Arlisy Version 0.1 Released

Arlisy is a programming project I started on May 21.

Arlisy stands for artificial life synthesizer. It uses neural networks and an evolutionary algorithm to simulate the process of life. Each neural network consists of binary input states, neurons, and binary output states. Depending on how the fitness function of the evolutionary algorithm is implemented, the resulting neural network can attempt to solve a variety of interesting problems.

This version of Arlisy is not very impressive since only a simple neural network has been implemented. Without the evolutionary algorithm all the program does is produce random characters. Once the evolutionary algorithm is finished the program should become much more interesting. Click here to download Arlisy version 0.1.

This is probably going to be one of my main projects for this summer. I have been trying to go through all of the proper stages of software development. Since this will be my first official open source program, I placed it under the GNU General Public License. The project is hosted at SourceForge.net, and can be found at http://sourceforge.net/projects/arlisy.

Word Jumble

"Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteres are at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a tatol mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe."

I have made a tool which can be used to test the theory. Most of the words that the tool produced were a lot harder to read than the quote, so I am guessing that the theory is not very accurate. Perhaps it is the specific ordering of letters in the quote which makes it easier to read?

qwercs

While working on a programming project I ended up making a new 7 bit character set, similar to ASCII. I am not sure if such a character set has been made before, but this represents all the characters which can be entered with a standard QWERTY keyboard.

qwercs - The QWERTY Character Set

Oct   Dec   Hex   Char           Oct   Dec   Hex   Char
------------------------------------------------------------
000   0     00    Esc            100   64    40    }
001   1     01    F1             101   65    41    002   2     02    F2             102   66    42    |
003   3     03    F3             103   67    43    a
004   4     04    F4             104   68    44    A
005   5     05    F5             105   69    45    s
006   6     06    F6             106   70    46    S
007   7     07    F7             107   71    47    d
010   8     08    F8             110   72    48    D
011   9     09    F9             111   73    49    f
012   10    0A    F10            112   74    4A    F
013   11    0B    F11            113   75    4B    g
014   12    0C    F12            114   76    4C    G
015   13    0D    `              115   77    4D    h
016   14    0E    ~              116   78    4E    H
017   15    0F    1              117   79    4F    j
020   16    10    !              120   80    50    J
021   17    11    2              121   81    51    k
022   18    12    @              122   82    52    K
023   19    13    3              123   83    53    l
024   20    14    #              124   84    54    L
025   21    15    4              125   85    55    ;
026   22    16    $              126   86    56    :
027   23    17    5              127   87    57    '
030   24    18    %              130   88    58    "
031   25    19    6              131   89    59    Enter
032   26    1A    ^              132   90    5A    Left Shift
033   27    1B    7              133   91    5B    z
034   28    1C    &              134   92    5C    Z
035   29    1D    8              135   93    5D    x
036   30    1E    *              136   94    5E    X
037   31    1F    9              137   95    5F    c
040   32    20    (              140   96    60    C
041   33    21    0              141   97    61    v
042   34    22    )              142   98    62    V
043   35    23    -              143   99    63    b
044   36    24    _              144   100   64    B
045   37    25    =              145   101   65    n
046   38    26    +              146   102   66    N
047   39    27    Backspace      147   103   67    m
050   40    28    Tab            150   104   68    M
051   41    29    q              151   105   69    ,
052   42    2A    Q              152   106   6A    <>
055   45    2D    e              155   109   6D    /
056   46    2E    E              156   110   6E    ?
057   47    2F    r              157   111   6F    Right Shift
060   48    30    R              160   112   70    Left Ctrl
061   49    31    t              161   113   71    Super Key
062   50    32    T              162   114   72    Left Alt
063   51    33    y              163   115   73    Space
064   52    34    Y              164   116   74    Right Alt
065   53    35    u              165   117   75    Right Ctrl
066   54    36    U              166   118   76    Insert
067   55    37    i              167   119   77    Home
070   56    38    I              170   120   78    Page Up
071   57    39    o              171   121   79    Delete
072   58    3A    O              172   122   7A    End
073   59    3B    p              173   123   7B    Page Down
074   60    3C    P              174   124   7C    Up
075   61    3D    [              175   125   7D    Left
076   62    3E    {              176   126   7E    Down
077   63    3F    ]              177   127   7F    Right

Indonesia

I made it to Indonesia with relatively few problems. In Vancouver I had some difficulty getting my luggage checked. Both my suitcases were over 10 kilograms above the weight limit. I ended up taking out my desktop and a few CD cases to take as carry ons. Even after taking out the items, the suitcases were still slightly above the limit, but they let the bags through anyway. My only problem then was that there is a limit of one carry on which has to be below 5 kilograms. I had a desktop computer and a large backpack, which were over 10 kilograms each. I continued on with the trip, and luckily nobody stopped me from taking my carry ons.

There was hardly any turbulence the whole trip. I think the seatbelt sign came on a total of five times. I was very impressed with the airport in Kuala Lampur. One of the coolest structures I have seen in a while, and everything was really clean and organized. The airport in LA was not nearly as impressive. It was crowded, confusing, and not very attractive.

