Messages

Wooooo! Whoooooo! 

I've upgrade to a new computer with 2Gb ram and 64bit 2,5Ghz processor and have tried this again with much success.  I have taken the opportunity to check out both VMware Server and VirtualBox, both work very well.  VirtualBox is easier to setup and it has this seamless integration feature that allows folders to be easily shared, window application windows  open on the linux desktop the same as linux apps. I'll put up a screenie later tonight.  Got to go eat dinner now.   

P.S. I can make a VirtualBox tutorial if anyone is interested, just ask ...

Ray Beckerman's blog has a big list of free music sites ...

http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/#liberated_music

[If you're using Linux, you'll need to compile it yourself for now]

Too bad there's no Linux version...

From http://www.glumol.com/:
"Glumol is provided as binaries only for Mac OSX and Windows at this time. If you're using Linux, you'll need to compile it yourself for now."

Here is a site devoted to net neutrality.   There is an online petition you can sign, etc...

http://savetheinternet.com/=faq

[1. Goto System->Adept and entered "VMware" into filter, checked off vmware-player, and hit install. 2. Goto Easy VMX website and create a Virtual Machine for the version of windows for which you have an install disk. Download and extract the resulting zip file.http://www.easyvmx.com/tutorial.shtml3. Goto System->VMwarePlayer to start the player. Open the vmx file, insert the widows install disk into the CD drive, and install windows.You have to click the mouse inside the VM window in order for it to acdept your key press. To do anything outside of the VM window press control-alt.]

Has anyone tried using VMware Player to run AGS 3.o on Linux or Mac?   

This evening I installed VMware Player on Kubuntu Fiesty with mixed results.  My computer only has 512MB ram and  600 mhz cpu.  So yes I am in serious need of an upgrade so please stop laughing.   I was able to get everything installed and windows seemed to work ok.  Being CPU/RAM challenged it took a long time to get this far. 

I wasn't able to get the network working nor was I able to access the rest of my hard disk through what they called the "shared folder".  This precluded me from actually trying to run AGS.   Since the install process is so slow on my current computer and since it is likely that the virtual machine performance will also be unacceptable on my machine I decide to quit fiddling with it.

I thought that some of the Linux users who may have newer machines than may be interested so I thought to share my experience.  Here is the procedure I used to get going.  If anyone tries this please let us know how well (or if) it works for you.


1. Goto System->Adept and entered "VMware" into filter, checked off vmware-player, and hit install.   

2. Goto Easy VMX website and create a Virtual Machine for the version of windows for which you have an install disk.   Download and extract the resulting zip file.
http://www.easyvmx.com/tutorial.shtml

3. Goto System->VMwarePlayer to start the player.  Open the vmx file, insert the widows install disk into the CD drive, and install windows.

You have to click the mouse inside the VM window in order for it to acdept your key press.  To do anything outside of the VM window press control-alt.

Hey Snake, I don't think there needs to be a pause noticeable to the player.  You should be able to do something like the following to get the results you desire. 

Code: ags

function ChangeSpeed(int spd, int x, int y) {
  player.StopMoving();
  player.WalkSpeed = spd;
  player.Move(x,y);
}

You will need to know the players current x,y destination so you can pass them into the function.  Probably the module needs to be modified so that the destination points are remembered and so that it includes a change speed function.

You may find some  of Fr. George Coyne's, former director of the Vatican Observatory, presentatins to be interesting.
http://clavius.as.arizona.edu/vo/R1024/VOFTalks.html

The original thread fell victum to the server maintenance some how.  It has been reconstituted here:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=34048.0

I have a 4GB Sansa player that I'm quite happy with.  I sounds good and the battery seems to hold it's charge for a long time.   It also has a built in FM radio and a mic for voice recording.  I record presentations I give by just turning it on and placing it in my shirt pocket. I get fairly decent results in that my voice clear and questions from the audience can be clearly heard. 

