TkResolver++ - Psychokinesis testing software

About

TkResolver++ is a suite of software for conducting experiments into psychokinesis. It uses the output from a random number generator to determine the course of a line as it is drawn down the computer screen.

Experiments consist of an operator who attempts to influence the behaviour of the line-drawing. The software records in a database the operator's details, the experimental variables and the observed results. The suite includes programs for conducting visualisation and statistical analysis of the database.

You can read the README file here.

News

2009-01-17

Version 0.6.2 released. Changes are as follows:

• Write to database in separate thread and display progress bars to user
• Fixed bad random number generation (for control experiment runs)
• Fixed race condition in randomness retrievers
• Fixed "out of randomness" error during deterministic randomness retrieval

2009-01-09

Version 0.6.1 released. This is a bug fix release. Changes are as follows:

• Merged integer and unsigned property types into single long integer type (means a change to the property tables; should, hopefully, be the last)
• Fixed bug in Editor where empty constraints caused a crash
• Fixed bug in libtkquery where no rows were returned
• Fixed bug in Analyser where bad property-getting caused a crash

2009-01-06

Version 0.6.0 released.

During development of this release, a critical bug was discovered whereby randomness retrievers would repeat random bits from only the first retrieved character. The bug is now fixed but it means that all experimental data collected using versions of TkResolver++ prior to this release are invalid.

Changes include:

• Modified operator and location tables to be property-based
• Added new data editor to edit properties in any domain
• Changed randomness and randomness_bits fields of experiment table to be stored as properties

2009-01-01

Registered GNU Savannah project providing subversion, bug tracking and task tracking.

2008-06-02

Version 0.5.5 released. Changes are as follows:

• Added new query language for querying experiments through properties
• Updated analyser to use query language
• Changed test and date_time fields on experiment table to be properties
• Modified libtkresolver to ignore the escape button if it isn't a test
• Changed countdown blocks to white from red

2007-12-24

Version 0.5.4 released. Changes include a new randomness driver for HotBits.

2007-12-22

Version 0.5.3 publically released

Dependencies

Software

TkResolver++ is developed and run using GNU/Linux but it should compile on any POSIX system. It depends on several external packages:

• Boost::Assign C++ libraries
• GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic Library
• GNU Scientific Library
• Simple DirectMedia Layer
• gtkmm, glibmm and gconfmm
• libodbc++

The following packages are optional dependencies; they are not necessary but add functionality:

• gnuplot (for database visualisation)
• cURLpp with SSL support (for HotBits driver)
• libusb (for Alea driver)

Debian packages

The following Debian packages provide most of the required compilation dependencies:

libboost-dev libgmp3-dev libgsl0-dev libsdl1.2-dev libgtkmm-2.4-dev libglibmm-2.4-dev libgconfmm-2.6-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libusb-dev gnuplot build-essential flex bison libtool automake

The only dependency not satisfied is cURLpp. There is no Debian package for cURLpp and so it must be compiled and installed by hand.

Hardware

TkResolver++ requires a source of entropy that provides random bits at a high rate (depending on screen size, scroll speed, etc.) There are two sources of true entropy that it can use: the HotBits Internet server and an Araneus Alea I USB hardware true random number generator. Writing new drivers is very simple, however.

Download

Current development releases

TkResolver++ is still under development. Hard hats are necessary to avoid falling bits.

• tkresolver-0.6.2 .tar.gz [1.0M] .tar.gz.asc [197B] .tar.bz2 [368K] .tar.bz2.asc [197B]
• tkresolver-0.6.1 .tar.gz [519K] .tar.gz.asc [197B] .tar.bz2 [367K] .tar.bz2.asc [197B]
• tkresolver-0.6.0 .tar.gz [518K] .tar.gz.asc [197B] .tar.bz2 [366K] .tar.bz2.asc [197B]
• tkresolver-0.5.5 .tar.gz [484K] .tar.gz.asc [189B] .tar.bz2 [349K] .tar.bz2.asc [189B]
• tkresolver-0.5.4 .tar.gz [434K] .tar.gz.asc [189B]
• tkresolver-0.5.3 .tar.gz [422K] .tar.gz.asc [189B]

Latest development code

The latest development tree is available through the Savannah subversion repository.

svn co svn://svn.savannah.nongnu.org/tkresolver/trunk tkresolver

Older development releases

This is an older generation of TkResolver++ that uses static groups of experimental variables and hence is less flexible. It also uses mysql++ rather than libodbc++ and so is limited to using mysql databases to store results.

• tkresolver-0.5.2a .tar.gz [421K] .tar.gz.asc [189B]

Bugs

Bug reports should be submitted through Savannah.

License

TkResolver++ is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 3.

Contact

You can contact the developer, Bob Ham, by email at rah -at- bash -dot- sh