So I finally managed to get back to the store to pick up a new case for my new heap of computer parts.
I think it looks really cool. :)

It took me some time, but I did manage to put it together properly. The single most difficult problem was that the motherboard was missing an important jumper (as in, if it's not there, it won't boot up all the way, claiming a short).

I'm planning on dual-booting Windows 7 Pro and Ubuntu Linux, and so far I have Win7 installed and even have some of the software I use installed already, including Steam and Team Fortress 2 (my current favourite 3D online game).
Currently installing Ubuntu on the other side of the box.
(apparently my CDs are a whole year behind the current version, so I have to upgrade twice to get to the current version)

My renders should run much faster due to the dual-core 2.9GHz processor, so it's definitely an improvement performance-wise.

Anyways, I still need to copy a whole bunch of documents over to the new machine as well as install a bunch of software, but it's starting to feel like my computer now and I'm able to do stuff on it too, so everything's good.

As soon as I can get back to the store and get a new case, I'll be ready to assemble my new computer.
For just $40, I can get a fairly good looking case with an included 450W power supply, which is a pretty darn good deal, even without the power supply.

I must say, however, that I'm getting rather disappointed with how long it's taken to get to this point.
It must have been two or three weeks ago that I bought the first parts, with the hard drive a week after that, so the parts have been sitting on my floor for one or two weeks, doing nothing but take up space.
(though I suppose the advantage is that I've been able to earn some more money to replace the $350 I've put into it so far...)

I probably won't have to upgrade it for another four years, at which time we should have haptic holographic screens, but until then, I still need an LCD screen to replace the CRT screen I have now.

I need a better job than the paper route, so I can actually afford all this equipment...

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Zope is what I'd call a pre-built web server application with a scripting engine jammed in the side.

It's also what I'm writing an assignment in (it's a contact manager website), which means I need to understand it to be able to make it work the way I want it to.

You know how most stuff you find has this weird thing called a manual?
Well, Zope doesn't really have one. It has more than one, which is part of where the problem lies.

Several incomplete manuals, to be exact.

If you ever try to build a website, DO NOT use Zope.
Use something better, such as Django or something, just not Zope.

This lack of a coherent, detailed manual (and the complete lack of a proper reference library) means that learning Zope has a very steep learning curve.

It took a team of four people (myself included) two weeks to try to figure out how to use Zope until part of it started to make sense.
(you know how most programming languages and stuff all have the same basic concepts behind them? Zope doesn't adhere to them, claiming security reasons. I think they were lazy... Or designed by an idiot, whichever works)

Anyway, I'm plugging along fairly slowly with the site, and enjoying the parts that make sense (this course is easier than all the other courses I'm taking right now) and really getting annoyed by the parts I haven't figured out yet.
(security is one thing that's really important in this course, so it's interesting trying to design things with as few holes as possible)

The final version of the site probably won't be available to see, as it requires a copy of Zope to be running somewhere I can access it, along with a MySQL database server.
(the course server won't be available to me after the course is over, and we've added a password to keep people from adding random stuff without our permission)

The final project my team and I are doing is going to be some kind of course registration system to address some of the problems we're experiencing with the current PeopleSoft-based system.
(we've been able to talk to the person in charge of the department maintaining the system, and some things just aren't going to be fixed due to some of the code being written in COBOL...)

I should point out that the software we're working with is actually Zope2, and there is a Zope3 available.
The only problem is the documentation for Zope3 is much harder to find than for Zope2, and they've changed things around so you need a good manual to find your way...

My current desktop computer was purchased over four years ago, runs well, but a little slow.

This was brought home to me a couple of weeks ago when I was working on one of my assignments that required me to render a 300x300 pixel image with 512 samples per pixel, which took about twenty minutes each for four images.

