Entries Tagged 'life' ↓

I’ve gotten a few emails about the lack of posts, so rather than reply to everyone, I figure I’ll set it straight:

I’ve been working on a compiler for class. Boom!

Something kinda cool though:

I can take code that looks like this:

extern void print_int(int x);
extern void print_string(char x[]);

int two[2];
int five[5], one;

void love_me(void) {
	print_string("You love me, don't you?n");
}

void main( void ) {
	two = 4;
	love_me();
}

And turn it into code that looks like this:

.data
	two: .space 8
	five: .space 20
	one: .space 4
_string_0:	.asciiz "You love me, dont you?n"

.text

jal love_me
la $sp, 4($sp)
love_me:
 	# Function prologue
 	sw $fp, -4($sp)						# save old $fp
	sw $ra, -8($sp)						# save return address
	la $fp, 0($sp)						# set up frame pointer
	la $sp, -12($sp)					# Update stack pointer and allocate stack frame

# Load variables on to the stack
la $t9, _string_0
sw $t9, -4($sp)
la $sp, -4($sp)
# Call the method
jal print_string
la $sp, 4($sp)

 	# Function epilogue
	la $sp, 0($fp)						# Restore stack pointer
	lw $ra, -8($sp)						# Restore return address
	lw $fp, -4($sp)						# Restore frame pointer
	jr $ra							# Return

jal main
la $sp, 4($sp)
main:
 	# Function prologue
 	sw $fp, -4($sp)						# save old $fp
	sw $ra, -8($sp)						# save return address
	la $fp, 0($sp)						# set up frame pointer
	la $sp, -12($sp)					# Update stack pointer and allocate stack frame

li $4, 4	# Load _tmp_0
sw $4, -16($fp)	

lw $4, -16($fp)	# Load two
sw $4, two

# Load variables on to the stack
# Call the method
jal love_me
la $sp, 4($sp)

 	# Function epilogue
	la $sp, 0($fp)						# Restore stack pointer
	lw $ra, -8($sp)						# Restore return address
	lw $fp, -4($sp)						# Restore frame pointer
	jr $ra							# Return

print_int:
	li $v0, 1
	lw $a0, 0($sp)
	syscall
	jr $ra

print_string:
	li $v0, 4
	lw $a0, 0($sp)
	syscall
	jr $ra

When I get it done, I’ll open-source it and be back for more ruby joy! So stay tuned amigos!

For those of you who don’t know, I have been working in Japan for the last two weeks. This is why the blog has not been updated in a while. Look for more content in the next few days and you shall find it!

For now… enjoy:

Spam: WANT A BIGGER PENIS?

Me: …

Spam: WANT a BIGGER PENIS?

Me: are you… talking to me?

Spam: But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and to do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard.

Me: Sigh…

*I want that job. write a bunch of words. Throw them together in a sentence and hope to god someone click the link that makes me half a cent*

I never thought I would say this, but… well… I happen to agree with this guy (not to mention he is mimicking Apple). There are plenty of candidates (a few I actually support), but the more I check out Ron Paul, the more I agree with his position(s).

Get back to code!

After a tough 7 days of competition, facing 4 near-elimination moments and one hell of a tough pitcher (Monica Abbott, Tennessee is one hell of a pitcher), the Wildcats pulled off the most important win of this season, the national championship game!

Yesterday, the ‘Cats nearly lost, winning by 1 in overtime topped by an incredible slide by the 3rd string pinch-runner Danielle Rodriguez yesterday nearly saved the Wildcats from elimination.. But with a single by Caitlin Lowe and Kristie Fox and a homer by Jenae Leles, the cats blew the 0-0 tie in the 5th inning!

Congrats to the Wildcats! You played one hell of a season!

LA adventures
I have been in Los Angeles for the past several days doing some work with… well, my work. I promised a friend I would help him out with his graphics. Unfortunately, I am on a plane and also on a laptop that does not have photoshop/illustrator so I can’t do any work with it now. I had planned on doing some homework up here, but rather than doing that, I think it’s probably a fun idea to try to see what I can do design-wise with a little bit of code. Ooo, could be fun.

Let’s get started.

First off, the project I am helping him out with is a graphics project. He is assigned to develop and brand a music publishing company for a class of his. We had come up with a name and a graphic, so let’s actually design it.

First things first,

the logo

The name of the company is R3CORDS. We can easily create an image using ruby and rmagick:

	require 'rubygems'
	require "RMagick"

	string = "R3cords".upcase
	# prepare drawing surface
	text                = Magick::Draw.new
	text.fill           = 'white'
	text.pointsize      = 40

	# Create and composite the images
	temp_image = Magick::Image.new(w, h) { self.background_color = "none" }
	temp_image = temp_image.annotate(text, 0, 0, 5, 40, string)

	# WRITE OUT
	temp_image.format = "JPG"
	temp_image.write('temp.jpg')

As you can see, we are just creating an RMagick Drawing object, telling it a few things we want to look like, such as the background color of the image. We say we want white text against a “none” (black) color background and then we write the text out at 5 pixels from the left and 40 from the top. The pointsize is 40. Then we write it out to an image and we are done, right?

No way, I’m stuck on a plane and there is so much more we can do, let’s not stop here, ey?

