An episode of PBS's Scientific American Frontiers back in April of last year featured an MIT Media Lab student named Brian Clarkson who built this exact same thing himself. He wore it like a backpack with fisheye lens cameras on the front and back. One of the more interesting things he was able to capture and re-watch was the first time he met his then current girlfriend.
"
... network services deployed on PlanetLab experience all of the behaviors of the real Internet where the only thing predictable is unpredictability (latency, bandwidth, paths taken)."
I'm afraid I don't have enough spare time to read through all your material. I just want to say the following.
Before movies were invented, entertainment was a service provided by live performers. You paid to see the play and got a performance. Now-a-days, entertainment is packaged and sold as a product (in the form of DVDs) but it's still derived from a service hundreds of people performed.
While it's true what you're doing may be legal that doesn't make it right. Your logic seems based entirely around the fact that simply because you're not paying the actors, directors, caterers and stunt men directly you have no obligation to pay for services rendered.
Would you use the same logic to download and use commercial software distributed only on CD-ROM simply because you boycott the CD-ROM format and own no CD-Rom drive? You're benefiting from someone else's time and effort. Someone put a lot of time into writing that software and yet you'd use that product without rendering any compensation for service rendered.
My choice is PocketPC for several reasons. First up, lets not beat around the bush. Palm is currently playing catch up when it comes to having multimedia and Internet capabilities on their PDAs.
Browsing has been and continues to be pretty lousy on Palm devices mostly due to the available browsers. Having 802.11 speeds is waisted when your browser can only render text and simple images. PocketPC's all come standard with PocketIE which is basically a light version of IE. It renders pages very accurately (layout wise) considering the available screen real estate. Which leads me to my next point.
Another big plus for PocketPCs is that there is software to increase your screen resolution. So if you wanted, you can rotate the display and bring it up to 800x600 for a better browsing experience. Granted the screen gets pretty blurry at those resolutions but it's still very usable since the tools let you click a button to zoom in and out quickly.
Going beyond web browsing, tools such as SSH clients, FTP applications, network monitors are all much more mature on the PocketPC platform compared to Palm. There's also the added bonus of having native versions of the Windows Media player, the Macromedia Flash 6 player and even the Windows Remote Desktop client for true Mobile computing on a PDA.
Don't get me wrong, I do like the Palm platform. My current PDA is a Handspring Treo 300. But web browsing is definitely sub-par compared to my old iPaq 3600. As far as Linux PDAs are concerned, I'm sure someone else here can comment on those.
It's not near HDTV quality.
on
DVRs for Cop Cars
·
· Score: 2, Informative
If my math is correct, the video they record with this system equates to about 734MB/hr or 208KB/sec. That's roughly VCD quality using MPEG-1 compression. Not anywhere near the bitrate needed for HDTV.
I'm really not surprised to hear this. Jackson is a super geek freak when it comes to the orignal 1933 movie. So much so, he owns the only remaining Kong figure used in the movie that still has its fur intact.
In the article, the author states: "If I could set up my AIM or ICQ account to redirect to my phone when I'm away from my computer, it would be much more heavily used."
You can! But you need to own a Handspring Treo 300. There is a fantastic third party PalmOS instant messaging app designed speficically with the Sprint Vision service in mind.
It's called Verichat. Not only does it let you use all the major IM networks on your Treo cellphone but goes a step further. Whenever you leave the app to do something else or to simply put the phone in your pocket you remain online via a special proxy server they set up. To all your IM buddies you appear to remain online. If you disconnect from the data services, it will even forward you the message via a special SMS interface where you can then do a quick reply or start a new chat session. When you get to your computer you just sign on to IM and it disconnects you from thier proxy server.
I've been using this great program/service since it's beta days and I recommend it as the ultimate solution for anybody who wants true Instant Messaging anywhere.
I didn't learn all of my computer skills on a single platform. That's because in the 80's there were dozens of computer platforms and OSs.. and none of them particuarly ruled over the others. Thus I learned what I could with whatever platform I could get my hands on (Apple, Atari, Commodore, IBM, TI, etc.) By applying my computer knowledge across different platforms I was able not only able to better grasp basic computing concepts but it taught me to be platform independece.
I'm sure this description fits many Slashdot readers.
Today's students are different. They typically have only one computing platform to learn on... usually Windows. What this type of learning environment produces are people who only know how to use a single platform or a single appication. Set them in front of a Mac or Linux or anything else and they freeze up and instantly plead ignorance becaues things don't work the way they anticipate.
