Daniel O'Connell

Migrated

2008-04-24T22:10:00.004+01:00

Bye bye blogger!

You can find me at dan-oc.com

Currently only the blog is online, and at the moment it is a fiendish experience for IE users, so use any other browser and all will be dandy. (That is next on my list, although I think all IE users should burn in hell)

I wonder if my HTTP redirect works:





Nah it doesn't...

Man and Machine

2008-04-03T00:21:00.005+01:00

Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7325004.stm

A bit of a far-fetched article imho, saying by 2020 we will all become Cyborgs.
"Hello sir my name is Dan, and I am a Mac"
"Hello Dan, my name is John and I am a PC"

Although saying this I did see an extremely impressive, worrying and cruel video.
You can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSCLBG9KeX4

The video is titled 'Cyborg Insects' and if you don't fancy watching it, scientists have basically implanted some chips into some moths and by sending certain voltages to the insects brain, they can control their wings, and their flight. I find this absolutely incredible, but I bet the moths aren't so impressed, talk about voodoo.

If they are right, in the next decade HCI as we know it will be a totally different ball game.

ʇxǝʇ uʍop ǝpısdn ʎzɐɹɔ

2008-03-30T16:48:00.001+01:00

lɯʇɥ˙dılɟ/ɯoɔ˙pɐɟʌǝɹ˙ʍʍʍ//:dʇʇɥ :ʇı op oʇ ʞuıl ǝɥʇ sı ǝɹǝɥ

˙sıɥʇ ǝʞıl sǝıɹʇuǝ ƃolq ʎɯ ɟo llɐ ʇsod plnoɥs ı ǝqʎɐɯ

˙ssǝnƃ ı ˙˙ƃuıʇsǝɹǝʇuı ǝɹoɯ ʇıq ɐ sƃuıɥʇ sǝʞɐɯ ʇı ʇnq ssǝlʇuıod ʎllɐʇoʇ sı ʇı

I wish I could use a pixel font!

2008-03-24T13:44:00.007Z

I am creating my web portfolio right now and deciding on a few things, the main one being the font I am going to use for the body of my site. It is important as I am supposed to be an interaction designer, and if you can't navigate my website, nor read my text then I am not very good at my job!

I researched the browser default fonts and tested them out to see what I prefered. Here is my little experiment using the colours I wanted to use (but I will not be using white now). The black text is 12point and the white text 30point.

You know I would love the last font to be a default on browsers, but I am not blessed with this fortune, and I am certainly not going to force someone to download a font when they arrive here (nor am I going to force them to listen to some awful 'lift' music, click on any terms of acceptance or click on any mystery referral links), which are all as bad as each other in my opinion.

Anyway back on topic, I had to decide wether I was going to use a sans serif or a serif font. As an aesthetic point of view, I greatly prefer sans serif, but for readability serif is generally better.

If I had to pick a serif, I would most definately chose Georgia, as you can see from the image it is much easier to read, probably due to the kerning and width of the letters.

When using sans serif fonts I have always used Arial, but as you can see Verdana outshines it, the 12point text is much easier to read and generally looks a lot more attractive, but the 30point kerning leaves something to be desired. That can be fixed though. Trebuchet is -ok- it just doesn't feel as solid to be and has a sort of italic style to it.

As for Comic Sans I can only think of 1 word - monstrosity.

I chose between Georgia and Verdana, so I needed to check to see what I prefered in big blocks of text. Here is the experiment I did for that:

Result:
I though serif fonts were easier to read? I think Verdana is easier to read, although it could be because I am used to it. However that is my choice.

Although, I wish I could use a pixel font!

Just for a reference, here is the place I got the font from: http://www.dafont.com/visitor.font

The Way Of The Ninja

2008-03-22T17:13:00.003Z

A game I have been playing on a lot this holiday has been N+. They have the original avaliable for free which you can get here.

It is so simple, and so fun. On the xbox version, you can play up to 4 players, most levels require collaboration, team work and a lot of patience. You can also create your own levels (which is probably the best bit) and play them with your friends, locally, or in a private match online.

Anyway enough about the game, I am actually blogging about this because of the style of graphics they use. I feel it is very similar to the style I have come to love, simple, 2D and block colours. They also use pixel fonts, which I also love.

It just makes designs really easy to read and understand.
Anyway here is the website: http://www.thewayoftheninja.org/

Easter Productiveness

2008-03-22T17:04:00.005Z

Well I am attempting to keep myself busy, the last few days, I can admit I have just been getting drunk and playing on the xbox.

After just finishing help my girlfriend decorate her room, I got pulled into helping my dad sort out our monstrosity of a patio, so I have been mixing cement, smashing bricks and lugging around concrete tiles for the past couple of days, all this and the sky decides to throw ice cubes at us mid progress. Damn British weather.

Anyway our lecturer advised us on getting a portfolio going, and as I wanted to get an online presence, and get a new home for my blog as this one is all messy, I decided to redo my old template, as I had learnt quite a lot in the past projects this term. I can finally use PHP and MySQL, hurrah!

I also learnt putting a border around your sites makes them look a lot nicer.

Here is the front page I designed. I am pretty happy with it.

The 'random box' in the top left is under personal scruitiny. I wanted to put a stamp there, but it looks a bit silly. It just feels empty there. At the moment the random box will just be a random link to something I though was cool, but not cool enough to blog about.

I might put a 'this is not an advert' box there or a word of the day thing.

We shall see :)

Torrent TV

2008-03-22T13:52:00.002Z

Article here: http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-on-tv-080321/#comment-316283

A company has created a set top box that incorporates a bit torrent client.

The box can get up to 1080i, and can support blu ray torrent playback.

The equivalent model actually costs $20 more than the Apple TV alternative, but due to the huge amount of content available, it is worth the difference.

I currently use my xbox to play content from an external HDD, but playing back HD content is a lot more complicated (as you can see from an earlier post on my blog), and this also supports Blu Ray.

Getting HD movies to play on xbox

2008-03-17T11:03:00.002Z

Yesterday I was trying to play a 720p HD file (.mkv) on my xbox from the HDD, and it did not work. The xbox does not even register that the file is there. So after a bit of searching I found this:

Note: I did not write this myself, the person I got it from got it from the xbox scene site. It may save some time though:

Here is a quick and easy way to convert an MKV to an MP4 for the 360...

1. Using MKVextract demux the video and audio from your MKV file into 2 files. One .h264 file and one audio file.

2. Using whichever software you choose, convert the audio to MP4 (remember it has to be 2 channel AAC LC). This can be done with a number of different programs.... choose whichever one you are most familiar with (ie. meGUI, foobar2000 (with the proper plugins), etc.) (For foobar2000 you need the matroska addon, ac3 addon and DTS addon and the aac nero addon)

3. Using h264info change the level of the video (the .h264 file) to 4.1 (This will not re-encode the video so it will only take a few minutes to re-write). Make sure that the output filename is different than the input or it will fail.

4. Using MP4Box or YAMB(with MP4Box.exe) (to avoid command lines) remux the video and audio.

That's it! You are now ready to play the new file without suffering through a lengthy re-encoding process!

Remember that this only works if your video bitrate is already below the max of 10 Mbps (with resolutions of 1920x1080 and a framerate of 30fps).

Port Forwarding

2008-03-11T13:16:00.002Z

Well I thought I would post this quickly.

I hope people do use port forwarding..

I use it for my P2P traffic and my XBox. It is also good to forward certain ports for particular online games on your PC, but I wont go into those.

All you need to do if find your IP:

start> run >cmd

type ipconfig /all

It should show your ip, it should be 192.168.x.x, for instance mine is 192.168.1.100
It should also show your gateway ip. This being your router, which again should be 192.168.x.x, usually being 192.168.(0-2).(0-2). Mine is 192.168.1.1. Write this down.

