The Roach Motel

Ivo Flipse

2:24 PM

always useful!

The Unhandled Exception

@IvoFlipse Would be if more people were here :-)

Sathya

Nice

The Unhandled Exception

To anyone following my nasty flash issue above I think I solved it last night

It seemed to be caused by an instance of swfupload conflicting with my custom flash app

Will be testing my solution today -- wish me luck! :-)

Ivo Flipse

good luck :)

I'm going to test the SO answer that should help me find the toes on a dog paw

Sathya

@TheUnhandledException best wishes

Ivo Flipse

2:33 PM

140

Q: Peak detection in a 2D array

I'm helping a veterinary clinic measuring pressure under a dogs paw. I use Python for my data analysis and now I'm stuck trying to divide the paws into (anatomical) subregions. I made a 2D array of each paw, that consists of the maximal values for each sensor that has been loaded by the paw over...

python

The Unhandled Exception

thanks @IvoFlipse and @Sathya :-)

> I'm helping a veterinary clinic measuring pressure under a dogs paw. I use Python for my data analysis and now I'm stuck trying to divide the paws into (anatomical) subregions.

That's awesome @Ivo!!

Ivo Flipse

I should have asked things in chronological order, first let SO help me find the paws and THEN find the toes :P

when I asked that question I only had 1 measurement processed

so now I'm trying to process more data to see if it still holds up

but now I'm running into all these scaling problems

where do I store my results after I processed the measurement?

how do I automate it, so it will look for measurements when pointed to a folder etc :P

The Unhandled Exception

Hmmm, good questions :-)

@IvoFlipse Do you mean, like start the script and give it a folder, and it will poll that folder, continuously parsing new input as new data files are written to the folder?

Or, is what you're doing so complex I am completely misunderstanding you? :-)

Ivo Flipse

something like that

The Unhandled Exception

@IvoFlipse Are you asking how to do it technically, in python? Or how to do it conceptually in pseudocode?

Ivo Flipse

2:39 PM

no for programmers it's probably Childs Play, but given that I'm not a programmer

Sathya

asp.net guys in here ?

Ivo Flipse

well I haven't started trying it yet @TheUnhandledException, so it's no use asking it right now :)

I feel bad to ask things I haven't tried yet, even though I know I'll fail at it :P

The Unhandled Exception

LOL, never feel bad asking questions @IvoFlipse, it's how we learn :-)

Ivo Flipse

true, well I'm working at home, which is worse, no colleagues to ask questions...

The Unhandled Exception

@IvoFlipse I know next to no python so I can't help with code, but, I can help you lay out the structure of the code for such a task.

@IvoFlipse Likewise, which is why StackOverflow/chat/etc has been such a godsend!

Ivo Flipse

2:42 PM

well all measurements have the same name, so I would figure I make two lists: one with all the names of the dogs to change the folder name and one that include the trial names. then it's just a matter of looping over them and calling the files one by one

The Unhandled Exception

@IvoFlipse Sounds like a plan

Ivo Flipse

but I haven't made any classes to store my variables a little bit better

so each time you run it, you get like 50 variables, of which I only want to keep like 10 :P

The Unhandled Exception

Classes rock. Definitely use classes :-) Makes code much easier to understand/write

Ivo Flipse

and I actually want to experiment a little with making a database, since then when I parse all the data, I don't have to do that part over and over again

The Unhandled Exception

Database definitely recommended :-)

I have heard great things about SQLite

Ivo Flipse

2:45 PM

but then I get to the limits of my programming experience and things get a little bit more difficult :)

The Unhandled Exception

Pushing our limits is how we grow as programmers! :-)

Ivo Flipse

luckily I read the Learning Python which covers classes, just need to use what I learned to design one of my own :P

The Unhandled Exception

right @Sathya?

Sathya

@TheUnhandledException definitely

Ivo Flipse

and the worst part is: those are all steps that don't really process the data, just make it easier to do :P

and after all that is done, I need to find myself a nice book about GUI programming

so I can make it easier to use for others

The Unhandled Exception

2:48 PM

@IvoFlipse Yeah, as CTO of our company, I have a difficult time sometimes explaining to the business guys code like that!

Ivo Flipse

I can imagine

The Unhandled Exception

"Well Josh, what will this code do for us? You say it's going to take $x dollars to build, what new features will we see?"

"Well, you really won't see anything different, it will just be better code..."

