biphenyl.org

Here’s a fun little game that Brandon linked to me from Rail Spikes. See what you’ve been running from the command line recently!

matt@Valhalla:~$ history 1000 | awk '{a[$2]++}END{for(i in a){print a[i] ” ” i}}’ | sort -rn | head
111 ls
71 /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox
67 cd
28 tar
25 rm
25 latex
22 exit
22 dvipdft
20 vi
16 mv

Incidentally I’m running Firefox from the command line in order to switch user profiles (they’re still there from the old Mozilla days, but switching is a bit of a secret now — run firefox -ProfileManager)

Quantum Mechanics may be the ultimate mindfuck. Einstein was no fan — he famously wrote “God does not throw dice,” referring to his distaste for the statistical formulation underlying quantum theory. Despite his misgivings, quantum physics has proven effective at describing all manner of natural phenomena since its formulation in the early 20th century. That said, the formalism does lead to some rather odd or paradoxical conclusions.

Not least among these is the notion of Quantum Entanglement — that observable qualities of systems may be statistically correlated, even though the systems may be separated by vast spatial distances. An example is a pair of entangled electrons — one will have spin up, one spin down, but the individual states are indeterminate until a measurement is made. However, once the spin of one electron is measured, the spin of the other will become determinate instantaneously, and more importantly, superluminally. Einstein labeled this theoretical phenomenon “Spukhafte Fernwirkung” — “spooky action at a distance.”

These graffiti, placed on opposite ends of a bridge, embody the notion of entangled states, each with Einstein’s appellation and a measured spin wavefunction — up for Alice and down for Bob, whose wavefunction has collapsed once Alice makes her measurement.

For more on entanglement and Einstein’s view, I also suggest reading about the EPR Paradox.

The Independent Gaming Source just finished up a competition based on the Video Game Name Generator. The rules:

1. First, open up the Video Game Name Generator.
2. Next, find a name for the game that you want to make.
(Peeing your pants out of mirth is recommended during this part.)
3. Finally, MAKE THAT GAME.
Optional Secondary Objective: BRAND LEADERSHIP

My brother/coworker Adam and I decided we’d try our hand at one. We picked Obsessive Compulsive Penguin Simulator, for obvious reasons. You play as a penguin with OCD, who must stamp down accumulating snow drifts, in order to keep the ground even for all! To promote Brand Leadership, I also made this stunning promotional artwork:

The competition lasted three weeks, but we spent a total of about five days working on it — three of Flashbang’s experimental Fridays and then this last weekend. Now go play the game — it plays in-browser for OS X and Windows!

We recently received this email at Flashbang, in reference to our game Off-Road Velociraptor Safari:

From: David Hone IVPP
Date: Mar 16, 2008 3:17 AM
Subject: Off-Road Velociraptor Safari
To: contact@flashbangstudios.com

Hi Guys, great game - I have been playing for weeks. I just wanted to say that, believe it or not, I am a palaeontologist and I happen to work primarily on dromaeosaurs and pterosaurs - in other words, among other things i am an expert on Velociraptor and Pterandon. Yes, really.

And can be (and generally am) a pedantic sod, but in general your reconstructions of both are great. Very detailed and very accurate and that is one of the reasons I like playing (OK, so running them over is cool too… ;-) I get riled constantly by bad reconstructions of dinosaurs and especially pterosaurs that are generally being done by supposed experts and making a complete hash of even the basics, so it is a delight to see these done so well! Great stuff.

Anyway, thanks for a fun game and if by chance you do want some advice on future dinosaurs I am happy to help out!

Cheers,

Dave

David Hone works for the University of Bristol, UK. I am pleasantly amazed!

Here are a couple updates regarding previous projects. I’ve been spending free time lately reading, but I should have some new stuff soonish.

[citation needed] stickers have been slowly showing up in new places. I’ve still got a number left, so if you want a few, just send me an email or a message via Flickr. A few from around Tempe and San Francisco are in the Flickr tag pool:

I especially dig this one from Flickr user cutlerite:

Reason Magazine also recently published a short article about the project, in their March issue. Don’t be afraid — they’re much nicer Libertarians than some of the Randroids I’ve met!

I also finally had a chance to really test my bicycle camera mount — the lead-up to the Game Developers Conference had left me with little time for biking anywhere other than work. I went riding with Matthew and took a few shots as well as this video:

On a side note I don’t recommend trail riding with this particular mount — the constant jostling broke the conduit hanger I was using to mount the tripod head. Luckily it’s the cheapest piece at only 50 cents, but the weight of the assembly demands something a bit sturdier than cheap plastic if you’re going to be navigating bumpy terrain!

You’re throwing a party for the Game Developers Conference and you think it would be cool to have a custom game. What’s the natural response? How about Pong that adapts its difficulty based on how drunk you are!

Among my numerous interests is custom hardware for games and interactive art. When my friend and coworker Matthew Wegner suggested the idea of making a breathalyzer peripheral for a party game at GDC, how could I respond with anything but, “Hahahaha, Hells YES! I am ON that!”

