DonSolo.com

We’ve picked something up on radar!

I ran across this list of 50 facts you might not know about Obama thanks to Digg, and couldn’t help but spot a few blatant geek signs:

• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
• He has read every Harry Potter book
• He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry

There are plenty of other amusing ones on the list, but those stood out. Makes me wonder about past presidents, because I’m sure more than a few of them have an inner geek of their own.

So I downloaded the Left 4 Dead demo from Valve and gave it a shot… I’ve been wanting to play this for the past month and a half ever since I got gypped at Valve HQ. From the little I played I’d say it’s a pretty good game. I have a bad habit of shooting other survivors, so I’d piss off a lot of people if I tried any online multiplayer campaigns… but no one died, so that’s always a plus. I wold have liked to play more, but as it was loading the second half of the demo it crashed my system (so much for the “No more blue screen of death in Vista!” myth). It’s fun, and with people that know what they’re doing it would be a great co-op game, but I don’t think I’d spend the $45 on it seeing as I haven’t even finished either if the Half Life games I was given on Steam.

Also, after I rebooted and tried out the Audiosurf demo real quick (fun little game, but again not impressive enough to drop coin for) I finally installed Portal: Prelude. I’ve been cautiously optimistic about it after my initial wave of excitement, and my hesitations were justified. I installed the most up to date version available, and not a minute into it I was already confronted with an obvious glitch (the storage cube won’t go through the first portal in the relaxation vault - I know you’re not supposed to toss it through since you need it to hold the button, but there’s no physical reason why you shouldn’t be able to). Aside from that and some clipping issues, it ran smooth and looked like it should have.

Now, the lack of GLaDOS egging you on wasn’t as bad as I expected, because you’ve got two Aperture Science guys guiding you via intercom (although the voices and speech patterns gave the impression that they too were supposed to be computers, even though you could see them through the observation windows). But I only got about four chambers in before getting too frusterated to continue. I expected the maps to be more complicated than the original - but on top of the boosted dificulty the chambers aren’t nearly as intuitive as I felt they should be to really be enjoyable. Also, having the voiceover give innaplicable iinstructions was a poor attempt at mimicong GLaDOS’s manipulative comments. I will go back to it, but I’m not expecting to finish it considering the experience so far. But hey, it’s better than nothing, and it was free right? Can’t honestly complain too much.

Oh, and one last thing: my laptop really is trying to live up to it’s reputation as a complete bastard. As I was loading Portal to run through a familiar level to ease my frustrations a bit, the damn thing decided it was time for a Windows Automatic Update without warning and yanked me right out of test chamber 17 and held itself hostage for a few minutes.

Two hours ago, MarsPhoenix gave it’s final Twitter message - “Triumph” in binary, followed by an ascii heart. Mission control reports that they finally lost contact with the lander, which is now probably frozen on the surface of Mars and not likely to revive when it thaws another year from now. And I’m only mildly embarrassed to say it makes me sad.

@MarsPhoenix was an excellent way to engage people in the mission, which otherwise would have gone unnoticed spare the occasional news clippings. By giving the little robot a Twitter feed and posting brief notes on progress from a first person perspective, the team managed to give it a personality. And personality goes a long way. That simple side project endeared the craft to thousands of people across the world like no other similar mission could have… and I’m sure I’m not the only one who will miss it.

They’re made out of meat.

Meat?

Weighted Companion Cube - 3d printed prototype

It’s no secret I am teensy bit obsessed with Portal, so it should go without saying I want a Companion Cube action figure. I know there isn’t much action to be had, as it’s an inanimate object and all, but that’s part of the joke. So yeah, my collectors instinct knows no bounds - and since Valve doesn’t make one I’m left with few options. I can’t sculpt, so that’s out of the question. The papercraft one is nice, but lacking something. So I did what anyone else in my position would do: I designed one in SolidWorks and ordered a printed 3D model.

I’m calling this a first draft since I want it bigger and I want to be able to paint it. Since it would be easier to paint if it were broken apart I will make a second one where the raised details are individual pieces that can be snapped or glued onto a base cube. Essentially I’ll be creating a WCC model kit. But for now I can enjoy the prototype, and decide whether or not I want to drop it on eBay to make up the cost.

So part of last night’s election coverage shenanagins was CNN’s “hologram” interviews. Here’s a sample (for now, I’m sure youtube will pull it down). If all the gimmiks this was the most outlandish, and with good reason.

But here’s the catch: it wasn’t a hologram at all. According to Hans Jürgen Kreuzer, a professor of theoretical physics at Dalhousie University and an expert on holography - it was a tomogram. Holograms are projected 3 dimensional images; these were simply composted into the broadcast. There was no image in the studio, Wolf didn’t see anything in front of him, he was talking at nothing and doing a crap job of hiding it - one thing’s for certain: that man can’t act. Sure, they may have use nearly three dozen HD cameras and a bank of computers to make it happen, but considering the result it was a lot of wasted money.

The funny thing is, I figured that out as I was watching live. I’m no profesor of theoretical physics, but I’m pretty good at spotting half-assed BS technology. Furthermore, I could tell you how to do the same thing a lot simpler and with better results. Instead of an assload of cameras and computers creating a real time 3D image of the interviewie and then synching it up to the brodcasting cameras image, just link the camera control on both ends so they pan and zoom identicaly in each studio. Have one bluescreened out and overlay that image onto the live studio brodcast, and you’re already going to get a better image than what they managed. Throw on some filters to give it that authentic hologram feel, and bam. Done.

I feel vindicated in my geekiness, that it was so obvious to me… And I can’t help but laugh at them all lying through their teeth and pretending to be impressed by it.

I can’t help but think there was something I needed to do today…

Well, I dug up my twitter page and cleaned it up a bit, but I’m still at a lose for how to include my latest update here in the cleanest way possible. Right now I’ve got it set up via RSS feed, but I’d like to ditch the icon and not have the whole thing be a link.

Can anyone help me out?

Anyone by chance remember me mentioning my trip to Valve HQ when I was in Seattle for BrickCon? Well, here’s the opening cinematic for Left 4 Dead that I got to see a nearly a month before it was released (yesterday). It looked mighty impresive on a 4 foot screen in the developers office. At the very least I’ll be DL’ing the demo when it’s available.