Replacing a Daewoo Lanos Fuel Filter... the Cheap Way...

Here's some advice from the past for anyone who owns a Daewoo Lanos (and, perhaps, other models)...

I found that a certain cheap, readily available door panel remover tool from AutoZone allowed quick and easy removal of my old fuel filter. (I had previously attemted to remove it with everything from a wrench to a piece of cardboard cut in the shape of a KM-475-B, but to no avail.

Read the full article on the OEM Industrial Door Panel Remover on GameVortex.com

This Week on the 'Net - Elementary, Dear Watson...

IBM creates an artificial intelligence able to take on the best human players in a linguistically challenging game - Jeopardy.

Check it out:
Jeopardy Feb. 14 2011 (HDTV) - Watson vs Ken Jennings vs Brad Rutter IBM Challenge Day 1 Part 1/2

Jeopardy Feb. 14 2011 (HDTV) - Watson vs Ken Jennings vs Brad Rutter IBM Challenge Day 1 Part 2/2

Jeopardy Feb. 15 2011 (HDTV) - Watson vs Ken Jennings vs Brad Rutter IBM Challenge Day 2 Part 1/2

Jeopardy Feb 15 2011 (HDTV) - Watson vs Ken Jennings vs Brad Rutter IBM Challenge Day 2 Part 2/2

Jeopardy Feb. 16 2011 (HDTV) - Watson vs Ken Jennings vs Brad Rutter IBM Challenge Day 3 Part 1/2

Jeopardy Feb. 16 2011 (HDTV) - Watson vs Ken Jennings vs Brad Rutter IBM Challenge Day 3 Part 2/2

Final Jeopardy! and the Future of Watson

And the Weiner is...

Yes, I admit it... Epic Fail.

I could complain about my wife being out of town and, therefore, not only not able to help me with my Venom costume, but causing me to be distracted, as I don't operate well (at all) when she's not around.

I could also blame the time I spent on reviewing stuff for the websites or helping to run the ACM Regional Programming Competition at LSU, but that would be unseemly, now wouldn't it?

Or, I could blame it on the red paint not drying on the rubber snake (it didn't for about a week, actually) or the fact that Hancock Fabrics didn't have enough of the material I wanted. I could even say it's all because my sewing machine refused to work the night before the contest... which is true, but hardly the one thing that went wrong...

The truth, of course, is that I tried to do too much, in too short of a time. I didn't even wear a costume for Halloween this year. Live and (hopefully) learn, I suppose. My plan is to keep working on the Venom costume over the next year, in my "spare" time. I am generally a busy person, but I'm going to try to set aside a few hours a week to work on "Personal Projects," such as building a full-sized R-Series Droid, modifying my car, dabbling with electronics and making costumes, not the least of which is this Venom costume.

In other news, my best friend, neighbor, fellow Game Vortex game reviewer and partner in crime, J.R. Nip, did throw together a costume in a single night, and not only did it come out nice looking - he actually took first place at Lamar's Corporate Headquarters Costume Contest. He went as Dilbert, with black shoes, white socks, black pants, a white shirt, a flip-up red tie that I helped rig up with a metal coat hanger and a mask he made of poster board, skin-tone material and enough chemical adhesives to tranquilize a horse. He did an awesome job, and won a hundred dollar prize, to boot!

Ah, well... Venom will have to have his day next year. . .

A Weak Start... Head and Shoulders...

Well, actually, Head and Chest... Last night I didn't find much time at all to work on my Venom costume, so most of the work is going to be done tonight when I get home. What does that mean for drying times? Eh... flying by the seat of my pants, as usual on these projects; we'll have to see what develops...

Speaking of the seat of my pants, I sliced open an old jumpsuit from waist up to middle back and across the back, in a plus-sign shaped cut for stress relief, then plan to patch the jumpsuit tonight and use it as the underlayment of the Venom costume. I stitched out my first "rough draft" at making a muscle-suit chest out of an old pillow that, despite my dog's wishes, is otherwise destined for the city dump. I will need to pick up some super strength Velcro for attaching one half of the muscle chest and for other certain parts to work right, as well as a good bit of black fabric, but I plan to do that at Hancock Fabrics on the way home. Tonight is build night... Hope this goes well.

