MIT's Transient Imaging Camera

04:23:00PM, 22/11/10 AEST-05:26:37PM, 22/11/10 AEST

Well, MIT keeps pumping out new technology. One of the latest is a Transient Imaging Camera-with the ability to capture objects not within it's direct view.

It uses multiple bursts of light quadrillionths of a second apart, and only open for a femtosecond, then counts the quantity of photons it receives. Then,it emits another pulse of light and opens for a fraction amount longer, then counts the new photons it receives and uses these to map out the area.

Currently, the images being generated are poor quality (and I mean really poor quality). However, the staff at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are attempting to make them more higher quality.

Here is the MIT link:

http://cameraculture.media.mit.edu/femtotransientimaging

Machinimas with iGrabber

02:49:09PM, 19/09/10 AEST-03:10:00PM, 19/09/10 AEST

Remember the iGrabber I mentioned in previous posts? Well, yesterday and today, I've been making machinimas. They are very bad film technique, no audio, and are just for my two little brothers.

They are filmed off Ben 10: Vilgax Attacks for the Playstation 2. Basically, it's me running around killing the alien enemies for roughly ten minutes.

My Playstation 2 is set up in my room, with the three RGA male plugs in the three RGA female sockets on the iGrabber. The video streams live onto my laptop and I record it (I'm still trying to fix the audio feed). Then after say ten minutes I stop recording, edit the video (brush up frame rates, mute audio-because instead of the game's audio it's my laptops microphone). Then, I burn it onto disc and play it for them on the Television.

So the iGrabber is a very useful device, for programmers, machinima enthusiasts, etc.

Unreal Development Kit

06:26:16PM, 14/09/10 AEST-06:49:40PM, 14/09/10 AEST

Many of you might have heard of the Unreal Engine (mainly those of you who are programmers, developers, gamers, etc.). Also, you may have heard of the Unreal Development Kit (UDK). Well, I found out about it roughly a fortnight ago.

I was blown away by the graphics on the Sanctum Demo (which I downloaded before the UDK) and it is amazing. Also, the physics components are wonderful. I also enjoyed Bink for video alot.

DirectX 9.0c is the minimum requirement for the engine and the UDK. For those of you who are not aware of what DirectX is, it's and API (Application Programming Interface) for multimedia (graphics, renderings, audio, etc.). For more information on DirectX go to http:\\www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX.

The downside to it is the large resources required for the platform.

I do strongly recommend it to you.

Floppy Discs Saved My Research

07:50:00PM, 05/09/10 AEST-08:25:00PM, 05/09/10 AEST

The floppy disc is an almost forgotten technology. However, I think it is a vital role in a developer's OS projects. E.g.

A Tinkernut.com tutorial on OS programming used floppy technology. Mainly for it's multiple "layers" of encoding and storage to allow for bootloading and filesystem storage abilities. He explains that more if you watch this video (http://tinkernut.com/archives/2326).

Also, for some computers that have no working drivers for their USB ports and the CD drive is strangely dysfunctional, the only resort is floppy drives. E.g.

 I have an old IBM Aptiva running Windows 98 and all the instruction manuals and all the software intact. I use it to study Windows 98 and technology before registries (see previous posts) and logfiles.

1.44MB IBM floppy discs are what I'm using. for my laptop, I have an external USB floppy disc drive (it's a LaCie one).

So that's why floppy drives and floppy discs should be used a bit more. Not alot...maybe 15% more?

Tell me what you think.

Fixing Stuck Pixels Using Batch

06:25:42AM, 05/09/10 AEST-06:46:10AM, 05/09/10 AEST

Stuck pixels are generally just a jam in the LCD display. They can be fixed many different ways and in this post I'll show you how to do it using a batch file.

Now, step one, open up your text editor (mines Notepad) and enter this code:

:LOOP
@echo off
@color 53
@color 23
@color 35
@color 32
goto LOOP


Now, an explanation. :LOOP is the name of our subroutine. @ echo off turns on the echo function (I just put it in their it's not required). @color displays a color (which one depends on the number after it). Then finally, goto LOOP executes the LOOP subroutine. 


This code will be an infinite loop (not really but theoretically). So, save it as whatever you like but end it as .bat filetype. Then execute the batch script and move the window over the area of the stuck pixel(s). Leave it for 5 seconds and then close the program. Feel free to edit the source code as you wish, but leave the colours the same.


Now, if that didn't fix it, try going to http://tinkernut.com/archives/442 and watch the video. 


Yes, I sourced of Tinkernut.com, but I think it follows the sites philosophy of spreading knowledge. He also has other great tutorials I suggest you watch. In this video, he also has other methods of fixing stuck pixels.


Enjoy.

Apple© iMac™ Technical Specifications

08:10:10AM, 07/03/10 AEST-11:53:30AM, 07/03/10 AEST

The new Apple© iMac™ I mentioned in the previous post, has many options for custom configurations. In this post I am talking about the CPU for the new generation iMac™.

Firstly, I would like to say that you could look at my future posts on CPU's, memory and other computer hardware tutorials.

These are the tech specs for the latest iMac™s:



CPU: Intel© Core™ 2 Duo™ @ 3.06GHz

Screen Display: 54.61cm Width @ 1920pixcelsX1028pixcels

Standard Drive: 500GB

Optional Drive: -

Standard Memory: 4GB

Optional Memory: 8GB

Height: 45.1cm

Length: 18.85cm

Width: 52.8cm

Weight: 9.3kg


CPU: Intel© Core™ 2 Duo™ @ 3.06GHz

Screen Display: 54.61cm Width @ 1920pixcelsX1028pixcels

Standard Drive: 1TB

Optional Drive: 2TB

Standard Memory: 4GB

Optional Memory: 8GB

Height: 51.4cm

Length: 18.85cm

Width: 52.8cm

Weight: 9.3kg


CPU: Intel© Core™ 2 Duo™ @ 3.06GHz

Screen Display: 68.58cm Width @2560pixcelsX1440pixcels

Standard Drive: 1TB

Optional Drive: 2TB

Standard Memory: 4GB

Optional Memory: 16GB

Height: 51.7cm

Length: 20.7cm

Width: 65.0cm

Weight: 13.8kg


CPU: Intel© Core™ i5 @ 2.66GHz

Screen Display: 54.61cm Width @2560xcelsX1440pixcels

Standard Drive: 1TB

Optional Drive: 2TB

Standard Memory: 4GB

Optional Memory: 16GB

Height: 51.7cm

Length: 20.7cm

Width: 65.0cm

Weight: 13.8kg




 
 
 This link will be included in the blog's link section, but here it is anyway:

http://www.apple.com/au/imas/specs.html

Great link with most of this data on it.