Some weeks ago I came across those cool color changing LED lamps made by Philips in a hardware store. It’s a mood light with a remote control – you can even control up to 6 lamps with one remote… Oh I really do think that several of these would be great in the new office or at home.

Source: http://www.lighting.philips.com/microsite/living_colors/

Uhh… I ususally don’t do that stuff but in this case I just was curious how it would work for me. Quite well I think:

Source: http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=77

…if you do have a decent printer and if you haven’t got any graph paper – you could print it yourself.

thx to Kristian.

Source: http://www.incompetech.com/graphpaper/plain/

Da surfe ich hier und da mal herum – schaue mir ein paar Internetseiten über Bamberg an und da werde ich Zeuge einer ganz seltsamen Darbietung.

Bislang wusste ich dass Verbreitungsrechte im Internet auf Länder vergeben werden können – also dass man beispielsweise einen Webseiten Inhalt oder Livestream nur innerhalb der USA abrufen kann.

Nun scheint diese Art der Gängelung auch innerhalb von einzelnen Staaten Mode zu werden. Offenbar kann man in Deutschland nämlich die Rechte nur für ein bestimmtes Bundesland erwerben… Leute Leute wo wird das noch hinführen?

Source: http://www.bamberg-guide.de/bamberg/magazin/artikel.php?id=20080809201222

Photosynth is publicly available and it’s time to give it a try and play with the technology. Before starting you should be aware of some facts about the public photosynth technology-preview:

1. all synths are uploaded and only available online (broadband needed)
2. all synths are public, everyone can access them
3. the synther tool runs only on Windows
4. you’ll need a Live ID

When everything is checked you can go and upload up to 20 Gbytes of image data – my test synth takes up 200 Mbytes of the available space – so you have plenty of space to play with.

To start just install the photosynth application to view – and click “create” on the website. After the obligatory login you immediately can upload your pictures. Give it a name, ssome tags and a license and select your pictures.

Your pictures should show the same scene from different perspectives – photosynth is all about matching perspectives. After clicking on “Synth” the process starts.

And after a surprisingly short period of time your synth is done. Click on “View Synth” and you’re taken back to the website and you can browse your synth. That’s it – easy!

Source 1: my first photosynth
Source 2: Photosynth is open for the public
Source 3: create a synth

Okay. Offensichtlich ist bald Weihnachten denn wie ich eben lesen musste gibt es wohl schon Lebkuchen zu kaufen… so langsam aber sicher verliere ich komplett den Bezug zu Weihnachten überhaupt.

Google Streetview is bad. It’s just unbelievable what you can see and since the StreetView Vans are currently here in germany I don’t think I want to get captured…

In this case they captured…well…:

Source: Google StreetView

I finally found a way to get Mountain Dew frequently and cheap here in germany. Oh joy!

Now the soda wishlist is completed. Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper – soda heaven.

It’s a piece of art in a carpark:

“In Melbourne I developed a way-finding-system for the Eureka Tower Carpark while working for Emery Studio. The distored letters on the wall can be read perfectly when standing at the right position. This project won several international design awards.”

Source: http://de-war.de/eurekacarpark.html

When I thought of self replicating machines I thought of end-of-time scenarios and a robot armies conquering the world and enslaving the human race… it’s not that bad right now but we’re getting to it… sort of

“Adrian Bowyer (left) and Vik Olliver (right) with a parent RepRap machine, made on a conventional rapid prototyper, and the first complete working child RepRap machine, made by the RepRap on the left. The child machine made its first successful grandchild part at 14:00 hours UTC on 29 May 2008 at Bath University in the UK, a few minutes after it was assembled.”

“RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper. It is the practical self-copying 3D printer shown on the right – a self-replicating machine. This 3D printer builds the parts up in layers of plastic. This technology already exists, but the cheapest commercial machine would cost you about €30,000. And it isn’t even designed so that it can make itself. So what the RepRap team are doing is to develop and to give away the designs for a much cheaper machine with the novel capability of being able to self-copy (material costs are about €500). That way it’s accessible to small communities in the developing world as well as individuals in the developed world. Following the principles of the Free Software Movement we are distributing the RepRap machine at no cost to everyone under the GNU General Public Licence. So, if you have a RepRap machine, you can make another and give it to a friend… “

Source: http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome

It seems that I missed that Augmented Reality Toolkit all the way until now. It’s ARToolKit and it’s completely OpenSource.

As a matter of fact there are a ton of demos available… HOW could I possibly miss that for so long?

