Heys guys, just thought I'd give a shout out. A good friend of mine 'vastjuniper' is blogging actively about development of his little project Aphid over here:
http://aphidgame.blogspot.com/
Go check it out, and subscribe to the feed!
Resumption of normal blogging silence now continues.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Eesh. We need to update this blog with:
- MAY: Trip to visit Justin's fambam in South Africa and the awesome safari we went on at Tembe Elephant Park where we were woken up at 5am by lions roaring at each other outside our tent. Simultaneously terrifying and AWESOME.
Ooh, elephant + lens flare from the jeep's antenna.
- OCT: Manny from Austria came to visit & the completion of our first half marathon! High Five!
- MAY: Trip to visit Justin's fambam in South Africa and the awesome safari we went on at Tembe Elephant Park where we were woken up at 5am by lions roaring at each other outside our tent. Simultaneously terrifying and AWESOME.
Ooh, elephant + lens flare from the jeep's antenna.
- OCT: Manny from Austria came to visit & the completion of our first half marathon! High Five!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Trip to Lick Observatory
It was warm and clear on the day that Michelle and I headed out on a road trip this last weekend.
For the last 4 years, we had entertained the notion of going up to Mount Hamilton in the Diablo range of mountains to visit Lick Observatory. This observatory was the first of the mountain top observatories, and has since contributed immensely to the field of astronomy and physics(*)
The drive took up into the hills to the east of San Jose. As we passed the huge houses and ranches of the area, we got a great view of the Silicon Valley.
And after we'd summited and descended we more clearly saw saw the building that is normally a white spec on the horizon when viewed from San Jose:
Then came the terrifying precipices and narrow roads of Mount Hamilton Drive.
It is common this time of the year for it to snow on the Diablo range, and this year is no exception. Within 25 miles of San Jose we have snow, but at just over 4000 feet elevation there is not as much snow as would be necessary for snowboarding activities.
The Lick Observatory was erected in the late 1800s, funded by wealthy Pennsylvania piano maker and craftsman James Lick.
Here is the 36 inch refractor built by James Lick in 1889 and housed in a dome weighing around 99 tons. The floor on which the telescope is situated was original rotated by water action, but is now hydraulic and is able to rotate, and adjust elevation about 5 meters. The redwood interior is a tribute to the craftsmanship of James Lick who, incidentally, is buried beneath the telescope.
The observatory "campus" also houses the Crossley 36 inch reflector, which was the first modern application of mirror reflection telescopy to astronomical studies. It was donated to the Observatory in 1895 and is still in active use today. We were unfortunately not able to see this telescope in person, but we did see the dome :)
The Shane telescope is a 120 inch reflector, and is a significantly more modern telescope design, and best of all available for public viewing.
The observatory is very much in active use, and supports a whole mountaintop community including a school. Moreover, many scientists sleep during the day, which makes public noise a nuisance, and observe throughout the night to maximize the usage of the telescope during low light conditions.
We both had a great time and the felt the experience was well worth the drive. I'd definitely recommend it for those wishing to get a more "hilly" experience outside of the flat topology in the valley.
More wonderful photos taken by Michelle over here
(*)The Observatory was involved in attempting to prove Einstein's general theory of relativity by observing the bending of the light of a star through the gravitational field of the sun. Since the effects of such space curvature of light would not be visible due to the brightness of the sun, the observations had to be made during the solar eclipse. The Observatory ultimately failed to prove this first, but not before spending a lot of effort on expeditions to optimal eclipse locations.
For the last 4 years, we had entertained the notion of going up to Mount Hamilton in the Diablo range of mountains to visit Lick Observatory. This observatory was the first of the mountain top observatories, and has since contributed immensely to the field of astronomy and physics(*)
The drive took up into the hills to the east of San Jose. As we passed the huge houses and ranches of the area, we got a great view of the Silicon Valley.
And after we'd summited and descended we more clearly saw saw the building that is normally a white spec on the horizon when viewed from San Jose:
Then came the terrifying precipices and narrow roads of Mount Hamilton Drive.
It is common this time of the year for it to snow on the Diablo range, and this year is no exception. Within 25 miles of San Jose we have snow, but at just over 4000 feet elevation there is not as much snow as would be necessary for snowboarding activities.
