Easy Symbolic Links in OSX

From time to time you have to rely on symbolic links when Alias is not enough, such as re-mapping folders like your itunes library. You can always open terminal and use "ln -s target destination", however this can be annoying if you do not do it often or need one fast. So there is SymbolicLinker to help out, it is a handy context menu add on that give you a "create link" option when you right click an icon. It is handy to have for that random time you quickly and easily need a symbolic link.

SN Project Update

Well after a long hiatus, I am back to working on my SN Project. Now that I have a deadline to finish for the senior projects I will be working quite a bit on it. So to get caught up I have been programing like a mad man some where around 60+ hours all in one week, and from all that work I am about where I wanted to be going into the semester. So I am happy to have my 100th post be alpha version 2 of SomniumNexus. Grab the download here.

This version has quite a few improvements, the Item and NPC editors are almost complete and do save correctly. These can now be used in the Area editor. Also the graphics storage and buffer classes have been almost completely rewritten, which give a much better and easier to use fetching system. I also tweaked the FileBrowser, which now looks much better. All in all quite a few improvements, now the focus will be the game building function and finishing the Area editor, which will allow for the Engine to be worked on. It is a little hard to work on the engine before these when you do not know the final form of your data, nor do you have anything to test it on, so being this close is exciting!

Simple Rectifier

In one of my my side projects to do some research on alternative energy I had a bit of fun playing with a spare AC motor that was lying around. I have wanted to construct a wind generator for a while now, however still do not have the parts, sadly motors do not work well as then require high speeds and torque to get any decent current. Still I wanted to see just how bad it was.

I had hooked it up to my multimeter and spun it. However I was confused for a second as the meter was reading all over the place, somewhere from -47 to 38. Suddenly I realized that of course it would do this, it is AC. So off I went and grabbed one of the old dead circuit boards from one of my parts drawers and pulled a few diodes off. If I was going to be able to poke around further I would need a Rectifier to convert it to DC. So a little while later I had my rectifier build and hooked up. Now I was able to get a decent reading around 0.05V, which is rather small. Later I hooked up a capacitor so I could charge it up as well, not that you can really do much with 0.05V anyways. Still it was a fun little experiment and gave me an excuse to build a simple rectifier.

A million thanks

To start off the new years right, here is a million thanks to everyone out there!

Apparently it is a hallmark flash card. How long can you stand it, I got to around 7500 then needed it to stop.

Update: remove link as it want to a page with offensive advertising, now it is embedded.

Custom Projector Mount

Continuing with my attempts to improve on our family home entrainment system, after getting a very nice and almost too big projector screen, I had to figure out a way to ceiling mount the projector. However it needed to be not permanent and easy to remove. So off to the drawing boards I went, and after brain storming and coming up with a few concept sketches I had my design all worked out. Luckily the living room has pseudo support beams, not my family's decision they where here when we bought the house. I could use the one that was near center with the screen as an anchor point, and then build a brace around it that would hold the projector up. Later I went back and added extra sheet metal for preventive safety measures. It works quite well, and even better, this means no more coffee table alignment every time we watch a movie!

RCA to S-Video Converter

A small side project that I had worked on over the break was a S-Video to RCA adaptor. I had wanted something that would not only send all the video outputs from the receiver to the tv as it is set up to do, but to the projector as well. I do not do a lot of projector gaming as it is a bulb life waster, but still it is still nice to have the ability, and it lookd like a interesting project. So I started searching for instructions online, and while there was little information out there, one place I did find is here. The only problem was that the instructions are a bit fuzzy and the pictures do not help, so it took quite a bit of time to get the right pin out.

See the above pin out, which is how I have it wired, and for what I need it seems to work quite well. Also the ceramic capacitor I used was not the exact one specified in the instructions, instead it was a 221B, however it was mentioned "values form around 400 pF to around 10 nF should work somehow acceptably." so I was not concerned as it falls in that range. Plus it was the best I could rip off of an old circuit board laying around.

Now I must say that as was warned, the video quality is not amazing, but it works and was completely free, made from spare parts laying around, so beggars cant be picky. Also I think it would look better if it was S-Video converted to RCA, not the other way around like I am using it for.

Epic Ornament

My little sister, who definitely got the most artistic genes in the family, was kind enough to surprise me an Epic Box ornament for christmas. She had seen the original animation when I found it, and then she had seen my Epic Game I made in VB last semester, so it was only appropriate to have it on the Christmas Tree as well. I must say that this ornament is a keeper, as it is way too cute.

Merry Christmas

Well Christmas is once again here, the trees are up, stockings are hung and school is over for a while. It is nice taking a break for a while after school was way busier this semester then expected. So until I post the results of a few projects I am working on...

Below is a great Christmas flash loop to celebrate with. (Santa... Santa... Santa...) Oh, and if you think it is missing the real point, just wait it is coming. ^_^

CLICK ME!!! (<= Flash with sound...)

Koathangersmargen

What do you get when two science students get in a mood to decorate, but do not have all the required materials? You get Monster Tree, made out of coat hangers and wrapped with lights. It actually looks good at night, not so much in the day though.

On a whim I made up some mythology of the coat hanger tree, it started in a village in Sweden, and became know as koathangersmargen, forgotten till now...

Super Sumo

Ever wonder what would happen if Sumo, or any wrestling for that matter was like an arcade fighter, well wonder no more!

I needed a good laugh after this week, and this worked quite well.

It would seem that these super sumo videos come from http://check-it.org/14/flash/

Alice in wonderland remixes

I stumbled upon Alice a song by the artist Pogo. To quote him, 'Alice' is an electronic piece of which 90% is composed using sounds recorded from the Disney film 'Alice In Wonderland'. It is rather interesting to listen to, and although at first I did not love it, it has grown on me. Check out and download for free Alice and three other songs like it (Lost is also quite good) at Pogo's Last Fm page

Epic Box the Game

When I was told that I had to do a simple game for my Visual Basic class I had originally wanted to do a simple tank game with a progress bar that charged. However a friend of mine had the amazing idea of doing Epic Box the game, so when he decided to go with another idea instead, I quickly decided that Epic Box was a way better project. So after a few weeks of work and many laughs later I present Epic Box the Game (aka EpicGame).

Download it here!
(Requires the .NET libraries, Windows only...)

It is a very simple game. You move epic box with the arrow keys to go forwards, backwards and jump. You can also shoot, however this drains energy, jumping does as well. This will become a problem later as the hoards of Thirst Quenchers start to pile up. Luckily after killing enough of them, your Epic Meter will become full and you will receive new powers to help defeat them. After all the Thirst Quenchers are defeated, the Boss Fight begins...

Fun and short about 3 minutes of play, enjoy!