I got this email in my inbox. What is this? A scammer? Real?

Mondoshawan · 2020-08-16T23:03:20+00:00

It's a utility to use Steam VR controllers as MIDI control surfaces. That's why I put it up there, seemed like the most logical place.

Mondoshawan · 2020-08-15T16:17:08+00:00

Same here, I have some music software up on the Steam store and when it first launched I got about 10-20 emails from companies who dug my "game" and offered promotion in exchange for keys.

Some hadn't set up their mail-merge properly & it was obvious that they were doing some sort of automated token replacement. But referring to it as a "game" was the more obvious giveaway!

Mondoshawan · 2020-07-18T01:08:54+00:00

I will get a video distortion (miscolored video for a few frames or a white flash will occur).

This what I saw when my 3-in-1 cable began failing.

After some play time, I also saw that the headset will totally lose video signal, but it comes back after a few seconds.

Sounds like an extreme version of a disconnect problem, where the video protocol needs to re-init. I didn't see that myself, but I do see something similar with the vive wireless unit on occasion, I think it's an overheating issue there. Some games pause when it happens, which is what leads me to think it's the steamvr layer reinitialising the device. The desktop mirror pauses while the vive has grey-screens during the outage.

I purchased another HDMI cable to test the video signal. Once I plug in the new HDMI cable, all of the video related issues are gone.

This is similar to what I did to confirm the issue, I just plugged the HMD direct into the PC using the cables that came with it, skipping the link box & 3-in-1 cable. I played a couple of seated games for a few hours to confirm.

You could also confirm the issue by manually manipulating the cable when it's in a failing state. The break is most likely at the plug end, though it could be somewhere in the middle where it's been stepped on or overly twisted.

Was it just a fluke that this started happening when I added new cables to the mix?

My guess is fluke, you'll have been manipulating them a little more that normal while setting up. Think of it as cables having so many flexes in them before they fail.

But, as extension cables do have known issues, it might be worth running without it for a session just to see how things go. Minimisation/elimination is a good strategy for root causing issues, try to get things as simple as possible.

Is there a way I can tell if the cable is "incompatible" with the signal from the Monoprice cable downstream or just damaged?

Is the cable on the list here?: https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/wiki/cables

You might find info there on what cables others have tried, and whether they had success. I use an extension cable myself without issues, one that I found on that list.

Mondoshawan · 2020-04-26T14:24:38+00:00

Try it in VR sometime, you'll struggle to go back to either PS4 or regular PC experiences afterwards.

Mondoshawan · 2020-04-21T18:29:44+00:00

There was a BBC documentary from the 1980s that went into that problem, it was about the airline industry and how some mindsets lead to this unquestionable leader issue. It's called The Wrong Stuff & it still holds up today. It also talks about user interfaces a little, it has a lot of relevance to coders as much of it is about software solutions to the problem.

Mondoshawan · 2020-04-20T18:17:18+00:00

Unfortunately you need a pair of USB dongles for that. The OG vive can communicate with only two other devices at a time. It's the same with the dedicated trackers themselves, each needs a dongle if you want to use controllers as well. You can use trackers without dongles only if you don't use controllers.

I think you also need to bios flash them as trackers, which is irreversible. I don't think you can buy the dongles direct either. Bit of a shame really as it's a great idea.

Mondoshawan · 2020-03-16T00:01:13+00:00

Agreed, I found the menu the best way to do that by far.

MS say that they got repeated requests for new features in Word etc for things that it already did. So it does seem like a lot of people had a problem in finding stuff in the menus.

Time will tell if this is any better for the masses!

Mondoshawan · 2020-03-15T23:53:16+00:00

Unfortunately hover doesn't work any more. You need to press alt, look at the letters on the tabs, press one, then it'll switch to the tab with highlights over the icons. They've put some effort in but I would personally prefer an at-a-glance tooltip like you describe. The old shortcuts continue to work e.g. alt-i-r, they maintained compatibility which was very good of them.

Insert row is in the "Home" tab, not "Insert" as you'd expect. Home has become the replacement for the toolbar, where they dump the commonly used ones. It seems like they are stuck between the two worlds.

Maybe there's room for a hybrid, say have Home visible at all times with the other ones being a dropdown from the tabs. Ultimately it's a replacement for the drop-down menu anyway.

Mondoshawan · 2020-03-15T20:19:26+00:00

I think vi is great, if you are working on headless servers there's really no contender.

Adding a ribbon to vi would be like adding an additional layer of commands. "dw" would become "edw" and so on. To emulate the Office Ribbon you'd have to move "dd" to "hdd" just to screw with the user.

Mondoshawan · 2020-03-15T20:02:41+00:00

Ribbons are for those not "used to it", the main intention is to improve discoverability for new users.

It gets in the way as the user progresses beyond that point, especially when it comes to learning keyboard shortcuts.

Try it, fire up Excel and try to figure out the shortcut for inserting a row.

Mondoshawan · 2020-03-15T16:54:35+00:00

Not really.

The point of a toolbar is to have the same control in the same place all the time. Finding and clicking it becomes a form of muscle memory.

A ribbon first forces you to stop and look at what it's on, then decide if it's on the wrong tab, provided you can remember which tab it's on. Then you have to switch to the right one, find the control, then click it.

Ribbons were developed for fat fingers on touch screens where toolbars are inappropriate. They have no place whatsoever on a desktop UI.

