| The Plan | Feb. 14th, 2005 @ 07:37 am |
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The Problem:
- Feel like crap
- 190 lbs
- Size 34 jeans are tight
The Goal:
- Feel healthy
- 170 lbs
The Plan:
- Excersize (walking at least 20 minutes, at least once a day)
- Eat what I want, but eat less of it (and try really *really* *REALLY* hard to
avoid caffeinated soft drinks)
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| I never thought I would say this... | Jan. 25th, 2005 @ 03:26 pm |
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I used a phrase for the first time today. I never thought that I would say this: "I don't think there's a Perl module for that."
That was in response to the question: "Kevin, do you know of an octree implementation in Perl that can handle recursion?" Neither CPAN nor google were any help, though there may be a more general problem space that covers the same functionality.
This makes me sad.Current Mood:  sad |
| How about that? | Jan. 20th, 2005 @ 05:56 pm |
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I'm a liberal protestant... imagine my surprise. :-)
Take the quiz at belief net
- Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (100%)
- Liberal Quakers (89%)
- Orthodox Quaker (86%)
- Unitarian Universalism (82%)
- Reform Judaism (73%)
- Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (64%)
- Neo-Pagan (64%)
- Seventh Day Adventist (62%)
- Bah¿'¿ Faith (62%)
- New Age (59%)
- Eastern Orthodox (57%)
- Roman Catholic (57%)
- Mahayana Buddhism (55%)
- Sikhism (55%)
- Theravada Buddhism (53%)
- Secular Humanism (52%)
- Orthodox Judaism (48%)
- Islam (44%)
- Taoism (43%)
- Hinduism (39%)
- Scientology (38%)
- New Thought (38%)
- Jainism (35%)
- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (33%)
- Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (33%)
- Nontheist (27%)
- Jehovah's Witness (19%)
Current Mood:  chipper Current Music: Guitar after not practicing for over a year |
| LWO Filter, before and after | Jan. 5th, 2005 @ 06:25 pm |
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before:
fp = fopen( file, "r" );
after:
// TODO: get a brain
fp = fopen( file, "rb" );
*sigh* |
| Nullsoft installer | Jan. 5th, 2005 @ 08:16 am |
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I'm not much of a fan of Nullsoft's later WinAmp releases, but I must say that their installer project is quite nice.
http://nsis.sourceforge.net/
I was able to get a basic Windows installer/uninstaller going in less than 30 minutes using the examples they provided--as compared to some other installers I won't name which involved far too much work to do a simple extract and file copy.
Now if I could just figure out why the lightwave import filter is crapping out in the polygon chunk section... |
| » Rain, it's a shame |
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A decent amount of rain is coming down and I'm stuck inside at work instead of being stuck inside at home. *sigh*
And I'm sitting here for 5+ hours, I put on headphones for some music and within 30 seconds I get my very first interruption of the day. *sigh again*
Dec. 27th, 2004 @ 01:51 pm
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| » XML for dinner, XSL for dessert |
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I put up some recipes on Worcester World. I also learned how to use XSL to translate XML into XHTML for display. This means you need a recent Mozilla-based or IE browser to view the recipes properly. Of course, most anyone who reads this will be pretty current... with the exception of you console-based web browser monkeys out there (you know who you are).
http://www.worcesterworld.com/recipes/
Had the italian stuffed chicken for dinner and waffle cookies for dessert. Yum.
Dec. 18th, 2004 @ 11:02 pm
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| » Wavefront textures and export |
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As I suspected, implementing wavefront texture import and the complete wavefront export was quicker than implementing LWO texture import. So wavefront export works now, geometry and materials. Got one of my texture-mapped models I created in mm3d opened in blender through the OBJ import filter, so apparently I did something right.
Nov. 29th, 2004 @ 08:13 pm
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| » Wavefront OBJ import, Blender first impressions |
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One last entry before taking off for the Thanksgiving holiday (returning Sunday).
Wavefront OBJ import--it works. Geometry, textures, UVs. All done--well except for curves and such which I don't support anyway. Geometry was done last week. Started textures last night, finished this morning.