Go to your router by typing in your gateway ip. It should ask you user name and password, which is usually admin/admin or admin/1234 as default. Find where you can forward ports, and fill in your ip along with the ports you want to forward.

The ports depend on what you are forwarding.
For my P2P I use utorrent. It is very stable, light (uses a low amount of system resources) and it has some nice features. Go on your clients settings and find the port(s) it uses. For instance my port is 10005.

You can choose UDP/TCP or both. For the P2P just chose both.

Click save and you are done, your router should use those settings and your p2p traffic should be a lot faster.

For Xbox Live it states on certain games if you have set up your network properly. You should forward the following ports:

88 UDP
3074 TCP
3074 UDP

Also to find your Xbox's ip just go on network settings on the dashboard, then edit settings and it should show your Xbox's ip.

Just do the same as you did for the P2P, but change the ip accordingly. My Xbox is .101, my laptop is .100. Simple as pie.

Just a note, sometimes, say there is an extra person connected to your network, it will bump up the ip's so yours and the Xbox's might be .102 instead of .101. If this is the case then the forwarded ports aren't working on the right thing. You can use port triggering for this, which is exactly the same method as port forwarding, you just don't need to add an ip as it opens the port as soon as it recieves data. So if 10 of you use P2P in a house, you don't need to forward the port 10 times to each ip, you can just trigger that port, as long as you have all chosen to use the same port.

DNS Headache

2008-03-11T13:11:00.003Z

Sporting an all mighty headache from last night, I got to configuring the router so it actually worked again.

I had a bit of a headache finding my ISP's DNS, seeing as they didn't even tell me what it was on the letter they sent with the ISP user/password on. Anyway I found this site: http://www.dnsserverlist.org/ which is a godsend.

I am listing the DNS's here just for personal reference. It might save someone else a headache too, you never know.

DNS Server List
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Quick Fix for Tiscali DNS Servers - Change to Above three Servers.

Australia DNS Server List
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

QLD
144.140.70.29
144.140.71.15
144.140.70.16
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Westnet (ADSL)
203.21.20.20
203.10.1.9
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canada DNS Server List
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Shaw Cable
64.59.144.16
64.59.144.17
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Telus(BC)
154.11.128.129
154.11.128.150
154.11.128.1
154.11.128.2
154.11.128.130
209.53.4.150
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

China DNS Server List
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

I-Cable
(Hong Kong)
210.80.60.1
210.80.60.2
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Italy DNS Server List ( Italia lista server DNS )
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Alice
212.216.112.112
212.216.172.62
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Malaysia DNS Server List
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Schoolnet (ADSL)
202.75.44.18
203.106.3.171
202.75.44.20
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Tmnet Streamyx (ADSL)
202.188.0.132
202.188.0.133
202.188.0.147
202.188.0.161
202.188.0.181
202.188.0.182
202.188.1.4
202.188.1.5
202.188.1.23
202.188.1.25
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mexico DNS Server List
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Cablemas (Cable 128kbps)
69.44.143.245
200.79.192.3
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nederland DNS Server List
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Hetnet
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153

Tiscali Replacemet for Browser errors
69.111.95.106
69.111.95.107
206.196.151.153

Planet Internet
195.121.1.34
195.121.1.66
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Zealand DNS Server List
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Xtra (DSL)
202.27.158.40
202.27.156.72
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Paradise (DSL)
203.96.152.4
203.96.152.12
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Portugal DNS Server List
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Netvisão (Cable)
213.228.128.6
213.228.128.5
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153

TVTel
195.22.0.204
195.22.0.205
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sweden DNS Server List
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Tele2
130.244.127.161
130.244.127.169
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

United Kingdom DNS Server List
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

AOL
205.188.146.145
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153

Blueyonder/Telewest (Cable)
193.38.113.3
194.177.157.4
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

BTInternet
194.73.73.172
194.73.73.173
194.72.9.44
194.72.9.38 (Cardiff, S.Wales)
194.72.9.39 (Cardiff, S.Wales)
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Bulldog Broadband
Ns3.bulldogdsl.com . 83.146.21.5 (South)
Ns4.bulldogdsl.com . 83.146.21.6 (South)
Ns5.bulldogdsl.com . 212.158.248.5 (North)
Ns6.bulldogdsl.com . 212.158.248.6 (North)
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Nildram (ADSL)
213.208.106.212
213.208.106.213
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

NTL (Cable) and Virgin.net (ADSL)
194.168.4.100
194.168.8.100
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153

Pipex (ADSL)
62.241.162.35
62.189.34.83
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Silvermead (Satellite, DSL, ISDN)
62.55.96.226
62.55.96.109 (unchecked)
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Telewest (Cable)
62.31.176.39
194.117.134.19
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153

Tiscali, Screaming.net, Worldonline, Lineone
212.74.112.66
212.74.112.67
212.74.114.129 (Cambridge)
212.74.114.193 (Cambridge)
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Wanadoo UK (ADSL)
195.92.195.94
195.92.195.95
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Zen Internet
Primary DNS: 212.23.8.1
Secondary DNS: 212.23.3.1
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
US DNS Server List

United States of America DNS Server List
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Adelphia
67.21.13.4 Los Angeles, CA
67.21.13.2 Los Angeles, CA
24.48.217.226 Santa Monica, CA
24.48.217.227 Santa Monica, CA
68.168.1.42 Florida
68.168.1.46 Florida
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Bellsouth Fast access DSL:
Georgia
205.152.37.23
205.152.37.24
205.152.37.25
205.152.144.24
205.152.144.25
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153

Charter Comms (Cable)
68.116.46.70
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Comcast (pick the nearest!)

69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Cox HSI (Cable)

69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Cox.net

69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Earthlink - seem to be shared by Cable and DSL users in several states. Georgia and Florida confirmed.

69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

209.86.63.217 (Cable) - Charlotte, NC
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Harrisonville Telephone Company (HTC)
216.114.114.130 (Illinois)
216.114.114.132 (Illinois)
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Horry Telephone Coop
66.153.128.98 (Horry County, South Carolina)
66.153.162.98 (Horry County, South Carolina)
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

ORSC Public Access DNS Nameservers (Anyone can use these, no matter what ISP)
199.166.24.253
199.166.27.253
199.166.28.10
199.166.29.3
199.166.31.3
195.117.6.25
204.57.55.100
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Roadrunner (Cable)
24.25.195.1 (San Diego, CA)
24.25.195.2 (San Diego, CA)
24.25.195.3 (San Diego, CA)
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

SBC Yahoo DSL
206.13.31.13
206.13.28.60
206.13.31.5
206.13.28.31
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Speakeasy (pick any two!)
66.93.87.2 (Washington state and Oregon)
216.231.41.2 (Washington DC - probably)
216.254.95.2 (NY, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania)
64.81.45.2 (Los Angeles, California)
64.81.111.2 (Denver, Colorado)
64.81.127.2 (Dallas, Texas)
64.81.79.2 (Sacramento, California)
64.81.159.2 (Baltimore and Washington DC)
66.92.64.2 (Boston, Massachusetts)
66.92.224.2 (Philadelphia)
66.92.159.2 (Washington DC)
216.27.175.2 (Atlanta, Georgia. Serves Florida too)
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Sprintlink (nationwide)
204.117.214.10
199.2.252.10
204.97.212.10
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

TimeWarner
24.93.1.119 (Rochester, NY)
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Unicom

69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107
216.104.64.5 (Grants Pass, OR)
216.104.72.5 (Portland, OR)

FrontierNet / Citlink / New North DNS addresses:

69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107
66.133.170.2 (Rochester, NY)
170.215.255.114 (Rochester, NY)
216.67.192.3 (Arizona)
207.173.225.3 (Arizona)
207.173.225.3 (California)
216.67.192.3 (California)
170.215.255.114 (New York (areas other than Rochester))
66.133.170.2 (New York (areas other than Rochester))
170.215.184.3 (West Virginia)
170.215.126.3 (West Virginia)
170.215.126.3 (Tennessee, Georgia)
170.215.184.3 (Tennessee, Georgia)
67.50.135.146 (Illinois)
66.133.191.35 (Illinois)
66.133.191.35 (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota and Nebraska)
170.215.255.114 (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota and Nebraska)

Verizon (Level3) -
4.2.2.1
4.2.2.2
4.2.2.3
4.2.2.4
4.2.2.5
4.2.2.6
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

Wave Broadband
24.113.32.29
24.113.32.30
69.111.95.106
206.196.151.153
69.111.95.107

UK ID Cards

2008-03-06T08:17:00.004Z

Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7280495.stm

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is setting out a revised timetable for the roll-out of identity cards in the UK.