Let’s make the logo a little more “recordy.” We’ll add a small outline to the logo text and give the font a weight that makes it stand out a little more:

	text.stroke         = 'black'
	text.stroke_width     = 1

OO, that looks fun. Oh, but there is still more! We are going to put this on top of another image and kind of blend it in. The only way a black background would work is if the image were black, and it’s not (which you’ll see in a few minutes). So rather than using a black background, we’ll change a few things and make it even cooler with a transparent background and perhaps a shadow.

	# prepare drawing surface
	text                = Magick::Draw.new
	text.fill           = 'white'
	text.pointsize      = 40
	text.font_weight    = 800
	text.stroke_width     = 0

	temp_image = Magick::Image.new(w, h) { self.background_color = "transparent" }
	temp_image = temp_image.annotate(text, 0, 0, 5, 40, string)

	# Make the shadow
	shadow = temp_image
	shadow = shadow.colorize(1, 1, 8, Magick::Pixel.new(100, 100, 100, 20))     # shadow color can vary to taste
	shadow.background_color = "grey24"       # was "none"
	shadow.border!(4, 4, "white")
	shadow = shadow.blur_image(0, 3)        # shadow blurriness can vary according to taste

	# Composite image over shadow. The y-axis adjustment can vary according to taste.
	temp_image = shadow.composite(temp_image, -amplitude, 0, Magick::OverCompositeOp)

OO, weee. So now we added a shadow over the temp_image and took out the background of the other. In order to get this on top of another image, we have to open the new image and composite it on top.

I think we are close to finished with the logo, but I want to add one more cool thing to it.

I wanted to add some neat funky-looking boxes to make it look tech-cool.

Where do we start? Well, I’ve already done it

	# Lets create a cool background behind it
	neat = Magick::ImageList.new
	neat.new_image(background_image.columns, background_image.rows) {
	  self.background_color = 'transparent'
	}
	1.upto(background_image.rows) do |i|
	  c = Magick::Image.new(1, 1+rand(25)) do |m|
	    m.background_color = '#cccccc'
	  end
	  c.rotate!(i*rand(360))
	  neat.composite!(c, i*rand(5), i+rand(background_image.rows), Magick::OverCompositeOp)
	end

And we are done

The full code is down below.

Finished, just in time for beverage service

Oh, and LA was sweet.

	require 'rubygems'
	require "RMagick"

	w = 200
	h = 100
	string = "R3cords".upcase
	amplitude = h * 0.01        # vary according to taste
	wavelength = w  * 2

	temp_image = Magick::Image.new(w*2, h) { self.background_color = "transparent" }

	# Make the shadow
	shadow = temp_image
	shadow = shadow.colorize(1, 1, 8, "#883333")     # shadow color can vary to taste
	shadow.border!(4, 1, "transparent")
	shadow = shadow.blur_image(0, 10)        # shadow blurriness can vary according to taste
	temp_image = shadow.composite(temp_image, 0, 0, Magick::OverCompositeOp)

	# Let's set this aside for a moment and do..
	background_image = Magick::Image.read("bg.jpg").first
	temp_image = background_image.composite(temp_image, Magick::SouthEastGravity, Magick::OverCompositeOp)

	# Lets create a cool background behind it
	neat = Magick::ImageList.new
	neat.new_image(background_image.columns, background_image.rows) {
	  self.background_color = 'transparent'
	}
	1.upto(background_image.rows) do |i|
	  c = Magick::Image.new(1, 1+rand(25)) do |m|
	    m.background_color = '#cccccc'
	  end
	  c.rotate!(i*rand(360))
	  neat.composite!(c, i*rand(5), i+rand(background_image.rows), Magick::OverCompositeOp)
	end

	temp_image = temp_image.dissolve(neat, 0.2, 4.9)

	# prepare drawing surface
	text                = Magick::Draw.new
	text.fill           = 'white'
	# text.text_antialias = false
	text.pointsize      = 80
	# text.rotation       = 0
	text.font_family    = "Helvetica"
	text.font_weight    = 800
	text.stroke_width     = 1
	text.stroke           = 'black'
	text.gravity          = Magick::SouthEastGravity

	temp_image = temp_image.annotate(text, 0, 0, 0, 0, string)

	# WRITE OUT
	temp_image.format = "JPG"
	# self.rmagick_image = canvas
	temp_image.write('temp.jpg')

From:

To:

All done entirely without a photo editor. Just one sweet computer and a kick-butt text editor!

I enjoyed this tutorial. I think I’ll write some more in the future. Let me know if it was helpful.

pow wowTonight.

The gymcats are done with their season. By 0.05 of a point spread behind OSU. Give it up for OSU, they did a damn good job, but so did the Gymcats. And furthermore, the gymcats were the highest scoring team in the nation that did not make it to the finals. How does that work out?

Gymnastics works like this. The top two teams from each regional goes to the finals. Also, the top two individual scorers go to the finals too. So, four of the gymcats are going to the finals, but the team is not. How is that fair at all? It is not the best teams that go, it’s the top teams in each region.

Sigh.

In other news, I got a sweeeet shot at this pow wow! Check it out!

After about 8 months of the site being down…

I am announcing a revamp and restyle of my blog. Go figure.

There will be content here in a few hours, promise.