fuskyb

Got a new PC

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:31:43 GMT

I've moved from a computer consting of 8 years of secondhand freebies to a Quadcore Phenom II beast with 8GB Ram. Yesterday I set an mp3 to encode at the insane setting marked 'non-realtime' it rendered at twice realtime :)

This may literally save weeks of my life.

Don't fear the REAPER v3.11

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 13:31:11 GMT

Yesterday I searched for some multitrack audio software. I already use Audacity and do prefer a free, open-source tool, but need MIDI support. My soundcard came with lite versions of Ableton Live and Cubase, without going into undue detail, these programs have limitations on them unless you buy the cheapest version of the tool, which is still a cut-down version of the full product.

Eventually however, I found this:

http://www.reaper.fm/

It also deals with MIDI and has a sensible 30 day evaluation period during which the product is as it would be upon purchase, no restrictions, it has good online wiki documentation, and so far I've found it very well organised and feature-rich. Barring unfortunately weirdness, I expect to pay for the full version, which is less than 10% of the price of Cubase.

Printers...

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 09:07:26 GMT

So in preparation for the murder mystery, I needed to print out a lot of stuff, and the inkjet printer was not cooperating. It would print out streaks of int and was apparently close to running out. So I cycled at lunchtime to shops went in 6 different shops all of which had ink for insane prices...insanely high that is!

Typically £40-£50, even the non-brand ones were expensive. Until I found Maplins, they had refill kits so I bought a couple for a few quid each and that night filled the ink back up.

Apparently Epson have put little chips into the cartridges which tell the printer the ink is empty and will not adjust that opinion once it becomes total crap. So the next day in desparation I went back to the Maplins at lunch and bought a black ink cartridge for £6 or something. It was fine, but then the printer still printed the streaks, so I needed to do all the head cleaning nonsense, which required the colour cartridge to be full. That night I went back and got the colour cartridge, the printer didn't think it had any ink now and would certainly not be printing anything for the game which was to occur the next day.

This would have been a sad tale of printing disaster, had it not been for my anticipating the printer acting like a complete ****!

That evening while buying the colour ink cartridge I also shopped around a bit and bough a sexy Laser Printer which uses wifi. I did have to get it home on my bike (in the rain) though...

But it all worked out well in the end :)

Homemade 3D Laser Scanner

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:39:39 GMT

After seeing this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPywgDBjM1Y

and this website:

http://www.david-laserscanner.com/

I decided to embark on a project to build a device that could scan a small object into the computer...in 3 Dimensions! Using Lasers! Mwuhahahaha!

The principle is simple. A platform (built by trs998 and me) rotates the object like a record player would. We didn't have a record player, so we spent all night drilling and building until we had a homemade gearbox. Then a laser beam shoots through a wine glass stem which breaks it into a veertical beam that strikes the surface of the object. A video camera records this from an angle of 30 degrees or so and from its perspective the laser line is curved according to the surface. Each frame of the video is effectively a silouhette of the object as it spins. Then the computer puts all these silouhettes together again et voilla! I have mispelled some French words.

The following night was a Board Games evening, but I did a lot of sleepy drunken coding, and trs998 helped to refine the algorithm for line detection. We had already filmed a few objects, probably the best of which was the most spherical, a pig money box.

Here is the program detecting the line:

Afterwards I exported the points it generated to an AC3D file and imported into Blender, a brilliant and free 3D modelling program. In that I was able to use its 'shrinkwrap' tool to shrink a sphere over the points to reveal the piggy shape underneath. There was a bit of refinement to try and improve upon what is quite like a pig in clingfilm and tease out some of the features. It's early days, but this isn't bad for a first attempt:

What say you?

Book Review : Slaughterhouse Five

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:26:29 GMT

I passed my theory test. Next on to driving lessons!

Also read Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut

It's pretty cool to get back into book reading after so much TV, and the book is quite small, with hardly any filler, which is a most admirable trait in a book. The plot concerns a soldier who becomes unstuck in time, and this means its quite easy to dip into the book in a spare moment, which is super convenient.

In terms of ending, I'm not sure the ending was particularly clear or climactic, but the imagery, similies, and various other things I can't remember too well from English Lit lessons were all very entertaining, and that kept me hooked. Wikipedia says that some people think this is an ant-war book, and some thing it is a quietist book, I'm not sure there was a clear message to take away from it, apart from that life is random, inevitable, and you should use you best judgement if possible, which is fair enough.

