise words from Jake Long.
On a related note, there probably won't be many updates on here since almost everything I'm working on will be classified.
Oh yeah, and I recently got my yellow belt in Ninjutsu. Such an exciting time. Anyhow, here's some pictures from testing, even though I'm only in one picture and it's from really far away: http://www.pbase.com/ak/godai_07&page=all
Rudimentary updates
[January 12, 2007 -- 1:16 am]
I added one picture and one program yesterday. The picture is an extra credit project for my mechanical engineering intro class. It supports a textbook off the edge of a table using only paper and scotch tape. I only used about 3.5 sheets of paper.
Also, I put up a nifty little Perl script that I wrote a few weeks ago to compute standard deviation.
Enjoy.
Happy Holidays
[December 26, 2006 -- 4:20 am]
Season's greetings to all, no matter your denomination.
Keep it to yourself though, if you see through the thin fascade of sensitivity. It makes the Christians feel good about themselves.
100 spams per day
[December 21, 2006 -- 1:48 am]
It's official. My gmail account has received over 3000 spams in the last 30 days.
15 kiloVolts
[December 14, 2006 -- 6:05 am]
So yeah, I took Afrotech's advice and made myself a 15kV shoe with which to shock people; it's really a lot of fun. If you're both properly grounded, you can get a nice half-inch arc, and quite a substantial jolt.
Here's the ion generator I bought: Electronic Goldmine
Revelation
[December 6, 2006 -- 7:59 pm]
I just had an epiphany:
It is a complete waste of time to fold socks.
It's about the same amount of space efficiency to just stuff them in my drawer, and it's much more time efficient to just pick out two socks that match in the mornings.
I've been wasting so much time...
There's probably some sweet updates on the way
[December 1, 2006 -- 3:42 am]
So yeah, the first semester of college has really put a damper on my modding activities. However, I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that I just ordered a 15kV power supply with which I will perform all kinds of nifty experiments for the amusement of young and old.
I did try to build a small EMP-generator out of a camera flash circuit, but it failed miserably due to me being unable to find proper magnet wire. As soon as I get some that shit is going on the website.
So don't fret. There should be some cool shit going up here soon.
This kicks ass.
[November 26, 2006 -- 4:41 am]
I'm posting this on a wireless keyboard attached to the awe-inspiring home theater system my dad just got installed. I just finished helping him integrate in a laptop so the system can assimilate a 500gb hard drive or two and store all the movies one could ever desire. It's basically the coolest thing ever.
Pwned.
[November 10, 2006 -- 3:50 am]
So this loser was hotlinking his myspace background image to my server, so I gave him some internet justice. Behold, the aftermath:
http://www.myspace.com/ragingthoughts
[Update:]
So he finally noticed and took down the background. Luckily I saved a screenshot.
zuma.phire.org officially decommissioned
[November 10, 2006 -- 2:10 am]
This site's old location, zuma.phire.org, has now been replaced with a page that simply redirects here. Just thought you would like to know.
Continuum logo
[November 7, 2006 -- 11:12 pm]
I found a vector image of the logo for this year's Solar Car and put it up there on my header image. So if you were wondering what that thing is, it's called Continuum, and it's going to kick everyone's ass in the World Solar Challange next year.
I'm 19 now!
[October 5, 2006 -- 4:02 am]
Huzzah! Now I can ... um ... drink legally in Canada ... and ...
Okay, so being 19 is pointless, but I guess it's marginally better than 18.
My terabyte dreams have been realized.
[September 30, 2006 -- 6:17 am]
I just got another 250 gigabyte hard drive off woot.com today, so I now officially have a terabyte of storage space. That is, I have four 250gB drives at my disposal.
I'm going to have to come up with some new and interesting ways to fill disk space.
Oh yeah, and I finished three assignments today within an hour of their respective due dates (e.g. a philosophy paper and two differential equations homeworks). So now I'm going to sleep. For a long time.
I fucking hate college homework
[September 18, 2006 -- 2:06 am]
"This problem was finished 1 minute and 59 seconds after the assignment due date and receives 0% of possible points."
Fuckers.
I just discovered...
[September 16, 2006 -- 6:57 am]
... a whole level of discomfort that I didn't even know existed.
Try this at home:
- Buy a slice of pizza.
- Put peppers on the slice.
- While eating the slice, laugh at something.
- Spend the next half hour desperately trying to dislodge a fucking peppercorn from the depths of your nose.
I'm back online and kicking ass!
[September 14, 2006 -- 7:43 pm]
Yes! After 3 weeks of not having a server due to the shortsightedness of my previous host (that would be you, Auchter), I finally have my territory back on the internet!
Since my site went down, a lot has happened. Primarily I started college at the greatest University on the planet: Michigan. So far everything is kicking quite a lot of ass.
This website is a collection of projects I have either built, modified, programmed, or hacked. The website itself is an example; I coded all of the PHP to serve up the pages, keep track of the guestbook, display pictures, and do all kinds of neat tricks behind the scenes.
I send out a "Welcome Back" to all of the people who have been missing my site, and a "Welcome" to all my new friends who had no idea how much of a nerd I was.
So I just looked on RateMyProfessors.com...
posted on: August 22, 2006 4:20 am
And it turns out that all of my professors for this term kick ass. Hooray for me!
Woodward Dream Cruise
posted on: August 19, 2006 9:52 pm
Wow, I am kind of pissed off that I haven't gone to this the last 3 years. Seriously, this was way cooler than any car show. I don't think I've ever seen so much horsepower in one place before. Just beautiful cars.
Movie Review: Snakes on a Plane
posted on: August 18, 2006 1:08 am
The only thing I was disappointed about was the fact that there were about 14 people in our theater. Seriously, this movie kicked ass. Grant you, that's all it did, but if you've been paying attention at all for the last few months, that's what you expect with this movie, and boy does it deliver.
Without spoiling too much of the movie, I'd just like to point out some of the things to demonstrate how much ass it kicks.
Among other things, Snakes on a Plane has:
- Snakes
- A plane
- Samuel L. Jackson
- An annoying chihuahua getting its shit ruined by a boa constrictor
- Partial Nudity
- Guns
- Samuel L. Jackson
- Motherfucking snakes on a motherfucking plane!
I give it 11 out of 10.
w00t!!!
posted on: August 18, 2006 1:01 am
I won the lottery! The parking space lottery! I got a fucking parking space at U of M!
I bought my own domain name!
posted on: August 16, 2006 10:34 pm
Now, if you go to www.chriszuma.com it redirects here. Eventually it will be a front to my dorm-wide tech support and fresh roasted coffee business.
Sweet Jesus. I must see this movie.
posted on: August 14, 2006 1:32 am
I just saw a preview for the movie "Crank". It stars the guy from The Transporter, and the whole point of the movie is that if he stops kicking ass he will die.
I must see this movie.
I'm perfecting my Coffee-Fu
posted on: August 12, 2006 7:23 pm
While some people are getting ready for college by learning how to do laundry and hem pants, I've been practicing my coffee-brewing technique. I've decided on a french press for the dorm room, and I bought a burr grinder so I can get it as fresh as possible.
College should be a good time.
I just unplugged my computer.
posted on: August 9, 2006 1:27 am
Now I plugged it back in again. Now I unplugged it. Now I plugged it back in. Unplugged. Plugged.
I love having an uninterruptible power supply.
Movie Review: Talladega Nights
posted on: August 7, 2006 2:45 pm
Will Ferrel does not disappoint. A hilarious movie, and well worth the 8 dollars. It's refreshing to see a movie that's (as far as I know) not a remake, a sequel, or "based on" anything, and doesn't suck. It's probably the first such movie this year.
Kershaw gets the Chris Hammond Seal of Approval
posted on: August 7, 2006 2:42 pm
So my Kershaw spring-assist knife got worn out and stopped springing a couple weeks ago. I contacted their warranty department and they said to send it in along with my address and a description of the problem. In the description, I asked if they would mind replacing it with the same model but with the serraded blade.
Today I received my knife in the mail, with a sharp, serraded new blade, and it springs like new.
It's nice to know that some companies still care about customer service. Kershaw Knives gets the Chris Hammond Seal of Approval.
IKEA is AEKI backwards... think about that.
posted on: August 4, 2006 11:42 pm
So yeah, I went to this gigantic IKEA store and bought a swedish couch and some swedish cinnamon rolls, and some swedish lamps, and Kristine got a swedish chair, and I got a swedish fucking headache. Seriously people, it's just a furniture store. Calm down. It doesn't deserve a pilgrimage.
So I just finished reading Snow Crash
posted on: August 1, 2006 3:24 am
This is the kind of book that makes literacy worth the effort.
Fun fact:
posted on: July 30, 2006 10:37 pm
When you leave a bowl of milk from cereal you have eaten out on the counter for two days, it actually turns gelatinous.
Loose Change bullshit
posted on: July 28, 2006 12:45 pm
So Maddox posted this link to a point-by-point analysis of all the bullshit in Loose Change, which is the most popular 9/11 conspiracy video. It's absurd how much bullshit, logical fallacies, and outright lies are in the movie. Check out this website, which uses actual research and logic:
Loose Change Viewer's Guide
Just thought you'd like to know...
posted on: July 26, 2006 6:27 pm
I finally got a proper header image on our team website, http://trucktownthunder.com. It looks way sweeter now.
Figure-8 racing is sweet.
posted on: July 26, 2006 10:54 am
So Kristine and I went to the 4-H fair yesterday and saw a figure-8 race. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's like a demolition derby, but way cooler.
Same old story...
posted on: July 23, 2006 7:59 pm
Yeah, we got our asses kicked by 1114 again. It sucks even more because we got picked by the 8th seed team in the first round of selections, and if they hadn't chosen us then 1114 was going to.
Anyway, it was still a good time because I got to drive the robot and I kicked a few asses.
Indiana Robotics Invitational
posted on: July 20, 2006 10:32 pm
So I'm down here in Indiana for the IRI with the remnants of my robotics team. I took the liberty of hacking the hotel computer so I don't have to use their shitty, shitty browser that covers 2/3 of the screen in ads. I think I'll just leave this browser window open for the next guy, as well as the command prompt.
Good times.
More evidence that I kick ass:
posted on: July 17, 2006 9:01 pm
Here are my AP scores from this year:
Movie Review: Transporter 2
posted on: July 14, 2006 1:55 am
If your idea of a great movie is anything other than an hour and a half of ass kicking, then Transporter 2 is not for you.
Best car ride ever.
posted on: July 13, 2006 10:48 pm
I drove the M3!
Stickshift? No problem.
Sweat in the eyes? Slight problem.
We're Back and Kicking Ass
posted on: July 13, 2006 7:24 pm
Well, phire.org has a shiny new cable modem, a fresh cable to the neighborhood box, and more power than ever before. 16,000kbps Downstream!
I've just been doing work for my dad's business though for the last few weeks though, so there's nothing interesting to post anyway. Fun fact: VB.NET has enough regex support for me to not have murderous feelings.
Worst car ride ever.
posted on: July 5, 2006 10:23 pm
I learned something on my ride back; if you start to feel nauseated, don't wait until the next exit to pull over. Do it right fucking now.
Also, pepto bismol is fucking useless.
Away message
posted on: June 30, 2006 5:49 pm
So I'm going up north to Mikhail's cabin, so I'll probably be unreachable for a few days. You don't care though.
This page has been loaded 11111 times
posted on: June 28, 2006 6:08 pm
Sweet.
I feel blessed.
posted on: June 28, 2006 12:45 pm
So while I was waiting in line bored, I sent Maddox an email from my phone. I got this reply from him:
Chris, I think you're the first dude to email me from an actual signing.
Awesome.
maddox@xmission.com
http://maddox.xmission.com
waiting In line for maddox...
posted on: June 27, 2006 7:36 pm
so yeah, standing here in line at maddox's book signing. it seems like we're going to be here for a few more hours though. fun fact: maddox's favorite programming language is perl.
Update: I posted a picture of me being mocked by my idol.
We're off to see the Maddox
posted on: June 27, 2006 12:10 am
So yeah, I'm going on a micro-roadtrip tomorrow (actually today now) to Maddox's book signing in Ann Arbor. Let me break this down for those of you who don't understand the full effect here:
- I'm going on a roadtrip for a book signing.
- The author in question is an internet celebrity.
I don't think I could be much more nerdy right now.
And I tested out of ENGR 101, too.
posted on: June 22, 2006 2:13 am
One more class I don't have to take: Intro to Computer Programming. Huzzah! That pretty much means that to meet the requirements to become a sophomore, I will need about 2 classes.
Movie Review: Nacho Libre
posted on: June 21, 2006 1:59 pm
A cross between Napoleon Dyamite, Rocky, and Jack Black not being funny. I give it a C.
How to make an entire room smell like cinnamon:
posted on: June 20, 2006 6:01 pm
Take an empty (but not washed out) tin of Red Penguin Mints, or possibly Cinnamon Altoids. Pour a SMALL AMOUNT of isopropyl alcohol into it and swish it around so the whole bottom of the tin is wet. Now light it on fire. When it burns out, your whole room will have that pleasant burnt-cinnamon aroma.
Disclaimer: If you burn your house down, don't say I didn't warn you.
Fixed it.
posted on: June 20, 2006 1:59 am
I also learned another lesson: being "pretty sure" that a wire isn't important is not a good enough reason to remove it.
Back to the workroom.....
posted on: June 19, 2006 10:11 pm
So I got some new headphone jacks and control knobs for the A47 Amp and I was in the process of installing them and well... There's nothing quite like the feeling of a drill bit catching on a piece of plastic and almost annihilating your entire project.
Anyway, time to go make a new end plate.
Restaurant review: The Fish Market - East Lansing
posted on: June 19, 2006 10:08 pm
Best . Key Lime Pie . Ever.
My first taste of life at U of M:
posted on: June 12, 2006 2:45 pm
So I'm trying to get my dual-enrollment calculus credits sorted out. I called the undergraduate admissions office asking about my credits, and they referred me to Mr. Shipp, who handles transfer credits. Once I got ahold of him (3 days later), he said that for the engineering college, I actually want to speak to Ms. Burch. I got ahold of her and was almost immediately transfered to another office, where I spoke with a man who seemed miffed that Ms. Burch had transferred me to him. He wrote down some information and is now going to sort out why Ms. Burch felt I was not good enough to speak to her.
Ahh, the joys of going to a large university.
Ahhh... LAN parties...
posted on: June 12, 2006 5:46 am
So, advice: If you must reinstall windows, do not do it the same day you are to attend a lan party. Unless of course, you are okay with arriving 9 hours later than other people.
Decking is not fun.
posted on: June 10, 2006 1:32 am
So we're replacing the boards on our deck, and I now have a giant fucking bruise on my leg.
Advice: Before you step on a board that's set across the frame of the deck, make sure that is is properly supported on either end.
Rock on.
posted on: June 7, 2006 11:13 am
So yeah, I just finished registering for classes at UofM, and my schedule kicks ass:
Physics 240- electromagnetism
Math 216- differential equations
Philosophy 232- problems of philosophy
(unless I somehow didn't ace that test-out for ENG101- Intro to Programming)
Oh yeah...
posted on: June 6, 2006 11:48 pm
And today is 6/6/06. If I was a goth kid I would be happy today, which would represent an oasis of satisfaction in the darkness that consumes this world.
University of Michigan
posted on: June 6, 2006 11:43 pm
So, i'm here at U of M for orientation, and I'm a little bit too tired to walk around town tonight after the 50 miles of walking tours and 50,000,000 powerpoint slides today. Anyway, if I get the schedule I picked out, I will be quite happy, because then I will have 3 classes, the earliest of which starts at 9:30. And if I ace this computer science placement exam tomorrow I can skip the intro compsci course here.
I wish I had known last year that they don't give crap for the AP Compsci 'A' exam, because then I would have taken the 'AB'. Also, if I get anything less than a 5 on the AP Physics, then I get crap for that too. Luckily, I kick way too much ass for that to happen.
Evidence of my asskickery: I aced the math placement test, the chem placement test, and oddly enough the spanish placement test. The latter of which means that I get 8 free humanities credits towards my major (out of 16 required). Hooray for spanish.
Or, as they would say in Spain, "Hooray para espanol!"
How to fuck up your circadian rhythm:
posted on: June 3, 2006 1:26 am
Step one: Get up early.
Step two: Take a nap after dinner.
Step three: Awake from nap at 1:00 am
Final A47 update
posted on: June 2, 2006 2:38 am
Done! w00t! I got the right capacitors in the mail today and finished everything up. It works awesomely, and looks awesome. I replaced the rear panel with clear polycarbonate to fix the little problem I had that fried three TLE2426 rail splitters before I figured it out (good thing I got those free from TI). Anyway, I put up all the pictures I've taken and a paragraph on the Creations page.
Fuck Geek Squad and U3
posted on: June 1, 2006 7:09 pm
So I won this 1gb Best Buy Geek Squad flash drive at the senior all-night party, and all I have to say is that U3 is the devil. It came with a seperate partition that got recognized by the computer as a CD-ROM drive, and autoran some shitty software to launch their shitty apps and spread geek squad propaganda. After some googling, I found an uninstaller, which transforms it back into one plain old flash drive again. It can be found Here.
If that link stops working, look for newer ones on this forum.
Gradumacated
posted on: May 31, 2006 9:39 pm
Another milestone: the last time I'll ever have to listen to the douchy teachers
TubesAndMore.com comes through
posted on: May 30, 2006 5:20 pm
A nice lady called me and said that they got my email and they're sending me the right part. There's something to be said for sending vaguely threatening letters.
Another email to TubesAndMore.com:
posted on: May 30, 2006 4:27 pm
Last week I received an incorrect part from an order I placed through your website. I sent an email stating that I had ordered a .47uF Solen capacitor, and received one that is 4.7uF, which is entirely too big for my application. I received an email back from "Jorge Moreno" who misread my email and said that I made a mistake and that you sent me what I ordered.
I then replied that he was mistaken and that I was most definitely sent the wrong part. It has been 4 days since that last email, and I have gotten no reply.
I am still sitting here with the wrong capacitors that I can't use, and your company has made no effort whatsoever to correct the situation. I am highly dissatisfied with your level of customer service, and want to let you know not to expect another penny from me, or anyone who looks to me for advice, in the future.
For reference, my order number was 6052132561.
Sincerely,
~Chris Hammond
Fuck Chaintech, Fuck the AV710
posted on: May 30, 2006 12:47 am
I retract my previous review of the AV710. It is a piece of shit. It has great sound quality when piped through my A47 from the high res output, but every piece of software written for this thing is a steaming pile of week-old kangaroo shit. I've been fighting with the damn thing all day and I still can't get windows to get along with it, and none of my games will make so much as a beep through it. Fuck Chaintech.
A47 fucking works!
posted on: May 28, 2006 3:06 am
w00t! I got everything soldered onto perfboard, and it fucking works! Of course it still won't fit in my enclosure because I haven't gotten the correct capacitors yet (hence the gigantic barrels attached to it). It fucking works though! Yes!
Chaintech AV710 kicks ass
posted on: May 27, 2006 5:13 pm
Great improvement over onboard sound card. For a $30 upgrade, it's very nice.
A47 Update
posted on: May 26, 2006 2:34 pm
Huzzah! I breadboarded one channel and it sounds pretty freakin sweet. I'm in the process of soldering it all together. Of course I can't finish until I get the proper capacitor that will fit inside my project box, but I can put the rest of it together.
Email I Just sent:
posted on: May 26, 2006 9:20 am
Dear TubesAndMore.com,
I just received my order in the mail, and among the items was part number C-FSD47-630, a 4.7uF Solen Fast Cap. However, what I actually ordered was a .47uF Solen Fast Cap; this incorrect capacitor will not work in my application. I am not sure how you would like to resolve this problem, but if it does not involve sending me the right part immediately, I am going to buy it elsewhere.
Sincerely,
~Chris Hammond
A47 Amp update
posted on: May 25, 2006 1:53 am
So I got my enclosure and a few other parts in the mail today from Mouser, and I have all the parts needed to complete the power supply side of the amp. Also, it's a good thing that I got five TLE2426 Rail Splitters because I already fried one by shorting it out. Anyway I made a final draft of the board I am going to build, it is called "A47v2.jpg" in the pictures.
No more high school ever!
posted on: May 24, 2006 5:22 pm
And damn it feels good.
The last paper I will ever write for high school
posted on: May 24, 2006 12:50 am
And damn it feels good.
A47 headphone amp
posted on: May 21, 2006 2:32 pm
So I finally got all the parts ordered to build this amp. I've been wanting to build an amp of some sort for a while, and I have even had the op-amps lying around for a while, but I finally got the motivation to build one once I read some reviews of the A47. So yeah, now I have to wait for parts...
Here's a preview of the case it's going to be in: (except the one i ordered is black) Hammond 1455 J1201. And the company that makes it is "Hammond Manufacturing" Coincidence? I think not.
Fucking BIOS updates
posted on: May 19, 2006 12:20 am
So we finally got Adam's (previously my) Shuttle running, it turns out that the problem all along was that we were using updated drivers for the onboard LAN but the BIOS was not updated, so they didn't get along very well. Hooray for Shuttle tech support. They're off my shit list now.
By the way, I added a sweet glowing blue LED biohazard to the side of my case, I'll post some pictures once I figure out how to get my camera to take a decent photo of it.
Thank You For Smoking
posted on: May 16, 2006 10:30 pm
In a rare fluke, I actually liked a movie. Especially rare when combined with the complete lack of explosions and car chases in the movie. It was, however, funny as hell. This movie gets the Chris Hammond Seal of Approval, meaning that it is worth $8.50 to see. (The actual theater is a much different and highly negative review altogether)
Whoa.
posted on: May 15, 2006 1:27 am
I just discovered that the chipset fan on my Asus A8N-E motherboard is one loud son of a bitch. I went investigating noise sources again in my quest to quiet down my computer, and as soon as I unplugged the chipset fan, good lord, it's like night and day. If you have this motherboard, which you probably don't, for the love of god, put the chipset fan on a fan controller. Damn.
M3
posted on: May 13, 2006 2:40 pm
So my dad picked up his M3 Convertible yesterday, and it is a truly amazing car. (go here and click "Mystic Blue Metallic" for a better idea of the awesomeness.)
Fuck CompUSA.
posted on: May 10, 2006 11:04 pm
So Adam and I went there trying to find a DVI-VGA adapter for his dual monitor setup, and the only one they had was generic brand, and was marked at $35! Fuck that, we went on Newegg and paid $3.50. Three fucking dollars and fifty cents. Fuck CompUSA.
I finally posted my Perl project
posted on: May 9, 2006 11:11 pm
I finally got around to posting the "Go" game I made as a final project for my Independent Study this year. It's pretty sweet. If you're not familiar with Go, read the Wikipedia article about it.
New wheels!
posted on: May 8, 2006 7:44 pm
The stripemobile just got a new set of wheels, and I must say it is a step in the right direction. If you ignore the rust, dents, and the fact that its quarter mile time is less than its zero-to-60 time, it almost looks good.
Picture 1
Picture 2
Worklogs have a new home
posted on: May 7, 2006 6:14 pm
I've been meaning to do this for a while, but I finally added a link at the top to hold all of my work logs, rather than having them spread out across the Mods and Creations pages. I also ditched the link to Theme because nobody cares about it and I haven't updated it in about a year.
4th place!
posted on: May 5, 2006 5:37 pm
At the U of M Flint 15th Annual High School Programming Contest, my team won 4th place, which has a prize of $25. And my team was only comprised of me and Auchter. That means that with the handicap, we totally kicked everyone's asses.
10,000 hits!
posted on: May 4, 2006 7:45 pm
Huzzah! My counter rolled over 10,000 hits today, and that's just counting views of the main page. Odd that this happened the same week that Tool released "10,000 days". Ah well, it's clearly just god mocking me beecause I don't get to go to the concert.
Paintball shotguns and such
posted on: May 2, 2006 10:45 pm
So Adam and I discovered today that when you pack around 500 paintballs into the barrel of a spudgun, they have a tendency to spread out an insane amount. Anyway, after hosing off the porch and spudgun barrel, I posted a nice picture from the video we took, right as they are exiting the barrel. In the next frame they were spread out like a swarm of bees.
... That was easy.
posted on: May 2, 2006 2:32 pm
That AP CompSci test was way easier than I was fearing. Maybe too easy...
The hour of reckoning is nigh
posted on: May 1, 2006 11:13 pm
... dead reckoning that is. The AP CompSci test is tomorrow morning, so I'm going to go get some sleep now, the earliest I've been to bed on a school night since ... last year some time.
Upgrades...
posted on: April 29, 2006 2:49 am
So yeah, I realized the other day how incredibly shitty my pictures script is, so I rewrote it using the code I developed for trucktownthunder.com, so it has a much prettier interface now, and the code doesn't make my ears bleed. Also I redid the top image highlighting thinger so it doesn't use javascript, but now it doesn't work in IE, but fuck IE anyway. Anyone using that sorry excuse for a browser doesn't get to see my name light up in red.
And I stealthed the disc drive too.
posted on: April 26, 2006 11:52 pm
Picture in pictures, work log to come (probably)
VICTORY IS MINE!
posted on: April 26, 2006 4:11 pm
Hahaha, I have triumphed in the epic battle of Man against Machine. I have repaired my Windows installation so it recognizes the chipset. To the victor go the spoils; and in my case the spoils are a great deal of badassity added to my computer.(The victor also gets to make up words.)
Shit.
posted on: April 26, 2006 7:51 am
So I'm posting this at school because, despite successfully rebuilding my computer in the Lian-Li case, Windows now doesn't want to boot. I can't escape the bluescreen, even in Safe Mode. So yeah, if anyone has some advice on what the fuck I should do now, it would help.
Cover me, I'm going in...
posted on: April 25, 2006 8:02 pm
My new case, mobo and psu arrived today, so now I get to take my computer apart and put it back together in a new body. If I'm not back in 2 hours, It means I'm already dead.
New color scheme
posted on: April 24, 2006 12:20 am
So I got a little bored and decided that my color scheme was getting old. Anyway, tell me what you think.
Fuck.
posted on: April 22, 2006 10:22 am
Tickets went on sale for the Tool concert today at 10:00am. I went to ticketmaster at 10:02am and they were fucking sold out. And they're up to $400 for two on eBay already. I'm gonna go kill myself now.
Computer upgrades! Huzzah!
posted on: April 19, 2006 3:01 am
So I spent the last few hours researching product reviews and pricing with the goal of upgrading my computer's foundation for under $300. Basically, the Shuttle isn't cutting it anymore, and I need more room for peripherals. For the love of god, I only have one PCI slot right now, and 2 DIMMs. Anyway here's what I ordered:
Lian Li PC-60BPLUS II case
Asus A8N-E motherboard
Thermaltake TR2 W0070 430W psu
I'm especially excited about the Lian-Li case. It's fucking badass.
This state blows.
posted on: April 18, 2006 2:11 am
So over the weekend I drove down to Ohio for some family easter thing, and I noticed this: the second you pass the "Welcome to Michigan" sign, the road immediately turns to shit. The tranition is not gradual, it is a slap-in-the-face welcome-to-the-shithole-state-you-live-in reminder. Why can't this state get anything right?
Eureka! Fuck those text ads!
posted on: April 17, 2006 2:01 am
So, lately I've been noticing more and more of these annoying fuckers called Intellitxt ads. You go to a website and it loads, and then a whole bunch of random words turn into links to advertisers. It was really pissing me off, so I did a (very) little investigating and figured out how to get rid of them!
Basically, I discovered that the page loads a script held by intellitxt which linkifies all the words. All you have to do is block that script from loading. This is an example of the culprit, from I-Hacked's website:
All you have to do is the following:
- Be using Mozilla Suite or Firefox
- Install the AdBlock extension
- Add this to your detection rules (with the *'s):
*/intellitxt/*
-
- Profit!
No-go on operation BFSG
posted on: April 15, 2006 1:06 am
So I've changed the name of this spudgun from the BFSG to the "Benjamin Franklin Gun", because I've easily spent about a hundred dollars on parts and crap for this gun. Anyway, I put the whole thing together, and I'm currently having issues with the piston not releasing as it should. I think it's because I am using a rubber piston and it's deforming and sticking to the sides of the chamber. Anyway, I'm going to try to find a more rigid piston, and in the mean time I'm going to Ohio to see some people who share a gene or two with me.
Noted on Hack-a-Day again
posted on: April 12, 2006 11:35 pm
I didn't even notice until Mike pointed it out, but a couple days ago HaD linked to my bawls lamp page in a story about bawls lighting. That would explain the slow connection. I got 1975 page views yesterday alone, which is much higher than my average of about 120. I'm surprised Comcast hasn't cut our cable yet.
So yeah, robotics is over...
posted on: April 11, 2006 11:26 pm
We had our last official meeting of the season today. This means a couple of things: primarily, I won't see most of the team until the banquet, which will be the last time I see most of them. Second, it means I now have an overabundance of free time. Coupled with the fact that Kristine is going to be gone for all of spring break, I really need a project.
ooh! Maybe I'll finally get around to building the BFSG!
[Update:] Construction has commenced on the BFSG. I went shopping today and spent $80 at Home Depot.
Team website
posted on: April 6, 2006 9:50 pm
So I finally got around to working out the bugs in all the scripts, so our team website is finally ready for non-embarassing public viewing.
http://trucktownthunder.com/
The coolest waste of $115
posted on: April 4, 2006 10:52 pm
So this is what happens to an IFI Victor 884 speed controller when you get metal shavings in it. First, magic smoke pours out like a barbecue, then it looks like this:
Toasted victor 884
Palmetto update
posted on: April 2, 2006 11:40 pm
So yeah, we didn't win Palmetto. We really should have though. The competition was about as fierce as a kitten. With no claws. And two legs in a cast. And it's dead. Somehow we ended up picking an alliance that was not very good even though we got first pick (thanks, Denny). We won the first round, but then lost to an alliance that was flat out better than us.