I started by researching the various consumer breathalyzers. In the end I decided to hack the Alcoscan AL2500. It provides readings within a reasonable error tolerance and costs about $30 on Amazon — much cheaper than fuel cell meters. Upon opening it up, I found that it’s set up pretty simply. It’s driven by an ATMEGA48V-10AU microcontroller, with the semiconductor sensor connected to an analog input, and digital outputs that drive a simple seven-segment style LCD.

As I saw it, there were basically two options for obtaining the data from the breathalyzer and sending it to the computer. On the one hand, you could read the analog value from the breath sensor, or on the other hand, you could reconstruct the LCD digits from the digital outputs. Since the analog circuit driving the sensor was a little complicated and beyond my expertise (and I’d procrastinated enough that learning more before GDC was out of the question), I decided to reconstruct digits. I first followed traces on the PCB to find which pins on the microcontroller were driving the LCD. I then systematically grounded each pin while turning the unit on to determine which pins drove which LCD segments.

I then soldered wires to the relevant LCD outputs on the board (the connectors were nice and big compared to the microcontroller pins). I spent a bit of time determining which outputs from the LCD I wanted to read. As it turns out, you only need five segments from a seven-segment digit to determine the numerical value of the digit — the bottom and bottom right segments are superfluous (see Matt Mets’s recent post, who solved the problem independently). I ran a total of eleven wires — two digits for the BAC level and one wire for the “Wait” indicator — into digital inputs on an Arduino Diecimila. The Arduino code ended up pretty simple — it reconstructs two digits and the status of the “Wait” indicator and transmits these serially via USB.

I then read the serial data in using the Java RXTX library and spit it into a text file, which I then read in from Unity. The game then makes the paddle size larger the drunker you are!

The hardware is of course begging to be used in other ways — how about a program that locks you out of Ecto and your forum accounts when you’re right trashed? No more embarrassing comments that you can’t take back! I may go back and make a more sophisticated game in the future — Pong was about the right scope for the single day of development time I had left after handling the hardware and serial transmission!

I’ll have the game up for play at the 9Bit indie games party Tuesday night — if you’re at GDC just find folks from Flashbang, Gastronaut, or ThatGameCompany to get an invite and drink tickets! I’ll post an Instructable and some more information about the software when time permits. Extra special thanks to Becky Stern and Matt Mets for their advising on the hardware interface!

Since buying my bike, I find myself cycling pretty often and I usually bring my camera along to take pictures. Usually taking photos involves stopping and fumbling around in my backpack for the camera — not an ideal situation. Naturally, the first thing I started thinking about after buying the bike was, “How can I mod this to make it uniquely mine?” While looking through Instructables for ideas, I found instructions for a bicycle camera mount. It dug it, and it had the benefit of being cheap, but was a little feature-anemic. Specifically, it couldn’t tilt at all, so would result in unlevel pictures on my bike, and it wasn’t easy to remove the camera — you had to unscrew it from a bolt for unmounted shots. I immediately thought of tripods with quick release plates and decided on a simple remake using a tripod head. I made and attached it this weekend, with pretty excellent results! Now I can make photos while biking and easily transition to hand-held shots when I see something cool on the roadside!

I published an Instructable for anyone interested in making one, and have a photoset up on Flickr.

I was biking through Kiwanis Park in Tempe earlier today and came across this excellent street sign mod. Someone has placed clear vinyl stickers with hula hoops (complete with motion lines!) printed on them around the waists of a few crosswalk signs. They’re apparently a meme that started via distribution at The String Cheese Incident concerts. I cracked up when I saw the first — I’m glad there are other people in Tempe who want to bring some spirit into the streets, especially if it’s an irreverent Discordian spirit! I saw four total — luckily I had my camera with me so I snapped a couple photos:

It’s no secret that I’m a big Wikipedia fan — I’ve got a serious case of NADD and about half my browser tabs at any given time are Wikipedia articles. One of my favorite quirks about the site are the little [citation needed] tags that users can place in an article, indicating that a dubious claim needs a reference. One day an idea struck — what statements are more dubious or outright ridiculous than those in advertisements? Thus, an OM project was born. I had 250 8×2 inch stickers printed, which I handed out to friends, who circulated them further. In true wiki fashion, the final placement of the stickers is a collaborative effort, now distributed and anonymous. If anyone sees one somewhere, please make a photo! I’ve been tagging my photoset on Flickr with citationneeded and wikiffiti — more should start showing up in the next few weeks. I’m also providing the source Photoshop file (or as pdf) for anyone who wants to print their own batch. Note that you may have to resize the canvas or change the image mode to CMYK depending upon the print service used.
Update: A few people have asked via Flickr about printing services. I found uprinting.com via google, and ended up using them simply because their minimum order size was 250 instead of 500 — there may be better or cheaper options available. They simply have a quote form you fill out, then you upload your file (such as the CMYK one above). Very painless overall.

I saw an Instructable for these neat LED-lighted jars some time ago - I thought it would be cool to make a couple to leave in my room. It’s a very simple hack - you gut a solar garden lamp, replace the LED if desired, and then place the parts into the lid of a large-mouth jar. Then simply do something to diffuse the light emitted - I used a glass frosting paint but you could just as easily add in a sheet of tracing paper or the like. I ended up making four - they turned out very nice, and I gave two away at the Phoenix DIY Meeting. Full Flickr photoset.