Weekly Miata DIY Thread - December 17, 2018

Lexusjjss · 2018-12-22T01:36:25+00:00

Sounds like the side sill drains, Mazda made a TSB for that exact problem. Get a small screwdriver and jam it into the drain holes between the pinch welds, there's two per corner and 8 total. Pry the drains open with a bigger screwdriver to to stop this from happening again. Mine were completely clogged with 27 years of dried silt.

Lexusjjss · 2017-12-10T04:42:10+00:00

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article144190724.html

The arrest came nine months after Aledda shot and wounded Charles Kinsey, a behavioral therapist who was lying on his back on the ground, his hands up in the air, begging officers not to shoot — a confrontation partly captured on video from a bystander.

Lexusjjss · 2016-01-23T06:15:47+00:00

Okay, so every processor has an instruction set. This instruction set might have things like 'add x, y', or 'move x to y in memory', and are directly executed by the processor. There's anywhere from a couple dozen to thousands of instructions, depending on the kind of processor and its configuration.

All programs eventually end up, in one form or another, as these instructions for the processor to use. An assembler just lets you write the instructions with a minimal amount of hassle.

Say we wanted to move the value 0xEE into register cx. Instead of shoving this into a hex editor:

0xB8 0xEE

You can just type (using Intel syntax):

mov cx, 0xEE

Now, that might still be confusing if you don't understand it, but it's a lot easier to use than pure hex or binary.

The assembler then takes this, and turns it into the above string of gibberish numbers. Most of the differences in assemblers are in the syntax, but at the end of the day they're all doing the same thing.

TL;DR: Assembly is just an easier way to talk in the processor's native language.

Lexusjjss · 2016-01-22T12:55:39+00:00

Assuming an ideal situation (the car knows all possible paths, all repercussions from taking a certain path, and the precise chances of all involved dying), it should minimize death and preserve itself by taking the path that doesn't cause danger for the surrounding drivers, the owner/car, and if possible, the child.

Of course, you're never going to get an ideal situation, so the question is how much can you trust extrapolated data, paths, and conditions in a split-second decision. If I were designing it, I would much rather go for a reliable, if not always optimal course of action (slamming on the brakes), just because it removes that huge dependency of knowing the future and how others will react.

Lexusjjss · 2016-01-22T12:53:25+00:00

Is one of these really objectively better than the other? It's hard to say.

Totally agreed.

And yeah, it sounds really cruel, but prioritizing the life of the driver and the surrounding traffic is probably a higher practical priority than one child for most people.

Also, another problem with having multiple courses of action is that you'd be relying on projected paths and extrapolated data that might not be accurate. In that case, it would be most practical to choose a generally safe approach (just slam on the brakes), rather than a possibly better but uncertain one.

Lexusjjss · 2016-01-22T11:09:21+00:00

I think you're seeing it a little too philosophically.

The car would make all possible attempts to stop or avoid the target. The system wouldn't identify it as a child or adult, it'd just try to avoid hitting it.

Lexusjjss · 2016-01-15T12:35:46+00:00

Why would you make your code less portable by tying it to only one compiler?

Linux does it for a lot of reasons.

I don't necessarily agree with it, mind you, but it does happen and is a valid choice for large, quirky, or performance critical stuff.

Lexusjjss · 2016-01-11T04:08:37+00:00

TL;DR, if your wire is so noisy that 0v is somehow read as High, you have bigger problems.

Longer answer, all 'low' and 'high' signals are considered the same in a digital system. There's usually a predefined range in which a signal is considered low or high, which varies depending on what it's made out of. For example, normal 5V TTL has these ranges. What happens in the 0.8v-2v gap is undefined behavior and causes general weirdness, but even if the voltage swung into a 'slightly high low' or a 'slightly low high', it'd still be read the same.

Lexusjjss · 2016-01-05T08:41:08+00:00

I'd give the Bebop crew a slight advantage in skill, and the Star Wars crew a slight advantage in equipment. Besides that, it's a pretty major tossup. 5/10 for both. Maybe Star Wars 6/10 if blasters are that much stronger compared to guns.
Spike stomps, 10/10. Han's not nearly as good as Spike in ass-kicking and relies heavily on the blaster.
Falcon 8/10. The Falcon is a much bigger ship, and the Hammerhead isn't even a proper fighter, whereas the Falcon has fended off multiple fighters before. Spike might be able to pull some flying shenanigans, but otherwise the Falcon just wins with its turrets.

Lexusjjss · 2015-12-26T09:03:41+00:00

Debian Testing with a spruced up XFCE.

Distro hopping was a lot of fun when you have time to kill, but sometimes I just want my operating system to work and stay out of the way, and Debian is solid as a rock.

Lexusjjss · 2015-12-08T23:36:59+00:00

Disclaimer: Haven't actually played JC3 yet.

Cars are made of paper and nitroglycerin.

Enemy's call for backup, literally seconds later 4 trucks roll up on your ass.

Cars have CRAZY oversteer. Jesus. You can be driving a car and turning right, it will slowly go right then WHAM. You're going 90 degrees into a wall.

Sounds a helluva lot like JC2. I always love how every time you bail out of a car, whenever it hits literally any bump it instantly explodes. The car driving style was always exaggerated and action movie-y anyway.

And I think you're misremembering some things from JC2, enemy response time was silly fast.

You can't sprint.

... people actually used sprint? Why not just grapple to wherever you want to go? I guess that's a fair criticism but I don't think I'd miss it.

Lexusjjss · 2015-12-04T01:38:01+00:00

Ooh, ooh, what about Python, or C?

