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EricBall's Tech Projects



slinking down the path to the dark side

Posted by EricBall, 01 May 2012 · 255 views

The other day my wife casually said "my DS". Now, I have to admit that we may have discussed that my son's Nintendo DS was hers since he now has a 3DS, but I hadn't really considered it. The problem is my wife's interest in games doesn't match mine or my son's. And although she has more free time to play, her interest in a...


illogical eBay economics

Posted by EricBall, 24 April 2012 · 234 views

A few months ago my wife's Macbook stopped recognizing the MagSafe power cord. After some Google searches and a check by a repair shop we concluded it would require a motherboard replacement to correct. Since a replacement motherboard would cost $400+ and I'd already bought an Apple refurb replacement, I sold it "for parts" on...


Google Gadgets and Javascript

Posted by EricBall, 16 April 2012 · 319 views

I have been making updates to my Panoramic Photo Gallery: https://sites.google...icballpanorama/ both adding newly stitched panoramas and revising older ones adding metadata and a watermark. Now I've reworked my main page to list the panoramas by location rather than in a simple ToC....


Horizon detection for creating panoramas

Posted by EricBall, 28 February 2012 · 318 views

One big challenge creating panoramas (see my gallery at http://sites.google....ricballpanorama) is getting the horizon right. This is particularly true for panoramas looking out at the ocean which spans multiple photos. This is because you have to get 2 things absolutely...


Raspberry Pi

Posted by EricBall, 24 February 2012 · 491 views

http://raspberrypi.org

The Raspberry Pi is a credit card sized US$35 Single Board Computer with the following features:
700 MHz ARM11, 1080p OpenGL ES 2.0 GPU with hardware H2.64 decode, 256MB RAM, SDHC slot, HMDI out, 2.0 USB jacks & RJ45 Ethernet port.

From my perspective the biggest attractions are the low price and the HDMI output. I was...


I want to program dead consoles

Posted by EricBall, 26 January 2012 · 383 views

In addition to the 2600 & 7800, I have the desire to program the Vectrex. I grew up in the golden age of video games and vector games were part of the magic. The Vectrex also uses a 6809 - the processor I first programming in ASM.

In brief, the way the Vectrex draws vectors is:
1. Set the Y velocity
2. Set the X velocity
3. Turn on the beam
4. Turn...


Skyward Sword

Posted by EricBall, 28 December 2011 · 356 views

For Christmas I got Skyward Sword. Unfortunately, my wife didn't get my email about the game+controller bundle, so I had to pick up a Motion Pus controller before I could play it.

I've played about 4 hours so far, so consider this a very early review.

I will say there's been an awful lot of dialog in the game so far, on top of the intro...


Glitch - a free MMO

Posted by EricBall, 14 November 2011 · 339 views

Warning: if you have addictive game tendencies - don't start playing Glitch (more on why later).

Glitch is an odd game - and not just because you squeeze chickens to obtain grain. It's a free-to-play game which you can play without paying. Unlike a typical FTP games, you can't use real money to buy in game resources, reduce action times, or...


Dragon Age Legends

Posted by EricBall, 03 November 2011 · 264 views

When I signed up for Google+ I was happy to see that the games (and their notifications) were segregated from the main feed page. Although I didn't join Facebook, my wife did, and her feed was clogged with games related posts. She spent a lot of time on Facebook playing games until she quit cold turkey. I told myself to avoid the games on Google+,...


Good tactics or just lucky?

Posted by EricBall, 24 June 2011 · 226 views

As part of the "Welcome back" program Sony has given every PSN user a free month of PlayStation Plus - which gives discounts on downloadable content and some exclusive content. Well, I activated my free month and proceeded to download as much free stuff as I could, including several full games (including Oddworld Exodus). They might only last the...






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