Archive for November, 2009

Dublin now Earth’ed

As you may know or not know, Google Earth has this feature for a while, which allows you to see certain places in 3D. People have the possibility to upload three dimensional meshes of buildings including their textures to Google, and define its location in the world.

Now, even Dublin’s city centre got Earth’ed, and it looks really cool!

O'Connell Street
O’Connell Street in Google Earth

A view of the city
A Dublin view in Earth

However… when moving toward the Google headquarter here, it looks kinda strange?

Google not so nice in Earth
The Europlex ironically looks strange, does not show the Google logo on both buildings

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The cats outsmart me

Where a var has to be

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Wrote a little compositing engine in GNUstep!

So like I said in the post before, I got a bit tired of playing EVE and have come back to my project with a clear head and fresh new ideas. One idea I had, and its realization, was the implementation of a compositing mechanism which would allow for translucent windows and more overall slickness.

Today I worked on it, and I quickly wanted to share the result here. Compared to earlier designs of the UI for the project, this is probably the slickest approach yet and starts to look pretty awesome, yet serious. At least I’d like to think so.

Such an implementation does currently not exist in the current GNUstep frameworks (Cocoa on the Mac however has one, but it is different and requires certain hardware).

Have a look! =) First implementation of the lastCompositor, or the easier recognizable name Illuminous.

A bit like Aero, but you don't need to spend 300 Euro for a graphic card
A bit like Aero, but you don’t have to buy expensive graphic cards for it

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Code hard, code true

I haven’t reported on my project in a while, so I gonna give you a quick update on where it’s at. I took sort of a longer break from writing code for the project, after 4 months straight coding every day, my head was sort of burned out.

However I now have new ideas that I want to implement in the codebase, and I think it’s gonna get interesting now, having developed new UI elements for the desktop.

Right now I’m trying to figure out how I can implement compositing features for window title bars and borders, while GNUstep itself does not offer hardware-accelerated drawing of visuals. I have an idea… but I need to test it.

I’ll keep you posted.

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FAIL #19

Incredible 15% of your battery!

Windows 7 lets me use a massive 15% of my battery! I wonder where the other 85% go.

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Arcade Sign WIN

Probably has been there for years… But only today I noticed this sign of an arcade hall near the cinema I went to today.

Space Invaders
They just keep coming: Space Invaders

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There’s a man going ’round, taking names: Death Note

How To Use It.

  • The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
  • This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person’s face in their mind when writing his/her name.
  • Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
  • If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person’s name, it will happen.
  • If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.
  • After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

There is a notebook. The title simply reads “Death Note”. In it, you will find a set of rules, or more instructions, as to how to use it. If you choose to adhere to those rules and write down a name of person while imagining their face, this person will die. You can go further and specify details of the death, if you want. Originally only gods of death, or Shinigamis, were in possession of those notebooks and it was in their power to decide whether someone lives or dies.

One of those is accidentally dropped into the human world, and a student named Light Yagami finds it. Intrigued but unsure about the actual set of rules, he tries it for himself. Much to his surprise, the victim whose name he had just written down, did in fact die – live, and in front of TV cameras.

L and Light
L and Light Yagami – two worlds collide

Convinced of the mysterious supernatural power of the notebook, he soon realizes that this could change not only his life, but probably could change the world. Drifting away in an image of a New World that he will create, he uses the notebook to punish criminals of which he believes deserve no better.

Obviously this whole incident makes its rounds and it soon becomes clear that something weird is going on. The world’s best detective who is only known as “L”, is taking on the investigation. Soon the person who has this power (in this case Light), becomes known as “Kira” – which is Japanese for killer.

How To Use It

  • The person in possession of the Death Note is possessed by a god of death, its original owner, until they die.
  • If a human uses the note, a god of death usually appears in front of him/her within 39 days after he/she uses the note.
  • Gods of death, the original owners of the Death Note, do not do, in principle, anything which will help or prevent the deaths in the note.
  • A god of death has no obligation to completely explain how to use the note or rules which will apply to the human who owns it.