The only negative thing is that it insists on organizing everything according to MP3 tags rather than file/directory.  So everything needs to be tagged before copying to the player.

[Stop eating potatoes]

First of all Ghost is absolutely wrong about artificial sweeteners stimulating the production of insulin.  The pancreas releases insulin to the bloodstream in response to the presence of glucose in the blood.   Since artificial sweeteners are not converted to glucose by the body (that's the whole point, isn't it?) and so no affect on the pancreas or insulin production (see "Release" in wiki for details ").

Second of all Shawn you are a good man for taking such good care of your cat.  Don't worry too much, I had the same diagnosis about  ten years ago and was able to easily correct my condition in a short period of time by doing a couple of simple things.   Realize that in most cases like yours the body is functioning like it is supposed to and there is nothing broken.  Most often this is due to the over consumption of carbohydrates and can be corrected by decreasing the intake of carbohydrates.  There are some cases where a person's pancreas is, for any number of reasons, not functioning normally but IMHO this not the usual reason.

Glucose in excess of the body's immediate needs is stored in muscles cells as glycogen or in fat cells via insulin.   From my own personal experience the glycogen mechanism (minutes) seems to work faster than the insulin mechanism (1/2 hour+).   When athletes speak about "carbing up" they are in fact talking about saturating their muscle tissues with glycogen which is quickly and easily converted back to glucose for immediate use.  Converting fat back to glucose takes a much longer time and therefore would not be very helpful to an athlete during an event.

If carbohydrate consumption is increased far beyond a person's needs, glycogen capacity becomes maxed out so that the remaining excess glucose is stored as fat via insulin.   Now what happens if that person continues increasing his carbohydrate consumption; he will get fatter and fatter and fatter.    At some point the body will say "WTF, I refuse to get any fatter!" and instead of making more insulin to store more fat the excess glucose is dumped into the urine where it exits the body.   This point is different for every individual but every individual has a limit where this happens. 

So now what can you do about it?

• Stop eating potatoes - This is your single most worst enemy ( couldn't resist the bad grammar).  Potatoes are a huge carbohydrate load, huge.   McDs is even worse because the sugar coat their fries ...
  
  
• Stop eating rice and noodles - These are the second worse enemies.   Not quite as bad for you as potatoes but still bad.
  
  
• Stop eating bread, cake, ice cream, etc - Believe it or not bread is not as bad as potatoes.   Cake, ice cream, and other sweets probably are as bad as potatoes but usually eat more potatoes than these.
  
  
• Drink diet pop instead of regular - If by some miracle diet pop does stimulate more insulin production this will help your condition but I wouldn't count on it.   Eliminating the sugar is enough.
  
  
• Eat meat - You can eat any amount of meat without increasing your blood glucose level.  Be careful eating out, some meat dishes are prepared with sugars of one kind or another (Chinese,  barbecue, etc).   
  
  
• Vegtables are OK - Some vegetables are better than others.   Stay away from the root type vegetables because they are like potatoes.  The ones that grow on top the ground are a mixed bag but in general they tend to even themselves out.  Use your meter to check them all out to see which ones are good or bad.
  
  
• Fruits - be careful - Fruits are a great source of nutrients, vitamins, etc but they are also loaded with sugar so be careful. 
  
  
• Use Splenda instead of sugar - Great sugar substitute, same volume, flavor, and other characteristics as sugar.
  
  
• Drink lots of water - Keeping yourself hydrated dilutes glucose concentration and increases kidney function.
  
  
• Purchase Glucose Meter - I can recommend the OneTouch brand of meters.  They seem to be very good and have worked well for me.   
  
  The Cure
  This is what I did.  You can try it and see if it works for you.
  
  Weeks 1-2
  The first 2 weeks are the hardest part.  Use your meter and test your blood sugar.   Don't eat anything until your blood sugar drops to the normal range of say 110.  When you do eat avoid carbohydrates like the plague.  Buy yourself a couple nice steaks for the first few days.   Measure and record your blood sugar before going to bed and first thing in the morning.   These two readings are the most important measure of your progress and I will discuss this below.   You of course, will also have to measure multiples times during the day to see when you are allowed to eat.
  