Now when I say it works, I mean it works for the one complete sample model I have. I have lots of OBJs that use textured materials and colored materials, but only one actually includes the texture files. The sample I have is somewhat broken (uses seemingly random mix of tabs and spaces, filename case in the object bears no resemblance to filename case in the filesystem, etc...). So hopefully this one file has worked out most of the potential brokenness, but I won't know for sure until people start using it.
So I finally installed Blender just to check it out--two main purposes. 1) See what the basic UI was like and how it handled simple tasks. 2) See what import/export filters I might be able to pilfer.
( More inside... )
Nov. 24th, 2004 @ 10:14 am
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| » What a pain... |
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Lightwave import--Got geometry working for LWOB and LWO2. Was a day or two of work. Now I'm working on material/texture support. Had to add color material support to mm3d before I could start in on it. Took half an afternoon. That wasn't so bad. Got color material import working (mostly... there are still some options I don't support like double-sided and such). That was easier than I thought it would be.
Now texture-mapped materials... this is where things start breaking down; mostly because the documentation I have is unclear or incomplete. The LWOB documentation I have doesn't discuss UVs at all and some details I gleaned from the LWO2 docs make it sound like UVs might be optional (in some circumstances at least) even in LWO2 files.
Now I'm just working from a guess here, but some vague statements regarding texture center, size, and axis make it sound like texture maps are generally handled as a projection of a 2D texture onto vertices in 3D space; either in a flat, cylindrical, or spherical manner. In case you can't tell, I've never actually used Lightwave. :-)
I know that I can find UV coordinates in some LWO2 files... and it may be that this case is common enough that I don't have to worry about the projections for the import, but my guess is any sort of export is going to require me to do something intelligent with texture map orientation and projection. This ought to be "fun".
And to top it all off, I have tons of models that use texture maps... but only 1 that actually includes the texture it uses. Same with OBJ format (which has much easier material definitions... should have done that first).
Stupid professional 3D software... makes things harder for everyone *pbtht*.
Speaking of professional, I suppose I should go to work now....
Nov. 23rd, 2004 @ 08:50 am
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| » Sigh... |
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*sigh* Why is it that I cannot resist this stuff?
- Grab the nearest book.
- Open the book to page 23.
- Find the fifth sentence
- Post the text of the sentence in your journal with these instructions
Genesis 18:25 says, ".... Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?"
It just so happens that my Bible (NRSV) happened to be right next to the computer. That particular line is spoken by Abraham to God pleading that God not destroy the city of Sodom if Abraham can find 50 righteous men within the city. God agrees. In the end Abraham fails to find 10. The city is destroyed.
That was page 23 of the Old Testament. Page 23, sentence 5 of the New Testament is a quote from Isaiah: "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines."
Heh, talk about flamebait. :-)
Nov. 6th, 2004 @ 02:18 pm
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| » Election venting |
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So I think I need to vent just a bit about the recent election. I also would like honest feedback on my venting from conservatives, moderates, and liberals alike (I don't like the connotations of these labels, but I must communicate my meaning somehow). Please pass this URL on to others who might be interested in reading and responding--particularly those who can make an honest effort at convincing me that a second Bush term won't be a complete disaster for freedom in the USA and elsewhere in the world. Also, please excuse any typos. I didn't have time to proof-read this as thoroughly as I would like. :-)
Before I go on I must emphatically state that I do not believe republicans in general are either evil or ignorant. They have certain priorities and goals, and they have policies that they believe will acheive those goals. They believe they are doing what is best for a USA that they love. I was once a registered Republican, mostly for fiscal policy reasons. I recently changed my status to be unaffiliated with any party (I tend to lean moderate libertarian, for any who don't know). This change in affiliation was my reaction against what I perceived as a hijacking of the Republican party by uncompromising hardline conservatives (or maybe it was always that way and I just recently noticed).
You're all probably aware by this time that I'm no fan of Bush or his administration. I wasn't really much impressed with Kerry either. He just seemed to be a slightly less evil version of Bush--his campaign was essentially "I'm a republican too; but I'll be better at it, I promise!" Which thruthfully was fine by me because less evil is less evil, and a stalemate between the legislature and the executive is a good thing for the American people.
