Car Headlight Change

G'day everyone,

Today I decided to drop the headlight out of my Mazda 121 after it was broken from a flying stone as I have rego soon and thought screw it, it'd be a good w/e project.

Went to the local wreckers and it set me back $65.00 AUD, came with a working headlight but the parking light bulb was shot... no worries I got one from the old housing.

Started pulling the power connector and it wasn't budging, turns out there is a clip, pressed down on the tabs and VOLA :D

Then tried disconnecting the parking light and geesh that was a mungeral. Dust and crap got into the connecting housing making it really stiff, but nothing a bit of persuastion from a flat blade screwdriver can't fix.

Started pulling the housing out and it was being really stubborn, turns out Mazda don't want them headlights movin lol. Also had to take the grill off to get at the bottom bolts as well as set free the headlight.

Bit of wobbling and reefing and she came out without too much drama.

Started installing the second hand replacement and bolt her in with the socket set. Then I went to replace the grill.. Oh bother its missing a clip, no worries I'll canabalise the old housing for its clip. Then I realised the reason it's missing the clip is because the hole that the clip lives in is slighty busted, the other one was still good and it has 2 bolts holding it in so she'll be right.

In the end took me a few hours this morning and $65 and got a spare H4 headlight so I ain't complaining. On closer inspection of the old headlight it turns out had a bit of glass protruding so just as well as I changed it now instead of later.

Pics coming later (gotta resize the buggers lol) and work out how to get multiple file uploads working on my blog.

Usual legal crap, Mazda is a registered trademark of Mazda Motor Corporation (マツダ株式会社 Matsuda Kabushiki-gaisha).

Also on my todo list is (in kinda sorta order)

• Implement automatic Facebook notifications when I post and check "Publish"
• Setup orange network at home with VPN access
• Organise rego inspection (will be fun, work out at Belconnen and my car is NSW registered so the challenge is finding a mechanic who'll do the RTA rego inspection.)
• Hopefully receive my Linksys ATAs next week and maybe my 400 nerf streamlines from the states looking forward to the 2012 year of nerf.

VIDEO: Timelapse of the beginning of the new year 2012

Recently I made a timelapse video of the start of the new year :)

In prep for the video I was looking for some music to back the video and found the song Deccies - Alley Rain - D'JO.

Just heard back from the artist of the song after asking whether it was ok to use his song in my video and he approved 

http://soundcloud.com/deccies

http://soundcloud.com/deccies/alley-rain-deco

The software I used is Yawcam, it's free http://www.yawcam.com/index.php

Website redesign

Recently I have been neglecting my blog and it kinda needs some loving.

As a result I am going to be finishing off the missing features, implementing code tags, adding the ability for me to upload images directly and getting archive to work as well as the projects page.

I expect this to be completed in the next few weeks but we'll have to wait and see.

Todo:

• Implement Image upload support
• Implement code tags (on the back burner atm, will prob integrate codepad into my blog :) more phun coding)
• Complete Archive Page (back burner)
• Complete Projects Page (not started yet)
• RSS Feeds support (sorta working)
• YouTube Support
• Truncate long posts 

Image upload test :)

Youtube embedding support with lazy links (youtu.be urls)

Adding a custom driver to Slax

Here is my quick blog post on how to add a custom driver, in this quickie tutorial I will be adding the e1000e driver.

1. Download slax (make sure you have the SLAX-DEVELOP modules)
2. Boot slax (I recommend a vm so you can save your stuff, else bring a flashy to copy the stuff over)
3. Login as root (default password for slax is un: root, pw: toor)
4. Compile your driver (duh)
5. Copy driver files to your home directory remembering the file structure they're ment to be in.
6. cd ~
7. cp /boot/initrd.gz ~/
8. mkdir initmnt
9. gzip -d initrd.gz
10. mount -o loop initrd initmnt/
11. Drop the files where they are meant to be (at time of writing and for the e1000e driver its 
    /lib/modules/2.6.27.27/kernel/drivers/net/e1000e and you want the e1000e.ko file)
12. Fire up vi and edit ~/initmnt/rclinux (or simular)
13. Add the following line around where it loads all the modules for drivers
    insmod /path/to/your/driver/driver.extension
    e.g. insmod /lib/modules/2.6.27.27/kernel/drivers/net/e1000e/e1000e.ko
14. Save your changes to the linuxrc/rclinux
15. cd ~
16. umount initmnt/
17. gzip initrd
18. copy the initrd.gz to another computer (via scp, flashdrive etc)
19. Remaster the slax iso and replace the old initrd.gz with your new shiney one :)
20. ????
21. PROFIT :D

Why did I take the effort to do this???? because I plan on designing a cluster setup :) Details coming soon

When I get time I will do a better write up for those who can't follow my super excited hasty post :D

Mapping the Metaverse - UPDATE

Todays update :) Now featuring an exec summary :P

Executive Summary:

Project is currently stalled, while I find some motivation to redesign the map pages layout. At this point in time they look like something out of my Year 2 colouring in book.

The covers look really nice, quite professional.