  Weeks 3-6
  Continue measuring and recording your blood sugar before going to bed and first thing in the morning.   The difference in these two numbers is a measure of your progress.   You will be surprised to find out that your sugar will be higher in the morning than it was the night before.  This is because you are a diabetic and you are in a continual state of being "carbed up".  So during the night when you would expect your glucose level to drop your body tries to clear the glycogen from your muscle tissue by converting it to glucose.  As you continue the no or low carb diet your condition should improve.  When it improves you will find that the morning reading reading will start to decrease and get closer to the night time reading.   After 2 weeks your sugar level should be close to normal when normal meal times come around.   Measure your sugar before your meal and let that measurement determine what and how much you eat at that meal.   Alternatively, you can continue waiting until your sugar drops to 110 before eating if you feel you haven't made sufficient progress.  Continue keeping potatoes, rice, noodles, etc off the menu.
  
  Weeks 6-24
  After about 6 weeks you will find that the morning and bedtime readings are nearly equal.  At some point the morning reading will be lower than the bedtime reading and this is an important milestone.   It means you have made a lot of progress and that you are controlling your sugar levels within acceptable limits.    But you don't want to stop now because there is much more progress to be had.   By the end of week 20-24 your morning reading will be ~5-10 points lower than the night time reading.  When you reach this milestone your diabetes will be undetectable.  You will find that you can go out and eat a bucket of fries without increasing your blood sugar above normal levels.  Of course if you do this all the time you will end up where you are now.   So during weeks 6-24 things should start to get easier for you.  You should be able to eat at normal times, occasionally have some of those nasty carb bombs, and not have to measure quite as often as before.
  
  Weeks 24+
  If you made it this far the only thing that can screw you up is that you can loose focus because you are doing so well and the measuring and the dieting and etc seems to become unnecessary.  So then you don't pay attention because it doesn;t seem to be necessary and then all of a sudden you fall back into your old ways and it sneaks back up on you.   
  
  Medication
  You can probably do all of this without medication.  I did easily.  If you and your doctor decide to help this along with drugs discuss with him which drug he is recommending and how it works.  Some drugs work by forcing insulin production and/or forcing the glucose into glycogen storage.   Other drugs work by preventing the liver from producing glucose and these are the ones I've had the best results from (I believe the one I have experience with is called something like metformin).
  
  ================
  I hope this is helpful to you.  Let us know how it turns out. 

Here are a couple of things that come to my mind, that may be of help. 

1) If he was born after WWII,let's say 1946 for example, then he would have been 5 years old in 1951.  People have some memories from when they are 3-5 years of age, but when people are 3-5 years old they understand very little about what's going on in the world or outside their immediate family.   So your character's formative years are going to be more influenced by the events of the 50's and 60's than from the 40's.   

2) You don't say if his family is still has money, property, prestige, etc.  What did they do during the war?  Did they loose their money or prestige  or otherwise adversely affected by the war? 

3) Why architecture?   Why does he have to work for a living at such a difficult and meanial job, especially in the USA?   Why wouldn't he be involved in the family business or be a diplomat or politician?   Also when and how did he come to live in the US.  How long has he lived there before the game starts, etc?   This all has an effect. 

This reminds me of an RPG character creation tool I cam across a couple of years ago called Charas.   I think this is a great idea and that there should be an easy way of sharing resources created for it.   I think Charas has done an excellent job and that we could learn something from them.   

If we were to come up with a plan for doing something like the Charas folks have done with RPG characters but for backgrounds then some of our contests could be aimed at creating resources for such rooms and would of course be availe to our little group under some sort of Creative Commons license.   I have never understood why our competitions and activities do not now require contest entries  to be licensed in this way?

What does everyone else think about taking this to the next level?

