More sketching practice today, this one is based on one of my favourite photos by Steve McCurry
Woo! my birthday present has arrived early; it’s a lovely Wacom graphics tablet courtesy of Hanan. It’s a bit cheeky of me to use it already as my birthday isn’t until the 26th, but as we’ll be away in Saudi then I’ve allowed myself to start using it 
Here’s a quick test sketch done in photoshop, cartoony eyes and of no one in particular.
OK I’m pulling this straight from 3pointD, but this could be a biggee. Sony showed this video at the Game Developers Conference, a PS3 based vitual world using the latest physics and graphics engines.
In comparison to SecondLife it looks stunning and a lot more technology rich, the user created content aspects may not be there but the social aspects certainly seem to be. The stated ability to meet friends and head off into multiplayer games is a powerful one indeed, as a result the environment will no doubt gain traction and may become a strong differentiating factor for the PS3.
Anyway take a look at the video and form your own opinion.
Thanks to a great deal of effort on the part of Hanans dad, I will soon be in receipt of a Saudi visitors visa
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit really as its not possible to get in as a normal tourist, Hanans parents will probably only be living there for another year before they move back to the UK, so now is a great time to visit. A few things I’m looking forward to on the trip are…
Snorkelling in the Red Sea - I’ve heard that Red Sea off the coast of Saudi is some of the most unspoilt diving going, and much less crowded then Egypt due to the restrictions on visitors.
Visiting the mountains on the way to Taif. I’ve been promised some interesting wildlife here, included camels and babboons
I’m also looking forward to visiting makkah and the old town in Jeddah.
I’ll obviously be taking my camera, but might have to be a bit more discreet than normal. I dont want to carry on my tradition of being told to stop taking pictures by overeager security guards etc.
The BBC is reporting on the manufacture of a new type of generator that uses wave movement to generate power. It’s not new in terms of concept obviously, but watching the video it’s obvious that these new generators are not just a prototype trial but ready for serious use and a viable source of alternative energy.
The first major deployment of the generators is happening now off the coast of Portugal with a few small trials around Britain. If these are successful I hope that the government will pour money into the company developing the Pelamis, this is the kind of renewable energy source we need to be focusing on in the next 20 years.
Amazing to think that the Sun, Earth and Moon are all perfectly in line at this very second.
During the course of some investigations into 3D Flash options by Jay Dykes our Meadan graphic designer (and ace photographer) he came across the Papervision3D open source project.
Its a 3D library written in action script for Flash and looks pretty interesting, it supports a variety of formats including the Collada standard for digital asset exchange.
Answer… pretty damn hard.
If you are not a resident or national you can only get into Saudi under one of three circumstances, first option - you’re going on business, second - you’re going on pilgrimage to Mecca and thirdly a family visit. I’m plumping for the latter, Hanans Mum, Dad and little sister Amanda live in Jeddah which is the major trading city in Saudi positoned on the Red Sea.
So it turns out to prove I’m family I have to jump through a number of hoops in what seems to be a good ole 1800’s style system. Recipe as follows…
1. Request copy of marriage certificate
2. Send Take marriage certificate to Foreign office in London to be “legalised” (sending was taking too long). I don’t see why it needs approving seeing as the government issued it in the first place. Anway good to know that we have an extra seal of approval on our marriage now…
3. Take Copy to Saudi Embassy in London to be double “legalised”.
…..wait 1 day ……
4. go back to London and pick up certificate. Send via snail mail copy of certificate to Saudi Arabia.
……wait……..
5. Hanans Dad does some more foreign office visits over in Saudi to get visa issued.
…..wait …….
5. Send visa back to UK
6. stick in passport.
Phew done… although we’re actually just up to step 4, sigh… The most amusing part of the day though was the 1 hour delay in the Foreign office, whilst delays aren’t normally a source of amusement the cause was explained to be “the computer system is down”, however Alex the announcer unwittingly left on his microphone and all the back office talk was relayed into the waiting room, the culprit it turned out was a paper jam in the printer which effectively brought the foreign office to a standstill, who needs terrorist attacks when you’ve got paper jams.
The opening hours of the Saudi embassy are obviously designed with the normal citizen in mind !?! a very convenient 10am to 11.30am opening slot, which made my journey from the Foreign office on Pall Mall a somewhat hurried one as I tried to get there before it closed. Luckily it wasnt very busy when i got there.
The Saudi Embassy had its own quirks as well, It very much resembled the inside of a bank or a post office. The general processing method there seemed to be everyone stand in a queue at the first window, as each person got to the front the guy would show a general disinterest in their reason for being there and direct them to a hidden window at the end of the counter. Upon being directed here and standing in line again I was served by a guy who some how was somehow managing to talk on his mobile and serve people. Though the limit of this service seemed to be taking whatever you gave him, handing out a ticket and telling you to come back tomorrow. Not very convenient when you live an hour and half by train away.
Hmm, mental note to go places where they actually want you to visit in future.
Dr Bill Ashraf, a senior lecturer in microbiology at Bradford University has moved to podcast only lectures for his students in an aim to free up more time for smaller group sessions with his students.
[source article from the BBC]
I have a very minor fear that this will exclude a few students who might not have internet access, though in this day and age that is very unlikely as universities have excellent computing facilities. In addition I am assuming that Dr Ashraf is providing text transcripts for deaf students, perhaps if the method of podcasting becomes more popular among lecturers then we will see the universities offering transcription services to their faculty.
Despite this minor fear I think that podcast lectures are an excellent idea. As a student at Nottingham University my Computer Science lecture groups were often in the 100+ audience size range and were most often very much a one way experience. Any questions from the audience were usually generated from the same select group and more often than not only served as a distraction from the main message of the lecture. This sort of questioning can easily be moved into internet based class discussion groups or the small group sessions that could be enabled by saving on lecture time.
The possibility for opening up education across geographic bounds is also immense, one of the habits i have got into in the last few months is listening to podcasts on the way into work. I have found that the University Channel provided by Princeton offers many excellent guest lectures. Another great source if you’re interested in business in anyway is the Stanford entrepreneurial thought leaders lecture series. Guest lecturers are typically CEOs of large corporations or experienced startup leaders, more often than not in the technology field.
Hopefully other university professors will begin to publish their lecture material externally, frequently Professors are only known for being great researchers. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if they could be world renown for being great teachers too…
We frequently have discussions here in Hursley about what the next ‘big thing’ in computing technology will be, Darren in particular is always on the search but hasn’t come across anything groundbreaking in the last few months ( and he doesnt count Second Life as ground breaking either 
)
Quantum computing is one of those technologies that has been teetering on the brink of my vision for quite a while, but has always seemed far enough off that i haven’t paid it too much attention, it seems now that a Canadian company called D-wave has made what they claim to be the worlds first practical quantum computer. (as reported by ABC news)
Still when we do get our hands on this scifi level of technology I wonder how long it will take us to adjust to it?
I don’t know about you but I’m not sure i want to try and debug one of these critters.
Following the odd laws of quantum mechanics, the digital “bits” that race through its circuits will be able to stand for 0 or 1 at the same time, allowing the machine, eventually, to do work that is orders of magnitude more complex than what today’s computers can do.
Maybe I’ll go half way and try some programming for the Cell processor first.
Recent Comments