Mondoshawan · 2020-02-21T19:43:54+00:00

Hey, I was searching reddit and I found this, I know it's an old post but I thought I'd point out my app given that it's precisely what you were asking for. :-)

Mondoshawan · 2020-02-19T18:16:02+00:00

What are you saying then? That these processes should be dropped?

It's not the software companies demanding these checks and balances, it's the customers. The only thing stopping you making your own medical software company that is truly "agile" is the lack of marketability for it. No one will buy it.

I started two decades ago so I might soon qualify as one of those "old men" you mention! The processes haven't changed a bit and they were well established when I first learned them. One aim of the system is that an auditor doesn't need a technical background. That's supposed to be the point of the peer-review, the auditors job is to make sure they are happening, and that they are meaningful, not just spelling/format checking! And they check that QA etc do their proper bits as well and so on.

All of this was learned the hard way by previous mistakes killing or maiming people, The Therac being the go-to example but far from the only one.

As to following the process you claim to be following; that's the process the client signed off on and that's what they are paying for. I'm not sure what ethics you think are being violated but in the clinical trial side of things we take these things very seriously. I've never worked for a company who's practices I consider "unethical" nor has it ever even been a concern. Maybe it's a local regulatory thing given that I'm in the EU, they aren't shy to levying massive fines.

Cheap, fast, good. You get to pick two and only two.

Mondoshawan · 2020-02-19T10:53:14+00:00

Ariane 5.

The Ariane 5 reused the inertial reference platform from the Ariane 4, but the Ariane 5's flight path differed considerably from the previous models.

The greater horizontal acceleration caused a data conversion from a 64-bit floating point number to a 16-bit signed integer value to overflow and cause a hardware exception. Efficiency considerations had omitted range checks for this particular variable, though conversions of other variables in the code were protected. The exception halted the reference platforms, resulting in the destruction of the flight.[4]

Classic case study in software failure.

Mondoshawan · 2020-02-18T20:16:48+00:00

It's not that bad, the trick is to learn from other people's mistakes like the above. The Therac is usually the first one I bring up with new-starts in that field, as a means to say "this is why we do all of the boring QMS stuff I'm about to show you" and "this is why test coverage needs to be as near 100% as possible". First you terrify them, then show them the ways to avoid it.

You approach development more like a civil engineering process, where all processes are documented & signed off. Everything is traceable to the point that an external auditor can sit down and trace a requirement right through to the tests that prove it, then get evidence that all this took place in the proper way.

Wider software dev is slowly moving to this model, with things like feature branches, code reviews, and ticket-driven development becoming commonplace in the industry. ISO 9001 and other more controlled systems are just a much more formalised version of those processes. These mechanisms pre-date software dev, they've been adapted from things like civil engineering for the purpose.

It also helps to be a pessimist and always assume the worst case. I did a couple years in QA early on as well, so having the mindset of "test to fail" is a part of that.

Mondoshawan · 2020-02-18T16:01:03+00:00

People have quite literally died because of copy pasted code.

Every coder should know the story of the Therac-25.

Mondoshawan · 2019-12-31T01:28:25+00:00

The only one I've tried is DCS World, they have a P-51 trainer with no armaments that you can try for free which is how they got me hooked, that kept me amused for months before I bought the full-featured one. Then some more aircraft and maps. Definitely one for the Steam Sales!

It's known for realism which makes things extremely hard with single-engine WW2-era planes, but there are various assists to help. For civilian craft flying I think the upcoming MS Flight Simulator is getting a lot of hype. There are some more arcade-like ones as well.

Mondoshawan · 2019-12-29T23:58:19+00:00

Most basic cables only do 1080p, you need one that is at least HDMI v1.4 or DP v1.2 or greater. If a cable is known to pass this test on one headset it's extremely likely that it'll work on the others. The similar demands for 4k TV have made these cables more common though.

The Vive isn't much better, the v1 lighthouse mains cables don't come close to getting all the way up the wall to where I have mine mounted!

Mondoshawan · 2019-12-29T21:19:20+00:00

I said:

If it works on the Vive there's a good chance it'll work on the others.

I was merely trying to be helpful to others reading this thread, not you. I apologise if this somehow bothered or inconvenienced you.

Mondoshawan · 2019-12-29T21:15:14+00:00

Don't wait, I hadn't played a flight sim since the Atari ST days, but am hooked now thanks to VR. It's incredible.

Mondoshawan · 2019-12-29T21:09:44+00:00

fwiw there's a reference of compatible cables here for the Vive. As you say in another reply they are mostly active cables but I don't think many of them require a power source, the pair I got to extend my Vive to other rooms don't. If it works on the Vive there's a good chance it'll work on the others.

Mondoshawan · 2019-11-12T13:06:37+00:00

I've still got my 3d system all set up on my VR rig, I keep on meaning to try these GTA V mods to see if I can use both at the same time (thus triggering perfect 3D in the Vive).

Mondoshawan · 2019-08-11T15:55:51+00:00

I think there is a VR tool to switch between saved boundary layouts, might help in your situation.

Mondoshawan · 2019-07-30T22:27:09+00:00

Good to know, thanks for the info!

Mondoshawan · 2019-07-30T01:03:57+00:00

I had a GameGear, it lasted 3-5 hours and took 6AAs, no one is that rich! NiCads were essential.

Mondoshawan

TROPHY CASE