Posts Tagged ‘hardware’ Feed

(不太)窮人版Joystick|(Not so) poorman’s Joystick

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

一直對玩Flight simulator略有興趣,但沒有Joystick實在是難度加倍,尤其是噴射機,用Keyboard實在很準確控制發動機的輸出,很容易就超速或失速,但用mouse的話就很費時間,沒有Autopilot靠keyboard著陸就真的是難過登天。

I like playing flight simulator, although never ever invested a whole lot of time into it. Anyway, playing without joystick is hard, real hard.

Especially with Jet, it’s very difficult to control the engine output precisely with the F1-F4 key, and easily end up with overspeed or underspeed or even stalling if not paying enough attention, but using mouse would be a real waste of time. Landing a Jet with keyboard without Autopilot? It’s barely manageable.

始終玩flight sim都只是三分鐘熱度,所以不想花費一分錢去買一個joystick。

Though I know in the next few weeks I will be playing another game again, I don’t want to spend a buck on joystick.

但辦法還是有的,嘿嘿。我身邊可用的輸入硬件就是比較多的說……

But there is solution…ha, after all i got quite a number of human-interface devices around me.

GlovepiePPJoy,我將我的MIDI keyboard和Wiimote nunchuk的訊號轉換成虛擬Joystick輸入,經過一番功夫配好flightsim內的控制設定後,窮人版Joystick就真正出爐!唯一電台調頻和Autopilot的設定還是需要Mouse代勞,就Control Surface和Engine Control而然,正式可以跟Keyboard講bye bye。

By using Glovepie and PPJoy, I converted my MIDI keyboard and Wiimote nunchuk signal into a virtual joystick. With some fine tuning in the FS’s input settings, finally here is the poorman’s joystick! Only downside is that radio tuning and autopilot settings still require the use of mouse, but for control surface and engine control, I could finally say goodbye with the keyboard!

對應的GlovePIE script: My FS GlovePIE Script。至於Keyboard上面,我把大部份控制項都對應到MIDI ControlChange event。

Here is the GlovePIE Script customized for my set. I mapped the MIDI Keyboard controls to MIDI ControlChange event.

這是我的駕駛艙控制台

My cockpit controls.

Autopilot面板,降落時要Disconnect autopilot方便多……

The autopilot panel, it’s far lot easier to disconnect autopilot while landing and flaring the plane…

發動機控制台、連擾流板和襟翼控制。TOGA按鈕在keyboard的左手邊。

The engine quadrant, completed with spoiler and flap control. The TOGA button is on the left hand side of the keyboard.

後話:以前一直不知道Elevator trim有啥用,用了Poorman’s Joystick控制第一次起飛就感覺到這個東西存在的必要……

後後話:我的系統是Windows Vista和Microsoft Flight Simulator X,以上配置運作無誤。

P.S. I never knew why in the world there is a elevator trim control…but when I take off with the poorman’s joystick for first time, I finally feel the immediate urge for having this control within finger reach.

P.P.S. I am running all these on Windows Vista with Microsoft Flight Simulator X SP2 without a single glitch.

硬盤長大了|My harddrive is growing up

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

假設硬盤的生長速度緊貼Moore’s Law (so far還可以),而我的資料的生長速度比Moore’s Law慢,那我的server在未來一定可以還可以裝得下我我的資料。

If the harddrive growing speed is strictly sticking with the Moore’s Law (so far that’s pretty much the case), and that my data is growing slower than what’s Moore’s Law has predicted, then my server could still hold my data at anytime in the future.

但大前提是我要一直買新的Harddisk。

A big assumption: I have to keep forking out money in purchasing new harddrive.

2007年初拆巨資買下的500GB已經爆滿了一段時間,我也不得不把我的資料增長暫緩了好一段時間。眼見1TB雖從初期的$3000回落到$13xx,但感覺還是有點貴,而且我的資料增長束度好像有點放緩(少看了動畫的緣故吧?),所以前天買了一個640GB的先充充饑。

In the Q1 of 2007, I spent a whole lot in buying a 500GB, and it was full for quite some time. I have to stop my data from growing for a while also. While the 1TB harddrive price dropped to HKD $1300 from HKD $3000 when it was released, it’s still pretty expensive. Besides, it looks like my data doesn’t grow as fast (because I watched less Anime recently? who knows-), so I bought a new one the day before and settled with a 640GB.

舊的500GB就轉移過去Backup Server,Backup Server現在就有2*250GB+1*500GB=1TB的空間。比我19年前用在386機上的100MB大了整整10000倍(算起來每17.1個月就翻了一翻,雖不是蘋果比蘋果但anyway)。Backup上的320GB還可以退下來給我Backup Laptop用的說。

The old 500GB is then transferred to the backup server. The backup server now have 2*250GB+1*500GB=1TB space available. Comparing with my 100MB  installed in a 386 desktop 19 years ago, it is 10000 times bigger. (That’s about doubling for every 17.1 months, that’s not apple to apple comparison, but anyway). The 320GB from the backup is also offlined so I colud use it to backup my desktop now.

花了整整1天,才能把4xxGB的data 通過100Mbps Ethernet backup一次,看在下次更新時要把GE network card換上去backup server才成。

It took 1 day to re-sync the existing 4xxGB through the 100Mbps ethernet. Looks like I must upgrade it to GE next time.