The Constipated Koala

Test for work

2009-09-25T06:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys, but this is just a test for work

Finally

2009-07-31T07:52:00.000-07:00

Ever since ~ 1995 I have been working off the handle of 'whomba'. It has been my email, aim, part of my phone number, Nickname and the list can go on. Finally I realized that I don't own the domain www.whomba.com, so this morning I bought it. Right now It just is forwarded to my blog, but hopefully sometime in the future it will actually do something.

At the very least it is here and mine!

Ugh, My Mac book, Yay the Genius's

2009-06-18T17:05:00.000-07:00

So my Mac Book Pro of 2.5 years went and died the other day. I had my Mac here on my table and closed it then took it off to a coffee shop. Once I got to the coffee shop I opened it up and it flashes the screen (as if it was to wake up), then black screened.
Without going through all the specifics, after 2 hours of debugging, (trying to restart with and without battery, resetting PRAM, PMU, and others). So what was I to do?? Off to the Genius Bar and deal with the arrogant Mac jerks.
Now as you probably know I am a programmer, and build computers (for family and such) so I am not by any means a novice to technology. Unfortunately, whenever I go to the Mac store, the 'geniuses' treat you like a dumb ass. "Well sir, this is a computer, these buttons on the top are called 'keys' you type on it and magic happens then words appear on the screen. Am I going to fast??" So For this reason, I constantly dread going to them because i don't want to deal with their pompousness.
Thankfully, this time I got someone that didn't suck. I went in and explained to him (Mike) what the problem was. I then explained to him what I have already tried to fix it and he just replied with "Sounds good, you know your stuff.. well these are all things that we would have done. So I will have to take this in and send it out." I then asked If apple had some sort of 'lemon' policy, he stated that they didn't officially, however I could call Apple Care and ask them to help me out (get a new laptop). So I asked him if this was his laptop, what would he do? He stated that he would probably call Apple Care, and that I might get lucky. I then thanked him for all the help, and expressed how much I appreciated him not being a douche, and he just laughed and replied with 'ya, probably cause I am an older guy'
So The next day, I call Apple Care, and explain the problems. After 1.5 - 2 hours of talking with them they say that they will mail me a box for me to ship back the broken laptop. I then asked to speak to the guys superior and after talking with him I convinced him to give me a new laptop. So, I now am using a brand new Mac Book Pro!! The man apologized for the inconvenience and said that I should get it by mid week. So I sent my laptop in Friday at 3pm, and received my new MBP on the following Tuesday ~ 11am
The reason I am writing this is mainly just to say how pleased I was with Apple. They have done right in my book. They listened to my problem, and, albeit after much whining, they fixed my problem by giving me a new computer faster than I could have hoped for. So thank you very much Apple!!

graphics.lineBitmapStyle()

2009-06-09T12:10:00.001-07:00

Hello all, here is my random AS3 statement / question of the day. I have posted this on numerous forums, however no one seems to feel like replying, so I figured I would put it on the blog and see what answers I can catch here.

I am trying to mimic a paint brush in AS3 (in flex) for a mock art studio. Right now I am simply checking for mouse down + mouse move then putting a copy of some bitmapData on a sprite, then adding that to the main application. This sucks because after a while it starts to get bogged down.

As a result I checked out graphics.lineBitmapStyle() (an AS3 Flash 10 Feature documentation can be found here), I was able to get that to work (technically) but not how I wanted to use it. Right now it just tiles it (yes, I know there is a switch to turn repeating off) thus causing it to act like a 'scratch off' lottery ticket. What I mean by this is that it looks like there is a static image underneath (this is my bitmap) and my 'drawing' on the stage just makes it visible. Any help would be greatly appreciated... code is below:
Code:

var oldWay:Canvas = new Canvas()
//get bmpdata
var bRect:BitmapData = new BitmapData(100, 100); //create bitmap
var c:Canvas = new Canvas(); //create spoof canvas
c.graphics.beginFill(oxFF0000); //start fill
c.graphics.drawRoundRect(0,0, 100, 100,10,10); //draw that stuff!
c.graphics.endFill(); //end fill
bRect.draw(c); //draw this out to the bmpdata
//now draw it on the stage
oldWay.graphics.lineStyle(bRect.height,0); //start a line style
oldWay.graphics.lineBitmapStyle(bRect,null,true,false) //set bitmap style
oldWay.graphics.moveTo(nX1, nY1); //move the point to my previous point
oldWay.graphics.lineTo(nX2, nY2); //draw to new location