My main objections to the Bush administration are a blatant disregard for citizens' rights by the justice department (under the direction of Ashcroft), deception about our reasons for war in Iraq as well as the war's progress (or relative lack thereof), and squandering of the greatest outpouring of international goodwill this country has ever seen.
I don't feel safer because of Bush's War On Terror. There will be another terrorist attack on US soil. It will happen regardless of what Bush or anyone else does from the Oval Office. If anything, Bush's iron fist approach is creating a breeding ground for terrorism. Children are orphaned in Iraq because of US bombs. You're fooling yourself if you think they're going to blame Hussein and join the USA's fight for Freedom. These people who've watched their families die at the hands of the US military are the terrorist leaders of Tomorrow. I'm not suggesting we do nothing in response to terrorism. I'm suggesting we must be much more selective about our targets and work with the international community to fight terrorism that affects all free nations. If we do not do this, the next time a terrorist attack happens on US soil I would find no fault in nations who responded with an indifferent "Serves you right." The US has earned it since 2002.
As I said before, I don't feel safer because of Bush's War On Terror. I'm far more afraid of the government's apparent disregard for human rights of citizens and non-citizens alike. 3000 people were killed on 9/11. In contrast, 5000 have been detained indefinitely by the justice department on suspicion of connection with terrorist activity on domestic soil (Thank you, USA Patriot Act). Any idea how many have been convicted? Less than 10 (couldn't find an exact number, but as of a month ago it was 2-3). The convictions were under a dubious law that felonizes "material aid" to "terrorist organizations"--essentially giving money to the wrong non-profit organizations. 5000 people effectively jailed, most without access to legal counsel and many without even being formally charged. What recourse does a nation have when the head of the Justice department pisses on the Bill of Rights?
Perhaps most alarming of all is the situation in the Supreme Court. The legislature and executive are still competely in the hands of the Republican party. Cancer experts are saying based on the snipets we know of the supreme court chief justice's cancer treatment, he's likely to be dead within a year. 2-3 more justices are also likely to retire or die during the Bush administration. That's 3-4 appointments that can go virtually unchecked through congress. Bush could nominate the most hardline, ultra-conservative justices he wishes and he would get no resistance from the majority party in both houses of congress. A moderate Supreme Court is necessary to counter the agendas of both extremes. I have no hopes that Bush would voluntarily appoint a moderate conservative.
At any rate, I feel those reasons more than justify a vote for "Anyone but Bush".
Specifically regarding the election, there are three main groups of voters. The republican faithful, the democrat faithful, and the independents. Among the independents who voted for Bush it seems to me that there must be 2 groups of people. One group is aware of some or all of the points I outlined above and acknowledges it. Despite that, they either support exactly what Bush is doing or feel Kerry would do worse--perhaps civil liberties and foreign relations aren't their priorites. While I strongly disagree with these people, I can respect their position.
The second independent group is a group that doesn't recognize that civil liberties are being eroded; doesn't recognize that bombing two 3rd world countries into a dusty, bloody pulp won't prevent terrorism on US soil; and doesn't recognize that the vast majority of the international community despises Bush and his foreign policy. This group seriously frightens me.
Such people do exist:
http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Pres_Election_04/html/new_10_21_04.html
I wonder what the numeric difference is between those two independent groups. I wonder if it's more than 2.5 million voters nationwide. I wonder if it's more than 100 thousand voters in Ohio.
Because of the inflammatory nature of this topic, I've disabled comments on this post (at least I think I did...). I'd like to hear from you in email, whether you agree or disagree. I may post a distillation of different viewpoints based on any responses I get--I might even enable comments if I feel the discussion could be civil. ;-) If you would prefer that your comment not be posted in a distillation (or that it be anonymous), please state that in your email. My email address is "kevin" at the "misfitcode.com" domain.
Nov. 3rd, 2004 @ 05:49 pm
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| » The Primate System |
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So here's the deal. I've already pushed my 2/3 majority system thing for state legislature passing laws (would be good at the federal level also, I think... but let's start local). Now we need to deal with elected officials.