And that was our last chance to get to Nationals, since we didn't have the money to sign up ahead of time.
On the positive side however, we did win the RadioShack Innovation in Control award, which is cool because the control system was pretty much all me.
Some names we have come up with:
posted on: March 29, 2006 11:11 pm
- RadioShaft
- CrapUSA
- Circuit Shitty
Feel free to email me with more suggestions
Palmetto Regional
posted on: March 28, 2006 8:11 pm
Yeah, so tonight we're driving in a big bus down to South Carolina for the Palmetto Regional. That equates to a 15-hour bus ride. Hooray for me.
Waterloo Regional
posted on: March 26, 2006 12:10 am
So yeah, we didn't win Waterloo. In fact, we lost in the semifinals, to the same two friggin teams that beat us at the Great Lakes Regional. When you get down to it, they won because their alliance had two strong shooters and we only had ourselves and two defensive robots. We did, however, win the Motorola Quality award because our robot is so awesome.
Anyway, next weekend is Palmetto, in South Carolina.
Fucking Dream Theater
posted on: March 20, 2006 8:18 pm
So yeah, we drove all the way to Detroit (an hour away) to discover that the fucking concert was cancelled, and for the box office guy to tell us, through a mouthful of tuna sandwich, that it's because "he has laryngitis."
God damnit.
The root of all evil
posted on: March 14, 2006 10:07 pm
Some people say it is money, but it has recently been discovered that the root of all evil is about 25.807
Dream Theater concert
posted on: March 14, 2006 9:59 pm
Yeah, Dream Theater's coming to the State Theatre in Detroit on Monday, I'm going, and if you like good music, so should you. Only downside: you have to go through ticketmaster, and they are assholes.
Holy shit, downages
posted on: March 11, 2006 10:07 pm
Yeah, sorry about the website being down for almost two weeks, you should totally take that up with Michael. I guess I shouldn't expect 100% uptime when the server is in my friend's basement.
I hate people.
posted on: March 2, 2006 10:35 pm
On one of the FIRST Robotics forums I frequent, there is a "reputation system" wherein people can give you points for good posts, and you look better with a bunch of green dots next to your name. This provides a nice opportunity for stupid people to piss me off. It seems that a lot of people can't recognize a joke if I don't put a fucking smiley face in the post. God damn I hate people.
USB Bluetooth dongles are a bitch.
posted on: February 28, 2006 10:11 pm
That is all.
Review: Pentech Focus Sensor: F-minus
posted on: February 26, 2006 11:56 pm
This is the shittiest mechanical pencil I have ever encountered. Somewhere along the line of designing this pencil they must have completely forgotten to test it to make sure you can actually use the thing without having the urge to kick a puppy.
First of all, it requires approximately 50,000 newtons of force to press the goddamned "Side Lead Advance" button. Then, they tried to implement a "Jumbo Twist Eraser" which reminds me more of a prototype for one of those Chinese puzzle games. You know, the kind where you have to get the ring out of the middle of the two horseshoes that are connected by pieces of chain? Yeah, that's how fucking frustrating this eraser is.
The third and final claim its packaging makes is that it's "Refillable." This, like the other "Features" is a total catastrophe. The cap, with its integrated Jumbo Twist Eraser, seperates from the body of the pencil with roughly the amount of force that an insect exerts on a Monday. Furthermore, upon uncapping it the eraser falls off, tumbling across the floor and reminding you of how shitty a pencil you bought whenever you attempt to clip it on the edge of your pocket.
The Focus Sensor gets an F-minus and I hope Pentech headquarters burns to the ground.
New discovery
posted on: February 26, 2006 4:14 am
So it turns out that calc.exe can handle a number as large as 1.0x10^215732 before rolling over into negative numbers.
EDIT: It turns out that I accidentally hit the 'Not' button, and it can go much higher than that. Currently I'm at 1.e+4146318 and it's been over half an hour since I multiplied it by itself. As far as I'm concerned, that's as high as it can go. A 4.1 million-digit number is kinda hefty.
Senioritis
posted on: February 25, 2006 2:18 am
"We'd fight for a cure, but we just don't give a fuck."
New addition to Shit List: Shuttle Computers
posted on: February 17, 2006 11:58 pm
Shuttle is now officially on my Shit List. First of all, their mobo came with no parallel port, only a promise that there is a header on the motherboard on which an optional parallel port may be attached. So I bought a standard parallel port connector on eBay, and today I discover that the fucking thing won't fit because Shuttle uses a non-standard tiny-ass header. Fuck Shuttle. Fuck them and their non-standardized motherboards.
What I just learned
posted on: February 17, 2006 1:18 am
It turns out that digging a sliver out of your palm with a knife causes more pain than simply ignoring it.
Crunch time (I wish I had some cereal now)
posted on: February 17, 2006 12:53 am
Yeah, so FIRST Robotics ship date is Tuesday, and we're not very close to being done. We would be much closer if we didn't put so much responsibility on Brent. So yeah, that's why I haven't been posting much, and won't be posting much of anything until Wednesday, when I'll probably say something about how tired I am, etc.
By the way, if one more person asks me how Clarkston's robot team is doing I will stab them in the jaw. For the last time, I am on team 68, which is way better than team 27!
Dick Cheney shot a lawyer in the face!
posted on: February 12, 2006 11:08 pm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1708599,00.html
Make blog!
posted on: February 5, 2006 10:36 pm
Yay, I got featured on the Make blog again for my external hard drive modification. Linky.
modding rampage
posted on: February 4, 2006 1:55 am
Kristine went out of town today, so I decided to go on a mini modding rampage and finish a couple of projects. One was my Poor Man's Fan Speed Controller and the other was an external hard drive modification. I posted a picture of the PMFSC in 'Creations' but I'm going to write a work log for the fan connector (for the time being, there is a picture or two in 'Pics')
UPDATE: I posted the worklog for the external hdd. Check it out.
PNY kicks ass
posted on: February 2, 2006 10:35 pm
I got my GeForce 6800 back from PNY Tech Support today, and it's good as new. Definitely one of the best experiences I've ever had with customer support. I left a message stating my problem, the next day I got a call back, from an American, who basically gave me an RMA number, told me where to ship it, and 10 days later I'm ready to rock. PNY definitely gets the Chris Hammond Seal of Approval.
Fucking chem homework
posted on: January 31, 2006 2:22 am
Yeah, 2:30 seems like a good bed time. If I had a time machine, the first thing I would do is find out whoever came up with molality and kick them in the nuts.
New and Improved Games.zip
posted on: January 24, 2006 9:24 pm
So I made some updates to the games.zip file (found in 'programs'). It now has the actual executables in the file, along with some extras. I also renamed it to games.zip.1337 so you can slip it past the school's filters. Enjoy!
Man On Fire is crappy
posted on: January 22, 2006 1:31 am
Seriously. That movie was so ridiculous. I won't go into specifics, but suffice it to say that if anyone tells you Man On Fire is a good movie, then you should immediately find something large and blunt and strike them with it, because they are a dumbass.
Fucking windows!
posted on: January 20, 2006 6:51 pm
Son of a bitch! What kind of a crackhead makes an operating system that will initiate a file transfer and tell you to wait two hours to complete, and then when it's halfway done stop all progress so it can ask the user whether or not he is fucking sure he wants to move a read-only file? Of course I want to move it! Why the fuck do I care that it's read-only? God damnnit!
Terminal velocity reached (graphics card suicide bombs)
posted on: January 20, 2006 6:42 pm
So I think I somehow reached a terminal velocity for the amount of hardware in my computer. My hard drives arrived from woot.com today and as I was formatting one of them, my video card decided to have a shitfit and take my whole system down with it. It would seem that my acquisition of new hardware is finally being matched by breakage of old hardware. Of course, it could just be a power distribution issue, but my explanation makes so much more sense.
Watermarks
posted on: January 13, 2006 11:38 pm
So yeah, a while back I discovered a webpage that had an image from my website (the biohacker notebook) featured in some sort of mock store that appeared to be a school project. Anyway, I just now realized that if I put a little unobtrusive watermark in the corner of all my pictures, I could generate more traffic from people seeing my images elsewhere. I tried to make all the watermarks as out-of-the-way as possible, since it really pisses me off when websites have their URL plastered diagonally across the whole image and you can't even tell what the hell you're looking at. I frankly don't care that much if my images are plagiarized, which is why I made it so easy to remove the watermark if you really cared enough.
New lease on life
posted on: January 11, 2006 3:27 pm
So I'm typing this on my brand new LITE-ON Standard Keyboard. Unlike my last keyboard that annoyed the shit out of me, this one has an appropriately sized enter key, and I don't have to move my hand to hit backslash. If your current keyboard sucks, I highly recommend spending $10 on a less shitty one.
fucking.....
posted on: January 11, 2006 12:55 am
Finished my final project for Perl; 310 lines for a computer version of Go.
Let me offer this one bit of advice for anyone considering doing this: The second you decide to introduce a two-dimensional array into Perl, you might as well just stick a gun in your mouth. This project definitely wins the award for greatest total stress caused by a single program, as well as induction of greatest amount of curse words screamed at my computer screen.
I might die...
posted on: January 9, 2006 11:49 pm
In case I abruptly stop posting, you can assume that I've been either hospitalized or morgue-ized because of the week that lies ahead. Not only do I have exams this week (AP Physics + AP Chem = academic death), but FIRST Robotics so strategically chose their 2006 kickoff for this week as well. Here is my schedule for the next 4 days:
3:00pm - arrive home from school, bang head on desk for an hour
4:00pm - leave for robotics
9:00pm - arrive home from robotics, bang head on desk for about 3 hours
12:00~2:00am - fall asleep
6:30am - awaken, repeat
I want:
posted on: January 6, 2006 4:34 pm
http://www.theinq.com/?article=28713
OSX-- I mean Windows Vista
posted on: January 5, 2006 4:11 pm
Come on, how much blatant plagiarism can Microsoft get away with? Have you seen their new Windows vista features and screenshots? It looks exactly like OSX! have they no shame?
Coal-miners
posted on: January 4, 2006 9:04 pm
So yeah, this whole controversy lately with the trapped coal-miners has really made me grateful for one thing: the fact that I don't watch the news. What the fuck is this obsession with sensationalizing everything? As soon as some miners get trapped, that's all people talk about for a week. Honestly, how much air time is wasted by people pretending to care about these guys and bitching about whose fault it is that they accidentally told everyone they were fine? Fuck the news.
Purdue sucks
posted on: January 2, 2006 8:31 pm
They just sent me the shittiest cd folder I've ever seen. The pages aren't double-sided, and there's only 12 of them. And worst of all, this thing is so thick you'd expect it to hold at least 20. What a piece of shit, I'm so not going there now.
I'm back.
posted on: January 2, 2006 12:42 am
So I'm back from the Aloha State (no shitting, that's what it says on their license plates), and bring many tales of scuba diving, volcano biking, snorkeling, delicious food, and ludicrous price tags. However, in the interest of keeping my webpage from being really, really boring I'm not going to write any of them here. I did get a cool picture of myself hanging out with a sea turtle though. When I scan the picture I'll post it somewhere.
Hawaii.
posted on: December 23, 2005 11:05 pm
So yeah, I'm going to Hawaii for the remainder of christmas break. If my website gets f'd up between now and then, you're on your own.
Hair.
posted on: December 23, 2005 4:17 pm
I got my hair shortened today. It's kind of weird, since I typically neglect doing that for months at a time. You could proably make thousands of voodoo dolls with the hair that was on the floor when I was done. Either that, or use it to feed a dozen starving ethiopians, or smother a midget, or crush a family of four to death, or open a Wal-Mart that exclusively sells hair. I could make millions!
I am so getting one of these
posted on: December 20, 2005 10:31 pm
iAudio X5L
Angry rant:
posted on: December 18, 2005 10:41 pm
What the fuck is up with all these 'Special Features' and 'Director Commentary' on DVDs? Who the fuck would be boring enough to sit for two hours looking at a movie while listening to the director talk about all the crazy things that happened while they were making it? Honestly, who gives a shit? The concept just pisses me off.
And then they have to put the obligatory "making of..." bullshit on there to fill the rest of the space on the DVD, which is just more shit that only complete asshole losers would care about anyway. Army of Darkness is so far the only movie I've come across that has gotten it right; they put both the widescreen and the fullscreen on one disc and left out all the retarded "Special Features," which if you ask me are special in the same way as the kids with abnormally shaped heads who run around the hallways at my school.
Yay.
posted on: December 18, 2005 8:40 pm
It appears that congress has actually done something that benefits Americans. They've gotten rid of some of the more fascistic parts of the patriot act. 16 parts are being revoked.
Ohio.
posted on: December 18, 2005 3:02 pm
I'm at my Grandparents' house in Ohio. They have DSL for some reason. We got both sets of grandparents a TiVo for christmas. Three hours later our lesson was learned: don't buy old people new technology.
This server sucks.
posted on: December 17, 2005 1:05 am
So yeah, you might have noticed over the past week or two that this server has been gradually getting shittier, and yesterday I couldn't access my website once. Mikhail blames it on a faulty network card, but in his usual fashion neglected to fix it. Anyway, there's only a slight chance that you'll be reading this at all, so I'll try not to waste too much of my time here.
Interesting events recently:
- I got my two free project enclosures from Pactec; high quality. Check them out in 'links'
- I found a 2-liter of Mountain Dew in my fridge that's over a year old. Total mindfuck.
- I'm a Corporal in BF2; excellent example of fixed ratio operant conditioning.
- My dad's Raid-5 array in his server inexplicably committed seppuku. I suspect the controller card.
Hooray for Texas Instruments
posted on: December 12, 2005 8:37 pm
So I got my free samples in the mail from TI today. 30 microchips of various types, for zero expense to me. I love TI now. I'm going to use some of these op-amps to make a nice headphone amp once Mikhail sends out the PCB to get it printed.
w00t!
posted on: December 8, 2005 12:40 am
I got promoted to Private First Class in Battlefield 2!
*Update* I'm a Lance Corporal now! Huzzah!*Update* Corporal!
The DVD from Hell (another reason I hate sony)
posted on: December 7, 2005 12:30 am
Today I tried to copy Bewitched on DVD for Kristine. What I initially didn't realize is that this was no ordinary DVD. It was forged of solid kryptonite, written with the condemned souls of a thousand rapists.
Instead of the standard 'DVD5' or 'DVD9' this disc has 'DVDL' written on it. This was by far the most evil disc I have ever encountered. It defeated clonedvd, dvddecrpter, and dvdshrink with its Cyclic Redundancy Check error. I then attempted to play it through a standalone player, piped into a standalone dvd recorder, but alas the dvd recorder has some sort of insane dvd detection and i couldn't circumvent it (Panasonic is now also on my shit list for this reason).
Not about to be defeated by a multinational corporation, I did a little research and found this gem of a program: DVDFab Decrypter. It kicks the ass of all current copy protection schemes, and it's freeware. See, there is a Computer God.
That's it. I'm never giving money to Sony again.
posted on: December 1, 2005 12:25 am
http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6283697.html
About damn time.
posted on: November 30, 2005 3:23 pm
So Ohio State finally sent me a letter today, which means that I've officially been accepted by every college to which I applied. I must kick more ass than I originally thought.
"20 minutes there, 20 back," my mom said...
posted on: November 28, 2005 7:45 pm
... three and a half fucking hours ago.
Girlfriend was out of town...
posted on: November 26, 2005 11:19 pm
So I finally finished that old SnowDuck v2.0 that's been on my shelf since last winter. It's in the creations page. Also I made a nice little crossover thingie that's there as well. My next project is to mod this 8-port hub I found, but I don't know how yet.
Holy fucking duct tape
posted on: November 21, 2005 5:46 pm
At Home Depot I picked up a box of 'Big Fix' duct tape; it is 30 feet of 12-inch-wide duct tape. Dear god, I could tape a space ship back together with this shit.
Life is good.
posted on: November 18, 2005 11:07 pm
I got those LEDs today that I ordered on eBay 3 weeks ago. They are much higher quality than the ones available at RadioShaft, and I got 20 of them for the price of 1.2 at The Shaft. So yeah, I'm basically never shopping there again.
Peerflix kicks ass
posted on: November 18, 2005 12:20 am
So I got my first DVD from peerflix today: Army of Darkness. I traded Scary Movie 2 for it, so I definitely got the better end of that deal. Seriously, check this website out. You just mail your discs to people to earn credits which you use to request new movies ($1 per trade). If you have a DVD burner, you can see the ass-kicking potential in this system. Peerflix.com
If you want to join up, use this link so I get a free credit.
Fuck Jae and Rocky
posted on: November 14, 2005 3:53 pm
Since some infantile people I know think it is hilarious to spit on people's cars, their access to my entire site has been revoked, not just the guestbook. Since they are now incapable of reading this, someone might want to inform them of this post. Of course, the nice "Fuck You" message they'll get if they try to go here will probably make it nice and clear.
Movie review: DOOM (pirated version)
posted on: November 12, 2005 4:53 pm
So yeah, my friend hands me this dvd in school that he made several copies of because he kicks ass. I feel that since I'm seeing it before anyone has the chance to pay money for it, I should write a review.
-See the doom movie if you like the doom video game.
-Don't see the doom movie if you like movies.
That pretty much sums it up. A wafer thin plot and more gratuitous violence than one viewing can comprehend make this the perfect movie for Doom obsessees. All others should probably avoid it.
More evidence our school is run by chimps
posted on: November 9, 2005 12:02 am
Who the fuck wrote this page?
I could have had a dual monitor
posted on: November 7, 2005 11:50 pm
So my dad got a new LCD, 24-inch, it's beautiful. He decides that my mom deserves his old monitor. She uses a laptop, and here is how she set it up:
She sets the monitor on the desk with the laptop in front of it. She opens the screen of the laptop 180 degrees, and uses it as a keyboard. That's right, she turned a $200 18" lcd into a mirror. And I could have had a dual monitor.
nVidia is evil.
posted on: November 6, 2005 8:48 pm
So the other day my friend and I were trying to upgrade his crappy old HP from a geForce2 to a geForce4 for some reason. It turns out that, contrary to popular belief, the prince of darkness is in fact nVidia. After many an hour he finally managed to remove the old drivers and put new ones in. If you have the same problem (though I can't imagine you would), go here.
Garage saling
posted on: November 4, 2005 4:55 pm
I love garage sales. Today I drove in a giant circle looking for sales, and got the following loot:
- Hefty metal power drill: $4.00
- 8 port 10/100 hub: $5.00
- Frosted glass globe: $2.00
- Packard Bell 486 SX computer (and some weird speaker thing): $10
I kick ass.
posted on: November 1, 2005 11:40 pm
Yay, I got into University of Michigan! I guess affirmative action isn't that persuasive after all. So now I have to choose from U of M, Kettering, Rose Hulman, Purdue, and possible Ohio State.
I kick ass.
Yeah...
posted on: October 31, 2005 3:23 pm
Today Byron learned that if you throw a ketchup-covered french fry at Chris, your whole arm will soon become covered in ketchup.
Chemistry sucks
posted on: October 30, 2005 6:38 pm
Van der Waal is a dick.
Damnit.
posted on: October 29, 2005 2:09 am
Due to more retardation and assholism, this time on the part of Jae, I have renovated my guestbook script to not only permanently block his IP, but also to not allow posts longer than 1000 characters, or two posts by the same IP less than a minute apart. I'm going to have to remember to kick him in the teeth the next time I see him.
Yay.
posted on: October 26, 2005 5:01 pm
So I hooked a switch into the circuit for my gpu fan, so I can actually hear music from my speakers now. I managed to do the whole mod without causing any noticeable effects to any part of the card, so if I accidentally fry it I can plug the fan back in and claim it was defective. I put a picture of the switch (which I think was very nicely done) in the 'pics' page.
Also, I discovered how to launch a pen incredibly far with a mousetrap, i'll post a howto on that later. And I bought 20 blue leds that are 6000mcd for $5 shipped. I love ebay.
Movie review: Stay
posted on: October 23, 2005 10:27 pm
One of those movies that's meant to be as confusing as possible, Stay also has a mostly meaningless title. Basically, they tried way too hard to make this a good movie, and almost pulled it off. The one thing that annoyed me was the filming. They used all these crazy shots and transitions that did little more than distract from the movie and make one wonder why the hell the director felt it was necessary. There's a reason the really great directors don't stick the camera to a guy's face while he's riding a bike, or cut shots together with a morphing effect.
Conclusion: If you have a bunch of extra money, or just want to get baked and see a weird-ass movie, go ahead. Otherwise, I wouldn't really recommend it.
Fight the man at CHS.
posted on: October 21, 2005 5:04 pm
So I figured out a nice little hack to let you get to all the programs you would like to use (calc, sndvol32, etc). All you have to do is right-click on a file in your home directory (or anywhere for that matter), and select "Open with..." -> "Choose Program".
It brings up a nice dialog asking what you want to use, which automatically shows the Program Files directory. Hit the directory up button and you're in C:
There you go, access to any program you want. (They have done a more thorough job disabling regedit and cmd, but I'm working on those.)
Damn kids
posted on: October 20, 2005 4:41 am
So yeah, my site got hacked a little bit by some kids who realized before I did that PHP5 allows you to open external pages by changing the ?page= in the URL. I made it a default-deny policy so that won't happen again.
My bad, everyone.
I hate this school.
posted on: October 19, 2005 12:10 pm
I'm posting this from CHS. This is by far the naziest computer I have ever seen. It shouldn't even be called a computer, because that implies you can use it to compute things, when in fact they have actually blocked the user from opening calulator. The freaking windows calculator is blocked. This begs the question of how much cocaine could a technologist smoke before his body stops functioning? It is my professional opinion that all of this school's techies have each smoked one milligram less than that amount, because this is the worst network in existence. It took me 5 minutes to log on last time. No that is not an exaggeration, it took literally 5*60 seconds (calc.exe would have been helpful here) for the "loading settings" dialog to appear.
Here is an abridged list of things they have prohibited:
- "Programs" in the start menu
- Notepad, calculator, or anything else that might be useful
- the "Run" dialog
- .reg files
- Any internet explorer options
- right clicking on anything
- saving to the hard drive
- Seeing the hard drive
- knowing the hard drive exists
- viewing any webpage that doesn't promote nazi propaganda
- clicking on the system clock
- Saving to the allegedly "shared" directory
- Justifying the hundreds of thousands they have spent on new computers
Purdue too!
posted on: October 17, 2005 4:46 pm
So I now have 3 choices, waiting on two more...
Necessity is the mother of modification
posted on: October 16, 2005 9:54 pm
So yeah, as a matter of necessity (new graphics card fan was too close to the case) I cut a hole in the side of my new computer and put in some plastic with a circular vent, and of course a blue LED. I put a picture in the 'pics' page but I haven't written a worklog yet. I also put up a few photos from my lan party.
Now, on to the homework I should have been doing instead of that mod.
*UPDATE* Work log posted.
woohoo.
posted on: October 12, 2005 4:23 pm
I got windows all tweaked the way I want it, complete with a sweet new theme I found. Also, I added some md5 encryption to my php files (something I should have done to begin with), so all you h4x0rs are out of luck.
By the way, if anyone knows of a good windows xp activation crack, I could use one some time in the next 28 days. The last one I tried to download prompted my antivirus software to call me a retard.
*UPDATE* I found a virus-free activation crack. Stickin' it to the man feels good.
New hotness
posted on: October 8, 2005 3:03 pm
So I got all the parts for my new computer from newegg, and I managed to put it all together without breaking anything! Now the fun part: starting over with a fresh hard drive. This time i've got 250gB to play with.
Colleges that are slow:
posted on: October 2, 2005 7:41 pm
- University of Michigan
- Purdue
- Ohio State
Colleges that have currently accepted me:
posted on: October 2, 2005 7:40 pm
-Kettering
-Rose Hulman
and Make too!!!
posted on: September 30, 2005 3:20 pm
And I made the Make blog! This is by far the most publicity I have ever received. [permalink]
Hack-a-Day! w00t!
posted on: September 29, 2005 6:44 pm
w00t! I got on hackaday! [permalink]Of course, I only got three words in a links day, but it still kicks ass! It's a good thing the link i sent them is piped through the NYU coral, or else the server probably would have burned down mike's house.
Modded PDA for sale!
posted on: September 25, 2005 10:36 pm
The PDA that I modded with a paint job and case window is for sale. If you are interested and have $40, Email me. I have the charge/hotsync cradle, soft cover, and metal case.
Also, you've probably noticed that I reorganized my stuff. I think this way is a lot more logical.
Physics notes are up
posted on: September 19, 2005 11:21 pm
So I stole babbish's idea of taking notes in class with a digital camera, and they are now in the 'Physics' subdirectory in my pics page. The first installment is kinda rough, i need to fiddle with the exposure values and all that jazz. Maybe i'll put them into pdf files if i get less lazy. Oh, and congratulations to me for getting 6000 hits! w00t!
Hoo-ah!
posted on: September 19, 2005 1:12 am
So I finally fixed my USB watch. The usb cord had been ripped out (probably through the abuse i put it through) and I took the piece of crap apart and soldered it back on there. I also used so much epoxy it's pretty much guaranteed against happening again. Now, if only i had been doing my homework for the last hour and half, like i should have been...
Weird
posted on: September 18, 2005 2:42 am
So we have the rear projection tv, and I saw a spider on the screen and went to flick it off, and discovered that it was on the inside of the screen. That ranks among the most unusual things that have happened recently. It almost sounds like I have a physical list when I say that, but it's more like a general feeling of weirdness that ... okay i'm just making up bullshit now. It was weird though.
Freaking Hawaii!
posted on: September 16, 2005 4:59 pm
Winter break is going to kick ass.
Dude.
posted on: September 14, 2005 11:13 pm
There are no words to describe...
w00t!
posted on: September 12, 2005 4:16 pm
Okay, so I got my hinges in the mail today, and finally fixed the laptop. Honestly, a computer company really sucks if people have to replace your shitty broken pieces on eBay. Oh great, now the keyboard's acting up. I hate this piece of shit.
Fuck Dell. Fuck them in their stupid asses.
posted on: September 9, 2005 4:16 pm
So the Indian lady from which I ordered my new laptop hinges was in fact the retard that she sounded like, and sent me a hinge cover. I am currently trying to swap it out for the correct part, using eBay. If you would like to buy the hinge cover they sent me, bid on my auction.
Oh yeah, and I got my schedule changed to have an independent study (for Perl) instead of basic engineering, so I'm moderately happy.
Phil wins.
posted on: September 8, 2005 5:48 pm
I don't have the geekiest schedule, phil does. He is in AP computer science, AP calc BC, AP physics, and AP chem. I was going to shoot myself for signing up for AP chem and AP physics but apparently i'm not the least sane person in school.
Currently though, I am desperately trying to get out of basic engineering and get an independent study where i can learn Perl because A: I want to learn Perl, and B: basic engineering licks balls.
FUCK!
posted on: September 4, 2005 1:29 pm
God damnit, this fucking hinge broke again. I swear to god, I am never buying anything made by dell again. I ordered a new set of hinges from the Indian lady on the telephone, if indeed she has the mental capacity to tell the difference between a set of hinges and a hinge cover, which I suspect might be a problem.
New glasses.
posted on: September 2, 2005 6:25 pm
I got two pair. One is polarized. Also, I glued the hinge back together on my laptop. It works, for now. If it breaks again, I'm just gonna mail it to Dell along with several ounces of C4 and a photovoltaic triggering mechanism.
Operation: MakeHondaSuckLess
posted on: September 1, 2005 10:12 pm
So I finished painting the stripes on the trunk of the Accord, and I got my new trunk emblems in the mail. So yeah, the back half looks pretty spiffy right now. Phase 2: the hood. My plan is to put this flat black racing stripe exactly where the old duct tape one was. Hopefully this one won't peel off after a few months. I also got a new door handle so my passengers can get out. Next I just have to fix the mirror, antenna, rust problem on the driver door, and add a few cylinders to the engine. I'm thinking iron pipe and JB-Weld.
Be in awe of how much ass I kick.
posted on: August 28, 2005 9:29 pm
Try doing a google image search for "a"Yes, I kick that much ass.
Fucking Dell.
posted on: August 27, 2005 1:56 am
Okay, I officially don't like Dell anymore. This laptop is starting to be a complete pain in the ass. Not only was I completely unable to find a proper replacement for the broken power jack, but now the fucking screen hinge just snapped in twide. Seriously, what the fuck? Dell better fucking fix this. Last time they suggested I buy a new motherboard for $800 because they don't sell the 10-cent power jack that broke. They can eat shit and die.
2005/2006 schedule:
posted on: August 26, 2005 1:24 am
First semester:
Second semester:
Percentage of blowoff classes: 50%
Percentage of insane classes: 33.3%
Classes with all my friends: AP Physics
Quite possible the nerdiest schedule ever: Priceless
NASCAR
posted on: August 26, 2005 1:23 am
so a lot of shit's happened since the server went offline thanks to Mike(my service provider)'s tendency to break something and leave for a weekend.
