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| Acmlm's Board - I3 Archive - - Posts by Kirk Bradford Myers |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy                     Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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Originally posted by Zoku Zoku, you know something, that's not a half-bad idea!  Of course, that would require a little bit of digging to find Samus's starting position relative to where she was when she comes out of ball mode. My guess is that she appears one or two pixels above where she was and gravity takes care of the rest and pulls her back down. The little hop, I believe, is for effect. I don't know how removing that effect would look in-game, but it would solve the problem and keep me from tearing door mechanics apart.
I'm not too privy on programming myself...much of what I've done to Metroid Begins was done with MetEdit, a hex editor, and some other tools including a ROM corrupter to help me find data. But I do have at least a rudimentary understanding of what I'm looking at when I pour over code. Looking at the Metroid source code by Snowbro helped me locate the ROM bytes for Samus's ending times, and setting breakpoints in FCE Ultra's debugger helped me weed out the amounts of energy/missiles that Samus gains when she picks up one of those little artfacts left behind by enemies. I changed that to slightly higher amounts (Energy=7,25, or 35 / Missiles=6 or 32) because I wanted to eliminate the deal where Samus has to sit at a vent hole picking off Zebs for two hours striaight in order to gain enough missiles and energy just to open a locked door and kill a miniboss. The whole design philosophy behind Samus gaining two rockets on pickup sucked...she could waste that on a Reo and a Geruta before she even reached the next door or miniboss. Getting through the game itself rather than concerning oneself with minute details while the meter is ticking should be the primary concern. And just for the record, Samus will start the game with 99 units of energy as in all other Metroid games.
Anyway, concerning the wall-door trick, I think I'm going to go about it like this, per your suggestion. First, I'm going to see if their is an address in the RAM that determines whether Samus is currently in a ball or not. When and if I find it. I'll set a breakpoint to see if I can determine what writes that address, and look in the resulting code to see if I can locate it in the ROM. My guess is that the byte which makes Samus do that little "hop" is located nearby. If I can reset this slightly, problem solved! If not.. 
Right now, though, I have to fix that elevator in Ridley, and there are a couple of small minor things I thought about tonight in Tourian that may need my tender-loving care. A searching for spare bytes I go! But many thinks for the suggestion, I will look into that and see what I can do.(edited by Kirk Bradford Myers on 03-02-06 06:11 AM) |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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| I don't think there should be a problem with people writing articles about themselves or their hacks so long as a neutral point of view is maintained and the articles remain purely factual. A wiki, as previously mentioned, is a source of true information, not a place for people to brag about "how awesome they are". That's a matter of other's opinion, really. It's up to those who moderate the wiki to make sure that this "neutral" point of view is maintained. This neutrality is one of the things that has kept Datacrystal.org as successful as it has been up until now. That wiki seems to be very well moderatied by those in charge.
I also don't believe that the Acmlm wiki should be a repository of hacking information, as Datacrystal.org already serves that purpose, but instead should be more of a page about various hacks, who created them, general information about the board and it's occupants, etc. Just my two cents on the whole thing. I think it can definitely help to eliminate some of the initial "chaos". (edited by Kirk Bradford Myers on 03-03-06 11:23 AM) |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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| Hey, people, thinks for the feedback. Much appreciated. Glad you liked the wordage...
Raccoon Sam, I'm cool with you using Planet Zebes in a flash animation so long as I am given credit for the poem within the credits of the flash somewhere. I'd be interested to see what a flash animation based around this poem would look/sound like. The poem was written to accompany my upcoming hack that inspired it, Metroid Begins, where you truly cannot escape Norfair without the Hi-Jump Boots or enter Ridley without the Wave Beam. The Ice Beam benefitting you in Kraid was also no bull, as their are several places there that you will not be able to reach without it.
Dei, Edges Of The Universe and Temple Of The Sun God were actually composed out of the lyrics of songs that I wrote that I knew would never see the light of day because I currently specialize in progressive instrumental rock with no lyrics, and also because by singing voice is total and complete shit. My voice is perfectly good for comedy rock which I also write, but trying to use my voice to sing a deep meaningful song would turn out to be more hilarious than anything, and not in a good way. Imagine 'Weird Al' Yankovic attempting to sing The Star-Spangled Banner. You get the idea...kareoke scares me more than cancer!  Rather than let these lyrics go to waste, I decided to turn them into poems.
