one of the problems with being a mad scientist is that you can scope creep really fast
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But how does the generated Visual Basic code get into the Pentium-90 desktop?
Well, it doesn't have a network card. I could add one, but /boring/
@foone On the other hand, "net send" really *does* feel like the right thing to kick off a social media post.
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could also get some servos and physically manipulate the keyboard. really air-gap it
POP QUIZ: how many servos do you need, if you need to be able to type all the symbol keys on a QWERTY-US keyboard (49 keys), plus the following keys:
F5 (to run the program after we type in the code)
Enter (to close the popup after we take the photo, which will then trigger a shutdown) -
could also get some servos and physically manipulate the keyboard. really air-gap it
@foone Robotic hands that can touch type. When you control-v have the hands type out what is in the paste buffer (or piped to a command).
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POP QUIZ: how many servos do you need, if you need to be able to type all the symbol keys on a QWERTY-US keyboard (49 keys), plus the following keys:
F5 (to run the program after we type in the code)
Enter (to close the popup after we take the photo, which will then trigger a shutdown)The system doesn't have a power supply that windows 95 can turn off automatically (It's a little too old for that), so while I could have the monitoring hardware watch the screen for the "it's now safe to turn off your computer" screen, I'd probably just make it wait 60 seconds after we issue the shutdown, then yank the power.
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POP QUIZ: how many servos do you need, if you need to be able to type all the symbol keys on a QWERTY-US keyboard (49 keys), plus the following keys:
F5 (to run the program after we type in the code)
Enter (to close the popup after we take the photo, which will then trigger a shutdown)@foone how many servos are in a 3D printer? or a plotter? -
But where do we run the code?
Well there's two obvious options that are sufficiently Mad Scientist enough to be interesting enough to do:1. In the browser. Do this client-side. Boot a VM in the browser that runs Visual Basic and then the resulting EXE and shows that to the user
@foone Could you make Wine emulate dialog boxes close enough? And run in a browser?...
Hmm there's already stuff like BoxedWine, could you load the real Windows icons and fonts, and get the title bars close enough? -
POP QUIZ: how many servos do you need, if you need to be able to type all the symbol keys on a QWERTY-US keyboard (49 keys), plus the following keys:
F5 (to run the program after we type in the code)
Enter (to close the popup after we take the photo, which will then trigger a shutdown)@foone If you use a grid of rods, 18. Combine "Columns" (1qaz, 2wsx, 3edc etc.) and rows so that activating each pair pushes down far enough to trigger the key.
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POP QUIZ: how many servos do you need, if you need to be able to type all the symbol keys on a QWERTY-US keyboard (49 keys), plus the following keys:
F5 (to run the program after we type in the code)
Enter (to close the popup after we take the photo, which will then trigger a shutdown)@foone less than a dozen for ROBO TARM
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The system doesn't have a power supply that windows 95 can turn off automatically (It's a little too old for that), so while I could have the monitoring hardware watch the screen for the "it's now safe to turn off your computer" screen, I'd probably just make it wait 60 seconds after we issue the shutdown, then yank the power.
BTW with the "pop quiz" my current best solution is 13
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POP QUIZ: how many servos do you need, if you need to be able to type all the symbol keys on a QWERTY-US keyboard (49 keys), plus the following keys:
F5 (to run the program after we type in the code)
Enter (to close the popup after we take the photo, which will then trigger a shutdown)@foone one and a very complex camshaft?
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BTW with the "pop quiz" my current best solution is 13
@foone Surely one of those four-servo robot arms would do? (I think you could get it down to 3 and maintain the functionality though.) Add one for shift and you're fine, though possibly another for a different modifier key if necessary.
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@foone Could you make Wine emulate dialog boxes close enough? And run in a browser?...
Hmm there's already stuff like BoxedWine, could you load the real Windows icons and fonts, and get the title bars close enough?@nyanpasu64 @foone why not? wine has a built in "desktop mode" for this purpose
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@foone one and a very complex camshaft?
@Yuki oh that's a clever idea.
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@Yuki oh that's a clever idea.
@foone hehe yay!
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BTW with the "pop quiz" my current best solution is 13
@foone beam keystrokes to a PCjr with the infrared port on an HP 48SX calculator
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but I'm a Mad Scientist.
So what's the Mad Scientist way to do this? Well, how'd I do it before?I wrote a line of code in my Visual Basic 6 IDE and ran it on my Windows 98 VM
@foone Mad Science means never stopping to ask "what's the worst thing that could happen?"
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@onfy I am, but I'm also not anymore.
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@foone beam keystrokes to a PCjr with the infrared port on an HP 48SX calculator
@gloriouscow sadly my PCjr can't run windows 95
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@gloriouscow sadly my PCjr can't run windows 95
@foone skill issue
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But where do we run the code?
Well there's two obvious options that are sufficiently Mad Scientist enough to be interesting enough to do:1. In the browser. Do this client-side. Boot a VM in the browser that runs Visual Basic and then the resulting EXE and shows that to the user
@foone save a step: VBScript can MsgBox too, so you could use WScript to run a generated .vbs.
