Digital Dave

I had enough time today to implement one portion of this puzzle, the heuristic. The heuristic can be determined a variety of ways, and I’ve implemented what is called the ‘Manhattan’ method. Which seems fitting, because I live in Manhattan, KS. Ha-ha! Only kidding. This method only allows vertical and horizontal movement. It calculates each space by 10*n, where n is the amount of nodes to the end node. I’ll explain this more in depth when I have more time to do a write up.

It’s not too exciting. You can see how it works. 0 is the end node. The map size can be of a custom size, defined by the user, and it’ll work the same way.

I ended up getting a new camera today. My old camera was about 5 years old. It’s the new Sony DSC-T200. Touch screen, 8.1 MP, 5x Optical Zoom, Facial Detection, SMILE DETECTION (which is, actually, pretty darn cool). My life is slowly migrating to a touch screen world. iPhone, Camera… What next?

I started coding the A* pathfinding application today.  I’ve got most of what I want to do planned out, I just need the time to implement it all.  The idea behind A* isn’t all too difficult to understand.  Coding it shouldn’t be a problem, and I should have a write up after I am done.  I know there are some people that wanted me to keep them posted on my progress.  This coming version will only be in the console, with a few options to track the performance and to customize the map.  I want to create a graphical representation of A*, with a few options to gauge how well different implementations of A* work (e.g.; Using Arrays vs. Binary Heap).  Of course, the Binary Heap will be much quicker, but I’m curious to see by how much.

I’ve mixed together a pretty sweet sample on my piano.  I wish I still had my x-fi so I could link that sucker up.  If I can find a way to get that sound uploaded, I’ll definitely be sharing it.

I got so caught up doing a bit of research for my A* application, I seemed to forget to write a post last night…

There are a whole lot of articles, opinions, and tutorials regarding A* out there. That’s good, right? Well, not really. Half is poorly written, another quarter expects you to know too much, another twenty percent doesn’t have a working website anymore… But at least there is a good five percent that is filled with all kinds of good stuff. Once I actually get this program working, I’ll buy an A.I. book to supplement my notes. I would do it now, but I want to make sure that, not only can I do this stuff, but that I really like it. Right now, I think A.I. really interesting. Let’s see how that perception holds in a week.

In other news, it’s 2008 summer-internship-search-time. There are quite a few employers who haven’t listed many summer opportunities, but I thought I would start searching now since our career fair is in September. Being pro-active never hurts. I’ll be looking for some sort of programming position. I would be perfectly happy with anything as long as I am around the programming atmosphere. It would be incredibly nice to lock on a job somewhere in California, since that is where I will be moving to after college. We’ll see!

Philosophy is getting a whole lot better. I don’t hold such a grudge with it a… Hmm, maybe I should wait until the first exam.

So my weekend was consumed with birthday joy.

I plan to start up some coding tomorrow.

Is it just me, or is this website incredibly slow? I don’t know if I like this wordpress… But, I guess that is the price you pay for free. I saw some other great engines that would be nice, but there is just no way I would pay for a blogging engine. I love to write, and I love to share. And hopefully, I’ll have some tutorials up soon to accomplish 2 things: 1) Solidify my coding, and 2) Help others. While there are a plethora of tutorials and such online, I’m sure #1 will reign supreme. But, I don’t hold any grudge if people come in and find a good source for clear tutorials to learn from.

But let me know. If this site is so slow, it could possibly deter you from coming back, I’d like to know. I think I’ve read somewhere, in the past, that most people in this generation have about a 3 second tolerance to loading. If it takes longer, they’ll skip somewhere else.

So, nothing too exciting going on in school yet. I’m finding Philosophy to be an incredible mind warp. I enjoy reading, but I’ve concluded that I’ll never read anything philosophical after I’m done with this course. Unless, of course, I need to for a specific project. But, I doubt that’ll happen… Ever.

Nothing has fired up in my coding courses, yet. COBOL looks like it’ll be easy as pie to pick up and run with. The upper level networking course might consume a good portion of my time.

As for an independent project, I’m not quite sure what I want to start. I have been thinking about creating some applications that will be focused around A.I. I’ll probably attempt to replicate a few searching algorithms — A* and Dijkstra’s — graphically. From there, I’ll see where I could potentially take it. I need to find some interesting aspect of programming that I can concentrate on again. AI is really interesting to me, so I’ll start there. After this networking course, that’ll pretty much determine if I enjoy networking/distributed systems type things.

And, before I go… You MUST see this awesome desk! I want it! Click to View

Well, raising a Siberian Husky can definitely be an adventure. Huskies have a tendency to bore very easily. Which, makes sense due to their work ethic as sled dogs. Well, Calix is getting big enough to annoy the living heck out of me when he is bored. So, I decided to take him for a walk/sprint journey tonight… *listens… to… nothing*

Yup, he’s zonked the heck out. Problem solved (for tonight, anyway)

In other news… I’ve updated the development page with my projects. I have yet to include the majority of the downloads and source code, but it’ll be there soon. I reformatted my laptop, and my desktop just recently, so finding all of the files that I need and re-installing all of my libraries might take a while.

Game Development Lesson:
Don’t overburden, loyal, devoted, paying customers, just because Piracy exists.

I ended up getting 2K’s Bioshock demo downloaded today. Great game. Visually stimulating, and incredibly creepy (especially if you turn the lights out). Awesome storyline with some outstanding game mechanics to back it up. I want more… But one big problem is stopping me from buying this game. For whatever reason, the developers decided to use such harsh protection on the game, which only allows the user to install the game twice. If you want to install it on another PC, you’ve got to uninstall it on one of your other 2 computers first. Or if you format your drive, you’ve got to uninstall it first. If your computer crashes and you reformat, guess your out of luck. Well, not entirely, but you’ll be burdened with making phone calls.

Game development companies can not escape a pirate. All of this protection is an action provoked by a studio to ’slow’ the cracking cycle for a pirate. But, face it, no studio can out wit some of the brightest individuals that are roaming this net, unemployed, with a tremendous amount of free time. In the mean time, while j0Hkr07 is busy releasing the cracked version of the game, the loyal fan base that has never pirated anything in their life are burdened by this protection feature that has absolutely no benefit for themselves. Instead, they are stuck with trying to maneuver past this issue, and ultimately may be led to a decision where pirating a game is easier than buying the thing.

I’m not saying that game development companies should, all of a sudden, stop protecting their software. What I am saying is that they don’t need to be doing it in such a way that causes substantial harm to their loyal fan base, which in turn, just loses customers. How many times have you pulled out an old classic, popped it into your computer and played it? 10 years from now, I don’t want to be trying to install Bioshock receiving an error: “You’ve exceeded your installation amount, please call so-and-so.” Newsflash: So-and-so is out of business, and your out of luck. Thanks, sucker.

What a long day.

I don’t follow a whole lot on television, but one show definitely grabs my attention – America’s Got Talent.  Terry Fator ended up winning tonight, and I’ve got to say I am extremely happy about that.  At the beginning, I was rooting for Cas Haley, but after a few performances by Terry, I just couldn’t believe my eyes… He kept blowing me away even further. A true gift.

You should check this man out.
First Performance: Click to View on YouTube
Second Performance:  Click to View on YouTube
Third Performance:  Click to View on YouTube
Fourth Performance: Click to View on YouTube 
Fifth Performance: Click to View on YouTube
Sixth Performance: Click to View on YouTube

The time and energy this man put into his talent, makes him a perfect winner of this competition. Amazing fella, and I can’t wait to see him in person.

But, first…. @#$&@(#*$@)(#@*$)@(#*@)(#%*@#)($*@#$)(*!!!!!!

Ok, now that is behind me… I updated the glorious Windows Vista, and rebooted… Now, the boot process involves beeping normally, presenting the motherboards picture, and freezing… I can’t get to the BIOS, I can’t get to Safe Mode, I can’t boot from a CD because I can’t get passed this motherboard screen… Leh SIGH!

** Update to the crisis…

I unplugged every single USB device I had on the PC, and it finally went past the post, and on into windows vista…

This is purely ridiculous. Stay away from Vista. Or dual boot Vista, XP, and Ubuntu. But for god sake, pray you have a backup PC and never rely on Vista. Ever.

