Windows 7 PC just died. BSOD (system_service_exception) on boot up after installing ATI 10.6 and some critical updates. I wonder why I just play games on it and avoid doing any real work on it. This is also why I can’t finish PC games. Because Windows cannot goddamn stay up.

The system restore worked once but then after I was forced to do the updates again, Windows killed itself and now it can’t restore. So I’m backing up all my files (again) using a Linux CD and will do a clean install. Every other option is failing with “unknown error”. Awesome.

Update:Ok, WTF. The restore point thing said it failed but now it boots. Of course the same security updates have already been downloaded and installed without my control. I’m trying to create a system image backup. It’s pretty annoying actually. It randomly picked my Steam drive as a critical OS drive (program files?) and now my backup is 150gb even though my entire C: is 80gb.

I do like the new features they threw in. I wish they were like 10x as powerful and reliable as they are now. I’d actually start “workstation” type projects on my PC instead of doing them all on my Mac. I just can’t trust this thing. I’ve always rebuilt my Wintel every 6mo – 1 year since ’95.

Another Update:Seems to be related to the ATI 10.6 drivers. 10.4 works fine and the Windows updates went in fine when I skipped updating to 10.6.

Solved: Followed the ATI driver uninstall instructions for Windows 7. I guess you’re not supposed to just upgrade in Win7. That’s crap. Anyway, you just

1. Express uninstall the old ones
2. Make sure every ATI program is removed in the Add/Remove Programs list
3. Reboot
4. Express install 10.6′s
5. Reboot

Everything worked. It also helped that I did the Catalyst drivers separately from the Windows security updates. I also took a system image backup while I had the 10.4 drivers up and running after I did the security updates.

Also, because I had uninstalled the drivers, my cold bug fix from my previous post wasn’t running. So I just reactivated the custom 2D profile under ATI Overdrive and it bumped the clocks up (I’m using GPU:400mhz and Mem:1000mhz). Interestingly, I don’t remember the GUI updating the clock values right away in the little Overdrive screen in 10.4. Maybe a 10.6 fix?

Anyway, since I didn’t post it last time, here’s my 2d_overclock.xml file that goes under C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\Profiles\:

<Profile>
  <Caste name="Graphics">
    <Groups>
      <Group name="Overdrive5">
        <Feature name="TimeUnlocked" />
        <Feature name="OverclockEnabled">
          <Property name="OverclockEnabledProperty" value="True" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="AutoTuneSupport" />
        <Feature name="CoreClockTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="40000" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="55000" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="72500" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="MemoryClockTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="90000" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="90000" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="100000" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="CoreVoltageTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="950" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="1038" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="1050" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="MemoryVoltageTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="0" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="0" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="0" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedProtocol_0">
          <Property name="FanSpeedProtocolProperty" value="RPM" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedAlgorithm_0">
          <Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Automatic" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedRPMTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want" value="0" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedPercentTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want" value="0" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="CoreClockTarget_1">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="40000" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="55000" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="72500" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="MemoryClockTarget_1">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="90000" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="97500" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="100000" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="CoreVoltageTarget_1">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="950" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="1038" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="1050" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="MemoryVoltageTarget_1">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="0" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="0" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="0" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedProtocol_1">
          <Property name="FanSpeedProtocolProperty" value="Percent" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedAlgorithm_1">
          <Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Automatic" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedRPMTarget_1">
          <Property name="Want" value="1495" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedPercentTarget_1">
          <Property name="Want" value="40" />
        </Feature>
      </Group>
    </Groups>
    <Adapter name="PCI_VEN_1002&DEV_689C&SUBSYS_25421002&REV_00_6&390AE305&0&00200010A">
      <Aspect name="Overdrive5" />
    </Adapter>
  </Caste>
</Profile>

New tech is not always great. I had no problems with my other ATI card but this one has been very tricky. The community has coined a new term: GSOD (gray screen of death) where the 5xxx series cards will suddenly freeze and turn the screen a random color of gray (sometimes ranging from white to black). Little color blocks sometimes appear before this. Mouse freezes, caps lock frozen. Very bad. Win7 sometimes will spit out “a driver has stopped working, windows has recovered” or something like that. Sometimes Win7 can’t recover and it’s cold reboot time.

