Now that I have that done here’s the Feed

Previous post covered what is going on in my life at the moment, except the bicycle part. I’m springing Francis/es from hock tomorrow and buying groceries so the post will be sometime in the late evening or early morning of the night…

The Big Story today seems to be the cyclist killed crossing Canada to raise money for the WWF. Toronto man cycling across Canada for WWF killed in Manitoba crash also Toronto cyclist dead after being hit by SUV near Brandon, Man. and this Cyclist killed on Manitoba road was raising money for charity last link Toronto cyclist killed near Brandon was on charity ride Hit-from-behind wreck with a cyclist whose bicycle was covered in reflectors in the pictures that accompanied the links when I saw them, and on a narrow road with poor choices for escape routes that make the protocols moot to do anything about this wreck, leaving only getting the infrastructure “up to Dutch” to prevent. If I read the comments correctly there was very good bicycle infrastructure (not “up to Dutch” but pretty good) that bypassed the city and the road the cyclist was killed is the only way into the city from the west. So definitely infrastructure was a part of this wreck.

Relatively close to that wreck comes two links to the final disposition of another wreck. Driver Cleared in January Cyclist Death and No charges against driver of car that hit, killed bicyclist in Anchorage As I read the report the cyclist was suckered into crossing the street because at least one other driver slowed or stopped for him to cross the street from the parking lot he entered the street from, which then blocked the view of the driver that hit him.

Another link to that blind AL driver that hit 3 cyclists, killing one, sending a second to hospital, and causing the third to need clean shorts. Bicycle rider killed in crash AFAIK the cyclists were riding single-file when they were hit from behind by the vision-impaired driver. All the parties in this wreck were headed north, making the angle of the sun a moot question as it would have been off to the side or behind the driver no matter what the time of day. So hit-from-behind protocols to avoid or reduce damages, and get the infrastructure “up to Dutch” to prevent.

A MO cyclist was killed training for the MS 150. Cyclist killed Sunday morning while training for MS 150 Nothing on the mode yet, so Infrastructure! to prevent, probably. The cyclist sounds like a nice person, whom I probably would have liked being with.

And this one is just so… Bike rider on ‘bucket list’ trip from Maryland to Miami fatally stabbed The cyclist died because the killer had untreated mental illnesses. The uselessness of it all is just overwhelming.

Our Daily Ted. All hands on deck: Ride and vigil tonight for justice in Milt Olin case; is the DA’s office involved in a cover-up?

And a separate article about the ride mentioned above. Memorial ride to honor cyclist killed by sheriff’s deputy

And another Big Story is a bit of legal Infrastructure! from CA. New state bike law require 3-foot buffer between cyclists, vehicles And New law requires 3-foot buffer zone for cyclists That it took three tries to get a 3-foot law past Jerry Brown is an outrage…

And that seems to be all the links for today. No fits, but no giggles either.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the unkillable badass Poet

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I need some technical information for GT4

This post has nothing to do with bicycles in any way shape or form, I’m asking about hacking a video game that I have purchased a legal copy for and may modify for my own uses per fair use.

Here’s what I think I know:

I own a PS2. I’m pretty sure the box with the PlayStation logo on it that I got from my son a few years ago is a PS2.

I own a legal copy of GT4. The box has the “Classic” GT4 cover and a PS2 Greatest Hits logo across the top and I purchased the game through Amazon, so I’m pretty sure it is a legal copy.

GT4 allows installing cars via the lan function. I have read that you can “buy” cars online for GT4.

Put those together and it seems I can fool the game into believing I won or bought my Sprint T online.

What I need to know is where I need to put the file for the car, and what I need to do to make the car. Obviously I can hack the performance part of an existing car and just use the cosmetic file for that car and get something that will drive like the Sprint T cheap and dirty. Then I need to find out how to make a 3D model of the car to get something on the screen that looks like the car and drives like the car. All the while tweaking the performance files to get as close as possible to the real car as it would drive in real life. The in-game car that is closest to the Sprint T in terms of performance is the 2000 ‘Vette but the Sprint T is about 1900-2000 pounds lighter and has a slightly higher rear weight percentage than the ‘Vette. The next closest is the Caterham in terms of weight and HP but the Sprint T has more power in the lower part of the RPM range and on the track has much bigger tires and brakes. The street version of the Sprint T actually has less tire footprint than the Caterham while keeping the same brakes as the race version (since all I planned for going from street to race was swapping tires and wheels and maybe springs and shocks).

And I came up with a really devious anti-theft hack for the real car: Make the steering wheel removable, and put a lot of the electrical controls on the wheel. Then require one line from the wheel be hot all the time or the car won’t start or keep running if it does start, and shorting the wrong wires from the 12V input to try to figure out which wire needs to be hot will blow the fuses to the other wires. What I see is using a 5V voltage regulator and a big resistor off that to the control switches with tiny (amperage) fuses between the controls and the inputs on the control box, except the one that needs to be 12V. That one goes to a latching AND gate that requires that input and the start function off the key switch to trigger and send current to the real ignition switch disguised as a control of an AM “radio” on the dash. The headlight switch would be the other control… with the various annunciator lights edge lighting the “dial”.

