Actually, maybe Teen Tech’s kind of cat can solve the thing in under a minute …
Archive for the ‘Fun Things’ Category
Teen Tech’s Kind of Cat
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008Using your computer as your alarm clock
Saturday, April 5th, 2008What does every teen do? Go to school. And what does every teen use to wake up? Either a radio alarm that plays anything you want as long as its static, or a loud, obnoxious BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ until you throw it out the window. How can you save money on broken alarm clocks which can add up after a while? Use your computer to play your favorite song at the time you need to wake up. Who would have thought of that? You’ve got a computer in your room that is turned on 24/7, so it’s available, and you’ve also got an alarm that is on 24/7 that is annoying. Throw the alarm out the window once and for all and use your computer.
I’ve split this guide into two portions. The first is for all of you Windows users out there, and the second part is for all of you Linux users out there.
Windows
Windows is quite simple to get set up as a fully working alarm clock. All you need is your favorite music playing software. I prefer to use WinAmp because it’s small, and has a few other options that you can use (streaming to other computers to wake up the whole house for instance 
), but you can use others, such as iTunes. Next, you need a playlist file, which we will use a .M3U file, which is basically just a list of songs, but it also plays with iTunes (I have not tested it with Windows Media Player). This file is just a simple text file that lists the songs you want played (everything must be in the same “folder” for this to work without jumping through too many hoops). Finally, you need your volume up. Not loud enough that it wakes up the people three doors down (no pun intended) from you, but lound enough to get you awake and into your usual routine.
Step 1:
Collect your music. It doesn’t matter where you get it from, as long as whatever music player your using can play it (as a rule of thumb, just stick with MP3s).
Step 2:
Build your .M3U playlist file. Using “Notepad” (under “Accessories” in the start menu), it creates a pure text file without any formatting that Microsoft Word or Wordpad will put in it.
Here’s the look of the .M3U file:
#EXTM3U
song1.mp3
song2.mp3
song3.mp3
and so on.mp3
Just save this as “alarm.m3u” to wherever your music is saved.
Step 3:
Create a “batch” file that will start your playlist. A batch file is simple in this respect. Run a single command that opens and starts playing your playlist automatically. Save this as “alarm.bat” in the same place as your playlist file.
Here’s what your batch file should look like:
start alarm.m3u
And that’s it for the file portion of the alarm clock.
Step 4:
Create a “Scheduled Task” to start the batch file at the desired time. Under the “Control Panel”, there is an “applet” called “Scheduled Tasks.” Create a new task, and where it asks for the program to run “Browse” to the “alarm.bat” file that we created earlier. Set the time, and you have yourself a custom alarm clock.
Note:
If you set your music player to shuffle, it won’t start with the same song every morning.
Linux
The Linux part of this guide will focus on using Ubuntu Linux (7.10 Gutsy Gibbon) using Rhythmbox as the media player.
Step 1:
In rhythm box, drag and drop your selected music in, and that takes care of the playlist portion of the alarm.
Step 2:
Set up two (2) “cron” jobs. Cron is a program that runs in the background that checks once a minute to see if any events need to be executed. The first one opens Rhythmbox and the second one actually plays the music. If you try to do them at the same time, it won’t work because it will try to play before the player is finished opening. So, during the scheduling portion, set the open event before the play one and you won’t run into any issues.
Here’s what the two Cron events look like:
1:
export DISPLAY=:0 && rhythmbox-client
2:
export DISPLAY=:0 && rhythmbox-client –play
To set these up, start up “Kcron” found under “Applications” -> “System Tools”. Create and schedule the events in that order, and you now have a working alarm clock that runs Linux.
I hope this helps you in your quest for a more alarming alarm clock. If you have questions, just post them here.
Linux FINALLY
Saturday, March 29th, 2008OK,
So, most people that know me, know that I am a linux advocate. I finally did yesterday what I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Wipe Windows from my computer and Install Linux. I’ve been away the past week in South Carolina visiting family, and when I was away, two discs came in the mail from Ubuntu (a popular distribution of linux). Ubuntu is free and will always be free, all you have to do is go to their website, request discs, and they’ll ship them to you free of charge no matter how many you want. I first tried the Live CD where it runs everything off of the CD which doesn’t harm what you have installed, so I could see if it detected all of my hardware. It did. It found my wireless network, sound, and graphics drivers which are the main components people have problems with when it comes to a full linux integration. I then proceeded to back up all of my files, and installed Ubuntu. The whole install took MAYBE 20 minutes. I was highly impressed. A Windows XP install takes about an hour if you do a quick format and Vista takes about 2-3 years. This installed my new Operating System, formatted my Harddrive, and set up my user account in 20 minutes. When I started up, I was greeted by the Ubuntu login screen and was able to log in, which I might add is very fast.