The Lick Observatory was erected in the late 1800s, funded by wealthy Pennsylvania piano maker and craftsman James Lick.
Here is the 36 inch refractor built by James Lick in 1889 and housed in a dome weighing around 99 tons. The floor on which the telescope is situated was original rotated by water action, but is now hydraulic and is able to rotate, and adjust elevation about 5 meters. The redwood interior is a tribute to the craftsmanship of James Lick who, incidentally, is buried beneath the telescope.
The observatory "campus" also houses the Crossley 36 inch reflector, which was the first modern application of mirror reflection telescopy to astronomical studies. It was donated to the Observatory in 1895 and is still in active use today. We were unfortunately not able to see this telescope in person, but we did see the dome :)
The Shane telescope is a 120 inch reflector, and is a significantly more modern telescope design, and best of all available for public viewing.
The observatory is very much in active use, and supports a whole mountaintop community including a school. Moreover, many scientists sleep during the day, which makes public noise a nuisance, and observe throughout the night to maximize the usage of the telescope during low light conditions.
We both had a great time and the felt the experience was well worth the drive. I'd definitely recommend it for those wishing to get a more "hilly" experience outside of the flat topology in the valley.
More wonderful photos taken by Michelle over here
(*)The Observatory was involved in attempting to prove Einstein's general theory of relativity by observing the bending of the light of a star through the gravitational field of the sun. Since the effects of such space curvature of light would not be visible due to the brightness of the sun, the observations had to be made during the solar eclipse. The Observatory ultimately failed to prove this first, but not before spending a lot of effort on expeditions to optimal eclipse locations.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Tobey
The newest addition to our family! Five year old Tobias Fünke was adopted from the San Jose Animal Care Center. He's a wonderfully sweet and quirky little dog and we're thrilled to be able to give him a good home.
Friday, October 08, 2010
Sculptris acquired
This is a little late, but the tool I mentioned previously (Sculptris) has been acquired by Pixologic, the makers of ZBrush. They've also renamed the currently downloadable (and free) version to Sculptris Alpha 5, download link is here:
http://sculptris.com/download.html
Congrats to Dr Petter!
Here's hoping that they continue to maintain a donation supported version of this software. It really is worth whatever you can scrounge up :)
http://sculptris.com/download.html
Congrats to Dr Petter!
Here's hoping that they continue to maintain a donation supported version of this software. It really is worth whatever you can scrounge up :)
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Hawaii again
I took my beautiful wife Michelle to Waikiki on the island of Oahu in Hawaii for our 1st wedding anniversary. We got up early in the morning of the eve of our anniversary and flew the 5 hours across the Pacific into Honolulu airport. Michelle snapped some amazing photos from the plane:
We arrived around noon, checked in and got to our room, which sported a wonderful ocean view from the 6th floor of the Sheraton in Waikiki. We also had a direct view of the famous Diamond Head crater and Waikiki beach.
Our lunch on the first day consisted of the reasonably priced and fantastic portions of the "Cheeseburger Boardwalk" along with a tropical cocktail and a locally brewed ale.
We went back to our room and looked out on the balcony (lanai in Hawaiian), at which point I noticed there were sea turtles (Honu in Hawaiian) in the sea very close to the hotel's "infinity pool". We went down and rented some snorkeling gear and went to go swim with them. Michelle brought along her underwater camera and managed to get some video footage of them despite the visibility being poor. As you can see, we got extremely close to these large, magnificent creatures. At one point, Michelle nearly stepped on one that had settled directly beneath her feet. Luckily she spotted him in time to avoid this mishap and was able to take a video clip of the Honu.
We woke up the next morning on our anniversary and were thrilled to find a rainbow visible right outside our balcony. This was to be a frequent sight from our balcony for the remainder of our trip.
We then exchanged anniversary gifts; I had written Michelle a poem and made a card for her, and she had made a slide-show and video of all our moments together.
We went down for breakfast at the hotel's "Kai Kitchen" buffet, which had a good and delicious assortment of fruits, sausages, bacon, eggs, island bread, pastries, and sauces. We loaded up on mostly everything and rounded it off with incredibly fresh and sweet papaya, pineapple and grapefruit.