Thing is, whichever Democrat candidate gets a nomination will most likely who us Brits will end up supporting. We barely know anything about the Republic party

Just out of curiosity, why is that?  Can you elaborate?

I think there is going to be a LOT more press coverage in the coming months of Obama and Clinton, meaning people are going to see more of them... Awfully convenient for the Democrats, no?

It's not necessarily good for Clinton.  People already know who they are and already either love or hate them and having more exposure in the media only intensifies pre-existing feelings.  It's very unlikely anyone would be persuaded to adopt another opinion at this late date. 

Obama on the other hand is not well known and the more people see him the more they seem to prefer him over Clinton.  However, in the general election this can work the other way as well.  From what I understand he is very left leaning. more so the the US public, so the more he is in the public eye the more they will be aware of this.

Yeah, see, I really don't understand how race can come into it at all. Or gender. Or anything, for that matter.

Race has been an integral part of democrat party political strategy since the mid 1960's and has been exploited by them at every opportunity.   There is an unholy alliance between the democrat party and the so called civil rights establishment.  Both are big on promises but seldom do anything of substance.  Neither have an interest in making real improvements because that would result in a reduction in their own power and influence.   Now that there is a serious candidate who is also black (non-white) all the propaganda and racial politics are working against Clinton.     Obama seems to have enough political savvy to know how to take advantage of the situation and enough camera presence to pull it off.   

Being a good president is about two things: political savvy, and camera presence - and neither is stored in either skin pigments, or testicles.

I would agree that this is required to be elected president.  However, I think being president requires additional skills such as leadership, vision, determination, etc.  Most importantly a good president would put the needs of the country before his own.

Republicans who aren't happy with their candidates, are really breaking their shell and voting for Obama and Edwards. But if it comes down to McCain and Clinton, those Republicans who would otherwise voted for Obama or Edwards, won't vote for Clinton.

I kind of agree but would say it like this:  Republicans who aren't happy with their candidates especially John McCain.   McCain is counting on the fact that his base dislike Clinton more than they dislike him and that will be enough to get them out to vote for him.  What he is no counting on is the possibility of Obama winning the Democrat nomination.   If it ends up Obama vs McCain, those who dislike McCain will either stay home or vote for Obama out of protest.  Those who like McCain afre likely to like Obama better and so they will likely vote Obama.   So in this scenario Obama wins in a huge landslide, IMHO.   

Hehe, It's a good problem to have.   I would consider telling company B what's going on.  Tell them that you like their company and would very much like to work for them and give a few reasons.  Then tell them that another company is also in the process of making you an offer and that in fairness to the other company and to yourself that you would like an opportunity to at least see the other offer before rejecting it.  Tell them that it wouldn't be professional or ethical to reject the forth coming offer without even seeing it.  Tell them that you could have easily kept them in the dark and delayed making a decision but you wouldn't feel right about doing that either, even though being honest could potentionally kill the offer.  Ask them what they consider to be a reasonable amount of time for you to make up your mind, negotiate a little longer if you want or think it necessary., and agree to a date certain.   

Tell them they are your first choice and that you expect to accept their offer unless the other company makes an offer that's impossible to refuse.  Explain that you understand that they have to look after the best interests of their company just as you and they as individuals have to look after your best interests.   Thank them for accomodating you and tell them that you are looking forward to work with them in the very near future.

If this company is worth working for they will respond positively to your honest and sense of right/wrong.  Also pay attention during the conversation for opportunities to negociate.   They may ask you for example in what you ways do you expect the other offer may be superior (i.e. $$$, responsibility, etc...).   I would dempansize the money aspect as much as possible.   I always say "Where you start isn't nearly as important as where you end up!" to people when they ask what salary level I expect.   This puts the emphasis on what kind of position, how much responsibility, opportunity for advancement, etc...  If the opportunity presents itself then negociate, let them know what it would take to hire you that day! 

Good luck and let us know how it turns out....     