I Stand Alone is a personal favorite of mine because it is the most personal of the four in regards to my own life. I have others lying around on floppy disks, but I can't remember them offhand. I can access them, but first I'll have to hook up my Commodore 64! 
Thanks again for the positive feedback. Take care.  |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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| Photography is also one of my guilty pleasures. Perhaps I'll post some of my stuff up here at the boards when I acquire the space at KirkBradfordMyers.com, hopefully on the 17th of this month.
These pictures are gorgeous, by the way. You really have a discerning eye for it and a talent for capturing the moment. Good job on these. A suggestion...keep your camera with you 24-7, like I do. The natural progression of life has a beautiful randomness to it...You never know when one these photographic moments will crop up, either to be captured or lost forever.
Take care... |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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Very very creepy, like something off of "The Twilight Zone".  Quite disturbing to one weak of mind and heart.
I like this a lot! (edited by Kirk Bradford Myers on 03-04-06 05:01 AM) (edited by Kirk Bradford Myers on 03-04-06 05:01 AM) |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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| I have had no experience with Bucky O'Hare whatsoever, but I have found from looking at the insides of NES games that the pallettes for most of these are in the form OF XX XX XX OF XX XX XX and so on. (OF represents the transparent color, sometimes this is a different color, though.) 'Course, this may be hell to locate with a hex editor.
What I would suggest is that you use a program called NES Pallette Editor, which will display the ROM code and any corresponding colors byte for byte. I would'nt make changes with it or save, but it's great for looking and locating what you need to change with a separate hex editor. All else failing, you could try using a ROM corrupter such as Corrupster. Zophar's Domain has both these programs on hand in their General Utilities sections somewhere. Hope that makes the looking a little easier. Take care... |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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Originally posted by Metal Knuckles Heavy metal music, as well as many other forms of entertainment, has been wrongly panned over the years because of the types of people like the ones you have just described, ones who slit their wrists...as well as ones that resort to violent means to their ends, turn into degenerates, etc. Conservatives and the moral majority just love to eat that stuff right up because we live in a world that loves to blame other outside influences such as people and forms of art for the degeneration of society. It protects them from looking inward and having to admit the ACTUAL root cause for such, that being that the people themselves are nuttier than fruitcakes and that we, to a degree, helped to make them that way through our 'good and proper' parenting. it is repression, NOT the outlets through art appreciation and freedom of choice, that creates a nation of imbeciles and the Lemmings who are barely any better who only crawl out of the woodwork to pay attention to them when it comes time to bestow judgement and Hell fire upon them. They deserve each other, really... If somebody takes a gun and shoots up their school and then slashes their wrists in the name of almighty Lucifer just because some asshole with a guitar told him that he should do it, then I believe that that person's personal problems go far beyond listening to too much Judas Priest or playing too much Grand Theft Auto or watching too many gory slasher flicks. Because I myself can honestly say that in my youth I've seen quite my share of horror movies and played more than my share of violent video games while rocking out in my parents' basement to bands like Prong and Nuclear Assault, and I am now a fairly well-adjusted 33-year old suburbanite with a loving fiancee, a roof over my head, and a pretty decent job that doesn't involve slinging trash or throwing french fries into a grease cooker or dealing illegal substances on the street, one that actually involves real work and responsibilities. My rap sheet, if you could call it that, consists solely of a few measly traffic tickets, all paid and taken care of. Man, all that art appreciation I partook of back then really turned me into a raving lunatic, didn't it?
