Pocket SLorpedo (continued)
December 31, 2007 at 15:56 | In VU | 3 CommentsTags: hackday, hackday london, reactivision, secondlife, slorpedo, tuio, xmlrpc
Unfortunately my last Slorpedo revisit coincided with a small problem with Second Life but XML-RPC is now back on its feet- hurrah! In fact, XML-RPC into Second Life is working fast enough to rez the subs as they are placed at the moment, although if it slows down again the subs should still all get rezed before firing torpedoes.
The reason for having another prod at XML-RPC is that it should provide a simple way for anyone to play the mixed reality game first seen at Hackday London and SLUK, and it’s almost ready. If you want to have a sneak preview follow these steps:
- Download reacTIVision.
- Download and unzip the Pocket SLorpedo client.
- Clear a playing area in real life, point a camera at it, get the playing pieces ready and fire up reacTIVision. (I’ve been mostly experimenting using the TUIO Simulator so far but it’s time to get the scissors out to make some real playing pieces!)
- Get the Second Life Pocket SLorpedo object- hope to have a vendor available soon but until then let me know your Second Life name and I’ll send one over.
- Use the channel key displayed when rezing the Second Life object to start the Java client using the command line below.
- Play!
To start the Java client, open up a console, change directory where ever you unzipped it, and run this:
java -jar SLorpedo.jar -key=<channelkey> [-b] [-port=<tuioport>]
The game is played entirely with the reacTIVision fiducials:
- The piece numbered ‘0′ starts a new game.
- Number ‘4′ is used to fire the torpedoes.
- Odd pieces appear as blue subs and even pieces are yellow subs.
- Numbers under 30 are small subs and over 30 are big subs.
Let me know if it all goes horribly wrong!
Updated 2 Jan: Borrowed a web cam this evening to have a game using real pieces instead of cheating with the TUIO simulator. A slightly better camera would be nice for a bigger playing area but other than that it worked really well. The game below was a two all draw!
Back yard hypocrisy
December 29, 2007 at 17:21 | In Grumpy Old Man | 1 CommentTags: backyard, dinton pastures, gravel, hamble, hedge end, oil, reading
It seems like there’s yet another NIMBY protest near me with the threat of gravel pits near Hamble. The thing that made me chuckle was passing all the houses with gravel driveways displaying their no gravel pit protest posters. I wonder who’s back yard that gravel came from. Maybe it was from an old pit near where I used to live. Not that I would especially like to live next to a gravel pit of course, although I can think of worse places. Apparently businesses will suffer as well, but I’m quite sure some bright sparks in Hamble will discover ways to make money out of it if the gravel pits do go ahead.
The last big campaign nearby was against drilling for oil in Hedge End. Unfortunately the oil in question is under a school or, as Helen Lovejoy would say in the Simpsons, “Won’t somebody please think of the children?” Of course no one at the school gets dropped off with a gas guzzling car every day…
If only this was Texas: I’d just drill down through my own back garden and start the JT Oil corporation!
Shortest day
December 23, 2007 at 00:41 | In Life, the Universe, and Everything | Leave a CommentTags: calendar, christmas, december, solstice, stonehenge, winter
It looks like I missed the winter solstice while I was asleep this morning, although at 06:08 (according to Wikipedia!) on the first day of my Christmas holiday I was pretty unlikely to be awake! Looking forward to some longer days now, especially after waking up earlier this week assuming I still had a few hours in bed because it was so dark, only to realise it was 7 o’clock and my alarm was about to go off. Not a good start to the day!
I was pretty sure today was the shortest day this year, but I noticed a few places claiming it was yesterday, and it seems there was some confusion last year as well when people celebrated the solstice a day early at Stonehenge! At least everyone should get the day right next year! I actually keep meaning to go along to Stonehenge for the winter solstice sunset one year but failed again this year.
Still, there’s nothing wrong with celebrating early if you do it deliberately; tomorrow is Christmas day number 1! Christmas day number 2 is on the traditional day, shortly followed by Christmas day number 3… maybe I should have had three chocolate advent calendars!!
On the subject of dates and things, I highly recommend The Calendar: The 5000 Year Struggle to Align the Clock and the Heavens and What Happened to the Missing Ten Days by David Ewing Duncan – very good read.
Plug and Play
December 20, 2007 at 15:27 | In Ones and Zeros | 2 CommentsTags: DSL, flash, Linux, mobile, SoulPad, USB, Windows
Thanks to Dale, I’ve found something to keep Damn Small Linux company on my USB key (there is a lot of space left after all!) – like Dale, I have an interest in mobile computing (unlike Dale, I have less gadgets, so PortableApps sounds great to me) and I’ve posted a couple of times before on the subject. At the risk of this weblog turning in to Dave, here’s a repeat:
It sounds like, between them, Scott McNealy and Dan Gillmor have got the right idea about access to my data. Hopefully not actually my data though! Scott wants it on the network, Dan wants it with him, and I just want it.
For years, I’ve quite liked the idea that I could have some sort of rfid tag with me (on my key-ring, in my watch, or somewhere I don’t have to worry about it) that would just log me on to my PC (and phone!) when I’m nearby, locking it again when I move away. It would be even better if it worked with any computer, giving me access to the same desktop where-ever I go. Scott seems to agree, although what’s with having to get out a “smart card” to plug it in? Sounds more like a “daft card” to me.
