3 ms·

There's nothing to be ashamed of! I learned an awful lot from it. The part where you "read" values from the screen was particularly interesting. I had coded up

There's nothing to be ashamed of! I learned an awful lot from it. The part where you "read" values from the screen was particularly interesting. I had coded up the equivalent functionality in AutoIt, it involved iterating through an array of all possible images (stored locally)....ugh. Utter mess. Your method was much cleaner. How did you get interested in automating web games? What is your background? Any other interesting projects you are cooking up? I find the whole area of automating tedious human-driven actions fascinating. If the roulette bot works out, my next project is going to be automating spread betting/forex trading or perhaps some sort of sports betting arbitrage. Loads of possibilities out there in my opinion. ps. If I end up 'making bank' as a result, let me know where I send the cheque as a thank you. My email is in my profile ;-)

goostavos 15y ago
Ha, these Bejeweled Bots are actually what got me into this stuff. Not this one specifically, but someone linked to video of a Bejeweled Blitz bot on /r/programming awhile ago. I was instantly fascinated. No cool projects yet. There is a bot that I've been really wanting to make, just because I can't get past the stupid 4th level, but it requires a bit more brain power than I currently have.. Speaking of which, if you're interesting in the computer vision-y stuff check this out: http://www.udacity.com/ http://www.udacity.com/. They're having a class on programming a robotic car. It looks like it will touch on some pretty neat vision stuff.
- patrickk 15y ago
  It's funny, I was just discussing udacity with a co-worker today. I might try some of the easier courses before I tackle the more hardcore topics like a self-driving car! On a slightly tangential note, I'm blown away when I look at the learning resources on the web in the last year or two. I largely learned the (admittedly rudimentary) iOS knowledge I have from the Stanford U course on iTunes[1]. Then you look at things like Udacity, Coursera and Khan Academy. In the case of the self-driving car course, you are getting a world-class computer-science education, free, from one of the foremost experts in AI, all from the comfort of your own bedroom. We might not have flying cars yet, but you can get a world-class education for free! The times we live in. I'd also encourage you to do more write ups on your bot experiences! You have a knack for explaining things well. I'm toying with the idea of doing maybe a series of YouTube videos or blog posts myself once my Python skills get above the level of being totally embarrassing ;-) BTW, here's a link for a series of blog posts on how this guy builds working poker bots: http://web.archive.org/web/20090608115755/http://www.codingthewheel.com/archives/how-i-built-a-working-poker-bot http://web.archive.org/web/20090608115755/http://www.codingt... http://web.archive.org/web/20100130074034/http://www.codingthewheel.com/tags/poker http://web.archive.org/web/20100130074034/http://www.codingt... (Had to put it through the wayback machine as some current employer of his persuaded him to take the content offline!) Not sure if it's something you would be interested in, but have a look at some of the content. He goes through using Monte Carlo simulations and everything to aid decision making. Very C++ and Windows based, but have a look nonetheless, there may be transferable concepts to your own projects. [1] http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/developing-apps-for-ios-hd/id395605774 http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/developing-apps-for-ios-...
  - goostavos 15y ago
    Just finished reading through that first link. Very interesting stuff! If I knew anything at all about how poker was played I might try to make one myself ;) I completely agree about the current times, man. The amount of free (and quality!) educational material right now is pretty staggering. The Khan Academy alone was amazing, but now with things like Coursera, and the MIT open courses, it's pretty freaking unbelievable what's now at our fingertips. Definitely make those videos and blog posts! And send me a PM when you do :)
    - patrickk 15y ago
      Poker is a simple game to learn if that's something you are interested in. "5 minutes to learn, a lifetime to master", is the cliche used. If you are interested in learning more, the second article in that series of posts I linked to has a 'recommended reading' section (Ctrl+F/ Cmd+F for "recommended reading"): http://web.archive.org/web/20100127104229/http://www.codingthewheel.com/archives/how-i-built-a-working-online-poker-bot-2 http://web.archive.org/web/20100127104229/http://www.codingt... I'm hardly a poker shark myself, I just used to play a few local free-roll Texas Hold Em (THE) tournaments in my local area and online back in college. The rules are freely available all over the internet, as well as strategy guides, poker hand calculators, etc. The cool thing is most online casinos have a "practice play" section where you get like 1000 play money credits every day, so you can test and refine your poker bot without having to deposit cash. If you include your email address in your profile "about" section, I'll be sure to fire you an email if and when I do publish a series on any bots I make! It might be some time though, my mad skillz are somewhat lacking at the moment sadly. I'll post it here on hn and r/programming too, I'd be curious to hear what people think. ps. I think I may have found the article you referred to about the Bejewled bot: http://hackaday.com/2011/07/30/bejeweled-blitz-bot-makes-your-high-score-look-just-sad/#more-50716 http://hackaday.com/2011/07/30/bejeweled-blitz-bot-makes-you... Some nice links in the comments there too.