And before anyone comes out and says "everybody handles these things differently", you're absolutely right. Sane people with a grip on reality handle stimuli much differently than insane, irrational, and delusional people. All the more reason not to lump everybody and everything in the same boat. The fact that disgruntled laborers and students who take their guns to their places of business and learning were already a few fries short of a Happy Meal before Slayer ever even got ahold of their ears never seems to occur to those who dictate what is right and wrong for the masses. So the next time some waste of otherwise good sperm and eggs puts a shotgun in his mouth and gives the entertainment industry a bad name, let's do this. Let's, for once, look beyond the tried and true scapegoat philosophy and stop blaming the arts and movies and video games for everything going on in these people's excuses for heads and start taking a look at the real reasons for why these people are fucked up...themselves! The only way we're going to solve these problems is by getting to the root cause, not through the "redeeming" powers of judgement and damnation. Remember this...what you've been told about situations like these is fed to you through the media, and the media is controlled by the government. And the government would, deep down, love nothing better than to silence people and oppress their freedom of self-exp *** Steps down off the podium now...*** I can't believe no one here has mentioned Mudvayne. My brother Matt has recently gotten me into these guys because he knows how much I love progressive rock and stuff with weird off-rhythms in it, stuff he refers to as "Math Metal". Mudvayne are the bee's knees, a very musical band with shitloads of talent! Oh, and just thought I'd mention that two weekends ago I finally had an opportunity to see Prong live, they are phenomenal! They, along with Sleep Infection and Overkill ripped the roof off the Recher Theater here in Baltimore.
I would recommend all of the following for a good Metal fix: Judas Priest Prong Sleep Infection Megadeth (Old school stuff, "Peace Sells" era...) Led Zeppelin Overkill Metallica (Old school stuff only!!! Preferably "Master Of Puppets" era...?) Dream Theater D.R.I. Joe Satriani Nuclear Assault Mudvayne KIX Extreme (First two albums...) Fishbone Godsmack Alice In Chains KISS Black Sabbath (Ozzy era...) EDIT: Good god! How did I forget to mention Pantera?!!? (edited by Kirk Bradford Myers on 03-06-06 12:35 PM) (edited by Kirk Bradford Myers on 03-06-06 02:30 PM) (edited by Kirk Bradford Myers on 03-06-06 02:41 PM) |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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| I wouldn't mind seeing that as the opening of a live action movie!
In the scene where Homer gets off of work, did anyone take note of the bottom right corner of the screen? That's Mr. Burns and Smithers sitting there! Pretty good reproductions, too. |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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| Okay, um...in that case...
Meow?
Guess it's a good thing I chose a cat-related avatar. Bow before the sphinx!
Seriously though, it looks like a limited amount of words were used. What determined who got what? Just curious... |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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| Something odd I've noticed about the video...something for those who are quick of eye.
Watch the couch scene at the end carefully. Baby Maggie is not on the couch at the start. The other four Simpsons run for the couch from different directions. When Marge passes by the spot where Maggie is sitting at the end, she is suddenly just there, sitting on the couch. Who was holding Baby Maggie?? Who put her there????
For the record,, I realize that she was most likely superimposed into the scene after the fact, but I just found this snafu to be rather interesting. I've also noticed that the car Marge is driving has the steering wheel on the right. That is because British cars are usually built like that. They may need to mirror that scene for the US broadcast so that it's more like the actual show Quite Ironically, Homer is driving on the left! ?????
And to those criticizing the look of the characters, you've got to admit that they look pretty good considering that they could have just as easily given us a "Burt Rwynolds as Boss Hogg" deal. Saying that they should have retained their wacky hairdos is like saying that they should have all had yellow skin and huge bulging eyes, too. All things considering, I think the job was well done here. They absolutely nailed Homer, and his car looks spot-on perfect!
One last thing...in the scene where the car chases Homer into the garage... PLUMBER'S CRACK ALERT!!!  (edited by Kirk Bradford Myers-cat on 03-07-06 01:43 PM) |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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| My favorite classical composer is Mozart. I listen to a lot of the stuff he did when I need musical inspiration, because he did a lot of modern-day tricks you usually don't hear in that type of music. Bach is also another good one. As you may or may not know, he composed the famous dark-sounding "Tocatta and Fugue in D".
The stuff that Trammell Starks did for The Weather Channel is also really nice and quite original. I have a three CD set by him of that stuff. Smooth jazz/New Age type of music, but with a modern rock mentality to it. As for bands I listen to that are instrumental, I'd highly recommend Ozric Tentacles, positively the best and most underrated band on this planet. Their guitarist Ed Wynne, who writes a lot of their material, is nothing short of a genius. Also, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, whos guitar works are the most diverse and beautifully weird I've ever heard. |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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On a long bun, with cheese, mustard, and chili, like a hot dog. The only way to eat penis. Mmm Mmm good! What a hit they would be at the baseball game. I can see the commercials for them now. "Ball Park Dicks. They plump when you cook 'em!" 
