The Beowulf SupaChat RPG

For an upcoming creative project on Beowulf (for lit class), I decided to create a text-based RPG featuring events similar to those found in the book. Since network infrastructure and all that stuff is a pain, I am trying to use the service snap-in feature of my old SupaChat Server. It's been three years since I did anything with that; as I look at its code, I see so much that could go horribly wrong, mostly the complete lack of multithreading. So far, the program can connect to an SCS, snap itself in as a service, and come in like a wrecking ball to new groups and adminify itself for RPG handling there.

Robotics - Dremel

Dremels are cool things. They have substitutable parts, are easy to handle, and have a good owner's manual. During an exceptionally length early-out Friday robotics meeting, we used one such device to cut a piece of aluminum. We actually broke at least three of the cutting heads, but it comes with many packages; evidently, breakage is pretty common. That piece was used as the back of our conveyor assembly. Once that was all fixed into place, I did some adjustments and testing to the new two-controller system.

Robotics - T-Shirt Time

We're still waiting on drills and other equipment necessary to continue the redesign of the robot, so today's meeting was used to finalize the t-shirts. They're very similar to that of last year's team: an apple and the pi symbol. They're set on a light gray background with the names of all the members on the back. There's just 10 days left before the first state qualifier.

Robotics - Double Controller, So Intense

As an important FTC qualifier draws near and the build team starts totally redoing our design, I'm finally implementing the second controller that is necessary to have good control. The general convention is to have one controller for moving the robot and use the other for operations. All I had to do is move the code for controlling the conveyor belts to the variables for the new controller. Since I didn't have much to do while the build team dismantled the robot, I created a new mode of controlling the conveyors using the top hat.

Robotics - Autonomous Testing

The autonomous period development is going reasonably well. The robot can use the infrared sensor without special drivers, which I was unable to install correctly. However, it can still sense the general direction of the beacon perfectly fine. We have been using that to start our autonomous programming. So far, the robot can find where the beacon is, turn, and then make a decent attempt at driving up to the pendulum. At that last step, it gets a little confused due to my slightly indiscriminate handling of direction. It also has issues turning such that the sensor (which is mounted on the side of the robot for drive-by scanning (very gangster)) is perpendicular to the beacon. We expect most of these problems to be resolved when we actually get a real field installed in our testing lab. In related news, the conveyor belt has had all the rubber inserts installed and can pick up blocks with success.

Beautifully Subtle SGA "F"

I made this in Paint .NET:

Logofrag - Adding Frags

Well, I modulized a little bit more functionality used by the thread view of Logofrag. I scrapped the idea of having the user write one word in each text box and select both sides' punctuation for adding a frag. Instead, I'm going to let the entrants write freely and then press a "preview" button that will make sure no illegal characters are being used, check that the frag meets the length requirements, and figure out what is punctuation and what isn't. Once the user makes sure that Logofrag didn't destroy the formatting in the verification, the newly made visible Submit button is used to actually add the fragment. Also, I discovered that it might be easier for me to keep a User object in the Session instead of an ID; it's slightly annoying to have to constantly query the database to get a user's actual information.