Archive for category Uncategorized

Microsoft making incredible gains with Virtual Reality and 3D Television

From a bit of research this is an area that microsoft has been toiling hard in for a few years now but it looks like this year it’s all coming together for them.  There are two videos below that show just where this could be going and in my opinion could do for the xbox with this technology what DVD’s did for the PS2 and blue-ray did for the PS3.  There’s also some exciting talk about more and more mobile devices becoming equipped with 3D displays.  As has been the case last decade Nintentdo(which did you know is Japanese for “we do all that we can, as best as we can, and await the results.” ? )  is leading the charge with the new DS3D.

This first video highlights what head and eye tracking can accomplish with an off the shelf television.  This is starting to turn into something pretty cool looking:

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Now this is where it gets unreal.  This video was posted 2 days before the prior one but it shows advancements in 3D technology unlike anything we’ve ever seen before and then some.  Watch it all the way to the end and prepare to have your mind absolutely blown by where this will take technology over the next 5 years.  The future is going to be far more futuristic than we could have ever have imagined

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Here is a link to a story going over 3D being incorporated into mobile devices:

http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/25081/

and here’s a link to the software they from DDD that they mentioned in the article.

http://www.ddd.com/cart/product.php?productid=3&cat=0&page=1

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Nginx 502 errors, php problems, wordpress, oh my!

Well today is a glorious day as I finally managed to fix a problem that had been haunting my server for a month or so.  In the end it was a solution that I’ve been taught countless times as something I should be doing by default when upgrading php but alas my mind is not on of the more expensive models and so it rarely does what it should..

So it all started with a fairly minor issue I noticed in WordPress.   When I would try to load up the media gallery I would be greeted with a nice 502  Nginx error.  I’m sure if I wasn’t running nginx then it would have a blank white page or an apache error.  So naturally I started with the nginx error logs which didn’t lead to much.. Then I setup php to log all errors and again that didn’t lead me to much, finally however I monitored my httpd-error.log and this lovely message turned up:

[warn] (2)No such file or directory: Cannot reinit SSLMutex
/libexec/ld-elf.so.1: /usr/local/lib/php/20060613/gd.so: Undefined symbol “zend_parse_parameters_none”

After some asking around on irc I was told that it was definitely a php problem.  Nothing more specific than that, just a php problem.  There were a bunch of forum posts saying it might have something to do with fastCGI but all the suggestions had no effect.  However there was one forum I foudn that through a suggestion out there that lit up a light bulb in my brain.  That being that if php5-extensions isn’t recompiled and reinstalled when php is updated sometimes the fit hits the shan.  Sure enough I had upgrade php5 a while back, and then again since then but hadn’t bothered to recompile the extensions.  Hell I hadn’t even recompiled Zend or Eaccelerator which is pretty standard.

So long story slightly shorter, I went in deinstalled and cleaned up my php5-extensions, reinstalled it and viola, problem solved!!

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Sony’s and Microsofts new 3D Controllers

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The tracking on this thing looks really impressive(“Sub-milimeter accuracy”).  To take the Wii Experience, but better, and put it on the power of the PS3 is enticing to say the least.

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And M$ wouldn’t be outdone by Sony and is also jumping on the Nintendo Bandwagon.  Now what we really should be excited is to see, maybe not this year, what Nintendo is doing to improve it’s system so that it can stay ahead of the competition as they look to enter into a domain and market created by Nintendo.

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Moon Movie Trailer

Yay for new Sci-fi being made :)

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2715252/

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Stephen Colbert Roasts the President on his own Turf

3 years old but I just can’t get enough of this.  What a wicked state of affairs the US was in for the last 8 years, a complete lack of respect internationally as well as domestically.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-869183917758574879

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A tour through ID software circa 1993 – Doom development video

Such a classic piece of our culture. The importance of what these men did changed the world forever, definitely something that should be watched and appreciated.


A Visit to id Software from john romero on Vimeo.

And while you are in a nostalgic mood check out this Gama article of a republished 1994 article detailing some of ID’s operation strategies and technical details:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21405

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A VERY sexy rundown of the PS3 – All Praise the PS3

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I’ve always given props to sony for the technological marvel that is the PS3.  It is unfortunate that technological advancement as apposed to true play innovation was their main goal with this round and will be the cause of their downfall because this is a machine that if truly harnessed can change the world drastically.  This commercial is damn sexy though, almost makes me want to go out and buy one, almost.. I’m a PC gamer till I die baby :)

Here’s what all that power can do.. Keep in mind this is in game footage, not prerendered.

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To put it in perspective here

is a shot from Final Fantasy: A spirit Within. This shot had to be pre-rendered on millions and millions of dollars worth of SGI supercomputers

Now this shot from Heavy Rain is rendered in REAL TIME while you are playing the game on a system that costs less than 500.00 now:

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World Builder – Short Film by Bruce Brannit

Wow is about all I can say about this short film.  We are within decades of achieving this which makes it all that much more amazing.  But beyond it being just about great tech it is a touching and emotion story.
A strange man uses holographic tools to build a world for the woman he loves. This is a short by filmmaker Bruce Branit known also as the co-creator of 405.

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This is a HD copy so make sure to enlarge it

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iPhone Brings Zelda one step closer to Reality

My gods, this is the very first thing that gives the iPhone validity in my eyes.  Smule.com has brought out 4 musical instruments for the iPhone, the coolest of course being the Ocarina.  Obviously the Ocarina hit the scene some time ago, 12,000 or so years by some estimates, however it was one of the greatest installments of Zelda that firmly planted this instrument into the hearts of millions.

Introduction

Ocarina is the first true musical instrument created for the iPhone. Both experts and beginners will be amazed by this innovative player. Ocarina is sensitive to your breath, touch and movements, making it even more versatile than the original. Unlike other musical applications, there are no pre-compiled riffs so musicians will find unlimited opportunities for self-expression. Advanced options allow you to choose between diatonic, minor and harmonic scales. Or channel your favorite video game adventurer with Smule’s Zeldarian mode.

Now this app as it is more than wow’s any soft-hearted geek, however they went and threw in a wicked and innovative network feature that allows you to listen in on the songs being played on any iPhone worldwide. There is a ‘globe’ view in the app where you are presented with a 3D world littered with a number of little dots presumably representing every active Ocarina. The app will automatically start playing one of these, highlighted by a series of green blobs rising from Earth, each of which corresponds to a note.  Obviously you are going to have to sort through a ton of horrendous people trying to invoke the Magic of Zelda however you might stumble across somebody that sounds like this

A little Background info on Smule:

Smule is a premiere developer of interactive sonic applications for the iPhone with headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Founded in June of 2008 and backed by Bessemer Venture Partners and Maples Investments, Smule has created an innovative mobile audio platform, enabling a new generation of applications for the iPhone. The Smule Ocarina expands upon a growing family of products that Smule has developed for the iPhone. Smule introduced the Sonic Lighter™ in September, allowing users to spread light over sound using the new Smule Sonic Network™. This Sonic Network now spans 3500 unique geographic locations and six continents. More information about Smule can be found on the Internet at http://www.smule.com. Smule, Sonic Network, and Sonic Lighter are trademarks of SonicMule, Inc. Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer. iPhone and Appstore are trademarks of Apple Computer.

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