Which reminds me of a joke I've heard... This guy walks into a restaurant in Spain, and seeing as he's on travel for a business venture, he doesn't understand a word of Spanish and cannot read the menu. He looks over at the next guy's plate, and he's eating this huge fried bull penis. He thinks it looks interesting, and tells the waiter he would like to try that. The waiter informs him that he can only order in advance for Tuesdays and Fridays, after the big bullfights take place. As it is now Wednesday, the businessman places his order in advance and agrees to return on Friday. He comes back on Friday and seats himself, and is immediately presented with a plate of fried penis. But to his shock, it is nothing like the one he saw days before...rather, it is very small and shrunken up. He calls the waiter over and asks him what the deal is, as this looks nothing like the dinner he ordered days ago. "I'm sorry", the waiter informs him. "Sometimes the bull wins."
Enjoy your ha-has... |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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Originally posted by Cruel Justice That comment, my friend, was priceless!
Do you all remember back in the 80s when people would walk around carrying a 900-pound radio on their shoulder be-bopping down the street like they were the baddest of the bad? The people who I personally thought looked retarded even back then? Those shoes are the next generation "ghetto-blasters". I can hear yesterday's kids talking to their grandkids right now. "Back in my day, sonny, we didn't even have shoes that played music. We actually had to carry the big radio with us if we wanted to irritate other people around us. You kids don't know how good you got it!" Shoes are expensive as it is. This is nothing but a good excuse to tack on another 200 dollars to the price just so they can break the minute my little future 12-year-old wannabe rocker son or daughter steps in dogshit. Thanks, but no thanks... |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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| The scary part about that whole essay is that it actually makes sense. Can't draw any conclusions about it's effectiveness, though. Remember, Saddam Hussein, despite being outnumbered, ourgunned, outmuscled, outspirited, and just plain out ---insert your own word here---d , was once crazy enough to promise us the "Mother Of All Battles". Even when his people were thowing up their arms and surrendering in droves, he still thought that "Allah" was on his side. If that's not the signs of someone who could be considered "irrational" I don't know what is. And when irrationality meets lunacy, all sorts of things are bound to happen which do nothing to pacify the situation but make it worse.
And for the record, the last real "Mother Of All Battles" I've seen fought in the last twenty years was the one I fought on planet Zebes, armed with nothing but a gamepad. I won that one, too... |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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Originally posted by Jigglysaint That IS a cool idea! Considering that many of the creatures in that game act like and were obviously inspired by many of the ones from Metroid. One of the first things you see in the game are Waver-like creatures, and more wall crawlers than you can shake a stick at. There are even Metroids that suck your energy in some of the water levels. That game is so Metroid-like it isn't funny. Do I feel my next project coming on?...
Something like that would make an interesting sequel, or even prequel, to Metroid Begins. What I would really like to see is a re-make of the original Metroid in the vein of Metroid Zero Mission, hacked out of Super Metroid, pretty much the same way Super Mario Bros. Deluxe was hacked out of Super Mario World. |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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Originally posted by AlexAR Technically, you are right on the money with everything. I checked that out for you and it does appear that the long beam and the bombs share the same line. Moving the long beam should make the bombs appear where you say they are supposed to. Hmmm... Can you possibly display a screenshot of the room the bombs are supposed to be appearing in, with an indication of where you want them to appear in that room? I'm thinking it might have something to do with the actual XY coordinate of the item in the room itself. If that's the case, I have a simple fix for it...
As for the door problem, NetSplit pretty much hit it on the head. (edited by Kirk Bradford Myers on 03-20-06 05:00 AM) |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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| I did a little bit of researching into this for ya...
