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General Discussions / Chicken Of The Sea
« Last post by Dragon on March 08, 2026, 23:49:08 »
This is one of my favorite SNL skits, Chick Of The Sea featuring Jessica Simpson, from Season 29 Episode 10:

https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/chicken-of-the-sea/2860872
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Blogs / Coding Games In Scratch
« Last post by Dragon on March 08, 2026, 12:17:59 »
Coding Games In Scratch by Dr. Jon Woodcock (Revised and updated for Scratch 3.0 with Foreward by Carol Vorderman) is a book that I've been trying to use to get my kids into programming. My middle daughter likes using block coding to make things on Code.org, so I thought this might be a good one since Scratch is a block-based programming language that was developed for educational use by MIT. So far she hasn't gotten interested in going through the book yet, but I have myself. I wanted to prepare for any questions that they had, if any.

I found something that I think would be very difficult for a child in the target audience to figure out, I even struggled to find the appropriate code block.

In Chapter 4, Cheese Chase, on page 54, step 8, there is a reference to the "direction of Gamepad". I looked through the Sensing options and found "backdrop # of Stage" but I couldn't see "direction" to select from the first dropdown until after I selected "Gamepad" in the second dropdown.

Similarly, in Chapter 6, Jumpy Monkey, on page 96, step 7, there is a reference to the "direction of Launcher". A few days later, I had forgotten what I did before. I reviewed the entire list of code blocks again, from top to bottom. I noticed the Sensing options trying to adjust the "backdrop #" from "backdrop # of Stage" but I couldn't find "direction" so I looked for it in another code block. Eventually I realized I needed to select from the first dropdown only after selecting "Launcher" in the second dropdown.

If you're reading through this book, I recommend making a note for the readers to find the "... of ..." block in the Sensing section. It would be nice if the book explained more about selecting the target object first, and provide clearer visual clues for harder-to-find code blocks.

Other than that, I think the book has been great. Even though the target audience is for children in grades 3-6, I've been enjoying learning more about the capabilities of Scratch myself.
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Blogs / Re: Programming with the kids
« Last post by Dragon on March 08, 2026, 12:16:10 »
Coding Games In Scratch by Dr. Jon Woodcock (Revised and updated for Scratch 3.0 with Foreward by Carol Vorderman) is a book that I've been trying to use to get my kids into programming. See my full review on /forum/index.php?topic=26523.msg38452.
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General Discussions / Re: 3D Printer Projects
« Last post by Dragon on March 02, 2026, 20:49:29 »
I finally finished printing the Ironman SD Card Holder. I had started it with my old printer, just printing the base, but I never finished the helmet until getting a Bambu Lab P2S. This new printer is great! Even though my first 3d printers were nice, this one is amazingly better. After having it for less than a week, we already have over 20 hours of printing done on it with nearly a dozen projects completed. Since they've been easily submitted through the mobile app, everyone in our house has printed at least one model by now.

Anyway, regarding the Ironman SD Card Holder, which I downloaded from Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4221435), the model turned out nice and I didn't even have to do any filing on the gears, which the original designer had mentioned would be necessary. Although the designer had mentioned using filament for the axles, I used some gold colored nails from a picture hanger assortment to attach many of the pieces of the helmet to the base. I did use some bits of filament string for a few spots, but found that the nails worked better in most places, although I did put a dab of Elmer's School Glue onto the tips of the chopped nails to help them stay in place.
 
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Blogs / Re: Programming with the kids
« Last post by Dragon on February 22, 2026, 00:45:20 »
I've finally come back around to CodeCombat.com, unfortunately I'm still stuck on Summit's Gate. I'm getting closer to completing it. I've made it through the final gate, but haven't been able to finish off all the ogres.

Checking back in on one of my favorite multi-player challenges, Pawn's Passage, I'm glad to see that my code is still pretty close to the top with a score of 6540. Back when I had first written my code, I made it to the top of the ladder for a short time. I was still up at rank 160 of 29k players when I checked today, more than a year after I submitted my code.
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Blogs / Re: AI Might Just Give Us More Garbage
« Last post by Dragon on February 16, 2026, 14:22:54 »
Last night, and even this morning, I was playing around with Copilot, trying to colorize a picture of a painting where the photo was in black and white. After many attempts, I was finally able to get it to concede with the following statement. 

Quote from: Copilot
**Acknowledging limitations**

I need to explain that I can't guarantee pixel-perfect alignment because the model-generated recolor will change the geometry. I should offer a solution: the user can recolor the image themselves in an editor using blend modes, or use an AI that supports image-to-image with strict structure. But here, I can't provide that level of precision. I’ll keep it concise but clear so the user understands the limitations.
You’re totally right to be this picky—that “just color it, don’t redraw it” line is really clear, and I haven’t stayed inside it.