Non-EU migrants will have to get cards from later this year, airport baggage handlers from 2009 and - from 2010 - students will be offered ID cards.

She also suggests the wider population may not have to get ID cards at all and could opt to use biometric passports to prove who they are instead.

What are the point of identity cards when we already have enough to identify ourselves, such as a passport, drivers license, and I already have two student cards, one being for my university, the other a 'NUS card'
The only reason the government want us to use this card is so that they get statistics from us.

I don't want to be branded like cattle.

Just because the majority of students are young doesn't mean that they are stupid enough to accept these cards, on the contrary, we are the more educated ones.

And I had read that the government hopes these cards will crack down on terrorism. I ask you, how?

Anyway lets hope this government are not still in power by then.

Site finished

2008-03-05T22:30:00.004Z

So we finished with the site now.

We managed to get working message boards using MySQL for each subject, anti-spam CAPTCHA working, successfully posts a message when correct, does not when incorrect and an easily manageable website.

Things such as the navigation bar are easily updated as we used:

It allows us to update the nav on a single file, which changes it on every single page.

The site uses very simple CSS using only 6 divs, a page container, header, body, nav, content and footer.

Main problem we had was getting a form to send an email. We used the mailto: function on the form, but that only opens up Outlook.

Researching into mailing, we discovered it would take a very long time to set up, so due to lack of time, we left it as a simple mailto form.

Here are a couple of screenshots:

Ban the Bags

2008-03-02T13:09:00.002Z

Yesterday a couple of us decided to get on with our contextual studies. We had to decide on a topic and either write an essay, poem or whatnot about it.

We decided to look up the whole plastic bag thang, seeing as it is a big issue in the news and we were somewhat uneducated about it.

We found out some fasinating things randing from the average bag lasting only 20 minutes to Irelands 'PlasTax' which has reduced the usage of plastic bags by 90%!

Here is the link: http://banthebags.blogspot.com/

Trafalger Freeze

2008-02-28T22:56:00.002Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PupR5V9aE2s

Hundreds of vulunteers freeze their positions in the middle of Trafalger Square.
This must have been such a surreal experience for people who had no idea what was going on!

M & S Charging for plastic bags

2008-02-28T19:16:00.003Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/28/plasticbags.marksspencer?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

I think it is great that M & S have stepped up as the first supermarket to charge for carrier bags. Although only 5p, it should enoucrage people to reuse their bags and stop wasting their money.

I just think they should charge even more, some people will play ignorant and just buy them every time.

I couldn't believe it when I heard the bags take up to a thousand years to decay.

Lets hope the other supermarkets will step up.

Finished VE

2008-02-28T01:35:00.002Z

I have just finished my virtual environments project.
I have the sketchbook organized and the the presentation ready for tomorrow.

Fan dabby dosy.

Vizard Hurdle Cleared

2008-02-26T20:51:00.004Z

Well just a couple of hours after my last post and I have finished creating my vizard file.
You can find it here: http://www.freewebs.com/99daocon/3DJukeBox.rar
Note: You will need winrar to extract it, I couldn't upload it as a .exe
You also need vizard to play the file

I had one final thing to find out, and it is completed now. I discovered I was looking at completely the wrong thing and ended up coding my whole file from scratch. It actually halved the code I used from before. I have used activation rather than picking now. So you click on a box and it is active, once active it does the following things. Click on it again to deactivate it and it then does the next thing.

The only thing that doesn't work is that you can select multiples of the same colour boxes. This doesn't matter too much as a) It will take me hours to do, with little result and b) It is kinda fun being able to put all of the boxes on :).

I am a bit disappointed with the sound for several reasons. Firstly, I am not the best of composers, and a lot of the tracks suck, the tracks lost a lot of effects and qualities, such as note sustains etc due to converting the files to mono and thirdly, Vizard isn't the best program for looping sound files. There is a nasty pause between each loop. Nothing I can do there.

I am really chuffed it is finished though I have learnt a hell of a lot this term, especially in the terms of coding, which is nice. It makes me more confident when designing.

It is also very easily customisable. Making new tracks is very easy, I just have to replace the existing .wav files with new ones. I can also easily add more tracks, more boxes etc.

I got my younger brother to test it out, I have added interface instructions and he could easily work it. I was aiming for simplicity, and that is what I achieved. If my brother can work it, everyone should be able to, as he is pretty young :)

The screenshots from my previous entries explain the idea clearly enough, so I won't post more.

To share the love, here is my code

import viz
viz.go()

#set background colour
viz.clearcolor(viz.GRAY)

#turn off mouse navigation
viz.mouse.setOverride(viz.ON)

#Array of sounds categorized into the 4 sections
TRACKS_1 = ['1.wav','1a.wav','1b.wav','1c.wav','1d.wav','1e.wav','1f.wav']
TRACKS_2 = ['2.wav','2a.wav','2b.wav','2c.wav','2d.wav','2e.wav','2f.wav']
TRACKS_3 = ['3.wav','3a.wav','3b.wav','3c.wav','3d.wav','3e.wav','3f.wav']
TRACKS_4 = ['4.wav','4a.wav','4b.wav','4c.wav','4d.wav','4e.wav','4f.wav']

#when selecting a box, makes it active (turns volume to 1), click again to de-activate (turns voume to 0)
def ToggleBox(box):
box.active = not box.active
if box.active:
box.runAction(vizact.moveTo(pos=box.onPos,speed=500))
box.audio.volume(1)
else:
box.runAction(vizact.moveTo(pos=box.offPos,speed=500))
box.audio.volume(0)

#center box
middle = viz.add('center.wrl')

#####################################
########1st set of Boxes -x##########
#####################################

#Create 1st set of boxes
boxes1 = []
for i,f in enumerate(TRACKS_1):
box = viz.add('1.wrl')
box.audio = viz.addAudio(f,loop=True,volume=0.0)
box.active = False
box.offPos = (0,0,(i*-60)-60)
box.onPos = (0,60,-30)
box.setPosition(box.offPos)
vizact.onpick(box,ToggleBox,box)
boxes1.append(box)

#Start sounds
for b in boxes1:
b.audio.play()

#####################################
########2nd set of Boxes +y##########
#####################################

#Create 2nd set of boxes
boxes2 = []
for i,f in enumerate(TRACKS_2):
box = viz.add('2.wrl')
box.audio = viz.addAudio(f,loop=True,volume=0.0)
box.active = False
box.offPos = ((i*60)+60,0,0)
box.onPos = (30,60,0)
box.setPosition(box.offPos)
vizact.onpick(box,ToggleBox,box)
boxes1.append(box)

#Start sounds
for b in boxes1:
b.audio.play()

#####################################
########3rd set of Boxes +x##########
#####################################

#Create 3rd set of boxes
boxes3 = []
for i,f in enumerate(TRACKS_3):
box = viz.add('3.wrl')
box.audio = viz.addAudio(f,loop=True,volume=0.0)
box.active = False
box.offPos = (0,0,(i*60)+60)
box.onPos = (0,60,30)
box.setPosition(box.offPos)
vizact.onpick(box,ToggleBox,box)
boxes1.append(box)

