Back in 1998, my good friend Bubba Murarka ran for ASI President. As a member of his campaign staff, I created his campaign website.
Bubba asked why this website wasn't listed in the Old Projects and Random Stuff section. Well Bubba, I just brought it back from retirement. Back from the grave. I present to you, the Vote Big! Vote Bubba! website.
...and look I just found and dusted off:
Here's the deal behind this program. I have lots of MP3s. They're organized like this:
Genre\Artist\Album\Song
I manually organize my music like this since the ID tags are never complete or consistant. I can easly right click on a folder and select "Play in Winamp" and if I do that to a Genre, it will add everything under that folder into the playlist.
Well I like lots of different types of music. I have a Punk folder, Ska folder, Classic Rock folder, etc. But what happens when I get a new album? I would have to remember to add it to the playlist, then save the play list. Otherwise I'd have to select everything all over again.
Let's go one step further. Since I have so much music, there is inevitably lots of crap. Let's face it: the majority of albums do not contain 100% good songs. Then you have the bands like No Doubt, for example, which used to kick ass and now suck because they start experimenting with crap and change their style. Then you have one hit wonders where all their songs except for that one single sucks (like the Meat Puppets with Backwater).
My solution? My Winamp Dynamic Playlist
You have a text file that lists as many drives, folders, and/or files that you'd like in your playlist. When you run my Winamp Dynamic Playlist, it:
1) Starts Winamp (if necessary)
2) Clears the playlsit
3) Recursively adds all of the mp3s located in the drives, folders, and/or files that you've listed in your text file
4) Sorts the playlist alphabetically, so all of the tracks are in order for each album
5) Turns on shuffle mode
6) Hits the play button for you
Download a new album? No problem, throw it in its folder and run the dynamic playlist program. I keep mine in the Quick Launch area next to the start button.
Download: My Dynamic Playlist
Requirements: Windows and .NET Runtime
Source Included
In on of my grad level language classes, I had to write a Scheme Interpreter. Scheme is a funcitonal language. Functional languages differ from the imperative languages that you may be used to or have heard of: C/C++/C#/Java/VB/etc. Instead doing stuff line by line, you evaulate expressions backwards. For example:
(+ 8 7) will return 15
(+ 8 (* 3 4)) will return 20
Weird? Yes! But some swear by it. Most hate it.
I'd rather do:
a = 8 + 7;
b = 8 + (3 * 4);
Download: Scheme Interpreter
Requirements: Windows and .NET Runtime
Source Included
This project called for use of Physic in an animation. Some people pushed a brick off a ledge. I made a rollercoaster. Parabolic curves are used to define the track. You can even switch the view from 3rd person to 1st person and ride the rollercoaster.
This project went way beyond the requirements, so I never planned on fixing all of the rough edges. Just the fact that the car, once pulled to the top by the chain, actually used physics to follow the track was a major acomplishment. I think the highest bonus points prior to this project was a +10. I got a +20. Looking back though, it looks kinda ghetto.
Download: Rollercoaster
Requirements: Java AND Java 3D
Source included
I took this AI grad class because it seemed like the easiest. Most of the stuff was boring, probably because of the teacher. But I did come out with a cool little project that used Genetic Algorithms combined with Music Theory to create good sounding music.
Download: Genetic Algorithm Music Generator
Requirements: Windows and .NET Runtime)
Source Included
In this little project, I created an animated hand. The fingers will independently move depending on the keys that you press.
1 - 1 finger up
2 - 2 fingers up
3 - 3 fingers up
4 - 4 fingers up
I - Bend Index finger
M - Bend Middle finger
R - Bend Ring finger
P - Bend Pinky finger
T - Bend Thumb
A or 0 - Bend All fingers
U - Hang Loose
When CONTROL is held while pressing a number, the active fingers will only bend half way.
Download: Animated Hand
Requirements: Java AND Java 3D
Source Included
I survived hell - otherwise know as Dr. Clint Staley. Through this class, I wrote an Othello game, which included minimax AI for the computer player. I wrote two completely separate but identical versions: In C++ (using MFC) and Java (using Swing).
Downloads:
C++ Version (Requirements: Windows)
Java Version (Requirements: Java Runtime)
So I decided to take this real-time 3D games class, which was being offered for the first time replacing a virtual reality class. I ended up kicking ass in that class and created a pretty cool world to run around in.
I saw "world" because it isn't much of a game. The teacher didn't want us to kill stuff, so we "harvested trees." Yeah, whatever. Anyway, it uses Quake 2 character models so you can walk around as a Stormtrooper or Lara Croft from tomb raider and shoot stuff.
As for the tech details see the readme file below:
Download: Ryan's 3D World
Requirements: Windows and a 3D Graphics card that supports OpenGL. Most do. That's probably the only requirements. Email me if something doesn't work.
Read on for the technical details, controls, and known issues.
Classwatch started out as a personal tool that I used to get classes. It would watch over the "open class list" and as soon as a class that I wanted opened up (for example, if someone dropped the class) then I would be notified by email, page, text message, or IM. Little did I know that almost 1300 students would use it!
Classwatch became very popular and people became to depend on it. Some emailed me to thank me for giving them the opportunity to graduate in time! Articles were written up in the Mustang Daily school paper and the College of Engineering Newsletter. I was even able to get it written off as my senior project, although I orignally had no intensions of doing so.
Classwatch was eventually closed when ITS (tech dept at Cal Poly) decided to stop the "Open Class List" that Classwatch, and in the later part other competitors, used a the source of information.
I'll evenutally move it over to ryanretting.com although it won't send a text message to your phone anymore. Put it in the museum of Ryan Retting as a little nostalgia. In its day it was huge!
EZsearch was the first tool to let you quickly search for open classes AND get their descriptions and pre-requisites through the course catalog. In the first 1/2 and even later, you didn't know what classes were all about. All you had was a course number or a GE category that you needed to satisfy. This quickely linked up the course catalog since that was what most people were referencing when they were registering for classes.
EZsearch was also closed after ITS pulled the Open Class List (See Classwatch). Hundreds of people used EZsearch back in the day... back in the day!
The random Voting Booth was fairly popular on my old Cal Poly website. It still works, so feel free to Rock The Vote!
