Geiodo

Well, I found the problem, and it was in google.

I was told, by the documentation of google, that the inut function (The function containing my loading code) would only be executed when the extension had fully loaded. Only one problem.  It was executing my loading code, before the wave API had a chance to load!

In other words, it was trying to do something, before it even knew how to do it.

Google, you drove me nutty.

Anyways, I have the system totally working.

Google wave, I have to say, is one of the only web apps that I took over an hour to figure out.

Google wave is like email on steroids. You can send multiple people a “Wave”, in which users use a comment -type content submission system.

These “comments”, are called “Blips”. Quotes “For The Win”.

Blips can be edited by all people, and I’m not 100% sure that they can be edited at the same time. I’ve tried, but it got pretty confusing. I’ll jut pretend that you can’t.

Although two people cannot edit the same blip at the same time, two people can create two separate blips at that same time, and see each other typing.

One cool feature about wave, is it’s ability to embed what they call “Extensions.”

These extensions are in a way, a replica of the flash player. They are a JS API for web based web apps. They use HTML for the JS, and GUI, which I have to say, is pretty cool.

I recently found a percentage bar extension, which, sadly, I’m not too impressed by. The GUI is great, and for that, I am using it, however, you are left to directly enter the percentage. I wanted it to instead take in a fraction, and from that generate a percentage.

So far, I have THAT done well, however I am trying, and failing at having the system save – AHA! Breakthrough… Explanation coming. – save the values.

However, when trying to resurface the values, only one attempt has worked, and I cannot replicate the results. All of my resources are pointing to this line of code – and even though ti works later in the script, it STILL refuses to work.

Line alert(”eviil” + state.get(’in1′));

Alerts have worked before, and actually ONCE returned the correct value. It’s evil. Just plain EVIL!

Until….

That breakthrough. I think I know what might be wrong. state.get(’in1′); might not be directly returning a string.

Perhaps creating a variable, specifying it as a string, and tTHEN setting it, will change my results.

Programming… I love it, but it drives me nutty when I can’t figure something out.

Here is a nice example of ad sneakiness, found on fail blog.

Most ads are much better at concealing their truth, than this, however this clearly explains what ad producers like to do.

At first glance, that ad says this: Our loss weight tea will lose you that much weight!

However, the ad simply says this person lost that much WITH the weight loss tea. That means that she could also have been doing any number of things, from liposuction, to giving birth. (Obviously the fat was from a baby.)

Depending upon “interpretation” (Word bending), Weight loss tea, can be anything between a magic potion that actually does induce weight loss, or a Japanese ritual tea that people would drink to celebrate weight loss. It could even mean that the particular flavor of tea was drunk on the day that someone broke the biggest loser all time record!

Which means, that the weight loss tea could actually be some store brand, or water with nasty leaves in it.

In other words, it could be an ad for regular tea, made to look more appealing by making it imply weight loss.

Never. Trust. Ads. (Unless the ad council made them.)

Anti Ad Intro.

Ever since false advertisement was banned (Whenever that was), ad producers have been very, very, sneaky. As the ban on false advertisement only extends as far as direct confirmation, ad producers have simply learned to work around the law; – They have found a way of doing legal false advertisement.

Implications. People around the web, and on TV, use implications to mislead readers into thinking that what the ads say is true. – When in fact, when an ad says “Done this with that”, the implication is that with means “only with”, however, if the company were to be sewed all they would have to do, is claim that the meant “with that, amongst other products.”.

Just for fun, and no practical reason, when I surf the webs, and see a false ad, I’ll blog about it, and point out all the sneakiness.

A couple nights ago, I decided to look out the window, at the stars,at 12 AM. To my surprise, I found that three of them were smudged!

I immediately thought “Galaxy!”, however the night time air had made me so tired. My mind struggled between sleep, and staying awake; Which very much frustrated me.

The second night, I realized that I was awake, at four in the morning. I could also see the “Star Smudge” (Galaxy in my mind) from my window.

I had talked to dad about the smudge the previous morning; All he said was that he didn’t know what to make of it.