For some, this happens in 3d. For me, it was happening in 2d. I was going to RMA my card but so many people were having the problem, it can’t be hardware. I eventually found (hopefully) a workaround according to ATI forums and HardOCP forums. You overclock the idle clocks by editing an XML file. Apparently it idles so low in 2D that it breaks spec? Breaks I dunno. ATI hasn’t goddamn said anything so the community has come up with workarounds.

Nvidia’s card is bad this round, ATI’s is better but this crap is annoying. Maybe they’ll have a driver fix but I was following posts as old as Nov 2009. So I don’t see a fix for a long time.

The card is fast but it wasn’t as dramatic as when I bought my last ATI card. I don’t know if the economy determines what leaps video cards make. Maybe TSMC sucks at 40nm.

Update: I screwed around with the clocks some more and looked up the cold bug. I’m running the new 10.4 drivers which really didn’t help with stability but I’ve managed to make it playable most of the time. When it starts up or resumes, it’s buggy. Argh.

I had an RMA on it but I’ve cancelled it since I got it working. Double argh.

I used to have a lot of random IM conversations to post here. So much so that I actually wrote a plugin to highlight them. Totally forgot about it. And now an actual funny IM happens. It’s 2002 all over again yeah!

bill: What meeting are you in.
chris: Meeting with self.
bill: How is that going?
chris: Goddamn horrible.
chris: Everyone’s pissed off.

Some random shit incoming.

It’s gotten really hot recently. I played basketball yesterday. I got some new high tops and a street ball. The ball is goddamn awesome. I don’t have to work to bounce it like my old Nike ball. It’s a spalding, I don’t think that matters. I think the street ball part is what matters. I can actually do a crossover with this thing. So I’m playing around, think I’m all cool, I take my shirt off because it’s hot as crap. Isn’t nothing but soccer moms at the playground, I’m just shooting free throws glad I’m not in the 6:30pm traffic that’s stopped up all to hell. I get home and there’s nothing but gnats on my back from the buggy heat. Dude. I’m not weirded out by gross stuff but I was like some kind of bug zapper out there. Bzzt.

So I timed myself at the track. 400m in 72sec. Not cool. I figured I had the long game still. Apparently I don’t. I’m going to have to work at it a bit. I have been benching more though. I’m working out with 130-140 instead of 90-110. I’m doing a bit less reps but if I came in fresh I think I could manage 5×15@130 (or close). So that’s good. Everything else has been a whole lot of no progress.

I finished a collaboration project for a band. They sent me a bunch of .WAVs and I laid down some weirdo synth stuff behind it. Really subtle. They said they liked it but I haven’t seen them play live yet to meet them in person etc.

Still cranking on FFXIII. I’ve hit the part where it opens up and I’m grinding a bit. Some weird MMO itch creeps up but the “I’m going to do something crazy” feeling has left. I know if I started again I’d feel like shit. It’s a good game but goddamn is it any way to live?

Have deck contractors coming out to give me estimates. I have splinter boards out back that are gray and see-through. It’s going to be ex-pen-sive. I took a deck building class and everyone was there learning the VA code even though they were hiring contractors. That kind of sunk my DIY spirit. There’s just too many rules about lighting, joists, type of nails, type of wood preserver, depth of footers, handrails and minimum gap on the railing posts. It’s crazy pants and I’m bailing on DIY.

Great Day by SNL has my vote beyond all the “I’m on a boat” etc memes. If nothing for the “3 days ago or was it Satan face”. Horror.

