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Intern Week 7: Touch Screen Spacecraft
For some, touch screens are a gift from the tech Gods allowing easy interaction with devices. For our friends in zero gravity it can be a nightmare...if implemented incorrectly. Shown in studies done on the ISS with iPads touch screen motions that should be avoided include swiping and typing. For an astronaut to swipe or type they must anchor themselves to the wall. With all that monkey motion most prefer to simply use a laptop while anchored. A simple tap of the screen and audio recording replacing typing is an easier way to interact with a device.
While designing displays for the audio system I am mindful of how the crew member will interact with the display. Making it user friendly and reducing interaction to light taps on the screen.
Opportunities interns have in addition to working on tech-intensive projects include listening to lectures from various NASA leaders. This week we heard from Anne Roemer from the Astronaut Selection Office. She shared with us admirable characteristics astronauts should have and basic qualifications you should have so they don't laugh at your application (such as a Masters in a given STEM or education field). We also learned about the reality of becoming an astronaut being informed that only 0.6% of applicants become astronauts.
Intern Week 6: A NASA Coincidence
Coincidence
I had barely graduated high school before embarking to NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio for an internship two summers ago. Equipped with my experience captaining a FIRST Robotics team I thought I was fully prepared for anything the engineering world could throw at me. Engineers racing to complete a power system for a multipurpose space habitat greeted me with hardware that needed testing, circuit board designs that needed fabricating, and copious acronyms that made my learning curve spike.
Fast forward two summers and I am now at at a different center, NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC), creating crew displays for that same habitat and same hardware. By crazy coincidence my mentor from Glenn came to JSC this week to run the full systems test with the displays my current department made. This system test means a lot to me after being on each end of the development. I was the only person who new the electronics inside of the power system and the digital guts powering the displays.
Astronaut Lunch
Yes you read that right lunch not launch. I had the gracious opportunity to meet Astronaut Mike Hopkins over lunch! He was on International Space Station (ISS) expedition 36 & 37, took part in two EVAs (extra vehicular activity), he has spent 166 days in space, and just a year ago he was in space. It was wonderful to talk to him about NASA, ways to become an astronaut and celebrity encounters.
Thermo Testing
A couple weeks ago I mentioned that us interns took part in thermo testing of cameras from the ISS in the wee hours of the night. In honor of our assistance our division, the Avionic Systems Division, awarded us will certificates in Team Excellence for "reinforcing the weary EHDC project team during overnight thermo testing." Caleb from: astronomicalwonders.tumblr.com also received this honor.
Intern Week 4: The Red Phone
Mouse clicks resonate throughout the lab mimicking an orchestra of League of Legend players. At work I was certainly not partaking in an online battle arena but programming in LabVIEW. The constant clicking is a byproduct of a visual programming language and my toll for simplicity.
My current task is to imagineer methods of navigating touch screen interfaces for a space habitat. Ideas have ranged from a touch of a finger to immerse you in the data of a solar power regulator, to a home button that will transport you back to home with an interactive schematic of the habitat's devices. While it's easy to brainstorm how an interface will be navigated on the white board getting the compiled program to act as expected is another story.
While taking a break from wires and code blocks our mentor took me and my fellow interns on a tour of the current Mission Control center and historic Apollo Mission Control room. In the current Mission Control we saw a live feed from the International Space Station (ISS) zooming above Australia. In only 92 minutes ISS orbits Earth and sees the sun rise. The astronauts were currently sleeping when we stopped by but we saw one of them float out of their quarters into a hallway before loss of signal (a normal occurrence).
Defined by the walls decorated in mission patches, green control stations, and a soft smell of cigars we entered into the historic Apollo Mission Control center. Shouts of joy once echoed in this room when The Eagle landed as well as unsettling silence of held breath during Apollo 13. The Red Telephone was Mission Control's life line to the Department of Defense and could be contacted immediately about issues. the It was an honor to be in the same room as history's heroes.