Image of results here:

and with repeating on:

HTPC hardware issue

2009-06-06T13:47:00.000-07:00

So here's the deal, I recently (back in Feb 09) decided to build a HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer) and at first it worked great! Now it is F-ed. I am looking for help where people are willing, here is the skinny: When building it, I used the following hardware:

I got the computer, built it and all was well. I was using Windows Vista Ultimate (trial version) and that worked awesomely, everything was going super. I left the machine on at all times, and let it sleep when it ws inactive for > 3 hours. Then out of the blue, the computer started dying every once in a while (usually at night time, and I found it dead the next morning, no I didn't have any jobs set to run at night aside from windows update)

So I do some debugging and figure its the HD, this was 'confirmed' by the memory test running 10 times all turning up positive, along with seeing the following message on the bios screen "SATA Drive 1: Bzbzbzbzbzbzbzbzbzbzbzbzbzbzbzbzbz...bz"

So I contact NewEgg and (as always) they exchange it for me with no problems. 1 week later I get my new HD, and re-install everything (same setup as before). After about 2 months, the same thing happens, and I get the nice old friendly "Bzbzbzbzbzbzbz" again. Once again I test everything, and while running my good ol' friend Knoppix, it shows that there is no hard drive... fucking super.

So I sent out and got ANOTHER HD (3rd one) and install linux (www.linuxmce.com) a distro of kbuntu and it is not even instaleld for a day or so and the Bzbzbzbzbz begins... so obviously, something is F-ed In the A somewhere else on the machine.

So the question is how do I start going about debugging this fuck-fest? If you can think of a way to help i will give you... um... a virtual hug.

Removing anonymous function from an event listener

2009-04-15T12:13:00.001-07:00

Hey guys and gals, quick lesson in flex. One popular thing to do is use something called an anonymous function with eventListeners when you want to pass the function something more than just the event. You would typically just say:

myObj.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, function(a_event:Event):void{someotherFunc(a_event, additionalArgs);});

But this sucks if you are going to want to remove the listener. So something you can do is the following. You can create a function variable (func), then set the anonymous function to this var. Then the second function that you ultimately want to call (func2) will have an optional parameter ‘myHackFunc’ that will be the variable that you created (func). Then you just call remove event listener on ‘myHackFunc’.

I have heard of other ways of doing this, mainly, using ‘arguments.callee’ This causes my app to die, but the way described above, and shown below, seems to work all the time. Hope it helps!

public function myFunc1():void{
var func:Function = function(a:Event):void{ func2 (a, some_args, func)};
i.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, func);
}

public function func2(a_event:Event, some_args:*, myHackFunc:Function = null):void{
a_event.currentTarget.removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, myHackFunc);
}

Oh, or you could just go and use a custom event class... but that isn't the point of this exercise :P

1234567890

2009-02-13T08:49:00.000-08:00

So as you may or may not know today (2/13/09) at 5:31 PM EST we will have the time of 1234567890 in unix time. This is the number of seconds that has taken place since January 1st 1970 at midnight GMT. Above will show you if the time has passed, this is a little script that took 5 minutest to right, that will be 'screen shoted' later today so I will know where i was in my life at 1234567890... sitting alone in front of my computer watching a stupid flex app. None the less.. enjoy :D

Reason number 193 i love my job

2009-02-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

Getting to put my face on alllll sorts of random things... for testing :P

Angry Dog Stripper

2009-02-04T07:59:00.001-08:00

This is the final product of my latest product at work. It is called Be a Star. Basically, you upload a photo, add crazy assets and we insert it in to the movie that you choose. Many laughs were had during this product. Found on www.webfetti.com and www.myfuncards.com