What more schools need to realize is that making a lab all one platform (Wintel or otherwise) only teaches students into believing all computers only work one way. They really need to be taught more broad skills in understanding computers based on how they function across different platforms.. instead of teaching them how to click the Start button.
For any of you who still doubt just how much of Andy Serkis is in the Golum performance, particularly in his face, download this little MPEG file I just whipped up. It's a 15 second clip showing the some refernce work Serkis did compaired to the actual Golumn CGI character. They're practically identical. (Note: there's no sound)
http://members.evansville.net/ckohler/video/serk is _reference.mpg
I got the video snippits for this clip from the official Lord of the Rings website.
In the small Putt-Putt arcade where I would frequent in the evenings of college, all my friends were totally into the fighting games. Mortal Kombat, Tekken, King of Fighters.. they played and mastered them all. Yet, I totally sucked at fighting games and couldn't remember the special moves to save my life.
So, when they were all pumping tokens into Street Fighter Turbo II GX Ultra I was pumping them into Dragons Lair 2. Sure, I knew it was just a fancy game of memory but I loved the Don Bluth visuals. After several months of pumping what must have been an ungodly amount of money into that machine, I had gotten so good that I could beat the game all the way through on a single token. Fifteen minutes of gaming on just 25 cents.
Then I took it a step further got good enough to beat it on a single token AND getting all the extra items. When that wasn't enough, I eventually had the entire game so memorized I could beat the whole thing on one token, getting all the extra items, never loosing a single life _AAAAND_ using only one hand. People would often come up to watch me play, their jaws gaping at how easy I made it look.
The best part was finishing the game on a single token and then watching as the next guy stepped up to try. They would always just start pounding on the stick like a frustrated ape.
It's been years since I played my beloved Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp but I sometimes wonder just how far I'd be able to get today.
Don Bluth's lifetime of work is some of my favorite stuff and it hurts a little every time I see one of his newer efforts flop. I've not played Dragon Lair 3D myself but general concensis among my friends seems to be on par with this review.
He and Gary Goldsmith's last theatrical animated feature, Titan A.E., also did less than expected at the box office. With such classics under his belt like "Robin Hood", "The Rescuers" (Bluth was a lead animator at Disney early in his career), "The Secret of N.I.M.H." and "An American Tail", here's hoping that he keeps the ball rolling and isn't discouraged.
His website can be reached at http://www.donbluth.com/
Flash is nearly always used to provide images that are irrelevant to the content. Except for those who care about content less than bright, shiny things, Flash gets in the way.
Hmm. So you shun the technology just because it's misued? Sounds like gun control.
Flash often causes long load times. This says that the viewer's time is worth less than the web site creator's love of distraction.
When used right, Flash can actually reduce load time and improve overall user experiance. It's amaizing what one can do inside a Flash animation in under 20k.
1. There were only two choices... Java or Flash. I chose Flash. Java would have taken much longer to code and would have been a major headache. Not to mention that I've never used a browser JVM that wasn't crash prone.
2. Why reinvent the wheel? It would have taken forever to rework someone elses code. My point is that it only took me a few days to write the app in Flash. Not only was all the sockes stuff practically written already, designing a clean, easy interface was a snap. We even had time to include MD5 encription in the client.
3. We'll see. Keep in mind that this was designed to be a simple info client much like an IM client. Nothing more. I never said Flash should be used for writing a full featured word processor (although I believe it could).
4. What part of "only 50k" did you not read? The app is tiny and there isn't anything in it that could possibly bog any Flash enabled computer down. You're thinking of when people do full screen scaling and rotation on 150 bitmaped images in their Flash animations. Now THAT would slow it down.
In less than a week I was able to write a kick butt XML based Internet Call Notifcation client in Flash. It notifies our ISP customers when they get phone calls while online. The thing can even play back any voice messages left by callers in real time! I was blown away by how easy it was to write the client and it was less than 50k when finished!
Don't let lousy Flash ad banners or poorly designed webpage interfaces give you bad taste for the Flash format in general. It's really quite amaizing what can be done with it when used right... especially when developing sockets based web applications. Next on my list is a full fledged Flash chat client.
I hope Macromedia doesn't get hit too hard from this. I just bought MX and I really dig the new features.
Slashdot Mirror
An episode of PBS's Scientific American Frontiers back in April of last year featured an MIT Media Lab student named Brian Clarkson who built this exact same thing himself. He wore it like a backpack with fisheye lens cameras on the front and back. One of the more interesting things he was able to capture and re-watch was the first time he met his then current girlfriend.