Work dudes and I were wondering how slow the iPad is to type on. We were talking IDEs and Textmate and crap. So I fired up this online typing test at typingtest.com. It was just the first hit on google.

Dell work laptop: 70wpm
Mac at home: 68wpm
iPad landscape reclined: 33wpm
iPhone landscape: 22wpm

Testing the iPhone was a little harder because the PC type sites I’d use wouldn’t work with it. When you type in a box, the iPhone zooms in to help you see the input form but takes away the content you’re supposed to be typing. I did find an iPhone typing test site of all things and I came up this this result.

I was surprised that the iPhone wasn’t lower and the Mac wasn’t higher. I guess I spend more time typing at work or something. 70 is pretty flat out for me. I make a lot of mistakes.

I got Wing Commander 1 working on a Mac Mini running 10.6 with a USB 360 controller (ie: not the wireless one). It’s topped off with a ControllerMate config that makes WC1 playable from the couch with minimal keyboard need.

• First download 360ControllerInstall0.09.dmg to get a 360 driver loaded on your mac.
• Reboot.
• Install Boxer.
• Unzip WC1 to the DOS Games folder in your home directory.
• Rename your WC1 folder to WC1.boxer for easy launching with Boxer.
• Launch WC1 with Boxer to create a vanilla DOSBox Preferences.conf file. Just quit immediately.
• Right click and show package contents on WC.boxer.
• Edit the DOSBox Preferences.conf file and add this:

  joysticktype=2axis
  timed=false
  swap34=false
  buttonwrap=true
  

Now that’s pretty much the basics. You can play WC1 with a 360 pad and a keyboard. However, I wanted to play this on my TV with minimal keyboard involved (mini wireless Mac keyboard). So I bought a copy of ControllerMate that can turn joystick buttons into keyboard events. Skip this part if this is beyond what you want. However, I think it really turned out well and this is the majority of the reason I’m posting this.

ControllerMate has a great way of creating logic and filter events that can turn non-absolute buttons into on/off buttons. For example, the 360 controller has two shoulder triggers that can range from 0-255. These buttons in 360 games are typically used for weapons and it’s in a good place for WC1 weapons as well. So I had to add a range object to test for 40…255. It’s 40 to avoid accidental presses. It works out well.

So if you want to use my template, the file is right here which you can import in to ControllerMate. Then just click Enable. Here are the mappings I made.

Left Bumper = Backspace (full stop)
Right Bumper = Tab (afterburner)
Y = w (weapons select)
X = g (missile select)
B = = (speed up)
A = - (speed down)
Left shoulder trigger = Missile fire
Right shoulder trigger = Weapon fire
Back = d (damage HUD)
Start = n (nav map)
D-Pad up = l (target lock)
D-Pad left = a (auto pilot)
D-Pad right = 1 (com selection)
D-Pad down = c (com selection)

The hat in the settings configuration is the D-Pad. In the config, D-Pad down and then D-Pad left will cause your wingman to break and attack (c, 1). There are many unused buttons that can be used to suit your taste. Maybe (c,4) to dock with the Tiger’s Claw.

Something else to note is that in Boxer (and Dosbox probably), there are joystick mappings already mapped. So when you press Hat Up Dosbox will get the joystick button for fire. So you’ll lock and fire your weapon. Not a big deal but what you can do is hit ⌘+K to bring up the keyboard mapper and un-map all the joystick buttons. Then D-Pad up will just lock the current target.

Should be good to go at this point. There are keys for WC1 listed here.

A waterfall rendered so realistically that I got a glass of water.

Joined a pickup group using meetup.com and went out to a field nearby after work. We had 11 or so people and played a pickup game for about 2 hours. Pretty casual, half field. I hadn’t played in 6 years and that was only one game since college. I had already expected to die on the field. When I play basketball, I run all out all the time and then die on the court. I figured my same crap pacing would happen on a much larger scale except instead of a blacktop smack, there’d be a dull piff of grass. And then oblivion probably.