--------------------------- :: EDIT:: ---------------------------
A company sent a cease and desist to our company because apparently they hold a patent on 'Dynamicaly Adding a head to an animated body' Who knew you could hold a patent on a fucking idea. As a result we had to pull one of the shining features on this product. At any rate, We have pulled the assets and the movie, but you can visit www.webfetti.com and www.myfuncards.com and check it out 'Be a Star'

AS3

2008-11-12T14:57:00.001-08:00

Hey there guys and gals, here is a function that will find the function that is calling it. This is in AS3 It is great for debugging and quite reliable. I use this when I want to make my own custom errors. Enjoy

currFunction(){
return new Error().getStackTrace().toString().substring( new Error().getStackTrace().toString().indexOf("/") + 1, new Error().getStackTrace().toString().indexOf("["));
}

2008-11-05T06:00:00.001-08:00

::cough::: new post ::cough::

Day 4 5 6

2008-08-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

4 - 59 minutes 28 seconds

5 , 6, 7 no running... my bones literally hurt and my knee has been going out. I tried to do it again, but i think i am fucking up my left knee. For those of you who know me, my first car accident fucked up that knee, and i am afraid that this isn't going to work. Therefore I think i am going to walk home every day from work (5 - 6miles) rather than jogging / walking the 4.5 I think its a fair trade. this will start tomorrow

day 3

2008-08-20T18:30:00.000-07:00

27 more days, i checked out how far i am actually going and its about 4.5 miles. Today I did it in 59 minutes 30 seconds :P

I have started jogging for a minute, walk 3 repeat

2008-08-20T08:42:00.001-07:00

I don't think there is a part of me thats not sore:P maybe my eye lids.... but even they are hating me... 28 more days

day 2

2008-08-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

59 minutes 57 seconds...

my ass hurts
my legs hurt
fucking pads on my foot hurt like a mother fucker

however, i learned a valuable lesson today, sprinting != jogging

[Edit]
Do i have bruises on the bottom of my feet? ... is that bad?

Day 1

2008-08-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

<> dear Journal, today i ran... it sucked < / sarcasam >

There were, no lie, at least 8 times that I thought I was going to vomit :/ But I did it! once...

so todays stats: about 4.5 miles (I think) in 1 hour 3 minutes. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be slightly worse... because of exhaustion, but we will see. T - 29 more days.

Long time, no post

2008-08-17T11:12:00.001-07:00

So its been a while since I have posted on this site, for this I apologize.

Today is August 17th 2008. Starting tomorrow I will be doing something I never thought I would do. For the next 30 days, I will go out and run four miles a day and stop eating fried foods. When I do work out I generally keep it to myself. I am not 'I am going to Run 232 miles in the next month' guy then give you daily updates about my work out or calories intake... I fucking hate that guy he annoys me... alot. So In order to keep myself motivated, I am going to time myself the first day, and see how long it takes, then every day time put up a new post about my progress... My hopes are here that since I am reporting to something, albeit not a direct person, it will keep me motivated to keep going. I am going to take a pic of myself before this thirty days and after to compare and contrast. Then if this is successful, who knows maybe after that time I will be use to it and keep going.

So tonight will be the last day of gluttony (which will primarily consist of chicken, otherwise it will spoil) then tomorrow I will try to lead a healthier life. Wish me luck internets and lets see how this goes!

Do Buggers Smell?

2008-07-27T18:56:00.000-07:00

Do our buggers smell? So here is what I was thinking...

You know how when you go to a resteraunt or someones house and there is an odd smell, then after like 30 seconds or so you can't smell it anymore?

So then in theory after the first few minutes of us having buggers (at birth) we shouldn't be able to smell them anymore. Then one would wonder, what if I was to pick out a bugger let my nose become accustomed to no bugger smell for a bit then smell it again. I guess my point is... What do buggers smell like, and does Air smell different after your nose is completley free of buggers.

Ya this is weird to think about it.. but if you think about it for a minute or two, you will start to wonder yourself....

-Andrew

Random Phrases

2008-06-30T06:07:00.000-07:00

Ever have just a random phrase stuck in your head? You could be driving and for some reason you get a phrase stuck in your head that you don't know where it came from, then it turns out its part of the license plate in front of you. Well I woke up with the phrase "hugging with my lips"... WTF does that mean!? oh well leave your thoughts below...