After pouring over the original Metroid's Brinstar item data, I've determined that giving the long beam and the bombs their own individual line is a quite tall order. Whie it is certainly possible, it would require a complete rewrite/hex editing of the existing weapons data to the point where a sacrifice or two may have to be made. This is because of the fact that the item data is compressed and nicely so into a certain amount of space. In order to give the long beam and bombs their own line without losing anything in the process, we'd have to expand the area alotted for item data...not possible with my level of know-how. Rewriting the item data would also render the editor in MetEdit worthless since it relies on changing specific addresses to do it's little tricks. A bit impractical. I have, for the most part, decoded the format in which the item data is stored. I plan to put my findings up at Datacrystal.org when I've figured out a few more necessary things. The explanation of how everything works is a bit long winded, though, and beyond the scope of this post... However, there are a few things I feel that you can do within the limitation presented to you, that being that the long beam and bombs must exist on the same horizontal line. Here are a few options available to you, with necessary addresses that can be edited via a hex editor... ========== LONG BEAM / BOMBS MAP COORDINATES 6403 = Y coordinate for both the Long Beam and the Bombs 6406 = X coordinate for the Long Beam 640C = X coordinate for the Bombs You can determine where exactly on Metroid's 32x32 map area these items will appear by changing these bytes. While the first two are editable with MetEdit, the third one determining the separate X coordinate for the bombs is not. You may now use this information above to move both the long beam and the bombs anywhere within the horizontal line they must sit in, the location of which is determined by 6403. LONG BEAM / BOMBS ROOM COORDINATES 640A = Long Beam YX screen coordinates 6410 = Bombs YX screen coordinates While the previous information indicates where these items will appear within the game's map, this information above will determine exactly where these items will appear within the rooms they are located in. The first number of the byte indicates the Y coordinate (0-E) and the second number indicates the X coordinate (0-F). For example, you mentioned that the byte that determines the Morph Ball's location in it's room has a value of 96. This means that the Morph Ball is located at screen position 06,09. If I wanted to throw the Morph Ball into the very bottom right hand corner at screen coordinates 0F,0E, I would set the byte that determined it's location to a value of EF. Simple. The same can be applied to the locations above to place these objects anywhere you would like within the rooms they are in.
CHANGING THE ITEMS THEMSELVES 6409 = Long Beam 640F = Bombs Now, here are two rather interesting little bytes. These bytes are what tell the long beam and the bombs to BE the long beam and the bombs! Interestingly enough, we can tell these items to be any item in the game that we want them to be simply by changing the value of the above bytes. Currently the value of these bytes are 02 (Long Beam) and 00 (Bombs) respectively. Here are the values below to change to... 00- Bombs 01- High Jump Boots 02- Long Beam 03- Screw Attack 04- Maru Mari (Morph Ball) 05- Varia Suit 06- Wave Beam 07- Ice Beam 08- Energy Tank 09- Missiles Suggest not using any values except for the ones above, as values above 09 shall cause....strange things....to happen...
========== I know that this information only begins to scratch the surface, but I sincerely hope that you find some of it useful. Take care and good luck on your hack, it looks rather unique! |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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Does anyone know the artist and the name of the song that plays in the video? It is cool as all shit!  |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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| Okay, I've had this idea for quite some time now, and judging from the reactions I've gotten from a few people at work, I believe that it qualifies as craziness, perhaps even bordering on madness. Although on some levels, I am dead serious about this...
We need a 27-hour a day clock! ?????
Everyone complains that they don't have enough hours in a standard 24-hour day to get everything finished. But what if we were to give everyone an additional three hours a day to get things done? People would conceptually have more time in their day. Of course it sounds impossible, considering that the current 24-hour clock is based around the rotation of Earth on it's axis and, at the onset, it seems that a 27-hour clock would throw the days and nights completely out of whack unless we were to slow the rotation of the Earth down which, with our current technology, is impossible and would cause more problems than we's even care to imagine... Not the way in which I would implement things!
