End of the SIP!

2 weeks have passed since the end of the MP/SIP period, and finally a break to update this heap.
While the work is still in progress, I have the freedom to complete it at my own pace. (In the local vernacular, Own time, Own target.)



Every day, I come home with headaches due to that mess. The colour coding hardly works out, (Red-X0-X15 Inputs, 24V DC, 240V AC(!) Blue-0V, Black-Switch 1-5, White-Lights 1-5. Green-Earth, via Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker.(ELCB))
and on Monday, I had a close call with the Reaper, as the circuit breaker sparked spectacularly (Connected to the mains, switch off.) while I was checking the connection, and annihilating the fuse in the plug (and fulfilling its task to protect.) You kind of get used to mortal peril when your previous duties involved going close with a circular saw in the process of rending a Tempered Steel rod. Wire organisation via trunking has not helped, as it confines the mess into a tight column.


__________________________
| Power Start Emergency |
| Stop |
| |
|Med. Select Quantity GO! |
|_________________________|


You'd be surprised at the number of people who think this layout is too difficult. Even after I applied the labels. The box was to designed to minimize errors in usage, as it is impossible to select more than one type of med, through the 2-state twist switch, and the 1-5 pad, which allows one quantity to be selected at any time.

The Blue, Greed, and Red buttons are big, obvious, and very clear on their intended usage.



The problem child of the lot.
I spent a long time struggling with this thing. The problems solved from this point-Stepper motor breakdown, powering issue, the previous group messing up the COM wiring, software issues, and general meddling by unauthorized people.

Other than that, the machine needs just a couple of weeks for it to be good to go.

In other news, Derrick at Thermonuclearexchange.com successfully pulled me into Everquest 2 recently, also contributing to my absence. The world of Norrath is packed with interesting quests, not to mention endless dungeon crawling. I have 3 characters, Amaveram Vas'vayrr (37 Dark Elf Shadow Knight) Donohov Blake (26 Half-Elf Monk) and Gorby Glasnost(5 Gnome Warlock, last name TBC). I'll blog further on these guys tomorrow (or at least this week, once I poke through LU38).

By The Dolphin

"I can't keep this together,
And I might lose this year.
I can't get through December,
And you know all my fears.

Someplace, somewhere behind me,
I walked right through the truth.
Truth is that you're the one thing,
That always pulls me through."

----------------
Now playing: Yellowcard - Cut Me, Mick
via FoxyTunes

10th Week OF MP

10 Weeks, on hindsight, seemed to slip by ever so quickly. The project in question is woefully behind schedule, as programming and wiring of the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) comes together slowly. The stepper motor is in a void, while the hardware, after a little testing, proved to be as handy as a soggy paper cup. In addition, some wise guy ninja-looted the bag of wires meant for the project, while no big loss, was a major annoyance. At least, in today's experiment, the power supply didn't catch fire, which my 'work gloves' would be hard pressed to protect me from.

Outside the lab, I got a Nintendo DS Lite. (Enamel Blue casing) Being my first up-to-date console since the verenable Game Boy Color, and used for the first week or so to play Phoenix Wright games (Objection!) and Nintendo Touch Golf (6.5 meters to the pin. Oh dear, I've left it short. -throws stylus-). The DS is a really decent console, and in my opinion, beating the PSP, despite the PSP's greater power due to creative use of the DS' various components (Microphone used in PW to dust for fingerprints, Touch screen in every game, Second screen for various data, Hotel Dusk actually requires you to close, then open, the DS to flip an item over.)

Sorry for the lethargic sounding entry, the work is physically and mentally draining.

By The Dolphin

"Tall, and tan and young and lovely, The girl from Ipanema goes walking, And when she passes, each one she passes goes "a-a-ah!"
When she walks she's like a samba that, Swings so cool and sways so gentle, That when she passes each one she passes goes "a-a-ah!"."

Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto-Getz/Gilberto-The Girl From Ipanema

Conversational Topic #8 - "A break from your scheduled programming..."

