ISPs PISS Me Off

Here’s one more reason not to go with ADSL. I thought Tiscali were a great ISP but it turns out they’re the same as all the rest.

The part I’m worried about is “…Tiscali has indicated it wants to place a full block on peer-to-peer applications…”

They say “…at peak times during the evening.” but if the infrastructure is there, undoubtedly they’ll use it regardless with excuses such as “we need to conserve bandwidth”.

Wise up guys… just be a grown up and go FIBRE yourselves!

P.S - Virgin planning to up their XL speed (which I’m on :D) to 50MB/S

Struggling With A Python

I’m really struggling with the Python scripting at the moment. Basically I have no idea where to start, what to do, when or why. The third years said they struggled too but ran out of time so they ended the project and moved on to the next one. I want to do that as I’m not enjoying this project or learning anything from it at the moment. As a new project is starting on Wednesday I fear I will get a VERY low grade for this project.

Lighten Up

While perusing my usual plethora of RSS feeds I came across something that I see every now and again (thanks to The Register) which is a patent application from Apple. Normally when these come out it marks a milestone in the development of their technologies.

For example I saw the patent for the iPod Touch’s screen, and the general multi-touch application which we all know and love. Today I came across one called ‘visual feedback’ whereby the iPod’s clickwheel or the scroll pad on a Macbook would respond to the users’ finger movement by lighting up certain areas. Take a look here.

The actual patent application is obviously much longer and far more boring, but it just goes to show that it is relatively simple to implement something like this.

Also… I want to work for Apple!!

Plane Old Re-Entry Anyone?

Check this link out. It’s about a people trying to design a paper plane that can withstand re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere from orbit…

Why?

PONG!

As part of a series of workshops we will be doing, we were taught the basics of a programme called ‘Processing’. After a few hours of messing around with rectangles and circles and colours (that’s the correct spelling for all you yanks out there who force us to code using color!) we were tasked with creating a simple game of pong. Sounded easy… oh how wrong we were.

When the workshop was finished we were asked to complete the game as ‘homework’. I knew what needed to be done to make the game work, it was just a question of finding the right code to do it and the right way to set out that code.

It’s now 2.35am and I have finally finished it. It took me 2 hours to figure out how to get text to appear in it and then another hour to figure out where to position that within the code so that when the background was redrawn, the numbers stayed there! FRUSTRATION!

Anywho it is all done and dusted now. So click here to see my pong.

Control is with the mouse for the left hand bat, and the Up and Down arrow keys for the right.

More…

Here are some more image renders from 3DS Max including a ball baring to show a character involved in the scene.

Since these images I have been informed that the camera will be the character and moving the camera around will be the only visual interaction with the scene - to the best of my understanding.

A concept I was thinking about incorporating is the ‘Super Monkey Ball’ style of control whereby you move the environment around and the ball moves over it.

Without knowing what is and isn’t possible within the constraints of the programme, its REALLY difficult to come up with viable concepts.

Bandwidth STILL Not Enough….!!

I’m sitting here trying to browse the web… but I’m finding it VERY difficult. Its just soo slow for no apparent reason. Rob and I experienced this the other day whilst trying to play Xbox Live.

uTorrent = Off (Was only downloading at 7kb/s anyway :S)
Outlook = Unable to send emails (which is all I want it to do…!)
Limewire = Off
TCP/IP = Optimized for my connection
Ports = Open
Connection = Excellent

Therefore I am convinced that someone in my flat is downloading stuff at uber speeds… and not taking into consideration other people browsing the web.

At least when I do it I limit the upload (main cause of slowing the bandwidth by uploading at the maximum the connection can handle) and the download to 500 kb/s (only 1/4 of my actual bandwidth, and considering there are only 4 of us using it I think that’s more than generous)

Further investigation needed… it seems that no matter how fast the speed, people will hog the bandwidth. The only way to solve this issue is to make the bandwidth soooo fast that the download time is only a few seconds max.

Crap…

I Just Don’t Sleep

Yes I’m still up!

I’ve made a new blog for the Virtual Environments project which you can check out here or click the link on the right.

I’ve also fleshed out my new website design a little more… looks like I won’t be using my newly found Java script drop-down menus.

Here’s a screen shot.

Cool Stuff… I’m Cool Too!

I know everyone has been posting cool things on their blogs recently and I felt a little left out, but then I realised that I have been to some awesome sites and found some really cool stuff that other people might be interested in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-DqZ8jAmv0

Here is a link to a video of something called PHOTOSYNTH which is a really cool way of visualising images (you’ll see what I mean when you watch it) and I think this kind of innovation is really key to interaction in the terms of screen-based media and usability. Based upon something called ‘SEADRAGON’ which can show hundreds of gigabytes of information on a screen at any one time because it only shows a certain number of pixels on the screen at a time… not just zooming out from a large original image.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ra5tp7K–I&feature=related

Uber Cool!

http://labs.live.com/photosynth/installer/sysreq.aspx…

Here’s a link to the photosynth live technical demo that you can download and play around with. Again very cool!

Call Me Rubik… I Have A Cube Too!

Get ready for many more pun-laden post titles as a new project begins.

‘Virtual Environments’ sounds like a lot of fun, using the CAVE 3D projector and imagining different ways to use the 3D landscape while trying to incorporate user interaction into the mix too.

I wanted to use sound in my design so I was thinking about ways to make that sound interactive as opposed to just have it louder or quieter depending on where you are within the scene. After a few initial concepts have been discussed, I am going to pursue a cube related theme whereby the user will be in control of a small character who runs and jumps across cubes within a 3D field. When it runs over a surface it lights up and plays a sound.

The options to consider are whether that sound is an instrument, a loop of one instrument or a loop of many. I have also been thinking about using single words so that the user is able to create phrases and sentences or if each surface plays a clip from a speech.

All these things have to be decided on so while I am thinking about those I’m using my new found 3DS Max skills and creating some basic prototypes and visual concepts to help me decided on the scene the cubes will be set / arranged in.

Here are some images of today’s work: