The reality of the virtual – part II

You can read the first part of this series here.

Yesterweek I wrote a post about 3D glasses and all the joys they bring to the wealthiest 10% of the world. If that made you wet your pants with excitement, I thought it would be great to describe how they work in a little more detail.

Stereoscopic gaming
Stereoscopic gaming, for that matter, is basically gaming with the use of a 3D enhancing device such as 3D goggles. The stereoscopic experience is taken to greater heights with the combined use of surround sound and force feedback devices (or ‘haptics’ to be more technical).

With just the 3D specs and surround sound, entertainment junkies share a similar experience with avid IMAX (3D theatre) goers. Add gaming and a PC to the picture, and the result is superior immersion and an orgasmic experience.

Stereoscopic 3D hardware makes explosions fly out of the screen and adds depth that makes your computer screen look like a window rather than a flat projection, so say the manufactureres of 3D technology. Furthermore, nearly all gamers who have experienced this testify that their gaming performance is improved ten-fold. Here’s what one gamer had to say:

“The feeling of depth enhanced the visuals by a factor of ten. When I rolled in on my ground targets, I found that my aiming of rockets and bombs was actually a lot better in 3D than in 2D”
- Flightsim.com

Installation
Installing such devices appears to be a real cinch. A single video synchronisation adapter is used for most, and wireless devices require no serial ports or USB connection whatsoever. All that is required is to install the device’s software.

The wireless devices make use of an infrared transmitter to communicate with your PC and a dual-emitter transmitter to synchronise your monitor’s refresh rate with the glasses. Once set up, your specs activate automatically when viewing just about any PC game, photo or movie.

Battery life seems to be rather good too. Most 3D glasses use lithium cell batteries that provide 50-100 hours of usage. Retailers further promise that there’s no need to change your preferred video card drivers to utilise their stereoscopic software. Nice.

Where can I get a pair and for how much?
My spidey senses are telling me that the above question is probably on your mind right now. It’s a bit of a tough one to answer, as there is such a monumentous range of 3D glasses on the market with different levels of coolness.

However, the standard pair, which can do most of the things mentioned today (and is pictured in my last post) goes for around R1000, but you can shave R300 off of that if you don’t mind a pair with wires. Just don’t get carried away and leap across the room to avoid a virtual grenade exploding beneath you.

PS: There are several websites selling 3D goggles but note that there are some great deals on used pairs on sites such as e-bay.

PPS: I know I promised that I would write about haptics (or ‘force feedback devices’ to be less technical) this week, but I’ve decided to save that chapter for next time. (I also need to do some research and learn a bit more about them)

Related post:
The reality of the virtual – part I

A beginners guide to blogging

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BLOGGING GUIDE: One for the newbies

THE terms “blog” and “blogging” are becoming commonplace in today’s cyber-culture. While such words excite some, they also alienate people who missed the rapid emergence of the blogging phenomenon of 2007.

To put it simply, blogging goes alone the lines of “everyone online can be a publisher”. A blog, therefore, is any individual’s own personal website or space on the web. Some people, such as journalists and techno-junkies, blog professionally, while others blog simply as a hobby or for personal interest.

A portion of the former crowd even make some decent money from blogging, while the majority simply gain personal satisfaction. If you have always wanted to try your hand at writing, or simply have original views or interest in a topic that you’re passionate about, blogging may be for you.

The best part about blogging for me is the feedback one receives. Last week I wrote about website statistics and how one is actually able to see how many people are reading which particular articles you write. You may even get commentary on your blog posts. This is what makes writing for an online audience unique.

Starting a blog…
If the idea of blogging excites you, there is nothing preventing you from starting one today. There are several ways to go about this, but in the spirit of keeping things simple, there are two blogging sites I would recommend:

www.blogspot.com and www.wordpress.com are two websites I have mentioned before and hold in high regard. They both allow anyone to sign up for free and offer a user-friendly, step-by-step guide to getting started.

However, if you are completely new to the blogging arena, then I would recommend starting your journey with blogger.com. In my experience, this website is easier to follow and will accommodate all your blogging needs.

If, on the other hand, you feel confident with basic website design and html, then wordpress is the way to go. It is far more aesthetically pleasing in my opinion and simply feels more professional.

How to blog
Now that your blog is set up with your chosen theme and blog name, you’re ready to start writing. The best advice that anyone can give in this regard is to write about your passion. What’s the one thing that excites you and has you talking for hours at a social gathering?

A poetic baboon and his monkey friend

Remember that the Internet is already littered with blogs on all sorts of topics, so in order to make yours stand out, you need to write about what you know and offer something new in your own unique style.

Another thing to bear in mind is that blogging, and the whole social networking ethos of web 2.0, is all about sharing and interlinking content. If you have researched your article online, link back to the website that you got your information from.

The same applies to websites that either sparked an idea for a blog post or ones that offer further information and resources. Linking to other blogs is the central core of the blogosphere and is what makes it flourish.

Another tip is to make your blog a useful resource. If you have a passion for cooking, for example, post cooking tips and recipes on your blog. This will not only keep people coming back, but also will become a personal resource for yourself, your family, and your friends.

If you’re keen to test your talents at review writing, research the product thoroughly and provide as much information as possible, but keep it short. You never know who might read it and notice your potential.

Blogging for money
An online survey about blogging and the blogosphere conducted last year revealed that less than 10% of bloggers make money from their blogs and most do not wish to. The personal satisfaction gained seemed to outweigh any desire to blog for money.