Pictures - Top: The Red Phone, Middle Left: American flag that flew to the Moon, Middle Right: Live feed from the ISS, Bottom Left: Current Mission Control, Bottom Right: At a historic Apollo Mission Control center station.
No, don't run that on your pc, what it does is slowly degrade your performance I believe
Hey kids! compile and run this on your home computer. Nothing bad will happen. :)
I'm starting the 25 Days of productivity challenge from 9th Feb 2025 , because I realised all those visions on your board, all those Pinterest boards I have saved , all those dreams of whatever I wanna do including grades , opportunities, all that adrenaline rush of doing , believing , all that mental pictures will stay there until move , until I get up and become uncomfortable with this life given to me not by chance but with purpose and belief from that almighty God .
I have STs coming up( 17th Feb) , which are basically the tests but have high importance and if I did my best for them , then end terms will be in my favour obviously. So rules are all uncomfortable, all difficult but uncomfortable = success chances are high . Secondly believe in yourself.
Try to:
1. Wake up at 5:00 AM everyday.
2. Yoga for body .
3. Meditation is mandatory for mind
4. Min 4 hours ( deep work) of study everyday.
5. Journaling everyday( grateful, thoughts)
6. 1.5 hr of coding everyday.( Practice)
7. Read the Joe dispenza book (becoming supernatural) , second read at night ( pragmatic programmer). = 1hr of reading / daily.
8. Drink 1.5 L water 🌊 ( 1.5 bottle of water).
9.
I'm done being moderate, I'm done being the person i was when 2024 starts , it's embarrassing I know ... it's not for the show but ..still embarrassing to myself too that i haven't changed it's not that I haven't done challenging things ...in the whole 2024 but ... I'm that satisfied or maybe I'll never be ....but still ..i don't want 2025 to go the same.. i don't want to come out of 2025 and be thinking I could have done better , i could have been more than what I'm...no because this way ......one day i would be on my death bed ... And still be thinking I could have done that . that ....etc ...you know that drill . But the point is life is short , i know it's so talkative or the most boring line to say ..but it's what it is. There was a time when we were in 2020 and now suddenly it's 2025 where all those years in between go .... Have i done the most challenging thing I said to me to do.... Have I ???? I'm not criticizing myself... I'm being aware of what the hell has happened. In those all years and I'm still that person, but my Higher self , my own self , my inner critic know i could be more of what I'm..... And I'm done ... I have deleted all the social media apps which were distracting me in the smallest possible way ...my social media usage never exceeds 1.5 hrs ...but still . Not even the smallest possible distraction.... I know I would be bored... But boring means I'm getting better ..... So I'm going to start a challenge from today , it's sem break and I have 10 days left to my 2nd sem to start and I have them whole 2nd sem but still I'm going to start bygones bygones .... 2025 will tolerate the new me ....new version of my body , my personality, my future , my face , my body language, my speaking, my actions, my words , my behaviour, my confidence.
So hey , I'm the Ist year CSE major college student and I'm going to document my life with the people I never met but we are all going through the same phase , same challenges and we need each other on this journey to survive 2025 in the best possible way and I'm sure we are going to come out of 2025 with the shine on our face which we have never imagined to be there .
Progress :)
for my first project in java I'm going to make a to do list application, enhance it as I learn more and more stuff then at the end build it properly with xml
so the 60 days of productivity challenge did not work out and that's fine we can always start over. but I've realized the way I've been studying is fragmented and all over the place so I've decided that I must do the following things:
1. Learn java
2. Then finish the kotlin course
3. Then make an app
4. then study more c++
5. then do a project in c++
and this seems very ambitious but I'm not planning to be an expert in these languages anytime soon, just know enough to make stuff and grow my knowledge through practice. ideally I'd like to do all of these things by mid to late October. And I'll do projects throughout the year so I don't forget and can improve :)
I'm starting java today, I'll post a lot here to keep myself accountable and I hope I can do it. I'm excited to learn new languages and build things!
