Fiona Plays Trauma Center: Second Opinion
Posted by: kmikeym
Fiona tested out her abilities to be a virtual surgeon in the world of Trauma Center: Second Opinion:
Things You Shouldn't Do (Vol. 3)
Posted by: kmikeym
Cory Webb is back with a special tool that could just save your life in this special edition of Things You Shouldn't Do: Getting Drunk And Falling Asleep In Bars:
drinking_buddy 1.0 was a perl cgi script that I wrote years ago that would estimate your blood alcohol content (BAC) based on how many drinks you had in a given time. It was extremely crude, you entered a number of drinks (increasing your BAC by 0.02 for each drink), and the number of hours it took you to consume said alcohol (there weren't even any minutes). But alas, this was in a time before free WiFi spots were available at just about every pub.
drinking_buddy 2.0 was a Palm Pilot basic script that was a little more sophisticated. You could pick different beverages (glass of wine, shot, beer, mixed drink) but each one just raised your BAC by 0.02 anyway, so I don't even know why there were options. It also took into account your gender, as men tend to metabolize alcohol slightly faster than women. drinking_buddy 2.0 would also factor your weight into the equation, and would round the total time to 15 minute intervals. The algorithm was so sloppy it was embarrassing.
Since HotSpots still weren't an option, and I always carried my Palm pilot (sharing the app with whoever I met at the pub with a palm pilot), drinking_buddy 2.0 was far superior to it's web-based ancestor.
Now that you can't go anywhere without finding a hotspot, I thought a web based application was in order. As I was writing the back-end, I realized that not everyone carries their laptop around with them everywhere, like I do. And I also though, I don't want to pull this thing out, power it up, log onto someone's network, EVERY time I get a drink. What a hassle. Then I realized what EVERYONE had, all the time, no matter where they were: a cell phone with text messaging capabilities.
Enter drinking_buddy 3.0. Without comments and whitespace lines, this snip of bash script weighs in at 40 lines. To use it, simply send a text message (or an email) to drink@colossalman.com with one of the following words as a subject line:
can
pint
shot
wine
101
151
200
check
These words are not case sensitive, so capitalize them if you must (my phone does it automatically), it should still work. Here's a breakdown:
can: Hi. I am drinking a 12 ounce can of beer.
pint: I am drinking a pint of beer.
shot: I am drinking a shot of 86 proof liquor, or a mixed drink with 1 86 proof shot in it.
101: I'm enjoying a shot of ice 101, or some 100(ish) proof shot or bevvy.
151: Everyone loves Bacardi!
200: I am so pathetic I'm drinking rubbing alcohol straight up.
check: I'm just checking to see how I'm doing here.
The gender specific-ness is gone, "guess my weight" is also gone (just seemed too complicated for a text message app) And of course, the rule of averages apply, the script is assuming a lot.
Beers and Pints are considered to be about 5% alcohol, which is what Pabst has (while Guinness is a mere 4%) wine, shot, and can increase your BAC by the same amount (0.0200), a pint increases it 0.0266, 101 increases it 0.0234, 151 increases it 0.0352, and 200 increases it 0.0465. 200 should probably call the local authorities and let them know all hell is going to break loose. Instead it raises your BAC 0.0465. check won't increase it at all, but will report your estimated BAC back to you. (drinking something will also report back to you your new BAC). Anything else just gives you a bit of usage info.
The algorithm is pretty simple. On average, human beings metabolize 0.02 per hour. Naturally this differs from person to person, but it's a good rule of thumb. That's about 0.00000555556 per SECOND (that actually comes to 0.0198 per hour, so you are possibly metabolizing slightly faster than drinking_buddy 3.0 will tell you) so it's accurate enough for our needs.
DO use this to have fun and play around with your friends and have contests about "who's drunkest". DON'T use this to determine if it is safe for you to drive home. If you need to ask a computer if you're OK to drive (or who you should date) then you are obviously too drunk to get behind the wheel, unless it is way behind the wheel, like in the back seat.
This is a multi-user application, it stores your current BAC and a time-stamp in a file specifically for you, based on your email address. It does not keep a running total, I won't be able to look through the logs and see what you've been drinking at what time, and no one else will be able to either. I will be able to, if I wanted to, which I don't, see how drunk you were the last time you checked in, if I know your phone's email address. But I promise not to abuse my power.
Enjoy!
Things You Shouldn't Do (vol 2)
Posted by: kmikeym
Taking apart your digital camera
Republished from cmerrill.com under a Creative Commons license.
A while back my digital camera stopped working properly. I had it in a plastic bag with a leaky water bottle and it ended up getting wet.
I let it dry for two days but when I turned it on, the buttons on the back didn't work right. One or two did what they were supposed to, but the others did what other buttons should have done. The net result was that I could take pictures with my camera as long as I was happy with the settings as they were (macro active, flash on) -- which I wasn't.
Since I couldn't really use it, I decided to take it apart.
I got the front cover off, but couldn't really get it apart beyond that. The circuit board and other pieces seemed to have been glued to the back piece, and I didn't want to break it completely. I noticed some sticky gunk on one of the ribbons, which I swabbed clean with a damp paper towel.
As I was turning the exposed innards around in my hand, a small piece fell out. It looked like the pin of a hinge, but I couldn't figure out where to put it back, so I just reattached the face plate without it.
Once the screws were back in, I turned it on to see if I'd messed it up any further.
Lo and behold, all the buttons worked normally. I was able to change all the settings and it took photos and video as it had before the accident. I suppose maybe it was the sticky gunk causing the problem, but I prefer to think I'm like Micah on "Heroes" and have a gift for electronics.
Things You Shouldn't Do
Posted by: kmikeym
Installing Linux on a MacBook
Nerd.Blog presents Things You Shouldn't Do, a new series chronicling the things that nerds do that other people should never try. The first in our series is installing linux on your MacBook.
Via Cory Webb: Here are some pictures of my WiFi bridge. Sorry for the low quality. It works rad and looks even radder, like some kind of... I dunno, scifi thing or something. It's awesome. If I can get the airport working I can re-broadcast paid-for WiFi for free! Yay.
I installed Ubuntu on my Macbook because I heard it was a simple matter to get the Airport card to work properly. Unfortunately this does not seem to be the case, hence the WiFi bridge hack. I plan on removing Ubuntu and re-installing Fedora Core 6, my Linux of choice.
Why install Linux at all may be your next question. In my work environment I use Linux on a daily basis. In my home environment I have used only Linux (shunning Microsoft products) for the past 6 years. Basically, that is the environment I am more comfortable in. However, I am learning to love the Mac Interface for day to day use, but I am still getting used to the Command-C copy and Command-V paste. I'm used to highlighting the text to copy it, and middle clicking to paste.
Some of the projects I work on simply work better out-of-the-box under Linux. For instance stop animation is very simple using the dvgrab utility. Open source gnu software compiles a lot easier (I don't even know how to get "make" for Mac OS), and web development (while not connected to the internet) is simple on Linux as it's easy to install my own local webserver. Other software projects (Multicade, Interjuke, Quizbox 3000) work better under Linux because I can use whatever I prefer as a shell, instead of being roped into Aqua. Robot development is a lot nicer under Linux because the mini-itx mainboards are cheap and robust, and far more expandable than a mac mini.
Oh yes, and I'm a geek.
