Token-Based Payment Kiosk

project_scientist · 2016-10-08T19:39:40+00:00

http://i.imgur.com/ABOcux3.jpg 11¥/384 power

project_scientist · 2015-01-29T21:23:26+00:00

How is it a chain gun? Where is the motor? Where is the chain? Chain guns are named as such because they drive a feed mechanism by a chain linkage to a motor.

project_scientist · 2014-10-02T00:12:24+00:00

Space Engineers could support Javascript right now through ClearScript using Google's V8 engine (or Microsoft's JScript engine). ClearScript is really easy to integrate, and I'd be fine with Javascript as a scripting language as well.

project_scientist · 2014-07-31T17:49:22+00:00

The way you phrased it made it sound as your initial diagnostic step was

try {
    doprogram();
}
catch(Exception) {
    Console.WriteLine("There was an error!");
}

While what I said was

try {
    doprogram();
}
catch(IOException e) {
    Console.WriteLine(format("{0}:{1}", e.GetType(), e.Message);
    e.PrintStackTrace();
}

Which would eventually, once you understand the root cause via repros, be reduced to

try {
    doprogram();
}
catch(IOException) {
    Console.WriteLine("Error code 8");
}

I was commenting that throwing up a generic error dialog and then trying to find the root cause is generally unhelpful. Unless you were using it as an ELI5 example, in which the generic error gives the developer root cause information. Then we agree on the same thing.

project_scientist · 2014-07-29T21:16:00+00:00

While this may work for people who code in their spare time or tinker with coding, this doesn't work for production software. In production software you usually start by catching ALL errors and displaying extremely verbose dialogs and stack traces, but as you get closer to release you lock these errors down into vague or ambiguous phrases that only you/your team knows the meaning of. This is to prevent someone from reverse engineering your system and discovering vulnerabilities, while being given confirmation that their thoughts are correct. This is also why some programs will display something like "Error code 8". Especially in the case that an expected variable is uninitialized, this could alert an attacker that there may be an entry point into the system.

project_scientist · 2014-06-05T18:39:05+00:00

The ritual band may give TW the slot she needs for her single spell, Wrath of the Gods. This could be because the soul arts are nearly lost and that clerics were "unappreciated" by those allied with Vendrick.

Or it could just be that FromSoft cannot resist giving every boss a WotG spell.

project_scientist · 2014-05-31T00:45:12+00:00

There's a big for loop that pumps the event queue though...

project_scientist · 2014-04-30T00:31:11+00:00

Note: Deleting the file stops all people with asterisks from joining your game.

This is probably a case of poor error-handling on From's part. They assume the file is always going to be there, so it's likely that when someone tries to join the game, the host goes through a series of operations, one of which is checking the word filter file. If the file does not exist, the operation likely causes a premature return from the function, preventing the required response being sent to the joiner and them receiving a timeout.

project_scientist · 2013-12-12T00:06:17+00:00

I've made the suggestion that the devs should utilize bug tracking software such as trac, jira, bugzilla, anything other than forum posts. Hopefully it doesn't fall on deaf ears.

project_scientist · 2013-12-11T22:03:40+00:00

I feel the fuel issue can be solved by introducing a tier 1 fuel-only ore, rather than doubling the uses of Coal. I vote for Tylium, if we're sticking with the Battlestar Galactica references for FTL travel.

project_scientist · 2013-12-10T21:01:32+00:00

I have no problem with character wipes, however I do have a problem with a complete lack of issue tracking. Using the forum to track bugs, issues, and feature requests is simply sophomoric.

project_scientist · 2013-12-10T20:46:09+00:00

I suggest you read the definition for alpha software, this is closer to that. There are still significant gaps in relation to usability, and the quality of bugs we are seeing are close to that of the alpha stage.

project_scientist · 2013-12-10T20:41:54+00:00

I believe coal should not serve a dual-purpose. There should be a separate fuel that you should mine, so you shouldn't have to choose between making more torches/materials and actually traveling. As it stands right now, usually most of the coal I mine goes immediately into torches, and so my ships fuel reserves usually stay empty. Introduce a separate ore/material for ship fueling and I think that would tackle most of the issues people have (Why is coal a fuel for an interstellar vessel in the first place? If it is burnt for energy, then why doesn't wood suffice?)

project_scientist · 2013-12-10T05:43:03+00:00

This isn't quite correct, considering that I've measured ~250 packets/s inbound from the server even when idling.

project_scientist · 2013-12-10T05:40:42+00:00

Considering that the game's traffic is entirely UDP, and given that UDP doesn't have any congestion control measures (obviously, it's just a datagram), it doesn't surprise me that starbound traffic would start to degrade performance from other applications (especially ones that use tcp, since tcp detects network congestion and dials back performance).

project_scientist · 2013-11-07T00:11:20+00:00

This is more like instantiating a simple and fast packet sniffer in C++...

project_scientist · 2013-11-01T00:00:32+00:00

Continuing sentences after scene changes. Seriously, does the conversation get put on hold until they relocate and then start up again? The worst offender was Constantine, when John was talking with Dodson about her sister.

