Wednesday, January 29, 2003

davebarry.blogspot.com
Yeah, thats what I said too.

So much has happened these last few days, pretty much since Friday. Okay, here goes:
It all started because my parents left on a cruise to the carribean without me, so I was left home with the family of my mothers good friend. This was bittersweet, because not only is the mom some gourmet chef, the dad is this *really* smart guy who has his own little business. More on this in a minute... So basically, while my parents are gone, I am grounded for a few reasons. One, to not cause any confusion for my fake parents, and also because I was stupid a few weeks ago, but thats another story... So I didn't go anywhere last weekend, which brings me back to the dad's job. Last weekend, he had to test some 800 light emitting diodes (LEDs) in their pre-manufactured stage. So you know how small they are with their case on, but have you ever seen one alone? They are pretty tiny. Like, the biggest one we tested was something like 300 microns wide. A micron is a millionth of an inch. So basically he has this computer hardware and software that places a needle (extremely fine tip) on the diode, sends 50 milliamps through it, and measures the intensity of the light coming from it using a spectrometer. The trick is that you have to place them on the robotic platform in the right place by hand. Thats right, he gets out tweezers and an exacto knife and puts it on the little piece of tape (remember, you breathe too hard, these things are GONE). Then the platform is sent back and using precise stepper motors and an ingenious platform, you place the little thing under the pin. Press a button on the computer, and 3 or so seconds later, you have an intensity reading! I helped him out just a bit with this, but mostly I was intrigued by the back of the warehouse-like bulding. The company he is sort of with had been there for 15 years, and had amassed quite a collection of this and that. For example, they had about 8 or so oscilloscopes just sitting there, along with aisles of electrical components, motors, chips, computer parts, etc..., and since they manufacture their own hardware (solder it by hand), they had quite a workspace. As you could imagine, it was heaven on earth for me. I spent the whole day there (8 to 4), and after that was dinner and a trip to radio shack. It doesn't get any better than that.
Well, the dad is on the east coast till tomorrow on a business trip or something, so I am left alone at home, grounded. Plus, more on the bad side is that whole episode with me and school a few weeks ago. Well, a teacher brought it up for me at a staff meeting (I asked him to) and so now they have decided on a punishment. I wont go in to much detail, but I might be staying home a few days next week. I just don't know how to tell my parents when they get back. Its gonna suck. I sent a warning e-mail today, so we shall just see how it goes. They come back on saturday, so I wonder if I am still grounded on friday, or if I could have a last hoorah before I get grounded for life and never have a chance of getting a car. I wish time passed faster sometimes, just so I could see what happens. Well, I am tired of typing, so I'm gonna push that little "post and publish" button now...

Tuesday, January 28, 2003

New look, same great content.
Switched over to black and white and the whole minimalistic thing because I liked the look and feel. Also, I totally redid most of the site, but kept the same content. Umm, got rid of a few things, and added a few. One new thing to watch out for is the intro page. If you don't like it tell me, and I will have it redirect... If you want to bookmark the site, bookmark this page, not the intro page (unless you want to have to click every time you come here, which I don't assume is every week anyway :)

Thursday, January 23, 2003

Okay, so I was messing around with electronics again last night, as I often do, but this time I made a circuit that was too pretty to let slip. Also, I got a pager motor, so I put up a little blurb about that. The 'robot' I put up is a neuron based photovore, and is pretty simple in design. I haven't placed links to them from the robotics page yet, because I am completely re-designing the site soon, so it would be even more work. And you know how much I like extra work.

Wednesday, January 22, 2003

Crap, richard is cool.