You can watch the episode online.
(The part featuring Clarkson is titled "Never Forget a Face")
They did a bit on Hyperscore (and the Toy Symphony) on an episode of Scientific American Frontiers a few months back.
http://www.pbs.org/saf/1309/index.html
I'm afraid I don't have enough spare time to read through all your material. I just want to say the following.
Before movies were invented, entertainment was a service provided by live performers. You paid to see the play and got a performance. Now-a-days, entertainment is packaged and sold as a product (in the form of DVDs) but it's still derived from a service hundreds of people performed.
While it's true what you're doing may be legal that doesn't make it right. Your logic seems based entirely around the fact that simply because you're not paying the actors, directors, caterers and stunt men directly you have no obligation to pay for services rendered.
Would you use the same logic to download and use commercial software distributed only on CD-ROM simply because you boycott the CD-ROM format and own no CD-Rom drive? You're benefiting from someone else's time and effort. Someone put a lot of time into writing that software and yet you'd use that product without rendering any compensation for service rendered.
What you're doing may be legal but is it moral?
My choice is PocketPC for several reasons. First up, lets not beat around the bush. Palm is currently playing catch up when it comes to having multimedia and Internet capabilities on their PDAs.
Browsing has been and continues to be pretty lousy on Palm devices mostly due to the available browsers. Having 802.11 speeds is waisted when your browser can only render text and simple images. PocketPC's all come standard with PocketIE which is basically a light version of IE. It renders pages very accurately (layout wise) considering the available screen real estate. Which leads me to my next point.
Another big plus for PocketPCs is that there is software to increase your screen resolution. So if you wanted, you can rotate the display and bring it up to 800x600 for a better browsing experience. Granted the screen gets pretty blurry at those resolutions but it's still very usable since the tools let you click a button to zoom in and out quickly.
Going beyond web browsing, tools such as SSH clients, FTP applications, network monitors are all much more mature on the PocketPC platform compared to Palm. There's also the added bonus of having native versions of the Windows Media player, the Macromedia Flash 6 player and even the Windows Remote Desktop client for true Mobile computing on a PDA.
Don't get me wrong, I do like the Palm platform. My current PDA is a Handspring Treo 300. But web browsing is definitely sub-par compared to my old iPaq 3600. As far as Linux PDAs are concerned, I'm sure someone else here can comment on those.
If my math is correct, the video they record with this system equates to about 734MB/hr or 208KB/sec. That's roughly VCD quality using MPEG-1 compression. Not anywhere near the bitrate needed for HDTV.
Yes.. that's a nitpic. So sue me.
I'm really not surprised to hear this. Jackson is a super geek freak when it comes to the orignal 1933 movie. So much so, he owns the only remaining Kong figure used in the movie that still has its fur intact.
In the article, the author states: "If I could set up my AIM or ICQ account to redirect to my phone when I'm away from my computer, it would be much more heavily used."
You can! But you need to own a Handspring Treo 300. There is a fantastic third party PalmOS instant messaging app designed speficically with the Sprint Vision service in mind.
It's called Verichat. Not only does it let you use all the major IM networks on your Treo cellphone but goes a step further. Whenever you leave the app to do something else or to simply put the phone in your pocket you remain online via a special proxy server they set up. To all your IM buddies you appear to remain online. If you disconnect from the data services, it will even forward you the message via a special SMS interface where you can then do a quick reply or start a new chat session. When you get to your computer you just sign on to IM and it disconnects you from thier proxy server.
I've been using this great program/service since it's beta days and I recommend it as the ultimate solution for anybody who wants true Instant Messaging anywhere.
Wow. I made that MPG clip over a month ago. Cool to see it's making the rounds.
Go to Google.com.
Type in the search terms, "French military victories".
Click "I'm feeling Lucky".
Enjoy.
I didn't learn all of my computer skills on a single platform. That's because in the 80's there were dozens of computer platforms and OSs.. and none of them particuarly ruled over the others. Thus I learned what I could with whatever platform I could get my hands on (Apple, Atari, Commodore, IBM, TI, etc.) By applying my computer knowledge across different platforms I was able not only able to better grasp basic computing concepts but it taught me to be platform independece.
I'm sure this description fits many Slashdot readers.
Today's students are different. They typically have only one computing platform to learn on... usually Windows. What this type of learning environment produces are people who only know how to use a single platform or a single appication. Set them in front of a Mac or Linux or anything else and they freeze up and instantly plead ignorance becaues things don't work the way they anticipate.