The rest of the day was spent on the beach and in the ocean, working on our tans and trying not to do anything too strenuous.
The early evening was spent cooling off at the Edge bar at our hotel...
... followed by a walk on the beach at sunset...
... followed by a great sushi dinner at the Kaiwa restaurant in Waikiki.
The next day we booked a snorkeling cruise on the Mai'tai catamaran.
It pulled up directly on our hotel beach (the photo was taken from our hotel lanai), picked us up along with other hotel guests and took us out to Turtle Canyon, which was about a mile off the coast and inhabited with lots of fish and turtles. The visibility was excellent, so we got some more great footage of these amazing sea turtles. You can see me swim by the turtle at the 9-12 second mark.
The rest of the day was spent in the hotel infinity pool with drinks...
...followed by another walk along the beach at sunset. The sunsets here were so exquisite that it really felt like a special event every day.
As the evening drew to a close, a Samoan fire eater lit the pool torches and performed his exciting fire-sword twirling ritual to the beat of tribal drum music.
The next few days were spent in similar fashion, with similar activities and similar excesses, until finally it was Independence day. The evening was spent on the beach, watching the July 4th fireworks shooting from the Ala Moana centre next to the water. The fireworks were about a mile off, judging by the lag of 4-5 seconds that the sound took to reach us, but they were no less spectacular for it.
The following days would see more lazing by the beach and the pool with more cocktails, nursing our tans, more romantic walks on the beach at sunset and finally racing around on jet skis in a bay close to the Honolulu airport.
The last day of our vacation came and, after a lovely breakfast by the ocean, it was with much happiness but regret at leaving that we packed our bags and boarded the plane, jetting back to San Jose in only 4 hours and 20 minutes.
We arrived around noon, checked in and got to our room, which sported a wonderful ocean view from the 6th floor of the Sheraton in Waikiki. We also had a direct view of the famous Diamond Head crater and Waikiki beach.
Our lunch on the first day consisted of the reasonably priced and fantastic portions of the "Cheeseburger Boardwalk" along with a tropical cocktail and a locally brewed ale.
We went back to our room and looked out on the balcony (lanai in Hawaiian), at which point I noticed there were sea turtles (Honu in Hawaiian) in the sea very close to the hotel's "infinity pool". We went down and rented some snorkeling gear and went to go swim with them. Michelle brought along her underwater camera and managed to get some video footage of them despite the visibility being poor. As you can see, we got extremely close to these large, magnificent creatures. At one point, Michelle nearly stepped on one that had settled directly beneath her feet. Luckily she spotted him in time to avoid this mishap and was able to take a video clip of the Honu.
We woke up the next morning on our anniversary and were thrilled to find a rainbow visible right outside our balcony. This was to be a frequent sight from our balcony for the remainder of our trip.
We then exchanged anniversary gifts; I had written Michelle a poem and made a card for her, and she had made a slide-show and video of all our moments together.
We went down for breakfast at the hotel's "Kai Kitchen" buffet, which had a good and delicious assortment of fruits, sausages, bacon, eggs, island bread, pastries, and sauces. We loaded up on mostly everything and rounded it off with incredibly fresh and sweet papaya, pineapple and grapefruit.
The rest of the day was spent on the beach and in the ocean, working on our tans and trying not to do anything too strenuous.
The early evening was spent cooling off at the Edge bar at our hotel...
... followed by a walk on the beach at sunset...
... followed by a great sushi dinner at the Kaiwa restaurant in Waikiki.
The next day we booked a snorkeling cruise on the Mai'tai catamaran.
It pulled up directly on our hotel beach (the photo was taken from our hotel lanai), picked us up along with other hotel guests and took us out to Turtle Canyon, which was about a mile off the coast and inhabited with lots of fish and turtles. The visibility was excellent, so we got some more great footage of these amazing sea turtles. You can see me swim by the turtle at the 9-12 second mark.
The rest of the day was spent in the hotel infinity pool with drinks...
...followed by another walk along the beach at sunset. The sunsets here were so exquisite that it really felt like a special event every day.
As the evening drew to a close, a Samoan fire eater lit the pool torches and performed his exciting fire-sword twirling ritual to the beat of tribal drum music.