I went to this Nascar race last weekend and found out that the stereotype of nascar fans being fat and/or rednecks is completely and utterly true. Also, I went and visited Rose Hulman, a small engineering school in Indiana and it kicks major ass. I'm probably going to go there. Then today I went to the optometrist(that's a weird word to type) and got new eyeglasses to replace the ones I lost at the beginning of this summer. Did you know there's a thing called 'vision insurance' where they charge you a whole lot and then take like 30% off your eye appointments? Good thing we're not signed up for that bullshit.
ow...
posted on: August 17, 2005 12:07 am
So some guy drugged me and ripped out my wisdom teeth, and I woke up in a bed of ice. Well, except for that last part, but my teeth hurt. Kristine's been keeping me company, but all I can eat is pudding and soup so it still sucks.
I did do some coding though. I updated the pics page some more so I can put subdirectories in it, even though i've yet to do that.
Piston-Valve BFSG
posted on: August 15, 2005 11:42 am
So I drew up some plans for an insane spudgun using a valve design I adapted from spudtech. I put the drawring in the insanity page. The only problem is the parts will probably cost around 40 bucks, and I'm currently setting my sights on a new computer (my lappy doesn't meet the minimums for Battlefield 2, and it's broken). If all goes well though, I might get a job writing a modding blog on siliconfactor.com, which would more than pay for all my engineering excursions.
calculus III... check.
posted on: August 15, 2005 11:36 am
Just took the final exam for my Multilvariate Calculus class at Oakland University. So yeah, no more of that shit for a while. I'll find out in a week or two whether or not I aced the class. I had to get an 85 or better on the exam to get in the 90's. My professor was actually pretty cool though, which is a rarity judging by other people's complaints. He was both American and polyphonic.
grlan part II
posted on: August 13, 2005 8:42 pm
So the party's winding down here at the Grand Rapids Lan Party. They've already raffled and competition-ed off most of their huge pile of free stuff, and most of the games have been assigned a champion. The thing doesn't end for another hour and a half, then I get to come down off my 12-hour caffeine high and pass out in the minivan. Oh, I just won some sort of lan pouch that I can put my mouse in. Nifty. I also expanded my music library my 4 gigs or so. Such nice people.
grlan
posted on: August 13, 2005 10:22 am
Just got here, yeah its pretty sweet, but they're turning off internet access here in a few seconds. I'm ready to bust some heads.
cabling conspiracy!
posted on: August 12, 2005 1:18 am
So the guys and I were talking yesterday about how much stores like Worst Buy and ChompUSA charge upwards of $20 for a two dollar usb cable, and how much ass that blows. It occurred to me, with every company pushing wireless technology, that there could be a massive conspiracy by bluetooth and wifi manufacturers to raise the price of such items so having wires seems like a much bigger hassle than it is.
Gigantour
posted on: August 10, 2005 9:26 pm
Just got back from Gigantour at the DTE. Dream Theater and Symphony X performed, both of which are now on my list of favorite bands. It's not actually a list, just more of a conscious tendency to listen to certain bands. Anyhow, I got some overpriced merchandise, including a S.X t-shirt and an autographed Dream Theater CD. Good stuff. Also, I smell like a mixture of smoke from cigarettes and joints, thanks to the wonderful crowd at DTE.
GRLAN
posted on: August 9, 2005 2:51 pm
This Saturday I will be attending the GRLAN party in Grand Rapids. There's a max. capacity of 130, and there's 50 slots left, so if you wanna frag with me go to http://www.grlanparty.com/ and sign the hell up!
p.s. It's in Grand Rapids, and I'm catching a ride with someone else, so you're gonna need to find a way to get 3 hours away if you wanna go
Upgrades
posted on: August 6, 2005 6:44 pm
I added that little box up there ^^ so you can instantly see when my pages were last updated. Surprisingly enough, I've had the same theme on my computer since october. That's gotta be a record.
Random Pics!
posted on: August 2, 2005 9:54 pm
I finally got around to upgrading the script on my random pics page (the 'pics' button up top) so that you only have to download a thumbnail of each picture until you click on one. To sweeten the deal, I also uploaded a bunch of pictures from IRI and Spain.
wtf does 4-H stand for?
posted on: August 2, 2005 12:46 pm
Kristine and I went to that 4-H fair (seriously, what the hell does that stand for?), and unwittingly dropped an assload of money. We got a picture holding a tiger cub. Also, I spent like $12 on these fucking awesome pretzels. I'm not kidding, these pretzels seriously kicked ass. It's like I didn't know how good a pretzel could be until I had these ones. So fucking delicious. Damn.
side note
posted on: July 28, 2005 4:16 pm
So i'm typing this on my dad's computer; he's the stubborn old man who flat-out refuses to try one byte of open source software. God damn, internet explorer blows. If you still use IE, I feel sorry for you. Please download Firefox.
Toothpaste For Dinner
posted on: July 28, 2005 3:50 pm
Mike found this really awesome webcomic called Toothpaste For Dinner. It's on par with White Ninja, maybe better.Plus it's updated at least once daily.
Oh, and today i took apart my Treo 300 and replaced the shitty battery with one from my mom's old palm pilot that she broke. Hopefully i won't have to charge it daily anymore.
I also took apart a bunch of electronics that were lying around. The electromagnet ring from a floppy drive motor is hanging on my wall now cause it looks sweet.
shit.
posted on: July 22, 2005 10:06 pm
Yeah, so i was gonna put a nice post up about how we're doing fine in the competition and all that jive. But just now, a moment before you blew a hole in the door, i found out that my power jack broke again. I'm really hoping that it's just an overstressed wire and not a corner broken off of my motherboard, about which i was worried. Anyway, I probly won't be posting for a while.
Indiananapolopolis
posted on: July 22, 2005 7:12 am
So yeah, I'm in this city in Indiana for the Indiana Robotics Invitational. We learned something from the ride down here though. There is a type of beef snack stick called a "Tijuana mama." DO NOT EAT 6 OF THESE!!! If you do, make sure you retrieve a plunger from the front desk ahead of time.
Down time
posted on: July 17, 2005 12:36 am
So as soon as mike leaves the country there's massive power outages and the server bites the dust. Luckily he's a good admin and brought it back online as soon as he got back.
So lets' see, what's changed since my last entry...
I got a new wakeboard and I kick a lot more ass now...
Mr. Conwell opened up a LAN gaming center in clarkston near Kroger and the new Ace
I had an awesome 4th of july at Kristine's cabin lighting off an assload of fireworks.
I tried to get PHP running on my laptop but windows sucks too much
I set a new record with my spudgun: Really-Fucking-Far feet
I also almost killed some loser on a pontoon boat, he yelled at me from his boat, haha
I GOT A 5 ON THE AP CALCULUS BC TEST!!! DAMN I'M GOOD!
I'm taking calculus III at Oakland University where I'm kicking all those preppy college fucks' asses
I took a really big shit.
I've been trying to find a job but i don't think i give enough of a shit to get hired by anyone
I went to the dentist and got stabbed with a metal spike in the teeth by a lady too dumb to go to dentists' school
Ohio
posted on: July 2, 2005 1:57 am
So in a spur-of-the-moment type thing my mom and I drove down to the Ohio border and bought about $350 worth of fireworks. We're talking the good stuff too. They even gave us a free t-shirt and random assortment pack for buying so much stuff. I'll be using most of them at Kristine's cabin on the 4th. Here at Josh's LAN party, we used one rocket assortment bag already. I think whoever invented the bottlerocket should be awarded the nobel prize. Maybe they could have a new category, like "The nobel prize for the empowerment of the world's youth to blow themselves up"
America
posted on: June 25, 2005 1:07 am
So yeah, I'm back and stuff. I almost wept at the airport when the woman telling us to get into line didn't have an accent.
Espa�a
posted on: June 22, 2005 11:20 am
Well, i�m posting from spain here in an internet cafe. i�m leaving to go back to the states tomorrow. I�m having a decent time except for all the drama with all these girls i�m traveling with. Advice: never go on a vacation with a large group, especially if they are mostly women. Also Senoras Taylor and Savell are being major bitches. Ah well, i�ll be glad to be home tomorrow.
Spain.
posted on: June 13, 2005 12:40 am
So yeah, as of later today I will be in Spain for 10 or 12 days. If you need to contact me, you're screwed.
SUMMER!
posted on: June 9, 2005 1:51 pm
Hoorah! The physics exam didn't kill me! Now I get to chill until september. Also i'm going to spain in a week or so.
HOLY SHIT I AM AWESOME!!!
posted on: June 6, 2005 10:21 pm
HELL YEAH! I completely disassambled my laptop (i mean completely: no two pieces were connected), soldered on some wires to replace the broken power jack, and put the whole thing back together, and it freaking works!!! I am a god! In an odd twist, however, instead of having extra screws as usual, I'm actually short one. Ah well, I prefer it that way anyway. When I put fancy connector on the end of this wire, i'll put up a picture of my handiwork.
Do this immediately:
posted on: June 1, 2005 6:59 pm
-Go to your local grocer.
-Buy one or more tubs of Edy's Ultimate Caramel Cup ice cream
-Obtain spoon
-Eat tub(s)
-Repeat until fat or exploded
Radio waves are overrated.
posted on: May 31, 2005 5:50 pm
So yeah, after a long diet of nothing but CDs, I finally got around to fixing the antenna in my car. After such a long time being able to choose my own music without being addvertised to, it just pissed me off how crappy and useless the radio is. I couldn't find good music on any station, and 1/3 of them were playing advertisements or talking about shit noone cares about at any given time.
A+, Baby!
posted on: May 30, 2005 6:55 pm
I am now A+ certified for computer maintenance. Bow before my test-taking powers!!! (And pay me to fix your computers)
praying to the computer gods...
posted on: May 30, 2005 1:35 am
So I obtained a connector that i intend to solder onto my motherboard from Radioshaft. I really hope i will be able to complete this project without costing myself a $500 motherboard. All of my soldering skills will come into play here. Shit, god help me.
Shit.
posted on: May 25, 2005 7:41 pm
Well the power port on my laptop broke, so I can't charge it and the battery life is a joke. I doubt Dell's going to replace it and allow me to keep my arm and leg. I might just have to go buy a different connector, since Dell uses a crazy fucking connector that they made up, and solder it on there myself.
Review:
posted on: May 19, 2005 2:50 am
Fucking...
...awesome
Episode III
posted on: May 18, 2005 11:37 pm
Yes, i am sitting here waiting for Star Wars Revenge of the Sith to start. That's right, 12:15 showing, baby. You'll all be hearing about it in school tomorrow. All such conversations will begin with 'na-na-na-na-na-na'
Fucking A
posted on: May 17, 2005 6:08 pm
So I bought these tickets off someone for opening night of Star Wars Episode III. The ticket says 12:15am Wednesday. One would gather, by reading that, that the movie plays early on wednesday morning. Not so. The fucking thing is wednesday night. Fuckers.
Yay.
posted on: May 15, 2005 8:07 pm
I finally got my subwoofer to work without shorting out my electrical system! Also, I eBayed most of my xbox games that i've copied onto my hard drive and made $80 so far, minus the cost of shipping them all. You know what I love about the english language? The ability to verb any noun.
Damn...
posted on: May 12, 2005 6:43 pm
I ran out of gum at 14. Damn.
Icosamint!!!
posted on: May 12, 2005 6:40 pm
10 pieces of gum!!! HAHAHA!
Decamint
posted on: May 12, 2005 6:35 pm
I've got five sticks of gum in my mouth.
this dual boot is made for walking
posted on: May 10, 2005 11:44 pm
Yeah, so I've got xp and ubuntu on here, and I'm working on getting windows back to a workable state before I delve into trying to get linux to work at all. So far i've gotten the ethernet card to work, which required no abstract thought, but have been unable to get my wifi card working. Also, for some reason gaim keeps telling me that my username/password is wrong, which it definitely isn't.
Also, check out the new webpage that's soon to be famous: ill.phire.org do YOU know what ill means?
I'm going in...
posted on: May 7, 2005 4:17 pm
After I submit this story, I'm reformatting my hard drive and installing a dual boot with ubuntu and xp. May the source be with me.
bored...
posted on: May 7, 2005 7:52 am
so i'm waiting to take this sat test with a whole bunch of other people. a WHOLE BUNCH. this place is fucking packed. it sucks. at least I have my treo
AP, BC, and USB
posted on: May 3, 2005 4:27 pm
As I began to type this, about $2 worth of loose change fell out of my pocket. God damnit. Anyway, today I took that AP Calculus BC test, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared, although one of the 6 free response questions was on a topic that we hadn't learned in class yet. At least everyone else there was in the same class so everyone looks dumb, not just me.
Also, I modified my cellphone USB cable so I can charge off it, and proceeded to make a dual-usb-port wall adapter, and a 4*9-volt charger that looks kinda cool. It's more efficient than the ones you might read about online because when there's not batteried in it it's really tiny. Really an ingenious design if I do say so myself.
I might make a USB car adapter, but I'll need to find another motherboard to cannablize the USB ports off of.
Oh yeah...
posted on: April 30, 2005 11:15 am
And I didn't have time in Atlants to install linux; the bus didn't have power jacks and my battery's not near good enough to install an operating system.
Downtime
posted on: April 30, 2005 11:12 am
Yeah, phire's been down for a week or so now, so I'll just give you some short synopses of what's transpired since then.
Championship update: We didn't win. We got really screwed over by the refs; there was a field malfunction (some fucktard forgot to stock the loading zone) that cost us a good 10 seconds with which we could have made a 3-point score, and then we lost the match by a single point, and they wouldn't let us replay it. Fuckers. If we had beat that team, we would have been in the Finals, and we definitely could have beaten the team that won.
Tennis update: I quit. As most of you have heard, I'm not on the tennis team anymore. I just couldn't handle doing both things at the same time, and coach wouldn't even give me any varsity matches, so I decided it wasn't worth it to keep playing.
Right now, I'm working on making a usb-wall-charger for some of my electronics so I don't have to carry as many cords with me. Also, Mike informed me that somebody's been using the Trogdor picture as a messageboard signature, which makes a LOT of downloads. It has therefore been removed.
The lost city of Atlanta
posted on: April 21, 2005 10:29 pm
Yeah, so I'm here in Georgia for the international FIRST robotics championship. It's like a Nerd-topia here. Nerdstock. Geekapalooza. Nerdlanta Georgia. Anyway, It's great, and a lot of the robots here are pretty sweet. Although a lot of the "security staff" are complete nazis. Tomorrow we start qualifying rounds, where it's pretty important that we kick ass. Shouldn't be a problem though.
Shit.
posted on: April 14, 2005 10:53 pm
Okay, right now my computer is going down in flames; Windows's perpetual war against itself is rising to a violent climax. And to tell you the truth, I'm getting damn sick of it. The proverbial camel's back may have broken, and the straw is probably going to be put onto a much stabler and more reliable Linux camel.
If I can't sort out what the hell's wrong with my hard disk, and my cd-rom, and ms office, and my windows theme, and half of my programs, I'm going to be spending that upcoming 12-hour bus ride installing a less assinine operating system.
Lansing!
posted on: April 13, 2005 9:25 pm
I had to laugh at myself for this one; I was setting up this world clock program on my palm pilot, and I had to stop, because I realized that despite living here for almost 3 years, I didn't know what the capital of Michigan is. I actually had to look that up on Google. I blame the education system.
I'm good at math.
posted on: April 12, 2005 12:06 am
Yeah, today I totally kicked my entire calc class's monkey ass. I finished the test in 15 minutes. I beat Josh by a margin of 20 minutes. That made me happy. Also, today is the first day in about 2 months that I've not had an assload of homework hanging over my head. It's kinda nice; I really want it to be summer. Oh, and one more thing: I bought a hand grenade yesterday. It won't blow up anymore, but it's still freaking sweet. I should carry it around with me so if i start to get in a fight I can just whip it out and be all "what now?"
ACT S EZ
posted on: April 9, 2005 11:43 pm
So I took that ACT test with the fancy new writing portion that UofM bastardly reqires that I pay more money to take. Anyway, I found the test ridiculously easy. I probably aced the math part; I only had to think for more than 10 seconds on abotu 5 problems. I still had trouble with the damn reading portion though, I can never seem to finish reading the damn things. Ah well, I guess I'll figure out how close to 36 I got in 4-7 weeks.
5-minute DIY project:
posted on: April 6, 2005 10:16 pm
Yeah, so I made myself a pair of awesome cordless headphones. Materials include a pair of regular headphones, 3 zip-ties, and an iPod Shuffle. You can probably figure it out from there.
If I get around to it, I might take a picture of them.
Yet another thing that annoyed me
posted on: April 3, 2005 10:07 pm
Yeah, I just saw a commercial for the Mr. Clean dry car wash thingamabob, and they said "with our special dry-rinse polymer soap..." If you know what 'polymer' means, which I guess most of America doesn't, it becomes clear that they've just thrown in the word to sound impressive, because soap itself is a fucking polymer!
My last post ever
posted on: April 2, 2005 1:46 am
Well, this is to be my last post ever, since very soon the entire internet is to be taken down and dismantled, per the UN's vote. We had a good run, didn't we? Here's an article on the UN's decision.
Scientific Breakthrough!
posted on: April 2, 2005 1:30 am
Wow, You're not going to believe this, but they found definitive proof of water on mars. Nasa has posted photographic evidence, but if you're not real big into geology, you might not spot it. Photographic Evidence
TWO BLUE BANNERS!!!
posted on: March 27, 2005 12:29 am
U.S.A!!! U.S.A!!! U.S.A!!!Yeah, we pretty much invaded Canada and stole all their gold medals. Well, a third of them anyway, with the help of an awesome alliance. The only two robots that could push us around ended up on our team. It really was the best alliance we could have gotten. And, as before, no mechanical breakdowns, except for toasting some of the treads in some pushing matches. We got our vengeance though. When one of our arm cables came unplugged, denz just said screw it, and pushed one of the more annoying robots all the way across the field; it was satisfying. Now we just need to hone our skills and strategy for nationals.As a side note, Canada uses a different strap for their medals. Insead of having the red/white/blue stripes, it's got maple leaves. It's pretty fricking sweet.
Canadia.
posted on: March 25, 2005 12:12 am
So we're here in America's attic. Fun Canada facts: did you know they have indoor plumbing in Canada? And electricity too? Also, they really do say "eh?" I was expecting it to be one of those unfounded stereotypes, but this one guy said "Good luck in the competition, eh?"
So yeah, it's only the practice rounds here at Waterloo, but we're definitely 0wning. With a zero. Even though some of us can't seem to adhere to the restaurant budget that nobody told us. It seems we can't go a regional without doing something to piss off the advisors. Maybe they just get pissed off too easily, but please do not tell them I said that.
We didn't win.
posted on: March 21, 2005 8:03 pm
Yeah, we did nowhere near as good at Purdue as we did at Ypsilanti. We did make it to the final rounds, but for some reason (involving numerous plot twists, comedic irony, and intrigue) we ended up with an alliance that ended up tipped over the side of the field and stuck on the first goal they tried to cap, respectively. Ah well, Waterloo will be much better hopefully. Also, I'll know that the advisors don't find me funny, so I won't be making any of those mistakes again. Now back to my homework, since I have the biggest shitload of homework this week that I've ever had my entire high school career. And 2 days to do it. Today: made up physics lab after school. Tomorrow: make up spanish test after school, and take global issues test which I completely missed the content for. Wednesday: make up calculus test before school. Hoorah for caffeine!
damnation
posted on: March 19, 2005 7:27 pm
Why must i have the worst luck evr? to start I'm stuck in a car for 6 hours surrounfed by people who are asleep, my headphones are broken, my laptop is dead, I can't see my calculator screen, qnd the batteries on this thing are abiut to go. Hopefully I can negotiate a swap at the next stop. Did I mention I'm completely incapable of sleeping in a car?
Indiana smells bad.
posted on: March 17, 2005 12:38 am
Yeah, I'm here in the great state of Indiana for our robotics regional at Purdue. Now by "great" I'm using an extremely loose form of the word, describing low-speed freeways, a 1:1 ratio of trucks to cars, and an inescapable odor that penetrates the nostrils, and changes the chemistry of the part of the brain responsible for suicide. And that was just the drive down here. Maybe the robotics regional tomorrow will be more enjoyable. Hopefully I'll get another one of those spiffy gold medalions with which to drape around my neck like some sort of nerdy olympic athlete.
Chris's grand universal theory on under-bridge potholes.
posted on: March 15, 2005 11:12 pm
So I was driving the other day and I was trying to figure out what the fuck is up with those huge potholes that always show up under overpasses. Then the answer presented itself to me. The sun doesn't hit this area, and therefore the water doesn't evaporate. If you drive in midafternoon when snow is melting, you'll see exactly what I mean. Because of this, there's water sitting there which freezes overnight and cracks the pavement much more than other parts of the road.
Just another one of those things I felt like sharing with you all.
Gold
posted on: March 12, 2005 8:23 pm
We are the champions of the world!!! Well, the champions of Ypsilanti, which is just as good. We now have an opportunity for world domination though, since our victory here qualifies us for the national championship in Atlanta. Plus, I got a very spiffy medal to taunt those teams less glorious than us.
Come on down, and see the glory that is T3
posted on: March 10, 2005 11:21 pm
Yeah, today was the practice rounds at the Great Lakes Regional for my FIRST team. Tomorrow the competitions start, so if you want to come on down, it might be cool to watch. Here's a pdf of how to get there. It's about an hour away, in Ypsilanti.
2 days...
posted on: March 8, 2005 11:18 pm
Well on Thursday I go to Ypsilanti with my robotics team fo our first regional match, which ought to be fun. We didn't get as much time to practice today as we might have liked, since enabling control when the arm controller is in the fully retracted position actually causes us to lose an hour or two to repairs. Anyhow, we had fun driving the chassis around in high gear; man that thing hauls ass.
Swooning in a pool of happiness.
posted on: March 4, 2005 1:08 am
Ah, there's no feeling like being able to look up the definition of 'metaphysical' in a chinese restaurant to settle an argument. I love my new smartphone.
Happiness comes on a plastic disc.
posted on: February 28, 2005 10:09 pm
I got my Rejected DVD today. I am happy. In addition to being good DVD-quality video, it comes with a deleted scene that is really quite funny. Now, if Fedex would just freaking deliver the PDA I bought (was shipped a solid week ago), I'd be swooning in a pool of happiness.
This is pretty funny.
posted on: February 24, 2005 8:44 pm
Go on, click it.
I'm sick, but the robot's done (sort of)
posted on: February 23, 2005 1:16 pm
so yeah, i've come down with a case of influenza, and it really sucks quite a lot. The robot was shipped yesterday though, and it was almost completely done, except for a few minor additions that we didn't have time to put on (such as an instrument panel that we need to add because rocky's stupid fucking guage panel covers up the reset switch on the controller). I have to say though, it is a sweet frickin robot.
April 29!!!
posted on: February 16, 2005 5:41 pm
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie comes out on April 29th! They've just released the trailer on Amazon.com It looks like it ought to be pretty good, even though, in the preview, Zaphod Beeblrebrox has only one head.
No school!!!
posted on: February 14, 2005 4:04 pm
hoorah! sleep!
Heading maker 2.1...
posted on: February 13, 2005 3:42 pm
Yeah, i added a little text size field, and added 0.1 to the version. Just for the hell of it.
Like it? I made it myself.
posted on: February 10, 2005 9:38 pm
If you hate the new theme (which i retooled during a 4-hour car ride from ohio), drop me a line on the bathroom wall.
I'm in Ohio! Weeeee!!!
posted on: February 9, 2005 10:46 pm
So yeah, I'm here in the state of ... um ... dismal weather and state universities, the latter of which I am to be visiting tomorrow. Right now I'm sitting in a hotel room that has wifi, so life is good at the current moment, except for the fact that I can't fricking get this program to work even though it makes perfect sense. Maybe it's just a bad case of caffein logic (where an excess of ceffeine impairs a programmer's ability to think logically).
Heading Maker 2.0 !!!
posted on: February 7, 2005 6:10 pm
So instead of doing what I was suppsoed to be doing (e.g. math homework) I decided to print myself up a batch of customized looseleaf, and ended up making a whole new version of Heading Maker. It's a lot more functional; you can find it in the programs page.
Hooray for me.
posted on: February 7, 2005 3:26 pm
Yippee! 3000 visitors!!! I must really kick ass! Or maybe you all just enjoy reading my humble, down-to-earth and never-sarcastic weblog. Also, A recent addition you might (probably not) notice is the little W3C icon on the bottom (now that i've told you, you will notice). It means that my page adheres to valid CSS standards of formatting. Hoorah for me!
Hmm... I wonder just how many of those hits were just from me updating the site...
This is pretty damned funny.
posted on: February 2, 2005 10:25 pm
Hey, i came across this article while looking for a current event for school, and it really made me laugh. So-called U.S. hostage appears to be toy I submitted it to slashdot, lets see if they run it.
I hate winter.
posted on: January 28, 2005 10:32 pm
So yeah, today we got home from the sushi place (grand opening at some place in w. bloomfield, pretty nice place, wish i remembered the name), and a pipe in my wall had been spewing water for about an hour, turning my carpet into an incredibly large and sock-ruining sponge. So now i have a gaping hole in my wall, a soaked floor, and the knowledge that the guy who plumbed (word?) our house was a non-insulation-using retard.
compTIA can kiss my ass.
posted on: January 21, 2005 7:19 pm
What kind of freak of nature memorizes I/O address tables? What kind of bastardly asshat puts I/O addresses on a certification test? What kind of shitty high school class can be aced and yet still flunk the test that is was designed to prepare for?
pokemon cards don't burn well.
posted on: January 19, 2005 3:34 pm
So my sister bought me this sweet lighter, and also a pack of pokemon cards as part of an ongoing joke. I made the connection that i could use the lighter on the cards. Alas, when i tried lighting one of the buggers on fire it just sorta singed the corner, and malformed the rest of the card. This is especially ironic, because the card i chose to burn was one called Charmeleon, who is featured in the picture brandishing a ball of flame.
Next I'll be trying it with some lighter fluid.
don't go to school
posted on: January 12, 2005 7:28 am
I went to school this morning to find a single unlocked door (it happened to be the first one i tried, which explains my lack of awareness to the circumstances) and a building completely devoid of people, save me and 4 other stranded souls. One of them admitted to falling on her ass in the parking lot. I cellphoned my mom and she confirmed that i was indeed not supposed to be there, so i left. Now, I stand before you, hoist by my own petard, unable to return to my peaceful slumber because of my exam-sized morning caffeine intake.
Now, i'm not complaining about school being canceled, because it gies me a few extra days with which to study for my hardest exams; only for the fact that they would cancel school and still leave the fucking building open. I was so confused and tired and relieved that I was unable to muster the mental determination to wreck up the place while i was the only one in it.
the coolest thing ever.
posted on: January 10, 2005 12:03 am
so yeah, slashdot had this story, and i followed the link, and looked around, and found out that if you type the following string into google, you can gain access to thousands of unsecured networked security cameras, and even move them around. It's pretty unbelievable.
Paste this whole line into google:
inurl:"ViewerFrame?Mode="
there are headlines now.
posted on: January 8, 2005 7:18 pm
So yeah, I was checking out auchter(hail root!)'s weblog, and realized how much better mine would be if i stole his idea to have a little headline over each entry (in addition to stealing the entire concept to begin with).
Also, my stupid fucking bipolar cat just bit me in the face for no reason.
posted on: January 8, 2005 6:52 pm
So yeah, FIRST Robotics is officially kicked-off, and this week team 68 is meeting every day to plan and strategize, probably begin building something. Those of you that go to CHS probably realize the minor hitch in this plan, and its mere name alone strikes fear into the hearts of slackers and overachievers alike: Exams.
Review packets (in my case light novels), cramming, and now this. If you see me in the hall, and I look like a zombie, it's probably not because i'm tired; I'll most likely be dead.
posted on: January 7, 2005 2:03 am
So LokiTorrent, another noteworthy site in filesharing, is being sued by the MPAA and needs help. They have chosen to defend themselves, and the rights of fileswappers everywhere. Please donate to them. www.LokiTorrent.com
posted on: January 2, 2005 2:44 am
So i am now the proud owner of a kickass 41" hand-forged katana with blood groove (that means it kicks extra ass). I also bought a nanchaku (a.k.a. nunchucks).
So yeah, if you want to challenge me, we can have a samurai fight now.
posted on: December 27, 2004 3:57 pm
Pictures are up. Check out the Art page.
posted on: December 25, 2004 3:51 am
YES! i finally did it!
My laptop is now chris hammond certified. And i must say, it is the most bad-as thing i have ever done. I'll take pictures of it tomorrow with my new camera (5 megapixel beotch), maybe i'll get a few of the PS2 i modded last year too, haha.
posted on: December 19, 2004 4:21 pm
If you haven't heard the news, you should sit down. Suprnova.org, the universal bittorrent source, the place where you used to be able to download any piece of music, video, or software, has sunk into the oblivion of cyberspace, sued out of existence by the bastardly MPAA.
Suprnova, we salute thee.
posted on: December 6, 2004 8:35 pm
Hey, i found a much less painful alternative to trying to apply plastic hubcaps to your car:
Step 1: place several glass bottles in burlap sack.