Ivo Flipse

well I worked closely together with our programmer on our new software, so I do understand a little bit of these problems

"You'll see less support"

The Unhandled Exception

@IvoFlipse Or, "These other 5 new features that you want to do will take x hours less to build if we build this code featuer which makes no sense to the UI/design people" :-)

Ivo Flipse

yeah indeed

well with our pressure measuring system you have the same problems

Sathya

2:51 PM

@TheUnhandledException what is this "better" code that you talk about would be a typical reaction from business guys

The Unhandled Exception

@Sathya sorry... what?

Ivo Flipse

we need to improve foot recognition, our basic algorithms, simply because it had to be that good to be sell-able in the first place :P

were they making crap code before?

2

the answer is: yes, and the answer to your second question is: you told me to!

I read a lot of Dilbert for a non-programmer :P

The Unhandled Exception

@IvoFlipse haha :-)

But do you read xkcd? :-)

Ivo Flipse

I have it in Google Reader yeah

plus I read that programmer's joke question on SO

The Unhandled Exception

@IvoFlipse I love that thread :-)

Ivo Flipse

3:04 PM

damn those 3D printers are expensive

The Unhandled Exception

@IvoFlipse those look so freaking cool though

Ivo Flipse

they are :) I want to print insoles with them

The Unhandled Exception

@IvoFlipse Have you seen Desktop Engineering Magazine?

might be of interest to you

IDK if you can get it in print in the Netherlands though

Ivo Flipse

added to my GR feeds :)

it seems there's a digital version :)

The Unhandled Exception

@IvoFlipse nice

I get that magazine for some unknown reason :-)

Ivo Flipse

3:09 PM

but first need to get my own company off the ground, else I can't even afford it :P

but it seems interesting!

I'm wanting to experiment with 3D scanning and printing

so I'll have to read more about it anyway

The Unhandled Exception

Yeah 3d printing fascinates me

But it has absolutly zero to do with my business, LOL (we're a website development/Software as a Service company)

Ivo Flipse

well you can make a webshop that let's people design 3d things and print it for them, then ship it to them

Shapeways does something like that :)

The Unhandled Exception

This is true!

We actually have one product which allows customers who sell stationery to allow their customers to design stationery/cards online and then our software generates a vector file which can be tweaked and printed by the stationery company

maybe we'll expand that into a 3d version ;-)

Ivo Flipse

well there you have it :P

be the middle man, make a couple % per transaction

it's actually quite simple

the companies that make thoses machines

or people who love 3d printing

The Unhandled Exception

I need to hook you up with our business guys @Ivo! ;-)

Ivo Flipse

3:18 PM

often no nothing about sales, about how to get in data from customers, how to manage it

hehe ;)

my father has a small company that makes orthopedic shoes, if I see how many problems such a machine would solve

and then I look at all these other small firms having the same problems

and not wanting to be swallowed by the 'big boys'

well, perhaps they should buy there stuff off me :P

The Unhandled Exception

lol. nice :-)

Ivo Flipse

I'm in no way sure if they would want to

but what the heck, at least should give it a shot

I can always print models for architects ;)

The Unhandled Exception

I'm headed into a meeting and then to lunch. You all behave now, keep your feet off the furniture! I spent a lot of money dressing this room up ;-)

Ivo Flipse

hehe, good luck during the meeting and have a nice lunch!

The Unhandled Exception

3:33 PM

Thanks @Ivo!

The Unhandled Exception

8:29 PM

WAHOOO!!!!! YIPPIEEE!!! YEAAAAHHHHH!!!!

Confirmation that my nasty awful bug is really truly fixed!

Ivo Flipse

speak up

what did you get out of the meeting? :P

ah congrats :)

The Unhandled Exception

Just got a log auto-emailed to me that shows my bugfix code ran, and solved the issue. I am happy

/me does a happy dance

@IvoFlipse Out of the meeting we decided on a server upgrade/business growth plan

Ivo Flipse

upgrading hardware always makes me feel giddy :D

The Unhandled Exception

@Sathya Yeah

1

Q: Why does Flash's ExternalInterface *sometimes* not work?

I have a Flash movie which has a number of actionscript 2 functions which are exposed to Javascript via ExternalInterface. Normally this movie works fine and Javascript can communicate with it. But sometimes, intermittently and without explanation, the flash object in Javascript will not have the...