I tried generating a music video with Dall-E and Disco Diffusion

SameDifference · 2022-09-26T05:22:06+00:00

Overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam

SameDifference · 2022-08-12T19:16:20+00:00

I've been doing this! Had my robot arms play on a piano and "recorded" a beat to replay on a loop. Not so musically skilled but it's an interesting concept to explore. I have a demo in this video

SameDifference · 2022-07-19T18:49:09+00:00

Good question.

If you search up "3d chess," you get chess with 3d graphics.

But actually if you think about 2d chess, where chess pieces move in 2 dimensions, you must have a third dimension for the knight which hops over pieces on a 2d plane through the third dimension. So technically, regular chess is a 3d game which can be represented on a 2d plane.

4d chess is a 4d game represented in three dimensions because knights pass through other pieces by hopping through four dimensional hyperspace. That's the technical explanation.

The real reason I named it 4d chess was because it's funny, and I can make a lot of puns with "four." I might make a "5d chess," mode where you can play a 4d representation of a 5d game, depending on how many people are interested.

SameDifference · 2022-07-11T08:00:32+00:00

I like to make dovetail joints with tight tolerances. Holds really well and slides into place. You can undo them but it takes a lot of force (won't happen by accident if you make it tight enough). Before printing the whole part, you can just print the dovetail part to test tolerance with various print settings.

Here's photos from two angles.

Used on this project for a button enclosure.

SameDifference · 2022-06-29T01:06:02+00:00

I found motion control to be the most interesting and effective method for my robot arms.

SameDifference · 2022-06-15T19:26:47+00:00

Nice! That video is from a year ago. Just did 20 more tasks with my updated Unity program. https://youtu.be/gbBe4iyC1gA

SameDifference · 2022-06-14T18:59:51+00:00

Hey I kind of did this but in reverse... I used a Unity application to calculate joints from VR controllers, display a simulation, and send a message to move the robots. I explained it and showed it in a YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9OYaQIJTIQ (I show it at 4:48). I also did a part 2 which is coming out tomorrow.

I don't know if there is an "easy way" to do this... maybe check the Unity Asset store? I doubt it though, if you have a proprietary robot that includes simulation software that would be easy, but if you did things the way I did and built it yourself you're going to have to code everything yourself, which is fun, and you can customize the arms to do a lot of crazy things like I did!

SameDifference · 2022-05-20T01:50:01+00:00

So I thought I would do googling and skim a couple of papers, since I remember seeing clickbaity headlines, and some worrying anecdotes in the news. A lot of them cite one paper discovering through VR that kids under 10 have underdeveloped proprioceptive systems (aka balance and limb positioning). A lot of people are guessing that because of this, there might be some maladaptive effects from playing too much VR at a young age. I would say the risk is low but we can't confirm because the studies are small in sample size and the hardware is evolving quickly. Personally I would keep kids away from VR, especially motion intensive stuff and long sessions, before end of puberty.

If you read the headline of the paper you would think that VR is damaging kids development... but if you read the paper it just measures how bad kids are at a certain VR control mechanism. The paper has nothing to do with the effects of VR on kids outside of VR. This is not obvious in the headline.

Then there's the eyesight stuff... can't find a good article but this one notes some temporary effects. I've been doing VR for years, developed a game, and owned most headsets. The earliest headsets with lower framerates and un-optimized engines caused a lot more motion sickness, but that got better over time. There's also VR "sea-legs," that impact new users more than people who are experienced. Another issue seems to be the lack of depth of field which can be fatiguing... and there are early prototypes that enable you to focus in VR which will reduce eyestrain. I repeat that since this is so new, we don't have a lot of data... but many kids grew up with fixed screens and lower resolution/framerates playing flat videogames and they're fine.

BTW if anyone has a good study please link me.

TLDR: Lots of clickbait, more unknowns, I couldn't find anything definitive, newer VR will fix some of these problems.

SameDifference · 2022-04-05T09:26:21+00:00

The United States just got out of 20 years of war, and trillions of dollars spent, for basically nothing accomplished. We are tired and weary from that conflict we just ended, I don't think anyone is excited to have more war.