“ARToolKit is a software library for building Augmented Reality (AR) applications. These are applications that involve the overlay of virtual imagery on the real world. For example, in the image to the right a three-dimensional virtual character appears standing on a real card. It can be seen by the user in the head set display they are wearing. When the user moves the card, the virtual character moves with it and appears attached to the real object.

One of the key difficulties in developing Augmented Reality applications is the problem of tracking the users viewpoint. In order to know from what viewpoint to draw the virtual imagery, the application needs to know where the user is looking in the real world.”

Here is a short video demonstration of what you could start with:

…not talking about the things that would be possible if someone had a great idea

Source: http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/

Small games that simulate real-world physics are just fantastic – I already wrote about a very similar game but this one has far more options

“This sandbox contains a variety of elements which the player can scatter at a mouse-click. Ice, water, fire, the titular “powder” (which serves as the sand). The heart of Powder Game is the way these elements interact. Water that touches ice will freeze. Ice that touches fire will melt. Drop a seed onto some powder and a plant will sprout. Water the plant and it will grow. Touch a flame to it and it will catch fire and burn.

The other key element that defines Powder Game is wind. Powder stacks in neat piles, but a click of the mouse (a right click by default, but this can be changed) sends it spiralling into the air. Currents coalesce, rub against each other, create eddies in the air. Fire creates wind, as does exploding gunpowder. Wind turns ice into snow, creates rivers of particles in the air. When the background effect is set to “BG-shade,” it becomes entrancing to watch.”

There is even a whole website around those physic games:

Source 1: http://dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/dust/
Source 2: World of Sand-old article
Source 3: http://www.fun-motion.com/

Okay – the ones who are frequently using a keyboard know that they are getting faster and faster as time goes by – so it’s normal to type fast but FAST is not enough to compete in the national speed-typing contest in the states:

“Who’s the fastest typist in the land? If you’re talking about the Land of Lincoln, it’s arguably Melanie Humphrey-Sonntag, who has won the Illinois court reporters speed contest for the past three years. At last year’s event she transcribed the contest’s blazing dictation—averaging 245 words a minute—with a 99.193 percent accuracy.
That’s about 4 words a second.”

Source: Chicago Tribune speed typing (with video)

Wer schon immer mal wissen wollte wie die Karten eigentlich erstellt werden die in so ein Navigationssystem den Weg weisen der sollte sich mal folgenden Artikel und höchst interessante Bilder anschauen:

“Navteq fährt mit speziell ausgerüsteten Fahrzeugen rund 7,5 Mio. Kilometer ab, und das Jahr für Jahr. Denn auch wenn auf der Verpackung steht: 7200 neue Kilometer, dann bedeutet das nicht, dass der “Rest” nicht auch unter die Räder genommen wurde. Und das lohnt sich immer: Hier steht mal ein neues Schild, da ist eine neue Einmündung und dort wurde vielleicht die Straßenführung geändert.”

Source: http://www.ksmichel.de/?p=289

That’s the best news for months!! After TVR being out of business for some time they seem to be back in business now – they even presented the new Sagaris 2008 modell yesterday.

“Announced this morning by TVR Managing Director, David Oxley, at an exclusive preview event held at the new TVR development works in Lancashire, England – TVR Production has resumed!

Upon the momentous occasion, which included invited members of the TVR Car Club, TVR staff presented the TVR Sagaris model year 2008. Exterior design has remained the same except for new 5 spoke wheels, while the interior receives a new center console with satellite navigation.

As promised back in 2006 by TVR owner, Nikolai Smolenski said “My intention is to expand the sales and distribution of TVR cars throughout Europe, the rest of the world and USA markets is a key part of the business strategy of the company.” Built as a left hand drive model, the 2008 Sagaris confirms it will be exported internationally.

Preliminary pricing puts the 2008 TVR Sagaris just below 85.000 Euros.”

So now the only thing I need is the money to buy one of these beasts… I’ll have one in black or white

the re-designed interior included satnav…touchscreen…

…and re-designed exhausts… I actually liked the side-exausts better…

the new bonnet … and the gorgeous speed six…*raaawwr*

Source 1: http://www.worldcarfans.com/9080710.012/page1/tvr-production-restarts—2008-sagaris-presented
Source 2: http://www.tvr-car-club.co.uk/tvrpreviewevent.asp

Blik just announced that they as of now offer official Nintendo game themed wall decals. I was sold with the first picture I saw of it – I know it’s a bit pricey but hey – it sure looks great.

Actually they have more than this Super Mario Bros. 1 theme – they even got the “New Super Mario Bros.” theme which is more of a 2.5d than 3d version of the brothers.