The next few days were spent in similar fashion, with similar activities and similar excesses, until finally it was Independence day. The evening was spent on the beach, watching the July 4th fireworks shooting from the Ala Moana centre next to the water. The fireworks were about a mile off, judging by the lag of 4-5 seconds that the sound took to reach us, but they were no less spectacular for it.
The following days would see more lazing by the beach and the pool with more cocktails, nursing our tans, more romantic walks on the beach at sunset and finally racing around on jet skis in a bay close to the Honolulu airport.
The last day of our vacation came and, after a lovely breakfast by the ocean, it was with much happiness but regret at leaving that we packed our bags and boarded the plane, jetting back to San Jose in only 4 hours and 20 minutes.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
ZBrush, Mudbox, and .... Sculptris?
I was considering buying a license to either zbrush or mudbox until I found this free tool on the web today.
http://www.sculptris.com/
(for those interested, I found this great tool via this great blog: http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/05/Reviewing-Sculptris)
This is such an easy tool to pick up and use, with similar key mappings to Maya. Within a few minutes I was sculpting away. It also offers texturing abilities. Here's something I whipped up in 20 minutes from a sphere just before going to bed:
I'd really encourage every digital artist to go and check it out and donate to the author (yes, 1 guy wrote this over the course of 6 months). As someone who has never used mudbox or zbrush, this is good enough for me and for my hobbyist/indie development purposes. I'd really love for someone to comment how it compares to the professional suites out there.
http://www.sculptris.com/
(for those interested, I found this great tool via this great blog: http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/05/Reviewing-Sculptris)
This is such an easy tool to pick up and use, with similar key mappings to Maya. Within a few minutes I was sculpting away. It also offers texturing abilities. Here's something I whipped up in 20 minutes from a sphere just before going to bed:
I'd really encourage every digital artist to go and check it out and donate to the author (yes, 1 guy wrote this over the course of 6 months). As someone who has never used mudbox or zbrush, this is good enough for me and for my hobbyist/indie development purposes. I'd really love for someone to comment how it compares to the professional suites out there.
Vegas and Visit from Vincent.
A couple weeks ago, my brother Vincent flew in from London to spend a few days in New York and Las Vegas with his girlfriend Jos, celebrating Jos' birthday.
I was really looking forward to seeing Vinny again as the last time was about 2.5 years ago, so we were fortunate to be able to jet down to Las Vegas to meet up with them.
On the 1h15 minute flight, Michelle and I treated ourselves to a screwdriver to help get us in the spirit of consumption and pure hedonism that is so wantonly expressed in a place like Vegas.
We arrived shortly before Vinnie and Jos landed, grabbed our bags and found them by the baggage area. Vegas is awesome. The first thing you see when you get into the airport arrivals area are slot machines, and quite a few people tugging away hoping to change their luck before they leave Sin City.
We caught a short shuttle ride to the Marriott Grand Chateau on the strip. Our suite was lovely and very generously taken care of by Jos' parents' timeshare.
The first day saw us wandering the strip and having lunch at the HardRock cafe where we had nachos, salad and our first Vegas cocktails. The air was incredibly hot by this time, and within a few short minutes of being seated in the sun, we asked to be moved to a shadier spot that had just opened up.
We were later joined by Anna, Jos' Finnish friend, and her boyfriend Uje?
Over the course of the next week the general pattern of events was to sunbathe by the pool on the hotel roof, scrounge for breakfast and wander around admiring the many sights and sounds of Vegas. The fountains at the Bellagio were a favorite and particularly impressive.
Evening was filled with more wandering with drinks in hand on the strip, a pattern that was destined to become the regular activity.
On a nice evening out, Vinnie treated us to a hypnotist show which we all enjoyed immensely, mostly for the fools that people made of themselves all in good fun.
On another day, we were eager to go to the Grand Canyon, but decided against driving because it was at least a 2 hour drive each way added to the cost of renting a car, paying Native American reservation tolls and entrance fees and it all became a bit too inconvenient and prohibitive. Instead, we booked a flight on a 17 person twin propped light aircraft. We were picked up from our hotels, and taken to the tiny airport on the outskirts of Vegas.
