Project Journal - Week 5
7/2/04
Well, Aristo decided to be a spoon today. Actually, I don't think it was his fault. The wireless network was being spotty. As was my JavaScript, for that matter. *sigh* I'm getting Firefox installed on the laptop I plan to use for the actual experiment, though, so the day won't be a total waste of time. And I think I might have figured out part of why the JavaScript is being so vexing. I think that one of the pages is running one of the timing functions twice. That evidently messes up my later function that puts that data into an array. And bad data in equals worse data coming back out. Okay, fine. But the code on what I *think* is the trouble page (but the problem tends to move around a bit) is identical to the code on the other pages. *heavy sigh* Well, maybe my solution from last time will work - leave it alone until it decides to fix itself.
Don't I wish.
Goals for Monday: Beat the wireless network into submission (a bit difficult, seeings as it's intangible, but maybe my code-beating stick can become a network-beating stick). Take Aristo downstairs. Work on obtaining and setting up video cameras. And JavaScript, as usual.
7/1/04
After such an arduous day yesterday, I took an enormous break today. I'll make up for it tomorrow. I did get some stuff tweaked on my webpage, but the JavaScript still only functions 75% of the time. And the errors keep showing up in the different places, too. Stupid. *shakes fist*
Goals for tomorrow: Same as yesterday.
6/30/04
I have the rooms I want. I have them on July 10 and 11 for practicing, and on July 17 and 18 to run this thing. That doesn't leave much time for dilly-dallying. Luckily for me, there isn't *that* much left to do. The biggest thing now is to get the robot running reliably and get subjects. I admit that these are no small tasks, especially the first. But... well, "I think I can" worked well enough for the Little Engine. It can work well enough for me.
I got the paperwork in! Go me! Now I have to wait a bit 'til they approve it. *twiddles thumbs patiently*
The JavaScript works... sometimes. As fickle as any three cats I know. And as of right now, it doesn't work at all on Firefox. *heavy sigh* Well, I've still got a few more tricks up my sleeve. The final display looks nicer now, at least.
(later) I DID IT!!! After about a week of futzing around with various things, I finally got Aristo to move around from the old Vaio I'm borrowing for this specific purpose. I DID IT!
I'm done for today. The JavaScript still isn't perfect, but right now, I care not in the slightest.
Goals for tomorrow: JavaScript - what else? If I have some time, I'll take Aristo down to where I want to run the thing and make sure he'll work there.
6/28/04
I've set a deadline for myself: I want to run this thing July 16-18. That doesn't give me a LOT of time, but I think I have enough time, and I think it will help motivate me to get my rear in gear. Besides, I'm a block plan kid. Three weeks? More than enough time!
I have one of the rooms I want to use for sure. Waiting on confirmation for the other four. As soon as I have that, the paperwork will finally get sent off. As soon as I have the go-ahead from the IRB, flyers will get pasted up everywhere I can think to put them. With any luck, about thirty people will be intrigued enough to sign up. While I'm waiting on that, I'll be getting the robot up and rolling, getting people to run through the experiment so I can work out the kinks, and getting all the random stuff together that I'll need for the experiment (boxes, stuff to go in said, etectera).
Three weeks. Should be interesting.
(later) I HATE THE WORLD. I CHANGED THE CODE TO MAKE IT NOT BREAK WHEN THE ENTER BUTTON WAS PUSHED, AND NOW THE GODFORSAKEN DISPLAY DOESN'T WORK RIGHT ANYMORE.
Goals for tomorrow: STUPID JAVASCRIPT OF STUPID.