“In late 1985, Super Mario Bros., created by the highly revered Shigeru Miyamoto, came to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) making a splash by ending the two year slump of video game sales in the US. As of 2008, it is the highest selling video game of all time – 40 million copies to date. Its theme music is recognized by gamers and non-gamers alike.

Made with blik Re-Stik™, these movable and reusable decals are based on the same 8-bit graphics from the original Super Mario Bros. game. This is an official Nintendo licensed product.”

Did I mention that it has the official Nintendo seal?… Yeah I did.

Source: http://www.whatisblik.com

It’s an underwater mosaic that is on the bottom of the pool and it just looks great… at least for us

Source: http://www.sinn-frei.com/unterwasser-3d-zeichnungen_8169.htm

Spooky. Hilarious!

Since we already got them this is not an option for us… but maybe for your wedding:

Source:http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10501732

Lawnmowing can be dangerous – especially for old fences.

The crime scene.

The penetrator.

Luckily, a new fence could be assembled.

Jens Heymann

Since the good old mac mini is gone and a new mac arrived – and since I moved to a new place I think it’s time to share my current desktop with you:

If you want to know how it looked in the old place an 9 months ago take a look at the fourth part of this series.

Source: the perfect working environment part 4

 

From a local bakery.

Jens Heymann

It’s been some time since I wrote about my little digital video disk recorder project and I think it’s time to wrap up some things. First of all I am using this software myself on a daily basis, having recorded about 1000 recordings in the last 4 months alone tells something. YAPS now is capable of handling multiple users – with each one having their own recordings and play-stop-positions.

Here are the new features in a short list:

• Electronic Program Guide (EPG) Integration (multiple transponders/streams if you like)
• Session Announcement Protocol / Session Description Protocol Integration
• Multi-User support with capability checking
• Cassini / ASP.NET Integration to allow ASP.NET web applications to run on YAPS
• WCF Webservice interface to expose video disk recorder internal data (recordings list, event list,…)
• Automatic and Reoccuring recordings
• several new graphics

The daily-build system is broken as of now but you can always grab the latest sourcecode from here.

For a complete changelog hit the jump.

Here’s the complete changelog since the last article about yaps:

13.04.2008

• added %render_automatic_and_reoccuring_recording_table% keyword; the other recording table keywords don’t display automatic/reoccuring events
• added canAccessOthersRecordings capability and capability handling
• added %holdingtime%, %comment% and %elapsed_holdingtime% to the Recording/Recorded/AutomaticReoccuringRecording table
• added %render_currently_running_epg_events_table% keyword

06.04.2008

• added Session Description Protocol parser
• added Session Announcement Protocol setting data (SAP_IPAdress, SAP_Port)
• added Session Announcement Protocol processor
• bugfix attempt to fix a race condition that leads to no RecordingList rendering and no more recordings…

03.04.2008

• added WCF Service Host to allow self hosting of data
• switched to .NET Framework 3.5

23.03.2008

• added feature that automatic EPG recordings end when they do end on the channel – Event EndTime is used now
• rewrote Cassini Webserver integration
• fixed a bug in the Template Processor that caused a display of the runtime as fraction of minutes…

15.03.2008

• automatic epg recordings are now looking at the channel id and if it’s set they only record events on that channel
• automatig epg recordings are now looking for a timespan in which they are active
• recorded listing template processor is now aware of automatic recordings (icon, time rendering)
• added automatic epg wait icon on recordingslist html page
• changed automatic epg recording to take the real name from the epg instead of the one that was entered

14.03.2008

• Recording data structure changed to reflect new “automatic epg based recording” feature
• added automatic EPG recording feature; based on “AutomaticEPGRecordingKeywords”
• changed Tuxbox Implementation to show channel ID on Xbox Media Center
• changed addrecording.html and http vcr command handling (addrecording) to reflect automatic epg recording feature
• implemented automatic epg based recording; just enter keywords + recordingtime + name + isAutomatic=true –> Automatic recording

13.03.2008

• changed EPG error handling to only stop listening to EPG events when 25 errors in a row occur
• changed EPG handling to display new events on unknown service ids

14.01.2008

• fixed holding-time bug

13.01.2008

• updated neu.png
• added Holding-Time Handling

12.01.2008

• added reoccuring event handling in VCRScheduler
• added reoccuring event handling in HTML page AddRecordings
• updated years and version numbers
• bugfixed RecordingsPlayed statistics
• updated Recordings-Table to reflect status if recording is reoccuring or not
• added SVG Files for all YAPS graphics

03.01.2008

• updated solutions to Visual Studio 2008

17.11.2007

• Added HoldingTime to make “forget to delete a recording” impossible; HoldingTime of 0 is indefinite, everything else means hold n+1 days
• Changed behaviour of Recordings Streaming: The StopPosition Counter is updated in realtime which means: You don’t have to close a recording to watch it from the current Position
• added Cassini Wrapper

8.11.2007

• integration of Cassini v2 into YAPS
• added some statistics

22.10.2007

• added a new management data structure to the data structures/Recording.cs that holds a list of UserStopPosition; Each User now has his own LastStoppedPosition for each recording.

