Ok, I'm very interested in this idea after playing whirlyball (bumper cars meets lacrosse) on friday. Segway jousting. Get 2 home made segways. Get some bean bags. and go at it.

motor controllers
http://robot-solutions.com/RS1/product_info.php?products_id=36
or
http://www.robotpower.com/products/osmc_info.html

Both can be connected via serial port.

The "key" to either scooter can be a pocketPC. no PC, no software, no workie.

About 3 months ago, Microsoft's Dan Fernandez, who is lead product manager for visual studio express, contacted me to write an article for MSDN regarding my disco dance floor.

3 months ago I was in the rush of completing my dance floor. I was working 10ish hours a day, go home work on the floor for another 6 then crash and repeat. So I didn't have much time to write. Plus I write like an illiterate ten year old so I had a few of my friends proof read it. It does pay to have friends that are copy editors.

The only issue with the article is now I'll be branded for life as a Microsoft fanboy, but my friends already called me that anyways so no biggie. We microsoft fanboys do actually exist believe it or not.

Phidgets are an intersting USB sensor plateform with relays and accelerometer and a ton of other cool stuff.

I wonder if I two dual axis accelerometers, do I need a gyroscope?

how to build a segway. Wonder if I can some how make it c# instead of c and maybe use a pocket pc instead of the onboard stuff.

Sweet jesus though, 645 dollars for a torque sensor.

They did some edits from what I gave them but yeah, here is the link to the MSDN article I wrote

note my ghetto hair cut in a bad attempt to get 70's hair in time for the party along with my inability to write proper english.

And side note, there is some new code, see here for the spectrum analyzer stuff

That's right, you don't appear to have tickets to the sold out radiohead show, now do you.*

* (this taunt excludes Brendan and Adam, or anyone who act actually does have tickets)
update and abbu since he sat like 4 seats down from me

Project 2.0 is an automated bartender.

Me and my buddy Andy have a few ideas up our sleves for how to pull this off. Still in the research phase however.

more to come when we figure stuff out.

http://dancefloor.centerpiecedesigns.com/

The Groovy Nights fundraiser, with a 20'x20' floor.

holy crap is that a large system.

pazar cuccok linked me.

Holy crap does this make me laugh. Yes, we always dress like this btw.

clr profiler

I know this is rather old news but I just found it when I was hunting for something else.

Seems rather neat.

This is a snippet from my friend's edits for my super secret project. Note his witty comment on my code comment along with making OOP into POOP.

I wish I could say these were the only two instances.

For those who want the spectrum analyzer, the coder in me demanded I did some programming this weekend. Goes in the switch statement in diagnostic.cs around line 300.

You'll need directX installed along with uncomment some of the other code.

Also you'll want to comment out line 85 to 88 in the spectrumanalyzer.cs file since the console.writeline isn't needed and will only provide a slow down.

case _spectrumAnalyzer:
int capBuf, notBuf;

CaptureBuffer appBuffer = HelperFunctions.InitDirectSound(out capBuf, out notBuf);
pNerd.ddf.Pattern.SpectrumAnalyzer spec = new SpectrumAnalyzer(DiscoDanceFloor.FloorSettings.Rows, DiscoDanceFloor.FloorSettings.Cols, appBuffer, capBuf, notBuf);
while (continueWriting)
{
if (!updatingRandomAnimationFile)
UpdateUIandWriteToFloor(spec.ProgressBuffer());
}
appBuffer.Stop();

spec.Capturing = false;

spec.Dispose();
spec.NotificationEvent.Reset();
appBuffer.Dispose();
break;

I will state, I do not believe I have the analyzer properly coded however. It does kind alook cool though.

Now that Lenovo took over the ThinkPad line from IBM and totally foobared it, I decided it was time to look around for other possible replacements. Apple has Bootcamp which lets you dualboot into Windows which now makes Apples a possible replacement.

I was over at the Apple Store today downtown and played around the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros. I like the power plug.

One thing I didn't believe until I started to play with it was how hot they got. The left side on the Pro's was pretty toasty on both the top and bottom. The MacBook model seemed like only the bottom left side was hot.

Thinking I may need to start researching new tech that will be out around the end of the year so I can do a replacement desktop.

32 in / 32 out relay board has .net api already there.

32 outs does give me a lot of possiblities. There is a 64 out version also.

4 am is when taxi drivers change shifts and don't want to pick anyone up. Why I was out at 4 am, I'll leave to your imagination.

I've been busy at work doing a ton of JavaScript along with plotting out my next two projects (both side and at work oddly enough). Also I've been busy consuming mass quantities of bbq'ed meat products last weekend.

After one of my friend's edits one project for the last time, that should be off my plate too.

Plus with summer coming, time to bust out some shorts and hit up the beach.

Party 2.0 also has been pushed back I'm going to say til late June early July due to friends throwing bbq's and parties.