There is no restriction on how you publish your own work.   Many years ago I created an AGS  open source GUI script/template  for other people to use in creating their games and released it as open source.   Many others have also done so, publishing their work with LGPL, GPL, CC, etc.  The AGS Editor  is just the programming tool so why does it need to be open source?

It was an entirely straight road, with no curves or corners and the speed zone was about to change to 45.  (Like I said, I was so close that by the time I pulled over, I was already IN the 45 zone.)

You may want to go to the traffic engineering dept and find out exactly where the speed zone changes.  It's entirely plausible that the engineers placed the sign after the speed zone change so that drivers would not see the sign and speed up prematurely (if they were interested in public safety of course).  Compare what they have to say with what the cop wrote on the ticket as to the location of your alleged infringement.

Btw, Police radar doesn't usually make a distinction between directions, it sends out a frequency and gets back another and the two are mixed resulting in four frequencies, the two originals frequencies, the sum of the two frequencies and the difference between the two frequencies.  The first three are normally discarded and the the difference analysed; the higher it's frequency the higher the speed.  But since the difference frequency is the same in either direction the radar does not make the distinction.  Additional analysis, likely of the sum frequency, is required to get the direction which adds expense to the equipment and I don't believe is commonly supplied on a police rig.   

SupSuper, what you have so far is impressive and I'm sure that everyone is grateful that you have taken this on.   If you want to know what beginner scripters want it probably wouldn't hurt to ask them. Maybe start a thread in the beginners forum and ask them what kinds of things they find difficult or found difficult when they first started scripting.   I would be cautious about asking what people want because they (all of us, not just beginners) usually don't know what they really want.  It's better to try to determine what people need, IMHO. 

The one concern I have with your approach is that it seems like it will be difficult to maintain and keep current with the AGS scripting language and programming environment.   I suspect, this is pretty much why the Interaction Editor and it's predecessor, Graphical Scripts, have went by the wayside.   If this is so then your hard work and efforts are likely to eventually have the same fate.   

There a few thing you may want to consider with the above in mind.  Instead of making an alternate script editor consider making a supplement to the existing one.   I think the thing that intimidates beginners the most is that blank page they get and the not knowing what to type.   If your plugin were to simply insert it's results into the current script editor, that would be enough help to get beginners comfortable with scripting. 

I think that once code is pasted into the file that people will be able to go back and make changes easily enough.  It's that initial blank page that is intimidating.   With this in mind it's worth asking how useful or necessary it is to parse existing code?   The additional complexity and difficulty in maintaining the plugin that this brings needs to be weighed against any benefits.   IMHO, it's not a necessary or a realistic goal.   Of course a good discussion with actual beginners would be very beneficial in deciding this point. 

Under this scenario there could simply be an edit bar across the top of the script editor's window.  This bar would contain several drop-list widgets that perform the same/simliar functions os your current tree widget. and a few toolbar buttons (i.e. insert, cancel, undo,help).   Going from left to right the first drop list would contain "Syntax, variables, Characters, ...".  If Character is selected then the next drop list would contain a list of characters "player, "cPrecipie, etc ...".  The next drop list would contain functions/methods of the character object/class.   This would be something similar to a small talk environment and the user would be able see the command being built up as selections are made.   The buttons could be at either to the left or right of the drop lists.   

When a selection is made in the first drop list an edit window would drop down similar to the one you already have.  Function  parameters could be filled out as you are doing now, each one listed down the page with appropriate dat input widgets.  If it were something the user had to type then it would be a text input field.  If the parameter expected an internally defined enum then there could be a drop list with the selection appropriate for that parameter.

The command(s) being built by your would need top be shown somewhere in the edit window, perhaps above  the parameter list.  If it were multiple lines then perhaps only a couple lines would need to be shown and/or they could be scrollable to see the rest.  The script editor would be in the bottom window with the cursor shown.  Then there would just need to be an insert button that would paste the command buffer into the script below.

