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Star Wars Crowdsourced

I could go on and on about why I love this, but I’ll have to share those feeling for another time. In the meantime, grab a bear or tea, sit down with some friends, and enjoy the hundreds of fan submitted clips that have been painstakingly put together into this Star Wars Uncut: Director’s Cut. I will have to start scouring the internet for more projects like this.

Jahshaka 3.0

*UPDATE Feb 8th * It seems that there’s more life on the website. They have stated that the product has been delayed to make sure everything is working properly.  Actually, they are calling it a “relaunch”. We shall see!

*UPDATE Feb 1st*  The counters on Jahshaka.com are all at 0 / 0 / 0, yet no software release is to be found. There are quite a few disappointed potential users in the Facebook community, as well as some angry voices in other forums. It has not even been 24 hours yet, and people are already screaming, “SCAM!“.  Well, I hope things change in the next few hours, otherwise there might be some people out there looking for their donations to be returned. Best case scenario is that this is just a PR fail.

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Previously known as Cinefx (name change probably due to the effects magazine with the same name), Jahshaka 3.0 is expected out in less than 1 week. I’m truly excited to see what this looks like. A free professional level editor/compositor for Linux?

Take a look at these screenshots.

 

Detach Process from Terminal Window

Running Ubuntu Linux and am starting an application process from my terminal window. The problem is, that window is then basically locked, not allowing me to execute more commands while the spawned application is running. To fix this, I found this command, where I basically add a & to the end of the line.
i.e.

~/tools/shell/mycommand &

This allows me to execute the command and gives me back access to the command prompt to execute more commands.

So the next issue I have is, if I close that terminal window, all processes that were spawned from that window are instantly killed. No warnings, pleases or thank-yous. That’s scary for those of us that don’t save often. Ah, but there are more solutions. After executing the command, as shown above, simple execute the following command, and it will separate spawned processes from that terminal window.

disown

Or, simpler yet, why not just kick the application off from in an independent process, right from the beginning, with this util-linux command.

setsid ~/tools/shell/mycommand

Canon 10-22mm EF-S Wide Angle

I finally got my U-Fly steadicam unit balanced, but now I see that my 24mm lens is not going to cut it, for filming architecture. 24mm is pretty wide, but not when dealing with the crop of my 60D. D’oh!

So, I’m considering the Canon EF-S 10-22mm, which looks like it will capture exactly what I need. It’s not as fast as the Canon EF 14mm f/2.8 ($1800) lens but, at less than $800, I think it will have to do. Though, it’s going to have to wait awhile as it’s a tad outside my budget, at the moment.

Numbers and Patterns in Nature

Was recently introduce to Vi Hart’s blog. Tons of inspirational mathematical games can be found on her blog, including a practical introduction to the Fibonacci spiral.

Finally, if you have not seen “Nature by Numbers”, well here is a real feast for your eyes… and soul.

Nature by Numbers from Cristóbal Vila on Vimeo.

Dodgeball Superheroes

A few weeks back I happened to stumble across a birthday inspired dodgeball match. I’ve finally had some time to go through the footage. I put together a quick edit of some of the key moments, with some dubstep to spice up the soundtrack. How many times can I hear this Skrillex track before I get sick of it?

Anyhow, Markwell said it’s cool for me to share the video, so here it is.

Once again, thanks to Markwell and his great group of friends for welcoming this total stranger into this wicked birthday event (which had one of the tastiest birthday cakes I’ve ever had). For the first time in a long time, I look forward to baseball season.  😉

WebGL with Danger Mouse in Your Chrome Browser

Ok, this WebGL stuff has officially blown my mind (have I used that phrase yet?).  It runs so smoothly, i cannot believe it mon.  Cannot believe!

If you haven’t checked it out, and you have the Chrome browser, please take a moment to checkout the ROME: 3 Dreams of Black music video featuring Danger Mouse. I’d post a link to a Youtube video, but although visually impressive, a video doesn’t do it justice.  The original is interactive… and a video screencapture on Youtube is not.

Check it out already!  And when you’re done, Miranda has some concept art and other behind the scene info for you.

After you’ve seen that, there’s a whole library of WebGL examples to play with.  This library on ChromeExperiements.com has a few dozen online WebGL experiments (thx to Kjrsten Holt).

Burning Man Alternatives?

Can you really replace the salt flats, or the stationary art, or the mutant vehicles?  I’m really not sure, but certain variables have me considering alternatives to this…   alternative culture event. Last year was the first time Burning Man has sold out, which has had the organizers implementing a lottery system, which means that not everyone who wants to go, will get to go. I think this video summarizes most of my feelings pretty well.

A new friend of mine, that I met at a Decompression party here in Toronto mentioned Boom Festival in Portugal.

I was just told about the Lightning in a Bottle music festival in California, around May.

The Rainbow Gathering(s) which occur all over the world.

Another festiva-…er… “republic” that I have come across (thx Mackenzie) is called Kazantip and is apparently the largest rave in eastern Europe.

WHOAH… ok, that was NOT work-safe viewing. Also, not sure how comfortable I would be partying it up with a bunch of Russian mobsters.

There’s also Shambala, Ibiza, Movement in Detroit, the Winter Music Conference in Florida and others (that I’m either forgetting or haven’t yet discovered). However, I don’t expect to find anything that will compare to dancing on a two-story pirate ship while visiting 30+ foot sculptures in the desert. Though music can be a large factor in these festivals, there’s also something quite amazing about the absolutely silent locations you can find on the playa at Burning Man.

Oh boy… what to do. :\

Trentemoller Live on KCRW

Watching Trentemoller right now on KCRW. I will not miss him the next time he’s in town.