Toilet paper

2008-06-27T20:54:00.001-07:00

.... Over or Under... you decide...

Fat People

2008-06-15T11:36:00.001-07:00

I am a fat guy / big guy / tall and 'stocky' or whatever words you want to use. I am starting a job soon and figured I would go buy some new clothes. Try to give myself a fresh look to go with the fresh job. Seeing as how I am a big guy 6'5 I need to buy tall shirts so I don't look like I am wearing a mid-drift. I recently went in to the Big and tall section at JCPenny's and there were 4 different types of shirts:

Plaid
Polos
Hawaiian
"Big Dog" shirts

First off, plaid? Don't get me wrong I have plenty of plaid shirts, but you can only wear so many before people refer to you as 'that plaid guy'.

Polos are fine, just not a big fan of them. Its like a T-shirt and button down had a retarded baby that didn't know what was what.

Hawaiian shirts... Who ever decided that fat people liked Hawaiian shirts. I have two, they are my "OMG I have nothing to wear... what should I wear... " shirts. Maybe cause fat people are jolly, and you are jolly when you are on a beach in Hawaii?? I am also Jolly after beating up a hooker, playing with a puppy, eating a steak, Christmas morning down by the tree in my PJs, or playing a video game. However these activities are not necessarily the best shirts to wear.

Lastly, "Big Dog" shirts... we have all seen these. I am fat, He is fat, She is fat, we can all see this, its not a secret or something you can really hide well... its just a fact. This being said we do not need to publicize this by wearing T-Shirts that say stupid shit with this big dog, or shirts that read "I'm Fat, and your Ugly, but I can loose weight" Things like this give fat people a bad rep. Whatever happened to just solid colors, or non-retarded t-shirts. Hell, why not just have the same retarded t-shirts as everyother company, just make it a few sizes bigger.

This is even the same at the big and tall stores. Where the specifically focus on 'big and tall' guys. I mean seriously, get a better freakin selection, like some stripes or solid colors, or plaid is alright, just some different options... Hawaiian shirts... no never, just don't do that.

I'm IN!

2008-06-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

So I am now 'moved in' for the most part. All my worldly belongings are in my new Apartment. You can find pics here. Also there is a video here. Now I just have to wait and wait and wait some more till I start making some money, to pay off the debt I have come into from getting a new place and the bare essentials needed for living (bed, plates, internet).

New Apartment...

2008-06-07T13:45:00.000-07:00

So I am soo close to figuring out my new apartment, I just don't know which one to choose...

First we have RidgeView. Costs 1630 a month that gets me:

Covered parking
Built in AC units
Built in washer dryer
Built in Dishwasher
652 sq ft
nice neighborhood
nice area
'scenic view' (pretty nice)
1 bed
1 bath
1 kitchen
1 'living room'
bay window
looks like it has a sense of community
20 minute bus ride and 5 minute walk from work
Feels a bit 'far' from white plains
no utilities included

Then we have this place downtown for 1250 (+ 100 bucks for a car spot in a municipal building a half mile down the road)

Real close to work (about .5 mile)
I can get FIOS
around fun things.. cause its right downtown
more of an apartment area
gas included
studio apartment
feels smaller than the other place
no in room laundry
no dish washer
doesn't seem 'as nice'
must park in municipal parking (that extra hundred)
no air condtioning
hard wood floor

Link to Maps C is 1630, B is 1350, A is work

new everything

2008-06-05T15:54:00.000-07:00

new job, new apartment (right now a hotel room), new feelings. At the risk of sounding Emo, (which I assure you I am not). I feel fine, then I think "When do I go back home, I miss my friends" At this point reality hits and I think, oh... I am home... well then I guess I will... um... I dunno...

I know your thinking WAAA WAAA go cry me a river and unpack all that sand from your vagina. Its just weird not knowing ANYONE or the surounding area. When I moved to Rochester from
Buffalo it was somewhat the same except for 3 key differences

The area was spread out and easy to navigate
I had Reslife training immediately after I moved in which forced me to meet and be-friend 12 new people.
If I needed to I could drive back home and see friends.

