Youtube Linking

Today I was admiring my number of views of my Monsters Inc. Music Video on YouTube. I decieded to delve into the insight data and found something wierd.

Most of my views come from my video being a "related" to a Finding Nemo music vid. Now the odd thing is that the only way the two videos are related is that we did music videos to movies that were made by the same company but neither of us mentioned "Pixar Studios" in either our video description or tags.

My only conclusion is that somehow google knows that the two movies are related.

I just found this interesting.

Twitter

Well a couple of days ago I decieded to start using twitter: http://twitter.com/Cwize1.

Now anyone one who knows me whould know I shun social networking sites because they are a royal waste of time. So why did I start using twitter?

Firstly twitter isn't so much a time wasteing social networking site and more of a club of stalkers. I have never used the likes of facebook and myspace but it seems horid. People around me seem to spend an outrageous amount of time adding photos, writing journals, writing on walls, sending messages, finding relatives, getting annoyed at spamy emails, etc. Whereas twitter is a simple 140 charcter outline of what you are currently doing or something you find interesting. It is fast and non time consuming.

Secondly a melbourne company called Kogan was offering a chance to win prizes if one followed their tweet. And hay a 1/500 chance to win a netbook is well worth the stigma over joining twitter.

Microsoft Robotics Studio

Recently I decieded to give Microsoft Robotics Studio and whirl, to see how it was.

I am currently doing an engineering course, at the University of Melbourne, and one of the projects was to program a robot using Robolab. As a relativly experienced programmer, I wasn't all that impressed with it as a programming langauge. It was basically a visual programming langauge that was focused on getting the rebot to do actions and then they retorfitted data\variable features afterwards.

I had downloaded MS Robotics Studio 1.0 a while back but I never actually used it. However this annoyance prompted me to take another look at it to see if it was any good. Thus I downloaded MS RS 2008 Express, installed it as opened the Vitrual Programming Langauge (VPL). After going through a few tutotials from the msdn dite and a few other sites I fairly quickly got the hang of the langauge.

As a concept the VPL is rather interesting. It seems to be completeley different from any other conventional programming langauge I have used. I don't know if I would want to write a large database in it but for what it was designed for (that is, robots) it fairly satifactory. It would be fairly hard to describe in detail just using words so I won't attempt to. Basically it a langauge that is focused on the flow of data rather than the order of instructions. Eg: "int i = p + 1" would be translated into "Calculate Block: p + 1" --> set --> "Variable Block: i".

One of the most awesome features of Microsoft Robotics Studio is the simulation enviroment. As the name suggests this is an enviroment that allows you to simulate a robot in a particular enviroment. It is powered by the PhysX engine. This is useful if you don't have an actual robot to play with or want to test to see if your program actually works before running it in the real world. Obviously you get smoother results if you have a modern Geforce card or a powerful CPU. However you can still get kicks on an relativly anient computer. I was more than capable or running a simulation without too much lag on my Radeon 9550 and Intel P4.

One of the programs I created was a simple program were I controlled the robot in the simulation enviroment with my anient joystick. This was actually fairly easy program to create. It was rather fun knocking things over and rolling them along the floor with my little robot.

Unfortunatley that is where the list of good things end for MS RDS. There seems to be a lack of an attention to detail that one has come to expect from the makers of the awesomeness that is visual studio.

Firstly there is the Calculation Block. This is basically a block that will do some sort of calculation, be a concatonation of a string or the solving a mathematical equation. This type of block, I think strikes the right balance between the visual aspect of a visual programming langauge and the functionality of a text based langauge. Robo on the other hand requires you to do an hour long song and dance number to do be able to do similar things (equals major annoyance). Unfortunatley this block is far from complete as it lacks in built maths functions. Basically if you want to calculate anything other than a simple arithmatic (eg, sqrt, powers, sin, cos) you have to use the maths block. This results in anything other than really simple equations, being split up into a multitude of different blocks instead of just the one.

