It’s been so dark out lately that I was just wondering when the first day of winter is. Well it turns out its today; also the shortest day of the year. The days just get better from here.
“The winter of 2005/2006 will start on the 21st of December, 2005, at 1:35 PM EST (18:35 GMT). It will end (and spring start) on the 20th of March, 2006, at 1:26 PM EST (18:26 GMT).”
I came across a very interesting site that goes into detail on how to program your computer to play Tetris. I’m always interested in artificial intelligence related matters so I found this particularly interesting:
“This article […] describes how to use a USB ‘web camera’, a personal computer,a relay board, and custom software, to form a system that is capable of playing the video game Tetris running on a separate personal computer. The novelty of this system is how closely it imitates a human player; the camera essentially looks at the game display, and the relay board essentially presses keys on a keyboard.” (emphasis mine)
He’s even got a 2.3mb video showing the computer playing Tetris.
Zeit·geist:
n.
The spirit of the time; the taste and outlook characteristic of a period or generation.
Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoy the new photoshop art I created to celebrate the holidays. I love it!
Check out a BBC commercial for digital television that has generated 1,300 complaints. Some even described it as “horrific” and “disturbingly psychotic”. Personally I thought it was pretty cool looking.
I finished my last class a couple weeks ago and today the marks are in. It feels so good to be finished school. Now I’m on the prowl for an internship—the only thing between me and my degree.
I’m hoping I’ll be able to work for a video game company in Vancouver, though, I’m also considering a couple of other opportunities here in Alberta, and in the States. Since I’ve been learning French (on my own) lately, I might also like to go to Montreal, but I don’t really have any specific leads there.
Working at the International Centre has awoken in me a strong desire to go out and see the world. I’ve begun to think about what I’d like to do after I’m truly done school. Of course plans might change depending on where I’m working and who I’m with, but I’m thinking for my next big trip I’d like to go all over Europe and perhaps make a stop in Iran. (Is it too taboo to say that?) I have an ex-roommate from there and I’d love to visit him.
I can’t say for sure when any of that would happen since I still have a long way to go paying off student debts, but it’s exciting to dream anyway.
Check out this amazing special effects montage from the design company R!OT Manhatten.
I love this sort of thing! I should have taken a compositing class in University when I had the chance.
It’s just a few months until the twentieth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident (26 April 1986). Elena Filatova, previously blogged here as The Kidd of Speed, has returned to the dead zone once again.
This time she documents some of the more remote areas of the highly radioactive areas, what she calls, the Land of the Wolves.
Check out the videos, which show some of the cleanup process of the reactor and sarcophagus after the meltdown. I found the footage taken by an unmanned camera of the two metre mass in the heart of the reactor to be quite interesting. Nicknamed the Elephant’s foot, it contains enough radiation to kill a person instantly.
Expect to be hearing a lot about Chernobyl in the coming months. Twenty years after the fact, radiation levels are still too high to safely remain in the area for very long or to leave the road. Radioactivity in the plants and grass are much higher than levels on the highway.
I heard the electric car didn’t make it because it just isn’t a good product. This EVConfidential Trailer now has me wondering—but am I just a sucker for conspiracy theories?
Are these advertisements real or just some really clever compositing effects?
Reebox 18-in-a-row! and Nike Football.
What do you think?