To keep everything easily maintainable the help text could be extracted from the help file so there would be no duplication or required updating.  The next thing would be to grab as much definitions as possible from the same place that the auto-complete get's it data.  Again no duplication of info and no maintenance required.   And for whatever is left, those things need to be defined in an XMLish or TXTish config file(s) so that they are easily changed.

The other thing that I believe would be helpful, and that appears you are planning on, is the ability to drop in multiple line constructs, such as if-then-else, function, struct, enum, etc definitions.  If these things were created from easily editable txt/xml template or config files then I think even advance users would also find your plugin useful (if of course it were just a supplement to the script editor rather than a replacement).   For example whenever I define a function I usually add a banner comment opening /closing braces, etc.  If your plugin would allow me to drop in my very own template that would be way cool and I would use it.

In summary, I would seriously consider dropping the requirement of parsing existing code and instead try to integrate your plugin into the existing script editor.   I would also make maintainability and user configurability requirements.   Again nice work so far.   I hope you find my comments helpful in some way.  There will be many grateful people when this gets finished in one form or another.

Rick

I think RickJ had a few good pointers in there for defence but I don't know if the right way is to go as far as blaming police hardware faulty (maybe it is in USA?). Be civilized and reasonable in your arguments. Hopefully you'll win the case!  Smiley

Thanks for the kind words.   The point is to raise a reasonable doubt about the states case and not to blame anyone or anything.  Anyone who has ever worked on a piece of electronics knows how easy it is to fool yourself using electronic instruments.    You really have to know how to use things, know what reading to expect,  and know when you are getting bogus results.   Further there is a presumption that these machines a infallible and their operation never questioned.  The truth is that they are not perfect and they are capable of mistakes.   How would you like to be convicted of a crime you did not commit because some programming error?   The firmware and hardware schematics of these machines should be open to public scrutiny.  They are not because they are imperfect and could be easily challenged in court.

Ask yourself how many  speeding tickets have been given to honest citizens who were in fact not speeding but were measured so because an unknowledgable or dishonest policeman failed to operate the equipment properly?  How much damage is done to a society that allows this kind of thing to go on unchecked?

I was once accused of going 50 mph at a T intersection where it was necessary to negotiate a sharp 90 degree turn left or right or else drive in to a pasture.   Since I did not drive in the pasture and since it is impossible to negotiate the required turn at 50 mph, which was plain as day to the policeman who wrote the ticket anyway.   I went to court and won the case.  If I had just paid the ticket, which was perhaps more convenient, it would have just encouraged the policeman to write more bogus tickets.

I think it's a little naive to believe that the government, any government, is primarily concerned with the best interests of it's citizens.   Sooner or later you will find yourself on the short end of a government imposed injustice and reality will set in.   

[Mitigation]

I respectfully disagree with a number of things people have said so far. 

First of all in the US we have the concept of being innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,with the state having the burden of proof.  It's one of the pillars of our freedom.  So in this case being guilty doesn't mean that you done it;  it means that you done it and that the state has shouldered it's burden and proved it's case.  Allowing the state to convict people without meeting it's obligations is a much greater threat/danager to the public than any individual criminal.    So I say by all means go to court, everyone.

The next thing to realize is that public safety is not the issue here.   The state doesn't really give a shit they just want the money.   Most people are not habitual speeders but will  unintentionally, on ocassion,  drift over the line.  For these people a warning would be sufficient since they had no intention of speeding then nor in the future.    Now since giving warnings makes a distinction between intentional and unintentional violations (btw ussually to be guilty of a crime it's rerquired that there be intention to do so, although neglicence is sometimes sufficient) increrased penalties for ctual convictions could be justified.   So in this case giving warnings on the first offense,  citations on subsequent offenses, and increasing the penalty for each subsequent conviction,  would better serve the purpose of public safety.   But it's not done this way, because it would not generate nearly as much revenue for the state.