Then there is the programming user interface. While the actual diagram of programs is reasonbly clean, eveything is fairly messy. For example. the list of programming blocks. Basically all it is, is a list of every single one of the possible programming blocks one can use sorted alphabaeticaly. The problem with having all the blocks in one list is that the list ends up containing a whole load of advanced blocks that not everyone will use, making the langauge a lot less intuitive and harder to learn for beginners. That and it is harder to find what you are looking for because you have to know its exact name. Fortunatley they also have a list of the most commonly used blocks but a simple hierachy system would be really useful.

Another problem is the debugging interface. In a visual programming langauge one would assume that it would have a visual debugging interface. Like breaking over the offending block, with a "useful" error message and telling you variable values when you hover over them. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead to debug some code you are sent to a browser based interface which you have to enter your computer user name and password to enter. To make matters worse it has error messages that are not only in hieroglyphs but are completely useless as well. And just in case you thought it couldn't get any worse the console window speaks in a some wierd techno bable that is also highy useless. How on earth did microsoft come up with that one???

Apart from everything else, the thing that really put the nail in the coffin for me was one time I was creating a program, sunndenly MS VPL started stuffing up, so I saved and quit and reopen MS VPL, only to find it had lost all my hard programming work. This really annoyed me.

After that I decieded to look at the C# interface. I found a beginneers tutorial and went through it. Unfortunatley it seems to be highly complicated when it comes to syntax and to be able to create deafult projects instead of a template in C# one has to create one in the MS RDS console window. So while it looks useable I don't think I have the patience to learn it.

So in conclusion, it was a great idea with a whole load of potential but would need a major overhaul to be actually useful and fun to use

R18+ for Games

There seems to be a lot of discussion surrounding whether or not Australia should have a R18+ rating for games. By discussion I mean all the gaming community (not including the likes that only play games like "The Sims") demanding that the Governments of Australia allow R18+ as a classification and the Governments of Australia saying "No".

Anyway, I decided to do a little spiel about it.

I personally would never play a game rated R18+. Not because I think they are evil and should be burnt in hell but because I just don't like to see that much violence. I do however think it is rather stupid having an R18+ rating for movies and not for games. I mean by the time that there are highly graphic images on the screen, what difference does it make who is in control of the "actor". 

Sure there has been "research" done that apparently prove that video games make people violent. Though any research done would need to account for the fact that the type of person who plays violent video games is also likely to watch violent movies. Which none of them do. 

Yes, a gamer who has recently played a video game and is full of adrenaline is more likely to do and say things that are a little rash, though the same is true for a sports people. We don't say a particular sport is evil because a brawl occurred between players mid game. We say the players let their emotions get the better of them and it is the players themselves who are fault not the game.

The only benefit of not having an R18+ rating for games is that is does give people the ability to play games with the violence toned down. Most games do allow you to remove blood but I am yet to see a game where you can actually decrease the level of violence to a desired level. 

If the R18+ rating was approved for games it would be nice to see the government also forcing game companies offer the same game at lower ratings along side its higher rating counterpart, obviously where appropriate.  (The same would also be nice for movies.) This would allow for people to choose how violent they want their games instead of the government choosing for them. It would also allow parents to "protect" their kid's, from high levels of violence, but still gives them the freedom to play the games they want to play.

It would be nice to see Government actually use some creativity when dealing with issues, instead of just taking an absolutist view on an issue

Cwize1

Proud supporter of Scorpion Technology

Gmail Offline

About 1.5 years after google gears came out Offline Gmail has finally been released, albeit as a labs feature.

It was fairly easy to enable\install. All it requires is google gears to be installed and a few clicks of next. 

Once installed you get a new tab in the settings page for the offline mode settings and a little icon next to the settings link. Email syncing starts automatically. If you hover over the icon it gives the status of the offline mode and the ability to enter and leave Flaky mode.

Flaky mode results in the use of the offline files in preference to the online files, which is obviously useful if you are in an environment where your Internet connection is intermittent. I am yet to discover any disadvantages of the mode. For some odd reason you can only enter and exit flaky mode by hovering over the offline icon. I would have expected to see it in the offline settings tab.

Edit: It turns out you can't add attachements while in Flaky mode or offline mode which in the words of google themselves is "tooootally lame". In theory this feature will be added at a later date.