Not much, you'll probably say, but that's not the problem.
I only had about half an hour before deadline, and didn't have time to render them all.
(also some of the software I use on a fairly regular basis runs a bit too slowly)

So, last week I started buying parts to build myself a new desktop computer.
I think I have everything but a power supply and case, which means I have the following parts:

• ASUS M2N68-AM SE2 motherboard
• AMD Athlon 2 X2 245 dual-core processor running at 2.9GHz
• 2GB DDR2 RAM (I currently have 1.5GB of memory on most of my computers)
• ASUS ATI EAH4350 graphics card with 512MB onboard memory
• A 1TB hard drive

I also purchased a new Logitech keyboard (their Internet 350 model). As I'm currently using a laptop as my primary computer right now (which has no PS/2 ports), I haven't been able to use any good keyboards on it (most of mine are PS/2, and the laptop's keyboard isn't really that great).
I only bought the keyboard yesterday and I'm already enjoying using it.

My dad has a spare power supply I can buy off him, and there should be a spare case hanging around here somewhere that I can use.
(while I could use the old case and power supply I have now, I'd really rather not, as I wouldn't be able to use both at the same time, which to me is rather important)

For software, I'm going to use Xubuntu again (the Xfce desktop running on Ubuntu Linux), dual-booting with XP Pro.
(since my university is on Microsoft's Developer Network, we Computing Science students get some of their software for free, including some of their OSes. Right now I have a spare XP Pro key I haven't used yet, so this is where that would go)

Recently I purchased a digital camera so I could take pictures wherever I am and get them onto my computer at a moments notice.
It's a Polaroid t737 with 7 megapixels and 3x analogue zoom.
(the most important features, you know)

Quality seems pretty good (though it's refurbished model, and is missing one screw from the side of the case), and the pictures are pretty sharp if you scale them down by about half.

I've taken a few pictures with it so far, so here are some flowers I found at my aunt's house:

A bee on some flowers:


Flowers:






I'll need to get a harder case for the camera than I have right now, as something seems to be rapidly pressing the power button, which seems to cause the lens cover to open and the lens to extend a bit.

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I've been thinking about my Ani-Midi project again, and I've come to the conclusion that I need to rewrite it in C++ for performance reasons (Java just isn't fast enough).
Also, it needs to be a complete rewrite instead of just a port from Java to C++, as I hadn't focussed on the most important part of the software first (importing music).

Currently, I'm assuming I'll support the MIDI file format, as that's what I knew about first, but apparently that's not the only note-based music format.
According to Wikipedia, there are quite a number of note-based music formats, some of which are derivatives of the original Standard MIDI Format.
As I'll have my own internal music format, I'll just need to write import routines (and see if I can make a plugin system) so supporting a new format should be simpler.

I haven't quite decided how the instrument assemblies should be defined, as how I define it will determine if I can build the files by hand or have to write a script or program for it.
(I may just use an XML file and a bunch of Wavefront Object files, all zipped up to keep things small)

On the whole, the features I'm hoping to support will be something like this:

• Support for MIDI music files (the more important format, but will probably include more formats later)
• After reading the music file, it will offer the user options for where to put each instrument, and how each instrument is arranged.
• The software will analyse how the instruments are played to figure out which instruments are played together to get an idea of sane defaults for where each instrument should go (instruments played together should be closer to each other)
• The above-mentioned information will also be used to create some paths for the camera to follow during playback.
• Scenery and props to make sure it doesn't look like a bunch of floating, moving stuff (appropriately positioned, of course)
• Export of the settings used to create a video to some popular format so you can render it in an external rendering program for high-quality movies

I'm sure I have more features to list around here somewhere, but I've stopped loading Tomboy Notes on startup due to its insistence for showing its main window right after launch...

One of the courses I'm taking is called Image Synthesis, basically the creation of photo-realistic rendered images on a computer.

Most versions of this course require the students to write their own raytracer from scratch (or near scratch), but since you have to write everything (including the basic framework), you don't have time to fix any major mistakes you make.

Instead, I'm adding code to an existing raytracer called PBRT, which stands for Physically-Based Rendering Toolkit, to understand how major aspects of raytracing works, such as depth-of-field (as simulated by actual lens systems), space partitioning (for major speed boosts), and what are called "Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Functions" which dictate how a surface looks (and are usually based on how the physics works).

My current assignment is writing a new camera system for PBRT that simulates an actual lens system (not just one lens for simple depth-of-field, but multiple lenses for many different effects, from telephoto to fisheye lenses).