So it goes.

Snow!!!

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 23:18:38 GMT

SnowMFG, its brilliant to see such thick luxurious snow after so long with pitiful dribs and drabs.

Its a shame that it waited until the weekend was over, but hopefully if it lasts until midday, then I'm going to start a snow-ball fight in the Science Park!

Motivational Poster...I'm playing meme catchup

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:16:24 GMT

It's been a while since I've seen any friends from Uni, but found this behind the scenes picture from our horror film, seems like only yesterday, *sigh*

This crushing is business rather than pleasure :)

So you know what I did last Summer...

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:42:06 GMT

Globetrotting 2008

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Now I'm keen for some skiing!

Francis Pryor never looks directly at the Camera

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:05:49 GMT

In his Documentary series 'The Real Dads Army', Francis Pryor of Time Team fame never looks directly at the camera. I found the information about the sheer scale of the defenses manned by our Home Guard to be fascinating, but was thoroughly distracted and I was almost reduced to tears because as the programme continued the eyes of my bearded antagonist strayed further from the camera. I was desperate to see him just once glance in my direction, it kept me watching carefully and would have made my day. Alas.

Juggling

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:22:49 GMT

I'm suddenly got a desire to learn more juggling, so using this:

http://home.hvc.rr.com/humdinger/newspaperclubs/

I made some cardboard juggling clubs which turned out a bit strange although I didn't have newspaper to I used cardboard.

Heres the result,

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cdBx9lrofbw

Its still early days :)

I'm in Wales!

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 13:56:28 GMT

Specifically Aberystwyth. wererogue's stag party was last night. I'm pleased to have found him well, passed on regards and caught up a bit. I met a lot of interesting people, drank heartily it was jolly good fun. His friends Jon (best man) and Rose have kindly offered a place for me to stay this weekend.

I finally travelled via Birmingham New St, its not something I've always wanted to do. But it seems as though everyone else has done some standard things that I haven't:

- Travelled around the UK on trains, e.g. Scotland, Wales, Midlands
- Known about the Citizens Advice Bureau thing
- Got a driving license
- Been in a band

So, I'm catching up :)

There's a strong sea breeze, glorious sunshine and I'm reclining with an episode of Columbo.

Beat that, Cambridge!

(Don't hurt me, Cambridge)

Electronics Post 1

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 11:49:06 GMT

Despite having a multitude of projects i wish to accomplish in my free time, (and not having enough will power or free time to finish them), I have embarked on another.

This year I will grok electronics. To that effect I am attempting to prototype and build an 8-bit computer, and read the Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Hill.

I may also build the Apple 1 replica kit.

P.S. Maplins don't stock any components then they are dumb

Almighty Livejoural Post

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 15:04:34 GMT

Hey all, it's been a while. And in no particular order...

Trs998, why haven't you been posting to your lj with disturbingly high frequency? Get a job in the games industry, it's what all the cool kids are doing.

Pete, sorry I had previous commitments and couldn't pop by.

Andrew, how's the leg? Still connected to the hip-bone?

Paul, I will try to be on more.

Jass, see you next weekend?

Hannah, I'm sorry for being such a crap housemate. (N/A to all Hannahs)

Other Hannah, what is your icon of?

Hecate, tried out Blender 2.43? New features!

Alice, hey sister! (All of you, my sis is off-limits)

Daniel, give us an update!

Phil, did you go last night?

Jarval, hows the 'fro?

Ian, see you in a while.

Ok, and now back to the rant?

So, I'm lookin' at graphics tablets, I reckon a Wacom Graphire A5 would be nice, anyone have one, advice? I want it to start drawing more and even maybe a webcomic.

I'm working on El Boon Episode III. Got 2 sketches filmed in a month, which isn't fast enough and I bought a new camcorder with a 30gb hard drive. The old one used tapes and was really crap, the new one has widescreen.

Ok, this post isn't all that great, maybe I'll post more often and base it on what people are interested in me talking on. I would tell you all things about working for a games company, but I'm not allowed which is a shame, also for those of you who like pizza, check out perfectpizza, you can order a pizza on the internet without having to use a low-quality line to someone who constantly mis-hears what you say, and their pizzas are yummy!

