Chris @ Olstrom (.com)

My birthday is now over.I enjoyed it greatly, being able to spend the day with my family (in the ‘parents and siblings I grew up with’ sense as well as the ‘Me & Melissa & Isabelle‘ sense of things) is always nice. As is traditional, fired up the grill for some hot dogs and hamburgers, despite the rain.

Had a minor incident with the grill, and the fat from the burgers. Fat dripped down into the grill, and started a minor grease fire which grew to be a bit larger than I would consider ideal. Ended up having to remove most of the hamburgers from the grill to remove the source of the fire’s fuel, except for one that had a rather intimidating wall of flame surrounding it. There may have been some infernal influence on those flames, I’m not sure.

Overall, great day, looking forward to the next year of life, fully expecting it to be at even more awesome than previous years (if that’s possible, I’m quite pleased with my life so far). 23 happens to be my lucky number, so we’ll see how that plays into things. ^_^

Start some coursework at BCIT on Monday. 0800-1200 for class, then work from 1215-2015. It’s going to be a long two weeks, I suppose. I expect the local coffee houses will appreciate the extra business.

And now, I must answer the call of sleep.

So I’ve been thinking about doing this for a long time. I’ve been writing a game, which I call SimpleGame. It’s basically one game, written in as many languages as I can write it in. I’ve used it primarily as a means of improving my skills with different languages, or learning new ones entirely. It’s always been my intent to share that code, as well.

Considering everything that’s happened with Libertas Infinitum (or the lack of happenings, depending on how you approach it), I wanted to do something to help others with similar visions. I’ll continue with Libertas Infinitum, and while that develops I’d love to see more independant developers start building their dreams.

If anything, now is the best time for new developers to get involved. As the internet has evolved, the potential for collaboration has blossomed into something amazing, and the resources available for small teams are mature and stable: Web-accessible revision control, free distribution channels, and open source development tools and frameworks all serve to lower the barrier to entry, or even eliminate it entirely.

Silent Arcade is a site dedicated to empowering those developers through knowledge. Check it out.

I recently enjoyed a vacation in Revelstoke, British Columbia. For those who don’t know where that is, it’s a cozy little city nestled away in a valley somewhere up in the BC Interior. The trip was ~10.5 hours each way, and during that time I had the opportunity to bask in the natural beauty of British Columbia, and it got me thinking that I should do something to share my love of this astounding province with the rest of the world. Naturally (being the web monkey that I am) I went the route of a domain, and Province6.ca was born. Well, it might have involved a bit more thought than that, and it certainly involved collaboration with Melissa (and Isabelle, to some extent) over what type of content the site would be built around. The resulting site will be a place for tourists and residents of BC alike to find and share information about the most breathtaking region in North America.

Isabelle’s website has been revised, and is now powered by G2, software that will make managing the image archive much simpler. Currently, when new pictures were uploaded, it went as follows:

• Copy image from camera (or other source)
• Execute hashconvert.pl, a simple script to convert filenames into their MD5 Hash value (this helps prevent duplicate files, and ensures a unique filename for every image).
• Execute mkthumbs.sh, which generates thumbnails, moves them into /reduced/, and creates a symbolic link from t_OriginalHash.jpg to /reduced/ThumbnailHash.jpg.
• Either write the HTML to add the image to the gallery by hand, or enter the filename and caption data into a locally-stored MySQL database, and generate the equivalent HTML with ipg.php (a script designed to do this).
• Append this code to index.html
• Execute publish.sh, which syncs the local copy of the site with the live one.

This process has been simplified by the new engine. It is now:

• Copy image from camera (or other source)
• Navigate to http://gallery.izzypants.com.
• Click ‘Add Image’, and select the file to upload.
• Type in a caption, and press submit.
• The rest of the work is done automagically.

This means less effort to produce the same end result.

Historic IRC Logs

<Batterseapower> pizza, perl and newsgroups :) i am not fit to worship at your altar of geekiness
<SiliconViper> Heh, that’s not all that geeky.
<Batterseapower> it could only be geekier if you were installing linux on your toaster at the same time
<SiliconViper> Yeah.
<SiliconViper> Actually I was contempating writing some code to track what’s in my fridge from across the house…
<%outlaw> i wish i had a toaster
<SiliconViper> But then I realised that I don’t know how to figure out a way to do it without human interaction.
<Batterseapower> why not move your fridge right by that chair?
<Batterseapower> put the microwave on top
<%outlaw> or move your chair
<SiliconViper> I need like… food item recognition via webcam or something.
<Batterseapower> then all you need is a tube to wire yourself to the toilet and you need never move again
<SiliconViper> Hmm…
<SiliconViper> Well, the main idea is that I can check it from anywhere.
<SiliconViper> With a web interface or something.
<SiliconViper> So if I’m out somewhere, I can see if I need to pick up anything at the store before I come home.
<Batterseapower> :)
<%outlaw> Batterseapower: why not just mod your chair into a toilet?
<Batterseapower> “out”?? why not get groceries delivered?
<Batterseapower> or just move your computer into the bathroom..

<SiliconViper> So looking at this from a practical perspective…
<SiliconViper> You’d need a fridge.
<Batterseapower> microwave
<Batterseapower> PC (of course)
<SiliconViper> Some image aquisition system (webcam, or so forth).

<SiliconViper> How do you handle not being able to see everything in the fridge from one angle though?
<SiliconViper> A rail system maybe?
<Batterseapower> multiple cameras
<SiliconViper> Hmm…
<SiliconViper> That’d be easier to build.
<SiliconViper> Some way to process the images.
<SiliconViper> Isolate and identify items…
<Batterseapower> RFID tag all your food
<SiliconViper> Too complicated.
<Batterseapower> much simpler than image processing
<SiliconViper> It has to work out of the box with no extra work for the user.
<Batterseapower> sounds like a phd project
<SiliconViper> Maybe.
<SiliconViper> So one cam per shelf?
<SiliconViper> Nah, need at least two…
<SiliconViper> Ugh, power consumption.
<Batterseapower> sonar?
<SiliconViper> Hmm…
<Batterseapower> you could have a barcode scanner which you use whenever you put something in or take it out

<SiliconViper> A weight tracking system.
<SiliconViper> So you can tell if you have <Chocolate Milk LOW>
<Batterseapower> or a vending machine style of fridge so you can record what items are used up
<Batterseapower> :D excellent idea
<SiliconViper> It’d have to be infrared, no?
<SiliconViper> Or something that doesn’t depend on ambient light being high.
<SiliconViper> ’cause it’s dark when the light is off.
<Batterseapower> you could always turn it on of course
<%outlaw> stuff aint being removed when the light is off though
<SiliconViper> outlaw, true point.
<%outlaw> at least in theory
<SiliconViper> However, what about identifying things?
<SiliconViper> Does the door have to be open as it does that?
<Batterseapower> i would scan after the door is closed
<Batterseapower> to prevent hands interfering with the scan
<SiliconViper> Yeah…
<SiliconViper> Good idea.

–> Emma (Heather@ca-1B687AA6.dyn.sprint-hsd.net) has joined #osi
<SiliconViper> It’s marketable, since it’s not cost effective, or even remotely convenient to build your own. But possible, so it makes it practical and worthwhile to release any code involved Openly.

* SiliconViper waves to Emma.
* Emma waves to Sili.

<Batterseapower> i still think that this is what RFID was made for
<SiliconViper> So let’s see, we’ve got a method of tracking contents, identifying them, and measuring how much of each remains.
<Batterseapower> you could have little removable stickers you attached to the food items
<SiliconViper> Hmm… possibly.
<SiliconViper> But then you’d have to do a lot of work on your own.
<Batterseapower> true
<SiliconViper> Tagging each item, and programming the codes into the fridge.
<SiliconViper> Well…
<SiliconViper> Actually…
<SiliconViper> If the image aquisition system did that…
<SiliconViper> You tagged, it ID’s it…
<SiliconViper> Good idea!
<SiliconViper> So all the inventory is stored in what? A flat file? An SQL database?
<SiliconViper> Items should be tagged with priorities, though.
<Batterseapower> SQL of course
<SiliconViper> <chocolate milk> is more important than <raspberry jam>
<Batterseapower> obviously a TFT on the door would give you status readout
<Batterseapower> and allow reordering via internet
<SiliconViper> When an item with $priority >= $threshold is LOW, it alerts via… web interface?
<SiliconViper> Email?
<SiliconViper> SMS?