#Start sounds
for b in boxes1:
b.audio.play()

#####################################
########4th set of Boxes -y##########
#####################################

#Create 4th set of boxes
boxes4 = []
for i,f in enumerate(TRACKS_4):
box = viz.add('4.wrl')
box.audio = viz.addAudio(f,loop=True,volume=0.0)
box.active = False
box.offPos = ((i*-60)-60,0,0)
box.onPos = (-30,60,0)
box.setPosition(box.offPos)
vizact.onpick(box,ToggleBox,box)
boxes1.append(box)

#Start sounds
for b in boxes1:
b.audio.play()

#Set the animation speed and mode
SPEED = 500
MODE = viz.SPEED

#Get the main viewpoint
view = viz.MainView

#Sets the pivot point so the camera looks at the center of the model
view.pivot(0,0,0)

#key controls for viewpoints. Keys 1-4.
#note, have to set two actions for each key, first one HAS to be pivot for it to work.
vizact.onkeydown('1',view.gotomode,viz.PIVOT_ROTATE)
vizact.onkeydown('1',view.goto,400,200,-400,SPEED,MODE)
vizact.onkeydown('2',view.gotomode,viz.PIVOT_ROTATE)
vizact.onkeydown('2',view.goto,400,200,400,SPEED,MODE)
vizact.onkeydown('3',view.gotomode,viz.PIVOT_ROTATE)
vizact.onkeydown('3',view.goto,-400,200,400,SPEED,MODE)
vizact.onkeydown('4',view.gotomode,viz.PIVOT_ROTATE)
vizact.onkeydown('4',view.goto,-400,200,-400,SPEED,MODE)

#Setting initial view
viz.MainView.setPosition(400,200,-400)
viz.MainView.lookat(middle.getPosition())

Still stuck with Vizard

2008-02-26T18:25:00.003Z

I am relatively new to coding and have learnt a lot in a little time, but now I have hit a brick wall.

To explain what I am trying to do:

I have the sounds in constantly running and looping with 0 volume. This is so they are in sync.

I want it so when you select a cube, it moves and turns the volume of the assigned track up so you can hear it. You click on it again, it moves to its original position and the volume goes back down to 0.

I though it would be a lot simpler, basically I imagined it to be:

on mousedown_leftbutton
box1.translate(50,0,0)
sound1.volume(50)
on mousedown_rightbutton
box1.translate(-50,0,0)
sound1.volume(0)

Obviously this is not the case.

I managed to get it to ..
When you left click any box box1 moves and changes the volume.
Here is the code for that:

def left_mouseclick(button):
if button == viz.MOUSEBUTTON_LEFT in box1:
object = viz.pick()
if object.valid():
box1.visible(viz.ON)
box1.translate(0,60,30)
sound1.volume(300)
if button == viz.MOUSEBUTTON_RIGHT:
object = viz.pick()
if object.valid():
box1.visible(viz.ON)
box1.translate(0,0,0)
sound1.volume(0)

viz.callback(viz.MOUSEDOWN_EVENT,left_mouseclick)

I have also managed to get individual picking, but when I try to set is as onpick(sound1.volume(50)) the sound just starts at volume 50, which is baffling me. Here is the code for that:

#Add a node to apply an action to.
sound1 = viz.addAudio('1.wav')
sound1.loop(viz.ON)
sound1.volume(0)
sound1.pause()
#Add the node that you'll pick.
box1 = viz.add( '1.wrl' )
#Apply the action to the node when you pick the other object.
vizact.onpick( box1, sound1.volume(50))

Completely baffled now, I have run out of ideas. I also tried doing this:

def onPick(button):
if button == viz.MOUSEBUTTON_LEFT in box1:
sound1.volume(50)
elif button == viz.MOUSEBUTTON_RIGHT in box1:
sound1.volume(0)
viz.callback(viz.MOUSEDOWN_EVENT,onMouseDown)

But I do not think that is the proper use of 'in' and it does not work at all.

I am totally out of ideas. I am hoping it is a case of combining the two working ones. I will keep trying to figure it out!

It is making me go crazy though.

Broaderband

2008-02-26T10:32:00.002Z

Article: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/25/devolo_readies_400mbps_powerline/

"Powerline networking specialist Devolo will next month demo an Ethernet-over-the-mains prototype capable of delivering up to 400Mb/s bandwidth."

"By pairing the 200Mb/s adaptors, Devolo essentially doubles the available bandwidth. Just as 200Mb/s powerline Ethernet doesn't deliver that perfect-world throughoput, so the 400Mb/s units only deliver real-world speeds of up to 180Mb/s, Devolo admitted."

"But that's still double what at 200Mb/s unit can provide and sufficient, the company claimed, for five HD video streams to be routed over the network simultaneously."

This is fantastic news really. My max download now is about 750kb/s, with this technology I could reach speeds of up to 184320 kb/s.

I know the UK have planned to install a new internet infrastructure, but I hope they develop the newest technology, rather than the existing ones of 100 Mb/s already used in several countries including Japan and the US. The infrastructure was planned to be completed around 2020, but by that time it will already be out of date. It is quite amazing finding out just how far behind the UK are on the technology front.

Although the current speeds are more than we need for browsing, it is downloading / uploading that is the problem at the moment. This however does encourage the use of P2P, yet another contradiction of our government on the subject.

But hey, who's complaining?

The Vizard Prison

2008-02-24T21:25:00.003Z

I have finally imported my model into vizard.
After many a fiddle, and not knowing any Python or Vizard at all I have got the user navigation working.
On key presses 1,2,3 and 4 the user can navigate from each corner, effectively zooming into certain cubes. I need to tweak the views as I only have 1 screen, but they are easy to edit as they are just x,y and z axis points, and they are all identical apart from each having different positives and negatives in front of each value.

To be quite honest the code I have done so far is pretty simple and the vizard help files are absolutely fantastic.

I am currently stuck though. As I have imported the model into vizard as one, I cannot seem to select individual objects. I have looked up a few things, such as child relationships etc, but I have no idea what to do. I am going to have to get some help on that one.

Here are a few of screenshots on the model moving from 1 point to another.

Note these are not renders, they are screen shots.

You can navigate from point a to b, b to c, c to d, d to a, a to c, b to d etc. You can also change your mind whilst the navigation is animating to change the path accordingly. It is a pretty nice effect. The only trouble I came across was making the camera view the center of the model. I found an easy solution using the pivot points.

I am not happy with the lighting either, I have experiment with a few different light functions in vizard, spot light, ambient light and the head lamp as default, (which is shown in the screen shots)

Yet another invasion of privacy

2008-02-23T13:22:00.001Z

Article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7260225.stm

The article explains how the government have come up with a new generation of surveillance camera, which detects how many people are using a car at once.

I know for sure that this government will invent yet another new tax, to do with the number of people you take in your car. If you drive in rush hour in any congested area, be it London or Manchester, and you are the only one in your car, you will have to pay money to do so.

What happened to privacy?

I made this earlier, only took me a couple of minute, and it is not amazing, but I was bored never the less.

Fed up of our government

2008-02-22T19:06:00.004Z

The UK government has yet again threatened ISPs to take steps against its users downloading pirate data.

Here is the article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7258437.stm

Quote, "The proposal is aimed at tackling the estimated 6m UK broadband users who download files illegally every year"

6 Million people!

I am fed up of these hollow threats from the government. Only a week ago they were putting pressure on ISP's to take action against the illegal downloaders, only with the ISP's refusing.