Here's the deal. In order to successfully implement a 27-hour clock, we would have to somehow fit it into the existing time framework of our current day. In practice, the 27-hour clock actually gives us no more or no less time than we started out with, but makes you THINK that you've gained three hours through the clever distribution of hours, minutes, and seconds within the time frame available to us. It's purely a psychological thing, really, but an effective one nonetheless. In order to do this, we break down our standard 24-hour day into the smallest measurements of time that we currently recognize on a global scale, that being the almighty second. If we multiply 60 seconds by 60 minutes, then multiply that result by 24 hours, we find that a typical Earth day lasts exactly 86,400 seconds. Okay, bearing that in mind... The trick here is to take those 86,400 seconds and evenly divide them between more that 24 individual parts with no remainder leftovers, thus creating our hours and creating more hours than we started with. I take notice that the only way to divide 86,400 evenly is to divide it by any multiple of 3, 24 being one of these multiples of 3. So we go to the next multiple of 3 which is 27. I chose 27 as opposed to a nice even number like 30 because I took notice that 30 would create an extremely noticeable deficit in the length of minutes and seconds within the hours...not so much so with 27. The trick here is to make the person not only believe that he/she is losing little or no time, but is actually gaining quite a bit of it. If we divide 86,400 by the standard 24, we end up with 3600 seconds per hour. If, on the other hand, we divide the same number by 27, we end up with 3200 seconds per hour. In our current way of thinking about time, that comes to a deficit of...oh, say...6 minutes and 40 seconds per hour. With the hustle and bustle that goes on in everyday life, very few of us are actually going to miss that six and two-thirds minutes. Even less so when you consider what I have in mind next. Hold your britches on, people, this is going to get REAL good...
Now comes the task of breaking those 3200 seconds per hour into manageable minutes and seconds. Since 3200 is not even divisible by 60, and the idea is to gain as much time as possible while losing as little of it as possible, we increase rather than decrease the number of minutes until we find a number that 3200 does divide evenly by. Fortunately, our number is very close by, that number being 64. When we divide 64 by 3200, we come up with a result of...50 seconds. Acceptable! So, in retrospect, all minutes within the new time frame would last 50 seconds, for a total loss of ten measly seconds per minute. Given the pace of life as we know it, very few if any at all are going to miss that ten seconds. It takes most people ten seconds to take a piss, including the time it takes to flush the toilet and put the seat down. BUT...look what we have gained! We now have an extra four minutes per hour to play with, not to mention that we have an additional three hours per day, all at the cost of no more than ten seconds per minute. 50 seconds times 64 minutes times 27 hours equals our magical number of 86,400 seconds. Eureka!
Of course, a new way to tell time would have to be implemented to supplement the new clock, given the uneven nature of it's amount of hours. Of course, we don't want something so far removed from the current way of telling time that people can't easily get their heads around it, as worldwide confusion is not the game we are in. So here's what I propose. The new clock will have 13 AM hours, 13 PM hours, and a special hour that occurs at noon called "Meridian", or "M" for short. The day begins at midnight, 13:00am, similar to our current clock, and continues on in the usual manner, taking the lost seconds and additional minutes into account. Immediately after 12:63am, Meridian occurs. It will be referred to as "Meridian O'Clock", "Quarter-past Meridian", "Meridian 40", whatever. On a digital clock, the above times would appear as "M:00","M:15", "M:40", and so on...Meridian has no AM or PM associated with it, as this is not needed. High noon would occur at M:30, since this is the exact middle of our day. Follow me so far? Good! After M:63, we go into 13:00pm, and we continue on in the usual manner, until we reach 12:63pm, one minute before the midnight hour. Immediately after that, the clock rolls to 13:00am and a new day begins. As you've probably guessed, there is no Meridian that occurs at night, only at noon, as it's what gives us our 27th hour and keeps the clock in check. Imagine the repercussions this would have on your professional life, and the advantages of which. Face it, folks, your work day is going to increase to nine hours instead of the usual eight. No sane employer is going to allow you to work eight hours given the inevitable loss of time dictated by the new clock, because in the overall time frame they would lose about 45-or-so minutes of production time on a 24-hour clock. Here's the kicker...you may be working nine hours, but you are still only working the same amount of time as you originally were, while getting paid for nine hours a day instead of eight! Let me break this down for you...60 seconds times 60 minutes times 8 hours equals 28800 seconds. 50 seconds times 64 minutes times 9 hours equals...28800 seconds! And you'd notice even less considering that your workday would be broken up into four-and-a-half hour stretches on either side of your lunch break. And what better hour to take your lunch break than...Meridian! Of course, your lunch break would technically be 400 seconds shorter within the given hour, but this actually has the advantage of shortening your work day by a couple of minutes. But all you would know if that you managed to get an additional four minutes on your lunch break! Employers would be happy because they'd be forced to step up production slightly to account for the shorter hours and they would get more done given the new nine-hour work day, which inevitably results in more overall profits for them. Employees would be happier, not only because they technically know that they are working no more amount of time than they were, not only because even after they work nine hours they know that they have an additional two hours per day for themselves, but also because they anticipate the additional pay that a 45-hour check at the end of the week brings them. Advantages all around...