Having recently (Or maybe not so) restarted school, assignments are flying in all over. It's time for the Major Project, and my assigned project, the Automated Medicine Dispensing Machine II, (read:WTB>1xSolution PST) and between scrounging up scraps designing the thing, and playing de facto leader of a 3-man team, time for proper, old-school thinking is scarce. Therefore, this week's is brought to you by a stupid-acting blogger, and fatigue.

--Ripped from Thermonuclearexchange.com--

5 things you didn’t know about me:

1. I'm a sugar addict.
Yup. I eat sugary treats in astronomical quantities, and consume sweet drinks with near-impunity. Hinting at this tidbit of information is the fact I usually have candy on my person, and gets jumpy when I don't.

2. I may forget a face or name, but not a conversation.
My memory is woefully poor (Common knowledge), but I tend to remember conversations wholesale, whether on phone, typed, or old-school vocal. I usually surprise people by bringing up snippets of conversation they had once. (Verified on MSN Messenger with chat logs)

3. Plush toys are not only for girls or children, you know...
Since young, I get easily distracted by plushies. Till today, a majority are displayed on a shelf in my room. It's not that much of being a sissy if I think they look cute... Right?

4. I don't trust any one with a "M.B." Postfix on their name.
I dislike doctors. I distrust doctors. I get borderline paranoia when doctors are involved.
It does not help when 5 of them in life have not identified that grey patch near my lungs. Nor does it help when the medical orderly broke the syringe when taking a blood test. Not good was the time I got slight Bronchitis due to a mis-diagnosis.

5. I actually try to be sociable.
I said TRY, right? I like having lots of people to talk to. However, I tend to shy away from new people, so it's a pretty stupid way of getting things done in any way.

So that's it, expect more of this kind of posts throughout the MP period.

By The Dolphin

"We do it in the dark, with smiles on our faces.
We're dropped and well-concealed in secret places.
We don't fight fair.
With smiles on our faces.
We're dropped and well-concealed in secret places.
We don't fight fair."

Fall Out Boy-Infinity On High-The Take Over, The Break's Over

Conversational topic #7-"Me, me, me."

A popular plot device in stories, (Particulary awful romance ones) involve two characters being "Alike", or even "virtual twins". Even in video games, such as the Hitman series (Returned to Hitman 2:Silent Assassin for my entertainment.), Mr. 47, the protagonist, has to fight clones of himself, (Mr. 17 in Hitman 2:SA, his "brothers" in Codename:47), and evil twins have been used in various tales as a cliché protagonist to "complicate" otherwise simplistic plots. (The MSG of bad stories, so to speak.)

However, people's fasination with a person out there that would be a virtual carbon-copy of them would never cease. The idea of meeting someone like that is a tantalizing idea, an idea often a result of the aforementioned sources. Having someone that can read the thoughts off your head as if, and preferably, their own thoughts would do wonders in idea communication.
Such a pairing would be capable of simply reading the others' body language by comparing to what they would do.

The downside is many people's supposed doppelgangers are hardly alike. Simply said, people are meant to be different, for nature's sake (see Natural Selection). Consider the math. There are 24 distinct chromosomes in humans, containing 20,000-25,000 genes, amounting to a near 3 billion (3,000,000,000) base pairs. Simple probability would show that you would have a better chance winning the lottery multiple times in a row. Factor in enviromental considerations, such as upbringing, education, and even age, would make the task of finding someone approximately similar a herculean task at best, and a fool's errand at worst.

Even so, people have won the lottery multiple times before, not counting fraudulent claims. So it's hard to dismiss the idea of a good twin of yours running loose in town.

By The Dolphin

"Can you take this lonely girl, and pick her up from off the ground?
Cause there's no pride to be found, when you follow sheep around.
Have no future here, no future, for us in this town.

Because it's not enough, now we're growing up;
We're giving up, we're moving on.
Because it's not enough, we're growing up, we're giving up;
And I won't hear what you say so...

Save your sympathy, who do you think you're fooling?
Everything is dead; now you welcome me,
To a town called Hypocrisy."

Lostprophets-Liberation Transmission-A Town Called Hypocrisy