There was a singular glitch in the system, and that was with the sound. Whenever a sound was playing, whether it’s music or video, a static was emitted that drowned out the sound. The solution was quick and easy once I figured out what it was. The computer was trying to output digital sound through an analog sound card. It’s like water and oil, it just doesn’t mix. The fix was to uncheck a single box in the sound’s control panel. Problem solved. I can now watch Rubik’s cube videos without annoying static. I was able to install my Steam (www.steampowered.com) games using WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) which is a Windows program emulator, so I’m still able to game with my new system.
Most people are familiar or have heard about the system called Beryl (a.k.a. Compiz), where the desktops can be turned into a cube (if you haven’t heard of it, you have now ). I installed this subsystem without a glitch, and was up and running without even restarting the computer.
Here’s some screenshots for you all to be jealous at because Windows simply isn’t cool enough:
(Beryl Cube System)
(Rain Desktop Effect)
My newest hobby
Friday, February 15th, 2008
Well, I went online to www.toysrus.com and I bought myslef a world famous Rubiks Cube. Pretty amazing little toy. I got it scrambled it, then got stuck. I looked online for some algorithms (steps to achieve a predictable outcome), used them, then solved the cube. Easy. It took me nearly 20 minutes to solve after I had found the sequences. Next I want to work on speed. With this, I not only need to oil up my cube, but to either discover or look up some more optimized algorithms built for speed. Currently, according to www.speedcubing.com which is the unofficial world records page, the record is 7.12 seconds to solve the cube. That’s SECONDS. My best time right now is 2:27.265 minutes, so I’ve got a long way to go. According to Jessica Fridrich, who is a leading Rubik’s cube expert and mathematician, there are about 1211 possible algorithms that could potentially be used to solve a cube. She uses about 80 on a regular basis often getting times of less than 15 seconds. Wow. Well, I’m going to try to break from my current method which is slow and tedious, and ATTEMPT to learn some new stuff.
My Current Project
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008Hey there everyone,
Well, like I said in my previous post, I like Team Fortress 2 (”TF2″). There is a stats program out there right now called HLStatsX at www.hlstatsx.com. The problem with this is that it costs five euros a month to use. I not only don’t want to pay for it, but I don’t want to outsource it. This software records stuff like who kills who, with what, how often. Your favorite class, and what not. It runs off of the server logs which all TF2 servers give, so, I decided, what if I created my own. This is all fine and good, except for when I actually opened the server logs. It looked a little something like this:
L 01/27/2008 – 21:43:43: “Programertobe<7><STEAM_0:1:7752907><Red>” killed “Bot05<8><BOT><Blue>” with “shotgun_hwg” (attacker_position “573 12 64″) (victim_position “739 141 64″)
L 01/27/2008 – 21:44:09: “Programertobe<7><STEAM_0:1:7752907><Red>” killed “Bot05<8><BOT><Blue>” with “fists” (attacker_position “691 119 64″) (victim_position “692 167 64″)
L 01/27/2008 – 21:44:13: “Programertobe<7><STEAM_0:1:7752907><Red>” changed role to “scout”
So, I’ve been working on writing my scripts to just pull out the relevant information, which has been a pain, but I’ve made some progress. I want to compile all of the information to a web interface so players can look at their rankings, and stats themselves, so the information has to be in a readable form. I’ve included with this post, a copy of my current source code and server logs, so you can see what I’ve been doing and hopefully where I plan to go with it.
http://tech-works.info/stats.txt
http://tech-works.info/logs.txt
BPA
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008This last Friday, I went to the Business Professionals of America Regional Competition at Henry Ford Community College. I competed in “VB.NET Programming”, “Computer Security Concepts”, and a few “open” events where you don’t have to pre-register, and you can take them at any time throughout the day. The top six in each event goes to the state leadership conference in Grand Rapids at the Amway Grand hotel. I placed third in Computer Security, second in VB.NET Programming, and sixth in “Insurance Concepts”, which I’d forgotten that I’d taken it. Except for the VB.NET test not being about VB.NET, and the Math Analysis test having way too many typos, it was a fun event. We had karaoke in the main student center, Transformes playing in one of the auditoriums, and a full cafe. I plan on going to the State conference in march, and from there, hopefully nationals which is going to be held in Reno, Nevada this year.
Last night’s sporting Event
Saturday, December 22nd, 2007Last night was the most intense sporting event (for me at least) that I have ever seen televised. It was MLG’s (Major Leage Gaming) finals for the national title held in Vegas. At this time, all of the bracket information that I’m giving out, may be incorrect as MLG’s site has not been updated with the new information at this time. I do know for a fact though that this is the very last year that MLG will be holding Halo 2 leagues because of the releas of Halo 3, so last night was the final Halo 2 matches to be played in that professional circuit.