I bought a Vectrex, it is the dog's bollocks, look at it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vectrex

Everyone have a super weekend!

Stupid bills!

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 21:32:58 GMT

So, last year there was the hours waiting on hold with NTL attempting to get an account transferred (not something they imagine anyone would want to be able to do), finally resulting in keeping the account. Followed by some out of the blue calls about not paying when there was no request to pay. Apparently switching your service to include TV and a phone line means you need to do a new direct debit. Which would have been fine, had I been asked for it at the start.

Now it seems that Powergen are stepping up the the plate in the hopes of winning the company that most deserves my wrath star-prize.

So, we moved in a while back, and the previous tenants seem to owe some money. Someone does, anyway.

I got a call informing me that I had to pay a fairly over the top and a half bill. It seems to be for electricity usage which began long before I even set foot in the flat. This I find fairly impressive, and Mr Al Gore may want me to cut back on my burning of fossil fuels in homes I've not owned yet. So, I called them back in Novemberish and we established when I had moved in, the guy said that would be the end of it, and I'd be receiving a bill for the correct amount next year.

Behold! We have received a letter now, informing us that in 7 days we will be visited by debt collectors! Yay!

So, the point is I am perfectly willing to pay for the electricity I have actually used, when the actual bill turns up, and though we should have no trouble producing enough evidence to convince the debt collectors that we are not avoiding paying the bills, it really shouldn't be our responsibility.

Hopefully in the future our new Russian energy providers will be more exact with their billing, but for the meantime I am impressed by the incompetence this country has produced.

What some people can do with a lot of patience

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 19:08:33 GMT

Lasse Gjertsen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqumbhfxRo
This video is really impressive. It easily trumps anything I've done musically.

Christmas Shopping

Sat, 09 Dec 2006 18:19:53 GMT

So, finally Hannah and I got around to Christmas Shopping. I had a Christmas party on Thursday which was pretty cool, and on Friday night Hannah and I went round someone's house and had a go with their Wii. I will certainly be getting one next year.

After trawling through Cambridge city centre, we picked up a tree as they were being packed away, and I carried it (walking) back to our flat. Fecking heavy tree!

Here is a photo of it:

and what I look like now:

Save SG1

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 22:10:37 GMT

SG1 is in peril:

http://www.gateworld.net/news/2006/08/istargate_sg-1i_cancelled_iatlan.shtml

Everyone who enjoys the show should show support in two ways:

1)

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Stargate/signatures.html

Watch new Episodes on the SciFI channel

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 23:13:18 GMT

Every time I look, Blender gets more awesome. Check out this video:

http://www.mentalwarp.com/~fred/divers/HairTutorial.avi

Excellent

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 21:58:10 GMT

I'm saving already!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Superman_Collection

Where I was on Sunday

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 10:29:30 GMT

Some family members were going to Hyde Park, and they had a spare ticket. I went to see the Zutons, Razorlight, Ocean Color Scene, and The Who. The Who were by far the most professional, and their energetic performance punctuated with sarcastic humour led to a fantastic atmosphere. Also, their computer graphics were spectacular.

Bloody Hell

Sat, 01 Jul 2006 13:08:35 GMT

Looks like my antigens are O-Positive, so I'm an original caveman, and according to some theories will thrive on a high-protein/low-carb diet. Being vegetarian I guess that means it's Quorn/Bean city from here onwards.

Firefly Space Sim

Sun, 11 Jun 2006 20:48:35 GMT

Theres this space flight sim called Orbiter, and a Firefly Add-on pack. The sound add-on even comes with some soothing classical music as you leave the atmosphere. Well worth a go!

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NURBification

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 16:51:21 GMT

Since everyone has been modelling, I thought I'd try out NURBS.

This was quite easy to whip up (compared to dealing with a mesh directly), anyway, back to work....

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Similarities

Wed, 10 May 2006 15:23:22 GMT

George Takei in Norwich

Sun, 07 May 2006 08:23:43 GMT

That's right folks!

If enough people buy tickets this weekend, George Takei (AKA Captain Sulu) will be signing offical Star Trek stuff in about a weeks time. I'm going to get some tickets so if anyone wants one, 'txt' me before 1pm, or post here(may not see it) and I'll try to get you one (probably about £8 or £9).

Also, Google Video has his video biography which is fairly entertaining.