OftenImitated Blog

In fun and awesome news, there are The Icon Generation pillows from Throwboy. These things are awesome, you just need to see them to understand:

If that’s not the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen in your life, then I don’t know what is. They’re $29 each, or $149 for the entire set of 6, so they’re a bit pricey as far as pillows go, but you have to admit that this is just about an absolute must for any and all Mac fans, ever. (I can’t afford them, but if I could… oh, imagine the looks on any visitor’s face).

In other news, I have taken my Saturday, and used it to do the most unproductive and wasteful thing ever: I have created a Java interpreter for the Brainf*** programming language. (It feels good to get back into Java programming… ahh, the good ol’ days…) All it does is take in a program as a string (either as an argument, or contained in a text file, and interpret the program, command-by-command. It’s quick, inefficient, and it kept me busy for about 10 minutes… but programming in brainf***, that kept me busy for the rest of the afternoon. Here’s a quick snapshot of part of the interpreter:

Let me tell you, this junk really lives up to it’s name. Here’s hello world:

++++++++++        initialises cell zero to 10
[
>+++++++>++++++++++>+++>+<<<<-
]                 this loop sets the next four cells to 70/100/30/10
>++.              print   'H'
>+.               print   'e'
+++++++.                  'l'
.                         'l'
+++.                      'o'
>++.                      space
<<+++++++++++++++.        'W'
>.                        'o'
+++.                      'r'
------.                   'l'
--------.                 'd'
>+.                       '!'
>.                        newline

Of course, anything that’s not <>+-,.[] is just comments.

I removed the comments from this one. If you can tell me what it does, you get a prize!

,>,>++++++[-<--------<-------->>]
<<[
>[->+>+<<]
>[-<<-
[>]>>>[<[>>>-<<<[-]]>>]<<]
>>>+
<<[-<<+>>]
<<<]
>[-]>>>>[-<<<<<+>>>>>]
<<<<++++++[-<++++++++>]<.

Well that’s it for now, gotta write a paper!

I’m going to be using Google SketchUp in order to plan what has been called Project Hobo (which can be found at the Projects page). So far, I have one of the side panels (partially) completed… I just need to make things to scale, and then we’ll be set!

Now I need to measure the truck, to see the exact measurements of the bed. This should fit in the back as exactly as possible.

I also need to obtain the tools needed to cut the wood. I have various saws already, so I doubt I’ll need to buy anything other than wood.

I would prefer to use Blender, for the sake of the extended feature set, but it’s just too freakin’ time-consuming to learn.

So somebody (on the internet) has devised a way to cheat in any computer game ever. And the way to do it is pretty simple, once you understand the basics.

Essentially, it’s a program called Poke that allows you to enter the locations of RAM that have been allocated for the game you are playing, and alter the score (or any other value) as you see fit.

Let me illustrate this process using one of the games that comes with Windows: 3D Pinball.

First, we open the game that we wish to cheat in. Below is the scoreboard on the right side of the game:

Next, we open up Poke:

Next, we choose the game from the list. The applications are ordered by how much RAM they are consuming. Full-screen 3D games should be at the top of the list, but since 3D Pinball has been around since the days of Windows 95, it has a relatively small footprint. Choose 3D Pinball, and you should get this window:

From there, click “Add…” and you’ll get this window:

From there, input into the “Value:” text field the current value of what you’re trying to alter. I entered “0″, because I haven’t scored any points yet. It may take a while to search for a memory location with that value. If it finds multiple memory locations that have that value, you may have to change the value you’re looking for and then search again, so it can detect a change. For example, “0″ is a common variable value, so I’m going to score a few points in the game, and then come back to Poke and enter the new value.

I scored a few more points in the game, so I entered “380750″ as the new value – should be pretty unique as a change. That did the trick, and I was given the opportunity to add a name to my saved memory location. I called it “Score”. From there, I can edit the value as much as I want. I feel like changing my score to “999999999″. So here goes!

Well my friends, I am embarrassed to tell you that it didn’t work. However, it has worked for me in SimCity 3000 Unlimited, SimCity 4, Age of Empires II and III, Freelancer, Midtown Madness 2, Sins of a Solar Empire, Solitaire, and Far Cry 2. It supposedly works in almost everything, but 3D Pinball has decided to be most stubborn… oh well… I guess I should have titled this post “How to Cheat in Any Computer Game EVER… except 3D Pinball”

For the games that matter, it works.

And in case you missed the link hidden in the post, you can download it here.

These, my loyal friends, are my interesting things of the now:

• The Evolution of the Front Page – This is an interesting article that shows the evolution of a newspaper’s front page – specifically, the LA Times, relating to the content (text, images, advertisements). It’s actually a part of the writer’s master thesis. It also offers, as a side note, the almost opposite effect that took place with the newspaper’s website.
• Editing, Viewing and PDF – Blogger Jim Whimpey says exactly what I’ve been thinking for the past several years: Media should always be distributed in the simplest and most portable way possible. Microsoft Office is an acceptable tool for authoring documents, but it’s not an acceptable form for distributing them. Unfortunately, many people (including the ever-intelligent college professors) that stubbornly embrace the .doc, and the horrific .docx formats (need I mention the worst of all: .odt)… Please, everybody, just use .txt or .pdf.
• The Interrobang – The what? The Interrobang… yes, I said it. Basically, it’s this: “?!”, but in one character. It’s not particularly useful or relevant, but it’s kinda nifty and cool.

And those were my interesting things of the now.

And now for some art thing…

Mint.com is probably one of the most convenient things that the internet has to offer. Mint.com offers, as a service, a way for you to combine and aggregate all of the online financial services that you currently use into a useful tool for budget adjustment, or just plain realization. As a way of combining all transactions, it really helped me to realize how much I was spending, and put a cap on it. As a way to combine my various investments, it helps me see if they’re underperforming certain market standards. It also allows you to enter any loan information you may have (which I thankfully do not) and show various tips on how you financially master your life.

Ever since using Mint, I have saved an average of an additional $200 a month, and that’s me making my petty wages. Imagine what it could do for somebody making more than a movie theater projectionist!

In all seriousness, this is a service that I would strongly recommend to anybody.

Now if only Mint.com would pay me, I could spend more time getting into the details of the service, and praising their attention to detail. *wink wink, nudge, nudge*

…

Today’s art of the moment is by Eva Mae Natividad, UC Davis ’12