Day 8/60 of productivity
Learning kotlin now and im not fond of the tutorials to be honest, I prefer the teachers from the past videos and I'm now using other resources on top of the course. im not being as productive as id like the past few days i hope this week is better.
notes from when I was studying for finals plus code from a group assignment where we made a bank management system with c++. it was fine and we got a good grade in it but we had to abandon our original plan because we didn't have enough time and ended up making a simpler version. I'm going to try to make it on my own this week.
also i keep forgetting about this blog, will try to post more in second sem. hope you're all well :)
c-tetris is finished!
Holy crap this is the largest coding project I've ever completed. Over the last 7 months I've been recreating Tetris from the ground up, without any game engines or libraries or whatever. Everything, from code to art to sound effects, is made by me! I made this! And I published it on Itch.io!
You can get it → here ←
Hey guys, it's been a minute since my last Tetris devlog. For those of you that are new here: Hi! Welcome! I'm making a Tetris clone of sorts completly from scratch without any game engines or libraries or anything of the sort, writing all the code and making all the assets myself. It's running on a custom-built engine I wrote (or rather, am writing) in C, using the Windows API for window creation and sound output and other low-level stuff.
Development has been going pretty smoothly since my last devlog. There's sound effects now! And new music! And new graphics! And pausing! And text rendering! And save files! And a lot of other things besides. I've spent a decent chunk of the time on behind the scenes stuff to just make the game run better basically. There's still a lot to do left but at this point the game has really started to come together. I'm really happy with it so far :3
You can find the GitHub repo here if you wanna compile it or just take a gander at the code or whatever. Please don't steal anything I will cry if you do and you don't want that on your conscious right? :(
(#1, #2, #3)
Hey fuckers check out this Tetris devlog
So uhhh yeah. Here's another quick lil preview of my Tetris game that I've been working on. I built the game engine that it's running on from scratch in C without any libraries or some such (except the Windows API for opening the window and handling basic file stuff of course) so that's fun I guess. Right? Yeah. So anyways progress has been coming along surprisingly smoothly since my last update. There's finally some proper graphics! Yay! It's not finalised yet but y'know. It's something. I've been using Krita for the first time to make all the art assets and it's been really fun. Oh right, I'm meaning to make everything myself including art and music, not just the code. I've already started working on the score/level/lines UI code so that'll probably be done soon.
I've also finally made the GitHub repo public so if you wan't to take a look at the code or download it or whatever you can find it here. The repo isn't very user friendly yet but eh. Who cares.
That's all for now. Stay tuned :3
(#1, #2)
Handmade Tetris Devlog - Gameplay!
You read that right folks. The game's got gameplay now. Revolutionary, right?
For those of you that are new here (which I imagine is most of you lol): I'm building a Tetris clone from the ground up in C without any game engines or external libraries or whatever, making everything myself. That includes the music and the graphics and everything else, not just the code. See my last post for more details.
The project has taken a major leap forward since my last update. We've actually got gameplay now! There's all the essentials of Tetris, from movement to line clears to a lose condition. It's an actual, playable game! Next up on my TODO is probably the preview window as well as the hold box, and then the score counter, which probably means that I have to implement a font rasterizer lol. And then there's of course hard drops and wall kicks and T-spins and all that. That's basically it in terms of actual gameplay, but there's still so much more to do after that. I'm excited.
See you in the next update :3
Programming? On my Tumblr?
It's more likely than you think >:3
So anyways here's an early tech demo for a lil project I've been working on. I'm making a game in pure C without any external libraries or game engines or whatever, writing everything from the ground up. Why? To see if I could. And also because I hate myself.
This bad boy's got low-latency audio output with a custom audio mixer and WAV file loading, input handling (keyboard + mouse, no controller support yet), and a basic graphics renderer (with BMP file support), as well as some other fun little features. It's built on the Windows API but all the platform code is isolated so that the game can easily ported. And what grand creation shall I make with this? ...Tetris. I'm planning to make a Tetris clone. Lol.