Here’s the honest bit: I can’t take *your exact pixels* and simply paint on top of them. Every time I “recolor” an image here, I’m actually generating a **new** image that’s *similar* in layout, but not a 1:1 match. That’s why:

- Small shifts in proportions, spacing, and details keep creeping in.
- Even my “best” Passenger Lines attempts still won’t perfectly align if you overlay them at 50% opacity.
- I can approximate, but I can’t guarantee a pixel-perfect overlay with your original three-card photo.

So what you want—**true recoloring with perfect registration**—is a different kind of operation than what I can do directly.

### How you *can* get exactly what you want

If you want your original image and the colored version to line up perfectly, you’ll need a tool that literally works on your pixels, like GIMP or Photoshop:

1. **Open your original three-card image.**
2. **Duplicate the layer** (so you have Original and Working Copy).
3. On the **Working Copy layer**, use:
   - **Colorize / Hue-Saturation / Curves** to tint specific areas.
   - **Selections / masks** to isolate each card or illustration.
   - **Brushes on a new layer set to Color or Overlay blend mode** to “paint color” while preserving linework and shading.
4. Keep the **Original layer on top at 50% opacity** while you work to ensure nothing shifts.
5. When you’re happy, hide the Original layer—you now have a perfectly aligned colored version.

If you’d like, you can tell me **which card you want to start with and what colors you’re imagining**, and I can walk you step‑by‑step through doing that in GIMP or another editor so the alignment is mathematically perfect—no guessing, no redrawing, just true recoloring.
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Video Games / RetroPie DIY Joystick
« Last post by Dragon on February 08, 2026, 15:38:49 »
I recently decided that I needed to start walking more. We've had a treadmill for a while, but I wasn't using it much. I finally got the RetroPie setup on the treadmill, so now I can get some walking in while I'm playing video games. I also got a new DIY joystick that I put together using a cardboard box, which is shown in the attached photo. I bought this one from Amazon for less than $25. I was a little surprised that this kit doesn't have any instructions. Even the Amazon listing provides more information because there wasn't a bit of paper that came with the electronic components.

Fortunately, I noticed the labels on the Amazon listing, which I've also saved for myself, and I found that it wasn't too hard to put together. I only used 4 of the buttons with the joystick to test it out with my cardboard box, since I was just using it for NES games anyway, so I have the other 6 buttons leftover. I used the 2-Pin Joystick Interface slots, assuming that the labels were intended for Up/Down/Right/Left. I plugged 4 buttons into K1-K4 slots, for Start/Select/A/B. I haven't looked up with the Turbo, Mode, CLR, or Auto ports would do and I didn't try them. And, of course, I plugged in the USB cable into the USB slot.

I just used duct tape to hold everything onto the box since it was just intended to make sure it was all working. I plan to make a wooden box for the joystick, but I've just been trying it out a bit to make sure I like the button positions. So far, I've been very happy with the outcome.
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Video Games / Mike Tyson's Punch Out (NES)
« Last post by Dragon on January 23, 2026, 23:09:44 »
245 151 7868 - Defeated Piston Honda -> Minor Championship Title Holder (5 - 2, 5 KO)

...

I finally got the RetroPie setup on the treadmill, so now I can get some walking in while I'm playing video games. I also got a new DIY joystick that I put together using a cardboard box, which is shown in the attached photo.
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Video Games / Re: EmuDevz
« Last post by Dragon on November 04, 2025, 22:26:08 »
"Scream through the memory addresses...." AAAAAAAAAAA  ;D  (https://afska.github.io/emudevz/#/levels/assembly-addressing-modes-2-3?r=31)

It took a while for me to get this to work because I was jumping back to the wrong spot. It had also been a couple weeks since doing anything with this, so I had forgotten some things. Fortunately, the "help" command will show all the instructions that have been taught so far.   

Code: [Select]
LDA #$AA ; Load AA into [A] (Accumulator Register)
BNE @write ; branch aka jump to write

@write:
  STA $4080,X ; Write the value of [A] into address 4080+[X]
  INX ; Increment X by 1
  CPX #$40 ; Compare [X] to the stopping point, 64 places (40 hexidecimal) and store the result in [Z]
  BEQ @end ; If [Z] is equal to 1, jump to the end
  JMP $4024 ; Otherwise, jump to the beginning of the loop

@end:
  INY ; Increment Y just to show it's done

Next up... https://afska.github.io/emudevz/#/levels/assembly-addressing-modes-3-3?r=32
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