I have now been in Indonesia for almost 48 hours. I am very pleased with the house, and my computer is still working. Indonesia seems to be very similar to Thailand, although there are an excessive number of cats roaming the streets for some reason. One potential problem I have encountered is that very few people here seem to know English - which makes communication difficult. Here is a gallery of a few pictures I have taken in Indonesia so far.

Four out of five of my grades are now online. They turned out much better than I expected. I still don't know how I did on Electrical Engineering, so I am going to be anxiously checking my grades over the next few days.

Update

Yesterday - Finished my last exam. Out of the 5 exams, I did pretty well on three but ran out of time on Electrical Engineering 259 and Computer Science 213. I should get my grades back within the next couple of days. My only hope is that there will be a healthy curve on the two exams which I messed up on.

Today - Meeting up with friends from 4'th Nootka (the floor from last year) for supper.

Tomorrow - Visit the Planetarium!

The Day After Tomorrow - Leave on a plane for Indonesia. Flight path: Vancouver (Canada) -> Los Angeles (US) -> Taipei (China) -> Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) -> Medan (Indonesia).

I get almost exactly four months of summer vacation. During the few moments I have had not studying, I have been scheming on plans... plans which should keep me busy for the four months of vacation. Most of these plans involve my computer however, so if it decides to die for some reason I will become very unhappy. My next blog entry will cover the details of my trip and my impressions of Indonesia.

Breezy Badger!

A few weeks ago I received five free copies of Ubuntu. I gave away four of the copies, keeping the last one to use on my own computer. I have not had to reformat once since I bought my computer two years ago. I primarily used my 130 GiB Windows partition, and occasionally switched over to Mandriva (20 GiB partition). I never encountered any problems, viruses, or spyware on my Windows partition. However, I decided it was time for a change. I now have a 130 GiB Ubuntu partition, and 20 GiBs for Windows.

Initially Ubuntu automatically detected the majority of my hardware, although I did have to put in some effort to get certain features working. Some of the important changes I had to make included:

-SMP (symmetric multi-processing) support
-NVIDIA drivers
-JRE (Java Runtime Environment)
-Printer drivers
-Mounting Windows partition
-MP3 decoding

I also had some problems with Flash audio being out of sync. In my opinion all of these are essential features which should have been automatically set up by the OS. Hopefully as Linux continues to evolve the initial setup time required will decrease. However, now that I have finished fixing all of the problems, I have a fully functional computer that I am very proud of ^_^. I have made a short screencast of my desktop which can be found here.

Here is a customized version of Google Maps that I made earlier today.

Google Vs. Microsoft

I just got back from Microsoft’s Develop Mental Tour [photo]. It was a two hour presentation about developing 3D games. Even though it was interesting, not much was accomplished since the process of developing a 3D application can not really be summarized in a two hour time period. I was well rewarded for attending however, since Microsoft felt that this was a good opportunity to give out some free stuff. We got pizza, pop, chips, a massive textbook about programming with C#, and some lottery tickets for a chance to win an HDTV or an MP3 player. There was also a random draw at the end for some free shirts and an Xbox 360 (which I didn’t win).

Last week I attended a Google presentation, which also gave out some free items. It seems like Microsoft and Google are competing to get the valuable attention of us UBC Computer Science students. Google supplied pizza, pop, pens, sticky notes, a strange flashing logo, and some other stuff. Some other items which are currently being mailed to me at no cost are 5 copies of Ubuntu (a Linux distribution), Visual Studio® 2005 Express Edition, and a Microsoft USB flash drive (probably loaded with a variety of advertisements). If you are interested in receiving a free copy of Ubuntu, try visiting https://shipit.ubuntu.com.

Failure

This is the sixth day of reading break - classes start up again on Monday. This morning I took my first attempt at getting my "N" driver's license. Unfortunately I failed the driving test due to a lack of over-the-shoulder glances. The instructor was extremely observant and took off marks for even the smallest details which other drivers would never notice. Overall it was a waste of 35 dollars and one hour of time. I have to wait at least two weeks before I am eligible to retake the test.

Nath is now a deputy chief of party for Save the Children. Nath, Mom, and Skylor will be leaving for Indonesia on the 27th. I will probably be joining them over the summer.

Today the UBC ResNet bandwidth is supposed to have a significant upgrade. Although this should improve performance, they have also added a system which limits you to 2GiB of bandwidth every 24 hours. If you use over 2GiB you are placed in a "Penalty Box" and allowed allowed a maximum of only 100Kbps. I think I preferred the old setup since even though it was slower, there were no bandwidth limits. I can use 2GiB in under an hour... I guess I will be spending plenty of time in the Penalty Box!

Meal Plan Points

To help keep track of my meal plan points, I have started plotting my rate of food consumption. I am currently way below the "suggested" number of meal plan points. I have put a copy of the graph on my web server. Also of interest on the server are some 360 degree panoramic pictures taken around UBC.