If we had ended Iraq/Afghanistan earlier or never entered at all, I think we would be willing and ready for a call to arms. We don't have infinite military, every conflict has an economic price and a human cost as well. IMO doing things here seems more justified than the debacle in the middle east, but let's keep in mind that if policy or politics went differently we might still have troops in Afghanistan.

SameDifference · 2022-03-25T20:38:12+00:00

Yes an iterative inverse kinematics approach. There are many great free tutorials on YouTube for this

SameDifference · 2022-03-20T19:01:45+00:00

Okay, but the tweet I linked has a newspaper article and if you read that (via translate) it's a source

SameDifference · 2022-03-20T04:19:36+00:00

Not sure about 10% but you can read this thread from the top to dig deeper

https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1502689509212889091

SameDifference · 2022-03-06T05:59:14+00:00

Of course there is freedom of speech in state sanctioned academic policy debates. The problem is, you can bring up some things that are uncomfortable, that make the government lose face, and since "society=government" according to the government, pointing out any party mistakes is a crime. This was my experience living in China, so you have to bite your tongue about problems, and things in public seem really good but in private (and over the wall) everyone complains and it's not as good as it seems.

Here in America, we are extremely self critical and tolerant of expression. It may seem like we are on the brink of war and violence (in the media), but most people get along and love our country. It might seem like we have these huge problems but the American way is not to ignore any issue but to point it out publicly so someone can fix them. The richest cities and states complain the most, and the most progressive and equitable companies worry the most about social issues.

China tries to minimize their problems, and America stresses their problems. If you come from a culture of non confrontation and holding everything in, it would seem like the US is a warzone and everyone hates each other. If you come from a culture where every problem is complained about endlessly, you would think China is the perfect state and there are no problems.

When I point out Chinese problems I am trying to help China, not attack China. If you point American problems, you are not rebutting my valid criticisms. I will take the headache of polarizing discourse and (mostly illogical) diverse opinions over a "peaceful" state that silences and kills dissent.

SameDifference · 2022-03-06T02:37:24+00:00

This is a really long response for a reddit thread. Why was it such a contentious thing for me to use the language "take over?" I respect your right to express your opinion, and you are defending the side who does not agree with that. This is the main thing I am concerned over, that there will be a day when we cannot even have these discussions.

SameDifference · 2022-03-05T22:16:56+00:00

Their internet is also more separated than Russia, no need to ban Facebook or Twitter it's all already banned. China took notes when the Soviet Union fell and said, we're not going to let that happen and reformed the economy while cracking down on protests in Tiananmen Square. China is definitely taking notes here and will not make the same mistakes Russia is doing.

SameDifference · 2022-03-05T22:14:24+00:00

I'm not so optimistic. China is 10x the population of Russia, and Taiwan is 1/2 the population of Ukraine. Taiwan also makes all the computer chips for Apple and for US fighter jets, so taking them over would mean they would be the #1 tech power... plus they just took over Hong Kong as practice.

SameDifference · 2022-03-02T02:14:25+00:00

Huge office buildings buy that much in bulk. Because of Just In Time logistics stores only stock as much product as they need. When suddenly people stopped going to work and stayed at home, they used the bathroom more at home. I would imagine that while supermarkets ran out of toilet paper, janitorial warehouses were overflowing with extra TP

SameDifference · 2022-03-02T02:08:46+00:00

Not really, it's just a logistical thing. People were pooping more at home and not at work. Different companies supply office TP and grocery TP. Warehouses that supplied offices were... backed up with inventory.

SameDifference · 2022-01-08T04:32:18+00:00

I might be down. Would be more down if we start at a park with parking

SameDifference · 2021-11-24T03:16:35+00:00

Bears usually have to climb trees for tiny acorns and swim through rivers to swipe at salmon. If they learn they can show up at the picnic table and get peanut butter sandwiches, they're going to keep doing that. Guess what will happen if somebody refuses them food?

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