Oh, and the tetris remix you hear in the background? Wrote that myself. Music was never my strongest subject but I am determined to make everything by myself.
That is all.
Kerbal Space Program was once afflicted by a bug the fans dubbed the "Deep Space Kraken", whereby if you travelled far enough from the origin of the game's coordinate system, floating point rounding errors would cause your spacecraft's components to become misaligned and/or clip into each other, resulting in the craft falling apart or exploding for no obvious reason.
The bug was later fixed by defining the active spacecraft itself as the origin of the game's coordinate system. In effect, the spacecraft no longer moves; instead, the spacecraft remains stationary and the entire universe moves around it. Owing to how relativity works, to the player this is indistinguishable from the spacecraft moving about within a fixed coordinate system, and it ensures that the body of the craft and its components will always be modelled with maximal precision.
While elegant, this solution introduced a new problem: it was now possible, by doing certain stupid tricks with relativistic velocities, to introduce floating point rounding errors to everything except the active spacecraft. In extreme cases, this could result in the destruction of the entire observable universe.
Some might call this one of those situations where the solution proves to be worse than the problem. I call it a perfect expression of what Kerbal Space Program is truly about.
hi hi! love your blog! I am also working on building sites for my portfolio but am a little stumped on how/where to deploy them. would you mind sharing what you are using for deployment? thanks!
Places to Deploy Your Website
Hiya! I know a few places I've tried in the past and some I am yet to try but I know other developers use them!
GitHub pages
GitHub Pages is a free static site hosting service that allows you to publish your website directly from a GitHub repository. It supports HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as well as Jekyll, a static site generator. I used GitHub pages a lot since I use GitHub to keep all my repositories.
Replit
Replit is a cloud-based development environment that provides an integrated IDE, code editor, and hosting platform all in one place. With Replit, you can easily create and deploy web apps, games, and other projects in multiple programming languages such as Python, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I use Replit a lot too for my other much smaller projects that I can’t upload on GitHub to run the program online!
Netlify
Netlify offers a free plan for static site hosting that includes features such as continuous deployment, custom domains, and SSL encryption. It supports HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as well as serverless functions and other backend technologies.
Heroku
Heroku offers a free plan for hobbyist developers that allows you to deploy up to 5 applications. It supports many languages and frameworks, including Ruby, Node.js, Python, Java, PHP, and Go. Heroku allows free hosting for small applications.
Firebase Hosting
Firebase Hosting is a free service that allows you to host and deploy your web app or static content to a global content delivery network (CDN) with SSL encryption. It supports HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other static assets. It allows free hosting for small applications.
Surge
Surge is a free static site hosting service that allows you to publish your website with a custom domain or a Surge subdomain. It supports HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other static assets. Allows free hosting with unlimited bandwidth.
Each of these free deployment options has its own cons such as:
Its lack of server-side functionality
Limited database support
The cost of advanced features
Limited control over the infrastructure
May not be suitable for more complex websites or applications
However, for small projects, I think you’ll be fine with the free options!
Hoped this helps and good luck with your websites’ deployments! 🥰🙌🏾💗
Python Notes and Resources
Hey! I made a bunch of Python notes a bit ago and decided to share them. They're really beginner friendly, and include a bunch of external sources that I used and continue using at the end. Hope this helps someone!
Notion Notes
Last week Heroku announced that they’re discontinuing their free tier and add one. This lead many developers to find alternatives, as heroku’s free plan allowed developers to host a variety of small and demo projects.
The 4 hosting providers listed here are some of the alternatives available for Heroku. The free plans can generally allow developers to host demos and small projects.
Do you use Heroku? And have you migrated to another hosting after this announcement?
Documentation is an important asset for all developers. There are many tools that allow you to easily create a documentation website and even generate some of it from code. These 3 tools I’ve used personally to create documentation at my job, but there are other tools that you can find online to help you with your specific use case.
If you like to play games and want to learn or practice programming languages, here are 4 games that can help you do that 🎮
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