Monday, January 20, 2003

I got a virus... in more ways than one. To sart with, I had a 4 day weekend, but I was throwing up half the time. I got a cold or the flu or something like that, and it really sucks (ed?) I am mostly over it as of today, but didn't really do anything all weekend. Who knows where I got that from, but my mom was pretty sick too...
The other virus I got was on my computer. I know, I know, you are thinking (as I always think) that its just my computer screwing up, not a virus. That is usually the case, but not this time I am afraid. How 'bout I tell you about it:
It all started when I was trying to get a DOS program to work... I tried running it from a windows 95 box I have, but no luck. Next, naturally, I try and create a DOS boot disk in windows XP off my dad's computer (I run 2000), but right as I was formatting it, his little virus watcher pops up saying he has a crappy little virus. We both dismiss it because nothing had really happened. I made my little disk and was on my way to getting the program to work.
Until I tried booting it on my computer.
It told me I had a funny little virus now, and it said (r) for restart, (c) to continue booting. I pressed (r), naturally, and took out the disk. Yeah, then my computer didn't boot. It wasn't reading drive c or some darn thing, so I rebooted to the floppy again, but now my computer never made it past the BIOS check. After a few more boot disks (I have a collection of them), nothing worked. I got an idea to go on my dad's computer and see what the name of the virus was. It is called MONKEY (damn it ross...), and it turns out that it is only transmitted via floppy disks. It encrypts and relocates the information in the Master Boot Sector of your (my?) computer so it doesn't read any drives. Formatting the hard drive doens't even fix it. Nothing does, seems like. I have been all over the internet looking for a way to rid my computer of it. I even tried a program written in 1993 called killmonk.exe, and that didn't work. I am on to other virus software now, so wish me luck as I attempt to rescue my computer from the bowels of some twisted virus writers brain.

Saturday, January 18, 2003

Haven't blogged in a few days.
Who knows why. Not much to say to the world. It's the end of the semester at school, so we get a 4 day weekend, so that rocks. But on the contrary, I get my report card sent to me (my parents?) I am cleaning my room.
Like I said, nothing really to say, just thought I would update. I should never have gone to blogger today. I should never have ever gone to blogger.
I am not rational today. I can't talk for some reason. I should stay away from the internet for a while and work on my people skills.

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

Because of many reasons, including what happened when I wrote the last update, and a few things that came up yesterday at school, I am not going to post what happened. I know many people have questions, but as of now, nothing happened. The only thing I will disclose is that I am okay, and staying in my same school. I need some time is all. Nothing happened. It's all okay. No worries.

Sunday, January 12, 2003

UPDATE
Okay, I know there are questions, and you may have been refered here by someone, or are looking for an update. I deleted the last 3 posts, but saved them to publish them after this is all over. Word spread too quickly. Stuff happened a little too fast. Too many people knew, too fast. I will probably publish the whole thing tomorrow or the next day or so, but not now. I need more facts first. I need answers.
Thank you for your understanding.

Monday, January 06, 2003

First day of school this year. It still sucks, I'm still doing poorly, and it's still great fun getting up and going there every morning. Only not. I actually hate school, and don't plan on making any effort to support myself in going there, trying to get in to college, or anything like that I decided. School is lame, and the system is retarded. I refuse to want to get good grades. I reject the system, and shoot myself in the foot, burn bridges, etc, but I just can't get over how much I hate school. Thank you, goodnight.

Sunday, January 05, 2003

We wen't to Fry's today, and the gods are pleased. Among the shopping list of things we brought home:

• A Sony Vaio desktop (2.5 ghz/256 DDR/80 gig/DVD BURNER!/a whole bunch else)


• A new power supply for me


• A PCMCIA 10/100 NIC


• An 8 port switch


• PCMCIA modem for my mother


• A few other things not worthy of mentioning.

Well, I'm obviously down with the whole new computer thing. However, it is for my dad (that doesn't mean i can't slip a few DVD's behind his back. I am also pretty stoked about my new power supply, because my old one is crap. Also, an 8 port switch means I can host a LAN party with up to 12 computers, plus people might bring their own hubs, so that would be fun. Maybe if I asked my dad if I could use his computer to host... or not. I could host. Thats actually a good idea. LAN, my house, next weekend.

I wish.

Saturday, January 04, 2003

Wow. What a day. My parents' really good friend just called a while ago. Well, someone that knows him anyway. I guess he was skiing earlier today and fell, and got paralized from the neck down. Just like that.
Just kinda hit close to home I guess. This is the guy who made my parents want to move to this town. This is the dentist that my mom had an appointment with on Monday. I'm saying, I played with this guys kids last time I went to their house type thing. Now he can't move. He cant take a shit without a guy holding a bedpan for him. He will probably not walk or even move for that matter ever again in his life. Wow. He has a family. A wife, kids, a job, a life. Wow. I can't find words to describe what I think he must be going through, and will go through in the next days, months, years.
So he had a nurse call my dad to ask him if he would do the anesthesia for the surgury he is having tomorrow. Updates as they come I guess.