Got Word press running

Well finally got Word Press running now so hopefully should start to modify it to look a little more like my website, albeit after I have revamped the site. Also been having a thought about what to do for my website as I think sometimes its easier to think of theme for a website that actually does something instead of just another website, so my website is going to be a bit about me but also a bit like a tutorial website in how I did things and what I found out about certain packages.

Detecting passing cars

Whilst we are going to get the main bulk of information from the sounds of the vehicles, me and and Kathleen have also thought it might be a good idea to maybe detect the actual passing of a car and how long it takes to go pass by having an infrared beam going across the road and when a car breaks the beam see how long its broken for, this should give us a good indication of either speed of a vehicle or size i.e. wagons.

Sound Recording

After talking to Lee, we have decided to go with the simpler option of getting the project working with using standalone microphones and running it through Flash, I also told Lee about the other quirkier idea of trying to find out what radio stations cars were listening to and I think he liked the idea, but he believes it may cost a few pounds to get it working but I am still going to do some research into that.

Arduino and Sounds CONT:

After thinking some more into how to record sound levels via an Arduino board I stumbled across this clip on YouTube and thought it would be good as an indication that me and Kathleen can actualy succeed in this project by using an Arduino board.
So this is the Video Clip:

Glass Penguin

Was just have a play about in 3d max after creating my head and thought I would create a penguin just to see how easy it would be, and to my surprise it came natural and here is my finished product.

The penguin took me about 10 mins to create and I am happy with the outcome.

Arduino and Sounds

Trying to think how me and Kathleen can incorporate an Arduino board into our project I came up with the idea of maybe hacking a Sound Level recorder and attaching it to an Arduino board, possibly analogue as this will give us a more natural read out instead of just digital 1's and 0's. The read out that we get can then be Incorporated into our flash files as a way of determining how much of the building would be eroded this I hope would give us the desired effects.

So now to buy a few things and to get started, back to the good old days of electronics.

Arduino Info

Well I thought it would be a good idea for me to give you some more useful information on Arduino boards, so I decided to go and get some and list it here just in case you fancy a tinker yourselves.

Picture of an Arduino Board (many to choose from)

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The micro controller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).

The boards can be built by hand or purchased preassembled; the software can be downloaded for free. The hardware reference designs (CAD files) are available under an open-source license, you are free to adapt them to your needs.

so this is just a taster for what they can do, this is a link to the website in case you fancy buying one are seeing what else it can do. http://www.arduino.cc/

Arduino Boards

Today we was introduced to Arduino boards, basically they are little circuit boards that can be programmed to do many different things, such as creating a cool disco flashing light :), but the main power of the Arduino board comes from both its programmable and its modularity to become many different things such as add a water sensor and then you have a fully working water depth gauge.

I have already had an idea that was mentioned in Lee Nutbean's lesson in that we could have two walkie talkie that transmit to each other but instead of powering the speaker on the receiver walkie talkie we could power an electrical fart machine might be good for a prank.

Another Lie

Well its the first week of Febuary and Virgin promised the internet would be sorted by now but still waiting for the W**ke*s to get there butts into gear, all they seem to say is "it will be fixed by next week..." basically Virgin have got some realy good liers working with them, Oh and what makes me laugh is when they say we will give you a good will gesture and not charge you for this month, but hang on you haven't even given me a package for a month so its really not a good will gesture just me getting my rights..

So today I'm going to phone them (Again) and cancel the package and ask for a full refund for the crap they offer, so if yo are reading this in the mind set of going with virgin media, DONT.

Test Again

Well this morning I thought I better go give my game another test before the hand in and it seems to be playing OK, apart from the font in the game on the mac computer as it doesn't have the font I used but I figured out that I can break my fonts into pixels then that way the majority of the text will be the same apart from the actual score, and lives. The next thing now is to cross my fingers and to finish commenting my code so makes it a little easier for people to read it.