One thing I did to help pass the strike-time (which frankly, I wasted with extreme profligacy) was pick up an Ardruino Uno R3 project board and kit from Eligoo, along with the extra 37 sensor pack. And since then I've been slowly working my way through the tutorials. Which isn't so much tutorial as connecting the wires and running the example code. Although occasionally I would edit them a bit.

I hit a hitch though when it turned out that one of the examples was bogus. After doing the one that ran a simple 7 segment display using an extra 8-bit latch chip, the example that ran the 4-gang 7-segment display didn't actually light up each digit differently and strobe through them, it just ran them all in parallel. Eventually I found someone else's example which skipped the latch chip (which, unfortunately consumes more pins) but I made it work.

It was also around this time I discovered water damage and possibly a little black mold in the basement drywall (Could just be dirt though, there was some mud-like buildup on the concrete below). I traced the source and discovered the dishwasher was leaking through a little tiny seal around the shaft that opens the drain valve. It only leaks about two ounces of water per load, so it never became visible under the dishwasher. I might have never noticed the problem if they had not stopped the vinyl flooring just under the front of the machine. Instead, it soaked the particle-board underlayment in a well defined pool, and eventually made it through the OSB flooring into the wet-wall of the laundry room downstairs. I'll deal with the damage later. The leak was addressed with a couple of YouTube videos and a minor parts purchase on Amazon. The actual part installation should have been simple after I got the machine out, but one minor mistake turned it into a major undertaking, as the shaft the drain valve plate rotates on came out, leaving the plate rattling around inside the pump housing with no way to take it out. Still, I eventually prevailed. And I tossed an old cookie sheet under the dishwasher just in case, but it's really not necessary.

But the reason for that roundabout story is that to get from an $11 parts kit to free shipping, I picked up a few more toys to hook up to the Ardruino. a set of three 32x8 grid LED displays and 5 of these microscopic <1" 64x128 OLED screens. The funny thing is, the chip that runs the 8x8 units (4 of which are daisy chained to make the 32 LED length) was originally designed to run 7 segment displays (plus the decimal point). And theoretically, all three units can be daisy-chained together to make something like one of those scrolling displays you see in some stores. There are code libraries that can make these displays do all kinds of tricks. the OLED displays are just pure bit-addressable space. But again, there are Arduino libraries already written to do sophisticated graphics and fonts. It's almost too easy. It all worked the first time I hooked it up. And they each only use four wires.

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...but this is a thing:

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Somehow, I'm all caught up.

Ah, that's why, I've been filing the Monogatari and Re:Zero shows into their own category....

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You'd think by the third episode we'd be past infodumps, but no. On the other hand, we finally get our tanned-white-haired girl (shame about the heterochromia). But since she's been trained to be a deadly assassin instead of a seeker-scout, she needs shit explained to her.

Okay, that's interesting, I just noted that the Ember release has two sets of English subs. I'm not quite sure which is more literal.

Anyway, Alma seems to alternate between sweet and innocent and jaded and cynical, depending on how closely the topic is related to the assassin's guild, which she was forced to leave after her Grandfather, the leader and founder, died a month or two ago. The new management is more interested in working intel for the monarchy than being into murder for hire, so she was booted.

He gives her a test to see how compatible with his buffs she is, and the answer is very. So they set off to do a bandit protection job for a small town as a first task for their new clan. Halfway there they get stuck in the last room available and some level-setting occurs.

Anyway, have a de-panned shot.

Posted by: J Greely at October 17, 2024 03:33 AM (oJgNG)

Posted by: Mauser at October 22, 2024 02:35 PM (nk1Z+)

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"Acro Trip" - Ep. 03

This is an epic farce, and if you're not watching it, you're really missing out. Hell, I have to pause periodically just to finish laughing my head off.

Chrome is the most reprehensible of villains! His latest plan? He's going to be in the park (conveniently situated near Chizuko's home) and at the appointed time, he's going to sit on a swing and NOT get out of it for any little kid who wants to swing! The horror! How Vile! He even had the Kuma Kaijin passing out flyers in town with this declaration to make sure Berry Blossom gets it. And in her normal guise as Noichigo Kaju, she does indeed get one.

