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

RED Premiere, FRAG And New Email

05:25:10PM, 15/10/10 AEST-05:47:05PM, 15/10/10 AEST

RED premiered today on the red carpet, Machinima's ETC covered the movie premiere today. For that video goto:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Machinima#p/c/6656FE6D5A4D6973/3/4LTaXSmSMVg

For the trailer goto:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci6US-MfUcI

A fantastic cast, with names such as Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, John Malkovich and Helen Mirris-just to name several of them!

Also,

Machinima's ETC 14/10/10 episode covered a documentary called FRAG about pro gaming and the stresses of the occupation.

For that video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnmZ3hcf_tg

The official website is http://www.fragmovie.com/ and the trailer seems interesting. I might check it out if it  screens in Australia-what do you think?

Also, head to our Communications page for the correct way to email us, our new email address and tips.

Thanks, that's all for this post, we will be back with a Deadrising 2 interview from Bailey.

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.

Gears Of War 3 Interview

08:05:00PM, 11/09/10 AEST-08:14:00PM, 11/09/10 AEST

Well, when asked about Gears Of War 3, Bailey seemed very excited.

These are the questions:

Q1) As a professional gamer, what is the most exciting thing for you about Gears of War 3?

Q2) What is your opinion of the Graphics of the game?

Q3) Do you like the gaming engine being used?

Q4) What is your favourite aspect of the Gameplay (weapons, perks, health, UI, etc.)?

Q5) Do you plan to pre-order it?

Q6) Have you visited ScienceWorld (scienceworldblog.blogspot.com) before?

Q7) Why do you enjoy the Gears of War franchise?

Q8) 0 being the lowest, 10 being the highest, what is your overall rating of the Gears of War franchise?

These are the answers:

A1) The most exciting thing about gears 3 is the new mini cinematics like the pendulum charge and using the enemies arm as a bat.

A2) The high detail of graphics brings gears to the next level as Halo reach begins the expectation of graphics even higher because Halo is a simple man vs alien game the graphics are spectacular.

A3) Yes. The gaming engine is good but can be improved and should be.

A4)Weapons are great but its now not about the bigger the gun is the better pistols in gears 3 are heavy and powerful and look nice and never really got used now they really do, perks-theres not really perks in the game so you have to wait until next year.

A5) Yes...

A6)Yes.
A7) It's just another blood-thirsty game where all you see is madness but with all new ways to kill it should be even bloodier.

A8)10/10 for blood and madness. 

Well, there you have it... The interview (via email but still just as good).

Bailey is now the blog's new Official Gamer. He will be interviewed monthly.

Weekly Gaming Prediction #00001-Battlefield: Bad Company 3 And Beyond

06:42:10AM, 08/09/10 AEST-06:52:00AM, 08/09/10 AEST

My weekly gaming prediction is that:

EA Games will add to the Battlefield: Bad Company 3 sometime next year (or before). Also, to extend to that end, more games in the Battlefield series will be made to compete with Call Of Duty 7: Black Ops and sequels. So basically, Battlefield will attempt to go up to (quite possibly) 9 new games!

Also, Bailey Hunter (see previous post) agrees with this prediction and might be brought up in future posts.

Tell me what you think.

Gears Of War 3 Interview

07:51:30PM, 06/09/10 AEST-07:57:00PM, 06/09/10 AEST

Well, I'm happy to say the blog's first interview has been organised. Bailey (who's last name is not public), a professional gamer and game design specialist will be asked serveral questions about his thoughts on Gears Of War 3. I have sent him the email with the questions and he will reply within the next week.

He is a good friend of mine and I value his opinion on gaming (as his predictions are often correct).

I'm posting this just to make it publically known that the interview will be posted (hopefully) tomorrow or the day after. If not, by the end of this week.

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.

Google Pacman

07:38:40AM, 05/09/10 AEST-09:06:00PM, 05/09/10 AEST

I first got on to this when I googled Google. Some of the results were Google Pacman. Wow I thought, an online implementation of Pacman-by Google?

So I followed it (http://www.google.com/pacman) and started playing. It's a Google logo, yet interactive. Intead of I'm Feeling Lucky it has Insert Coin. Pressing Insert Coin in the middle of a game, will restart and bring up Pacman and Mrs. Pacman allowing two-player co-op.

My highscore is 11760. But, I bet some of you could beat that.

Now, this was a few days ago. Just before writing this post, I had the sudden idea to analyse the game. A Google Chrome extension called Pendule is a web developer tool. It is fantastic, I suggest you try it.

So, I used Pendule to analyse the source code first.

Then, I used the in-built JavaScript Console in Google Chrome (see my previous post entitled Google Chrome Review for more info). I also, did a resource track and the game restarted.


<html onmousemove="google&&google.fade&&google.fade(event)">




Was the beginning tab for the HTML code. Now, I'm not sure what this means, as I haven't studied deep enough into HTML to know (I'm mainly in native development). However, feel free to comment if you know. 


This happens quite alot in these types of examinations (especially JavaScript libraries that link into the HTML). That is the fun of it, studing it and learning how to interact with it.


So then, I used the JavaScript console to debug and wow! As I type this sentence (08:59:00AM AEST) there is 455 and growing fast errors of this:


Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'style' of undefined.


So just a matter of seconds after typing that error, I paused the script execution-and the errors stopped growing. I paused it at 834 errors (all the one type, just 834 different instances of them). 


Well, I strongly recommend you download the latest version of Google Chrome and install it. Then, go to some interesting site and examine it.


It is very rewarding.

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.

Imagining The Tenth Dimension

12:54:00PM, 28/02/10 AEST-01:32:35PM, 28/02/10 AEST
This intuitave project is a brilliant acomplishment in Science. I agree with Rob Bryanton's theories and it has improved my understanding on the topics of Quantum Mechanics.

For the official YouTube Channel visit:

http://www.youtube.com/user/10thdim

More links are at the page.

Project Ports-Update #1

06:24:11PM, 28/01/10 AEST-06:27:00PM, 28/01/10 AEST

Project Ports is a project involving Vincent Nathan and I. Its goal is to research Port Numbers for Computers. Some tasks planned are:

• Find out how to retrieve Port Numbers.
• Find out more about them.
• Find out how to use them.
• Conglomerate all reports to ScienceWorld.