More recently, with the amount of data I can carry around with me (I suspect I’m actually behind the times here with a meagre 1Gb split between a tiny USB key and an MP3 player!) I’ve been leaning towards Dan’s point of view although, again, fumbling around to find something to plug in is just annoying. This is the 21st century! (Isn’t it?!)
The solution should be simple; I have a nice large lump of storage with me, that can wirelessly connect with any computing device (my desktop, thinkpad, PDA, phone, public kiosk, etc. etc.) giving me access to the same data everywhere. The data is also on the network too, luckily for Scott by the sound of it, so the two copies can be synchronised automatically, allowing me to work when I can’t, or don’t want to (it might be slow, insecure or expensive), connect to a network but providing access when I don’t have my storage with me (I could have left it somewhere deliberately or, not for the first time, lost it!). Even better if my storage is on some existing format expansion card so that I can physically plug it in to a) save having to carry around yet another gadget (just plug it in to a phone/PDA) and b) get faster access to the data if the wireless link is too slow.
(Originally posted 29 June 2005)
SoulPad looks pretty interesting too.
A tribute to the Coolest Christmas Tree on the Planet
December 16, 2007 at 16:23 | In Life, the Universe, and Everything | 4 CommentsTags: christmas, tree
The title of coolest tree on the planet is safe, with clapper controlled white or colour light selection, but Hampshire is home to the cutest tree on the planet…
Snow filled penguin bauble and polar bear lights (they’ll just give you a funny look if you clap at them!), and there’s a Rudolph hanging around somewhere as well.
Simple Second Life building exercise
December 12, 2007 at 22:15 | In VU | Leave a CommentTags: building, lsl, modelling, prims, secondlife
I’ve been working on a simple building exercise again recently. The basic idea is to give a taster of all the elements involved when building in Second Life, from prims to simple scripts, in the form of a trail with instructions on how to build a futuristic chair. Hopefully after completing the exercise people will be able to get more out of other much more detailed resources available, like the Ivory Tower of Prims, and (if all went well) a working chair! I have only just had the chance to work on a few of the suggestions I received after trying the trail out on a few guinea pigs at a recent hackday and I hope to get a bit more done at the weekend. If you pass through the IBM Sandbox and find the trail out there while I attempt to get it finished off, I would be very interested to know if you have any comments or suggestions.
Hats off to PowerShell, AS400 and Dale
December 5, 2007 at 11:57 | In Ones and Zeros | Leave a CommentTags: CL, Microsoft, MQ, OS400, PowerShell, Windows, WMQ
Dale spotted a great write up of his PowerShell for WebSphere MQ SupportPac this morning. I was also really pleased to see that I wasn’t imagining the AS400 influence on PowerShell!
So far I love PowerShell and judging by my blog stats (my last PowerShell post is still the most popular), I’m not the only one who’s interested. Like Jeffrey, I want to see more products supporting it. I would also like to see PowerShell on more platforms! Also, MQ had a bit of a head start towards PowerShell cmdlets- I would love to find out more about how predominantly Java based products could take advantage of PowerShell. Does anyone have any idea if that is possible or how easy/difficult it would be?
12 weeks of Christmas
December 3, 2007 at 23:41 | In Grumpy Old Man | 1 CommentTags: christmas
Bah humbug! (That’s better.)
Now I do actually like Christmas but in case there is any confusion, IT IS NOT CHRISTMAS YET! My memory isn’t great, but I always thought Christmas started on Christmas Day (no big surprise) and lasted for 12 days. These days, it seems to start 12 weeks before Christmas Day and finishes with a Boxing Day sale! (It’s probably more than 12 weeks but there’s the title to think of.)
The twelve weeks of Christmas:
- 8th-14th October: There’s a fifth of the year left (even allowing for my poor maths, there’s quite a bit left) for goodness sake!
- 15th-21st October: The shops will have been full of tinsel for a while now, and I’ll be avoiding them
- 22nd-28th October: Still two months to go, no need to panic
- 29th October-4th November: Annual demonic extortion racket, not Christmas
- 5th-11th November: Bonfire night, not Christmas
- 12th-18th November: Do you really need to book a Christmas meal this early? (Unlikely!)
- 19th-25th November: Okay, so there’s about a month to go so, if you’re super organised, start thinking about presents
- 26th November-2nd December: Right, now it gets tricky- nice chocolate every morning is fine, but too early for Christmas trees*
- 3rd-9th December: Fine, I’ll buy a tree, but it can stay in the garden!
- 10th-16th December: Lots of fresh new Christmasy tunes to listen to this year
- 17th-23rd December: Now is the perfect time for Christmas shopping- all the nutters will have finished theirs by now!
- 24th December: Bored of Christmas yet? Don’t worry, the sales will start soon
There are plenty of other things happening in this twelve weeks of madness, still I might be feeling a little more festive after our team Christmas lunch on Wednesday.
* Kelly does have the coolest tree on the planet, which will be lovely when it’s Christmas!!
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