At that point, I was set on getting the details. I scrounged around for a pen, and notepad, and drew out the constellation around it. It looked sort of like the Big Dipper, but with the cupped part missing, and in it’s place, the smudge. I was thinking about naming it “The molten Dipper” (At that time I had no clue it was Orion’s belt), due to the fact that the cup looked like it had melted, and was falling to the floor.

After that, I began to think about blogging about it, and making a photo shopped recreation of it. I ended up not, however I’d like to now…

It’s not nearly as apparent, but that gives you a sense of what I was seeing.

On the final night, something about the thought “Sleep” got me to sit straight up (Ironic…), and remember the “Galaxy”. I looked straight out the window, to find the sky FILLED with stars, thousands of them! (Imagine if the street lights had been out on that night!), and right in the center, more visible than ever before, was the “Galaxy”. However, I at that point thought it looked more like a comet..

The best thing was, it was only 11:30! My parents had started getting ready for bed only half an hour ago!

I struck at my chance, and asked dad to take a look. All he said was “it’s just the stars” – I immediately protested “That is not the halo of stars! No other stars have that around them!!”. Luckily, my mom had followed, and she had a go. I directed her eyes at the three stars at the top of the image, and had her look down to where the smudge was. “It’s a nebula.” she said! That thing had been bugging for three nights! (Possibly four, but I remember three…). I was relieved to know what it was!

She told me it was part of Orion’s Belt, and pointed my attention to a bright yellow star. I cannot remember if it is moving away, or towards us, but I remember reading from a Steven Hawkings book, that light waves bend in spectrum when the source is moving away/towards you. I think that red means it’s heading towards you, and yellow was away.

Someone from Star Trek should at that to their warp effects… (And not make the stars look like they are going that fast, and then when out of warp have them be that far way) (It took warp 3 to get to Jupiter, and yet they still had stars buzzing by at that speed as if you were going across the galaxy!)(Episode about a pre-warp five test.)
I just realized that I have devoted an entire paragraph to criticizing Star Trek…

I’ll get back on track… The skies at that time were beautiful, filled with stars. I’d never seen so many in my life, except once, at a camp – Shooting stars all over the place. I have always wondered how there could be so many [shooting stars] in that place, and so few here. But it just now hit me! We have street lights here, and those shooting stars are kind of faint. Also visible, straight up, was a HUGE circular nebula! It was the coolest thing I had ever seen.

I was working on a martian world, and a friend gave me a wonderful idea! A death brick.

Upon touching the death brick, your vehicle goes… Well, insane.

It’s a big hit – but not much of a secret (As I have not hidden it yet).

Another friend made this funny quote:

“Have YOU ever wanted to die? Well, now you can with our new death brick! Deathbrick comes in 5 different colors and a custom carying pouch for convinience! This special offer is limited time only! Get your death brick for 19.99 at your local retail stores! Only from Flyco.”

Here is another, lol:

Have YOU ever wanted to DIE?!?!??!

Now you can with the NEW deathbrick!

Deathbrick ways 2.2 quadrillion tons, containing a core sample from a DYING STAR!!

Now YOU can die even harder with DEATHBRICK.

Deathbrick comes in 5 different colors including blood, dried blood, old blood, new blood, and burnt blood!

Deathbrick comes with it’s own carrier truck and a carrying pack for convenience!

Hurry now! This offer ends soon! Call 1-800-YOU-DIE-NOW to order your own deathbrick! That is 1-800-YOU-DIE-NOW!! Order today!!!

Do not use on small children under the age of 3 or on pregnant individuals. Always treat deathbrick with care. Do not leave deathbrick in places where animals or infants can get to deathbrick. Deathbrick comes with a limited 3 year warranty. All suppliers of deathbrick including Deathbrick international, flyco, and DIE industries are not responsible for loss of personal property, lives, or self esteem. Always refrigerate deathbrick at -4470 degrees celcius to keep deathbrick stabilized. If deathbrick begins to foam or steam, seek shelter immediately and cover head. Do not use deathbrick on concrete or rubber surfaces. If deathbrick is touched, it may bond to skin. Deathbrick may explode if not kept under surveillance. Always keep your deathbrick in a sealed container away from food or water.