Whatever, I am just bitching / complaining. I know that after a while it will become better and the sadness will fade. But if the sadness I have from missing my friends fades will that mean I don't miss them any more or I have just learned to deal? I wake up thinking "Oh I wonder what X Y or Z is doing... oh wait.. " Its weird and it sucks. I am half tempted to move back to Rochester and take a different job. But i know if I do that I will just hate myself for doing it and for passing up this opportunity that I have in front of me.

I am not looking for answers, nor am I looking for pitty or advice. I just want to voice my opinion on whats happening. Maybe if I write what I am feeling, I will feel better.

Well my water is boiling so now its time to stop this writing, go and make some dinner.

Fire Exits

2008-05-18T12:08:00.000-07:00

So I am was walking in school the other day and saw a fire exit sign glowing red. So I don't understand this. All my life, I have been told the following

If you are in a fire, get on your hands and knees to avoid smoke
Smoke Kills, not the heat of the fire
Smoke Rises
Follow the exit signs to safety
The Smoke is so thick that you won't be able to recognize your own house.

So what I don't understand is why are the fire exits on the ceiling? Fire starts, and you get on your hands and knees as the building / room begins to fill with smoke. You look frantically for the fire exits but don't see them.. So you can A hope for the best and try to find your own way out, or B stand up and search for a fire exit and pray you see it before you die from heat or smoke. Not to mention, God forbid you are in a building without lit fire exit signs, you just get the old school painted ones...

Seems like to me that the signs should be closer waist level or better yet embedded on the ground. Or we can use light strips on the ground like the plane has. Just doesn't make sense to me.

-Me

The world she is a changing...

2008-05-16T07:37:00.001-07:00

So its been a while since I have posted, for this I apologize. I have been working on my masters thesis non-stop and I can see the end!! I get to defend my final thesis this upcoming Monday, at 11am, after that I am finally done with school!!! Its a bit terrifying thinking about being self sufficient and becoming 'matured'. Oh well, I guess that is just how the world changes, I know I am not the first person to have thoughts like this, nor will I be the last, but still... terrifying.

So, on the first of June, I go back home to Buffalo with all my worldly possessions. Then on June 4th I move to White Plains (location is still unknown) where I know nobody :/ and start my new job on the 16th. I am all about adventures, and this by all means will be one ( I still don't have permanent housing ), and once I get that housing, I have no furniture. All I have to my name right now are my toys ( 360, Wii, misc other fun things ), books, clothes and technology ( computers, monitors, TV, etc.). As of right now, I have just bought the domain www.constipatedkoala.com, so that should work to get you to my blog in the next few days ( once the nameservers kick over ) Aside from that nothing really new in my world, just same shit different day. After this Monday, I will get to sleep, and eat a real meal and play some video games which makes me happy. Hope all is well with you guys!

-andy

2008-04-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

Sooo long story short I was at the GDC, and we were leaving one of the sessions and we saw these furries outside of the conference hall, and I looked at my friend, gave her my phone and said, press this button and keep it on me. She did, then as I walk to them you can hear me say... "Alright, fuck it .... here we go" help me out by digging here: http://digg.com/comedy/Andy_vs_Furries or watch the movie here, then go and digg it!

Dear Tim Hortons

2008-04-08T11:30:00.000-07:00

Dear Tim Hortons,

Let me first state that I love you, you are wonderful and your treats are generally delicious. However, the reason I write to you today is to notify you of some knowledge your employees might be lacking. I have worked in food industry, and do not get me wrong, it is no treat. You get dumb people that don't understand, smart people that think they are better than you, fat people ordering sticks of butter and thin people 'getting stuffed' off some crackers. So I feel your pain, however you need to become less dumb yourself. I go to Tim Hortons at least 2 times a week, sometimes more. Now I realize that getting a coffee with two creams and two sugar is a pretty complex order, but somehow I probably get the correct beverage 1 out of 5 times. Just the same, when I order a bagel, I would say 2/3rds of the time it looks like a drunken monkey raped my bagel then rather than toasting it just farted on it and served it to me.
Don't get me wrong, this is not always the case, but good lord, its not that hard. You cut the bagel, insert in to toaster, spread cream cheese on it and give it to me, there is no point where you need to make more than 1 or MAYBE 2 cuts. So thank you Tim Hortons for giving me delicious bagels, but you can go f*&# yourself for not being consistent with such a complicated order as a coffee and bagel.

sincerely
me

Odd...

