We did not.

Instead, we made do with a set of Candyland cards, which, conveniently use the same color set.  However, as we played the game more frequently, the process of getting a three and then four-year-old to draw a card at random grew tiresome.  Soon, my engineering brain began to tick and I started to code a solution.  Sure, it’s crude.  Sure, it uses Processing.  Nevertheless, the does the job and it runs on the NES DVR, showing up on the big television screen.

If you find yourself in the same situation–needing a random six-colored digital die–here’s the source code I used in Processing: (note: the program runs full screen & the code isn’t perfectly clean but it should run just fine although you might need to comment out the font choice or the counter entirely. )

//The idea behind this program is to provide a digital replacement
//for the die that belongs to the kid’s Big Bad Wolf game.
//It’s a typical six-sided die with each side a different color:
//Red, Yellow, Green, Orange, Blue & Violet.

color value = color(0);
int counter = 0;
int rotAngle = 0;
int angleChange = 2;

void setup()
{
//size(400,400);
size(screen.width,screen.height);
fill(0);
PFont font;
font = loadFont(“HelveticaNeue-48.vlw”);
textFont(font);
}

void draw()
{

background(value);

if(counter == 0)
{
drawDieFaces(6);
}

//  if(counter > 0)
//  {
//    drawDieFaces(6);
//  }
//Output a small counter to track the number of rolls

text(counter,0,height – 50);

}

void keyPressed()
{

for (int ii = 0; ii < 5; ii++)
{
value = colorVal( int(random(6)) );
}

//For tracking purposes
counter++;
println(counter);

}

void mouseClicked()
{
for (int ii = 0; ii < 5; ii++)
{
value = colorVal( int(random(6)) );
}

//For tracking purposes
counter++;
println(counter);

}

//Draws a single die face of the color specified
void dieSquare( int cx, int cy, int colorCode )
{
rectMode(CENTER);
noStroke();
fill(colorVal(colorCode));
rect(cx,cy,40,40);
}

void drawDieFaces( int toDraw )
{
for (int i = 0; i <= toDraw; i++)
{
if(i <= 2)
dieSquare((i*width/3 + width/6),(height/4),i);
if(i > 2)
dieSquare(((i-3)*width/3 + width/6),(height/2 + height/4),i);
}
}

//This is a specific function for this program.  The colorCode
//parameter is 0=Red, 1=Orange , 2=Yellow, 3=Green, 4=Blue, 5= Violet
color colorVal(int cval)
{
color colorCode = 0;

switch(cval)
{
case 0:
colorCode = color(255,0,0);
break;

case 1:
colorCode = color(255,170,0);
break;

case 2:
colorCode = color(255,255,0);
break;

case 3:
colorCode = color(0,255,0);
break;

case 4:
colorCode = color(0,0,255);
break;

case 5:
colorCode = color(229,3,255);
break;
}
return colorCode;
}

I made my own wort chiller.  It was an experience that I enjoyed, however, I know that my wort chiller is probably a little inferior to the one I could have picked up at the local HWBC and it was certainly more expensive.  I went with 30′ of 3/8″ ID copper tubing, wrapped around something cylindrical.  I say “something” because I have no recollection of what it was.  The diameter of the chiller ended up being much smaller than the pot itself, but this was intentional; the smaller size enables me to gently stir the wort, to hasten the cooling process.

While it was helpful in its first usage, cooling wort to 80 from around 200 in 20 minutes or so, it still used too much water.  After some more research, I figured out a rather common sense way to use as little water as possible, namely monitoring the temperature of the water coming out of the chiller.  As I’m trying to conserve as much water as possible, this was a great aid.  I went from using an unknown amount of water running full blast through the tubes in its first run to a closely tweaked, near trickle of water in the second batch.  Additionally, I utilized an ice-cream maker to hold water for pre-chilling of the input water.  It’s a bit abstract to just talk about, so here’s what it all looks like.

The white thing to the right, with the ice pack in it, is the ice cream maker.  That little bucket is filled with some weird freezing compound that easily turned about an inch of the surrounding water into ice.  Had I started the cooling with it, I probably would have had to wait for it to thaw to remove the PVC pipe.  Also, I was able to catch about 3/4 of the water I used for cooling in a 3 gallon pot I had sitting on the floor.  Since the water was pretty warm, it worked excellently to mix with vinegar and use for cleaning.  Water not wasted!  Still, I know I can do better, but more on that in another entry.  Furthermore, with the monitoring technique, even with a much lower flow rate, the cooling time was the same, if not less (because of the ice bucket.

In conclusion, if you want a wort chiller but are interested in saving a little money, buy an already made wort chiller.  Unless you have a hookup in the copper tubing industry, you’ll likely end up paying more to build your own since you’re probably not going to get bulk discounts.  However, if you go the DIY route, I guarantee you’ll have more fun, and fun is what this is all about, right?

The problem? I’m using Office 2008 at home so it won’t work.