But the next day, the weather is horrible! The wind is blowing like mad. Chrome wants to cancel. But on the off chance Berry Blossom has shown up, Chizuko wants to see her. And there she is, clinging to a tree for dear life, with her cat (later we learn his name is Mashirou, he has business cards) clinging to her hat, trying not to be blown away. Unfortunately a trash can is not so dutiful in clinging to its place and flies through the air and smashes Berry Blossom in the face, and she's down for the count. Chizuko offers them shelter, and tries to stuff Chrome in another room, but once the infodump is over (Mashirou is her manager, and he's the one taking all the vids, which is why nobody's seen him), you know Chrome is not going to stay put. The question of why Chrome is in the house does not get answered. And with the weather clearing, Mashirou takes the still napping Berry Blossom and beats feet.

The next day, Mashirou shows up at the house with a thank you gift. And per their morning discussion where Chizuko came up with a far more evil idea than Chrome could conceive of, Chrome decides to take Mashirou hostage, tying him up with a jump rope. Then he gets on the phone... and Mashirou's phone rings. So Chizuko has to help him with it and dial Noichigo for him. When she picks up, Chrome grabs the phone to make his demands... but she doesn't recognize his voice. He collapses, gives a very convincing death speech to Chizuko, and she takes up the cause, naming herself General Dante, right in front of Mashirou.

Taking up the phone, Chizuko prepares to deliver her first villain speech, but she is overcome by Berry Blossom's cuteness. She can't do it, and falls down too. Gramps unties Mashirou and sends him on his way, and Mashirou contemplates that they have a new, formidable (?) enemy in Dante. And Chrome has Chizuko cornered into evil again, since she's now been identified as being on his side.

This is fun!

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My internet speed has been... well, it still can reach its top speed, but it takes a while to get there. Or at least, that's how it was up until today. I bookmarked the address of my cable modem, because it shows some interesting data, like a list of all the channels it's using and their respective Signal to noise ratios, power levels, and corrected and uncorrected errors. There's not much you can DO with that data. I was considering calling customer service, but getting past a bot so someone who can understand what I mean when I say "Every channel above 39 is very degraded" would be unlikely.

But I guess that telemetry is available to them too. When today's shows downloaded in less than a minute and a half, I knew something was up. I checked the modem, and it was using a much lower range of channels, and they all had fantastic s/n ratios. SpeedTest jumped almost immediately to 350 mb/sec, instead of taking half the test to get there. So I'm pleased.

I've mentioned my Substack, where I've been moving some of my writing and posts about writing from Wordpress. It has been somewhat less than stellar. In fact, the lowest ranking of all my posts are the first three chapters of my WIP. But if there's one thing Substack loves, it's Memes. I made a post of about a dozen of the latest memes that I've made myself, and it BLEW UP. In under 24 hours it's gotten ten times the views of the average week. And about ten times the likes of the best day.

And since I've got so much free time on my hands, my last Amazon order included an Ardruino Uno R3 board starter kit, and a 37 additional sensor kit.

Of course, I still haven't finished figuring out the proper compile for my Ender with the Big Tree Tech board in it to implement the MicroTouch sensor. That's been sitting for too long.

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Kimi wa Meido-san - "You are Ms. Servant" Ep. 01:

Sheesh. What a Moeblob. And yet the slapstick seems more cruel than funny.

And the guy, "Well-meaning idiot" isn't much of a personality either, but it's more grating.

On the one hand, she's not too bad to look at, but things need to pick up in episode 2.

If it weren't in the title card, I'd disagree with the English title.

Posted by: Mauser at October 09, 2024 02:18 AM (nk1Z+)

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Kabushikigaisha Magilumiere - "Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc." Ep.01: The opening promises action. A blonde magical girl is straddling the back of two motorcycles riding side by side, while a grotesque horror with as many eyes as teeth, and there are a LOT of each, comes barreling down the highway behind them. She speaks her magical words... which are more like a list of program parameters, blasts the beast with her wand, and sucks it into a USB drive like device.

There's a brief expository bit explaining how the Magical Girls exterminate Kaii, monsters that have been appearing with much greater frequency. The girls are popular and famous, and paid well, and there is a big boom in the industry.

After the opening credits though, we meet Kana Sukaragi, as she bombs a job interview she was actually extremely prepared for. She knew things about the company that even the interviewers didn't. But when asked to come up with something in her own words, she froze. It was the 15th interview she botched. Apparently she's got an eidetic memory. Afterwards, she stops in a pseudo Starbucks and when the clerk gets overwhelmed and forgets the previous three orders, she's able to recall them off the top of her head, including which is for whom, when she was worried about her own stuff and had barely gotten in line when this scene started. I'm surprised she wasn't offered the job. But she just really likes helping people.