What more schools need to realize is that making a lab all one platform (Wintel or otherwise) only teaches students into believing all computers only work one way. They really need to be taught more broad skills in understanding computers based on how they function across different platforms.. instead of teaching them how to click the Start button.
For any of you who still doubt just how much of Andy Serkis is in the Golum performance, particularly in his face, download this little MPEG file I just whipped up. It's a 15 second clip showing the some refernce work Serkis did compaired to the actual Golumn CGI character. They're practically identical. (Note: there's no sound)
k is _reference.mpg
http://members.evansville.net/ckohler/video/ser
I got the video snippits for this clip from the official Lord of the Rings website.
http://www.lordoftherings.net/
In the small Putt-Putt arcade where I would frequent in the evenings of college, all my friends were totally into the fighting games. Mortal Kombat, Tekken, King of Fighters.. they played and mastered them all. Yet, I totally sucked at fighting games and couldn't remember the special moves to save my life.
So, when they were all pumping tokens into Street Fighter Turbo II GX Ultra I was pumping them into Dragons Lair 2. Sure, I knew it was just a fancy game of memory but I loved the Don Bluth visuals. After several months of pumping what must have been an ungodly amount of money into that machine, I had gotten so good that I could beat the game all the way through on a single token. Fifteen minutes of gaming on just 25 cents.
Then I took it a step further got good enough to beat it on a single token AND getting all the extra items. When that wasn't enough, I eventually had the entire game so memorized I could beat the whole thing on one token, getting all the extra items, never loosing a single life _AAAAND_ using only one hand. People would often come up to watch me play, their jaws gaping at how easy I made it look.
The best part was finishing the game on a single token and then watching as the next guy stepped up to try. They would always just start pounding on the stick like a frustrated ape.
It's been years since I played my beloved Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp but I sometimes wonder just how far I'd be able to get today.
Don Bluth's lifetime of work is some of my favorite stuff and it hurts a little every time I see one of his newer efforts flop. I've not played Dragon Lair 3D myself but general concensis among my friends seems to be on par with this review.
He and Gary Goldsmith's last theatrical animated feature, Titan A.E., also did less than expected at the box office. With such classics under his belt like "Robin Hood", "The Rescuers" (Bluth was a lead animator at Disney early in his career), "The Secret of N.I.M.H." and "An American Tail", here's hoping that he keeps the ball rolling and isn't discouraged.
His website can be reached at http://www.donbluth.com/
He could always bounce some of the more humorus replies to Spam Radio for everyone to enjoy.
Flash is nearly always used to provide images that are irrelevant to the content. Except for those who care about content less than bright, shiny things, Flash gets in the way.
Hmm. So you shun the technology just because it's misued? Sounds like gun control.
Flash often causes long load times. This says that the viewer's time is worth less than the web site creator's love of distraction.
When used right, Flash can actually reduce load time and improve overall user experiance. It's amaizing what one can do inside a Flash animation in under 20k.
1. There were only two choices... Java or Flash. I chose Flash. Java would have taken much longer to code and would have been a major headache. Not to mention that I've never used a browser JVM that wasn't crash prone.
.
2. Why reinvent the wheel? It would have taken forever to rework someone elses code. My point is that it only took me a few days to write the app in Flash. Not only was all the sockes stuff practically written already, designing a clean, easy interface was a snap. We even had time to include MD5 encription in the client
3. We'll see. Keep in mind that this was designed to be a simple info client much like an IM client. Nothing more. I never said Flash should be used for writing a full featured word processor (although I believe it could).
4. What part of "only 50k" did you not read? The app is tiny and there isn't anything in it that could possibly bog any Flash enabled computer down. You're thinking of when people do full screen scaling and rotation on 150 bitmaped images in their Flash animations. Now THAT would slow it down.
In less than a week I was able to write a kick butt XML based Internet Call Notifcation client in Flash. It notifies our ISP customers when they get phone calls while online. The thing can even play back any voice messages left by callers in real time! I was blown away by how easy it was to write the client and it was less than 50k when finished!
Don't let lousy Flash ad banners or poorly designed webpage interfaces give you bad taste for the Flash format in general. It's really quite amaizing what can be done with it when used right... especially when developing sockets based web applications. Next on my list is a full fledged Flash chat client.
I hope Macromedia doesn't get hit too hard from this. I just bought MX and I really dig the new features.