The Book
Can’t touch this: If you do, you’ll see something no one else can – the Shinigami who is the original owner of the note

The Japanese police is puzzled and soon the FBI starts to crack its head about it too. It seems impossible to stop Kira. He can kill by only knowing the name and the face of a victim. Or is less enough? I don’t know, you should find out about that yourself.

If you get into the possession of such a book, you’ll also be able to recognize a Shinigami, a god of death. You can talk to him, interact with him as you would with a person. In the case of Light Yagami however, he is tied to a Shinigami called Ryuk. And apparently he is crazy for red apples.

For Light, a new life begins as he assumes the identity of Kira, killing people that he thinks had it coming. The show follows him and the challenges he faces, as well as the investigation against him. The show was produced by Madhouse, aired in 2007, and has 37 episodes.

If you are into X-Files or mystery crimes, with a twist of supernaturalism and humor, as well as deep intelligence, then this is for you. You will not be disappointed at this one, it will keep you at the edge of your seat until the very last scene.

I can haz apple?
Crazy for red apples: Ryuk – original owner of Light’s Death Note

If you are amongst the younger readers here, please bare in mind that this is truly a fictional show. Obviously such a note does not exist. Some people however did believe in the existence of such powers and assumed they were Kira, which lead to real-world murderers that relate to the Death Note and the powers described in the show.

There have been various copycat crimes around the world which were based on Death Note. On September 28, 2007, two notes written with Latin characters stating “Watashi wa Kira dess [sic]” (私はキラです, meaning “I am Kira” in Japanese) were found near the unidentified remains of a Caucasian male in Belgium. Nothing was found on or near the victim besides these two notes.[90] A senior at the Franklin Military Academy in Richmond, Virginia, United States was suspended after being caught possessing a replica “Death Note” notebook with the names of fellow students.

In South Carolina, U.S. in 2008, school officials seized a “Death Note” notebook from a Hartsville Middle School student. District officials linked the notebook to the anime/manga. The notebook listed seven students’ names. The school planned a disciplinary hearing and contacted the seven students’ parents. The principal, Chris Rogers, sent letters to all the students’ parents saying “Regardless of the origin of the book, we take the situation very seriously. The safety of our school family is always our top priority. We treat situations like this the same as if a student called in a bomb threat or brought a weapon to school. While there may not be any serious intent to do anyone harm, we cannot and will not take that chance with our students. We will take all steps necessary to ensure our students’ well-being.”

In Gadsden, Alabama, U.S. two sixth grade boys were arrested for possessions of “Death Notes” that listed names of several staff members and fellow students. According to Etowah County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Lanny Handy, the notebook was found the previous afternoon by a staffer. The students were suspended from the county’s schools. The students, their parents, and school officials had met with Handy and a junior probation officer.

In Gig Harbor, Washington, U.S. one middle school student was expelled and three were suspended on May 14, 2008 for having their own “Death Note” books. A father of one of the students said that the notebook was “an outlet for frustration from about two years of bullying.”

Source

Death Note
Studio: Madhouse
Original run: October 3, 2006 – June 26, 2007
Episodes: 37
Genre: Mystery, Psychological thriller, Supernatural thriller

How To Use It

  • All humans, without exception, eventually die.
  • After they die, the place they go is Mu (nothingness).
  • Once dead, they can never come back to life.

Full Set Of Death Note Rules

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FAIL #18

After a long while I found a new one, this time in Irish newspapers. “Jedward” refers to twins James and Edward who repeatedly have very poor performances on X-Factor, a talent show.

XFail

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A bit of fun with our cats

So I managed to take a few shots and naturally, as a Cheezburger reader, I had to make LOLs. So here goes…

ur doin it rite

curse you nap attack!!

then i lol'd!

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The Reapers arrive in Spring

So if you have played and been blown away by Mass Effect, which released in 2007 I think, then you might already know that a second part is the making and on its way. So last night on my way to the cinema I quickly went into the nearby game store, which was updating the display of release dates. It has shown that “Mass Effect 2: The Coming Of Reapers” is coming next Spring. I am so gonna buy it!

Reapers in Spring

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