The baseball cap and coat hangers idea seems to be working out pretty well, so far. I plan to add in some black foam core board I have left over from another project, to keep it light while providing some rigidity, but it will need to be painted with a plasticized paint when it's in place.

I also need to stop by some place for my paints on the way home. I have some black dimensional fabric paint (puff paints rule!), but I need some black gloss, white gloss and black gloss paints... Maybe Vinyl? Perhaps Latex? There's a Rustoleum Vinyl made for fabrics, but I don't know if I can source it locally... we'll see...

(Pictures to be added later this evening.)

Tongue! (But not on the first date...)

I found a suitable rubber snake! After searching around Baton Rouge and finding snakes that were either not rubber, too expensive, too small or too flimsy, I found nearly the perfect thing at Party Time on Bluebonnet. This snake is not as thick as I was originally looking for, but it is three feet long and is made of a very "springy" rubber, such that a slight motion will start if bouncing and oscillating, giving it a generally "lively" appearance. Best of all? It was around a buck and a half. Can't easily beat that...

...And I'll Form the Head!

Venom's head, like his body, is larger than a human's, with an exaggerated, over-sized mouth. To create this head, I plan to incorporate a baseball cap (as the upper half of the mouth and a custom made jaw made of a metal coat hanger that hangs from the cap, forms the outline of the jawline and serves as an infrastructure for the jaw.

This image (Created by Andre Holzmeister) is what inspired me to go with a baseball cap-based mask. Note the baseball cap brim-shaped upper mouth. If you fill out the area above the brim a bit, and cover the entire thing with black, shiny fabric, you have half of Venom's head. (Well, you'd want to add the eyes, too.)

I don't know how well you can tell in this sketch, but I quickly sketched out a form-up of that idea, and I think it could turn out quite nicely.



The tongue is an interesting challenge. My first thought was to use (part of) a rubber snake. Find a rubber snake tail that had a good curve to it, paint it appropriately and you're done. Surprisingly, sourcing a decent rubber snake (considering size, curve and reasonable cost) proved to be a bit difficult. I am considering other possibilities, such as making one out of fabric and painting it with black vinyl paint, but I've not yet got a single solution that I am dead-set on. We'll have to see how things turn out, I suppose.

JavaScript String Replace All... and Then Some...

Need to replace text in a JavaScript string? Use string.replace and you're done. Unless, of course, there are multiple instances to be replaced, since the string.replace() function only replaces the first occurrence.

I had that problem, and found Brandino's article, JavaScript String Replace All to be just the trick.

It seems that you can use a regular expression as the target of the string.replace function.

In fact, in addition to being able to do multiple replaces on a single target, this also would allow you to create a regex target for your replace that would replace different things with the same replacement text... which could be handy if you need to remove or replace certain unwanted characters throughout a string...

LEGO Mindstorms NXT sensors to limiting? Roll your own...

Found this neat how to article via HackADay.com...

Designing Lego Mindstorms NXT sensors - Stew’s Spot

...pretty neat... If only I could find some free time...

Discover Your Brain on Videogames...

When it comes to mainstream media, video games usually get the short end of the stick, at best, and the business end of the stick more often. That's why I was pleasantly surprised to see an article entitled, "This is Your Brain on Video Games" in the Brain Special Issue of Discovery recently.

It's a nice read, and I won't ruin it for anyone, but, in short, it indicates that playing videogames can help to sharpen an individual's brain - not in the "hand-eye coordination" way that we hear as a somewhat frequent retort to the media's latest frenzied attempt to blame anything from violence in our schools and road-rage to terrorism and global warming on our favorite digital passtime, but in what they describe as "mental dexterity" - essentially, playing videogames can help train a person to solve problems. Who knew?