May 2013
60 posts
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That bit in Half-Life 2? Where you have to cross a jacked up bridge, disable a force-field, and then cross back? Not so fun in 3D. Especially not when you fall.
Edit: Mostly just the sensation of something rapidly accelerating towards your face. Even without the other two, it’s enough to trigger a fairly decent reflexive reaction.
I’m lucky enough that I don’t generally suffer...
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Hacker serving 5-year sentence invents ATM add-on... →
Boanta’s arrest in 2009 spurred him to develop the anti-theft device to make amends. “When I got caught I became happy. This liberation opened the way to working for the good side,” Boanta told Reuters. “Crime was like a drug for me. After I was caught, I was happy I escaped from this adrenaline addiction. So that the other part, in which I started to develop security...
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At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom →
Exhibit A:
Often, Google Glass owners looked strange. Many were using their cellphones while wearing the glasses — defeating a declared purpose of the new gadget, to free you from having to look at your phone. Another man continually looked at his watch to check the time, even through the glasses display a clock right above your eye.
Exhibit B:
Gargoyles represent the embarrassing side of...
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Done with presentation. Should probably practice doing that more. I hate public speaking.
Melon: A Headband and Mobile App to Measure Your... →
The Melon headband is a wireless brain-sensing device that uses EEG (electroencephalography) to measure your brain activity. From this activity, our algorithms detect your focus, and we use that data to give you personalized feedback on how to improve.
Interesting. It’s low cost, wireless EEG designed to be worn while active. My guess is that it’s single channel only, and despite...
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httpebble →
httpebble is a scheme for communicating with the internet from the Pebble, using a generic protocol and without any application-specific code running on the phone.
I have some serious concerns over the long term viability of the Pebble as a product (especially considering this is basically a gigantic hack), but this is still wicked cool. It also only took about 5 minutes to get up and...
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Timelapse of the 3d printed gun being printed. →
I figured, if I’m going to be childish about it and print a gun that a) won’t work because I don’t have the right printer, and b) I won’t use anyway because I don’t generally play with guns, I might as well make a fun timelapse video of the more recognizable parts being made.
It initially seemed like it was going to be quick and easy. However, I quickly found that just printing this thing was...
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It's never easy...
After all the hassle I had to go through getting my Social Security Card so they can pay me for this summer REU, it turns out my Social Security Card is too old to have any of the required security features that they are supposed to check.
If it’s not one thing, it’s another…
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The PA Report - Pulling up the ladder: how indie... →
In other words, risky titles by new or relatively unknown developers have very few viable ways to get on platforms anymore, unless someone with reach is willing to take the risk to champion the game online or within the structures of a platform. The assigned curators tend to be other developers, who now have stakes in curating and thus can’t properly fulfill their role.
Interesting idea. If I...
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When it comes to resolution, it's all relative →
That’s not to say that the upcoming VR head-mounted displays won’t be successful; a huge field of view, together with high-quality tracking and low latency, can produce a degree of immersion that’s unlike anything that’s come before, with the potential to revolutionize the whole gaming experience. But I can tell you from personal experience that the visual difference between a...
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Mental Health Blog Day: Jessica’s Adventures in... →
I have a wonderful, beautiful family. I have many supportive friends, in real life and online. At that time I had roommates just down the hall from me.
But that’s the thing about depression. It isolates you. It quarantines you into a place where you just don’t believe people anymore. You don’t believe that they love you. Or, even worse, if you DO believe that they love you, you honestly...
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Why virtual isn't real to your brain →
The truth is, I wrote all those articles, and I write this blog, mostly because of the warm feeling I get whenever I meet someone who learned something from what I wrote; the practical benefits were an unexpected bonus. Whatever the motivation, though, sharing information really does benefit us all. With that in mind, I’m going to start delving into what we’ve found about the surprisingly deep...
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I wonder how much trouble I will get in if I use the term “legal wankfest” in class today…
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Huh
Law students in class are talking about going to school with a nephew of Bloomberg and a friend who is dating a Rockefeller.
I can’t decide if being here is going to be hilarious or just painfully awkward.
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(PDF) Projection Matrix Tricks →
Since I’ve been messing around with infinite projection matrices, here’s a random slideshow that I found helpful. They are surprisingly useful.
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Nostalgia
Nostalgia is a weird thing.
Why is it that I feel nostalgic when I think about living out in a field with nothing but a rucksack but not when I visit my mom’s house to pick up some stuff?
Is it that I wanted to be there, misguided as that may have been? Or was I simply more capable of forming the kinds of emotions conducive to feeling nostalgic about it later? Will I ever look at my...
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Hyperbole and a Half: Depression Part Two →
The beginning of my depression had been nothing but feelings, so the emotional deadening that followed was a welcome relief. I had always wanted to not give a fuck about anything. I viewed feelings as a weakness — annoying obstacles on my quest for total power over myself. And I finally didn’t have to feel them anymore. But my experiences slowly flattened and blended together until it...
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Finished Project: The Community Network
sometimeisbetterthannotime:
The Community Network Tool is both a set of websites built to serve as community hubs, as well as a stand-alone website installation bundle. It’s also the project upon which I worked for my Master’s practicum, so there’s that.
Download Practicum Discussion paper
Download files, documentation, and my final presentation
Video of the practicum presentations (I had to...
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Bullshit
Seventeen pages containing four thousand five hundred and eight one words worth of nearly straight bullshit.* Needless to say this paper is not getting posted publicly once I am done editing it.
*Unless you are my professor. In which case, it was very thoughtfully written with much consideration for the topics. Also, you got lost on the internet and should probably go back the way you came.
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glslRiftDistort →
glslRiftDistort - OpenGL version of the Oculus Rift Barrel Distortion Shader
I figured others could probably use this, so I posted the shader source to GitHub.
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Holy shit.
It took me a fucking week to track down a problem with the distortion shader I’ve been using for Oculus Rift support. A week of of validating experimenting, testing, fiddling, re-calculating parameters, and re-working code based off of their SDK demos. The hardest part of it all was the fact that it actually was working - you could look through it and see a nice stereoscopic image and...
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Bruce Sterling on disruption. Worth listening to.
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