Also looking at instead of a 100 page pilot release just releasing the lot and going "all in". If its gonna fail might as well do it with some level of epicness xD.

Detail:

Pulled of a coding marathon recently, managed to get the auto-generation to the point of production quality. Further redesigning is needed as the modified format has resulted in squashed maps.

Originally I was planing on doing a 4x5 map grid per page, this would result it being a meer 250 ish pages of maps but the text was difficult for me to read and I have 20-20 vision what about the people in Second Life who have reduced eye sight??

So now its in 3x4 format, I may have to rescale the pages, I really don't want to as it will take allot of work and there is likely to be a more workable work-around.

Total statistics for my first release are, approximately 25 pages for just the preface of the book (3 pages of text, 22 pages of region name indexes :|).

Further more I have discovered my limit for running bots on my computer. I can run a maximum of 12 at the same time on my ADSL2+ connection before the congestion causes additional clients to drop.

Further releases may be broken into smaller chunks as I have found that the index pages alone are massive and it will increase affordability.

Another issue I have to address is the thing we all dread.... CHANGE :) SecondLife(tm) is not static, it changes. The biggest brick wall I could encounter is how much SL changes. If it changes allot in say a month it could create some problems, as at the moment it takes roughly one day to produce this data.

Yet another concern of mine is it may invoke griefers to determine aviation hotspots and decide to set up blocks or some kind of method to interfere with the resident's experience. Also residents who appose vehicles etc in SL may choose to create circumstances that would be unfavorable to aviation.

In a nutshell, I have allot of hurtles to jump to get this A380 like project in the air and with an eight subject semester looming time is running out to get this bird off the ground.

Mapping the Second Life(tm) World

Recently I have resumed my push to develop a system for mapping the regions of Second Life.

At the time of writing I have a total of 8 bots. These 8 bots process on average 2 regions per minute (which is quite slow but its avoiding the TP throttle).

To process the entire Japanese continent consisting of approximately 3567 regions (this does include some private estates, I hope to be able to get a better list which allows me to filter), it will take approximately 4hr 52 minutes with 8 bots, and with an additional two, I should be able to process the 3567 regions in approximately 2hr 58 minutes :)

What varries these times is the bots have two teleport triggers.

1) The hud that does the mapping fires an owner message saying (in human understandable english) "Hey i am done!", there is a delay of 15 seconds so we don't smash into the LL wall

2) There is a backup timer in the bot code which forces a tp to the next region after 60 seconds should the hud fail to operate due to the bot having the misfortune of landing in a no script zone.

Whats my goal?

I plan on being able to map the entire mainland, in a 2 hr time span. Everyday.

A slightly further goal is to be able to do the above in 2 hrs, 4 times a day.

The interesting thing with llHTTPRequest, is there are no limits on how much data you can push out of the game, just how much you can download into the game. My data packets as they stand are 8192 bytes in length. (2x 4096 lots of data + some overhead). The limit for data retrieval (before it gets truncated) is 2048 bytes.

Either there is no limit or LL have made an epic oversight. Either way I ain't complaining It makes my life and the lives of other LSL scripters out there allot more bearable despite the fear of our code being leaked by holes in the world.

Hoping to break my personal best for processing time :)

At this very writing, my bots just logged out. This means they have completed their task :D

End of another semester

Alas the end of another semester.

Just sat what I hope to be my final exam (I should nail it but as they say, dont assume you've got it till you got it).

Exam was the same as a trial exam 3 weeks ago except for different IPs and one or two diff questions, Irony was one question was the same as the trial and I had the notes for it as part of my reference sheet that we were permitted to bring in. (that being question asking us to implement a WMI Filter to insure that a app deployment group policy would only be implemented on computers with 25MB or more free disk space on a NTFS formatted "C:" partition.

Win Server 2k3 box, promote it to domain controller, create an OU, create some users and a group, etc.

70% of marks = Practical work.

30% of marks = Written questions.

Shame that our courses didn't go in a natural progression (e.g. Win Server 2k3 then Win Server 2k8, etc).

So far in my course I've gone from Win 2k3 to Win 2k8 and then back to Server 2k3 for Installing and Maintaining Servers.

Next semester actually looks like a real challenge (It's Diploma :D) and I look forward to it :D

Little note for my fellow students :)

REMEMBER THAT RE-ENROLLMENT IS ON THE 9th OF DECEMBER!

New Second Life product coming soon...

Been meaning to post this but never got around to it.

Recently I have been developing a dynamic maze generator for Second Life.

It's becoming more and more stable and with some changes I am going to make it should be ready for distribution shortly.

Current stats:

Maximum maze size: 32x32 (with a 8x8 meter grid size, it covers a whole region.).

Rez time @ Max size: Approx 17m 38s

Number of pieces @ Max Size:

Maximum Theoritical: 2048 (maxed out grid)

Usual prim count: 1026 (1024 + one stray + the rez box)

Reasons for limitations of the maze size:

1) It takes too long to generate a grid much bigger than 32x32

2) Data restrictions in second life, you can only receive 2048 bytes in a llHTTPRequest, and thus the maze is limited in that.