And imagine the global industry that would be conceived as a result of the demand by the public for a new and now necessary 27-hour clock. Sure, the current clocks that people own would become obsolete...all the more reason to go out and buy a new 27-hour clock to properly tell time. Companies willing to manufacture and sell these things would literally spring up overnight. New jobs would be created as a result, lowering the unemployment rate worldwide and increasing the overall world economy! Gadzooks! A hell of a lot more people would be making money, that's for damned sure...or at least they would be better off than they were.
Of course, now...we must consider the chances that a crazy idea like this would ever even be considered, much less implemented, on a global scale. Granted, it would take some time, as some in this world are resistant to change of any kind. But some people think the Earth is still flat, some people's main method of transportation is a horse and buggy, some people still hunt for their own food with spears, and some people still browse the World Wide Web with Lynx. To these people I say: Catch up to the rest of us, or get left in the dust...such is the way of life. Surprisingly, I think that the chance that such an idea could be done is quite feasible. Because consider this...despite the differences between the nations of the world, despite the blood we've all shed and the wars we've had over petty shit, despite the differences in our cultures right down to the way we speak, read, and implement our languages...consider if you will that there are three things which, as a unified world, we have all managed to agree upon without fail. Three things...
1. Our unified use of the current way we calculate months, weeks, and days within the framework of a year... 2. Our unified use of the base 10 decimal numbering system, and the written characters which represent it, and... 3. Our unified methods of telling time within a single day!
That last one is important! If the entire world, through one method or another, was able to implement and agree upon our current system of telling time without bludgeoning each other to death over it or considering monetary profit as a deciding factor, then why should they not agree upon and implement a new method just the same considering the advantages it has for everyone across the board...including the monetary benefits?!? Crazy as this sounds, methinks this could be a top idea. And with that said, I will now leave this thread open for discussion. I would love to see the different opinions arising from a subject of this nature. Of course, we could just as easily file this under the "Kirk Has Too Much Friggin' Time On His Hands" forum... but at least now I have spoken my peace. So post away, people.
Now, let's consider the calendar...
(edited by Kirk Bradford Myers on 03-21-06 05:34 PM) |
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Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6617 days Last view: 6617 days |
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Originally posted by Squash MonsterOriginally posted by Kirk Bradford Myers2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20, 25, 32, 40, 50, 64, 80, 100, 128, 160, 200, 320, 400, 640, 800, 1600, 3200. Hmmm...good point. Perhaps I should have worded that a bit differently. In fact, strike that comment entirely, actually.
I knew that there was some befuddled logic I came up with as to why I came up with the number 27. Now that I really think about it, I believe it was because 25 didn't provide enough hours like I was looking for, and 32 would have been too much of a stretch. And, as previously mentioned, 30 would have also not been practical. One thing that I do know is that all multiples of three within the range I was looking for (24-30) will divide 86,400 evenly, so I probably used that to simplify things and then used it as the basis to pull that "divisible by three" comment out of my ass just now. I did come up with this thing about nine months ago, so I will definitely have to revise that when I finally post it in a future blog entry...thanks for the tip-off.
In actuality, this entire idea was pretty much pulled out of my ass...something I thought up while I was extremely bored. I don't truly think that my idea for the 27-hour clock is going to be accepted worldwide, but I just had to get it off my chest because it was so...well...abnormal. And I personally get a kick out of seeing people's reactions to these kinds of things, especially when it involves pushing the boundaries of what is known and accepted.
Of course, further discussion for the sake of shits and giggles is still encouraged...  |
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