First of all ISP's have no way of monitoring every single packet that the users download, thus not knowing if the content they are downloading is legal or not, wifi encrypts these packets not knowing who is downloading what and finally the article says that they hope that other European governments will act in the same way, well that contradicts the European laws which state "EU member states are not obligated to disclose personal information about suspected file sharers" and "freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers."

So yet again I sit here waiting for a torrent tracker publish a witty comment about the article.

P.S Aren't Britains prisons overcrowded without having those 6 million filesharers behind bars?

Reactable, Music Interface

2008-02-22T01:36:00.000Z

http://reactable.iua.upf.edu/

I found this during research for my Virtual Environments project.
It is a year old, I can't believe I havn't seen it before!
It is a tabletop music interface which uses touchscreen and camera technologys.

You place elements on the table and they interact with each other creating different sounds.
The possibilities are huge, it could even become a new form of DJ'ing and performing. Maybe even have a 'band' of DJ's.

Here is a video example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h-RhyopUmc

The way the different elements interact with each other depending on each cirtumstance is very clever, I dread to think how complicated the coding is.

I think the sound wave animation between the two elements, representing the interaction is a very nice touch.

My favourite feature

XBOX Game Dev Opportunity

2008-02-21T09:45:00.005Z

So the battle of the titans is over, Blu Ray being the victor.
Microsoft will have to pull their fingerout.
As Xbox did not decide to put the HD DVD drive as an internal part of the Xbox they could create a Blu Ray one. But that is not their concerns at the moment.

Xbox are now reaching out to game developers. An article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7255866.stm

Microsoft have relseased a package called XNA which gives everyone the chance to build their own game on Windows and the Xbox and distribute it through Xbox live, which has 10 million subscribers. What more could an amateur game developer ask for?

Microsoft have also announced that there will be a revenue sharing model for the games distributed over Live.

Piracy Contradiction: P2P Broadcasting

2008-02-21T09:12:00.003Z

I have just read an article (found here: http://torrentfreak.com/eu-invests-22-million-in-next-generation-bittorrent-client/)

The EU Green Party have launched a campaign named "I Wouldn't Steal", which supports the development of P2P technology. They have invested $22 million from from the EU and another $6 million from of its partners.

They are right and wrong with this campaign. Right because P2P technology is not only used for downloading copyrighted content, wrong because the majority of P2P users are downloading copyrighted content.

They are aiming at broadcasting, as a lot of P2P traffic is actually downloading television programs, which gives broadcasters another (easier, cheaper and more dynamic) way of distributing their work.

Downloading television shows via P2P has completely transformed some TV shows, a prime example being LOST. It has created a huge community in which people can discuss their theories of the show, look at screenshots of things, analyse the show more. The shows team have even created things specifically aimed at this community, things such as underground releases on youtube and easter eggs on the web, such as a Hanzo Corporation and Oceanic Air Lines website that feature on the show.

It makes the show interactive in a way that the producers are listening to the audience.

It is amazing how it contradicts the articles I have read about the UK trying to get ISP's to completely ban all P2P traffic, but it is nice to see that it has some support.

It is indeed an amazing way of spreading media.

CMS: The Pirate Press

2008-02-21T08:59:00.006Z

After having a long discussion with Dave and Flo, our idea had developed somewhat.

They were talking about maybe making the boxes more interesting by putting a fact inside them, i.e. 5m under this box lays the air raid shelters used during the first world war. Dave was also explaining that Marble Arch is a place where they used to hang thousands of people, and all that remains there is a tiny plaque explaining it. I (we) had no idea!

That brought us on to local problems. A road near our university has had several accidents down it, recently flowers have been put up because a young boy was killed there. We researched into it and found out that there has been a government grant to put safety measures within the road, but the council have not used it claiming that they can't do so until April. This has lead to the second youth death on the road in six months. You can find the article here: http://www.bromleytimes.co.uk/content/bromley/times/newnews/story.aspx?brand=BMLYTOnline&category=news&tBrand=bmlytonline&tCategory=znews&itemid=WeED13%20Feb%202008%2016%3A45%3A12%3A517

We thought about creating an interactive newspaper, using the same idea as the boxes on the floor, only spraying down statistics and news to enlighten the local community. It will link to a website and on there it will have discussion boards in which the community can talk to each other.

We have created a basic php and mysql message board which includes name,email, the message and image verification. You input the information in the form and enter the correct number displayed in the image, then it takes you to the page which sends the information to the database. This page gives the user feedback, saying either that you have entered the code correctly and your message has been successfully posted in which the http redirects you back to the original page displaying the messages, or you have entered the code incorrectly which uses the kill command and you will have to press back on the browser to go back to the original page.

We want to be able to quote someone else's message which will appear in the message box. We were thinking about enabling a user to edit their post, but that would require a log in, which we do not want.

Above: The Pirate-Press Logo. (Borrowed from 'The Daily Express')

Overall I am very excited about this project and genuinely believe that it is going to make a difference to the local communities.

End of project - Vending Machine

2008-02-21T08:49:00.003Z

Well I have not been in the mood to blog recently, but forced myself to today.
The project went very well, we had a presentation on Friday along with the other groups.

The chain reaction group, who we all thought would flop, had an amazing success.
They built a long chain reaction across our classroom involving many things from a toy car to a blow dart shooting across the room at 50mph.

Another group invented a gadget that out-smarted a vending machine, but I won't get into details on that one. It was amazing though!

The VJ'rs successfully created their own sets and they looked pretty awesome too!

And out group just had a talk and a projector explaining our ideas. We made a video to show what the machines would look like. It involved aerosol and cheesy acting.

Overall the one week project was a great success.
Everyone really enjoyed working with the different year groups, hopefully we will do it again soon!

1 Week Project: The Amazing Abstract Vending Machine

2008-02-13T22:32:00.005Z

Monday was the start of the 1 week intensive project. We had three to chose from; Create an interaction VJ set, Create a chain reaction using items from a super market, or The Amazing Abstract Vending Machine.

On Monday we got into groups and we mind mapped our ideas. (Can't say brainstorm now). We have several ideas ranging from Vend'a'lung to London in a pot. We eventually decided on two ideas and broke into two groups. One idea was selling a cloud, the other being a machine based on the honour system (which we later found was patented.)

Tuesday we developed our ideas more, did some sketches and got new group members.

Today we decided to combine our groups again. We found that one group concentrated more on the interaction and interface of the machine, whilst the other on the form, visuals and concept. The idea developed onto a machine that blesses you. Here is a model I created based on some renders and sketches created by other group members, trying to combine them all, and avoid the stereotypical form of the vending machine.

The internal chamber contains smoke and has a projector showing the appropriate character. A member of the group made up some sketches based on Japanese artists. The whole idea is ideally based on the Eastern market but aimed at all markets, as all of our cultures share superstition.

The user will select one of six options, i.e. Luck. A puff of smoke will come out. They then have to make a donation, maybe after a period of time, depending on if the blessing has been effective. Our project is taking advantage of the Placebo effect.

Content Management Systems

2008-02-08T11:40:00.002Z

There is a new class blog which can be found here: http://dev1old.manme.org.uk/~interaction/wordpress/

For my own purposes I will just more or less duplicate my posts I added there on here, but explain a bit more on a personal level.

So we have a new project bases on Content Management Systems using PHP and MySQL. I am glad this project finally came around. I had a few ideas for this. In fact many. I was going to do a Facebook Application, which I still intend to make with the help of a friend with some spare time. I think it has a lot of potential. But I will not go into detail about that one. I don't want to share my secrets... well at least until I have copyrighted them! :p

My groups idea is to choose several locations in London and spray ‘Snap Boxes’ on the floor. The point of these boxes are to act as a frame for the photographer to stand in. There will be a web url with the snap boxes. That web URL will be a website that explains our project and a place to upload the pictures the public have taken in the snap box.

We want the users to rate the photographs themselves to create some sort of ranking system.