3) I don't think the region can handle many more objects being de-rezzed as it nearly falls over when you click "Clean up" and 1024 prims go POOF!

Hopefully once I get around these issues, port the maze generator over to LSL-MONO etc.

I will soon do a video of the rez :)

Todo:

• Make de-rezzing more simulator friendly
• Port the maze generator over to MONO-LSL (not LSO-LSL as it has jack shit memory)
• Add the ability to store the UUIDs of prims, so you don't need to delete the maze to re-generate.
• In general, make it more simulator friendly
• Add support for anti-regen whilst an avatar is inside (How pissed would you be if you were near the end and the maze regenerated?)
• Add code to rez the outside walls of the maze (the -x and -y axis to be precise :) )
• Optimize the code so it doesn't chew up most of the script memory to allow for bigger and better mazes :D
• Implement some kind of protocol that allows for fragmentation of maze assembly messages allowing for larger grids.

The epic fail of Second Life's (tm) Teen Grid Migration

As many of my friends are aware, I am a Second Life(tm) resident.

Recently I read a blog post which is a reminder about the merger of the teen grid with the main grid.

Like many residents I have my concerns with regards to how the teenagers (16-17 yr olds) will be protected in the cyber jungle called the grid.

It is commendable that the Lindens are trying to grow their business by expanding their customer base but the problem is, they haven't covered their bases. And if they have, they haven't made it clear to their concerned residents.

Background

Teenagers aged 13-15 years of age will be restricted to their sponsoring organisations private estate, won't be able to actually venture on to the real grid. They also apparently won't be able to use inworld search, etc

Teenagers aged 16-17 years of age will be restricted to G and PG rated regions, but can freely converse with adults, can tp to any region that has the G or PG rating.

Current policy as it stands (this is an interpretation of what I have read of the comments on the blogs and the jIRA issues)

G and PG parcels should contain basically what you would feel comfortable your grandmother seeing or the Queen of england

Mature parcels allow for sexual acts on the provision they are out of the public eye and are not advertised, High impact violence, bdsm, public sexual activities of any sort are not permitted

Adult parcels (in Zindra) is basically anything that the LL policy allows, kinda like a no post bars world. 

Main issues with the merger are:

• There is currently no way of identifying a teen from an adult, therefor it is difficult to determine whether one is having a conversation with another adult or with a teenager.
• Given the influx of young people, there is more than likely going to be a exponential increase in griefing (for people who play Garry's Mod think minges). The only plus side is that most of it will only be skiddy (script kiddy) style griefing not organised and high tech attacks like those done by professional/experienced hackers.
• As mentioned by many other residents, with the current policy whats to stop a teen from camming (Moving their camera into an area they physically can't reach) into a mature area from a PG zone. The entire grid is a checkerboard of PG and Mature parcels, with the exception of Zindra which is all Adult parcels.
• What do we do if a teen starts harassing us as an adult? do we just AR them and let it be? Can LL cope with the influx of increased ARs? (For the muggles out there, AR = Abuse Report, its kinda like the report button on many forums and on facebook)
• My big concern is what about the sand boxes, are there going to be Linden staff on patrol at this locations to insure no one spawns inappropriate material in a G/PG rated sandbox?
• Are the LL policies strong enough to protect themselves in the event a teen gets exposed to adult material and their parents seek legal council (which they have every right to!).
• What is protecting the 16-17 year olds from pedophiles? Of course there is the AR system, but what if it isn't reported?

In the end the writing was on the wall, teen grid was going to be merged with the main grid as the teens weren't spending enough money due to lack of content. Let's just hope that this doesn't result in a legal shit storm and LL goes bust because it would really suck for the world that many have invested thousands of dolars of REAL money into, to go poof because LL dropped the ball.

Hopefully in the coming office hours, these issues are addressed as it would suck to see the end to the world that we residents love.

I admit I look forward to more people being online in Second Life, I really do. It gets quite lonely being an Aussie in an American world.

In that, this is my first post being that of a rant.

Disclaimer: SL, Second Life are trademarks of Linden Lab Research.
facebook is a trademark of... you guessed it, facebook.

Finally we're live :D

G'day everyone!

Today I managed to get the new site completely live :D.

It may be a bit scratchy while I implement other features but none the less we are online :D.

Welcome to my new website

Hey everyone,

This is my first post :D. Welcoming you to my new blog/website.

It's basically a blog, but I have added some static pages too.

It does miss allot of nifty features as seen in wordpress but at least its not swiss cheese.

Stuff to implement in the future

• Comments on posts (I'll do it later when the need arrises)
• Long posts will auto truncate with a link to "read more" ( do it when I manage to write a post that long)
• Ability to search through my posts by year, month, day, etc (do it when it needs it)
• Add Facebook "Connect" shinaticans. (I'll do it when I add comment support)
• Add list items to the style sheet... DERP! (done)
• Add edit/delete post (done)
• Add RSS & Atom feeds
• Fix little problem that'll occur when I blab on about more than 100 topics

I Look forward to whats to come.