The first Furby hack has been won; someone has managed to alter a Furby to make it reprogrammable. The hack is completely open source, and hardware kits are available for purchase.
A new challenge has now been set: port the Java 2 Micro Edition to a Furby. I can just imagine teaching Java to first years on their Furbies. Poor, poor Furbies…
I have always found that the fractal imagery in nature is both captivating and beautiful. It's now a fact that 8 out of 10 perceptual psychology subjects prefer fractal images. Apparently, after looking at some of Jackson Pollock's paintings, someone had the bright idea that the reason that they were so popular was that they were self-similar. Isn't chaos theory fun, everybody?
The third trailer for Star Wars Episode II is out. If you want to see it at a reasonable resolution and you don't have Quicktime Pro, you'll need to download a copy from one of the mirrors.
The first trailer made it look as if Episode II was going to be sappy and full of lovey-dovey, eye-gazing moments. The second trailer made it look as if Episode II was going to be a special effects driven, action feast. This new trailer shows that the movie is hoping to be both.
I feel that this is quite ambitious; how many movies can you think of that combine the action and serious romance genres successfully? There are plently of comedy action/romance movies, but not many serious ones, especially in the science fiction field. If Lucas can pull this off, I think he'll regain a large number of the fans that were unimpressed by Episode I. It will be different, unique and interesting — all the things that made the original movies cult classics. Either that, or he will miss completely and it will be such a flop that Episode III won't even go into production.
For the sake of seeing a completed story, here's hoping he pulls it off.
I have to say, I'm really annoyed that I missed the Leonid meteor shower. The lightning storm was lovely and the rain was nice, but I would have preferred that the cloud cover not obstruct my view of flaming chunks of space debris. I guess I'll just have to wait another 33 years or so.
(You'll have to excuse me for not posting for the last few days, but I've been quite busy marking exams. Although, it seems I'm not the only one marking.)
Get out your popcorn and telnet to towel.blinkenlights.nl.
For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, or simply couldn't be bothered, here's a silly website for you to look at.
I've always been a fan of computer generated imagery. I spend far too much time thinking up new ways of faking natural phenomena, such as lightning. I also like to watch movies and see how many of the composite shots and CG shots I can spot. Can you tell the difference between CG and real life? (I actually didn't do so well, picking some of the real shots as CG… oops)