Mitigation
If you ask for a mitigation hearing you are pleading guilty but with extenuating circumstances.  This is probably a high percentage move for you.  Just go in and tell the judge what you told us, if you have an otherwise clean driving record  the judge will most likely lower the fine and charge.  Be sure to say that you pride yourself on being a safe driver and that you can't believe that you were going that fast. Also tell him/her that you know that those machines can sometime be wrong, etc...  Most importantly be nice and sincere to the judge.  So instead of being found guilty of being 20mph over the limit you are found guilt of being 7 mph over the limit and fined accrodingly.

Not Guiilty
If you goto court and challenge the charge you may have a better chance at winning than some people seem to think.  While it's true that the judge has some bias towards the police officers he also has standards of ethics and professionalism he is obligated to follow.  Most if not all judges take these obligations seriously.   They have also heard/seen it all before, probably many times, so if you are going to provide testimony there is extra burden on you to persuade the judge of your crdibility.

Experience - These things are tried differently in every county and state in the US.   Go to traffic court and watch what happens prior to your court date.  You will have to stay there the whole session though because there a couple of things you will ant to see happen. 

• What is the order of the types cases guilty, not guilty, mitigation, etc.   If the attorney is present when does he leave the courtroom for good.  When do the police officers leave for good. 
  
  
• What happens if/when someone comes in late.  There is uaually a way to report to the clerk without interrupting the proceedings.   What are the logistics of doing this?  Ask the  clerk about this at the end of the day (What happened when that guy came in ....? Oh, what is the proper procedure in that case?)
  
  
• Listen carefully to the people tell their story to the judge.  Watch the judge's reactions and see if you can tell what parts the judge believes and what parts he disbelieves.  Pay attention to when the judge is respoinding postively and negatively.  Which people do you believe and disbelieve>?
  
  
• When they get to the "not guilty" cases, is there a prosecuting attorney present?  If not is this normal procedure (you can ask the clerk at the end of the day or when the judge is out of the court room)?   If present when does he leave for the day, before the proceeding are over or at the very end?
  
  
• No Prosecutor - In some jurisdictions they don't send the state attorney because attorneys cost money.  So in this case the police officer comes in and gives his testimony.  The judge is typically allowed to ask questions to clarify the testimony.  For example the judge may ask something like, "let me see if I understand correctly.  You were on the NE corner of X and Y and Mr. Radiant approached on eastbound on X...".   There is however a fine line between this and the judge actually presenting the other side's case, which is not permitted.   Watch and see what the rules are and see if you can catch the judge presenting the proscecution's case.  When it's your turn and you  think the line is being crossed you can object and politely ask if the judge intends to present the other side's case which he clearly cannot do.  Don't be an asswhole about this, be sincere, respectful, and determined. 
  
  Testimony
  You do not have to provide any testimony at the hearing.   If you cannot testify to any facts that damage the case against you there is no point in testifying.  If the only thing you have to offer is "I don't think I was speeding." there isn't much point in testifying.  If you decide not to testify then you don't need to take the oath nor do you need to asnwer any questions from the prosecution or the judge.   When they ask you to take the oath politely explain that you do not intend to provide any testimony yourself and that you are here to try your case. 
  
  Strategy
  The first thing to is be carefull how you fill out the citation when you ask for a trial.  In my state they have a check box if you want to question the calibration technician.  If they are asking then they are prepared for this so leave it blank.  You may get lucky and confuse them into thinking you want a mitigation hearing.   
  
  The next thing you can try is to come in late. This depends upon the logistics of the court which you were studying in the above observations.  Usually they do all the "not Guilties" before the "mitigations" so that the attorney and the police officvers can go back to work.   Remember that the state's objective is to collect money from as many people as possible with as little effort as possible. So the attorney and the police will usually leave immediately after all the "not guilties" are done. 
  
  You came late so at this point they think you missed the trial.  However, after the "mitigations" are done, the judge will ask if there was anyone that was missed or that came late.   This your cue, stand up and register and wait your turn present your case.   In this circumstance simply state that were definitely not speeding and that you know that people and measurement devices can sometime make mistakes.  YOu don't want to testify because this will give you a chance to convict yourself.  You have a right to question your accuser an so if he is not there you win.
  