It took me the first week to understand just what I'm supposed to modify, the second week to figure out how to modify it, and this week to figure out just what I'm doing wrong.

I'm quite certain that my code to bend the light rays through the lenses is correct, as all light rays seem to be passing through all the lenses, but for some strange reason the weighting of the light rays seems to be way off, as the resulting image is always pure black.

Very confusing. >.<

I'd actually found more stuff a few nights ago than I'd posted.
(and here I was supposed to be doing homework. Three assignments due each on three consecutive days, most difficult one first, least difficult one second, and middling one due last)

It's a YouTube channel by the name of FlippyCat and aside from seeming to be Canadian (he seems to celebrate every Canada Day, while only doing one or maybe two Independence day videos), he seems to have a lot of two things on his hands: Time and coloured dominoes.

Here are some highlights of his rather extensive collection:
A die, the world, Dominoes of dominoes, and Domono Lisa.
He has over 120 videos on his channel, so go have a look!

I'm feeling rather envious, actually. It looks like fun (aside from the part about needing steady hands, of course)

Okay, somehow this came up in the related list of a domino video on YouTube, and it was so cool I just had to share it:

Somebody made a wooden marble contraption with an innovative "pump", in essence a block of wood with a "plug" that slides up and down as the block slides back and forth, effectively grabbing a marble and pushing it up into a stack of marbles.

Wooden marble contraption 1: YouTube, official page
Wooden marble contraption 2: YouTube, official page

The stuff he's done is pretty cool, and includes a Jenga gun: YouTube, official page
(you can find an earlier version on his original website through the links above)

One of his new websites (woodgears.ca) has a bunch of wooden devices, projects, etc., and he's even built his own wooden organ!

You can find his YouTube channel here, and his personal website here.

Cool stuff!

I've probably posted about this a while ago, but I'm a fan of the Myst series of games and have almost the whole set, including the original Myst, the first sequel Riven, Myst III: Exile, Myst V: End of Ages, Uru: The Complete Chronicles.

Yes, you read that right, I don't have Myst IV: Revelation. And I think I'm missing it.

Not just to complete the collection, but to find out what happens in that part of the storyline.
I know what comes before and after (and something of what happens during, due to playing Uru), but during has me kind of puzzled.

I've spent the last week or so tracking down places that might have it (though I'm sure I'm missing a great deal of the proper places to look), including:

• London Drugs
• Staples (why not?)
• EB Games (four stores)
• GameStop
• Zellers

Apparently, EB Games no longer buys and sells used games due to the advent of product activation codes (which prevent any secondary owners from using the game), so none of the four or so locations I've tried actually has it.
(interesting aside, one person I talked to said that if they did, it would probably cost one cent. Pretty good for a five year old game, I think)

Anybody have any suggestions for finding a legal copy?

I've heard many conflicting reports of Windows 7, so I thought I'd try it.
(as a Computing Science student at a university that is a part of the Microsoft Developers Network, I get some MS software for free, Win7 included)

Installation was a little odd at the beginning, but it made more sense later (to actually get to the installer, you have to press a key to indicate you want to install, which I wasn't expecting, otherwise it'd take you to your normal OS).

Out of the digital box, it had no drivers for my network card or sound card, so I had no sound or internet access.
This was fairly easily fixed by grabbing the drivers and running the installer, pointing it at the location they were extracted to, then updating all devices that didn't get installed properly.

By default, Win7 comes with I.E. 8, which I could only stand long enough to download a copy of Google Chrome (my current preference for web browsing).
(I avoid using I.E. at all, primarily due to the security, but also due to how ugly it looks)

The desktop looks pretty clean, but things have been made... larger... than previous versions, which also means more wasted space.
(I prefer things snugly nestled together with only a little space between them. I use Xfce as my desktop of choice)

I've installed AVG 8.5 so I'm protected against viruses and such, and I'm looking at what will run on this version of Windows, primarily games.
(MechWarrior 3 doesn't work, though I'm not surprised, as it didn't work under XP, and probably due to the age of the system, Luxor 2 doesn't run very smoothly. More application reports as I try them)

Right now, though, it's off to bed for me, as I'm currently getting on top of a cold that hit me on Friday.
(and I have class in the morning, too)