The flight itself was rather bumpy, the plane being buffeted around by rather high winds over the Canyon. Despite this, we managed to get some great photos of Hoover Dam:
... and the canyon itself:
Unfortunately, the turbulence caused quite a few upset stomachs on the airplane, and by the end of it we were grateful it was only an hour and a half in the air :)
Another day, Dennis took us to "Old Vegas" on Fremont street where the gambling, drinks, food and ambiance were both cheap and fun. The highlight was the canopy of 12 million LED lights that lit up every hour on the hour with a music video show. The canopy spans the length of about 5 football fields, so needless to say it's very impressive.
There was also a fun hotel pool, which surrounded a tank full of Ragged Tooth sharks. To top things off, there was also a water slide tunnel that went directly through the shark tank. Unfortunately, it wasn't operating at the time of evening that we went otherwise you'd be looking at some photos from the inside :)
On another day, Michelle and I went to the Venetian and took a ride on a gondola. Our gondolier had a lovely voice and paused frequently to serenade us in italian.
Sadly, our visit to Vegas was over too soon and we had to say goodbye to Vinnie and Jos and make our way back home.
More photos here.
I was really looking forward to seeing Vinny again as the last time was about 2.5 years ago, so we were fortunate to be able to jet down to Las Vegas to meet up with them.
On the 1h15 minute flight, Michelle and I treated ourselves to a screwdriver to help get us in the spirit of consumption and pure hedonism that is so wantonly expressed in a place like Vegas.
We arrived shortly before Vinnie and Jos landed, grabbed our bags and found them by the baggage area. Vegas is awesome. The first thing you see when you get into the airport arrivals area are slot machines, and quite a few people tugging away hoping to change their luck before they leave Sin City.
We caught a short shuttle ride to the Marriott Grand Chateau on the strip. Our suite was lovely and very generously taken care of by Jos' parents' timeshare.
The first day saw us wandering the strip and having lunch at the HardRock cafe where we had nachos, salad and our first Vegas cocktails. The air was incredibly hot by this time, and within a few short minutes of being seated in the sun, we asked to be moved to a shadier spot that had just opened up.
We were later joined by Anna, Jos' Finnish friend, and her boyfriend Uje?
Over the course of the next week the general pattern of events was to sunbathe by the pool on the hotel roof, scrounge for breakfast and wander around admiring the many sights and sounds of Vegas. The fountains at the Bellagio were a favorite and particularly impressive.
Evening was filled with more wandering with drinks in hand on the strip, a pattern that was destined to become the regular activity.
On a nice evening out, Vinnie treated us to a hypnotist show which we all enjoyed immensely, mostly for the fools that people made of themselves all in good fun.
On another day, we were eager to go to the Grand Canyon, but decided against driving because it was at least a 2 hour drive each way added to the cost of renting a car, paying Native American reservation tolls and entrance fees and it all became a bit too inconvenient and prohibitive. Instead, we booked a flight on a 17 person twin propped light aircraft. We were picked up from our hotels, and taken to the tiny airport on the outskirts of Vegas.
The flight itself was rather bumpy, the plane being buffeted around by rather high winds over the Canyon. Despite this, we managed to get some great photos of Hoover Dam:
... and the canyon itself:
Unfortunately, the turbulence caused quite a few upset stomachs on the airplane, and by the end of it we were grateful it was only an hour and a half in the air :)
Another day, Dennis took us to "Old Vegas" on Fremont street where the gambling, drinks, food and ambiance were both cheap and fun. The highlight was the canopy of 12 million LED lights that lit up every hour on the hour with a music video show. The canopy spans the length of about 5 football fields, so needless to say it's very impressive.
There was also a fun hotel pool, which surrounded a tank full of Ragged Tooth sharks. To top things off, there was also a water slide tunnel that went directly through the shark tank. Unfortunately, it wasn't operating at the time of evening that we went otherwise you'd be looking at some photos from the inside :)
On another day, Michelle and I went to the Venetian and took a ride on a gondola. Our gondolier had a lovely voice and paused frequently to serenade us in italian.
Sadly, our visit to Vegas was over too soon and we had to say goodbye to Vinnie and Jos and make our way back home.
More photos here.
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