DEATHBRICK- BUY ONE TODAY!!!

When you computer makes this sound…
*Warning! Use low volume!*

<bgsound src="http://www.geiodo.com/downloads/compbuz.mov">
*Thanks to my sound effect generator that I recreated the sound*
It can be extremely unnerving.

I was clicking the link to play a game, and the second it started loading.. “VRBVRBVRBVRBVRB” panicking I closed the window, but it continued.

Heh, I intended to force power down my computer, but every time I tried, I instead ended up only clicking my power button. It took seven tries to realize I wasn’t holding the button down.

All the while the sound was amazingly loud… I’m still getting over the shock. (Ooooh drama me….)

After finally having managed to force power my computer down, the noise stopped, and my screen went black. Eventually I cautiously turned my computer back on, and then posted this!

A little while ago, I was messing around with my tooth brush (who wouldn’t?), and I decided to try, for the thirteenth time to open my toothbrush. There is a thin line separating the bottom, and top half of the toothbrush. I had tried many times to get these separate, but for whatever reason, this way works.

In fact, it was as easy as taking a cap off of a bottle!

Inside, I found a tripleA battery. Instead of buying a new toothbrush (Virtually the same, other than battery charge), I simply decided to replace the battery.

I had to force up a metal connection, which, little to my knowledge, ruined the conductivity. IN fact, I think it was engineered to do that.

However, I simply stuffed some tin foil between the metal connection, and the new battery.

This now works, though the toothbrush is cantankerous… It sometimes needs a classic bang to get it going again.

When I need to use it, I press the on button, and tighten the cap. When I turn it off for short periods of time, I unscrew the cap a little – and re-screw it to turn it back on. When I’m done with it, I press the off button, and screw the cap back on completely.

I even leaned a little about how the switch works…
There are two pieces of metal, side by side, where the negative side of the battery connects (The positive side being where the tin foil is.) THere is a plastic rod between these two bars. WHen you press the off button, the rod sticks out ,and pushes the battery off of the two bars. Pressing the on button releases the rod, and lets the battery back on.

It’s a pretty smart design, if you ask me, but I think it could be simpler. Instead of pushing a battery, why not just break the connection?

For example, the plus, and minus buttons (On, and off) are both connected to a plastic piece. Pressing either button rotates the piece. At 0 degrees, the metal is contacted. At 10 degrees the metal is not.

Much simpler if you ask me, but, I suppose the had their reasons.

I do notice that when the cap is tight, I cannot press the off button – this could be another engineering thing.

As it turns out, my new master server probably won’t work.

Firewalls, and other bad networking conditions will likely be an issue. Combining my master server with Unity’s NAT facilitator (AKA Cool thingymabob for getting past firewalls, and such) will be impractical.

However, there is hope.

After talking with some people very well studied in the subject (Not Unity specific, but good enough to understand how the Unity Master Server works) I have found how what could be wrong with the Master Server.

First of all Unity’s Unity’s master server system is designed to run on a dedicated server. Dedicated servers can only handle so much traffic; Likewise too much traffic = super unreliable networking.

Unity’s hosted Master Server, is not intended for complete reliability, likewise it’s probably not using a super high capacity dedicated server – one capable of properly handling all of the traffic coming to it.

THis also explains why Dime Rocket has stopped working lately. A while ago, I came across a post by Aubrey, giving a link to Dime Rocket. It worked for a while (Thanks, Aubrey!), but then started to decline.

My guess is that the DimeRocket master server was well within it’s range – but then, it’s link got posted, and many needed developers – such as I – started using it. This probably gave the server more traffic than it could handle, and… Poof – buggy master server.

Now, there is hope for Space… Some time, may be never, maybe even in six months, I may be able to host a Cloud dedicated server. The advantages of this are: It’s a dedicated server – Unity appropriate – and it is Cloud; Cloud environments share the same data amongst multiple computers. Many sytems simply split one computer into quite a few, and give the data to one slice.

Cloud + Dedicated Server = Reliable master server.

No promises, though!

For now, however, I plan to migrate back to the Dime Rocket server, or find something better, and less known – at least until a long term solution is found.