The only options that you can currently change in the offline settings tab is whether or not offline mode in enabled or disabled. The tab also tells you how far back Gmail will sync to your desktop, which apparently is based on your "email volume" - whatever that means. Attachments of emails are also automatically synced to your desktop, though this is done after the messages have been synced. It would be nice to disable to auto sycning of attachments and I can only assume this is going to be a future option.

If you write an email in offline mode, it is place in the outbox. Once you reconnect to the Internet, the email will be promptly sent. I might be wrong but I think you have to open gmail for syncing to work, which is no different from the likes of Outlook.

This had been a long time coming and I am happy that it has finally arrived.

Good work google - I am looking forward for future updates

Cwize1

Proud supporter of Scorpion Technology

Best Video Cards for Your Money - Dec 08

This is the updated version of the summary of Tom's Hardware "Best Video Cards for Your Money"

• USD $60: Radeon HD 4650
  Good 1440x900 performance in most games
  
  
• USD $80: Radeon 4670 GDDR3 or Geforce 9600 GSO (aka Geforce 8800 GS)
  Good 1600x1200 performace in most games
  
  
• USD $100: Radeon HD 3870 or Geforce 9600GT
  Good 1600x1200 performace in most games; 1920x1200 in most titles with some lowered detail
  
  
• USD $125: Radeon HD 4830 or Geforce 9800 GT (aka 8800 GT)
  Good 1600x1200 performance in most games; 1920x1200 in most titles with some lowered detail
  
  
• USD $160: Radeon HD 4850
  Good 1920x1200 performance in most games, some with lowered detail
  
  
• USD $215: Redeon HD 4870 or Geforce GTX 260
  Good 1920x1200 performance
  
  
• USD $265: Radeon HD 4870 (1 GB) or Geforce GTX 260+ 
  Note: There are two versions of the 260, look for ones with the 216 shaders and 72 texture units
  Good 1920x1200 performance.
  
  
• USD $320: 2 x Radeon HD 4850
  Good 1920x1200 performance in most games, 2560x1600 in most titles with some lowered detail
  
  
• USD $370: Radeon HD 4850 X2
  Good 1920x1200 performance in most games, 2560x1600 in most titles with some lowered detail
  
  
• Over USD $400: Radeon HD 4870 X2
  Good 2560x1600 performance in most games, some with lowered detail
  Note: Not recommended unless you have large quantities of cash to burn
  
  

If you want the actual article or you want to know why these cards are being recommended here is the link: Best GFX for your Money

There is also a page at the end of the article that puts all the cards, going back a few years, in a hierarchy: GFX Hierarchy

Cwize

Proud supporter of scorpion technology

Samsung 933BW Widescreen LCD Monitor

Hello All

Recently I bought a LCD monitor for my sister for Christmas and as you may have guessed by now it was the Samsung 933BW". Anyway I tested it on my computer to make sure that it was in working order and also to see how good it was.

For starters it certainly looks nicer than my current CRT monitors and is obviously a lot thinner. I have heard that the stand is a pain to get on, let alone off, so I decieded not to attach them. This monitor comes with DSUB and DVI cables and ports. Though the cables are a little short.

When running in its native resolution the quality is fine. The contrast on this monitor is certainly lacking when compared to my el-cheapo CRTs but is good enough not to bother the general consumer.

I decieded run the game "Company of Heroes" on it, to test how the response time was. My eyes couldn't pick up any differneces between it and my CRT. Though my GFX is a bit of a bottle neck in terms of frames per second. Still any problems LCD screens use to have seem to be a thing of the past. 

The test did however did reveal one of the problems with LCD screens. Unlike CRT screens who can change their native resolution, LCD monitors can't. While this is a non issue in standard windows it can be a problem if a game (or any full screen application for that matter) doesn't support the native resolution. The result is that the image looks fuzzy which is obviously unacceptable which is fairly ugly and annoying. 

One complain I have with this screen is that it didn't do a very good job at adjusting to the current resolution. It didn't like showing black edges when the aspect ratio was smaller than its aspect ratio and sometimes I found it cutting certain parts of the image off.

For $200 AUD, this monitor is fine for standard office work though I really wouldn't recommend it for gamming or any other graphics intensive program.

Cwize

Proud supporter of Scopion Technology