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- September 19, 2005
The Sky, Your Screen
September 19, 2005Read moreI love video games and computer graphics, but I’ve been wondering lately if my thinking has been constained by the small screen. I’ve been researching how other people are using larger-scale media: physical spaces, simulation environments, exhibit design, etc. to find out.
It so happens that one of the guys in my New Media group, David Cort, works for the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium as a media designer. He invited us for a visit behind-the-scenes; it turns out that a Planetarium is an interesting blend of old-school multimedia, computer graphics, personal showmanship, and best of all: a giant freakin’ screen.
- September 18, 2005
Talk Like A Pirate Day 2K5
September 18, 2005Read more
Avast! Talk Like A Pirate Day be September 19, shiver me timbers! Here be a basic primer, lifted from th’ how-to guide:
Ahoy! – “Hello!” Avast! – Stop and give attention. It can be used in a sense of surprise, “Whoa! Get a load of that!” which today makes it more of a “Check it out” or “No way!” or “Get off!” Aye! – “Why yes, I agree most heartily with everything you just said or did.” Aye aye! – “I’ll get right on that sir, as soon as my break is over.” Arrr! – This one is often confused with arrrgh, which is of course the sound you make when you sit on a belaying pin. “Arrr!” can mean, variously, “yes,” “I agree,” “I’m happy,” “I’m enjoying this beer,” “My team is going to win it all,” “I saw that television show, it sucked!” and “That was a clever remark you or I just made.” And those are just a few of the myriad possibilities of Arrr!
Ye will have t’ follow th’ link for advanced pirate lingo. Arr!
- September 15, 2005
Retro Clock Geekery
September 15, 2005Read more
Buddy Duncan forwarded me this link to nixieclock.net, where they are selling the insanely-cool CHRONOTRONIX IN-18 NIXIE CLOCK. Nixie tubes are an old vacuum tube technology that predates the CRT and LED. There are 10 wires, each in the shape of the digits 0 through 9, stacked on top of each other inside the tube. When electricity is applied, the selected digit glows in shimmering neon light. Yum!
You can read more about the history and construction of nixie tubes on the nixieclock home page. And if you’ve got $499 burning a hole in your pocket, you can even buy one! This would be a nice complement to your new iPod Nano!
- September 14, 2005
Moock on Flash 8
September 14, 2005Read moreColin Moock, patron saint of Actionscript programmers, has given Flash 8 an A+ rating…wow! By comparison, he felt MX 2004 merited 2004 a mere B+. Anyway, he’s written up his impressions on what’s changed and why it’s good. Some highlights that struck me:
9-slice bitmap scaling…great for implementing skinnable windows without all that tedious cutting and pasting. Kick ass!
the ability to define custom acceleration curves for tweening…sweet! This will be a welcome addition to animators who want to impart a more subtle signature to their motion work.
Of course, the new bitmap filters, for cool real-time compositing effects, with video streams even.
And bitmap caching features that should speed up performance in certain applications. One big framerate sucker is animating big fields of text, because they redraw slowly. Caching that could mean FAST animated chunks of text.
ExternalInterface, a new class that enables ActionScript to call JavaScript and vice versa. Right now, this is hard to support across multiple browsers without resorting to underhanded techniques like the Gateway Movie Trick and the getURL() Javascript Trick.
A native Flash File Upload interface! COOL!
Lower memory consumption and improved garbage collection! That info I got from this post.
- September 14, 2005
And in 5 Years…
September 14, 2005Read moreYes, I’m still celebrating 1 year of blogging on DavidSeah.Com. This has led to vivid dreams of bold colors, combining AJAX techniques with WordPress and Flash 8, and a lot of other fanciful features that only exist (so far) in my imagination. My enthusiasm has been fueled by browsing member sites of the 9rules Network; ostensibly this was to help me associate websites with the names behind them, but it’s turned out to be quite the parade of inspiration. Passion! Design! Authentic Voices! I thought I would pass out from overstimulation.
One site, Avalonstar, has been on my mind recently because of a mission statement I happened to read on it (bold emphasis is mine):
Five years ago, on September 28th, 2000, I bought Avalonstar with hopes of it being a site where I could always speak my mind and treat others like human beings (which was actually my slogan back in 2001). As I moved away from art, my focus settled on bringing people together, provoking thought and having a good laugh. Five years later, although it has felt like 50, I’m still focused on that mission.
This is eerily like the path I’m on: I’m leaving art (sorta) and finding that collaboration with people is what I need to be doing. And like Bryan already knows, I’m finding great personal and professional joy through this medium. The future holds great and wonderful things!
For those who are less easily persuaded by words, did I mention that GREAT PRIZES are part of the deal? Avalonstar is running The T-Shirt Contest of Doom as part of their 5 year Birthday Bash, and they are putting serious booty on the table: a 20G iPod, Sony PSP bundle, stuff like that! The deadline is September 21. Read the rules and bust out those mad graphic design skillz! The future beckons!