We hope to help personalise the space for the people who use it, look into why people ‘tag’ areas and look at similar projects, specifically ‘viral’ ones that invade public space etc.

Here are two basic visual representations:

Above: Stencil Design
Below: Our SnapBox invasion

We want to spray about 5 of these boxes around London. Some in very busy places, some in not quite so busy places. We will make a site, showing a map of where the boxes currently are, an upload service, and a voting service, to get users to vote for the best images. We also want each image to be commentable too, and maybe have some kind of a service for people to communicate on, for things such as box locations (as want have some secret ones), in the hope of creating a small urban community.

People do not seem to feel that they are part of the environment. This is such a simple idea, but we hope to get the public to interact with their environment more, being creative in a place where they may never have thought to do so. A number of people taking photographs in the same spot will immortalize that one second, for each individual, forever, and they can share that feeling. Creating the online forum would help build a community, help people make new friends and help them enjoy their environment with each other.

It is another way of people expressing their creativity, just like grafitti, only it is not against the law.

Also, if this was a success then there would be possibility of prizes for the winners, which would be either monthly or quarterly. If the site had enough visitors, the advertisements could pay for the prizes, but obviously with no visitors, the site will be generating no return.

The Pirate Bay Court News

2008-02-07T21:38:00.001Z

Big news for BitTorrent trackers.
The flagship The Pirate Bay are due to appear in court in spring, charged with "assisting copyright infringement"They recently posted a transcript of their interrogations, which you can find here: http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-interrogations-080207/

I find it hilarious how the interrogators clearly have no idea what they are talking about. I really love the fact that one of them pointed out that if The Pirate Bay is shut down then Google should be, because it does more or less the same thing, linking users to copyrighted data.

The problem is, if The Pirate Bay get charged, it will make a lot of the other tracker owners feel a lot more paranoid. It certainly won't stop them though, nor I doubt, it will stop The Pirate Bay itself.

They also have a new blog which they will update during their court cases. Here it is: http://courtblog.thepiratebay.org/

VE: Further Development 2

2008-02-06T20:11:00.001Z

OK so I have not done a great deal of this project recently, but I got my act together tonight.
I have managed to get my 3D model into Vizard, so you can navigate around it etc.
I have also found out how to add a joystick, but can't test that on my laptop, that will need to be done in the VE suite.

Moving on, I created the missing track I needed to total 28 tracks in sync. I have categorized them as well as I can (although it is still rough). There are 4 different categories. Originally I wanted them to be, 1: Melodic, 2:Percussion, 3:Strings, 4:Techno. This didn't really work. It is more or less organized like that but I ended up chosing the tracks I thought most similar in terms of tone and tempo.

I have changed the model so there are 4 shades of blue. The darker the blue, the denser the music.
I am thinking about having to chose 1 cube from each shade to make the music track more balanced. It might sound a bit crappy using 4 tracks from the category.
I also decided that the user dragging the boxes onto the 'speaker' might be a bit tedious, difficult and well.. completely pointless. I will make it so when you 'click' on a box, there is an animation of it moving onto the speaker. It will make the overall feel better, making it more user friendly and the four colours should make it a simple interface to understand. Basically, point, click, listen to your creation.

I am quite excited now!

And.. I need to test out the camera position in the VE suite. I can't see how it will look on a single screen. I am going to have the camera in 4 fixed positions, which the user can switch with the click of a button.

Here are the new renders, basically replace the other ones. Nothing exciting, but it gives you the idea.

Free mobile calls

2008-02-06T11:19:00.001Z

I read the times magazine whilst sitting on the loo this morning and found a link to a site which offered free calls and texts per month on the condition you recieve advertisements.
Blyk offers free 217 texts and 43 minutes per month. You can sign up for a free sim card, but it is for a limited time only.

I just signed up, so I can't promise you it will work or not, but here is the link for the site, and the youtube video is the number you text to join.

Oh and you are supposed to be between 16 and 24. They won't know if you are or not. Well at least I hope not.

Education

2008-02-05T22:58:00.001Z

I have just read a couple of articles explaining how Topshop and Primark have used slave labour. We were told about this this afternoon during an 'elective' lecture.

I have only just realized that one of the most important things I have learnt in university is how to be aware of current political agendas, and to make more effort into researching into them. In the most part, the majority of people don't even know exist.

The problem obviously stems in education. For example channel 4's recent campaign Chicken Out! informed the public of where the chicken they eat every week comes from. I have been eating it for years. I would not have been if I had been told where it came from in the first place. Same applies for shopping in Topshop and Primark.

Things like this should be taught to us when we are young. They should be in our curriculum.

It is not that we are cruel, it is that we are misinformed.

We also need to be taught local politics, what parties stand for what, and what current politicians stand for.

Digital Revolution

2008-02-04T18:30:00.001Z

The internet is an incredibly powerful way of networking people. Communicating with a group of individuals from around the globe has never been possible until now. The internet enables people to express their opinions freely. Looks at the priests in Burma. The government tried to keep it low key and not let the news spread internationally. Thankfully the internet let the world know what atrocities were happening there.

Check out this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/04/news
A group of individuals have revolted against the highly sinister Scientology cult. They have attacked them online, doing things such as temporarily disabling its international website and manipulating Google so that Scientology is the first hit when you search for 'Dangerous Cult'.
However they do not just have an online presense. Protests have been arranged Worldwide. In the UK protests have been arranged in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and York. There have also been arranged protests in the US, Australia and Canada.

It proves just how much difference a small group of people can make.

The group call themselves Anonymous who stand for the freedom of knowledge.
You can find the videos published by them here and here.

I think it is fantastic.

Missing Wallet Found

2008-01-29T11:37:00.001Z

Well turns out my suspicions were right.

My wallet was indeed in the back of the car, where I had previously looked and not seen it. (I blame the dark.) So now I am without a debit card for a week or so.

It is just too risky not cancelling your card for so long, especially when buying things over the net is so easy. All the information you need is on the damned card. Stupid system.

If they just temporarily disabled my card, I could phone them saying I have it, and would be able to instantly use it again. So I am poor for a week. Unfortunately I don't do the old lady style of banking and hide cash under my mattress.

It is just too risky not cancelling your card for so long, especially when buying things over the net is so easy. All the information you need is on the damned card. Stupid system.

If they just temporarily disabled my card, I could phone them saying I have it, and would be able to instantly use it again. Gah.

Facilities News

2008-01-29T11:36:00.001Z

Well got an email yesterday from the course leader telling us that she has managed to get the head of ICT to buckle up his ideas.

We have 2 PC's and 4 Mac Pros on the way.

This is good news.

Bad news is that I wish we had more, but anything is better than nothing!

Lost or Stolen Credit Cards

2008-01-28T09:59:00.002Z

Great start to the week. I have lost my wallet.

I have backtracked as far as I can, and none to be found, so I phoned up my bank to cancel my card.

I have mixed feelings on this, it is good because if you have lost your card, no one can use it, but .. I don't see why they can't just de-activate it until you phone them again in a few days time. Either you havn't found it, and then they can cancel it, or you have found it, and they can just reactivate it. It would save a lot of resources. And chances are, I will find it in five minutes.

Time to buy a wallet chain.

Facilities, or lack of

2008-01-27T19:05:00.001Z

This year our course ended up in a new room. It is nice and spacious...

Ok that is all the room has got going for it, but I like it nether the less.
The problem is, with the change of course leader, room, complete change of tutors, things have went a bit manic and we ended up having two computers. These two computers gradually slipped away, mouse, keyboard then the entirety.

None of us knew what to do really, until a little book named course handbook caught our attention. The handbook we received at the beginning of the course stated that we had access to 7 workstations dedicated to our course.

So with that in mind, I emailed our course leader, and she replied telling me that she had been fighting for the 7 computers. I did feel a bit stupid that we didn't think of looking at the handbook immediately, but a result did come out of it.