2008-04-01T11:39:00.000-07:00

So it turns out life everyonce in a while throws you a new lesson... Yesterdays lesson was do not go running / jogging on the treadmil with 'skater' shoes. Grant it these are the most comfortable shoes I have ever owned and I love them (Vans), they are not good for running.

That being said, I thought I would write about my meeting with Pearl. Her real name is not Pearl, nor do I know her however she struck me as a person who would have such a name. As
I was walking out of Jitters to my car this woman drives up in her 2008 "mid life crisis car" (I think a cougar convertible) and asks "Excuse me young man, do you knwo what this is..." and points to her dashboard (by the way, she is at least 90 years old). Upon further inspection it turns out her hazards are on. I told her that and she just stared at me like a dear in head lights. I then told her that she needed to push the button that she first pushed to get the hazards on... deer in head lights... I then told her to look for an orange triangle and push it. She just acted like I told her that I not only gave birth to a cow, but then raised it on my own, sent it to the Moon for after school work, then slaughtered it and consumed it myself, all in a 2 week time span. I then looked around and found it on her dash, and told her "It's OK, just push that..." She did, then looked happy said thanks and literally peeled out. It was odd... I think she might have stolen it. God bless you Pearl, you provided me entertainment!

De-Motivational

2008-03-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

Sooo... I love 'De-motivational posters', and thanks to Despair.com So I am starting an on going collections of pictures that I find on either the BBC or CNN websites and turning them in to the posters. If you are easily offended please don't read them, it is NOT my intention to offend you, truly. I just find them to be funny / ironic / sad(for humanity). That being said here are the first 4 I have made in the past month or so...

Jackets

2008-03-26T14:35:00.000-07:00

So, I realize people like to do 'their thing' and be 'cool' however I unfortunately have a news flash for you. People who wear their jackets / coats with ONLY their hood on NEED TO STOP. This happens when someone takes their jacket with a hood and wears the hood normally, except the rest of the jacket is not on their body. No, instead it is flowing behind them as if it were some type of cape.

Now I know what your thinking, "No Andrew, no one in their right mind wears their hood like that anymore, lest they are not mentally right." I would agree with you, except I work at RIT (a tech school), and the lab I work is full or nerds. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge nerd myself, however there is a line between 'socially acceptable nerds' and 'lets wear my jacket as a cape nerd'. Or even a great combo of wearing the 'cape jacket' on top of a back pack, so not only are you a mentally deficient super hero, but you also have a humpback.

If you are one of these poor individuals please... for the love of all things holy stop wearing it like that. It was not cool back when you had your starter jackets in the early 90s, nor is it popular now. Either commit to wearing the jacket, or just take the darn thing off!

Leopard part 2

2008-03-21T10:45:00.000-07:00

Leopard == great, somethings I would like to change is when you change spaces say from 1 -> 3 that to gain focus in Firefox, the application firefox has focus but not a particular screen. Maybe I am just screwing up something but oh well. Aside from that everything seems to be going well. I had a scare when I started up the external drive (where my backup of everything was, because I was planning on doing an 'erase everything and re-install') and the thing wouldn't get recognized by leopard. I fought with this for about 45 minutes, before it finally worked. The amount of BRC (Blood Rage-ahol Content) was through the roof. Alas, everthing is working now so I am a happy camper. Everyone have a great weekend and happy Easter!

Oh Leopard...

2008-03-20T12:27:00.000-07:00

I just got Leopard, and installed it to find out that I did it wrong... So now I get to do it again!!!! Oh well stuff happens. So I think I will take this time to do some sketches and just unwind a bit maybe go grab some coffee and People watch at borders or something. If you see me don't hesitate to say Hi, despite the beard I am very friendly :D

First Entry

2008-03-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

This is my feeble attempt to blogging more and more. So this website will be updated as much as I feel like it. If you are wondering about the name (constipatedKoala) I just always thought this would be a funny name, so here it is. I look forward to hearing back from people with thoughts and comments. Have a great day!