If you're using 3ds max to try to do augmented reality using FlarToolKit  in flash you MAY have run into an error 126 when trying to install feeling softwares 3.05c version of ColladaMax

this error 126 where the DLE file fails to initialize has to do with the directX SDK not being installed. This will happen on the stock 32-bit version AND the modified 64-bit version.

There's not really any documentation that will let you know this, and you'll probably waste a few days trying to figure it. That's what I just did unfortunetly. 

Hopefully this will help. download the below 2 files and install them. After that collada export is smooth sailing.

the built in autodesk collada DAE export works OK, but it mostly sucks and gets texture mapping wrong.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=200B2FD9-AE1A-4A14-984D-389C36F85647

A few weeks back I decided to try out the Arduino platform for working with micrcontrollers. I've been using pic's for the last few years (mostly the 16f628a) but I just haven't been impressed with the software or the community. Arduino is fully open source, and so the hardware and software are both free to use and edit. There's nothing like this in the world of PIC microcontrollers.

if I had to describe PIC's I'd say it's like walking into a room and everyone inside the room stops talking the second you walk in and they all start giving you sideways looks.

Whereas with arduino the second you walk into the room everyone jumps and cheers and shakes your hand and throws piles of code at you. Here here! Look what I've made! You should make it to! here's how!

It's a completely different way of working and I'm loving it.

 

ANYWAYS, yesterday I managed to get an arduino connected to the internet AND sending a twitter to my account, and I have to say, it was pretty easy. where something like that with a PIC had me pulling my hair, it took me all of an hour on the arduino.

I have at least 20 projects on paper I've wanted to have Ethernet for and now I finally do.

My tools are almost where I want them for my next series. Just a few more purchases.....

Like beer? who doesn't? I just finished working on the current Stella Artois.com website for xmas, it was designed here at my work (Lowe Roche) by us and Dan Purdy an uber talented flash guru.  Beyond doing a bulk of the xml and php code that runs it I also designed the printable paper ornaments you see there (the bird and star).

 

 

Go try printing them out. they're free and fun!

it was also a great exercise in 3ds max to foldable form construction and just a fun break from my usual programming heavy job.

Stellaartois.com

Every year on the 256th day of the year it's international programmers day.

whether you're a PHP/ASP developer, C/C++ junkie, javascript nerd, VB enthisuist sit back for 5 minutes, pat yourself on the back, print 'congratualtions'; on whatever code you're currently writting (I'm finishing an webmail client myself) and then get back to work.

If you're not a programmer, send smile to those that are, the interent wouldn't be here doing what it does quite as well otherwise.

I unfortunately receive spam attempts to all of my email form systems, be it this website, a clients site, or especially genpets.com

blocking via keywords is nice, but nowadays spammers simply use groups of non coherent words.

here's a useful way to implement a block, depending on what sort of site you run it might work great.

generally no one sends me links via legitimate email on my forms, sometimes one or two. but never 5-7!

so it seems to make sense to count how many links are in a body of text, and then block the email if there's more than, in my case 5.

here's is the code below.

//check for link spam

preg_match_all("/http/i",$Message,$matches);

$cnt = count($matches[0]);

if($cnt >=5){$errors[] = "Email Spam detected! Please do not try again, your IP has been logged.";

}

obviously switch the IF to what you need, but I use an error array and only send if the array is empty.

this is not an end all be all approcah, but it should cut down on the amount coming through, and if combined with IP logging and keywords should be close to 100% successful.

Today's a big day.

I had no idea... none... mostly because I honestly never looked. My research and learning of new things has dropped lately as it's been coding/sculpting/coding/sleep/repeat.

PHP has a plug-in that can run on a server to do serial output to the ports, I knew there had to be one but I stumbled across it while reading something else, and it was far easier than I ever thought.

why is this cool? now I can combine all that funky php/mysql site coding I do, with all that funky electronics/killer robots that I do.

My first implementation will be a wall display that shows how many hits my websites get via the wonders of leds, thus not requiring me to physically check by pushing buttons.

This also opens the gateway for some more interesting art. it's like some wondrous missing link that pulls everything I do fully together. I can't wrap my head totally around how cool this will be but I have a feeling I'm going to use it for some big projects.

 

While updating the genpets.com site I decided I wanted to add a forum, of course, not a real one as I don't have enough free time to police it. So I needed to create and code something that would look real, which means it would have to update all by itself.

The first trick to that was date control, if all the dates are set for this week, that's not going to do me much good a year from now is it?

I started out writing some longer if statments but then as I read more about the date commands in PHP I realized it could subtract the dates (or add) all on it's own, without having to be told HOW. (IE september 3rd minus 5 days, we'd have to tell the system to update the month to august)

Here's a little snippet of code I used, it works great, so feel free to cut and paste.

// this simple code controls how the dates work on the page. it subtracts days to make it appear the site is always being updated.
//it is also 'smart' so if it subtracts say 5 days from october 2, it will make it september... cool eh?

$date = date('m/d/Y', strtotime("-0 days"));
$date3 = date('m/d/Y', strtotime("-3 days"));

$date10 = date('m/d/Y', strtotime("-10 days"));

$date1 = date('m/d/Y', strtotime("-1 days"));

you don't have to subtract days either, you could subtract a month or year, or whatever suits your fancy, yes it will compensate for leap year etc...

Cuz I'm just that mental.

I haven't been keeping this site up to date lately, as I've been to busy working on everyone else's and sculpting. But this should allow me to update more often as it's much faster.

Why reinvent the wheel?
There are lots of blogging platforms after all. There's just something about having complete control, and knowing exactly how everything functions. Too many people are calling themselves web designers these days for doing nothing more than using moveable type (blog software) to create a website. Pet peeve of mine. Seeing someone charge $3000 to someone while all they did was use free software...
Plus this was just more fun, and it's the component of something larger I'm working on...

And as much as all me OCAD chums were like [huh?] it actually does have a lot to do with my sculpture. PHP (what this is written in) is based on C, and I'll be programming my next set of animatronics in C or C++ instead of basic. So the same basic theories behind the arrays that run this site, will make a future sculpture do motion tracking.

No it's not open source, but yes it will be used on other sites. Just need to make sure there's no bugs first. And clean up a few things.

The site will change looks once I have the engine running it looking good. I'm more worried about making everyone else's site look good and W3 Validated rather than my own.

What's new?
-Comments!! There are now over 150 journal entries and not a single darn comment on any. So I'll give ya $5 if you make one! Plus it's spiffy. I added cookies so it'll remember you and a java preview.
Also categories, and an RSS feed most notably.

Haven't seen any updates for awhile eh? That's cuz I've been slowly learning css and PHP and designing Portfolio Version5. It still won't be fully w3-validated code, but it'll sure look nicer and be a step up from this mess. Time to begin organizing this mess. I've spent more time on other peoples websites than I have on my own.

My only goal right now is to split and organize until this mess is more easily organizable. I've now got 4 sites to run and as it's not a full time job, I need it to go faster, thus, over the next few months I'll be waiving good bye to html.

For now the basic design will still look very similar to the current for the other pages outside of the portfolio.

The journal is my big pain in the ass right now, as it always has been. This website has grown too large to manage with simple html, and yet for the journal, I don't really want to use wordpress or some other premade system. I'm going to try to convert it over to simple css tables for now and use the php include command where I can as a band aid solution until I convert the entire thing to a MySQL database. That should also allow far faster page loads.

I'm also done the bulk coding for Crystals Portfolio site and I'll post a link to that once she chooses her images and I upload it. (Internet explorer and it's lack of standards though is messing up some of the css so I need to still fix that... I luv you firefox...)