PSA, Opus the unkillable badass Poet

Running late because of making sure my house won’t get stolen by Wells Fargo, and the Feed

It’s just after 2100 as I begin this post because I had things to take care of during the day, then dinner, and filtering during dinner. It was very warm today, not what I would call “hot”, just 96°F for the high locally. One of the things I had to take care of was setting up things so that the money I’m getting from my Dad’s estate will ensure a roof over my head by taking Wells Fargo completely out of the situation. When we got our mortgage way those many years ago we got a good rate for the time, but we thought that because we were dealing with a financial institution that had been in existence since the late 1800s we were “safe”, compared to the situation when we first bought our house where our mortgage was sold multiple times as one bank after another failed following the Savings and Loan Debacle of the early ’90s and several times we had to fight to keep the house when the loan servicer went under and records were “lost”. Then there were the multiple foreclosures where Wells Fargo foreclosed on paid off mortgages because of a lack of current payments on the paid-off mortgage. Well, we are going to prevent that from happening… And I wore white after Labor Day!

Up first is more on the victim of that Seattle infrastructure-created wreck. Bicyclist killed fought ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and Cyclist killed in Seattle was ACLU lawyer I have said all I can say about this wreck, except I expect somebody to arrest the member of the Seattle City Council who delayed installing the barriers and separate signals that would have prevented this wreck and indirectly killing this cyclist. Since this was entirely predictable that someone would turn left across a cyclist going straight because of the scarcity of left-hand bike lanes and the fact that most people don’t look left when they are making a left turn from the furthest left lane for motor vehicles, that delay directly led to the death of this cyclist and in my mind becomes a criminal violation.

An OH cyclist is hospitalized by a hit-and-run driver. Bicyclist hurt in hit-skip crash in Montpelier Hit-from-behind protocols to avoid or reduce damages, and get the infrastructure “up to Dutch” to prevent.

This was either deliberate on the part of the driver, or someone really dropped the ball at the AL DMV eye test. Bicycle rider killed in crash As the link reads now there were 3 cyclists hit in this wreck, one killed, one hospitalized, and one that needs clean shorts. Hit-from-behind protocols for any good they could do, and obviously if the driver can’t get to the cyclists then he can’t hit them, which is entirely dependant on the infrastructure with the Dutch model having the best results so far for both protecting cyclists and getting more cyclists on the roads. Yeah, that is a very roundabout way of saying “up to Dutch”.

A CA cyclist is killed because somebody had too much to drink. Update: Huntington Beach bike rider killed by suspected drunk driver Hit from behind wreck really needs better LEO support as the driver has so far only been charged with misdemeanor DUI in spite of killing the cyclist and leaving the scene of the crime. Hit-from-behind protocols might have been useful in this wreck, getting the infrastructure “up to Dutch” would probably have prevented the wreck by keeping the drunk driver safely away from the victim.

Still in L.A. for a bit of lifestyle. Memorial ride to honor cyclist killed by sheriff’s deputy RIP Milt Olin.

Lifestyle from the Great White North. Family, friends of Darcy Allan Sheppard mark 5 years since cyclist’s death I would dearly love to see those videos where the driver of the weapon vehicle (quite literally in this case) was NOT using the car to beat the cyclist against mailboxes and other street furniture after the cyclist got up off the street to complain about getting run over from behind while waiting at a stop light, because all the videos I saw that is exactly what Michael Bryant was doing, using his vehicle as a blunt instrument to bludgeon the cyclist to death. But the Special Prosecutor assigned the case must have seen completely different videos than what we in the public saw.

More lifestyle from the entire country of Canada. Cyclist honours late-wife with cross-Canada ride The cyclist being remembered on this ride was killed scant miles from one end of this trail.

Lifestyle from the UK. Cyclist killed in Richmond Park crash was brilliant scientist who smuggled orchids

More lifestyle from the UK. Cyclists get on bikes for ride for dad killed in road smash I freaking HATE drunk drivers… not that this is unknown to my regular readers, what with the blood-thirsty demands that convicted DUI killers be chained to the steering wheels of their weapon vehicles right before they are fed through a car shredder together…

Infrastructure! news from the Great White North. Runner says speeding cyclists a city-wide problem The amazing cyclist, capable of going too fast and too slow at the same time and place!

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: How to file a claim for pothole damage; La Habra rider injured crashing into street sign Not to be confused with Our Daily Tedd. El Goonish Shive

And something assisting electrically. New technology electrifies Tucson’s bicycle scene

And those were all the links that gave me fits or giggles today, mostly fits.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the unkillable badass Poet