** Update…

Windows Vista lost my network card… Wonder what else…

Well, day one is almost over for me.  I still have one class, but things went as well as they could have.

It was HOT today.  All I kept thinking about was, “Dang, I kind of feel like I’m running around in Iraq.”  The only difference is that over in Iraq, your S.O.L for finding a cool place.  Not only that, but you have a ton of gear on your back, which makes all that sweat feel real nice (/sarcasm).

My Philosophy class is in this huge building with no windows…  Talk about a lovely atmosphere to learn in.

When I was driving up to campus this morning, after a long 2 hour drive, I got an e-mail from the CIS department (/hug_iPhone).  There is a research assistant position open, looking for 2 undergrads to work for ‘The Distributed Computing and Sensor Network Research Group.’  Sounds like fun, but I have little to no experience with distributed systems (yet) at the moment.  I might fling over something to see what they say.  It would be nice to get some research and development experience.

So I had an absolutely horrible experience today with a couple employees at a local gas station, Kwik Shop, here in Valley Center, KS.

I drove up to the pump, inserted my plus card (-2 cents per gallon), and then my debit card. The prompt read, “Please See Cashier.” I stroll on inside to tell them what had happened, and they just told me to give them my drivers license, which would authorize me to pump gas. So I did. I went outside, pumped the ~$25.00 gas purchase, and things started to spiral downhill from there.

I went inside to the clerk taking my debit card, talking to another employee, and then promptly letting me know that the systems were down. No cash, no checks, no nothing, but my debit card in hand. I was curious to know where this would lead. If this had happened at McDonald’s, they would wave the transaction and then notify their next customer that the systems were down. If this had happened at another fast food place here in town, they would likely just write your information down to be processed later. If this had happened at Starbucks, I would have had my drinks waved, and likely would have had a free drink ticket.  There were many positive actions that could have been taken…

Now, wonder for a minute, if you will, why a company would want to do all that. Why spark a confrontation in your store, with other customers, and ruining your relationship with that customer? Why kill that customers experience, which will lead to the loss of, not only their business, but the business of their friends and family (or anybody else listening in)? Oh, and don’t forget the internet, because I am now blogging this prime example of bad business practices all to educate any readers that MIGHT not be thinking about the customer.  The customer should always be #1.

This is how my experience ended…

The clerk asked if I had a check to pay with. Which I didn’t, because I handed her a debit card…

This clerk shows me the ATM and told me that I could withdrawal the money from an ATM, submitting to a $1.50 service fee… Which would be crazy. WHY would I pay MORE for gas because of their problem?

The clerk then told me that she would allow me to leave, pending that I gave her my drivers license, to go get money from an ATM a mile away at my bank. So, I should walk to go get this money? Without that license, that looks like what I’d be doing… Not a very promising idea.

The clerk then told me that she couldn’t do anything and that she has no control over the systems. I nodded my head and said, “Look, I work with computers all day and everyday. I understand the problems with the system. What I am concerned about is that you don’t seem to be thinking about how this is ruining my experience.”

LUCKILY, My girlfriend ended up driving up to the gas station right then. Or else my ass would have been walking to the bank to get money for the gas.

So we drove over to the bank to get the money, and I came back to pay.

I had absolutely no problem paying for the gas. The problem that I did have was that their system went down, and they went through this YESTERDAY (of the 2 employees, 1 had worked yesterday). So they should have known that if a customer was at the pump, trying to use their card, and was told to see the cashier, their systems were messed up. But, they didn’t. And the fact that they told me to use an ATM with a service charge, or wanting to take my drivers license so I could walk to the bank, is ludicrous.

So, case in point: I’m done with that company. Not only have they served me for 5 years, they’ve served my family for much longer. Goodbye to that business, we’re going to another company. Considering how much money that we will not be spending there anymore, I hope they find that $25 worth it.

This is a prime example of why you should take care of your customer. If something happens to your company, it isn’t YOUR fault, it is your companies fault. Treat your customer to the best of your ability, and then YOU bring the issue up with your company. Don’t pawn it off on the customer, you’ll be much happier knowing you kept somebodies business.