Step 2: Repeatedly slam sack on ground, making sure all bottles are broken into very small pieces
Step 3: Empty contents of sack into mouth
Step 4: Chew vigorously for 30-40 minutes.
posted on: December 6, 2004 1:22 pm
Hey. I'm posting from school because I'm bored. Now i'm slightly less bored. That's about it.
posted on: December 2, 2004 5:33 pm
Chris's random observation of the day:
Until today, i had never given much thought to how brake lights work. You know, how when the lights are on, they turn on, but when you brake they get brighter. I had always just assumed the car sent it a different voltage or something It turns out that the light bulb actually has 2 seperate filaments, and the car lights up one or both depending. Fascinating, huh?
posted on: November 28, 2004 8:46 pm
Here's a bit of advice for those of you who want to modify your PDAs: when reassembling them, be careful not to touch the board. Apparently somewhere on the thing's motherboard there is a secret button that, when touched, erases every fucking bit of information the thing has ever had. If the screen begins to tart out, be afraid. be very afraid.
posted on: November 23, 2004 12:21 am
Final update on OCCRA:
Remember how last year, we started off with this crappy POS that didn't do anything, including move? Well this year, we started off with this relatively nice bot with a few problems, and it evolved into a much more advanced, sophisticated, piece of shit. As was implied, we had our asses handed to us at our last competition, wrapping up a dismal season with the most frustrating competition to date. It was kinda fun though, thinking of ways to go kamikaze for our last match. Since the claw had broken off, we duct taped the infamous Spatulas of DOOM to the end of the arms. They didn't really do anything, since we got stalled on top of the platform and couldn't move anyway. Also we made our flag into a battleaxe that also broke.
posted on: November 18, 2004 12:15 am
If you don't own a hottub, I strongly recommend it.
posted on: November 14, 2004 2:27 am
Duct tape. Racing Stripes. Racint stripes made of duct tape. Coolest shit ever. Pictures to come.
posted on: November 10, 2004 10:58 pm
Occra competition #3: Berkley High
yeah... I don't like being reminded of last year, and that's exacly what happened. Because of those damed wheels we had to get, coupled with the second battery to completely die on us, we moved about a total of 20 feet today(those being in the one match where we actually had an operational robot). No awards either.
posted on: November 7, 2004 2:48 am
If you havent seen Team America: World Police, do so immediately.
posted on: November 2, 2004 11:48 pm
NHS SUCKS ASS!!!
'why?' you ask?
Because i'm apparently not good enough to be in it. Also, the asssuckers, in their infinite retardation, didn't feel it necessary to inform me of which one of my nonexistent inadequacies swayed their infernal decision.
So i say fuck'em.
posted on: October 31, 2004 10:57 pm
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the best game ever made, as well as the best $50 i ever spent. I highly recommend it (except to those who are easily offended or have a weak stomache)
And I gotta give credit to my man J-Olive for helping me make this page sweeter than it was before, if indeed that was possible.
posted on: October 27, 2004 10:53 pm
OCCRA competition #2: pontiac northern
So we won 1 of 4 matches, coming incredibly close to winning two more. Both losses could have been prevented had the stupid arrow been pointing in our direction. We did get an award for mike's programming, and if there had been an award for most kickass uniform, we'd have won that too.
posted on: October 24, 2004 10:54 pm
I thought it was time i updated the color scheme on my site. If you hate it, drop me a line on the bathroom wall
posted on: October 24, 2004 1:15 am
Update on OCCRA competition:
Well, we didnt get any awards, but we did win one of our 4 matches. The other 3 were due to a faulty ground connection, a defective battery, and a loose axle, respectively. We'll do much better next competition, once we get everything to actually bloody work
posted on: October 23, 2004 12:51 am
man, the phrase "dont at the last minute" takes on new meaning when you have a midnight deadline, and glue the last piece together at 11:58. That's exactly what happened at robotics today, so we have a perfectly competitive robot for our competition tomorrow(saturday)! Come out and see us from 9am to 4pm or so at Holly High.
posted on: October 20, 2004 10:49 pm
So auchter finally got his damn server up again, after a 3-day downtime caused by a 5-minute power outage. Anyway, our first OCCRA robotics competition is this saturday at Holly High School, pretty much all day, so drop by if you want to see our sweet robot.
posted on: October 13, 2004 12:16 am
Woohoo! I got my new CD-player installed in my car, and it's even sweeter than the stolen one (excepting a lack of subwoofer, which is to be remedied soon). If the asshat who stole my first one is reading this, don't even think about stealing this one, because with it i installed a car alarm that will make very loud noises if you attempt to take my shit again.
posted on: October 6, 2004 12:10 am
I'm 17 now! w00t!!!
now i can get into R-rated movies, and drive past midnight. I already do those things anyway, but now i can't get arrested for them!
posted on: October 1, 2004 3:31 pm
Yeah, so my egg gun needs some redesigning. it needs to be much longer, and reinforced a lot. o well, that was just the prototyoe anyway
posted on: September 29, 2004 11:10 pm
Well the cement is drying on my newest contraption, the bungee-driven bolt-action egg gun. That's right, it's a big bazooka-looking gun that fires eggs. I might make it available for rental if it works well. ;-)
posted on: September 8, 2004 12:10 am
I just completely overhauled my website. It looks exactly the same, but it's a lot easier to maintain now.
posted on: August 19, 2004 1:30 am
my latest revelation:
Who do you think is more likely to not vote? i would think that republicans would be more likely to vote, since they are generally the upper class. if the democrats are the majority of people who aren't voting, than this gigantic "register and vote" campaign is probably just a huge plot by democrats to get more votes.
Just a thought.
posted on: August 17, 2004 9:36 am
1: Law & Society (Marko)/ Global Issues(Murray)
2: Spanish III (Biallas)
3: Calc BC (G. Davis)
4: Lit/Film (Porritt)
5: Physics (Burdick)
6: Computer hardware/networking (Mr. Conwell)
Seminar: Frericks
Locker: A30506
Parking spot: 945 (Junior lot)
posted on: August 16, 2004 4:54 pm
I made a new invention, the mouseboard. It would be too hard to explain it here, just check it out in the art page, where it currently resides.
posted on: August 9, 2004 2:48 am
I saw the village the other day. If you haven't seen it, don't. It would be a colossal waste of 2 hours and $6.50. The scariest part of the movie is when a blind chick is running away from a retard in a costume.
by the way, the marks on the doors mean absolutely nothing.
posted on: August 8, 2004 3:40 am
Did i tell you i got Gmail?bow down. do it now.
posted on: August 8, 2004 3:10 am
so school is starting soon and i want to kill something. Oh well, i guess i can look forward to another year of battling with the admins over control of my internet browsing.
posted on: June 26, 2004 6:16 am
I did some php coding becase i had nothing better to do, and you might notice the addition of a 'theme' link at the top of the page, which reads my current windows theme elements from a text file, as well as a screenshot. You know, in case you were wondering what the desktop of someone who has a better desktop than you looks like.
posted on: June 24, 2004 7:03 am
I GOT A CAR!!!!!!! AND IT ROCKS!!! check it out in the randompics
posted on: June 17, 2004 10:03 am
posted on: June 4, 2004 6:56 am
Woohoo! I finished my modding projects. That's right, the penguin mint mouse and the cheez-it router are both done! Check them out in the randompics page.
posted on: May 24, 2004 1:32 am
Mike finally gets my server back online, and there is news: if you want to connect to the "questionable" side of the internet from school, you now have to use "anti-fascism.reg", the newest addition to my programs page
posted on: May 2, 2004 5:14 am
hey, i got a new paintball gun, it's a pistol, so i can load it really fast, before the ducks fly away. It's a PT Xtreme and it kicks ass.
posted on: April 26, 2004 2:31 am
Check out my new digital artwork I posted on custo: Hummer 3 Vectorized!!!
posted on: April 26, 2004 2:29 am
yay, the server's back up. you might have noticed a speed difference, because it is in fact faster than before. It's on a whole new computer and everything.
posted on: April 22, 2004 7:58 am
Yay, I got a new flash drive to replace the one that kept crapping out on me. I got tired of reformatting it. I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that it's been through a washing machine 5 or 6 times.
posted on: April 9, 2004 3:03 pm
I got an mp3 player! Woohoo!
It's a dell Digital Jukebox, 15 gigs. I got it because it's cheaper than an ipod, lol
posted on: March 30, 2004 10:45 pm
Thanks to a combined stupidity by DTE and Comcast, the server's been down for a week. (it was mikes fault too for not being home)
So yeah, if you were wondering why, that's the reason.
Oh yeah, and i made a registry file that disables website blockign at school, you can download it in the programs.
posted on: March 6, 2004 9:04 pm
Well, its not sturdy, and i wouldn't call it stable, and keeping in line with my construction methods it's liable to fall apart at any moment, but i built a basic bipod stand for my spudguns, so i can achieve a new level of accuracy, it should be a lot mroe fun now :-D
posted on: February 25, 2004 10:58 pm
hey, today i did a bunch of <><> runs here in aspen!
If you think of the local "<><>" run, think steeper, and about 50 times as long, at the least. And then add trees.
Anwyay, it was realyl fun, and now i have bragging rights, so HA!!!
posted on: February 22, 2004 9:48 pm
this is chris, coming to you live from aspen colorado!
okay, so it's not live, in fact you're an idiot if you think reading content from a website can possibly be live.
but that's beside the point.
aspen kicks ass. Oh yeah, and i got a new cellphone. it's got a camera!!! :-D
posted on: February 10, 2004 8:13 pm
The mad modder strikes again!
I replaced the crappy red LED on my optical mouse with a sweet blue one, check it out in the art page!
posted on: February 3, 2004 11:25 pm
I took a picture of my current armory of PVC weaponry, and put it in the insanity page. Check it out, you will most likely be impressed, or think i am insane.
either way, you're right
posted on: February 2, 2004 9:49 pm
Alas, i didnt have enough time today before it got dark to do a 100 psi test on the governator. I want to do it in daylight so i can at least have a rough idea of where the hell it lands
posted on: February 1, 2004 7:12 pm
My new spudgun works!!!!! I replaced the busted experimental valve with a 3/4" ball valve, and at 55 PSI, it goes about 5x as far as the hairspray one.
posted on: February 1, 2004 1:27 am
Revenge.reg gets a new version!!! It's called payback.reg, and can be found in the programs page. It is a lot more clear in its message.
posted on: January 27, 2004 5:54 pm
More great news! I learned some more PHP, and wrote a script to show thumbnails of all my random pictures. Click on 'Random Pics' above to check it out!
posted on: January 23, 2004 5:46 pm
great news!!!! As most of you have noticed, the website for the end of the world cartoon went down.
but fear not, for i have found a new website that has it!!! I changed the link below to the new one.
posted on: January 23, 2004 12:03 am
Coming to you live from the most boring-ass state in the United States of America.
Driving through a city in Ohio is like finding a '2' in a string of binary.
But at least the capital city Columbus has stuff to do, which is where I'm visiting my sister at her college.
That's right, college. And, yes, i do plan on finding a keg party.
posted on: January 20, 2004 7:40 pm
I made a really sweet library file if you program in C++ that converts integers to strings. Check it out in the programs page!
posted on: January 20, 2004 9:19 am
I finished my tupid spanish exam, 5 more to go. The next one is math, eww.
posted on: January 19, 2004 8:40 pm
three more days, and exams will be over. ahh..... freedom....
On thursday, i'm going to visit my sister at OSU, maybe go to a few keg parties :-P
posted on: January 14, 2004 3:12 pm
SNow Day! Snow Day! Snow Day!!!!!!!
yippeee!!!
posted on: January 11, 2004 12:40 am
i leearned how to use my new stringing machine from the pro at the club, so if anyone needs a stringing, i'll do it overnight for a competitive $15.
posted on: January 10, 2004 1:54 pm
I updated my news adding script to attempt to get rid of those damn slashes, and i also added a .avi file of Babbish running through an exploding chain of fireworks to the randompics page. Enjoi!
posted on: 01.10.2004 : 1.27
I tested out the fanboat on actual snow, and it turns a lot better than on ice. However, it doesn't go all that fast, and when it hits a rut in a turn, it flips over, getting snow in the motor. Not good.
I also took some pictures of the gaping hole that is in the ceiling at our school as a result of thursday's flood.
posted on: 01.01.2004 : 11.22
I tested out that fanboat i've been building, and it goes like a mother-! It just doesn't corner well on a frozen lake of super-slick ice. I might replace the skis with blades, or just wait until snow comes...
posted on: 01.01.2004 : 10.26
For reasons that are confusing even to me, I painted a dreamcast controller. you can check it out in the art page. I also updated the laptop pictures on that page with the newest stickers. I might be done stickerizing it now.
posted on: 01.01.2004 : 2.39
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
As always, i made no resolutions, and i laughed at all the people who vowed to lsoe 10 pounds, as they stuffed cheese crackers into the unresolute fat face. cheers!
posted on: 12.30.2003 : 9.48
I put some pics of the SnowDuck in the Insanity page, tomorrow i'll get a video clip of it zipping around my frozen lake.
posted on: 12.30.2003 : 9.25
Yes!!! I did it!!! I finished my project that i've been working on for the last month, and have been thinking on for abotu a year. It is born of a dismantled electric RC boat, and it lives on the tundra. It is, elementally, a fanboat. It crawls the earth of 3 skis. It is truly beautiful. I put pictures of it in my randompics page. I have dubbed it ... the SnowDuck
posted on: 12.29.2003 : 10.08
I got a badass dragon decal for my laptop, and a couple of little pirate decals. I Had to rearrange some decals, and now it looks even more awesome. I put some zippocam shots in the randompics page, i'll get some highres shots later so you can appreciate it's high resolution glory.
posted on: 12.28.2003 : 9.57
I just finished copying my CDs. Now i have all my originals in my CD selector, and copies in my discus. I also stores the images on my harddrive so i can listen to CD-quality music without putting it in.
posted on: 12.28.2003 : 9.34
Well boredom has driven me to create yet another page, this time to contain the pics I've taken with my Zippocam and some other pics. I put it in the top links bar.
posted on: 12.25.2003 : 12.47
Merry F***ing Christmas!
I got some good loot this year, dispite the fact the my only present was supposed to be the other half of my laptop.
Things I got:
-James Bond stealth zippo digital camera, so awesome
-T-shirt that says, "Obey Gravity, it's the law!" lol
-A tennis racket stringing machine, mostly for economic reasons; I've been breaking strings like a mother-
-Discgear disc selector 100, of which i've filled 87 easily accessible slots
-targus laptop backpack
-Dremel complete bit set
-Vice grip set
-4 tins of Penguin mints
-a couple packs of jolt gum
-about $180 from various sources... >:-)
posted on: 12.24.2003 : 5.12
CHECK OUT MY ART PAGE! I finally got around to painting my cellphone and it rules now. Check it out!
posted on: 12.23.2003 : 3.46
I just got the coolest watch! It's Fossil, with a dragon and flames that move, it's the inverse color scheme of This watch. It 0wn5!
posted on: 12.22.2003 : 1.01
Hey, to reward all my loyal readers, and because I was really bloody bored at my relatives' house, I've updated all of my pages to be cooler. Check them out
posted on: 12.15.2003 : 9.05
I found a way to distract yourself even more at school! It involves replacing the Games folder that has been removed from the Start menu on the school computers. It's in the 'monolith of �ber-leetness' section.
posted on: 12.15.2003 : 8.19
To my dismay, I have been forced to give up the Lizardbook (shown in the Amazing Feats of Artistry). It all started when my dad said, "We should get Aunt Sandy a computer for Christmas. Hey chris, you've got that old laptop dont you?"
It all went downhill from there.
posted on: 12.13.2003 : 12.11
Well, all of my news has been obliterated by mike and his carelessness with metal objects around exposed motherboards. Oh well, time to start over. I got a few new stickers for my laptop, and it looks really sweet now. They're in the Amazing Feats of Artistry page.
[June 16, 2009 -- 9:33 pm]
Sorry my website has been in disrepair as of late. It's just, with Facebook and all, I don't really need you anymore.
Anyway, I just got engaged! I proposed to Kristine on her 21st birthday, at the Gandy Dancer in Ann Arbor. We've been together for 5 years, and I've known for a while that she's the one for me, but we always seemed way too young to get married. Now that we're both legally unrestricted and almost done with college, the timing was perfect. I can't wait to take on life's great adventure with her by my side!
Check out a2coma's website!
[May 11, 2009 -- 2:53 pm]
If you want to see a good example of my html/css/php skills, check out my work for the Ann Arbor College of Martial Arts.
Everything worked out!
[April 22, 2009 -- 7:42 pm]
I don't know if anyone even reads this thing anymore, but I figure if anything deserves posting, it would be this.
I got an internship for the summer, and it's awesome! Previously, I was screwed by the economy and Toyota's deadlines, but everything worked out for the best because instead of working at some lame office I'll be at Pratt & Miller.
:D
Oh yeah, I can call my car to start it now.
[March 3, 2009 -- 10:46 pm]
So yeah, I got my cellphone car starter working. It's in version 0.1 Beta right now though; it doesn't have any security features or do anything besides start the car when you call it. Also, I don't have anywhere warm to take apart my dashboard for a power connection, so I just taped it to a battery and dropped it in my center console. Incidentally, it looks like I have a bomb in my center console now. I'll post pictures and a worklog later.
Why not some updates?
[January 28, 2009 -- 11:47 am]
I apologize to my loyal readership, who I'm sure have been wearing out their F5 buttons refreshing my page over and over again, waiting for an update.
Anyway, the Death Laser project has been stalled for a while, mostly because I'm too discouraged to try buying another diode, and I found 2 other projects to occupy my time.
I finished constructing a Lithium-Ion battery pack for my bike, out of necessity after the Lead-Acid one shorted out and destroyed itself. I haven't completed building a charger for the pack yet, because it is too snowy to use the bike, and I found another project to occupy my time.
So I got a remote starter installed on my car over Christmas break (thanks Kristine!), and I also got a PIC-based cellphone development board. My current project is to combine the two into a cellphone-based car starter, that I can call from anywhere I happen to be and start my car by entering a touch-tone password.
Perhaps when I finish this project, I'll throw up a worklog so others can follow my lead. It seems like I could make millions selling something like this on the mass market, but right now it just consists of two off-the-shelf systems, one programmed to control the other.
Countdown to being 21:
[September 17, 2008 -- 12:58 am]
[Counter disabled.]
115 days ago! w00t!
Fucking fragile laser diodes.
[August 24, 2008 -- 6:04 pm]
So my Death Laser is really close to being done. I was literally a few grams of glue away from having a complete laser when I burned out the diode.
My battery pack, enclosure, and constant-current power supply are all perfect, but I have to buy another diode (I think this is number 4) before I can finish it.
Oh, I've also been toying with the idea of a Lithium battery pack for my electric bike. Maybe I'll even post a picture of it at some point.
The Race -- Owned.
[July 24, 2008 -- 6:39 pm]
Winning feels good.
Winning by an entire race day feels better.
This has been the most amazing thing I've ever been a part of, and likely will be for a while. It taught me, among other things, the importance of "Not Fucking Around." We were NFA in everything we did, and it certainly paid off. We spent 15 minutes on the side of the road the entire race, and it was because the CAN connector on our MPPTs (one of the few electronics we didn't design ourselves) was poorly designed. We were ready for virtually anything to go wrong on the car, with a spare ready to swap in, and a spare for the spare. If we had had Principia's DC-DC converter failure, it would have been a 10-second fix. As it turned out, we did such an NFA job designing everything, we didn't have any problems.
That's just one example of our NFA, others include:
- Testing our suspension by catching air off speed bumps,
- Using so many amber lights that people pull over for us,
- Sending up weather balloons to 40,000 feet,
- Knowing at all times the voltage of every single battery module to the millivolt,
- Getting new suspension parts machined during qualifying so we could swap in a higher torque motor if need be.
- Practicing a motor swap enough to do it in under 6 minutes.
- Being the first team to ever qualify for NASC with a single-wheel-front design, simply because it's more aerodynamic.
It's been a remarkable journey, being on this team, and I've learned so much about engineering, teamwork, human nature, sacrifice, and leadership. Not to mention all of the industry contacts I've accumulated. Alas, it's now time that I take my lessons and move on with my life. I've got two years of school left, and while I probably can't go on any more solar car races, I'm confident that I can do anything.
The Race -- Day 10: Taking off from Medicine Hat
[July 24, 2008 -- 5:36 pm]
[This post was recorded earlier.]
So it's the last day. We're about 8 hours ahead of the second place team (Principia) at this point, because they had a pretty crappy day yesterday. I guess they had some brake scrub caused by a bent rim which caused them to undervoltage a battery module, and then they blew out a DC-DC converter. They did end up rolling into the stage stop without trailering, they just got an hour penalty for showing up late. I have to applaud their "never trailer" policy and unwillingness to give up.
Anyway, we just have to cruise the speed limit to Calgary so nobody can cockblock us and roll across the finish line before us.
12 minutes to Go Time.
The Race -- Day 8: Winnipeg to Regina
[July 21, 2008 -- 1:51 am]
So we're camping about 20 miles outside Regina, having found a pretty sweet charging spot at a lentil farm. Today went nice and smooth, the only problems being staying awake. This is much preferable to any other type of problem.
So far in this leg we've gained about 40 minutes on Principia, and we'll roll into Medicine Hat tomorrow afternoon and find out exactly what our lead is. Then the next morning we cruise into Calgary.
Also, there is a friendly cat at this farm, and I took the opportunity to degrade the credibility of our team's blog: permalink .
Oh, and also the didn't-have-to-trailer club is down to 4 members: Us, Principia, Bochum, and Waterloo.
The Race -- Day 6-7: Sioux Falls to Winnipeg
[July 19, 2008 -- 4:48 pm]
We're in Canadia! We arrived at the stage stop at Red River College today at 11:32, beating Principia by 56 minutes.
We spent 4 minutes off the clock at the border crossing so the international student on our team could get her passport stamped. Also we got to be in the "Morris Stampede" which is apparently a parade to celebrate the dairy industry in the town of Morris (crazy Canadians).
I have definitely noticed an increasing level of stage stops one-upping each other. The first stage stop in Neosho was a parking lot with some tents, and Missorri S&T bought dinner for everyone. Sioux Falls was made into a big deal with police escorts and press, and the city bought us pizza and t-shirts. Here, the college is throwing a BBQ for all the teams, letting us use their computer labs and CNC machine shop, putting on games of floor hockey, and showing a movie. I can't wait to see what Medicine Hat has to offer, and I hear the finish line should be pretty insane.
Anyway, we get to sleep in a hotel again tonight, which should be a nice improvement over the potato farm we camped at last night.
Side story: Ferman was talking to a newspaper and said "It's not like the university expects us to bring home a fifth win," and they quoted him as saying, "The university expects us to bring home a fifth win." I love reporters.
The Race -- Day 5: Waiting in Sioux Falls
[July 18, 2008 -- 3:04 am]
Sioux Falls is pretty cool. Well, except for the slaughterhouse that was upwind of us today. The smell complemented the disturbing squeals nicely.
Oh, also we got some penalties, so Principia technically won this leg of the race. We're still ahead of them overall though. The biggest penalty was an hour because our hydraulic brakes wore out and we drove for a few miles with only regen before stopping. It's a pretty excessive penalty considering we slowed down to about 15 mph, increased our distance, and stopped as soon as we found a suitable location. We can't really fight it though, since it was for "operating an unsafe vehicle" which is technically true even though we did so as safely as possible.
Anyway, we're still leading, we've got a full battery pack, and we're going to keep cruising all the way to Calgary.
The Race -- Day 3-4: Neosho to Sioux Falls
[July 16, 2008 -- 4:41 pm]
Nebraska has to be the hilliest state ever. Day 3 went smoothly, except for the last 15 minutes or so. Because of all the hills, and the fact that we hadn't changed our brake pads after 2 days on the track, our mechanical brakes started failing as the pads wore down to nothing. So we were using mainly regen brakes, and then the motor temp got up to about 103 C (aka 7 degrees from melting), so we stopped for the day just barely within the timeframe you're allowed to stop without penalty. We camped in the parking lot of a Bounce U, which is apparently inflatable fun for all ages.
Then the storm hit. The Base-X shelter stood up to it, but not without the help of 4 team members, 4 sand bags, and 2 bags of 18-inch steel spikes holding down one side of the tent from imploding. Also, camping on concrete sucks.
Today we hit the road early because we stopped early last night, and cruised all the way to Sioux Falls. We didn't get too close to melting the motor, but we did have a lot of fun on the hills around here. Had to use overcurrent regen to keep it under the speed limit a few times, which is actually kind of sweet because you'll see around 4 kilowatts going into the battery pack.
We got into Sioux Falls at 12:35, about an hour ahead of Principia. There are actually people at this stage stop, which is pretty cool. The city is really making a big deal about it, with a police escort, news crews, inflatable Coca Cola tents, and giant crowds. A couple more teams might roll in today, but we're here until Friday morning. You would think that driving a few hundred miles north would help with the temperature, but the Tahoe is telling me it's 101 F outside right now.
Oh, and Chuck Hutchins is buying us dinner tonight, so that'll be sweet.
The Race -- Day 2: Waiting in Neosho
[July 15, 2008 -- 1:12 am]
Today, since we got to the stage stop last night, we basically just sat around all day. We got another morning and evening charge, and the battery pack's about one volt from full.
I went to Lowe's and dropped 80 bucks on hardware to put wheels on the battery lockbox. Now we won't have to carry it and run every time we impound the battery. That is, after I get to installing them.
Now it's sleep time.
The Race -- Day 1: Plano to Neosho
[July 14, 2008 -- 5:53 pm]
Day 1 went very well. We're still out in first, and Principia is about 15 minutes behind us. We were the only two teams to get to the Neosho stage stop on the first day.
The day went pretty smoothly, except we did have to pull over a few times. In the morning we had a problem with our motor controller cutting out, and it was making us incredibly anxious because we couldn't figure out what was causing it. The first time we pulled over, we swapped out the motor controller, but we continued having the same problem. We pulled over again, and I thought to unplug all of the MPPTs' CAN lines to cut down on CAN errors. As it turns out, those stupid connectors were the problem because it worked flawlessly after that.
After we got that sorted, we cruised for the rest of the day, ending up with an average of 41 mph. Mind you, that number would have been a lot higher if we had better sunlight for the first half of the day. We pretty much burned our entire battery pack getting through clouds, until the sun finally came out and we were able to keep going just off array power.
One of my least favorite regulations for this year is the one that states you have to pull over and let traffic pass if there are more than 6 cars behind you. We had to do that 3 times around rush hour. Big waste of race time.
Anyway, we roll out of Neosho Tuesday morning, and hopefully we'll have a fully charge pack by then.
45 minutes to Go Time.
[July 13, 2008 -- 10:15 am]
Sitting on the starting line. Battery's full, and we're powered up. All systems go.
9 hours to Go Time.
[July 13, 2008 -- 2:19 am]
Well we took pole position after about 250 laps around the track. The closest competitor was Minnessota with 220ish. It seems 15 teams have qualified, and we'll be starting at the Plano Center at 9 am.
We got Paula registered as a backup driver, because she was in town for the start of the race, she drove in Australia, and we were down to two drivers. So that's a bit of a relief.
Also we tested our NGM motor on the track, and it works very nicely. Steve was having fun with all the extra torque, passing cars left and ... well just on the left, but over and over again. The idea of the NGM is to sacrifice a little efficiency on stretches where we'll have to battle steep hills.
Anyway, it's less than 9 hours to Go Time, and we're ready to kick some ass.
Go fast, go smooth, go Blue.
The Track -- Day 4: Qualifying
[July 11, 2008 -- 1:25 am]
So the mechanical engineers pulled an all-nighter and replaced at least half of the brake system, and we passed the braking test first thing this morning.
Yesterday was pretty sad when the brake handle decided to squirt fluid into Mike's eye right before our braking test, but I guess it was for the best because we were forced to replace faulty components and the car is now safer.
Anyway, after that we got on the starting grid for qualifying and started racking up laps. There is one more day of qualifying tomorrow, and then the starting grid for the race is determined by who completed the most laps. We were the first team to officially qualify for the race, and so far we are way out in front for pole position. We've basically been kicking it Sunrunner style, not going particularly fast, but also not breaking down at all.
It has most definitely been a long day though, especially for our drivers who actually had to steer Continuum around the 1.7-mile road course 140 times. They rock.
Tomorrow will be just as long.
The Track -- Day 3: Scrutineering
[July 9, 2008 -- 12:08 am]
Well, all of the teams have shown up, and our car is almost "all green" in the scrutineering process. We pretty much just have to do a braking test before we can get out on the track and start racking up laps. Of course, we want to let some other teams go out first because there's some really interesting turns and hills, and we're half expecting a solar car pile-up.
Also, we got a good test of our Base-X Rapid Deployment Shelters today when a momentary torrential downpour came, complete with 50mph winds. The only team member to really get wet was Mike, but it was for the greater good (read: burgers).
And we found out who our toughest competitor is going to be, and it's definitely Principia. They've got solar cells that came from the same batch as ours, a really slick aero body, and it's pretty well built too.
Tomorrow we'll finish up getting our car checked off, and take some practice laps in a Tahoe, and then Thursday we start qualifying.
Texas is still hot as balls. Even when it's raining.
The Track -- Day 0: Arrival
[July 6, 2008 -- 10:33 am]
So we got to the track last night just before sundown, and met the only other team here, Durham, who also happens to hail from the farthest away.
The only distinguishing factor I've noticed about Texas is that it's hot as balls. It got up to 101 F yesterday, and there's plenty of ultraviolet light. Thankfully the night offers some relief, as it cooled off rather readily once the sun went down.
Today we took a morning charge with the array to see how much power we can expect on the race, and I practiced playing Revelry on the aluminum battery-lifting bars. Allegedly the officials are supposed to show up around noon, and then other teams should start arriving. I'm anxious to find out which teams are going to be our competition, since most of their websites offer little information.
Go time.