Due to no fault of the toddler assistance I ran into a few issues (In fact, a few minutes into the process she got bored and went to lie down and watch a movie) First in the line of issues, the recipe was a partial mash and I made the poor choice of using a plastic colander, covered with cheese cloth and propped above the brew pot. The weight of the wet grains along with their heat and the heat of the sparging water caused the colander to flex such that it fell into the brewpot, spilling all the grains into the wort. This was fixed through a drawn out process of straining the wort back and forth from the brewpot and the pot I’d used for the mashing and eventually all the grains were removed. The rest of the process went rather smoothly, although a boilover was just barely avoided during the first hop addition. The second issue of this batch came about after cooling, as the wort was to be transferred to the primary fermenter. Since I wasn’t entirely sure about how or when to take the inital gravity reading, I did so before topping off the primary fermenter to the 5 gallon mark. Thus, the gravity reading I took was way too high. As I was unsure how much water to add to get it too the desired graivity, I took a guess and added about 1 gallon. Fearing infection, I didn’t take another reading after that. Yet, in spite of these challenges, I was so excited about making my first batch of beer that when I put the airlock into place (on my 5 gallon carboy) any stress melted away.

Let’s revisit that last comment, the one about the 5 gallon carboy. At the time, I disregarded the concern of having the intial fermentation possibly needing a blowoff tube for such a relatively small primary fermenter. As I later discovered, if I’d actually made 5 gallons as intended, I would have had a very messy closet. But there’s another upshot to the small batch size of just under 19 22oz bottles rather than the expected ~24 bottles: the beer was strong! I’ve still no idea how strong, but it’s delicious and doesn’t taste the slightest bit boozy. The biggest downside? It went away too fast. I’m now down to the last two bottles and am very hesitant to consume them.

Also, given the unexcpected variation from the procedure (not the recipie), I’ve taken the liberty of renaming the beer “Coot’s Eye”, in honor of the strangest red-eyed bird in our nearby lake.

Finally, in keeping with the rather jumbeled, rambling nature of my posts, here are a few notes from my first batch process:
-Buy a metal strainer.
-Fill the primary to the 5 gallon mark.
-Don’t use a 5 gallon carboy as the primary for a 5 gallon batch of beer. (Unless you have a blowoff tube setup.)
-Move the beer to a secondary fermenter. Until about a month after bottling the beer had a soapy taste that most likely resulted from sitting on the trub too long.
-Relax! Everything will be fine!

However, before I get started, some of these users have given me links and email addresses with which I am not familiar and, thus, cannot vouch for their goodness.

I’m going to start with a repeat commenter that goes by the name erectile dysfunction.  Now, I’m not a huge fan of the screen name, but their praises (about the same article) speak for themselves:

I really like your blog and i respect your work. I’ll be a frequent visitor.

and

I read a few topics. I respect your work and added blog to favorites.

Thanks, erectile dysfunction!  I’ll keep it up!

Next, there’s poor Luffie.

I restored my computer and now i am not able to use programs i did before saying that i no longer have the system requirements and i lost connection to the internet on the computer and i think its because of a virus because it worked before Im using a different computer and i was wondering what do i have to do in order to make my computer have the system stuff it did before System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002 Service Pack 1 Manufactured and supported by Hewlett-Packard Pavilion Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz 2.80GHz 504 MB of RAM I can’t even download Windows Live messengersantoramaa

Again, I can claim no responsibility for what lies behind that link (read: don’t click).  I don’t know what to tell you, but I think that there’s a nice family in Israel that has a child (sex unspecified) that may be able to help you.

There are just so many.  I’m going to approve you all and hope that more of your friends are about to return to encourage me; you haven’t done enough.

So I should totally be studying instead of writing this, but I’m just so proud of my virtual work that I had to share.  I’ve been obsessed with creating a DIY DVR for far too long and this is only one more step to making the obsession worse.

Awhile ago I came across a few discarded and broken videogame systems, an NES amongst them.  With all the rage of casemodded PCs out there, I figured I’d get in on it too.  However, unlike some of the setups I’ve seen I really want mine to look as good as an unmodified system and to work accordingly.  Now with the NVIDIA Ion systems out there it seems like the bones are there, now just to make the body to hold it all together.

The first step to making anything go as desired is planning.  After taking a class in mechanism design this quarter that included a design project, I’ve seen the power of 3-d computer modeling.  Now, I’ve played with Google Sketchup a little, and with the help of the SketchUp Components Collection and some careful rulering, I’ve been able to make something work.

There’s some more modeling work to be done.  I’ve got to figure out what to do with all the posts and non-flat bottom/top of the case as well as the flapping door.  Since I have access to a free license for Win7 x64, blu-ray is certainly an option I’m considering, but we’ll see.  Once I get the models to a stage where I feel better about them, I’ll post the SketchUp Files as well.

As a side note, here are the things I intend:

-Keep the original controller ports functioning
-Hide an IR Reciever in there somewhere
-Hide a TV tuner
-Hide a receiver for wireless keyboard/mouse/controllers
-Figure out something to keep the whole thing as silent as possible

Along the way, I’ve been doing a lot of research into learning resources.  After considerable debate about paying for something, I’ve stumbled across this site: http://www.acomment.net/php-tutorials-utopia-13-vital-php-skills-for-every-novice-php-developer-and-solutions/378.  Within this collection of tutorials, though, they have linked a particularly excellent (albeit slightly dated) set of introductory lessons that are both informative and quite enjoyable.  While I understand that I have a great deal to learn in terms of style and security, based upon these lessons and my knowledge of C++ alone, it seems like I’ll be able to actually get my system up and running in a matter of weeks.

Okay, it’s completely feasible and, save for time, it’d be done by now.  Darn you, school!  When you’re done and gone I’ll be on my way to endless hobby-style projects that serve no purpose other than my own amusement (or laziness).

Until the, some things must pass.

Door Notification System, you’re done.  Thanks for the information, though.