<Batterseapower> and display recipies as well, waht the hell
<Batterseapower> :)
<Batterseapower> sms i would say
<SiliconViper> That’d be awesome.
<SiliconViper> Yeah, same.

<Batterseapower> you are more likely to have a phone than a PC
<SiliconViper> Indeed.
<Batterseapower> with you
<SiliconViper> But an SMS-capable one?
<SiliconViper> Yeah, point.
<Batterseapower> aren’t all phones SMS capable?
<SiliconViper> Dunno, are they?
<Emma> Not all of them.
* SiliconViper nods. I don’t really know.
<Batterseapower> in the UK i havent seen a single phone without SMS

<SiliconViper> I still say email should be an option.
<SiliconViper> It has to have a net hookup anyways.
<Batterseapower> of course :)
<Batterseapower> with ingredient list download for remote APIs via SOAP?
<SiliconViper> Dunno if the web interface is needed…
<Batterseapower> fridge contents*
<SiliconViper> Actually…
<SiliconViper> The web interface could help a lot.
<SiliconViper> Allow the user to identify anything the image processing system can’t figure out.
<Batterseapower> it should have everything of course :)
<SiliconViper> Or override the settings.

<SiliconViper> And yeah, it could connect to a public-submission recipe database, and allow you to see what known recipes you have the ingredients for.
<SiliconViper> And if you have enough.
<Batterseapower> in that case youd want to include a non-refrigerated cupboard compartment for dealing with flour, sugar etc
<SiliconViper> Ideally, this would be good.
<Batterseapower> i’d buy one ;)
<Emma> Me too!
<SiliconViper> I totally would.

–> tulkas (tulkas@ca-1F9336A0.dhcp.aldl.mi.charter.com) has joined #osi
<SiliconViper> I guess that covers mostly everything, eh?
<Batterseapower> well, it still needs a robot attachment that prepares the meals for you..
<SiliconViper> True, but that’s best made and sold as an addon.
<SiliconViper> ’cause it doesn’t even really need the fridge.
<Batterseapower> needs the ingredients to be in a known position
<Batterseapower> so the fridge is perfect
<tulkas> that’s not entirely true
<Emma> still should be an add on for the fridge. some people eat things that don’t need to be cooked, and it would be useless to have something that you didn’t need
<tulkas> you could have a bar code scanner
<Batterseapower> well, if you have the fridge you dont NEED to add image processing ot the robot itself
<Emma> Well, having the fridge would require you to go to the store to get things! That is out.
<rj-away> Oh, you wouldn’t have them delivered to your door?
<Batterseapower> the fridge lets things automatically be ordered from the store

<Batterseapower> the world of computers was constructed by man, unlike the real one, so it necessarily conforms better to our needs and desires
<rj-away> Batterseapower: But, at the end of the day, it’s going to have to interface with the real world to accomplish anything that’ll affect us - because we exist in this real world, not the one constructed by man.
<SiliconViper> Translation: We’re all fucked, so let’s make the fridge.
<rj-away> SiliconViper: “We’re all fucked” is news to you?
<Batterseapower> but just because we rely on flesh for our existence does not mean our lives need to be constrained by it.. you can feel pleasure with 2nd hand experience
<SiliconViper> Oh, not at all.
<rj-away> Of course we are, but we may as well make the best of it while we can.
<SiliconViper> That’s why I wanted to make the fridge in the first place.

<Batterseapower> that would be agood advertising campaign for the fridge
<Batterseapower> “we’re all fucked, buy our fridge”
<SiliconViper> Totally.
<SiliconViper> I’d buy something that advertised like that.
<SiliconViper> Especially if it was this fridge.
<Batterseapower> the picture above the tagline would be the perfect whiteness of the fridge on the background of the world burning

This writing was originally featured here, on Kyhm Forums.