[July 2, 2008 -- 10:40 pm]
So the solar car team is driving down to Texas right now. In 10.5 days we'll be crossing the starting line for the North American Solar Challenge. Between now and then we have to register, pass scrutineering, and qualify on the track. Then we can proceed to rock this bitch.
I'll be posting some updates, but the team keeps a pretty good blog: http://umsolar.com/blog
Mock Race; epilogue
[June 6, 2008 -- 12:32 am]
Welp, we're on the way back to Michigan now, riding in style as usual. For 14 hours.
All in all, it was a pretty successful mock race (you can read all about it on the team's blog). The weather was pretty terrible, but Continuum ran like a champion, and we still got to Fargo in 4 days (including a few hours off to hide from a hail storm).
We've hammered out a lot of problems that would have slowed us down on the race, and we're a lot more confident in our racing abilities now. Continuum had pretty much zero issues the whole time, we just had to fix a few of our procedures and strats. We will just be making one more iteration of our battery protection system and installing the last couple of solar modules that are in the mail. Should be pretty relaxing compared to the few weeks before the last race.
Mock race; preface 2
[May 31, 2008 -- 3:29 am]
Embassy Suites FTW.
Age of Empires copy protection FTL.
Pay wifi FTL.
Cingular 3G internet FTW.
So, we made it to Dallas, and we're chilling in an Embassy Suites, down the street from the Spanish car dealership and the drive-through beer store with the bikini girls out front.
Tomorrow we finish outfitting vehicles, debug the rest of the BPS system, practice putting up our Base-X tents, and get ready to hit the road with Continuum the next morning.
Mock race; preface
[May 29, 2008 -- 10:10 pm]
So I'm in a Hybrid Tahoe, driving with the Solar Car Team down to Texas for our mock race, using a Cingular wireless internet card from one of our sponsors.
I'm hoping this mock race will be much less of a clusterfuck than the last one, not least of all because its not our first time, which is always kind of painful.
Also, rolling in 4 black Tahoes with antennas and shit on the roofs is kind of sweet.
Yay walking.
[April 6, 2008 -- 1:54 am]
It was so nice out today that I decided to walk 4 miles to my condo from central campus. Well, more like couldn't find a ride back. It was still nice out though. Also, I was returning from Ninjutsu training, so I got to walk through town carrying a wooden sword. Good times.
it's 4:15am the very next day ...
[March 26, 2008 -- 4:19 am]
... son of a bitch.
It's 4:50am ...
[March 25, 2008 -- 4:50 am]
Do you know where your c++ debugger is?
Parking lot theory
[March 19, 2008 -- 8:44 pm]
Today I made a new discovery to contribute to the theory of parking lot dynamics:
The amount of suffering in the cold is equal to the distance from the parking lot you thought you were parked in, to the parking lot you were actually parked in, (in miles), divided by an average walking speed of 3 (miles/hour).
That is:
Suffering = distance(ActualLot, ThoughtLot) / 3
In my case, I spent 10 minutes freezing my ass off.
Toyota
[February 14, 2008 -- 7:02 pm]
Yeah, so I got an internship offer from Toyota Technical Center. I guess this affirms my 1337 status.
Also, I'm officially on the 2008 Solar Car race crew, so I get to go help own the North American Solar Challenge. Should be a good time.
Electroschwinn lives!
[January 4, 2008 -- 6:14 pm]
So yeah, I finally got my electric bike working properly, and rode it a couple miles to the post office. This is a device that will definitely be a lot more enjoyable in the summer months, but regardless I got up to 30 mph on Plymouth rd and had a blast.
I'm definitely investing in a ski mask though. Jesus it's cold.
Netherlands
[December 9, 2007 -- 7:26 am]
So I'm in Dutchland right now, which is pretty neat. I came here to visit my sister, who's studying abroad in Utrecht. Mostly everybody speaks english, but a lot of signs and stuff are in Dutch, so it's a little confusing. Yesterday we went to Gouda, which is where they make Gouda cheese. We went to a cheese shop there and got some amazingly awesome Gouda cheese, and ate it on a train (with beer).
Also, the plane ride here was the first time I've ever finished an entire book in one 8-hour shot. Michael Crichton's Prey is a pretty awesome book. I haven't read any Crichton since Andromeda Strain, because I was pretty bored by it, but Prey is a lot more like Jurassic Park, and I definitely recommend picking it up.
A couple of movie reviews
[November 25, 2007 -- 5:01 am]
So I watched a couple of movies today; Live Free or Die Hard, and Death Proof.
Movie Review: Live Free or Die Hard
I was thoroughly entertained by this movie. There were plenty of highly unlikely action sequences, but I think the best part was the marked absence of a frustrating cliche that appears in almost every action movie: The meat-headed official who has authority but absolutely refuses to listen to the protagonist. That always annoys the hell out of me, and I was able to enjoy the movie a lot more without that crap. Highly recommended.
Movie Review: Death Proof
It'll take you about 45 minutes to figure it out, but the movie is not about a bunch of babbling idiot bitches and their adventures in bar-hopping, but rather it's about an ex-stunt-man serial killer who uses reinforced "death-proof" stunt-cars to murder women. I would highly recommend against watching this movie without a fast forward button, unless you're a cinematography junky or something. there's a couple of good action sequences, but they're adrift in a sea of mindless bitches babbling on and on about stupid shit.
Back in the states
[November 19, 2007 -- 6:38 am]
So yeah, I'm back in America, where I can once again breathe in the sweet air of freedom. Seriously though, there is something missing in American culture, and that absence is troubling. I speak, of course, of an Australian culinary masterpiece, the deep-fried Mars bar. We are falling behind as a people, and this lack of fried candy bars could be the downfall of our great nation.
Also, what the fuck happened to the dollar when I was gone? You people can't manage an economy without me here, can you? An Aussie dollar was worth about $0.80 American two months ago, now it's like $0.97. Ridiculous. The Canadians have a stronger dollar than us now. CANADIANS! (as a side note, I'm voting for Ron Paul, because he seems like the only one who'll do something about it)
Anyway, I missed driving on the right side of the road, good Mexican food, free internet, soft beds, and of course Kristine. It's good to be back.
At some point I'll get around to posting all my pictures. There's about 6 gigabytes worth.
Epilogue
[November 1, 2007 -- 1:51 am]
So yeah, I'm sitting in the Melbourne Library, using their public internet terminals. Melbourne's a pretty cool place, the weather's nice, and I don't have to think about solar cars for the next two weeks.
The race was pretty heartbreaking; we had the fastest and most reliable car in the competition, but we got in a traffic accident 4 kilometers from the start line. Basically, the WSC officials did some stupid shit releasing Stanford's solar car right before us and their support vehicles had to do more stupid shit to try and catch up to their car driving down the road, and for whatever reason one of their support vehicles ended up coming to a complete stop in the middle of the road, which caused our solar car to rear-end our lead vehicle. Lots of shattered carbon fiber and crushed dreams. Anyway, we spent the entire day repairing structural damage and replacing solar cells, and hit the road the next morning, then proceeding to go faster than everyone. Also, almost everyone had mechanical system failures except us. There's no doubt in my mind that we would have won the race if not for our extraordinarily bad luck.
It's still pretty amazing that we did as well as we did, we showed great perseverance and teamwork all that, but damnit we should have won. So it goes I guess. We'll just have to annihilate the North American Solar Challenge next summer.
Anyway, I'm going to be tooling around Australia until the 12th, and I get to see the premiere of episode 15 of Pure Pwnage, which happens to be in Melbourne in two days. We don't really have much of a travel plan, so if you know of anything sweet we should do while we're here leave me suggestions on the board.
Australia
[September 10, 2007 -- 1:19 pm]
So I'm going to be in Australia for the next two months, racing in the World Solar Challenge. We should be updating our site regularly: umsolar.com, and we also have a blog going: umsolar.com/blog.
If you need to contact me in the next two months, good luck.
Funny story
[July 29, 2007 -- 6:41 am]
So I was filling up at the Speedway on Michigan Avenue, and a state trooper pulled somebody over as they pulled into the gas station. I watched the situation unfold, and it became clear that the reason the man had been pulled over was that there was a can of beer on the roof of his car.
Genius.
Bonus funny story:
A bearing shattered and I caught some shrapnel on my ear, and got three stitches.
I'm getting fucking sick of Ann Arbor
[July 24, 2007 -- 8:07 pm]
Most of the time, living in Ann Arbor is rather enjoyable. It just makes me want to stomp a kitten when I get fifty dollars of parking tickets for exceeding a "2 hour limit" parking meter. Apparently around here that means even if you keep refilling the meter every two hours they will still give you a $25 parking ticket every two hours your car sits there. Fucking fascists.
So now I got two parking tickets for the same violation, which was written as "Parked over legal limit." To make matters worse, the mythical "parking referee" only works for about two hours a day in city hall, which is completely unfair for people on a nocturnal sleep schedule.
Solar Car Unveiled
[July 24, 2007 -- 7:50 pm]
So we had a pretty sweet unveiling, and we finally got around to posting pictures on our website too. Here's a sweet link: http://www.engin.umich.edu/solarcar/pics_unveiling.html
Solar Car Unveiling
[July 11, 2007 -- 8:44 pm]
So our unveiling for the solar car is this Saturday, so if you want to see what I've been working on for the last several months, you should check it out. Info and RSVP here: umsolar.com/unveiling
Rest In Peace
[May 5, 2007 -- 7:17 pm]
Meh.
[April 19, 2007 -- 7:15 pm]
We shall see soon whether or not I failed the EECS 215 final. Hopefully the curve will fall nicely around 30-40%.
Fuck chemistry.
[April 18, 2007 -- 6:39 pm]
Yeah, so I got a 70% on the chem125 final. I would be a lot more pissed if I weren't so relieved to never have to look at a periodic table again.
FUCK YEAH!!!
[April 17, 2007 -- 2:32 am]
I aced the shit out of the second EECS 215 midterm! The third highest grade in the class!
This completely cancels out my 51% on the first midterm!
I'm not going to fail the class now!!!
Yellow with a stripe, bitches
[April 15, 2007 -- 9:26 pm]
I got a new belt in Ninjutsu! Huzzah!
Son of a bitch.
[April 6, 2007 -- 4:04 am]
I left my car in the driveway in front of the solar car office for LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES and I got a fucking parking ticket.
Bastards.
Press Release
[April 1, 2007 -- 6:38 pm]
The Solar Car Team decided to release a picture of our car today. Check out the first picture of Continuum.
EDIT: It was a good April Fool's Day joke, but now it's off the front page. The link to the picture still works though.
Damn you, IBM
[March 25, 2007 -- 11:36 pm]
Okay, so apparently reinstalling Windows was the worst thing I could have done. Thinkpads have some magical software and drivers that make Windows able to run on them, and when I reinstalled all of it was lost, and since I got it on eBay, I don't have any of the discs it came with.
Now, it was still under warranty but here's the good part: they would either charge me $45 for a "Recovery CD", or for free they will have someone fix it for me, with shipping both ways included.
Yeah, I'll take option 2, thanks.
My computer has never been this fucked up before.
[March 25, 2007 -- 4:39 pm]
A week or two ago my laptop stopped working. It gets to the XP loading screen and stays there for 8 hours if I let it.
So, after exhausting all my regular repair procedures, I decided to just reinstall XP. I reformatted the hard drive and did a full reinstall..
And it does the same goddamn thing! What the Fuck?
Creepy...
[March 9, 2007 -- 10:02 am]
Another fun fact: at 7:00am all the computers restart themselves.
Homework trumps sleep
[March 9, 2007 -- 4:23 am]
Fun fact: The janitorial staff cleans the FXB computer lab at 4:15am
Piece of shit chair.
[March 8, 2007 -- 12:00 pm]
So apparently OfficeMax uses really shitty foam padding in their desk chairs because I've only had this thing for about 6 months and the butt padding has gone completely flat. It's really uncomfortable now.
"This page has been loaded 13666 times."
[March 5, 2007 -- 5:03 pm]
Creepy.
Back to the routine...
[March 5, 2007 -- 5:00 pm]
Spring break is over, or as I like to call it, "Work on Solar Car for 16 hours a day for a whole week and then get 24 hours of sleep in two days and go back to school."
So, it's back to updating my website instead of doing homework. Sorry I don't have anything of substance to update, just routine news postings.
Gotta love Solar Car
[February 28, 2007 -- 12:34 am]
Yeah, so my dinner today ended up consisting of about half a dozen pastries of various types spaced out over a few hours.
Spring break
[February 23, 2007 -- 4:30 pm]
So yeah, I'm going to be sticking around Ann Arbor during break to work on the solar car. Good times.
Good shit
[February 17, 2007 -- 1:40 am]
Some songs are 10 and a half minutes long, and yet are too short.
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by Santa Esmeralda is one such song.
Fun with bananas
[February 16, 2007 -- 2:49 am]
So yeah, the "National Society of Collegiate Scholars" keeps sending me letters telling me to join their bullshit organization for $75, so I took the "business reply mail" envelope that they included in their last letter, and mailed it back to them with a whole banana in it.
Now they have to pay postage for a banana. Ah, sweet irony.
I made Solar Car Race Crew!
[February 4, 2007 -- 1:31 pm]
So yeah, I'm going to Australia with the team next fall, and I get to spend roughly all of my free time (and some not free time) between now and then working on the car. Today we had our 'initiation' which entailed standing in the middle of the Big House, going into the Wolverines locker room, and a few wise words from Jake Long.
On a related note, there probably won't be many updates on here since almost everything I'm working on will be classified.
Oh yeah, and I recently got my yellow belt in Ninjutsu. Such an exciting time. Anyhow, here's some pictures from testing, even though I'm only in one picture and it's from really far away: http://www.pbase.com/ak/godai_07&page=all
Rudimentary updates
[January 12, 2007 -- 1:16 am]
I added one picture and one program yesterday. The picture is an extra credit project for my mechanical engineering intro class. It supports a textbook off the edge of a table using only paper and scotch tape. I only used about 3.5 sheets of paper.
Also, I put up a nifty little Perl script that I wrote a few weeks ago to compute standard deviation.
Enjoy.
Happy Holidays
[December 26, 2006 -- 4:20 am]
Season's greetings to all, no matter your denomination.
Keep it to yourself though, if you see through the thin fascade of sensitivity. It makes the Christians feel good about themselves.
100 spams per day
[December 21, 2006 -- 1:48 am]
It's official. My gmail account has received over 3000 spams in the last 30 days.
15 kiloVolts
[December 14, 2006 -- 6:05 am]
So yeah, I took Afrotech's advice and made myself a 15kV shoe with which to shock people; it's really a lot of fun. If you're both properly grounded, you can get a nice half-inch arc, and quite a substantial jolt.
Here's the ion generator I bought: Electronic Goldmine
Revelation
[December 6, 2006 -- 7:59 pm]
I just had an epiphany:
It is a complete waste of time to fold socks.
It's about the same amount of space efficiency to just stuff them in my drawer, and it's much more time efficient to just pick out two socks that match in the mornings.
I've been wasting so much time...
There's probably some sweet updates on the way
[December 1, 2006 -- 3:42 am]
So yeah, the first semester of college has really put a damper on my modding activities. However, I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that I just ordered a 15kV power supply with which I will perform all kinds of nifty experiments for the amusement of young and old.
I did try to build a small EMP-generator out of a camera flash circuit, but it failed miserably due to me being unable to find proper magnet wire. As soon as I get some that shit is going on the website.
So don't fret. There should be some cool shit going up here soon.
This kicks ass.
[November 26, 2006 -- 4:41 am]
I'm posting this on a wireless keyboard attached to the awe-inspiring home theater system my dad just got installed. I just finished helping him integrate in a laptop so the system can assimilate a 500gb hard drive or two and store all the movies one could ever desire. It's basically the coolest thing ever.
Pwned.
[November 10, 2006 -- 3:50 am]
So this loser was hotlinking his myspace background image to my server, so I gave him some internet justice. Behold, the aftermath:
http://www.myspace.com/ragingthoughts
[Update:]
So he finally noticed and took down the background. Luckily I saved a screenshot.
zuma.phire.org officially decommissioned
[November 10, 2006 -- 2:10 am]
This site's old location, zuma.phire.org, has now been replaced with a page that simply redirects here. Just thought you would like to know.
Continuum logo
[November 7, 2006 -- 11:12 pm]
I found a vector image of the logo for this year's Solar Car and put it up there on my header image. So if you were wondering what that thing is, it's called Continuum, and it's going to kick everyone's ass in the World Solar Challange next year.
I'm 19 now!
[October 5, 2006 -- 4:02 am]
Huzzah! Now I can ... um ... drink legally in Canada ... and ...
Okay, so being 19 is pointless, but I guess it's marginally better than 18.
My terabyte dreams have been realized.
[September 30, 2006 -- 6:17 am]
I just got another 250 gigabyte hard drive off woot.com today, so I now officially have a terabyte of storage space. That is, I have four 250gB drives at my disposal.
I'm going to have to come up with some new and interesting ways to fill disk space.
Oh yeah, and I finished three assignments today within an hour of their respective due dates (e.g. a philosophy paper and two differential equations homeworks). So now I'm going to sleep. For a long time.
I fucking hate college homework
[September 18, 2006 -- 2:06 am]
"This problem was finished 1 minute and 59 seconds after the assignment due date and receives 0% of possible points."
Fuckers.
I just discovered...
[September 16, 2006 -- 6:57 am]
... a whole level of discomfort that I didn't even know existed.
Try this at home:
- Buy a slice of pizza.
- Put peppers on the slice.
- While eating the slice, laugh at something.
- Spend the next half hour desperately trying to dislodge a fucking peppercorn from the depths of your nose.
I'm back online and kicking ass!
[September 14, 2006 -- 7:43 pm]
Yes! After 3 weeks of not having a server due to the shortsightedness of my previous host (that would be you, Auchter), I finally have my territory back on the internet!
Since my site went down, a lot has happened. Primarily I started college at the greatest University on the planet: Michigan. So far everything is kicking quite a lot of ass.
This website is a collection of projects I have either built, modified, programmed, or hacked. The website itself is an example; I coded all of the PHP to serve up the pages, keep track of the guestbook, display pictures, and do all kinds of neat tricks behind the scenes.
I send out a "Welcome Back" to all of the people who have been missing my site, and a "Welcome" to all my new friends who had no idea how much of a nerd I was.
So I just looked on RateMyProfessors.com...
posted on: August 22, 2006 4:20 am
And it turns out that all of my professors for this term kick ass. Hooray for me!
Woodward Dream Cruise
posted on: August 19, 2006 9:52 pm
Wow, I am kind of pissed off that I haven't gone to this the last 3 years. Seriously, this was way cooler than any car show. I don't think I've ever seen so much horsepower in one place before. Just beautiful cars.
Movie Review: Snakes on a Plane
posted on: August 18, 2006 1:08 am
The only thing I was disappointed about was the fact that there were about 14 people in our theater. Seriously, this movie kicked ass. Grant you, that's all it did, but if you've been paying attention at all for the last few months, that's what you expect with this movie, and boy does it deliver.
Without spoiling too much of the movie, I'd just like to point out some of the things to demonstrate how much ass it kicks.
Among other things, Snakes on a Plane has:
- Snakes
- A plane
- Samuel L. Jackson
- An annoying chihuahua getting its shit ruined by a boa constrictor
- Partial Nudity
- Guns
- Samuel L. Jackson
- Motherfucking snakes on a motherfucking plane!
I give it 11 out of 10.
w00t!!!
posted on: August 18, 2006 1:01 am
I won the lottery! The parking space lottery! I got a fucking parking space at U of M!
I bought my own domain name!
posted on: August 16, 2006 10:34 pm
Now, if you go to www.chriszuma.com it redirects here. Eventually it will be a front to my dorm-wide tech support and fresh roasted coffee business.
Sweet Jesus. I must see this movie.
posted on: August 14, 2006 1:32 am
I just saw a preview for the movie "Crank". It stars the guy from The Transporter, and the whole point of the movie is that if he stops kicking ass he will die.
I must see this movie.
I'm perfecting my Coffee-Fu
posted on: August 12, 2006 7:23 pm
While some people are getting ready for college by learning how to do laundry and hem pants, I've been practicing my coffee-brewing technique. I've decided on a french press for the dorm room, and I bought a burr grinder so I can get it as fresh as possible.
College should be a good time.
I just unplugged my computer.
posted on: August 9, 2006 1:27 am
Now I plugged it back in again. Now I unplugged it. Now I plugged it back in. Unplugged. Plugged.
I love having an uninterruptible power supply.
Movie Review: Talladega Nights
posted on: August 7, 2006 2:45 pm
Will Ferrel does not disappoint. A hilarious movie, and well worth the 8 dollars. It's refreshing to see a movie that's (as far as I know) not a remake, a sequel, or "based on" anything, and doesn't suck. It's probably the first such movie this year.
Kershaw gets the Chris Hammond Seal of Approval
posted on: August 7, 2006 2:42 pm
So my Kershaw spring-assist knife got worn out and stopped springing a couple weeks ago. I contacted their warranty department and they said to send it in along with my address and a description of the problem. In the description, I asked if they would mind replacing it with the same model but with the serraded blade.
Today I received my knife in the mail, with a sharp, serraded new blade, and it springs like new.
It's nice to know that some companies still care about customer service. Kershaw Knives gets the Chris Hammond Seal of Approval.
IKEA is AEKI backwards... think about that.
posted on: August 4, 2006 11:42 pm
So yeah, I went to this gigantic IKEA store and bought a swedish couch and some swedish cinnamon rolls, and some swedish lamps, and Kristine got a swedish chair, and I got a swedish fucking headache. Seriously people, it's just a furniture store. Calm down. It doesn't deserve a pilgrimage.
So I just finished reading Snow Crash
posted on: August 1, 2006 3:24 am
This is the kind of book that makes literacy worth the effort.
Fun fact:
posted on: July 30, 2006 10:37 pm
When you leave a bowl of milk from cereal you have eaten out on the counter for two days, it actually turns gelatinous.
Loose Change bullshit
posted on: July 28, 2006 12:45 pm
So Maddox posted this link to a point-by-point analysis of all the bullshit in Loose Change, which is the most popular 9/11 conspiracy video. It's absurd how much bullshit, logical fallacies, and outright lies are in the movie. Check out this website, which uses actual research and logic:
Loose Change Viewer's Guide
Just thought you'd like to know...
posted on: July 26, 2006 6:27 pm
I finally got a proper header image on our team website, http://trucktownthunder.com. It looks way sweeter now.
Figure-8 racing is sweet.
posted on: July 26, 2006 10:54 am
So Kristine and I went to the 4-H fair yesterday and saw a figure-8 race. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's like a demolition derby, but way cooler.
Same old story...
posted on: July 23, 2006 7:59 pm
Yeah, we got our asses kicked by 1114 again. It sucks even more because we got picked by the 8th seed team in the first round of selections, and if they hadn't chosen us then 1114 was going to.
Anyway, it was still a good time because I got to drive the robot and I kicked a few asses.
Indiana Robotics Invitational
posted on: July 20, 2006 10:32 pm
So I'm down here in Indiana for the IRI with the remnants of my robotics team. I took the liberty of hacking the hotel computer so I don't have to use their shitty, shitty browser that covers 2/3 of the screen in ads. I think I'll just leave this browser window open for the next guy, as well as the command prompt.
Good times.
More evidence that I kick ass:
posted on: July 17, 2006 9:01 pm
Here are my AP scores from this year:
| AP Physics C-Mech: | 5 |
| AP Computer Science A: | 5 |
| AP Chemistry: | 4 |
Movie Review: Transporter 2
posted on: July 14, 2006 1:55 am
If your idea of a great movie is anything other than an hour and a half of ass kicking, then Transporter 2 is not for you.
Best car ride ever.
posted on: July 13, 2006 10:48 pm
I drove the M3!
Stickshift? No problem.
Sweat in the eyes? Slight problem.
We're Back and Kicking Ass
posted on: July 13, 2006 7:24 pm
Well, phire.org has a shiny new cable modem, a fresh cable to the neighborhood box, and more power than ever before. 16,000kbps Downstream!
I've just been doing work for my dad's business though for the last few weeks though, so there's nothing interesting to post anyway. Fun fact: VB.NET has enough regex support for me to not have murderous feelings.
Worst car ride ever.
posted on: July 5, 2006 10:23 pm
I learned something on my ride back; if you start to feel nauseated, don't wait until the next exit to pull over. Do it right fucking now.
Also, pepto bismol is fucking useless.
Away message
posted on: June 30, 2006 5:49 pm
So I'm going up north to Mikhail's cabin, so I'll probably be unreachable for a few days. You don't care though.
This page has been loaded 11111 times
posted on: June 28, 2006 6:08 pm
Sweet.
I feel blessed.
posted on: June 28, 2006 12:45 pm
So while I was waiting in line bored, I sent Maddox an email from my phone. I got this reply from him:
Chris, I think you're the first dude to email me from an actual signing.
Awesome.
maddox@xmission.com
http://maddox.xmission.com
waiting In line for maddox...
posted on: June 27, 2006 7:36 pm
so yeah, standing here in line at maddox's book signing. it seems like we're going to be here for a few more hours though. fun fact: maddox's favorite programming language is perl.
Update: I posted a picture of me being mocked by my idol.
We're off to see the Maddox
posted on: June 27, 2006 12:10 am
So yeah, I'm going on a micro-roadtrip tomorrow (actually today now) to Maddox's book signing in Ann Arbor. Let me break this down for those of you who don't understand the full effect here:
- I'm going on a roadtrip for a book signing.
- The author in question is an internet celebrity.
I don't think I could be much more nerdy right now.
And I tested out of ENGR 101, too.
posted on: June 22, 2006 2:13 am
One more class I don't have to take: Intro to Computer Programming. Huzzah! That pretty much means that to meet the requirements to become a sophomore, I will need about 2 classes.
Movie Review: Nacho Libre
posted on: June 21, 2006 1:59 pm
A cross between Napoleon Dyamite, Rocky, and Jack Black not being funny. I give it a C.
How to make an entire room smell like cinnamon:
posted on: June 20, 2006 6:01 pm
Take an empty (but not washed out) tin of Red Penguin Mints, or possibly Cinnamon Altoids. Pour a SMALL AMOUNT of isopropyl alcohol into it and swish it around so the whole bottom of the tin is wet. Now light it on fire. When it burns out, your whole room will have that pleasant burnt-cinnamon aroma.
Disclaimer: If you burn your house down, don't say I didn't warn you.
Fixed it.
posted on: June 20, 2006 1:59 am
I also learned another lesson: being "pretty sure" that a wire isn't important is not a good enough reason to remove it.
Back to the workroom.....
posted on: June 19, 2006 10:11 pm
So I got some new headphone jacks and control knobs for the A47 Amp and I was in the process of installing them and well... There's nothing quite like the feeling of a drill bit catching on a piece of plastic and almost annihilating your entire project.
Anyway, time to go make a new end plate.
Restaurant review: The Fish Market - East Lansing
posted on: June 19, 2006 10:08 pm
Best . Key Lime Pie . Ever.
My first taste of life at U of M:
posted on: June 12, 2006 2:45 pm
So I'm trying to get my dual-enrollment calculus credits sorted out. I called the undergraduate admissions office asking about my credits, and they referred me to Mr. Shipp, who handles transfer credits. Once I got ahold of him (3 days later), he said that for the engineering college, I actually want to speak to Ms. Burch. I got ahold of her and was almost immediately transfered to another office, where I spoke with a man who seemed miffed that Ms. Burch had transferred me to him. He wrote down some information and is now going to sort out why Ms. Burch felt I was not good enough to speak to her.
Ahh, the joys of going to a large university.
Ahhh... LAN parties...
posted on: June 12, 2006 5:46 am
So, advice: If you must reinstall windows, do not do it the same day you are to attend a lan party. Unless of course, you are okay with arriving 9 hours later than other people.
Decking is not fun.
posted on: June 10, 2006 1:32 am
So we're replacing the boards on our deck, and I now have a giant fucking bruise on my leg.
Advice: Before you step on a board that's set across the frame of the deck, make sure that is is properly supported on either end.
Rock on.
posted on: June 7, 2006 11:13 am
So yeah, I just finished registering for classes at UofM, and my schedule kicks ass:
Physics 240- electromagnetism
Math 216- differential equations
Philosophy 232- problems of philosophy
(unless I somehow didn't ace that test-out for ENG101- Intro to Programming)
Oh yeah...
posted on: June 6, 2006 11:48 pm
And today is 6/6/06. If I was a goth kid I would be happy today, which would represent an oasis of satisfaction in the darkness that consumes this world.
University of Michigan
posted on: June 6, 2006 11:43 pm
So, i'm here at U of M for orientation, and I'm a little bit too tired to walk around town tonight after the 50 miles of walking tours and 50,000,000 powerpoint slides today. Anyway, if I get the schedule I picked out, I will be quite happy, because then I will have 3 classes, the earliest of which starts at 9:30. And if I ace this computer science placement exam tomorrow I can skip the intro compsci course here.
I wish I had known last year that they don't give crap for the AP Compsci 'A' exam, because then I would have taken the 'AB'. Also, if I get anything less than a 5 on the AP Physics, then I get crap for that too. Luckily, I kick way too much ass for that to happen.
Evidence of my asskickery: I aced the math placement test, the chem placement test, and oddly enough the spanish placement test. The latter of which means that I get 8 free humanities credits towards my major (out of 16 required). Hooray for spanish.
Or, as they would say in Spain, "Hooray para espanol!"
How to fuck up your circadian rhythm:
posted on: June 3, 2006 1:26 am
Step one: Get up early.