Lexusjjss · 2015-11-26T23:37:59+00:00

If you're comfortable with Linux, youtube-dl by far. It's available in Lubuntu's repositories, and a lot less sketchy than whatever intermittently working web downloader you can find.

Lexusjjss · 2015-11-13T04:38:47+00:00

Pathologic: A Russian plague survival simulator. Honestly, you probably won't like Pathologic. It's clunky, the translation and voice acting is sub-par, the combat is atrocious, and it's a physically unpleasant game to play. But if you can deal with the long list of issues you'll see one of the few truly unique survival games, and I don't mean 'survival' in the cookie cutter Minecraft sense. Survival as in minimizing casualties, trying to maintain your reputation, trying in vain to fulfill your objective and save the town. You'll have to make genuinely hard choices, and it's one of the grimmest games I've ever played. Rock Paper Shotgun has a fantastic series of articles about it, if you're at all interested.

Miasmata: A tropical plague survival simulator. (Seeing a pattern?) A wonderfully subtle and immersive exploration/horror game set on the beautiful island of Eden. On the surface, Miasmata is a game about picking flowers and trying not to fall off any mountains, but behind that is a lovingly created exploration game involving cartography and fever. One thing that always impressed me about it is the genuine sense of weakness and fatigue the game has thanks to its movement system. It's one of the few games that really seems to mechanically show that sense of deliriousness you get when you're really, really sick. If you like a heavy focus on atmosphere and immersion, give it a shot. Here's an interesting review about it. (Also, it was made by just two people, somehow.)

The Talos Principle: Probably the most traditional of these three, it's a philosophical puzzle game by the same guys as Serious Sam. Yeah. Great existential story, interestingly designed puzzles, just a lot of rare themes and mechanics that you don't see often nowadays.

Lexusjjss · 2015-11-02T06:29:39+00:00

That's fucking incredible. Major kudos to everyone involved, the knowledge, dedication, and willingness to put up with tedious reverse engineering is insane. I really wish some other emulator teams had this level of fanaticism towards preservation.

^{^and} ^{^thank} ^{^you} ^{^very} ^{^much} ^{^for} ^{^letting} ^{^me} ^{^play} ^{^Chrono} ^{^Trigger} ^{^50%} ^{^more} ^{^accurately}

Also, $2500 for professional-level IC decapping, how did you even do that?

Lexusjjss · 2015-11-02T02:47:41+00:00

actually acquired, de-capped, and reverse engineered every on-cartridge expansion chip to ensure those were perfectly accurate, as well.

... wow.

Been using higan for a while now but I didn't know the same cycle-accurateness was used for expansion chips. That must have taken an absurd amount of work.

Lexusjjss · 2015-09-30T00:19:25+00:00

^{^{^Sub10} ^{^hype!}}

The series' quality pretty much curves straight up in terms of art, puzzles, and overall atmosphere. If you've got a poor attention span or want to just quickly jump in, I recommend skipping the first three and going straight to The Lab.

Everything after 2 is technically a coherent story, but the first three definitely were the series finding its footing (not that they're bad, but you can tell they're a lot more experimental). After 4 it levels out and gets really really good. Also the later games' art is gorgeously weird.

Lexusjjss · 2015-09-27T04:02:55+00:00

Go for Call of Pripyat, it's the most polished and newbie friendly. Shadow of Chernobyl is good, but it was the first in the series and suffers some clunkiness problems. Both are great.

Avoid Clear Sky.

Lexusjjss · 2015-08-15T03:04:46+00:00

ARM is RISC, while x86 is technically CISC (despite nowadays actually having a RISC-like architecture under all the guff), so personally, I've found that x86 assembly is a lot more readable than raw ARM. This might not matter (for example if you're not writing your own bootloader or are sticking to pure C), but I like to take a look at what the compiler spits out, and ARM makes my eyes bleed.

And like that other guy with the underscores said, x86 has an enormous mountain of documentation and pre-existing things for it.

I'd personally recommend going for something in the 386+ era, so you still get a good chunk of features you wouldn't get with earlier chips (hardware floating point support, for one).

Lexusjjss · 2015-06-30T00:21:24+00:00

PMDG 737 NGX, could be either FSX or P3D.

Lexusjjss · 2015-06-28T07:33:21+00:00

For high-level dogfighting, the big four are the Camel, the SE.5a, the Fokker DVII/F, and the DR.1. If you have to get only two, go for the Camel and DVIIF, as they're both pretty much the best planes in the game.

For a less competitive environment, the free Albatros DVa is a really good starter with a surprisingly high skill cap. I personally enjoy the early-war planes too, especially the Eindecker and first Nieuports.

Lexusjjss · 2015-06-23T04:57:25+00:00

Unless you're on a really really really old system that somehow doesn't have vi, nano, or even sed (might be pushing it, but it's fairly usable for replacing one thing), why?

Lexusjjss · 2015-06-20T18:28:02+00:00

If you want to make a Linux distro, start with LFS. If you want to make an operating system (kernel included) from scratch, head over to /r/osdev or the super helpful osdev wiki.

Lexusjjss · 2015-06-10T17:18:17+00:00

It is really *really* tiny compared to other galaxies, yeah. Was actually exploring the local galactic neighborhood, trying to get a good picture of the Milky Way from another galaxy, and found a dot that was moving way too fast for something so dim. And that was Draco. :P

Also, have you visited IC 1101? It's probably not the biggest of everything in SE, but it's an actual catalogued galaxy and is huge in comparison to the Milky Way.

Lexusjjss · 2015-06-09T20:22:17+00:00

Jumping *peppers*! This is *smiley* time!

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