There was a variety of personalities and people, one of which was of the female variety. A ball was in the air and then she chest-trapped it to the ground. A prepubescent player actually stopped playing to giggle. I checked my pockets for red cards but alas, no justice could be exacted. If not for the respect of women, at least to clear out the center striker down-field position.

I had a few nice goals, it really wasn’t an issue or exciting to anyone playing. If you can imagine a basketball game of 21 on ether, this was the mood. People were playing and scoring but no one was keeping track. I seemed to be the only one happy to be outside running myself ragged on a beautiful day. At the end, it was dark and everyone was tired. I half-heartedly clapped for the good experience and everyone joined in. But then it was an awkward “wtf are we clapping for” and everyone just left. Again, I think I was by myself when I laughed at the situation. This sort of mismatch is typical with me. When I haven’t played in 6 years I’m an afterburner engine dumping gas and energy into the burning inferno of enthusiasm and everyone else is a slow burning candle. They are more suited to a consistent Catholic mass whereas I, the F-35b completely destroy myself trying to perform a VTOL into a pew.

I have blisters the size of quarters now. Some are red, some are white and some are gone leaving only skin that can feel changes in indoor wind movements. I am unable to walk straight because my skin stings when it bends. On the field, there were many moments when I thought I would not be able to play anymore and simply throw up while passing out. But this is why I signed up. I’ve been running and going to the gym and none can prepare you for the cardio that soccer demands. It is a torture test.

I didn’t ever think I’d count grams of protein. That’s for nut jobs. Ok, I didn’t ever think I’d start another post with “I didn’t ever blah blah”. Ok, let’s count grams! (nutjob)

I just chow down on a few things in the morning, have lunch, more protein snacks and then dinner. On workout days I have an extra shake afterwards. So I wonder if this is enough. A rule of thumb I’ve heard is .5-.7 for every lean pound you weigh. So if you weigh 100lbs with 20% body fat then you eat 40g of protein. This is a conservative number, people selling protein product double the number saying 1g for every lbs. Whatever.

My typical non-workout day looks like this:
- 9am: small breakfast of banana, coffee, orange (maybe a bagel) + Clif Bar (12g)
- 12pm: Lunch, salad with meat or sandwich (35g estimate)
- 3pm: protein snack (20g)
- 6pm: Whatever is for dinner (35g estimate)
102g total

Workout day is just another 20g with a shake = 122g

Last time I weighed myself I was 180lbs and I’m guessing I’m at 15% bodyfat (shame in college I was 6%). That’s 153lbs lean is about 77grams (.5) to 107grams (.7). Looks like my diet is just about right. I guess I just need to stay consistent.

Btw, I wonder what pure protein tastes like? Is it even a thing? Or maybe it’s a ‘kind’ of thing … so it depends? Hmm.

Twin Peaks. Never saw it.

Recently been hearing comparisons of movies and games to it so I decide to check it out. Watched the pilot. I’m like: “why is Moby’s Go playing all the time?” So it turns out that Moby rerecorded the theme and put it into a tune he already had called Go. Apparently there was a large cult following of Twin Peaks in the electronica scene and many people were releasing remixes.

Then that Big Ed guy is the dude from Dune who says Mordeeb all the time. Oh oh, David Lynch did this. This makes sense because he did Dune. Main character is from Dune too. Lynch is a weirdo. Dune was weird, this is weird. Good but weird. I think he intentionally tries to disturb people and characters to make them seem more vulnerable. No one is perfect, everyone seems very mortal. He shows blood being drawn, things are broken and noisy and he generally tries to not let watcher comfort set in. I don’t think I’m explaining this very well.

Throughout, I thought this was the Northern Exposure show. Oh, it turns out that this show was shot in the same town and aired around the same time. How confusing. I thought the tone was going to be mild like Northern Exposure but it’s not at all. Continuing with ep #1 tonight…