Step two: Take a nap after dinner.
Step three: Awake from nap at 1:00 am
Final A47 update
posted on: June 2, 2006 2:38 am
Done! w00t! I got the right capacitors in the mail today and finished everything up. It works awesomely, and looks awesome. I replaced the rear panel with clear polycarbonate to fix the little problem I had that fried three TLE2426 rail splitters before I figured it out (good thing I got those free from TI). Anyway, I put up all the pictures I've taken and a paragraph on the Creations page.
Fuck Geek Squad and U3
posted on: June 1, 2006 7:09 pm
So I won this 1gb Best Buy Geek Squad flash drive at the senior all-night party, and all I have to say is that U3 is the devil. It came with a seperate partition that got recognized by the computer as a CD-ROM drive, and autoran some shitty software to launch their shitty apps and spread geek squad propaganda. After some googling, I found an uninstaller, which transforms it back into one plain old flash drive again. It can be found Here.
If that link stops working, look for newer ones on this forum.
Gradumacated
posted on: May 31, 2006 9:39 pm
Another milestone: the last time I'll ever have to listen to the douchy teachers
TubesAndMore.com comes through
posted on: May 30, 2006 5:20 pm
A nice lady called me and said that they got my email and they're sending me the right part. There's something to be said for sending vaguely threatening letters.
Another email to TubesAndMore.com:
posted on: May 30, 2006 4:27 pm
Last week I received an incorrect part from an order I placed through your website. I sent an email stating that I had ordered a .47uF Solen capacitor, and received one that is 4.7uF, which is entirely too big for my application. I received an email back from "Jorge Moreno" who misread my email and said that I made a mistake and that you sent me what I ordered.
I then replied that he was mistaken and that I was most definitely sent the wrong part. It has been 4 days since that last email, and I have gotten no reply.
I am still sitting here with the wrong capacitors that I can't use, and your company has made no effort whatsoever to correct the situation. I am highly dissatisfied with your level of customer service, and want to let you know not to expect another penny from me, or anyone who looks to me for advice, in the future.
For reference, my order number was 6052132561.
Sincerely,
~Chris Hammond
Fuck Chaintech, Fuck the AV710
posted on: May 30, 2006 12:47 am
I retract my previous review of the AV710. It is a piece of shit. It has great sound quality when piped through my A47 from the high res output, but every piece of software written for this thing is a steaming pile of week-old kangaroo shit. I've been fighting with the damn thing all day and I still can't get windows to get along with it, and none of my games will make so much as a beep through it. Fuck Chaintech.
A47 fucking works!
posted on: May 28, 2006 3:06 am
w00t! I got everything soldered onto perfboard, and it fucking works! Of course it still won't fit in my enclosure because I haven't gotten the correct capacitors yet (hence the gigantic barrels attached to it). It fucking works though! Yes!
Chaintech AV710 kicks ass
posted on: May 27, 2006 5:13 pm
Great improvement over onboard sound card. For a $30 upgrade, it's very nice.
A47 Update
posted on: May 26, 2006 2:34 pm
Huzzah! I breadboarded one channel and it sounds pretty freakin sweet. I'm in the process of soldering it all together. Of course I can't finish until I get the proper capacitor that will fit inside my project box, but I can put the rest of it together.
Email I Just sent:
posted on: May 26, 2006 9:20 am
Dear TubesAndMore.com,
I just received my order in the mail, and among the items was part number C-FSD47-630, a 4.7uF Solen Fast Cap. However, what I actually ordered was a .47uF Solen Fast Cap; this incorrect capacitor will not work in my application. I am not sure how you would like to resolve this problem, but if it does not involve sending me the right part immediately, I am going to buy it elsewhere.
Sincerely,
~Chris Hammond
A47 Amp update
posted on: May 25, 2006 1:53 am
So I got my enclosure and a few other parts in the mail today from Mouser, and I have all the parts needed to complete the power supply side of the amp. Also, it's a good thing that I got five TLE2426 Rail Splitters because I already fried one by shorting it out. Anyway I made a final draft of the board I am going to build, it is called "A47v2.jpg" in the pictures.
No more high school ever!
posted on: May 24, 2006 5:22 pm
And damn it feels good.
The last paper I will ever write for high school
posted on: May 24, 2006 12:50 am
And damn it feels good.
A47 headphone amp
posted on: May 21, 2006 2:32 pm
So I finally got all the parts ordered to build this amp. I've been wanting to build an amp of some sort for a while, and I have even had the op-amps lying around for a while, but I finally got the motivation to build one once I read some reviews of the A47. So yeah, now I have to wait for parts...
Here's a preview of the case it's going to be in: (except the one i ordered is black) Hammond 1455 J1201. And the company that makes it is "Hammond Manufacturing" Coincidence? I think not.
Fucking BIOS updates
posted on: May 19, 2006 12:20 am
So we finally got Adam's (previously my) Shuttle running, it turns out that the problem all along was that we were using updated drivers for the onboard LAN but the BIOS was not updated, so they didn't get along very well. Hooray for Shuttle tech support. They're off my shit list now.
By the way, I added a sweet glowing blue LED biohazard to the side of my case, I'll post some pictures once I figure out how to get my camera to take a decent photo of it.
Thank You For Smoking
posted on: May 16, 2006 10:30 pm
In a rare fluke, I actually liked a movie. Especially rare when combined with the complete lack of explosions and car chases in the movie. It was, however, funny as hell. This movie gets the Chris Hammond Seal of Approval, meaning that it is worth $8.50 to see. (The actual theater is a much different and highly negative review altogether)
Whoa.
posted on: May 15, 2006 1:27 am
I just discovered that the chipset fan on my Asus A8N-E motherboard is one loud son of a bitch. I went investigating noise sources again in my quest to quiet down my computer, and as soon as I unplugged the chipset fan, good lord, it's like night and day. If you have this motherboard, which you probably don't, for the love of god, put the chipset fan on a fan controller. Damn.
M3
posted on: May 13, 2006 2:40 pm
So my dad picked up his M3 Convertible yesterday, and it is a truly amazing car. (go here and click "Mystic Blue Metallic" for a better idea of the awesomeness.)
Fuck CompUSA.
posted on: May 10, 2006 11:04 pm
So Adam and I went there trying to find a DVI-VGA adapter for his dual monitor setup, and the only one they had was generic brand, and was marked at $35! Fuck that, we went on Newegg and paid $3.50. Three fucking dollars and fifty cents. Fuck CompUSA.
I finally posted my Perl project
posted on: May 9, 2006 11:11 pm
I finally got around to posting the "Go" game I made as a final project for my Independent Study this year. It's pretty sweet. If you're not familiar with Go, read the Wikipedia article about it.
New wheels!
posted on: May 8, 2006 7:44 pm
The stripemobile just got a new set of wheels, and I must say it is a step in the right direction. If you ignore the rust, dents, and the fact that its quarter mile time is less than its zero-to-60 time, it almost looks good.
Picture 1
Picture 2
Worklogs have a new home
posted on: May 7, 2006 6:14 pm
I've been meaning to do this for a while, but I finally added a link at the top to hold all of my work logs, rather than having them spread out across the Mods and Creations pages. I also ditched the link to Theme because nobody cares about it and I haven't updated it in about a year.
4th place!
posted on: May 5, 2006 5:37 pm
At the U of M Flint 15th Annual High School Programming Contest, my team won 4th place, which has a prize of $25. And my team was only comprised of me and Auchter. That means that with the handicap, we totally kicked everyone's asses.
10,000 hits!
posted on: May 4, 2006 7:45 pm
Huzzah! My counter rolled over 10,000 hits today, and that's just counting views of the main page. Odd that this happened the same week that Tool released "10,000 days". Ah well, it's clearly just god mocking me beecause I don't get to go to the concert.
Paintball shotguns and such
posted on: May 2, 2006 10:45 pm
So Adam and I discovered today that when you pack around 500 paintballs into the barrel of a spudgun, they have a tendency to spread out an insane amount. Anyway, after hosing off the porch and spudgun barrel, I posted a nice picture from the video we took, right as they are exiting the barrel. In the next frame they were spread out like a swarm of bees.
... That was easy.
posted on: May 2, 2006 2:32 pm
That AP CompSci test was way easier than I was fearing. Maybe too easy...
The hour of reckoning is nigh
posted on: May 1, 2006 11:13 pm
... dead reckoning that is. The AP CompSci test is tomorrow morning, so I'm going to go get some sleep now, the earliest I've been to bed on a school night since ... last year some time.
Upgrades...
posted on: April 29, 2006 2:49 am
So yeah, I realized the other day how incredibly shitty my pictures script is, so I rewrote it using the code I developed for trucktownthunder.com, so it has a much prettier interface now, and the code doesn't make my ears bleed. Also I redid the top image highlighting thinger so it doesn't use javascript, but now it doesn't work in IE, but fuck IE anyway. Anyone using that sorry excuse for a browser doesn't get to see my name light up in red.
And I stealthed the disc drive too.
posted on: April 26, 2006 11:52 pm
Picture in pictures, work log to come (probably)
VICTORY IS MINE!
posted on: April 26, 2006 4:11 pm
Hahaha, I have triumphed in the epic battle of Man against Machine. I have repaired my Windows installation so it recognizes the chipset. To the victor go the spoils; and in my case the spoils are a great deal of badassity added to my computer.(The victor also gets to make up words.)
Shit.
posted on: April 26, 2006 7:51 am
So I'm posting this at school because, despite successfully rebuilding my computer in the Lian-Li case, Windows now doesn't want to boot. I can't escape the bluescreen, even in Safe Mode. So yeah, if anyone has some advice on what the fuck I should do now, it would help.
Cover me, I'm going in...
posted on: April 25, 2006 8:02 pm
My new case, mobo and psu arrived today, so now I get to take my computer apart and put it back together in a new body. If I'm not back in 2 hours, It means I'm already dead.
New color scheme
posted on: April 24, 2006 12:20 am
So I got a little bored and decided that my color scheme was getting old. Anyway, tell me what you think.
Fuck.
posted on: April 22, 2006 10:22 am
Tickets went on sale for the Tool concert today at 10:00am. I went to ticketmaster at 10:02am and they were fucking sold out. And they're up to $400 for two on eBay already. I'm gonna go kill myself now.
Computer upgrades! Huzzah!
posted on: April 19, 2006 3:01 am
So I spent the last few hours researching product reviews and pricing with the goal of upgrading my computer's foundation for under $300. Basically, the Shuttle isn't cutting it anymore, and I need more room for peripherals. For the love of god, I only have one PCI slot right now, and 2 DIMMs. Anyway here's what I ordered:
Lian Li PC-60BPLUS II case
Asus A8N-E motherboard
Thermaltake TR2 W0070 430W psu
I'm especially excited about the Lian-Li case. It's fucking badass.
This state blows.
posted on: April 18, 2006 2:11 am
So over the weekend I drove down to Ohio for some family easter thing, and I noticed this: the second you pass the "Welcome to Michigan" sign, the road immediately turns to shit. The tranition is not gradual, it is a slap-in-the-face welcome-to-the-shithole-state-you-live-in reminder. Why can't this state get anything right?
Eureka! Fuck those text ads!
posted on: April 17, 2006 2:01 am
So, lately I've been noticing more and more of these annoying fuckers called Intellitxt ads. You go to a website and it loads, and then a whole bunch of random words turn into links to advertisers. It was really pissing me off, so I did a (very) little investigating and figured out how to get rid of them!
Basically, I discovered that the page loads a script held by intellitxt which linkifies all the words. All you have to do is block that script from loading. This is an example of the culprit, from I-Hacked's website:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://i-hacked.us.intellitxt.com/intellitxt/front.asp?ipid=2795"> All you have to do is the following:
- Be using Mozilla Suite or Firefox
- Install the AdBlock extension
- Add this to your detection rules (with the *'s):
*/intellitxt/*
-
- Profit!
No-go on operation BFSG
posted on: April 15, 2006 1:06 am
So I've changed the name of this spudgun from the BFSG to the "Benjamin Franklin Gun", because I've easily spent about a hundred dollars on parts and crap for this gun. Anyway, I put the whole thing together, and I'm currently having issues with the piston not releasing as it should. I think it's because I am using a rubber piston and it's deforming and sticking to the sides of the chamber. Anyway, I'm going to try to find a more rigid piston, and in the mean time I'm going to Ohio to see some people who share a gene or two with me.
Noted on Hack-a-Day again
posted on: April 12, 2006 11:35 pm
I didn't even notice until Mike pointed it out, but a couple days ago HaD linked to my bawls lamp page in a story about bawls lighting. That would explain the slow connection. I got 1975 page views yesterday alone, which is much higher than my average of about 120. I'm surprised Comcast hasn't cut our cable yet.
So yeah, robotics is over...
posted on: April 11, 2006 11:26 pm
We had our last official meeting of the season today. This means a couple of things: primarily, I won't see most of the team until the banquet, which will be the last time I see most of them. Second, it means I now have an overabundance of free time. Coupled with the fact that Kristine is going to be gone for all of spring break, I really need a project.
ooh! Maybe I'll finally get around to building the BFSG!
[Update:] Construction has commenced on the BFSG. I went shopping today and spent $80 at Home Depot.
Team website
posted on: April 6, 2006 9:50 pm
So I finally got around to working out the bugs in all the scripts, so our team website is finally ready for non-embarassing public viewing.
http://trucktownthunder.com/
The coolest waste of $115
posted on: April 4, 2006 10:52 pm
So this is what happens to an IFI Victor 884 speed controller when you get metal shavings in it. First, magic smoke pours out like a barbecue, then it looks like this:
Toasted victor 884
Palmetto update
posted on: April 2, 2006 11:40 pm
So yeah, we didn't win Palmetto. We really should have though. The competition was about as fierce as a kitten. With no claws. And two legs in a cast. And it's dead. Somehow we ended up picking an alliance that was not very good even though we got first pick (thanks, Denny). We won the first round, but then lost to an alliance that was flat out better than us.
And that was our last chance to get to Nationals, since we didn't have the money to sign up ahead of time.
On the positive side however, we did win the RadioShack Innovation in Control award, which is cool because the control system was pretty much all me.
Some names we have come up with:
posted on: March 29, 2006 11:11 pm
- RadioShaft
- CrapUSA
- Circuit Shitty
Feel free to email me with more suggestions
Palmetto Regional
posted on: March 28, 2006 8:11 pm
Yeah, so tonight we're driving in a big bus down to South Carolina for the Palmetto Regional. That equates to a 15-hour bus ride. Hooray for me.
Waterloo Regional
posted on: March 26, 2006 12:10 am
So yeah, we didn't win Waterloo. In fact, we lost in the semifinals, to the same two friggin teams that beat us at the Great Lakes Regional. When you get down to it, they won because their alliance had two strong shooters and we only had ourselves and two defensive robots. We did, however, win the Motorola Quality award because our robot is so awesome.
Anyway, next weekend is Palmetto, in South Carolina.
Fucking Dream Theater
posted on: March 20, 2006 8:18 pm
So yeah, we drove all the way to Detroit (an hour away) to discover that the fucking concert was cancelled, and for the box office guy to tell us, through a mouthful of tuna sandwich, that it's because "he has laryngitis."
God damnit.
The root of all evil
posted on: March 14, 2006 10:07 pm
Some people say it is money, but it has recently been discovered that the root of all evil is about 25.807
Dream Theater concert
posted on: March 14, 2006 9:59 pm
Yeah, Dream Theater's coming to the State Theatre in Detroit on Monday, I'm going, and if you like good music, so should you. Only downside: you have to go through ticketmaster, and they are assholes.
Holy shit, downages
posted on: March 11, 2006 10:07 pm
Yeah, sorry about the website being down for almost two weeks, you should totally take that up with Michael. I guess I shouldn't expect 100% uptime when the server is in my friend's basement.
I hate people.
posted on: March 2, 2006 10:35 pm
On one of the FIRST Robotics forums I frequent, there is a "reputation system" wherein people can give you points for good posts, and you look better with a bunch of green dots next to your name. This provides a nice opportunity for stupid people to piss me off. It seems that a lot of people can't recognize a joke if I don't put a fucking smiley face in the post. God damn I hate people.
USB Bluetooth dongles are a bitch.
posted on: February 28, 2006 10:11 pm
That is all.
Review: Pentech Focus Sensor: F-minus
posted on: February 26, 2006 11:56 pm
This is the shittiest mechanical pencil I have ever encountered. Somewhere along the line of designing this pencil they must have completely forgotten to test it to make sure you can actually use the thing without having the urge to kick a puppy.
First of all, it requires approximately 50,000 newtons of force to press the goddamned "Side Lead Advance" button. Then, they tried to implement a "Jumbo Twist Eraser" which reminds me more of a prototype for one of those Chinese puzzle games. You know, the kind where you have to get the ring out of the middle of the two horseshoes that are connected by pieces of chain? Yeah, that's how fucking frustrating this eraser is.
The third and final claim its packaging makes is that it's "Refillable." This, like the other "Features" is a total catastrophe. The cap, with its integrated Jumbo Twist Eraser, seperates from the body of the pencil with roughly the amount of force that an insect exerts on a Monday. Furthermore, upon uncapping it the eraser falls off, tumbling across the floor and reminding you of how shitty a pencil you bought whenever you attempt to clip it on the edge of your pocket.
The Focus Sensor gets an F-minus and I hope Pentech headquarters burns to the ground.
New discovery
posted on: February 26, 2006 4:14 am
So it turns out that calc.exe can handle a number as large as 1.0x10^215732 before rolling over into negative numbers.
EDIT: It turns out that I accidentally hit the 'Not' button, and it can go much higher than that. Currently I'm at 1.e+4146318 and it's been over half an hour since I multiplied it by itself. As far as I'm concerned, that's as high as it can go. A 4.1 million-digit number is kinda hefty.
Senioritis
posted on: February 25, 2006 2:18 am
"We'd fight for a cure, but we just don't give a fuck."
New addition to Shit List: Shuttle Computers
posted on: February 17, 2006 11:58 pm
Shuttle is now officially on my Shit List. First of all, their mobo came with no parallel port, only a promise that there is a header on the motherboard on which an optional parallel port may be attached. So I bought a standard parallel port connector on eBay, and today I discover that the fucking thing won't fit because Shuttle uses a non-standard tiny-ass header. Fuck Shuttle. Fuck them and their non-standardized motherboards.
What I just learned
posted on: February 17, 2006 1:18 am
It turns out that digging a sliver out of your palm with a knife causes more pain than simply ignoring it.
Crunch time (I wish I had some cereal now)
posted on: February 17, 2006 12:53 am
Yeah, so FIRST Robotics ship date is Tuesday, and we're not very close to being done. We would be much closer if we didn't put so much responsibility on Brent. So yeah, that's why I haven't been posting much, and won't be posting much of anything until Wednesday, when I'll probably say something about how tired I am, etc.
By the way, if one more person asks me how Clarkston's robot team is doing I will stab them in the jaw. For the last time, I am on team 68, which is way better than team 27!
Dick Cheney shot a lawyer in the face!
posted on: February 12, 2006 11:08 pm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1708599,00.html
Make blog!
posted on: February 5, 2006 10:36 pm
Yay, I got featured on the Make blog again for my external hard drive modification. Linky.
modding rampage
posted on: February 4, 2006 1:55 am
Kristine went out of town today, so I decided to go on a mini modding rampage and finish a couple of projects. One was my Poor Man's Fan Speed Controller and the other was an external hard drive modification. I posted a picture of the PMFSC in 'Creations' but I'm going to write a work log for the fan connector (for the time being, there is a picture or two in 'Pics')
UPDATE: I posted the worklog for the external hdd. Check it out.
PNY kicks ass
posted on: February 2, 2006 10:35 pm
I got my GeForce 6800 back from PNY Tech Support today, and it's good as new. Definitely one of the best experiences I've ever had with customer support. I left a message stating my problem, the next day I got a call back, from an American, who basically gave me an RMA number, told me where to ship it, and 10 days later I'm ready to rock. PNY definitely gets the Chris Hammond Seal of Approval.
Fucking chem homework
posted on: January 31, 2006 2:22 am
Yeah, 2:30 seems like a good bed time. If I had a time machine, the first thing I would do is find out whoever came up with molality and kick them in the nuts.
New and Improved Games.zip
posted on: January 24, 2006 9:24 pm
So I made some updates to the games.zip file (found in 'programs'). It now has the actual executables in the file, along with some extras. I also renamed it to games.zip.1337 so you can slip it past the school's filters. Enjoy!
Man On Fire is crappy
posted on: January 22, 2006 1:31 am
Seriously. That movie was so ridiculous. I won't go into specifics, but suffice it to say that if anyone tells you Man On Fire is a good movie, then you should immediately find something large and blunt and strike them with it, because they are a dumbass.
Fucking windows!
posted on: January 20, 2006 6:51 pm
Son of a bitch! What kind of a crackhead makes an operating system that will initiate a file transfer and tell you to wait two hours to complete, and then when it's halfway done stop all progress so it can ask the user whether or not he is fucking sure he wants to move a read-only file? Of course I want to move it! Why the fuck do I care that it's read-only? God damnnit!
Terminal velocity reached (graphics card suicide bombs)
posted on: January 20, 2006 6:42 pm
So I think I somehow reached a terminal velocity for the amount of hardware in my computer. My hard drives arrived from woot.com today and as I was formatting one of them, my video card decided to have a shitfit and take my whole system down with it. It would seem that my acquisition of new hardware is finally being matched by breakage of old hardware. Of course, it could just be a power distribution issue, but my explanation makes so much more sense.
Watermarks
posted on: January 13, 2006 11:38 pm
So yeah, a while back I discovered a webpage that had an image from my website (the biohacker notebook) featured in some sort of mock store that appeared to be a school project. Anyway, I just now realized that if I put a little unobtrusive watermark in the corner of all my pictures, I could generate more traffic from people seeing my images elsewhere. I tried to make all the watermarks as out-of-the-way as possible, since it really pisses me off when websites have their URL plastered diagonally across the whole image and you can't even tell what the hell you're looking at. I frankly don't care that much if my images are plagiarized, which is why I made it so easy to remove the watermark if you really cared enough.
New lease on life
posted on: January 11, 2006 3:27 pm
So I'm typing this on my brand new LITE-ON Standard Keyboard. Unlike my last keyboard that annoyed the shit out of me, this one has an appropriately sized enter key, and I don't have to move my hand to hit backslash. If your current keyboard sucks, I highly recommend spending $10 on a less shitty one.
fucking.....
posted on: January 11, 2006 12:55 am
Finished my final project for Perl; 310 lines for a computer version of Go.
Let me offer this one bit of advice for anyone considering doing this: The second you decide to introduce a two-dimensional array into Perl, you might as well just stick a gun in your mouth. This project definitely wins the award for greatest total stress caused by a single program, as well as induction of greatest amount of curse words screamed at my computer screen.
I might die...
posted on: January 9, 2006 11:49 pm
In case I abruptly stop posting, you can assume that I've been either hospitalized or morgue-ized because of the week that lies ahead. Not only do I have exams this week (AP Physics + AP Chem = academic death), but FIRST Robotics so strategically chose their 2006 kickoff for this week as well. Here is my schedule for the next 4 days:
3:00pm - arrive home from school, bang head on desk for an hour
4:00pm - leave for robotics
9:00pm - arrive home from robotics, bang head on desk for about 3 hours
12:00~2:00am - fall asleep
6:30am - awaken, repeat
I want:
posted on: January 6, 2006 4:34 pm
http://www.theinq.com/?article=28713
OSX-- I mean Windows Vista
posted on: January 5, 2006 4:11 pm
Come on, how much blatant plagiarism can Microsoft get away with? Have you seen their new Windows vista features and screenshots? It looks exactly like OSX! have they no shame?
Coal-miners
posted on: January 4, 2006 9:04 pm
So yeah, this whole controversy lately with the trapped coal-miners has really made me grateful for one thing: the fact that I don't watch the news. What the fuck is this obsession with sensationalizing everything? As soon as some miners get trapped, that's all people talk about for a week. Honestly, how much air time is wasted by people pretending to care about these guys and bitching about whose fault it is that they accidentally told everyone they were fine? Fuck the news.
Purdue sucks
posted on: January 2, 2006 8:31 pm
They just sent me the shittiest cd folder I've ever seen. The pages aren't double-sided, and there's only 12 of them. And worst of all, this thing is so thick you'd expect it to hold at least 20. What a piece of shit, I'm so not going there now.
I'm back.
posted on: January 2, 2006 12:42 am
So I'm back from the Aloha State (no shitting, that's what it says on their license plates), and bring many tales of scuba diving, volcano biking, snorkeling, delicious food, and ludicrous price tags. However, in the interest of keeping my webpage from being really, really boring I'm not going to write any of them here. I did get a cool picture of myself hanging out with a sea turtle though. When I scan the picture I'll post it somewhere.
Hawaii.
posted on: December 23, 2005 11:05 pm
So yeah, I'm going to Hawaii for the remainder of christmas break. If my website gets f'd up between now and then, you're on your own.
Hair.
posted on: December 23, 2005 4:17 pm
I got my hair shortened today. It's kind of weird, since I typically neglect doing that for months at a time. You could proably make thousands of voodoo dolls with the hair that was on the floor when I was done. Either that, or use it to feed a dozen starving ethiopians, or smother a midget, or crush a family of four to death, or open a Wal-Mart that exclusively sells hair. I could make millions!
I am so getting one of these
posted on: December 20, 2005 10:31 pm
iAudio X5L
Angry rant:
posted on: December 18, 2005 10:41 pm
What the fuck is up with all these 'Special Features' and 'Director Commentary' on DVDs? Who the fuck would be boring enough to sit for two hours looking at a movie while listening to the director talk about all the crazy things that happened while they were making it? Honestly, who gives a shit? The concept just pisses me off.
And then they have to put the obligatory "making of..." bullshit on there to fill the rest of the space on the DVD, which is just more shit that only complete asshole losers would care about anyway. Army of Darkness is so far the only movie I've come across that has gotten it right; they put both the widescreen and the fullscreen on one disc and left out all the retarded "Special Features," which if you ask me are special in the same way as the kids with abnormally shaped heads who run around the hallways at my school.
Yay.
posted on: December 18, 2005 8:40 pm
It appears that congress has actually done something that benefits Americans. They've gotten rid of some of the more fascistic parts of the patriot act. 16 parts are being revoked.
Ohio.
posted on: December 18, 2005 3:02 pm
I'm at my Grandparents' house in Ohio. They have DSL for some reason. We got both sets of grandparents a TiVo for christmas. Three hours later our lesson was learned: don't buy old people new technology.
This server sucks.
posted on: December 17, 2005 1:05 am
So yeah, you might have noticed over the past week or two that this server has been gradually getting shittier, and yesterday I couldn't access my website once. Mikhail blames it on a faulty network card, but in his usual fashion neglected to fix it. Anyway, there's only a slight chance that you'll be reading this at all, so I'll try not to waste too much of my time here.
Interesting events recently:
- I got my two free project enclosures from Pactec; high quality. Check them out in 'links'
- I found a 2-liter of Mountain Dew in my fridge that's over a year old. Total mindfuck.
- I'm a Corporal in BF2; excellent example of fixed ratio operant conditioning.
- My dad's Raid-5 array in his server inexplicably committed seppuku. I suspect the controller card.
Hooray for Texas Instruments
posted on: December 12, 2005 8:37 pm
So I got my free samples in the mail from TI today. 30 microchips of various types, for zero expense to me. I love TI now. I'm going to use some of these op-amps to make a nice headphone amp once Mikhail sends out the PCB to get it printed.
w00t!
posted on: December 8, 2005 12:40 am
I got promoted to Private First Class in Battlefield 2!
*Update* I'm a Lance Corporal now! Huzzah!*Update* Corporal!
The DVD from Hell (another reason I hate sony)
posted on: December 7, 2005 12:30 am
Today I tried to copy Bewitched on DVD for Kristine. What I initially didn't realize is that this was no ordinary DVD. It was forged of solid kryptonite, written with the condemned souls of a thousand rapists.
Instead of the standard 'DVD5' or 'DVD9' this disc has 'DVDL' written on it. This was by far the most evil disc I have ever encountered. It defeated clonedvd, dvddecrpter, and dvdshrink with its Cyclic Redundancy Check error. I then attempted to play it through a standalone player, piped into a standalone dvd recorder, but alas the dvd recorder has some sort of insane dvd detection and i couldn't circumvent it (Panasonic is now also on my shit list for this reason).
Not about to be defeated by a multinational corporation, I did a little research and found this gem of a program: DVDFab Decrypter. It kicks the ass of all current copy protection schemes, and it's freeware. See, there is a Computer God.
That's it. I'm never giving money to Sony again.
posted on: December 1, 2005 12:25 am
http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6283697.html
About damn time.
posted on: November 30, 2005 3:23 pm
So Ohio State finally sent me a letter today, which means that I've officially been accepted by every college to which I applied. I must kick more ass than I originally thought.
"20 minutes there, 20 back," my mom said...
posted on: November 28, 2005 7:45 pm
... three and a half fucking hours ago.
Girlfriend was out of town...
posted on: November 26, 2005 11:19 pm
So I finally finished that old SnowDuck v2.0 that's been on my shelf since last winter. It's in the creations page. Also I made a nice little crossover thingie that's there as well. My next project is to mod this 8-port hub I found, but I don't know how yet.
Holy fucking duct tape
posted on: November 21, 2005 5:46 pm
At Home Depot I picked up a box of 'Big Fix' duct tape; it is 30 feet of 12-inch-wide duct tape. Dear god, I could tape a space ship back together with this shit.