Going in, there were a total of five teams left, Team 5k, Team Str8 Rippin, Team Agency, Team Carbon, and of course Team Final Boss. Teams Carbon and Final Boss were my favorites for making it to the finals, but I wanted Final Boss to come out on top. In the end though, Str8 Rippin knocked out 5K, Agency knocked out Str8 Rippin, Agency knocked out Str8 Rippin, then finally Carbon Knocked out Agency. It had happened. The single match that I’ve always wanted to watch with the new rosters, Carbon vs. Final Boss. Last year, team Carbon let “Strongside” go, and team Final Boss picked him up, but right after Carbon fired him, they went on to win the national title, so it was a grudge match. My favorite player in MLG is Dave “Walshy” Walsh on team Final Boss. Red Bull sponsorships, and a nice paycheck from MLG, he is considered by many to be the top player on the planet.
In the Carbon vs. Final Boss, it was a first to 50 team slayer match on midship, which is not my favorite map at all. The game was within 2 kills for almost the entire match with the lead being handed off back and forth. In the end, Team Final Boss won 50-48, and they were handed a check for 100,000$. It was an amazing match. Very intense. Every player played at the top of their game. “Ogre 2,” who is one of a set of twins on team Final Boss (”Ogre 1″ and “Ogre 2″) was given the MLG MVP award because he had over 160 more kills then deaths throughout the season. Simply amazing. In the end, hard work, dedication, and a little red bull got them through. It was a sight to behold.
Life
Sunday, December 16th, 2007Hello everybody.
I got a letter from Michigan Tech. I was declined acceptance. Crap. That was plan A. I’m still going to go to a University, it will just take longer.
One day about two weeks ago, my stepmom and dad spent the entire day watching “Beauty and the Geek”. Wow. Those geeks are worse than I am, and the beauties that they got were completely dumb. “Who won the Civil War”, “Well, we did. We won all the wars”. That’s the kind of stuff that they said. The show was about the teaching of the geeks to be social and the “beauties” to be smart.
For my birthday, my dad got me the official Eagle Scout scrapbook and Numb3rs, Season 3. I’m working on getting through numbers episode by episode.
That was my birthday weekend in a nutshell.
A Little Logic Problem
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007So, Here’s a little logic puzzle. Let’s see who can figure it out.
- There are five people – each living in a house with a different number of bedrooms, each with a different occupation, each enjoying a different entertainment, each drinking a different liquid, and each driving a different car.
- The travel agent lives in a house with five bedrooms.
- The manager drinks Gatorade,
- The owner of a Porsche Lives in a one bedroom house.
- The engineer drives a Ford.
- The one-bedroom house is immediately to the right of the four bedroom house.
- The person who likes opera also drinks Mountain Dew.
- Watching ball games is the favorite past-time of the person who lives in the three-bedroom house
- The person in the middle house drives a Cadillac.
- The salesperson lives in the first house on the left.
- The person who likes to watch movies lives in the house next to the person who drinks water.
- The person who likes ball games lives next to the person who drinks green tea.
- The person who likes to go camping drives a DeLorean.
- The teacher likes to travel.
- The salesperson lives next to the house with two bedrooms.
Here are all of the options available:
# of Bedrooms:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Career:
Travel Agent, Teacher, Salesperson, Manager, Engineer
Entertainment:
Camping, Ball Games, Opera, Movies, Travel
Drinks:
Mountain Dew, Water, Lemonade, Green Tea, Gatorade
Cars:
Cadillac, Ford, DeLorean, Pontiac, Porsche
See if you can figure out the puzzle which includes matching each person with the house, car, career, drink, and past time, as well as figuring out which order their houses are in.
Have Fun
Teen Tech’s Eighteenth Birthday
Friday, November 30th, 2007Aaron hasn’t had much of a chance to post recently. He’s been trying to finish up his Eagle Scout project, and has a couple web site projects in the works as well. He talks tech almost constantly, and I just need to sit him down at some point and say, “Ok, blog!”
He turns 18 today … something I can’t yet come to grips with. He was a big boy, 9 lb 10 oz and 23-1/2 inches long, born at the hospital at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. I don’t have a digitized photo from that time or I’d post it in here. But he was built like a football player from day one, and at over 6′ now, he’s really my “gentle giant”.
This is a proud dad writing. Aaron’s going to go far. He should know I consider him to be both a son and a good friend.
That’s all I’ve got to say about that.
Happy Eighteenth Birthday, Aaron!