Now Interview #16 is at a financial services company. A Manager and his assistant are going to the conference room, and in a dialog straying awfully close to "As you know, Bob" territory, they say the company has been skimping on things, like the heating that's always off in the conference room, and not checking Kaii levels, but of course it's really unlikely there'd be an attack there. Really. But they'd be so screwed if there were. Foreshadowing with a Kleig light....

So of course, right in the middle of the group interview, where the room is so cold there's frost on the desk, but they're still going through with it... can you guess what happens? Did you say Kaii attack? And what does the executive do? He has to do damage control, and tells his assistant, who has no idea who to call, to find someone cheap who won't make a big public stink. So the phone rings at Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. And their one girl, Hitomi Koshigaya, rushes to the roof to transform. Which she does by logging in to the system with her company badge (You were expecting a wand?) and it is the most Corporate-sounding transformation speech you've ever heard.

I'm not entirely sure what everyone's so afraid of, because the "Frostoid" Kaii who came out of the AC vent hasn't moved since it busted into the conference room. But it's HUGE (Because the Kai has collected there for a long time thanks to the neglect), it's a Two Magical Girl job. And while the executives are trying to sort out how to blame maintenance, Hitomi is trying to figure out how she can manage the job herself. She just needs someone to help feeding her ammo, but the corporate types don't think they're allowed to help, maybe they could get someone from sales... and can they get a discount? And Kana is just standing there, so she volunteers to help. The hiring manager tells her that this is not a test and won't affect her interview score, but she tells him she's withdrawing her application.

And so Hitomi hands her a tablet, and tells her she just needs to hit the reload button when the spell counter gets down to around 50. We're in serious Clarke's Third Law territory here (or is that Niven's Corollary?).

Well, the magic isn't working on Frosty. And looking at the tablet, Kana figures she's using the wrong kind of magical ammo. Hitomi left it set to "Speed Type" after her last job. She really hates the device, it's confusing to her, but Kana apparently remembers a demo she attended and had researched to interview with the company that made it, so thanks to her perfect memory, she knows how to switch the ammo for her.

So, Huge Success. Hitomi brings Kana back to her company, since they were looking for someone new anyway. Kana is struck by how different this four person operation is from the big corporations. And then she meets the boss, who, much to her shock, is a tall man who dresses like a magical girl, including growing his hair long.

This reveal though would have worked a LOT better if they hadn't saved it for the post ED scene, which features the whole cast, and if they'd skipped the first episode OP too, for the same reason.

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"Dan Da Dan" Ep. 01: If you've been missing something with a gonzo plotline and animation more along the lines of Kill la Kill or FLCL. Here you go.

"Acro Trip" Ep. 02: Seems the magical world in this town is really small. It's just Berry Blossom and Chrome fighting over minor stuff. And the rules are that you can't do magic on the mundanes. So when a robber with a knife invades the convenience store where we last left our characters, The pink-haired girl who is BB is left hiding behind the chips, while Kuroma's natural talent for talking people into evil changes a simple robbery into a hostage situation. Chizuko is miffed at Kuroma for not being able to use his powers (Which are?) to fight back, which is how we find out that magic is limited to the people involved in this world. In the meantime, Chizuko's hero-worship of Berry Blossom shames her into sneaking into the back room and transforming. She comes out in typical Magical Girl fashion, but then takes down the robber with a clothesline to the neck. After untying the two, she excuses herself, saying that she and the police don't get along so well....

In the second half, I turns out that Chrome and Grandpa know each other. They're having snacks when Chizuko gets home (She's in a rush because there's a Berry Blossom special on TV she desperately wants to see). But Chrome teleports her into his lair in order to show off. While showing her around, he leads her into a storage room, and the door gets stuck from the outside due to a suspiciously out of place broom propped up against the sliding door. Chrome then claims that the teleport used up his magic for the month, since it's like data on a phone plan, and he's throttled now. And uses that as a pretext to get Chizuko to sign the magical contract which is conveniently in a box there in the store room. He tries to teach her how to use the magic to remove the obstruction - which is funny, because he explains that he just uses it, he doesn't understand it. (Hello Clarke's third law, or Niven's corollary) He just tells her to grunt and imagine pushing it. But then suddenly the door opens, and... It's Grandpa! What's he doing there? Turns out some time ago Gramps found a dejected villain sitting by the side of the road and decided to take him home, and let him live in the crawlspace (how kind...) although this huge base is a lot bigger than he remembers the crawlspace being. And here Chrome had told Chizuko that it was extra-dimensional, it's actually under the house. So they climb the stairs into Grampa's place and she gets to see her show.

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