  In the legal system they have this standard that says if you lie about one thing then it can be assumed that you have lied about other thing.  This is also true about mistakes.  If someone was mistaken about one thing they could have been mistaken about other things.  So with this strategy you have to show that the officer made one or more mistakes.   
  
  Citation - Read your citation carefully.  Is everything correct, license number, street/cross street where infraction occurred, etc.  Police officers often get the streets and/or other details wrong.  They don't really expect that you are going to show up in court.
  
  Cross Examination of the Officer - He almost certainlily has no recollection of giving you the ticket, unless you have distinguished yourself in some way at the time he wrote the ticket.   When he give his testimony he is assuredly doing so from notes he made at the time and and not from his own memory.   
  
  You can ask question obout the location, landmarks, street directions, etc.  Once I saw a policeman in corut draw a picture of the intersection where someone supposedly ran a stop sign.  His drawing however did not match up with the city street maps. He was shown the actual street map and the attroney for the defense asked him to look at the map.  He then said there isn't a parking lot on the northeast corner of this street/intersection as you have testified to is there?  The police officer had to admit that he was mistaken.    That was it,  the defendant won the case. 
  
  If this not adequate you can press further and establish that in fact that he doesn't remember the incident, ask directly "Do you remember this or that?"  You said "this", is that in your notes also?   You also said "the other thing" is that also in your notes.  Have you said anything here today regarding this incident that is not in your notes?  If you ask enough questions he will eventually have to answer I don't remember.  And so if he doesn't remember one thing there are perhaps other things which he doesn't remember.
  
  This is where shbaz's comments come in to play.   If he can't remember the traffic patterns how can he be sure that he measured you instead of someone else.   Ask him to describe obstacles to his line of sight and obstacles that would interfere with the radar signals (any metalic structures or objects, especially road signs).  Ask him to describe in a qualitative way how radar is used to measure spped.  Ask under what circumstances there will be eroneous readings etc.
  
  Also get hime to descibe his actions in detail about how he operated the radar gun to measure your speed.  In particular ask how he aimed the gun at you.  Was it at his side and then he raised it to measure your speed?  If so this will add the speed of his arm to your speed.  Baseball players routinely move their arms at 90+ mph  when throwing a baseball so it ought to be easy for anyone to throw a ball at 20 mph.
  
  Ok, so far your doing a stealth defense, they don't know you're comming and so they will perhaps not be prepared.   You can decide to go further by asking for the source code and schematics of the device.  You also want to ask for the hardware and software revision histories.  This will show that there are mistakes in the hardware and software in the past that have been corrected and that there are likely more mistakes that will be corrected in the future.  Use this to dispel the notion that the device is far from perfect. 
  
  This will likely cause a stirr and let them know you are serious about going to court.  It may cause them to bring an attorney that would otherwise not be interested.   They will resist giving you this information because the radar gun company won't want to make that information public.  However, you have a right to it and to have it examined and analysed by an army of experts.  You can't afford to hire an army of experts but you have access to a world wide community of experts via the internet.   There is prescedent in a Flordia DUI case.  You can look at the news archives at http://groklaw.net/.
  
  This latter gambit will be a tough fight and I would think, requires the assistance of an attorney to succeed.  However, if you have access to one of those law school clinics or public legal services you may try to interest them in the case.  It's sort of a human rights issue, man vs machine, open source, etc.   
  
  Lastly don't make excuses for yourself to the judge.  Tell him/her clearly that you don't think you were speeding and that the officer and/or machine somehow made an erroneous reading.   You are there because the officer believes otherwise and you have faith in the judge's ability (even if you don't) to sort it out correctly.  If you have asked to see the innards of the machine and are denied you can point this out to the judge also.  Be respectful and sincere. 
  
  It's been my experience that you win some and you loose some in just about any aspect of life.  Why should this be any different? 
  
  I wish you the best of luck.  Let us know how it turns out.