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Sunday, November 23, 2008

Added Blots

I added blots, an old animation project, to the art section.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Dead-Bugging a QFP32


This morning I spent a few hours soldering a QT1103.Now, the QT1103 comes in a QFP32 form factor --a form factor which was almost certainly never meant to be soldered by hand,and, just as certainly, never meant to be soldered without a nice little footprint of tinned smd pads.But you can connect to them, so I had read, byflipping 'em on their back and soldering small wires to each pin, the result of which you see above.While this may look like a terrible job (a) there aren't any bridges and (b) this is really really small -- these wires are individual strands of a stranded copper wire.
Of course, I have yet to see if the device will actually work after I went to all this trouble (I could have cooked it, after all).But whatever the outcome, it was certainly the most fiddly soldering job I've ever done. I begin to see why people pay $20-$40 to have a PCB made.

Friday, August 15, 2008

SIGGRAPH Day 5

Well, that's it. The end.
I gave my talk today, and people seemed to appreciate it (and the presentation software). It would be cool if someone else started using my presentation style, but I doubt it will happen.On the plus side, this was a fully morally-correct presentation: linux and my own presentation software -- no non-free taints.
I also got my final sticker sheets: TCHOW in color + some 'redacted' stickers to place over my laptop's hard-to-remove branding.All told I have enough stickers to even give a few away or stick them on stuff.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

SIGGRAPH Day 4

Today was exciting. I made stickers (again), and talked with Mat Shlian, who does cut and folded paper sculpture.The thing pictured below impressed me because it has a nice springiness.

I chatted with some interesting folks during the poster session; not so much about the poster and more about life in general.Most interesting was the conversation with a film restorer about how noise is removed and then re-added for old films.
I went to the reception and hung out with various people; found out that some other folks are also considering research much like mine (but I think it will be okay).
I did a talk dry run in here somewhere too. Should be interesting to see how it goes tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

SIGGRAPH Day 3

Not much happening that I was interested in today.Saw Ton Rosendaal and others talk; resisted the urge to get a photo with him.Picked up my stickers from Studio; I shall definitely do more! Digital Domain's pre-vis for Speed Racer used the Top Gear intro music.
I went to the Computer Animation Festival. There was a long run of films from a French school (supinfocom, if I recall), all of which had a lazy animation style that offended my eyes. It was very much like being slowly crushed by rocks.The other films were good though.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

SIGGRAPH Day 2

Sat in sessions in the morning, talked with people about my poster (and about gradient paint) in the afternoon.Brian Curless apparently has something coming out at ECCV worth checking out.Gradient Paint seems to impress and confuse people (though different people are confused by different parts).
In the art gallery, I came across a cleverly cut sheet of steel:

Then came TCHOW logo-stuff.

Thanks to emerging technology (and the guts of an old printer), one can enjoy a TCHOW-branded cup of coffee, as pictured above -- though, unfortunately, they weren't actually allowing people to drink the coffee.So one could look at it, at least.

That's a lenticular print of the tchow logo (that is, a flat image with a lens sheet over it allowing for different views per-eye). Sort of very much like a zig-zag-folded piece of paper really.Upshot being that, in person, it's 3d. Which is nifty!
Finally, I made some TCHOW stickers, but those haven't printed yet.

Monday, August 11, 2008

SIGGRAPH Day 1

Doing a fast-forward is a bit of an adrenaline rush, I must say.
Everything else was pretty much me just being sleepy and hanging out; Alex Evans was going to talk but he canceled (which was disappointing).
Ed's keynote was nice -- I need to catch up with him and see how he reconciles his commitment to produce the best possible content with being a profit-seeking public comapny.