Worklog for GA
The Cronicals of Singed Labcoat
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| Well, the new version of Automator Virtual Input is ready... Alas I can't seem to find a person with an intel mac for love nor money. Plan B was to wait till Leopard and buy myself a macbook, but now that is delayed along with the New OS... So, until I can magic up a solution, I have been working on a couple of other utilities for Mac users, which should be ready to go a couple of weeks after the Virtual input release. To add to all this, I have had a very good idea for a cross platform utility which will most likely hold the release even further while I make a couple of proof of concepts... Oh well, back to the grindstone. If everything in life had a point. Life would be pointless. Singed Labcoat Productions |
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| Over the past few days I have been trying to give Automator Virtual Input a bit of an overhaul. The main thing lacking has been an intel mac os version and while I do not own an intel mac, I have managed to locate a friend with one. With any luck I will have a compiled app within a week or so. In addition to this, a few improvements have been made, firstly the addition of a simple "move mouse" action, a bit of an oversight in hindsight. Next on the list is an extended set of shortcut commands, allowing easy access to the menu bar and the dock for the first time. However, the big advance in this release is the availability of "invisible execution". To explain, this allows the virtual input automator actions to be executed in the background without the need for a visible virtual machine. This solves all manner of problems regarding applications deactivating themselves during workflow execution, reducing the number of commands needed for a functioning workflow. This option will only be available to registered users, as 1) I am very pleased with it and 2) The software can easily be evaluated in "visible" mode and 3) It is a bit hard to register a background program that has no visible presence to the user. With any luck this version will be as successful as the last, and here is hoping that Mac OS 10.5 doesn't include mouse and keyboard commands within automator! If everything in life had a point. Life would be pointless. Singed Labcoat Productions |
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| Huzza! I have beaten of my curse and actually finished a project! And it is actually quite usefull too. Now I know it is done, I can start to talk about it without fear of slipping into Red Ocktober syndrome. (no offence, it was meant in jest ;) ) All it needs now before being released is for the program to quit when the quit option in the program menu is selected. Which is easier said than done on the mac. So, what is Automator Virtual input? Automator Virtual input is a program and set of Automator actions (written in applescript) for Apple's Automator program released with Mac OS 10.4 . However, Automator is a little limited out of the box with relatively few actions avalible. This can be improved by downloading 3rd party actions from the net, but often this is not a solution. So, to be able to do everything the user is able to do, you need control of the mouse and keyboard and that is exactly what Automator Virtual Input allows you to do. If everything in life had a point. Life would be pointless. Singed Labcoat Productions |
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After a few days hard slog, the first release is as ready as it will
ever be. Its rought around the edges, but if I don't release it as it
is, I might never get around to releasing it. It supports 6 programs to begin with, with the next release planing to support up to 20+ poker programs and a better GUI if I'm up to the task. The release price is $25 shareware with a time limited trial, which is pritty good when compared to many manual poker odds calculators, and much cheaper than most automatic recognition poker programs. Features include: - Automatic card recognition - Odds on getting a hand in the remaining cards - Rank of hold pre-flop - Cards similar to your own pre-flop - The number of hands better than yours, and how good they were pre flop - Straight and Flush Warnings - Manual Mode Supported programs for first release:- - Bet365 - Ladbrokes Poker - Empire Poker - Party Poker - Paradise Poker - Pacific Poker It is avalible on my Blitzcoder page for the time being:- http://www.blitzcoder.com/cgi-bin/showcase/showcase_showentry.pl?id=ga08292004210138&comments=no Please email me with any problems or just to tell me what you think at odds_on_support@... Hope you enjoy it. P.S. I'll leave this up on my worklog for a couple of days to see how many people actualy read this before posting on the showcase forum. (And hopefuly a chance to catch bugs before a full release). If everything in life had a point. Life would be pointless. Singed Labcoat Productions |
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Finaly managed to cobble together a website (Expect a many many many
spelling errors until I can fix them in the next couple of days). But
there are a few screenshots on the website to see what the program is
like and what it can and can't do. Anyway, here it is: http://ga101.freeserverhost.net I'll update again with a galley screenshot, spelling error fixes tomorow. If everything in life had a point. Life would be pointless. Singed Labcoat Productions |
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Advancing slowly. Glad to say that the odds calculation systems are
just about completed, all that remians is a straight warning system
which are also used by the "number of hands better than yours"
calculation systems. Still to be completed is the implemtation of sevral new poker programs for the image recon. systems. The list of programs suported for the release will be something like the following: Empire Poker Party Poker Pacific Poker Paradise Poker Bet 365 poker (hopefuly, atm it is causing problems) Plus 2 or 3 others which I have not got around to making media for yet. If you have a sudgestion for a poker program you want supported, drop me a line and I'll see what I can do. Hopefuly I will have a website up and running in a wee bit so the next time of typing you can actualy see a few shots of the program in action. If everything in life had a point. Life would be pointless. Singed Labcoat Productions |
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Having advanced as far as I could with the demo version of blitz 3D, I
finaly managed to purchase it (which is kinda strange, seeing this is a
mainly 2D project, but I'm sure my urge to create a 3D slot car game
will bair fruit one day, plus I've never been a fan of the windows API
to justify buying BlitzPlus.) Anyway, who am I? Well, I'm a 3rd year chemistry student from Scotland, who was doing computer science as well until I realised just how much I hated Java and the science of computing. So, while chemistry is what I realy enjoy, unless I go into the meth lab trade I don't have many income options for a student in dire need of pub..erm.. book money. Yes, I know it realy isn't the done thing to say "I'm in this for the money", but I am, its eiter this or flipping burgers. Enought said realy. However, I have been a fan of BASIC, or basic style, programing lanuages and have been developing the Odds On project for the last couple of months on the blitz 3D demo. I've been using Dark basic for two and a half years, but it has its flaws and isn't realy the thing for aplications. Before that it was True Basic for 3 years. Now onto the project itself. Having seen a few of the hack and slash VB efforts at programs which give users the odds on what the likelyhood of X card coming out, most of which require manual intervention, I figgered it might be worthwhile researching the topic and there are a few programs that will read and display odds automaticly. A couple of these read packets and a couple use image recon. However the packet reading types tend to only work with one or two diffrent programs, or be overpriced and the image recon. on the others does tend to be a little slow, poorly layed out, display little infromation and overpriced. There does seem to be a gap in the market for a poker odds calculator that will automaticly read the cards, display more than just the chances, work on many poker programs but not to bombard the user with odds (like in many high priced programs), displaying the information clearly (Die windows API!) and come in at a reasonable price, say 25 dollars. Thus far, the program has advanced to a point where it hads a modular way to add and register new poker programs which should alow easyer updating. The recognition does work pritty well, however football365 poker is a right pain in the backside and will have to wait for an update. Also, the "main" odds have been implemented, along with the Hold card rankings. Still to be completed is the methods which determine how many hands are better than the users, which are proving more complex than expected. However, all being well, I should have the core of the program working by the end of the week ready for the implementation of new poker programs and improved GUI on course for a release within 2 weeks after that. Back to the grindstone... If everything in life had a point. Life would be pointless. Singed Labcoat Productions |