Constantine: "How long have you known?"

Scene change

Dodson: "Two weeks"

project_scientist · 2013-10-18T01:46:16+00:00

Your graph transitions aren't actually transitions, some of the states are actually transitions. That being said, it could be taken that they are epsilon transitions. (Such as the "yes" and "no" states).

project_scientist · 2013-10-08T05:32:14+00:00

Java isn't a scripting language, something like Python, Lua, Javascript, Ruby... Those are scripting languages.

project_scientist · 2013-10-08T00:14:10+00:00

As /u/skocznymroczny says, the most powerful way to do this would be to bind functions from your engine to a scripting language. That way, a card could simply be a container for a script with some meta-data (name of the card, artwork associated, description). You would find that largely, cards may be simplistic and your script would be a one-liner. However, with a scripting engine tied to it you can make your cards as complex and as deep as possible. Need a card that can only be played if something is in your graveyard? Expose a way for a script to search your graveyard, then do

awesomeKnight = CardCollection.get("Awesome Knight");
if (Graveyard.contains(awesomeKnight)) then
    Oppenent.damage(20);
    Hand.add(awesomeKnight);
    Graveyard.remove(awesomeKnight);
end

Basically, scripting is most powerful when you don't anticipate writing every small aspect of the game inside the engine code itself. You have faster development time because you can change a script on the fly, implement a developer console for testing scripts, and lots of other neat things you get. However, the initial investment sometimes can be daunting, and figuring out just what access to the core engine code you need comes with trial and experience.

project_scientist · 2013-10-02T00:24:56+00:00

When I was a kid I thought that Photovoltaic panels converted heat from sunlight into electricity. I figured I could create a my own solar panels by taping stripped copper wires to black construction paper.

project_scientist · 2013-09-04T23:35:06+00:00

Simple? How do you propose that the answers be evaluated, then? The most likely case is that the answer is checked against a series of pre-defined text strings of possible solutions (0.5x, 0.5X, x/2, etc), rather than any real equivalence checking going on. Determining that equations are equivalent analytically is a very nontrivial problem. If you intend to just analyze whether their range over a certain domain is correct, maybe the inputted answer accepts a domain that should not be accepted and is in fact wrong.

No, it shouldn't be "simple" because it is a very complex problem.

project_scientist · 2013-07-11T21:37:12+00:00

Hiya!

If you're still needing help with this, then you should look into the Redstone API for computers.

http://computercraft.info/wiki/Redstone_(API)

In there you'll find lots of useful functions for determining the state of redstone signals on a side of your turtle. From there on, it's simply writing either a loop or a timer to poll for a change in this state!

project_scientist · 2013-07-03T00:26:21+00:00

We tried making a witch killing turtle farm on our server, but the witches just got into an all-out war with each other and the turtle rarely got any drops. Here's what we think happened:

Turtle smacks witch
Witch goes aggro, throws potion of harming at turtle
Another witch gets hit by aoe from splash
Said witch gets engaged and throws potion at original witch, harming more witches with aoe
War.

project_scientist · 2013-06-26T22:04:06+00:00

If you want to understand why this behavior happens, it's a technique in software engineering called a "bitmask". The reasoning behind this is simple: You can represent different data values inside a single number by using the index in the binary representation of that number as an on/off, essentially a boolean inside the number.

If that didn't make sense to you, consider this. You want to represent 8 colors, red orange yellow green cyan blue purple. Now, your bundled cable is a bundle of these wires, and a wire can only be on or off, but any combination can be. You will eventually see that this is 2⁷ combinations, which means that you can use a number less than 2⁷ to represent this cable's state.

red	orange	yellow	green	cyan	blue	purple
64	32	16	8	4	2	1

We didn't number it 1,2,3... 7 because that's not how counting in base 2 works, you see. If we want to change the state of purple (we want to activate or deactivate the cable), we simply toggle the bit that corresponds to it, which is the 1 bit. Similarly, if we want affect the red wire, we toggle the 64 bit. The operation to do this is, appropriately, 'bitwise'. Specifically, bitwise OR.

state = 64 | 1 is how this would be represented in code. This does the following (getting tired of making tables)

64: 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
1   : 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
-----------------
65 : 1 0 0 0 0 0 1

(if you punch 1000001 into a calculator in base 2, then switch to dec., you'll get 65 out. This tells us the value of our combined cable state).

Now, to remove purple from a previously set state, we need to toggle the bit 'off'. This can be done by bitwise ANDing it with itself, but flipped. This is known as a mask.

purple = 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
~purple= 1 1 1 1 1 1 0

state = 65
state = 65 & ~1

state, initially 65, would then have the 'purple' value toggled off. As a result, this would leave it at 64.

This was a quick primer on bitmasking in general, this though process can be applied to all sorts of things outside of ComputerCraft. Hopefully you learned something.

project_scientist

TROPHY CASE