goostavos 15y ago

Ha, these Bejeweled Bots are actually what got me into this stuff. Not this one specifically, but someone linked to video of a Bejeweled Blitz bot on /r/programming awhile ago. I was instantly fascinated. No cool projects yet. There is a bot that I've been really wanting to make, just because I can't get past the stupid 4th level, but it requires a bit more brain power than I currently have.. Speaking of which, if you're interesting in the computer vision-y stuff check this out: http://www.udacity.com/ http://www.udacity.com/. They're having a class on programming a robotic car. It looks like it will touch on some pretty neat vision stuff.

patrickk 15y ago
It's funny, I was just discussing udacity with a co-worker today. I might try some of the easier courses before I tackle the more hardcore topics like a self-driving car! On a slightly tangential note, I'm blown away when I look at the learning resources on the web in the last year or two. I largely learned the (admittedly rudimentary) iOS knowledge I have from the Stanford U course on iTunes[1]. Then you look at things like Udacity, Coursera and Khan Academy. In the case of the self-driving car course, you are getting a world-class computer-science education, free, from one of the foremost experts in AI, all from the comfort of your own bedroom. We might not have flying cars yet, but you can get a world-class education for free! The times we live in. I'd also encourage you to do more write ups on your bot experiences! You have a knack for explaining things well. I'm toying with the idea of doing maybe a series of YouTube videos or blog posts myself once my Python skills get above the level of being totally embarrassing ;-) BTW, here's a link for a series of blog posts on how this guy builds working poker bots: http://web.archive.org/web/20090608115755/http://www.codingthewheel.com/archives/how-i-built-a-working-poker-bot http://web.archive.org/web/20090608115755/http://www.codingt... http://web.archive.org/web/20100130074034/http://www.codingthewheel.com/tags/poker http://web.archive.org/web/20100130074034/http://www.codingt... (Had to put it through the wayback machine as some current employer of his persuaded him to take the content offline!) Not sure if it's something you would be interested in, but have a look at some of the content. He goes through using Monte Carlo simulations and everything to aid decision making. Very C++ and Windows based, but have a look nonetheless, there may be transferable concepts to your own projects. [1] http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/developing-apps-for-ios-hd/id395605774 http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/developing-apps-for-ios-...
- goostavos 15y ago
  Just finished reading through that first link. Very interesting stuff! If I knew anything at all about how poker was played I might try to make one myself ;) I completely agree about the current times, man. The amount of free (and quality!) educational material right now is pretty staggering. The Khan Academy alone was amazing, but now with things like Coursera, and the MIT open courses, it's pretty freaking unbelievable what's now at our fingertips. Definitely make those videos and blog posts! And send me a PM when you do :)
  - patrickk 15y ago
    Poker is a simple game to learn if that's something you are interested in. "5 minutes to learn, a lifetime to master", is the cliche used. If you are interested in learning more, the second article in that series of posts I linked to has a 'recommended reading' section (Ctrl+F/ Cmd+F for "recommended reading"): http://web.archive.org/web/20100127104229/http://www.codingthewheel.com/archives/how-i-built-a-working-online-poker-bot-2 http://web.archive.org/web/20100127104229/http://www.codingt... I'm hardly a poker shark myself, I just used to play a few local free-roll Texas Hold Em (THE) tournaments in my local area and online back in college. The rules are freely available all over the internet, as well as strategy guides, poker hand calculators, etc. The cool thing is most online casinos have a "practice play" section where you get like 1000 play money credits every day, so you can test and refine your poker bot without having to deposit cash. If you include your email address in your profile "about" section, I'll be sure to fire you an email if and when I do publish a series on any bots I make! It might be some time though, my mad skillz are somewhat lacking at the moment sadly. I'll post it here on hn and r/programming too, I'd be curious to hear what people think. ps. I think I may have found the article you referred to about the Bejewled bot: http://hackaday.com/2011/07/30/bejeweled-blitz-bot-makes-your-high-score-look-just-sad/#more-50716 http://hackaday.com/2011/07/30/bejeweled-blitz-bot-makes-you... Some nice links in the comments there too.