Growing Unique Products

3D printing is making life interesting.

I need to look up some of these custom jigsaw puzzles that they are talking about.

Inspirational Quotes

These have been sitting around in my notes for awhile, so I figured it was time to post them.

Randy Pausch
It’s not about how to achieve your dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.
http://blog.cliffano.com/2007/12/26/quotes-from-randy-pauschs-last-lecture/

Leon Botha
I am trying to work and focus, not letting the outer world speak more loudly than my inner. Because I think we tend to forget.
http://boingboing.net/2011/06/06/in-memoriam-leon-bot.html

Sakyong Mipham  (Turning the Mind Into an Ally)
Many of us are slaves to our minds. Our own mind is our worst enemy. We try to focus, and our mind wanders off. We try to keep stress at bay, but anxiety keeps us awake at night. We try to be good to the people we love, but then we forget them and put ourselves first. And when we want to change our life, we dive into spiritual practice and expect quick results, only to lose focus after the honeymoon has worn off. We return to our state of bewilderment. We’re left feeling helpless and discouraged. It seems we all agree that training the body through exercise, diet, and relaxation is a good idea, but why don’t we think about training our minds?
http://www.amazon.ca/Turning-Mind-Into-Sakyong-Mipham/dp/1573222062

Paul Valéry
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.

Nice Shot, Ace

I started to walk home from the studio down the street, but heard music from the gym at the corner.

Through the window I saw costumed heroes playing dodge-ball? It was Ace (mascot for Toronto Blue Jays). I left and came back with my camera. Nothing like filming, as your camera gets hit by a ball… at 60 frames per second. I took many photos of his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and banana birthday cake, which was arguably one of the best birthday cakes I have ever had. Serious “yum”, especially when followed up by shots of vodka and pineapple.

The 5 hour super-hero dodge-ball event has comes to a conclusion at 1am. With a smile on my face, I walk home and within a minute, I run into a guy that is looking for… a “house” party. I’m talking about a “house music” party… in a loft, less than 1 block away.
HAH.

1:45, walking into the party I run into (for the first time outside the tea shop) Marco and Juan, the owners of the establishment that I spend over a dozen hours a week at. The $20 cover charge is immediately waved.

I just got home.

Big thanks to Ace, Jason, Juan, Marco and Michael for unintentionally setting up an epic evening.

I am somewhere between Yes Man and Number 23.

Btw… Ace sent me a link to the video of his recent wedding proposal. Now THIS is how it’s done.

pid : stylized 2D platformer

Original game concept and fresh look. Can’t wait to give this game a whirl. [thx Zak]

Web Programming with Python

Going to go super geek for a moment here, but I will keep this very short.

I know that I need to be versed in web programming, because nearly everything that I have done, either personal or project related, ends up on the web in some format. I’m realizing that WordPress, Drupal, Joomla or other content management software solutions will not give me the flexibility that I need.

I’m turning to Python, due to it’s simplicity, use of PERL style regular expressions (w00t) and (most importantly) it’s integration in nearly every 3D animation package that’s out there.  Is Python programming for the web going to be more of a pain than just utilizing Ruby or PHP?  Maybe, but there’s always frameworks, like Django.

Without further adieu, here’s a blog, made in 8 minutes.

Icons on Ubuntu Menus

I was wondering where the pretty little icons were for my menus while using Inkscape.

This shell command (from UbuntuForums.org)  brought them back.

gconftool-2 --type bool --set /desktop/gnome/interface/menus_have_icons true

Cut the Rope for Android

In anticipation for the launch of World of Goo for Android (2 more days!!!), I discovered another little clever little title called Cut the Rope.

Can gifts be purchased for Android, similar to the way Steam handles it? Me thinks this is inevitable, but they should hurry up!!

World of Goo on Android

A few days ago my roomate and I were talking about World of Goo.  Last night, he booted up his Mac, while I tried to figure out how to get it running on Linux.

This morning I found that 2D Boy had my install files still available on their website (score!!). Within minutes, I was creating towers of goo using my Wacom tablet. Yes, this game is super tablet friendly under Mac and Windows. Though a little glitchy under Linux (probably due to the resolution change), it can be done with a Wacom.

Today I took a look at the 2D Boy blog and discovered that, in a few days, World of Goo will be available for Android! OOoooh boy.  So for about $5 ($15 less than the current PC download price), I will have another time-waster on my Galaxy Tab? This game was born for touchscreen, and on November 28th, all shall be right in the world.

World of Goo was created during a rapid prototyping session at Carnegie Mellon. Details of this development cycle are here on Gamasutra.

Sketchbook Start

image

First Moleskin is almost full. I am hooked. Here is page 1 from October, 2010.

Lightness of Being

The book at Value VillageYesterday I read this article on synchronicity. In the post, it mentions a friend recommending a book to her depressed friend, saying, “Did you ever read that book, The Unbearable Lightness of Being? You’ve got to have courage. You’ve got to stop being afraid of your own light.

This triggered the memory of a good friend of mine who I am losing touch with. Over a decade ago he gifted me a copy of the Unbearable Lightness of Being (if memory serves). Unfortunately, that book has been stored away in storage this entire time. I never had a chance to read it.

Inspired by this occurrence, I emailed him immediately, saying that I found a copy of the movie and I will watch it the very next day.

The next day (today), I am walking back home from a nice breakfast. I stop by Value Village and take a look at the books. I am looking for technical web development books, but find nothing.

On the way out, I see a book that has been misplaced on top of a clothing rack, on the opposite side of the store from the books section. I almost ignore it and walk by, but my gut convinces me otherwise. I walk over to the book and behold… The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I snapped a picture immediately and purchased the book.

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