In case you are interested in creating a dragon similar to the one in my previous post, I have uploaded the pictures I used. All that is required for assembling the dragon is a printer, scissors, and glue. Here is the original version, and here is a printer friendly version I made using Photoshop.

My Pet Dragon

Here is a video I took of a dragon I made:



The video can be found at Google Video here. A high quality version of the video can be downloaded from my FTP server here (8.39 MiB). In case you are impressed/confused by my dragon, here is another video which explains the illusion.

Katamari Madness

Yesterday I captured a time lapse video of the last level of Katamari Damacy. I mixed together a few songs from the official soundtrack for the audio. Enjoy!



A high quality version of the video can be downloaded from my FTP server here (137 MiB). Here are some links to a few of the videos I have uploaded to Google Video:
-Sket
-Flaming Shadows
-Katamari Time Lapse

Psychology Study

Today I was a research subject in a psychology study called “Learning Probabilistic Sound-Object Associations.” After filling out a few forms, I sat in a small dark room receiving instructions from a speaker. In front of me there was a huge flat screen monitor, a wireless mouse, and a video camera. The experiment consisted of two parts. During the first part different objects appeared on the screen accompanied by a sound. The objects were all colored three dimensional shapes, and the sounds were just random noises. A new object appeared on the screen with a sound every five seconds. During the second part of the experiment two objects were displayed on the screen accompanied by one sound, and I had to choose which of the two objects best matched the sound. The entire process took less than one hour.

Rain

As usual, it is currently pouring rain outside. However, yesterday was surprisingly sunny. Had there been rain yesterday, we would have tied Vancouver's previous 53-year-old record of 28 consecutive days of rain. I preferred the sunny weather over the bragging rights of breaking some record. At least we don't have a rain record comparable to Hawaii - 247 consecutive days of rain!

Ennui

I am using this blog entry to publicly release two programming projects I have been working on. These programs were made using Java, so they are operating system independent. Most of the time just double clicking on the .jar file will execute the program in Windows. To execute the file in the command line type "java -jar filename.jar".

Music Library is an mp3 player I made for an assignment in Computer Science 211. You need XMMS for the program to work in Linux, and Windows Media Player for the program to work in Windows. Execute MusicLibrary.jar to run the program (the other 4 files also need to be present in the directory).

Padomni is a simple text editor with similar functionality to Notepad. I made this program two days before my Computer Science 211 exam to review my Java coding skills. I originally wanted to call it Omnipad, but since that name was already taken...

The files can be found on my ftp server at ftp://byronknoll.dyndns.org/Programs. My web server is at http://byronknoll.dyndns.org, and my ftp server is at ftp://byronknoll.dyndns.org. These servers should be up and running most of the time, but I do occasionally turn my computer off. I am currently learning C, C++, and Unix shell scripting in my Computer Science courses.

Louis Braille

I was just looking over the traffic statistics of my Braille Generator web page and saw a large increase in traffic on the 4th. Surprisingly this increase in traffic was due to the fact that January 4th is the birthday of Louis Braille, the inventor of the Braille alphabet!

Work, Study, Sleep

I am now sitting in the middle of a deserted hallway with nothing to do for the next two hours except for composing this blog entry. The official job title is "Audio Visual Orientation Guide," and I am supposed to give support to any professors who need help operating the classroom equipment. The only problem is that there are no lectures being held in any of the classrooms on my hallway, therefore I am not receiving any requests for help. I have signed up for a total of nine shifts from 5:30pm to 8:30pm over the next two weeks. I have decided that tomorrow I will bring a book to read during my shift...

Tomorrow is the first day of classes for term 2. I am currently in my second year of "Cognitive Systems - Intelligent Systems and Design." This is a program option part of the Computer Science Department, and combines the fields of Philosophy, Linguistics, Psychology, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science. Here is a copy of my course schedule for term 2. I am going to be frantically searching for alternative methods of acquiring textbooks for my courses over the next few days. I have decided that I no longer wish to pay 600 dollars every term.

My sleeping schedule was abruptly forced 5 hours out of phase this morning because I was unable to make reservations for the ferry. With all available spots on the ferry already reserved, Nath and I had to wake up at 5:30am to ensure that we would be one of the first standby passengers. We were the second last car on the boat. The trip to UBC took a total of about 5 hours. I spent most of that time on my PSP, finally beating Day of The Tentacle (using ScummVM) after many hours of frustration. It is now 7:30pm and I am already starting to feel tired. I guess I will spend the next hour in a blank daze like the girl sitting across from me in the perpendicular hallway (who also has absolutely nothing to do during her three hour shift).

// Triple Verbs!

Lantern Festival

I just got back from Pender Island's annual Lantern Festival at Magic Lake. The pictures did not turn out very well due to poor lighting conditions. Most of the show was hard to observe due to a large mass of people. The number of people there somehow seemed to exceed the total population of Pender, so I guess the event is fairly popular. The festival seemed to have a very international theme, including Indonesian shadows puppets and Indian music. With all the costumes, masks, and lanterns I thought the festival may have been more appropriate for Halloween than for New Year's Eve. Only four hours left! Perhaps I should go and practice my reverse counting skills...