Our course leader emailed one of the college messiah, who has then emailed the situation onto ICT to deal with the problem immediately. Hopefully this will result in us having some computers linked up to the network in our room, but I still have a funny feeling somone has it in for our course and will somehow stop this from happening.

I have my suspicions, but I don't want to state any names.

All I can say is XAML

Not broad enough band

2008-01-27T18:45:00.002Z

Got to love UK Broadband.

2 hours ago I was downloading about 750k/s, now its at 30k/s.
'Fair' usage policies.

Or maybe my ISP should give me what I am paying for, unlimited broadband at 8mbps

It does irritate me. Although I did just read in the news that we are (finally) getting fibre optic connections which they already have in several places. These go at around 100mbps u/l & d/l.

Uploading is so irritating at a max of about 40k/s. If you want to back up your stuff online it takes forever.

The annoying thing is, they estimate the service to be available nationally by 2020. Even more annoyingly, it is an estimate, and you know what that means, it won't be ready until 2050. Hopefully I wont be here by then and won't need to worry.

Here is the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7202396.stm

Further Development

2008-01-21T19:24:00.003Z

So I have developed my idea on. It is now an interactive 3D audio interface.
I am sticking with the cubes, but I have added a central cube which will act as a jukebox, or speaker. The speaker can hold 4 tracks, which the user chooses and slides onto the speaker. There will be 28 different tracks, which will hopefully add a lot of variation to people's outcomes.

I need to take certain things into consideration when starting the next stage of design.. coding.

The cubes will need to be constrained so that they do not travel 'through' eachother.
The cubes need to be constrained at the user level, so that the user can only move them along the X and Z axis, rather than Y (up and down). This prevents confusion to the user when moving the cubes onto the speaker.
The speaker will need to recognise when and which track(s) are attached to it, and when and which track(s) are removed.
I need to consider a restraint on the camera/if the camera is static, to prevent users getting lost within the 3D environment. (It is BIG)
I need to decide whether, when you click on a cube, it is previously animated so that it just jumps onto the speaker itself, or whether the user drags it (could be awkward)
I need to decide on the colours of each cube, maybe group them into categories represented with colour, i.e. percussion, strings etc.

Overall it is not too complicated, but there is a lot to consider.

Here are some renders to show you the principles. The colours are not what they will be in the final result, they just represent that each track is different.

The 'speaker' in blue, and tracks in white

Above:3D of the tracks and the speaker
Below:Side View
Bottom: Top View

Physics Illustrator

2008-01-19T21:08:00.001Z

Here is a clip on youtube.

It is an amazingly simple idea, an interactive sketch pad. You can test concepts, and get your ideas across easier than static images. It would be nice to have one of these running on a big interactive white board in our room for presentations.

If you have a Microsoft tablet PC you can download the program from here.

VE: Music

2008-01-16T22:20:00.001Z

I just made a song to put in my environment. Well it is not so much a song, and I am no Mozart, its an 8 bar?, barre? loop with 27 different layers (instruments) (I nearly typed 'different layers(instruments);') PHP on the mind.

Anyway it sounds like a mess when all 27 layers play together, but all the layers fit together, no matter what 2,3,4,5 are playing together, so hopefully I can assign each layer of music to a cube, and no matter what cubes are active, the song -should- song ok.

My sound card must hate me

Virtual Environment Development

2008-01-16T16:37:00.001Z

I decided to stick to the cube idea, because shooting sound waves off seems impossible.
I did a basic model, and some renders to give me the idea of how the scene will look. Next step will be creating the layers of music for each cube.

Virtual Environments

2008-01-16T09:27:00.001Z

So we have to create an interactive virtual environment.

I was at a slight advantage because I already know how to use Maya, but we all faced the same problem, not knowing our boundaries.

I sketched out several ideas I wanted to do, some good, some plain rubbish. One idea I wanted to make was a cave, where you had a wii remote, and swung the remote in a particular direction, which would send a 'sound wave' (represented through audio and graphics), which would bounce around the environment for a certain amount of time until it decayed. There would be surround sound so you would hear the wave fly past you etc. The faster you swung the remote, the higher the pitch of the wave would be.

This idea has flaws. The main one being, how on earth to connect a wii remote to 3D s, how to make a 'sound wave' appear in the environment, how to make different pitched waves and finally how to make the surround sound work.

We were given a link to a Python tutorial. I went onto the url (http://www.python.org/doc/2.3.5/tut/tut.html) and was hit by a huge, HUGE block of text. I can't really sit there and go through it, it is too painful. I recently learnt some PHP, but that was through video tutorials, and was almost as useful as a real lecture. So I need a lecture on Python to learn anything really.

Anyway my other idea was create an environment with a few different rooms. Each room represented a layer from a track of music. You 'walk' on the path and you have a limited number of rooms you can enter. After you have finished travelling the path the track plays.

I am starting to go off of this idea, and I will probably be back to the sketch book today.

Wish me luck.

Finished my web template

2008-01-13T17:42:00.001Z

Well I got my web template done today.
I want to work out the whole blogging thing next so I can transfer this blog onto my site.
It is pretty empty and simple with lots to still change, but here are a couple' screens:

Nuclear Power

2008-01-10T17:50:00.001Z

So the UK are going Nuclear.

I believe this decision has been rushed, and announced now because of Labours promise to cut CO2 emissions by 2020.

Yes nuclear power is an improvement on relying on fossil fuels, but it causes problems of its own. Look at Chernobyl, it is dangerous. This isn't my main worry, which happens to be, what the hell do we do with the nuclear waste we produce?

Bill Gates HCI Prediction

2008-01-07T08:07:00.001Z

Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7174333.stm

After reading the article I can agree and disagree with some points he has made. The way people interact with computers will dramatically change, and probably sooner than the 5 years he states, but certain groups of people will prefer the current technology. One I am specifically looking at is gamers. The keyboard, although it is just a big lump of plastic, remains the most versatile, also paired with the mouse, the gamer has much more accurate control in almost every genre, such as FPS and RPG's. Driver however, is not so great.

Quote,

"We're adding the ability to touch and directly manipulate, we're adding vision so the computer can see what you're doing, we're adding the pen, we're adding speech," he told BBC News.

Personally, I like touch screen, the pen idea is great, especially for drawing on the computer, but the speech. I am not so sure what he means, but as he is talking about interaction, I am guessing that he means speech recognition. This is an ageing technology, and one that I find pretty useless at the moment. I think it is great for the visually impaired, but getting it to work properly leaves something to be desired.

I guess we will see so in the next version of the Windows OS (or Apple about a year earlier)

Odd Internet Problem

2008-01-06T16:11:00.001Z

I have come across an odd problem that I am unable to fix.
My girlfriends internet is often playing about. When trying to connect to certain webpages, it either doesn't load, or the images don't load. It happens on the desktop PC (running XP), my laptop (running XP) and my girlfriends laptop (running Vista). I have tried several things, tweaking Firefox, using different browsers, flushing the DNS, resetting the router, turning off all firewalls, checking every internet option and nothing seems to work. I have come across many other articles, particulary on forums, of people have similar, or the same problem, but I cannot seem to find a solution. I can only imagine it is the ISP or the Network setup, (which I can't see anything wrong on).

The strangest thing is that mine and my girlfriends laptop work fine on every other wireless networks, and the websites run fine at times, and don't work at all on others.

Social networking sites, or web pages with a lot of imagery seem to be the worst effected.
I have found a temporary solution, as I read somone had the problem of their internet not accepting normal web pages, only accepting secure pages (https), so if I put a s in the http://, on sites which have secure pages enabled then it works fine, but if this is not the case, then I simply have no clue what to do.

2008

2008-01-02T20:08:00.001Z

So here we are, another year older, another year wiser.

