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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • We should have totally called it a unit test.

    So the area for this was used for both training of soldiers and demos for people without security clearances. So it frequently had to be switched between the two. So you get everything setup and ready.

    As a last test you drop the unit in and blam it. Then you go to each system and check the unit status. If it’s ok you are good to demo to civilians.

    A unit test wouldn’t work because it’s a deployment situation and a lot the software wasn’t under our control. A lot of time it was just making sure the DIS HLA gateway was properly configured and entities remapped.




  • I used to work in serious sim. Think using game engines for realistic combat stimulation and training by the army. Systems had to interact and had different jobs rts, fps, driving simulator, etc.

    So they each needed a unit database that was unique to that system. They also usually had a two versions a classified database and a less accurate non classified database.

    A quick way to test was there was a unit type that was always set to invulnerable in unclassified databases. So drop one in the sim and drop some artillery on it. If it wasn’t destroyed you were unclassified.




  • Common misuse of words. Decimate means reduce by 1/10 not almost completely destroy. Exponential growth. The variable has to be in the exponent if it’s a constant exponent that is polynomial growth. Gaslighting isn’t just lying. It’s making someone belive that they can’t trust their own memories or experiences so they believe you despite evidence to the contrary.



  • Even the replacement and most modern remotes (with an LED at the tip that you have to point at the device) use pretty cool tech.

    Usually to send data you want a data channel and a clock channel. When the clock changes say from high to low you read the next bit in the data channel. With one LED to send info you need to combine them.

    For transmission that’s easy. You make the low to high change at a fixed frequency. For the high to low change if it’s a zero you make the high to low change 1/3 the way through the cycle. For a 1 you make the change 2/3 the way through the cycle.

    On the receiver you you sync up a signal at the same frequency rising with the start of the transmission at a 1/2 on 1/2 off. You look at the data when the reference falls 1/2 the way through the cycle.

    If a zero was sent the line had fallen at the 1/3 and it is a zero. If a one was sent the line doesn’t drop until 2/3 and it’s a one.

    The trick is how do you get a signal at the same frequency and in synch. You compare the transmission frequency revived to the frequency of a voltage controlled oscillator. If it’s slower you up the voltage and increase the frequency if it’s faster you lower the voltage and lower the frequency.

    You similarly use a phase detector to determine if they are in phase slightly boosting the frequency until they are in sync.

    This system is called a phased lock loop (pll). All this so you don’t have to getup to change the channel. The same sort of system is used for reading data from the magnetic disk on a hard drive.