08.05.2007

• added RecordingsThumbnail class to generate a Thumbnail picture for a recording
• added generateThumbnailFilename to XBMCPlaylistFilesHelper
• added thumbnail creation and deletion routines to multicast_vcr and others
• udpating thumbnail when playcounter/position is updated…
• added “Updating recording…” console output
• added isRTP property to channelist (default value is false); you can determine if RTP header should be stripped or not for a specific channel

07.05.2007

• fixed a bug in the /xml/CurrentServiceData section that caused an exception when no EPG data was known
• added error handling to the EPG Processor Thread; after 25 errors a thread will be shut down

06.05.2007

• added /cgi-bin/zapto to http handling
• added /xml/streaminfo to http handling
• added Name2ServiceID to ChannelAndStationMapper
• added TuxboxCurrentServiceData structure and handling
• added /xml/currentservicedata method to http server
• added /xml/boxinfo method to http server
• added boxinfo data structure

05.05.2007

• several changes for debugging purposes to the YAPS multicast processor to debug a specific problem
• fixed a thread unsafe bug in multicast processor
• fixed several more thread unsafe things in multicast processor and vcrscheduler
• changed behaviour: If a streaming client now refuses to accept data packets he will be disconnected after 1 second (until timeshift is implemented)

01.05.2007

• fixed a bug in VCRScheduler that could lead to a crash on startup (was not threadsafe)

24.04.2007

• added %rendertransformation($input_url,$xslt_url)% keyword to the TemplateProcessor

21.04.2007

• fixed a memory leak in the rss generator
• added TuxBoxServices data structure
• added tuxbox /xml/services call handler to http processor
• changed the MulticastEPG source data handling so that the multicastEPG Sources are now stored in the settings.dat.xml (misc settings) file
• fixed a bug in the EPGProcessor that caused an empty CurrentlyPlayingList
• added small testing portion
• fixed some bugs in http server
• rewrote tuxbox services data structure and handling (helping hand: Andreas Heil)

18.04.2007

• reimplemented the whole Channel-Name-Picture-ServiceID-MulticastIP-MulticastPort Mapping and created a new data structure and XML file that holds that data
• added filtering functionality to the EPG Processor that filters only known channel EPG data and discards data for unkown channels
• fixed the XBMCSyncProcessor bug; I had the file deletion functionality disabled….

17.04.2007

• added the multicastedEPGProcessor Implementation, does maintain a CurrentlyRunning List but is not used yet (Implementation just for leak and stability testing)
• added new Channel/StationID mapping data structure

13.04.2007

• removed JMS/DVB subproject
• several changes to the JMS/EPG subproject to make JMS/DVB obsolete
• working EPG implementation (not yet activated) — need to get working

02.04.2007

• now displaying associated username instead of IP address in the http logfile
• added EPG Processor startup to YAPS.cs

01.04.2007

• fixed a design bug in console_output.html
• fixed a false css reference in all templates
• added JMS Namespace DVB.NET Libraries (http://www.psimarron.net/DVBNET/html/download.html)
• added EPGProcessor

30.03.2007

• fixed a bug in the XBMC Playlist File branch; XBMC Playlistfiles respect now a port number setting != default port 80

29.03.2007

• changed multicast behaviour: we don’t use RTP from now on; there’s just plain UDP
• added new EPG test data
• fixed a bug in multicast_vcr
• fixed DeleteRecordings; did not work for several versions – you can now delete scheduled recordings
• fixed a bug in the ConsoleOutputLogger that leads to a “Collection was modified after the enumerator was instantiated.” exception when the logoutput is accessed while it’s written

Source 1: http://www.dotnetcommunity.de/yaps/yaps_daily_source.zip
Source 2: http://www.schrankmonster.de/PermaLink,guid,71a24ec5-8576-4fe6-b5f5-8607017e5f00.aspx

Last month while attending the CeBIT I was looking around in exhibition hall 6 at United Internet and discovered some nice advertising products.

On my interest I got the reply: “Are you a nerd?”

My answer: “Truly, I hope not anymore. But I’ll take one of each.” Too bad they are no stickers.

Some things will haunt you forever, won’t they?

Jens Heymann