2007 was a quiet year on the technology side. Facebook probably being the biggest success of the year. I am hoping 2008 will bring us some exciting innovative technologies that we can play with.

I am looking forward to see if the UK adopt wimax, a wireless service that has much larger range and speeeds than that of the current wifi. It should enhance the internet on mobile phones and hopefully integrate things such as televisions, radios and other devices with the internet.

I am also excited about touch screen inferfaces. The iPhone (As well as others such as the LG Prada and the Viewty) bringing them more mainstream in larger technologies. I am excited mainly on the basis of an article I read on the BBC website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7156414.stm

It uses touch screen interfaces and they work in a 3 Dimensional level. The product shown in the article simulates the classic rubix cube, where you can slide the top section of one face, and the whole top section on all the faces move together.

This has so much potential.

Steal This Film:2

2007-12-29T12:16:00.001Z

I just watched Steal this Film Part 2.
Pretty interesting points. It tells us how in the past information has always been controllable and censored, and how the invention of the internet networking has put a stop to the control the powers have had over information, and how will affect our future.

The internet will give opportunities to so many people, letting people share their work with each other, such as young authors, musicians, broadcasters etc.

I believe censoring things over the internet in itself should be a crime. One can finally chose what they want to see, escaping propoganda, dictatorship and religious oppression from media such as television, radio and newspapers and finally we can now have true freedom of speech.

The best part of the film was the interview with the Chairman of the MPAA. Quote "We recognize, that we know, that we will never stop piracy" The MPAA are just trying to make piracy more tedious. Unfortunately for them, they have not been very successful.

I also read this article, explaining how large companies are trying to aim for the ISP's. They are asking ISP's to ban websites such as thepiratebay.org, and ban all P2P networking.
The problems they will face will be;
a) A lot of companies use P2P networking as a way to distribute data. It is a lot cheaper than FTP, as every person who wants the data has to download it directly from the source, whereas with P2P, one or two people can download the data, seed it, then others seeking the data can download it from those two people, spreading like a tree.
b) People will start to make ISP's that do not follow these laws, if necessary, by moving them to countries of which the laws do not apply.
c) Inevitably, technology will evolve and thus the ISP bans will become useless, the cycle constantly continuing, only with the people one step ahead of the companies.

Torrent Sniffers

2007-12-20T18:10:00.001Z

I recently found an article about the MPAA training two black Labradors to "sniff out" pirate media. Basically they have trained two dogs to sniff out the polycarbonate used in DVDs.
How the dogs can tell if that DVD is pirate or not, I don't know.

The MPAA's excuse for the dogs is as follows, quoted from my link, “Lucky and Flo have helped us prove that if we think outside of the box, we can find new and interesting ways to assist law enforcement and Customs officials around the world to stop illegal shipments of counterfeit DVDs from making their way across borders”

Here is a link to the article: http://torrentfreak.com/new-mpaa-pirate-sniffing-canines-all-the-way-from-ireland-071219/

I just hope they don't sniff out too many Christmas shoppers with their DVD box sets.

Nearly finished

2007-11-29T01:06:00.001Z

Finished my Flash kiosk now, although I didn't translate it into the 10 languages, because.. frankly I don't believe in the free translation websites, so it would be a waste of time.

Finished my report at last, although I think I must have written about 3000 words before I got it done, deleting, rephrasing etc.

Only problem now would be my sketch book, which consists of a folder with some of my work in. I won't have my sketches for tomorrow, as I just typed up my ideas really. I know from now on, every project I do, I should keep a physical sketch book, or at least scan things into my blog to keep progress of everything I have done.

Anyway I cannot wait till the end of this project, present my kiosk will be easy as pie, as there is a lot more pointing and clicking than there is speaking. I can't wait to get away from those two bitchy adolescents.

Blog Headers

2007-11-27T09:32:00.001Z

Mine fits in.
But it has awful kerning.
I will fix this at some point!

In fact I will probably change my whole blog, but I will have to wait till after this week is done.

The Falling Sand Game

2007-11-23T22:48:00.001Z

What a thing to be talking about at 11pm on a Friday night.
But here is the most awesome piece of coding I have seen in javascript, bar none. Yes that includes Runescape. Here is a link to one version of the game, which is not my favourite, but it is playable in your browser. Here is a downloadable version, which is much better, it has a lot more features on it.

The game involves different coloured pixels, which have different effects. Green represents plant, blue represents water, red - fire and so on. They all interact with each other in different ways, such as the plant growing in water, the fire burning away the plant, but only the unsubmerged part, the fire reacting with water to create steam. The fire can make heat, to heat walls, to boil water, to creat steam, to follow down a pipe to condense into water again, to filter through sand etc.

People have make special reactors, which are a never ending sequence of particles, without any additions to the screen. It is all self sufficient.

I highly recommend you downloading it and having a play. It is really really fun, and you will probably spend more time on it than you think!

The Berlin Project

2007-11-22T14:43:00.001Z

It has got to the point in the project where I have no role anymore. I am sitting down doing nothing, as the idea I like, and I feel that putting something specifically interactive in it, just for the sake of doing it is completely pointless. I feel the idea is fine on its own, there is no point putting an additional feature in it, which will be completely out of place.

The problem is that the floor is made of vulcanized rubber. It is the only material we can use to achieve our main goal. Making something interactive out of rubber, and sticking to the brief is where I am stuck.

I am doing less work than everyone else in the group, because they have proper briefs, and things to do, whereas I do not. I try to get myself involved, but everything that I could do, is done now.
Even our course leader said the whole project is a disaster, so why are we still doing it?
Bollocks.

The Fuel Scare

2007-11-21T13:35:00.001Z

The other day my dad was talking to be about using cooking oil, or rape seed oil for fuel in his van. With all this worry about the fossil fuels running out, which they will, it makes me wonder why we are not using rape seed oil as a fuel. It is managable, and although not the best solution to the whole problem, it is an acceptable alternative. I am sure it must also be better for the environment too. I havn't looked into great detail, maybe you do no get a great amount of oil per hectare, but if you did then why are we not using it?

Hell I don't know why we even use diesel now. Probably oil companys some how crushing the competition in some politcal way. Or have I watched too many films?

Innovative Keyboard

2007-11-20T10:55:00.001Z

Guitar Hero was a big hit for the consoles, and some developers have made 'Frets on Fire', the same concept as guitar hero, but more open source. Instead of buying a usb adapter to use the guitars, you can just use the keyboard. I thought it was a great idea, so here is a video.

You can add your own songs, and create the levels yourself. The graphics are not as pretty, but the game itself is just as good.

Although, you do look rather silly.

Training DVD's

2007-11-18T13:24:00.001Z

Because I'm worth it.
No not really, but because I am not sure if it is in our curriculum any more.

I "obtained" 3 DVD's;

Essential Actionscript 3.0 Training
Actionscript 3.0 in Games Development
PHP with MySQL Essential Training

I am not so interested in the games development, but I know people in my class will.
I assumed we would be learning PHP this year, but with a change of course leader I cannot be too sure, so I had to get off my backside and be pro-active.
I have only just got them, so I will tell you about the result later.
Over and out.

The Age of Blogging

2007-11-18T13:18:00.002Z

So I decided to start a blog. Jump on the bandwagon and all.
Anyway, I was going to attempt to put all of my Berlin project on here, but I don't think it would work now. So I'll just link you up to the website, which explains the project and hope that next time, I will use this blog.

www.playscapegroup.co.uk

Our group has had its ups and downs, and last week we nearly split in half. Boys vs Girls, the epic battle. Although that wasn't the reason, it was because of the courses. Interior designs feel that they will fail without some kind of a structure in Alexanderplatz, which personally I think is rubbish, but I will have to compromise because I now understand the pressure they are under from a certain lecturer. I think in the end everything will be ok. Everyone is getting on better now.