Coolest. App. EVER.

Posted on 2009-03-31 by M. Eric Carr

I’ve just discovered Crayon Physics. Remember playing with crayons as a kid and imagining your drawings coming to life?

Well, imagine no longer. This is an excellent example of why computers are so cool. I’ve known about this for maybe a day or so, and already I’m thinking of it in terms of some of the Great Games I’ve known: Zork, Flight Simulator, Oblivion, etc.

Don’t bother with the instructions; just let your inner kindergartener out to play with it and you’ll figure it out in no time.

Take a look — it’s really amazing.

EDIT: (No, this is not an April Fool’s joke.)

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

In Soviet Russia…

Posted on 2009-03-24 by M. Eric Carr

…memes perpetuate you!

OK — how I wound up having the “first” comment on the first video on YouTube, I’ll probably never know. Especially since I know for a fact that I wasn’t the first to comment (click the button to show the replies marked as spam if you don’t believe me). But judging from the number of “d00d u haz teh f1rst YouT00b commend eVar!” replies I get, I’m in danger of becoming a meme.

Apparently the word was coined by Richard Dawkins, though — so it’s not all bad.

im in ur youtubes confusing ur memes

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Stupid Robot Tricks

Posted on 2009-02-11 by M. Eric Carr

New video — getting two robots to “share” access to an object. (Robot B waits for the signal from Robot A before starting, then Robot A waits its turn for the cycle to start over.) Since the robots aren’t bolted down, the positions drift — the solution for this is to either secure them or run them at a slower speed. The test works as a proof of concept and test of the communications between the two, though.

Posted in Drexel, Robotics | 1 Comment

XP SP3 breaks Remote Desktop: Here’s the fix…

Posted on 2009-01-21 by M. Eric Carr

Microsoft keeps finding new and improved ways in which to be annoying.

Windows XP Service Pack 3, it turns out, breaks Remote Desktop access for some strange reason. Once you know the solution, it’s not a terribly difficult fix (see below) — but you gotta wonder how it ended up being broken in the first place.

Cutting to the chase, here’s the fix. Add the following registry key:


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]

“SessionImageSize”=dword:00000020

(Disclaimer: If you modify your registry, you imply that you know what you’re doing and want to do this. This mod worked for me; YMMV.)

Posted in System Administration | 1 Comment