Life is good.
posted on: November 18, 2005 11:07 pm
I got those LEDs today that I ordered on eBay 3 weeks ago. They are much higher quality than the ones available at RadioShaft, and I got 20 of them for the price of 1.2 at The Shaft. So yeah, I'm basically never shopping there again.
Peerflix kicks ass
posted on: November 18, 2005 12:20 am
So I got my first DVD from peerflix today: Army of Darkness. I traded Scary Movie 2 for it, so I definitely got the better end of that deal. Seriously, check this website out. You just mail your discs to people to earn credits which you use to request new movies ($1 per trade). If you have a DVD burner, you can see the ass-kicking potential in this system. Peerflix.com
If you want to join up, use this link so I get a free credit.
Fuck Jae and Rocky
posted on: November 14, 2005 3:53 pm
Since some infantile people I know think it is hilarious to spit on people's cars, their access to my entire site has been revoked, not just the guestbook. Since they are now incapable of reading this, someone might want to inform them of this post. Of course, the nice "Fuck You" message they'll get if they try to go here will probably make it nice and clear.
Movie review: DOOM (pirated version)
posted on: November 12, 2005 4:53 pm
So yeah, my friend hands me this dvd in school that he made several copies of because he kicks ass. I feel that since I'm seeing it before anyone has the chance to pay money for it, I should write a review.
-See the doom movie if you like the doom video game.
-Don't see the doom movie if you like movies.
That pretty much sums it up. A wafer thin plot and more gratuitous violence than one viewing can comprehend make this the perfect movie for Doom obsessees. All others should probably avoid it.
More evidence our school is run by chimps
posted on: November 9, 2005 12:02 am
Who the fuck wrote this page?
I could have had a dual monitor
posted on: November 7, 2005 11:50 pm
So my dad got a new LCD, 24-inch, it's beautiful. He decides that my mom deserves his old monitor. She uses a laptop, and here is how she set it up:
She sets the monitor on the desk with the laptop in front of it. She opens the screen of the laptop 180 degrees, and uses it as a keyboard. That's right, she turned a $200 18" lcd into a mirror. And I could have had a dual monitor.
nVidia is evil.
posted on: November 6, 2005 8:48 pm
So the other day my friend and I were trying to upgrade his crappy old HP from a geForce2 to a geForce4 for some reason. It turns out that, contrary to popular belief, the prince of darkness is in fact nVidia. After many an hour he finally managed to remove the old drivers and put new ones in. If you have the same problem (though I can't imagine you would), go here.
Garage saling
posted on: November 4, 2005 4:55 pm
I love garage sales. Today I drove in a giant circle looking for sales, and got the following loot:
- Hefty metal power drill: $4.00
- 8 port 10/100 hub: $5.00
- Frosted glass globe: $2.00
- Packard Bell 486 SX computer (and some weird speaker thing): $10
I kick ass.
posted on: November 1, 2005 11:40 pm
Yay, I got into University of Michigan! I guess affirmative action isn't that persuasive after all. So now I have to choose from U of M, Kettering, Rose Hulman, Purdue, and possible Ohio State.
I kick ass.
Yeah...
posted on: October 31, 2005 3:23 pm
Today Byron learned that if you throw a ketchup-covered french fry at Chris, your whole arm will soon become covered in ketchup.
Chemistry sucks
posted on: October 30, 2005 6:38 pm
Van der Waal is a dick.
Damnit.
posted on: October 29, 2005 2:09 am
Due to more retardation and assholism, this time on the part of Jae, I have renovated my guestbook script to not only permanently block his IP, but also to not allow posts longer than 1000 characters, or two posts by the same IP less than a minute apart. I'm going to have to remember to kick him in the teeth the next time I see him.
Yay.
posted on: October 26, 2005 5:01 pm
So I hooked a switch into the circuit for my gpu fan, so I can actually hear music from my speakers now. I managed to do the whole mod without causing any noticeable effects to any part of the card, so if I accidentally fry it I can plug the fan back in and claim it was defective. I put a picture of the switch (which I think was very nicely done) in the 'pics' page.
Also, I discovered how to launch a pen incredibly far with a mousetrap, i'll post a howto on that later. And I bought 20 blue leds that are 6000mcd for $5 shipped. I love ebay.
Movie review: Stay
posted on: October 23, 2005 10:27 pm
One of those movies that's meant to be as confusing as possible, Stay also has a mostly meaningless title. Basically, they tried way too hard to make this a good movie, and almost pulled it off. The one thing that annoyed me was the filming. They used all these crazy shots and transitions that did little more than distract from the movie and make one wonder why the hell the director felt it was necessary. There's a reason the really great directors don't stick the camera to a guy's face while he's riding a bike, or cut shots together with a morphing effect.
Conclusion: If you have a bunch of extra money, or just want to get baked and see a weird-ass movie, go ahead. Otherwise, I wouldn't really recommend it.
Fight the man at CHS.
posted on: October 21, 2005 5:04 pm
So I figured out a nice little hack to let you get to all the programs you would like to use (calc, sndvol32, etc). All you have to do is right-click on a file in your home directory (or anywhere for that matter), and select "Open with..." -> "Choose Program".
It brings up a nice dialog asking what you want to use, which automatically shows the Program Files directory. Hit the directory up button and you're in C:
There you go, access to any program you want. (They have done a more thorough job disabling regedit and cmd, but I'm working on those.)
Damn kids
posted on: October 20, 2005 4:41 am
So yeah, my site got hacked a little bit by some kids who realized before I did that PHP5 allows you to open external pages by changing the ?page= in the URL. I made it a default-deny policy so that won't happen again.
My bad, everyone.
I hate this school.
posted on: October 19, 2005 12:10 pm
I'm posting this from CHS. This is by far the naziest computer I have ever seen. It shouldn't even be called a computer, because that implies you can use it to compute things, when in fact they have actually blocked the user from opening calulator. The freaking windows calculator is blocked. This begs the question of how much cocaine could a technologist smoke before his body stops functioning? It is my professional opinion that all of this school's techies have each smoked one milligram less than that amount, because this is the worst network in existence. It took me 5 minutes to log on last time. No that is not an exaggeration, it took literally 5*60 seconds (calc.exe would have been helpful here) for the "loading settings" dialog to appear.
Here is an abridged list of things they have prohibited:
- "Programs" in the start menu
- Notepad, calculator, or anything else that might be useful
- the "Run" dialog
- .reg files
- Any internet explorer options
- right clicking on anything
- saving to the hard drive
- Seeing the hard drive
- knowing the hard drive exists
- viewing any webpage that doesn't promote nazi propaganda
- clicking on the system clock
- Saving to the allegedly "shared" directory
- Justifying the hundreds of thousands they have spent on new computers
Purdue too!
posted on: October 17, 2005 4:46 pm
So I now have 3 choices, waiting on two more...
Necessity is the mother of modification
posted on: October 16, 2005 9:54 pm
So yeah, as a matter of necessity (new graphics card fan was too close to the case) I cut a hole in the side of my new computer and put in some plastic with a circular vent, and of course a blue LED. I put a picture in the 'pics' page but I haven't written a worklog yet. I also put up a few photos from my lan party.
Now, on to the homework I should have been doing instead of that mod.
*UPDATE* Work log posted.
woohoo.
posted on: October 12, 2005 4:23 pm
I got windows all tweaked the way I want it, complete with a sweet new theme I found. Also, I added some md5 encryption to my php files (something I should have done to begin with), so all you h4x0rs are out of luck.
By the way, if anyone knows of a good windows xp activation crack, I could use one some time in the next 28 days. The last one I tried to download prompted my antivirus software to call me a retard.
*UPDATE* I found a virus-free activation crack. Stickin' it to the man feels good.
New hotness
posted on: October 8, 2005 3:03 pm
So I got all the parts for my new computer from newegg, and I managed to put it all together without breaking anything! Now the fun part: starting over with a fresh hard drive. This time i've got 250gB to play with.
Colleges that are slow:
posted on: October 2, 2005 7:41 pm
- University of Michigan
- Purdue
- Ohio State
Colleges that have currently accepted me:
posted on: October 2, 2005 7:40 pm
-Kettering
-Rose Hulman
and Make too!!!
posted on: September 30, 2005 3:20 pm
And I made the Make blog! This is by far the most publicity I have ever received. [permalink]
Hack-a-Day! w00t!
posted on: September 29, 2005 6:44 pm
w00t! I got on hackaday! [permalink]Of course, I only got three words in a links day, but it still kicks ass! It's a good thing the link i sent them is piped through the NYU coral, or else the server probably would have burned down mike's house.
Modded PDA for sale!
posted on: September 25, 2005 10:36 pm
The PDA that I modded with a paint job and case window is for sale. If you are interested and have $40, Email me. I have the charge/hotsync cradle, soft cover, and metal case.
Also, you've probably noticed that I reorganized my stuff. I think this way is a lot more logical.
Physics notes are up
posted on: September 19, 2005 11:21 pm
So I stole babbish's idea of taking notes in class with a digital camera, and they are now in the 'Physics' subdirectory in my pics page. The first installment is kinda rough, i need to fiddle with the exposure values and all that jazz. Maybe i'll put them into pdf files if i get less lazy. Oh, and congratulations to me for getting 6000 hits! w00t!
Hoo-ah!
posted on: September 19, 2005 1:12 am
So I finally fixed my USB watch. The usb cord had been ripped out (probably through the abuse i put it through) and I took the piece of crap apart and soldered it back on there. I also used so much epoxy it's pretty much guaranteed against happening again. Now, if only i had been doing my homework for the last hour and half, like i should have been...
Weird
posted on: September 18, 2005 2:42 am
So we have the rear projection tv, and I saw a spider on the screen and went to flick it off, and discovered that it was on the inside of the screen. That ranks among the most unusual things that have happened recently. It almost sounds like I have a physical list when I say that, but it's more like a general feeling of weirdness that ... okay i'm just making up bullshit now. It was weird though.
Freaking Hawaii!
posted on: September 16, 2005 4:59 pm
Winter break is going to kick ass.
Dude.
posted on: September 14, 2005 11:13 pm
There are no words to describe...
w00t!
posted on: September 12, 2005 4:16 pm
Okay, so I got my hinges in the mail today, and finally fixed the laptop. Honestly, a computer company really sucks if people have to replace your shitty broken pieces on eBay. Oh great, now the keyboard's acting up. I hate this piece of shit.
Fuck Dell. Fuck them in their stupid asses.
posted on: September 9, 2005 4:16 pm
So the Indian lady from which I ordered my new laptop hinges was in fact the retard that she sounded like, and sent me a hinge cover. I am currently trying to swap it out for the correct part, using eBay. If you would like to buy the hinge cover they sent me, bid on my auction.
Oh yeah, and I got my schedule changed to have an independent study (for Perl) instead of basic engineering, so I'm moderately happy.
Phil wins.
posted on: September 8, 2005 5:48 pm
I don't have the geekiest schedule, phil does. He is in AP computer science, AP calc BC, AP physics, and AP chem. I was going to shoot myself for signing up for AP chem and AP physics but apparently i'm not the least sane person in school.
Currently though, I am desperately trying to get out of basic engineering and get an independent study where i can learn Perl because A: I want to learn Perl, and B: basic engineering licks balls.
FUCK!
posted on: September 4, 2005 1:29 pm
God damnit, this fucking hinge broke again. I swear to god, I am never buying anything made by dell again. I ordered a new set of hinges from the Indian lady on the telephone, if indeed she has the mental capacity to tell the difference between a set of hinges and a hinge cover, which I suspect might be a problem.
New glasses.
posted on: September 2, 2005 6:25 pm
I got two pair. One is polarized. Also, I glued the hinge back together on my laptop. It works, for now. If it breaks again, I'm just gonna mail it to Dell along with several ounces of C4 and a photovoltaic triggering mechanism.
Operation: MakeHondaSuckLess
posted on: September 1, 2005 10:12 pm
So I finished painting the stripes on the trunk of the Accord, and I got my new trunk emblems in the mail. So yeah, the back half looks pretty spiffy right now. Phase 2: the hood. My plan is to put this flat black racing stripe exactly where the old duct tape one was. Hopefully this one won't peel off after a few months. I also got a new door handle so my passengers can get out. Next I just have to fix the mirror, antenna, rust problem on the driver door, and add a few cylinders to the engine. I'm thinking iron pipe and JB-Weld.
Be in awe of how much ass I kick.
posted on: August 28, 2005 9:29 pm
Try doing a google image search for "a"Yes, I kick that much ass.
Fucking Dell.
posted on: August 27, 2005 1:56 am
Okay, I officially don't like Dell anymore. This laptop is starting to be a complete pain in the ass. Not only was I completely unable to find a proper replacement for the broken power jack, but now the fucking screen hinge just snapped in twide. Seriously, what the fuck? Dell better fucking fix this. Last time they suggested I buy a new motherboard for $800 because they don't sell the 10-cent power jack that broke. They can eat shit and die.
2005/2006 schedule:
posted on: August 26, 2005 1:24 am
First semester:
| 1. | Basic Engineering | D. Marsh |
| 2. | AP Computer Science | R. Conwell |
| 3. | AP Chemistry | L. Kovanis |
| 4. | AP Physics | N. Burdick |
| 5. | World Literature and Composition | R. Porritt |
| 6. | Psychology I | J. Lambreaux |
Second semester:
| 1. | American Literature and Composition | G. Warner |
| 2. | AP Computer Science | R. Conwell |
| 3. | AP Chemistry | L. Kovanis |
| 4. | AP Physics | N. Burdick |
| 5. | Teacher Aide | R. Conwell |
| 6. | Psychology II | J. Lambreaux |
Percentage of blowoff classes: 50%
Percentage of insane classes: 33.3%
Classes with all my friends: AP Physics
Quite possible the nerdiest schedule ever: Priceless
NASCAR
posted on: August 26, 2005 1:23 am
so a lot of shit's happened since the server went offline thanks to Mike(my service provider)'s tendency to break something and leave for a weekend.
I went to this Nascar race last weekend and found out that the stereotype of nascar fans being fat and/or rednecks is completely and utterly true. Also, I went and visited Rose Hulman, a small engineering school in Indiana and it kicks major ass. I'm probably going to go there. Then today I went to the optometrist(that's a weird word to type) and got new eyeglasses to replace the ones I lost at the beginning of this summer. Did you know there's a thing called 'vision insurance' where they charge you a whole lot and then take like 30% off your eye appointments? Good thing we're not signed up for that bullshit.
ow...
posted on: August 17, 2005 12:07 am
So some guy drugged me and ripped out my wisdom teeth, and I woke up in a bed of ice. Well, except for that last part, but my teeth hurt. Kristine's been keeping me company, but all I can eat is pudding and soup so it still sucks.
I did do some coding though. I updated the pics page some more so I can put subdirectories in it, even though i've yet to do that.
Piston-Valve BFSG
posted on: August 15, 2005 11:42 am
So I drew up some plans for an insane spudgun using a valve design I adapted from spudtech. I put the drawring in the insanity page. The only problem is the parts will probably cost around 40 bucks, and I'm currently setting my sights on a new computer (my lappy doesn't meet the minimums for Battlefield 2, and it's broken). If all goes well though, I might get a job writing a modding blog on siliconfactor.com, which would more than pay for all my engineering excursions.
calculus III... check.
posted on: August 15, 2005 11:36 am
Just took the final exam for my Multilvariate Calculus class at Oakland University. So yeah, no more of that shit for a while. I'll find out in a week or two whether or not I aced the class. I had to get an 85 or better on the exam to get in the 90's. My professor was actually pretty cool though, which is a rarity judging by other people's complaints. He was both American and polyphonic.
grlan part II
posted on: August 13, 2005 8:42 pm
So the party's winding down here at the Grand Rapids Lan Party. They've already raffled and competition-ed off most of their huge pile of free stuff, and most of the games have been assigned a champion. The thing doesn't end for another hour and a half, then I get to come down off my 12-hour caffeine high and pass out in the minivan. Oh, I just won some sort of lan pouch that I can put my mouse in. Nifty. I also expanded my music library my 4 gigs or so. Such nice people.
grlan
posted on: August 13, 2005 10:22 am
Just got here, yeah its pretty sweet, but they're turning off internet access here in a few seconds. I'm ready to bust some heads.
cabling conspiracy!
posted on: August 12, 2005 1:18 am
So the guys and I were talking yesterday about how much stores like Worst Buy and ChompUSA charge upwards of $20 for a two dollar usb cable, and how much ass that blows. It occurred to me, with every company pushing wireless technology, that there could be a massive conspiracy by bluetooth and wifi manufacturers to raise the price of such items so having wires seems like a much bigger hassle than it is.
Gigantour
posted on: August 10, 2005 9:26 pm
Just got back from Gigantour at the DTE. Dream Theater and Symphony X performed, both of which are now on my list of favorite bands. It's not actually a list, just more of a conscious tendency to listen to certain bands. Anyhow, I got some overpriced merchandise, including a S.X t-shirt and an autographed Dream Theater CD. Good stuff. Also, I smell like a mixture of smoke from cigarettes and joints, thanks to the wonderful crowd at DTE.
GRLAN
posted on: August 9, 2005 2:51 pm
This Saturday I will be attending the GRLAN party in Grand Rapids. There's a max. capacity of 130, and there's 50 slots left, so if you wanna frag with me go to http://www.grlanparty.com/ and sign the hell up!
p.s. It's in Grand Rapids, and I'm catching a ride with someone else, so you're gonna need to find a way to get 3 hours away if you wanna go
Upgrades
posted on: August 6, 2005 6:44 pm
I added that little box up there ^^ so you can instantly see when my pages were last updated. Surprisingly enough, I've had the same theme on my computer since october. That's gotta be a record.
Random Pics!
posted on: August 2, 2005 9:54 pm
I finally got around to upgrading the script on my random pics page (the 'pics' button up top) so that you only have to download a thumbnail of each picture until you click on one. To sweeten the deal, I also uploaded a bunch of pictures from IRI and Spain.
wtf does 4-H stand for?
posted on: August 2, 2005 12:46 pm
Kristine and I went to that 4-H fair (seriously, what the hell does that stand for?), and unwittingly dropped an assload of money. We got a picture holding a tiger cub. Also, I spent like $12 on these fucking awesome pretzels. I'm not kidding, these pretzels seriously kicked ass. It's like I didn't know how good a pretzel could be until I had these ones. So fucking delicious. Damn.
side note
posted on: July 28, 2005 4:16 pm
So i'm typing this on my dad's computer; he's the stubborn old man who flat-out refuses to try one byte of open source software. God damn, internet explorer blows. If you still use IE, I feel sorry for you. Please download Firefox.
Toothpaste For Dinner
posted on: July 28, 2005 3:50 pm
Mike found this really awesome webcomic called Toothpaste For Dinner. It's on par with White Ninja, maybe better.Plus it's updated at least once daily.
Oh, and today i took apart my Treo 300 and replaced the shitty battery with one from my mom's old palm pilot that she broke. Hopefully i won't have to charge it daily anymore.
I also took apart a bunch of electronics that were lying around. The electromagnet ring from a floppy drive motor is hanging on my wall now cause it looks sweet.
shit.
posted on: July 22, 2005 10:06 pm
Yeah, so i was gonna put a nice post up about how we're doing fine in the competition and all that jive. But just now, a moment before you blew a hole in the door, i found out that my power jack broke again. I'm really hoping that it's just an overstressed wire and not a corner broken off of my motherboard, about which i was worried. Anyway, I probly won't be posting for a while.
Indiananapolopolis
posted on: July 22, 2005 7:12 am
So yeah, I'm in this city in Indiana for the Indiana Robotics Invitational. We learned something from the ride down here though. There is a type of beef snack stick called a "Tijuana mama." DO NOT EAT 6 OF THESE!!! If you do, make sure you retrieve a plunger from the front desk ahead of time.
Down time
posted on: July 17, 2005 12:36 am
So as soon as mike leaves the country there's massive power outages and the server bites the dust. Luckily he's a good admin and brought it back online as soon as he got back.
So lets' see, what's changed since my last entry...
I got a new wakeboard and I kick a lot more ass now...
Mr. Conwell opened up a LAN gaming center in clarkston near Kroger and the new Ace
I had an awesome 4th of july at Kristine's cabin lighting off an assload of fireworks.
I tried to get PHP running on my laptop but windows sucks too much
I set a new record with my spudgun: Really-Fucking-Far feet
I also almost killed some loser on a pontoon boat, he yelled at me from his boat, haha
I GOT A 5 ON THE AP CALCULUS BC TEST!!! DAMN I'M GOOD!
I'm taking calculus III at Oakland University where I'm kicking all those preppy college fucks' asses
I took a really big shit.
I've been trying to find a job but i don't think i give enough of a shit to get hired by anyone
I went to the dentist and got stabbed with a metal spike in the teeth by a lady too dumb to go to dentists' school
Ohio
posted on: July 2, 2005 1:57 am
So in a spur-of-the-moment type thing my mom and I drove down to the Ohio border and bought about $350 worth of fireworks. We're talking the good stuff too. They even gave us a free t-shirt and random assortment pack for buying so much stuff. I'll be using most of them at Kristine's cabin on the 4th. Here at Josh's LAN party, we used one rocket assortment bag already. I think whoever invented the bottlerocket should be awarded the nobel prize. Maybe they could have a new category, like "The nobel prize for the empowerment of the world's youth to blow themselves up"
America
posted on: June 25, 2005 1:07 am
So yeah, I'm back and stuff. I almost wept at the airport when the woman telling us to get into line didn't have an accent.
Espa�a
posted on: June 22, 2005 11:20 am
Well, i�m posting from spain here in an internet cafe. i�m leaving to go back to the states tomorrow. I�m having a decent time except for all the drama with all these girls i�m traveling with. Advice: never go on a vacation with a large group, especially if they are mostly women. Also Senoras Taylor and Savell are being major bitches. Ah well, i�ll be glad to be home tomorrow.
Spain.
posted on: June 13, 2005 12:40 am
So yeah, as of later today I will be in Spain for 10 or 12 days. If you need to contact me, you're screwed.
SUMMER!
posted on: June 9, 2005 1:51 pm
Hoorah! The physics exam didn't kill me! Now I get to chill until september. Also i'm going to spain in a week or so.
HOLY SHIT I AM AWESOME!!!
posted on: June 6, 2005 10:21 pm
HELL YEAH! I completely disassambled my laptop (i mean completely: no two pieces were connected), soldered on some wires to replace the broken power jack, and put the whole thing back together, and it freaking works!!! I am a god! In an odd twist, however, instead of having extra screws as usual, I'm actually short one. Ah well, I prefer it that way anyway. When I put fancy connector on the end of this wire, i'll put up a picture of my handiwork.
Do this immediately:
posted on: June 1, 2005 6:59 pm
-Go to your local grocer.
-Buy one or more tubs of Edy's Ultimate Caramel Cup ice cream
-Obtain spoon
-Eat tub(s)
-Repeat until fat or exploded
Radio waves are overrated.
posted on: May 31, 2005 5:50 pm
So yeah, after a long diet of nothing but CDs, I finally got around to fixing the antenna in my car. After such a long time being able to choose my own music without being addvertised to, it just pissed me off how crappy and useless the radio is. I couldn't find good music on any station, and 1/3 of them were playing advertisements or talking about shit noone cares about at any given time.
A+, Baby!
posted on: May 30, 2005 6:55 pm
I am now A+ certified for computer maintenance. Bow before my test-taking powers!!! (And pay me to fix your computers)
praying to the computer gods...
posted on: May 30, 2005 1:35 am
So I obtained a connector that i intend to solder onto my motherboard from Radioshaft. I really hope i will be able to complete this project without costing myself a $500 motherboard. All of my soldering skills will come into play here. Shit, god help me.
Shit.
posted on: May 25, 2005 7:41 pm
Well the power port on my laptop broke, so I can't charge it and the battery life is a joke. I doubt Dell's going to replace it and allow me to keep my arm and leg. I might just have to go buy a different connector, since Dell uses a crazy fucking connector that they made up, and solder it on there myself.
Review:
posted on: May 19, 2005 2:50 am
Fucking...
...awesome
Episode III
posted on: May 18, 2005 11:37 pm
Yes, i am sitting here waiting for Star Wars Revenge of the Sith to start. That's right, 12:15 showing, baby. You'll all be hearing about it in school tomorrow. All such conversations will begin with 'na-na-na-na-na-na'
Fucking A
posted on: May 17, 2005 6:08 pm
So I bought these tickets off someone for opening night of Star Wars Episode III. The ticket says 12:15am Wednesday. One would gather, by reading that, that the movie plays early on wednesday morning. Not so. The fucking thing is wednesday night. Fuckers.
Yay.
posted on: May 15, 2005 8:07 pm
I finally got my subwoofer to work without shorting out my electrical system! Also, I eBayed most of my xbox games that i've copied onto my hard drive and made $80 so far, minus the cost of shipping them all. You know what I love about the english language? The ability to verb any noun.
Damn...
posted on: May 12, 2005 6:43 pm
I ran out of gum at 14. Damn.
Icosamint!!!
posted on: May 12, 2005 6:40 pm
10 pieces of gum!!! HAHAHA!
Decamint
posted on: May 12, 2005 6:35 pm
I've got five sticks of gum in my mouth.
this dual boot is made for walking
posted on: May 10, 2005 11:44 pm
Yeah, so I've got xp and ubuntu on here, and I'm working on getting windows back to a workable state before I delve into trying to get linux to work at all. So far i've gotten the ethernet card to work, which required no abstract thought, but have been unable to get my wifi card working. Also, for some reason gaim keeps telling me that my username/password is wrong, which it definitely isn't.
Also, check out the new webpage that's soon to be famous: ill.phire.org do YOU know what ill means?
I'm going in...
posted on: May 7, 2005 4:17 pm
After I submit this story, I'm reformatting my hard drive and installing a dual boot with ubuntu and xp. May the source be with me.
bored...
posted on: May 7, 2005 7:52 am
so i'm waiting to take this sat test with a whole bunch of other people. a WHOLE BUNCH. this place is fucking packed. it sucks. at least I have my treo
AP, BC, and USB
posted on: May 3, 2005 4:27 pm
As I began to type this, about $2 worth of loose change fell out of my pocket. God damnit. Anyway, today I took that AP Calculus BC test, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared, although one of the 6 free response questions was on a topic that we hadn't learned in class yet. At least everyone else there was in the same class so everyone looks dumb, not just me.
Also, I modified my cellphone USB cable so I can charge off it, and proceeded to make a dual-usb-port wall adapter, and a 4*9-volt charger that looks kinda cool. It's more efficient than the ones you might read about online because when there's not batteried in it it's really tiny. Really an ingenious design if I do say so myself.
I might make a USB car adapter, but I'll need to find another motherboard to cannablize the USB ports off of.
Oh yeah...
posted on: April 30, 2005 11:15 am
And I didn't have time in Atlants to install linux; the bus didn't have power jacks and my battery's not near good enough to install an operating system.
Downtime
posted on: April 30, 2005 11:12 am
Yeah, phire's been down for a week or so now, so I'll just give you some short synopses of what's transpired since then.
Championship update: We didn't win. We got really screwed over by the refs; there was a field malfunction (some fucktard forgot to stock the loading zone) that cost us a good 10 seconds with which we could have made a 3-point score, and then we lost the match by a single point, and they wouldn't let us replay it. Fuckers. If we had beat that team, we would have been in the Finals, and we definitely could have beaten the team that won.
Tennis update: I quit. As most of you have heard, I'm not on the tennis team anymore. I just couldn't handle doing both things at the same time, and coach wouldn't even give me any varsity matches, so I decided it wasn't worth it to keep playing.
Right now, I'm working on making a usb-wall-charger for some of my electronics so I don't have to carry as many cords with me. Also, Mike informed me that somebody's been using the Trogdor picture as a messageboard signature, which makes a LOT of downloads. It has therefore been removed.
The lost city of Atlanta
posted on: April 21, 2005 10:29 pm
Yeah, so I'm here in Georgia for the international FIRST robotics championship. It's like a Nerd-topia here. Nerdstock. Geekapalooza. Nerdlanta Georgia. Anyway, It's great, and a lot of the robots here are pretty sweet. Although a lot of the "security staff" are complete nazis. Tomorrow we start qualifying rounds, where it's pretty important that we kick ass. Shouldn't be a problem though.
Shit.
posted on: April 14, 2005 10:53 pm
Okay, right now my computer is going down in flames; Windows's perpetual war against itself is rising to a violent climax. And to tell you the truth, I'm getting damn sick of it. The proverbial camel's back may have broken, and the straw is probably going to be put onto a much stabler and more reliable Linux camel.
If I can't sort out what the hell's wrong with my hard disk, and my cd-rom, and ms office, and my windows theme, and half of my programs, I'm going to be spending that upcoming 12-hour bus ride installing a less assinine operating system.
Lansing!
posted on: April 13, 2005 9:25 pm
I had to laugh at myself for this one; I was setting up this world clock program on my palm pilot, and I had to stop, because I realized that despite living here for almost 3 years, I didn't know what the capital of Michigan is. I actually had to look that up on Google. I blame the education system.
I'm good at math.
posted on: April 12, 2005 12:06 am
Yeah, today I totally kicked my entire calc class's monkey ass. I finished the test in 15 minutes. I beat Josh by a margin of 20 minutes. That made me happy. Also, today is the first day in about 2 months that I've not had an assload of homework hanging over my head. It's kinda nice; I really want it to be summer. Oh, and one more thing: I bought a hand grenade yesterday. It won't blow up anymore, but it's still freaking sweet. I should carry it around with me so if i start to get in a fight I can just whip it out and be all "what now?"