So here's my solution: Part 1) implement approval voting. Vote for as many or as few candidates as you feel are capable of handling the job. Most votes wins. Eliminates the spoiler factor. Part 2) You can write in the name of a person who is not declared as a candidate. People who want the job aren't really appropriate anyway. Part 3) You *must* get more than 50% to be a winner. There will not be a runoff. Part 4) in the event that no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote the office will be filled by a trained monkey for the duration of the term. In the next election the monkey will be the incumbent.
Monkeys will be trained by a non-profit organization funded by recycling bottles and cans from state and federal agencies. For all I care you can give the monkey a red or blue tie and trade off every term. I'm okay with equal time.
When it's all said and done, if a trained monkey can hack electronic voting machines, sureley he/she's just as qualified as the people who rig the elections now.
Oct. 31st, 2004 @ 09:34 pm
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| » Coder's block |
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Had a bit of coder's block this week. Really wanted to get to some specific tasks but I was struggling through tuesday and wednesday to get anything productive done with mm3d. Finally broke through it last night (thursday).
It occured to me while I was making texture clamp/wrap possible that my UI never allowed for the user to extend the texture coordinates outside of the 0.0 - 1.0 range. It just never even occured to me--so that was a lot of extra work that I hadn't planned on. Anyways, the texture coordinate editor now allows you to tile the texture up to 64 times (number of tiles increases exponentially) and spread the texture coordinates over that range. 64 is arbitrary. That's hard-coded for now but there's no reason it can't be configurable in the future.
But anyways, the edit works, the undo works, and the save/load works (in mm3d format, anyways). I even updated the mm3d format documentation. How disciplined is THAT!?
Next up on the list, finish the new version check and add display of the current coordinates. Then 1.1 is ready for an initial release. Sounds like it should be soon, but Beth's dad will be in town all next week, so I'm not sure how much computer time I'm going to get.
Ah, well. Time to be a Responsible Adult and go to work.
Oct. 29th, 2004 @ 08:19 am
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| » A vote for gridlock! |
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So last night I filled out my absentee ballot. Is it too much to ask the county to provide some background and analysis for local ballot measures on a website or something? It's not enough for them to write in obtuse language. The website just listed the text of the measures as they appeared on the ballot... not really much help.
Basically my votes came down to "Vote third party, yes on stem cell research, and leave the Indian Casinos alone." And what's with the cranks who want to limit the general election to only 2 candidates, possibly of the same party? I can't see how even the Reps & Dems think that's a good idea... seriously.... Who writes this stuff?
So, I still want to get a measure on the CA ballot at some point. Require 2/3 super-majority for state congress to pass any law (not ballot measures, just state congress). 50%+1 to repeal a law (the whole thing, no line-item). Make it hard to break the government any more than it already is, keep it easy to undo damage. Force legislature to compromise more.
And best off all, the tagline: "A vote for prop XX is a vote for gridlock!"
Oct. 27th, 2004 @ 07:46 pm
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| » Found this in my referral logs |
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I often check my webserver logs for misfitcode in the mornings so I know which pages are getting the most hits, how many people who hit the website continue on to downloading the source (roughly 25% during freshmeat spikes, about 15-20% normally), which pages have broken links, and which sites are linking to me (lots of German, Czech, and Brazilian sites for some reason). I enjoy checking referrals because I feel people will say things there that they won't say to my [email] face. :-)
Today I found this in my referral logs:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/marble/113604.html
"UI doesn't suck." Yeah, it's a little thing; but I have to admit that made me smile. It started me thinking--usability was a huge complaint I had about other OSS model packages for Linux (and even milkshape to a degree) and it has been the #1 priority for Misfit Model since the first day.
I get feature requests and I get bug reports. But after 3 months of releases and 500 downloads no one has ever said "I can't figure out how feature X works." I think I'm going to call that success.
Oct. 27th, 2004 @ 08:11 am
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| » Futures |
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Sweet... New Jimmy Eat World Album
Oct. 20th, 2004 @ 07:52 pm
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| » Camera and pictures |
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So here's the camera:
http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid;=145&modelid;=10462
And here are some sample shots taken in Downtown San Jose on Oct 02.
http://www.worcesterworld.com/photos/san_jose_downtown_2004_10_02/
Still experimenting with with resolution and shutter speed settings. Overall Beth and I are very happy with the camera.
Oct. 3rd, 2004 @ 01:18 pm
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