ACT S EZ
posted on: April 9, 2005 11:43 pm
So I took that ACT test with the fancy new writing portion that UofM bastardly reqires that I pay more money to take. Anyway, I found the test ridiculously easy. I probably aced the math part; I only had to think for more than 10 seconds on abotu 5 problems. I still had trouble with the damn reading portion though, I can never seem to finish reading the damn things. Ah well, I guess I'll figure out how close to 36 I got in 4-7 weeks.
5-minute DIY project:
posted on: April 6, 2005 10:16 pm
Yeah, so I made myself a pair of awesome cordless headphones. Materials include a pair of regular headphones, 3 zip-ties, and an iPod Shuffle. You can probably figure it out from there.
If I get around to it, I might take a picture of them.
Yet another thing that annoyed me
posted on: April 3, 2005 10:07 pm
Yeah, I just saw a commercial for the Mr. Clean dry car wash thingamabob, and they said "with our special dry-rinse polymer soap..." If you know what 'polymer' means, which I guess most of America doesn't, it becomes clear that they've just thrown in the word to sound impressive, because soap itself is a fucking polymer!
My last post ever
posted on: April 2, 2005 1:46 am
Well, this is to be my last post ever, since very soon the entire internet is to be taken down and dismantled, per the UN's vote. We had a good run, didn't we? Here's an article on the UN's decision.
Scientific Breakthrough!
posted on: April 2, 2005 1:30 am
Wow, You're not going to believe this, but they found definitive proof of water on mars. Nasa has posted photographic evidence, but if you're not real big into geology, you might not spot it. Photographic Evidence
TWO BLUE BANNERS!!!
posted on: March 27, 2005 12:29 am
U.S.A!!! U.S.A!!! U.S.A!!!Yeah, we pretty much invaded Canada and stole all their gold medals. Well, a third of them anyway, with the help of an awesome alliance. The only two robots that could push us around ended up on our team. It really was the best alliance we could have gotten. And, as before, no mechanical breakdowns, except for toasting some of the treads in some pushing matches. We got our vengeance though. When one of our arm cables came unplugged, denz just said screw it, and pushed one of the more annoying robots all the way across the field; it was satisfying. Now we just need to hone our skills and strategy for nationals.As a side note, Canada uses a different strap for their medals. Insead of having the red/white/blue stripes, it's got maple leaves. It's pretty fricking sweet.
Canadia.
posted on: March 25, 2005 12:12 am
So we're here in America's attic. Fun Canada facts: did you know they have indoor plumbing in Canada? And electricity too? Also, they really do say "eh?" I was expecting it to be one of those unfounded stereotypes, but this one guy said "Good luck in the competition, eh?"
So yeah, it's only the practice rounds here at Waterloo, but we're definitely 0wning. With a zero. Even though some of us can't seem to adhere to the restaurant budget that nobody told us. It seems we can't go a regional without doing something to piss off the advisors. Maybe they just get pissed off too easily, but please do not tell them I said that.
We didn't win.
posted on: March 21, 2005 8:03 pm
Yeah, we did nowhere near as good at Purdue as we did at Ypsilanti. We did make it to the final rounds, but for some reason (involving numerous plot twists, comedic irony, and intrigue) we ended up with an alliance that ended up tipped over the side of the field and stuck on the first goal they tried to cap, respectively. Ah well, Waterloo will be much better hopefully. Also, I'll know that the advisors don't find me funny, so I won't be making any of those mistakes again. Now back to my homework, since I have the biggest shitload of homework this week that I've ever had my entire high school career. And 2 days to do it. Today: made up physics lab after school. Tomorrow: make up spanish test after school, and take global issues test which I completely missed the content for. Wednesday: make up calculus test before school. Hoorah for caffeine!
damnation
posted on: March 19, 2005 7:27 pm
Why must i have the worst luck evr? to start I'm stuck in a car for 6 hours surrounfed by people who are asleep, my headphones are broken, my laptop is dead, I can't see my calculator screen, qnd the batteries on this thing are abiut to go. Hopefully I can negotiate a swap at the next stop. Did I mention I'm completely incapable of sleeping in a car?
Indiana smells bad.
posted on: March 17, 2005 12:38 am
Yeah, I'm here in the great state of Indiana for our robotics regional at Purdue. Now by "great" I'm using an extremely loose form of the word, describing low-speed freeways, a 1:1 ratio of trucks to cars, and an inescapable odor that penetrates the nostrils, and changes the chemistry of the part of the brain responsible for suicide. And that was just the drive down here. Maybe the robotics regional tomorrow will be more enjoyable. Hopefully I'll get another one of those spiffy gold medalions with which to drape around my neck like some sort of nerdy olympic athlete.
Chris's grand universal theory on under-bridge potholes.
posted on: March 15, 2005 11:12 pm
So I was driving the other day and I was trying to figure out what the fuck is up with those huge potholes that always show up under overpasses. Then the answer presented itself to me. The sun doesn't hit this area, and therefore the water doesn't evaporate. If you drive in midafternoon when snow is melting, you'll see exactly what I mean. Because of this, there's water sitting there which freezes overnight and cracks the pavement much more than other parts of the road.
Just another one of those things I felt like sharing with you all.
Gold
posted on: March 12, 2005 8:23 pm
We are the champions of the world!!! Well, the champions of Ypsilanti, which is just as good. We now have an opportunity for world domination though, since our victory here qualifies us for the national championship in Atlanta. Plus, I got a very spiffy medal to taunt those teams less glorious than us.
Come on down, and see the glory that is T3
posted on: March 10, 2005 11:21 pm
Yeah, today was the practice rounds at the Great Lakes Regional for my FIRST team. Tomorrow the competitions start, so if you want to come on down, it might be cool to watch. Here's a pdf of how to get there. It's about an hour away, in Ypsilanti.
2 days...
posted on: March 8, 2005 11:18 pm
Well on Thursday I go to Ypsilanti with my robotics team fo our first regional match, which ought to be fun. We didn't get as much time to practice today as we might have liked, since enabling control when the arm controller is in the fully retracted position actually causes us to lose an hour or two to repairs. Anyhow, we had fun driving the chassis around in high gear; man that thing hauls ass.
Swooning in a pool of happiness.
posted on: March 4, 2005 1:08 am
Ah, there's no feeling like being able to look up the definition of 'metaphysical' in a chinese restaurant to settle an argument. I love my new smartphone.
Happiness comes on a plastic disc.
posted on: February 28, 2005 10:09 pm
I got my Rejected DVD today. I am happy. In addition to being good DVD-quality video, it comes with a deleted scene that is really quite funny. Now, if Fedex would just freaking deliver the PDA I bought (was shipped a solid week ago), I'd be swooning in a pool of happiness.
This is pretty funny.
posted on: February 24, 2005 8:44 pm
Go on, click it.
I'm sick, but the robot's done (sort of)
posted on: February 23, 2005 1:16 pm
so yeah, i've come down with a case of influenza, and it really sucks quite a lot. The robot was shipped yesterday though, and it was almost completely done, except for a few minor additions that we didn't have time to put on (such as an instrument panel that we need to add because rocky's stupid fucking guage panel covers up the reset switch on the controller). I have to say though, it is a sweet frickin robot.
April 29!!!
posted on: February 16, 2005 5:41 pm
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie comes out on April 29th! They've just released the trailer on Amazon.com It looks like it ought to be pretty good, even though, in the preview, Zaphod Beeblrebrox has only one head.
No school!!!
posted on: February 14, 2005 4:04 pm
hoorah! sleep!
Heading maker 2.1...
posted on: February 13, 2005 3:42 pm
Yeah, i added a little text size field, and added 0.1 to the version. Just for the hell of it.
Like it? I made it myself.
posted on: February 10, 2005 9:38 pm
If you hate the new theme (which i retooled during a 4-hour car ride from ohio), drop me a line on the bathroom wall.
I'm in Ohio! Weeeee!!!
posted on: February 9, 2005 10:46 pm
So yeah, I'm here in the state of ... um ... dismal weather and state universities, the latter of which I am to be visiting tomorrow. Right now I'm sitting in a hotel room that has wifi, so life is good at the current moment, except for the fact that I can't fricking get this program to work even though it makes perfect sense. Maybe it's just a bad case of caffein logic (where an excess of ceffeine impairs a programmer's ability to think logically).
Heading Maker 2.0 !!!
posted on: February 7, 2005 6:10 pm
So instead of doing what I was suppsoed to be doing (e.g. math homework) I decided to print myself up a batch of customized looseleaf, and ended up making a whole new version of Heading Maker. It's a lot more functional; you can find it in the programs page.
Hooray for me.
posted on: February 7, 2005 3:26 pm
Yippee! 3000 visitors!!! I must really kick ass! Or maybe you all just enjoy reading my humble, down-to-earth and never-sarcastic weblog. Also, A recent addition you might (probably not) notice is the little W3C icon on the bottom (now that i've told you, you will notice). It means that my page adheres to valid CSS standards of formatting. Hoorah for me!
Hmm... I wonder just how many of those hits were just from me updating the site...
This is pretty damned funny.
posted on: February 2, 2005 10:25 pm
Hey, i came across this article while looking for a current event for school, and it really made me laugh. So-called U.S. hostage appears to be toy I submitted it to slashdot, lets see if they run it.
I hate winter.
posted on: January 28, 2005 10:32 pm
So yeah, today we got home from the sushi place (grand opening at some place in w. bloomfield, pretty nice place, wish i remembered the name), and a pipe in my wall had been spewing water for about an hour, turning my carpet into an incredibly large and sock-ruining sponge. So now i have a gaping hole in my wall, a soaked floor, and the knowledge that the guy who plumbed (word?) our house was a non-insulation-using retard.
compTIA can kiss my ass.
posted on: January 21, 2005 7:19 pm
What kind of freak of nature memorizes I/O address tables? What kind of bastardly asshat puts I/O addresses on a certification test? What kind of shitty high school class can be aced and yet still flunk the test that is was designed to prepare for?
pokemon cards don't burn well.
posted on: January 19, 2005 3:34 pm
So my sister bought me this sweet lighter, and also a pack of pokemon cards as part of an ongoing joke. I made the connection that i could use the lighter on the cards. Alas, when i tried lighting one of the buggers on fire it just sorta singed the corner, and malformed the rest of the card. This is especially ironic, because the card i chose to burn was one called Charmeleon, who is featured in the picture brandishing a ball of flame.
Next I'll be trying it with some lighter fluid.
don't go to school
posted on: January 12, 2005 7:28 am
I went to school this morning to find a single unlocked door (it happened to be the first one i tried, which explains my lack of awareness to the circumstances) and a building completely devoid of people, save me and 4 other stranded souls. One of them admitted to falling on her ass in the parking lot. I cellphoned my mom and she confirmed that i was indeed not supposed to be there, so i left. Now, I stand before you, hoist by my own petard, unable to return to my peaceful slumber because of my exam-sized morning caffeine intake.
Now, i'm not complaining about school being canceled, because it gies me a few extra days with which to study for my hardest exams; only for the fact that they would cancel school and still leave the fucking building open. I was so confused and tired and relieved that I was unable to muster the mental determination to wreck up the place while i was the only one in it.
the coolest thing ever.
posted on: January 10, 2005 12:03 am
so yeah, slashdot had this story, and i followed the link, and looked around, and found out that if you type the following string into google, you can gain access to thousands of unsecured networked security cameras, and even move them around. It's pretty unbelievable.
Paste this whole line into google:
inurl:"ViewerFrame?Mode="
there are headlines now.
posted on: January 8, 2005 7:18 pm
So yeah, I was checking out auchter(hail root!)'s weblog, and realized how much better mine would be if i stole his idea to have a little headline over each entry (in addition to stealing the entire concept to begin with).
Also, my stupid fucking bipolar cat just bit me in the face for no reason.
posted on: January 8, 2005 6:52 pm
So yeah, FIRST Robotics is officially kicked-off, and this week team 68 is meeting every day to plan and strategize, probably begin building something. Those of you that go to CHS probably realize the minor hitch in this plan, and its mere name alone strikes fear into the hearts of slackers and overachievers alike: Exams.
Review packets (in my case light novels), cramming, and now this. If you see me in the hall, and I look like a zombie, it's probably not because i'm tired; I'll most likely be dead.
posted on: January 7, 2005 2:03 am
So LokiTorrent, another noteworthy site in filesharing, is being sued by the MPAA and needs help. They have chosen to defend themselves, and the rights of fileswappers everywhere. Please donate to them. www.LokiTorrent.com
posted on: January 2, 2005 2:44 am
So i am now the proud owner of a kickass 41" hand-forged katana with blood groove (that means it kicks extra ass). I also bought a nanchaku (a.k.a. nunchucks).
So yeah, if you want to challenge me, we can have a samurai fight now.
posted on: December 27, 2004 3:57 pm
Pictures are up. Check out the Art page.
posted on: December 25, 2004 3:51 am
YES! i finally did it!
My laptop is now chris hammond certified. And i must say, it is the most bad-as thing i have ever done. I'll take pictures of it tomorrow with my new camera (5 megapixel beotch), maybe i'll get a few of the PS2 i modded last year too, haha.
posted on: December 19, 2004 4:21 pm
If you haven't heard the news, you should sit down. Suprnova.org, the universal bittorrent source, the place where you used to be able to download any piece of music, video, or software, has sunk into the oblivion of cyberspace, sued out of existence by the bastardly MPAA.
Suprnova, we salute thee.
posted on: December 6, 2004 8:35 pm
Hey, i found a much less painful alternative to trying to apply plastic hubcaps to your car:
Step 1: place several glass bottles in burlap sack.
Step 2: Repeatedly slam sack on ground, making sure all bottles are broken into very small pieces
Step 3: Empty contents of sack into mouth
Step 4: Chew vigorously for 30-40 minutes.
posted on: December 6, 2004 1:22 pm
Hey. I'm posting from school because I'm bored. Now i'm slightly less bored. That's about it.
posted on: December 2, 2004 5:33 pm
Chris's random observation of the day:
Until today, i had never given much thought to how brake lights work. You know, how when the lights are on, they turn on, but when you brake they get brighter. I had always just assumed the car sent it a different voltage or something It turns out that the light bulb actually has 2 seperate filaments, and the car lights up one or both depending. Fascinating, huh?
posted on: November 28, 2004 8:46 pm
Here's a bit of advice for those of you who want to modify your PDAs: when reassembling them, be careful not to touch the board. Apparently somewhere on the thing's motherboard there is a secret button that, when touched, erases every fucking bit of information the thing has ever had. If the screen begins to tart out, be afraid. be very afraid.
posted on: November 23, 2004 12:21 am
Final update on OCCRA:
Remember how last year, we started off with this crappy POS that didn't do anything, including move? Well this year, we started off with this relatively nice bot with a few problems, and it evolved into a much more advanced, sophisticated, piece of shit. As was implied, we had our asses handed to us at our last competition, wrapping up a dismal season with the most frustrating competition to date. It was kinda fun though, thinking of ways to go kamikaze for our last match. Since the claw had broken off, we duct taped the infamous Spatulas of DOOM to the end of the arms. They didn't really do anything, since we got stalled on top of the platform and couldn't move anyway. Also we made our flag into a battleaxe that also broke.
posted on: November 18, 2004 12:15 am
If you don't own a hottub, I strongly recommend it.
posted on: November 14, 2004 2:27 am
Duct tape. Racing Stripes. Racint stripes made of duct tape. Coolest shit ever. Pictures to come.
posted on: November 10, 2004 10:58 pm
Occra competition #3: Berkley High
yeah... I don't like being reminded of last year, and that's exacly what happened. Because of those damed wheels we had to get, coupled with the second battery to completely die on us, we moved about a total of 20 feet today(those being in the one match where we actually had an operational robot). No awards either.
posted on: November 7, 2004 2:48 am
If you havent seen Team America: World Police, do so immediately.
posted on: November 2, 2004 11:48 pm
NHS SUCKS ASS!!!
'why?' you ask?
Because i'm apparently not good enough to be in it. Also, the asssuckers, in their infinite retardation, didn't feel it necessary to inform me of which one of my nonexistent inadequacies swayed their infernal decision.
So i say fuck'em.
posted on: October 31, 2004 10:57 pm
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the best game ever made, as well as the best $50 i ever spent. I highly recommend it (except to those who are easily offended or have a weak stomache)
And I gotta give credit to my man J-Olive for helping me make this page sweeter than it was before, if indeed that was possible.
posted on: October 27, 2004 10:53 pm
OCCRA competition #2: pontiac northern
So we won 1 of 4 matches, coming incredibly close to winning two more. Both losses could have been prevented had the stupid arrow been pointing in our direction. We did get an award for mike's programming, and if there had been an award for most kickass uniform, we'd have won that too.
posted on: October 24, 2004 10:54 pm
I thought it was time i updated the color scheme on my site. If you hate it, drop me a line on the bathroom wall
posted on: October 24, 2004 1:15 am
Update on OCCRA competition:
Well, we didnt get any awards, but we did win one of our 4 matches. The other 3 were due to a faulty ground connection, a defective battery, and a loose axle, respectively. We'll do much better next competition, once we get everything to actually bloody work
posted on: October 23, 2004 12:51 am
man, the phrase "dont at the last minute" takes on new meaning when you have a midnight deadline, and glue the last piece together at 11:58. That's exactly what happened at robotics today, so we have a perfectly competitive robot for our competition tomorrow(saturday)! Come out and see us from 9am to 4pm or so at Holly High.
posted on: October 20, 2004 10:49 pm
So auchter finally got his damn server up again, after a 3-day downtime caused by a 5-minute power outage. Anyway, our first OCCRA robotics competition is this saturday at Holly High School, pretty much all day, so drop by if you want to see our sweet robot.
posted on: October 13, 2004 12:16 am
Woohoo! I got my new CD-player installed in my car, and it's even sweeter than the stolen one (excepting a lack of subwoofer, which is to be remedied soon). If the asshat who stole my first one is reading this, don't even think about stealing this one, because with it i installed a car alarm that will make very loud noises if you attempt to take my shit again.
posted on: October 6, 2004 12:10 am
I'm 17 now! w00t!!!
now i can get into R-rated movies, and drive past midnight. I already do those things anyway, but now i can't get arrested for them!
posted on: October 1, 2004 3:31 pm
Yeah, so my egg gun needs some redesigning. it needs to be much longer, and reinforced a lot. o well, that was just the prototyoe anyway
posted on: September 29, 2004 11:10 pm
Well the cement is drying on my newest contraption, the bungee-driven bolt-action egg gun. That's right, it's a big bazooka-looking gun that fires eggs. I might make it available for rental if it works well. ;-)
posted on: September 8, 2004 12:10 am
I just completely overhauled my website. It looks exactly the same, but it's a lot easier to maintain now.
posted on: August 19, 2004 1:30 am
my latest revelation:
Who do you think is more likely to not vote? i would think that republicans would be more likely to vote, since they are generally the upper class. if the democrats are the majority of people who aren't voting, than this gigantic "register and vote" campaign is probably just a huge plot by democrats to get more votes.
Just a thought.
posted on: August 17, 2004 9:36 am
My Schedule:
0: SWEAT1: Law & Society (Marko)/ Global Issues(Murray)
2: Spanish III (Biallas)
3: Calc BC (G. Davis)
4: Lit/Film (Porritt)
5: Physics (Burdick)
6: Computer hardware/networking (Mr. Conwell)
Seminar: Frericks
Locker: A30506
Parking spot: 945 (Junior lot)
posted on: August 16, 2004 4:54 pm
I made a new invention, the mouseboard. It would be too hard to explain it here, just check it out in the art page, where it currently resides.
posted on: August 9, 2004 2:48 am
I saw the village the other day. If you haven't seen it, don't. It would be a colossal waste of 2 hours and $6.50. The scariest part of the movie is when a blind chick is running away from a retard in a costume.
by the way, the marks on the doors mean absolutely nothing.
posted on: August 8, 2004 3:40 am
Did i tell you i got Gmail?bow down. do it now.
posted on: August 8, 2004 3:10 am
so school is starting soon and i want to kill something. Oh well, i guess i can look forward to another year of battling with the admins over control of my internet browsing.
posted on: June 26, 2004 6:16 am
I did some php coding becase i had nothing better to do, and you might notice the addition of a 'theme' link at the top of the page, which reads my current windows theme elements from a text file, as well as a screenshot. You know, in case you were wondering what the desktop of someone who has a better desktop than you looks like.
posted on: June 24, 2004 7:03 am
I GOT A CAR!!!!!!! AND IT ROCKS!!! check it out in the randompics
posted on: June 17, 2004 10:03 am
actually important:
I fixed up my Ascii Encrypter program, which was buggy, and gave it a better interface and drag/drop capability. Version 2.2 is a must-download! Check it out in the programs.posted on: June 4, 2004 6:56 am
Woohoo! I finished my modding projects. That's right, the penguin mint mouse and the cheez-it router are both done! Check them out in the randompics page.
posted on: May 24, 2004 1:32 am
Mike finally gets my server back online, and there is news: if you want to connect to the "questionable" side of the internet from school, you now have to use "anti-fascism.reg", the newest addition to my programs page
posted on: May 2, 2004 5:14 am
hey, i got a new paintball gun, it's a pistol, so i can load it really fast, before the ducks fly away. It's a PT Xtreme and it kicks ass.
posted on: April 26, 2004 2:31 am
Check out my new digital artwork I posted on custo: Hummer 3 Vectorized!!!
posted on: April 26, 2004 2:29 am
yay, the server's back up. you might have noticed a speed difference, because it is in fact faster than before. It's on a whole new computer and everything.
posted on: April 22, 2004 7:58 am
Yay, I got a new flash drive to replace the one that kept crapping out on me. I got tired of reformatting it. I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that it's been through a washing machine 5 or 6 times.
posted on: April 9, 2004 3:03 pm
I got an mp3 player! Woohoo!
It's a dell Digital Jukebox, 15 gigs. I got it because it's cheaper than an ipod, lol
posted on: March 30, 2004 10:45 pm
Thanks to a combined stupidity by DTE and Comcast, the server's been down for a week. (it was mikes fault too for not being home)
So yeah, if you were wondering why, that's the reason.
Oh yeah, and i made a registry file that disables website blockign at school, you can download it in the programs.
posted on: March 6, 2004 9:04 pm
Well, its not sturdy, and i wouldn't call it stable, and keeping in line with my construction methods it's liable to fall apart at any moment, but i built a basic bipod stand for my spudguns, so i can achieve a new level of accuracy, it should be a lot mroe fun now :-D
posted on: February 25, 2004 10:58 pm
hey, today i did a bunch of <><> runs here in aspen!
If you think of the local "<><>" run, think steeper, and about 50 times as long, at the least. And then add trees.
Anwyay, it was realyl fun, and now i have bragging rights, so HA!!!
posted on: February 22, 2004 9:48 pm
this is chris, coming to you live from aspen colorado!
okay, so it's not live, in fact you're an idiot if you think reading content from a website can possibly be live.
but that's beside the point.
aspen kicks ass. Oh yeah, and i got a new cellphone. it's got a camera!!! :-D
posted on: February 10, 2004 8:13 pm
The mad modder strikes again!
I replaced the crappy red LED on my optical mouse with a sweet blue one, check it out in the art page!
posted on: February 3, 2004 11:25 pm
I took a picture of my current armory of PVC weaponry, and put it in the insanity page. Check it out, you will most likely be impressed, or think i am insane.
either way, you're right
posted on: February 2, 2004 9:49 pm
Alas, i didnt have enough time today before it got dark to do a 100 psi test on the governator. I want to do it in daylight so i can at least have a rough idea of where the hell it lands
posted on: February 1, 2004 7:12 pm
My new spudgun works!!!!! I replaced the busted experimental valve with a 3/4" ball valve, and at 55 PSI, it goes about 5x as far as the hairspray one.
posted on: February 1, 2004 1:27 am
Revenge.reg gets a new version!!! It's called payback.reg, and can be found in the programs page. It is a lot more clear in its message.
posted on: January 27, 2004 5:54 pm
More great news! I learned some more PHP, and wrote a script to show thumbnails of all my random pictures. Click on 'Random Pics' above to check it out!
posted on: January 23, 2004 5:46 pm
great news!!!! As most of you have noticed, the website for the end of the world cartoon went down.
but fear not, for i have found a new website that has it!!! I changed the link below to the new one.
posted on: January 23, 2004 12:03 am
Coming to you live from the most boring-ass state in the United States of America.
Driving through a city in Ohio is like finding a '2' in a string of binary.
But at least the capital city Columbus has stuff to do, which is where I'm visiting my sister at her college.
That's right, college. And, yes, i do plan on finding a keg party.
posted on: January 20, 2004 7:40 pm
I made a really sweet library file if you program in C++ that converts integers to strings. Check it out in the programs page!
posted on: January 20, 2004 9:19 am
I finished my tupid spanish exam, 5 more to go. The next one is math, eww.
posted on: January 19, 2004 8:40 pm
three more days, and exams will be over. ahh..... freedom....
On thursday, i'm going to visit my sister at OSU, maybe go to a few keg parties :-P
posted on: January 14, 2004 3:12 pm
SNow Day! Snow Day! Snow Day!!!!!!!
yippeee!!!
posted on: January 11, 2004 12:40 am
i leearned how to use my new stringing machine from the pro at the club, so if anyone needs a stringing, i'll do it overnight for a competitive $15.
posted on: January 10, 2004 1:54 pm
I updated my news adding script to attempt to get rid of those damn slashes, and i also added a .avi file of Babbish running through an exploding chain of fireworks to the randompics page. Enjoi!
posted on: 01.10.2004 : 1.27
I tested out the fanboat on actual snow, and it turns a lot better than on ice. However, it doesn't go all that fast, and when it hits a rut in a turn, it flips over, getting snow in the motor. Not good.
I also took some pictures of the gaping hole that is in the ceiling at our school as a result of thursday's flood.
posted on: 01.01.2004 : 11.22
I tested out that fanboat i've been building, and it goes like a mother-! It just doesn't corner well on a frozen lake of super-slick ice. I might replace the skis with blades, or just wait until snow comes...
posted on: 01.01.2004 : 10.26
For reasons that are confusing even to me, I painted a dreamcast controller. you can check it out in the art page. I also updated the laptop pictures on that page with the newest stickers. I might be done stickerizing it now.
posted on: 01.01.2004 : 2.39
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
As always, i made no resolutions, and i laughed at all the people who vowed to lsoe 10 pounds, as they stuffed cheese crackers into the unresolute fat face. cheers!
posted on: 12.30.2003 : 9.48
I put some pics of the SnowDuck in the Insanity page, tomorrow i'll get a video clip of it zipping around my frozen lake.
posted on: 12.30.2003 : 9.25
Yes!!! I did it!!! I finished my project that i've been working on for the last month, and have been thinking on for abotu a year. It is born of a dismantled electric RC boat, and it lives on the tundra. It is, elementally, a fanboat. It crawls the earth of 3 skis. It is truly beautiful. I put pictures of it in my randompics page. I have dubbed it ... the SnowDuck
posted on: 12.29.2003 : 10.08
I got a badass dragon decal for my laptop, and a couple of little pirate decals. I Had to rearrange some decals, and now it looks even more awesome. I put some zippocam shots in the randompics page, i'll get some highres shots later so you can appreciate it's high resolution glory.
posted on: 12.28.2003 : 9.57
I just finished copying my CDs. Now i have all my originals in my CD selector, and copies in my discus. I also stores the images on my harddrive so i can listen to CD-quality music without putting it in.
posted on: 12.28.2003 : 9.34
Well boredom has driven me to create yet another page, this time to contain the pics I've taken with my Zippocam and some other pics. I put it in the top links bar.
posted on: 12.25.2003 : 12.47
Merry F***ing Christmas!
I got some good loot this year, dispite the fact the my only present was supposed to be the other half of my laptop.
Things I got:
-James Bond stealth zippo digital camera, so awesome
-T-shirt that says, "Obey Gravity, it's the law!" lol
-A tennis racket stringing machine, mostly for economic reasons; I've been breaking strings like a mother-
-Discgear disc selector 100, of which i've filled 87 easily accessible slots
-targus laptop backpack
-Dremel complete bit set
-Vice grip set
-4 tins of Penguin mints
-a couple packs of jolt gum
-about $180 from various sources... >:-)
posted on: 12.24.2003 : 5.12
CHECK OUT MY ART PAGE! I finally got around to painting my cellphone and it rules now. Check it out!
posted on: 12.23.2003 : 3.46
I just got the coolest watch! It's Fossil, with a dragon and flames that move, it's the inverse color scheme of This watch. It 0wn5!
posted on: 12.22.2003 : 1.01
Hey, to reward all my loyal readers, and because I was really bloody bored at my relatives' house, I've updated all of my pages to be cooler. Check them out
posted on: 12.15.2003 : 9.05
I found a way to distract yourself even more at school! It involves replacing the Games folder that has been removed from the Start menu on the school computers. It's in the 'monolith of �ber-leetness' section.
posted on: 12.15.2003 : 8.19
To my dismay, I have been forced to give up the Lizardbook (shown in the Amazing Feats of Artistry). It all started when my dad said, "We should get Aunt Sandy a computer for Christmas. Hey chris, you've got that old laptop dont you?"
It all went downhill from there.
posted on: 12.13.2003 : 12.11
Well, all of my news has been obliterated by mike and his carelessness with metal objects around exposed motherboards. Oh well, time to start over. I got a few new stickers for my laptop, and it looks really sweet now. They're in the Amazing Feats of Artistry page.