However, if this is your incentive, online advertising is where the money is. You’ll come across several websites with Google ads plastered all over them. You earn a few U.S. cents for every click on a Google ad and a cheque is mailed to you when you earn $10 or more.

Yet believe me when I say that this is not suited for South African blogs, at least not yet. I defaced my blog with Google ads as an experiment and made about $3 in five months. There are a few blogs that make a small killing from Google ads but note that their blogs are very popular and took time to get there.

Idea!
If you run a business from home and don’t currently make use of any online promotion, you are missing an ideal opportunity. Start a blog and write about your product or service. Add photos, prices, product details and create business cards with your blog address on them. It doesn’t get more free than this.

The good news is that the South African blogosphere and the web-savvy minds behind it are creating advertising prospects for SA bloggers. This involved the birth of Adgator last year, which is a child of www.afrigator.co.za.

Once you have signed up with them and embedded some code into your blog, the Adgator team assesses what you blog about and sends this information to prospective advertisers. If your blog cracks the nod with them, you get advertising options and the chance to enjoy a 50/50 cut of the profits.

The service is still brand new, but several South African companies have been approached and things are looking promising. To put things into perspective, I earned R25 in a single day with Adgator, which I consider as easy money for doing what I love.

Early retirement awaits!

For more blogging tips check out:
www.bloggingtips.com
Nerdmag: They why & how of blogging

You can read the second part to this beginners’ guide here:
A Beginners’ guide to blogging – part 2

My Greatest Failures

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FAIL: The phrase Fail is becoming commonplace in today’s western world, just as STD (or rather STI) has. I found an interesting account of its origin on Read Write Web the other day, but to put it crudely, ‘to fail’ is to make a ‘cock-up’ of something, usually quite badly.

The video clip of Nhlanhla Nene falling off his chair during a televised interview is a classic example.

The web is becoming littered with videos and photos of fail moments – which range from the creatively clever to the laboriously lame. There is even a whole website called failblog.org dedicated to these.

Being a slow (and moderately hung-over) Friday morning, I Googled “fail” in Google images and had a little peruse. These are my top one’s that made me laugh out loud for about five hours and threw off everyone’s chi at work.

Soccer Fail

Frankly I don’t find humour in people getting hurt. Neither does Frank. But this is pretty funny.

Projectile Vomit Fail

It always amazes me how people manage to take photos at such precise moments (catching the vomit projecting out of this gentleman’s nose in this case).

Dumb American Fail

Lol. Enough said.

Even the British Fail

Looks like someone decided to drink the night before the parade.

Shark Fail

The cameraman seemed pretty chilled here.

Fast Food Fail
Nice tomatoe-sauce hand-writing

Coned Cat Fail

I can just picture how confused this cat must have been.

Destined to Fail – Drunk Fail

I’m sure most of us can relate to this one on some level.

Frisbee Dog Fail

This is pretty rough – albeit funny. I hope Fido is alright…

Mechanical Bike Fail

“Bugger”

Gay Fail – secret’s out!

Unfortunate time to get caught on camera

Washing car failThere are those bits of dirt that you just can’t get off.

Fake ID Fail

Dumbass

Cheers to Failing!

For more Fail check out: My Greatest Failures 2

The reality of the virtual – part I

As computer-processing power increases and even more realistic graphics are developed, the simulated environments produced by virtual reality systems will become even more believable than some already are.

I’ve always believed that, besides war, gaming (more generally – the entertainment industry) brings about the most innovative technological developments. In fact, the technology developed from military uses of virtual reality is finding application in several walks of life. For example:

• Medical students are now operating on virtual patients rather than dissecting real, organic-smelling people
• Architects are taking people on virtual tours of their dream home before finalising the design
• I won’t even mention that heights that virtual reality gaming has reached
• Business people are attending conferences and social events without having to board a plane
• Chat rooms today mean much more than just email notice boards, which were all the rage a few years back
• In this day and age consumers are even able to shop in 3D stores from the comfort of their armchair or beanbag

Twenty years ago few imagined that personal computers would soon be found in almost every home, classroom and office. In twenty years time, virtual reality may be just as central to our lives. Immersing ourselves in a virtual environment of our choice may become as commonplace as turning on the old television.

I’ve always had an interest in virtual reality. I wanted to know more about it. So I searched the interwebs to see what’s currently available on the market. Here are the cheapest and most expensive (i.e. most advanced) stuffs I came across:

The VisionDome
At the cutting edge of vitual reality – the VisionDome is a kind of half egg-shell that up to 45 people can sit/stand in and watch some pretty intense television, or lose themselves in some very life-like games.

At 5-meters in diameter, the V5 (the latest in the VisionDome family) provides a massive screen area and comfortable seating to give larger audiences a truly immersive and incredible experience.

It boasts a maximum resolution of 2048×1536 mega pixels, has 6 projector or lens options, and has a maximum output of 8000 ANSI Lumens. You would think that no one can live at that speed, which is why it sells for around
$345 500 (roughly R2 764 000).

3D GLASSES: What all the cool geeks are wearing
3D glasses possibly lie more within a South African’s budget. In the past decade, virtual reality glasses have improved in quality and become much lighter and cheaper thanks to the advancement of virtual reality technology and software.

Wireless options allow you to roam the room with your headset on, and almost all units plug into computers, DVDs and TVs. The option for a Stereo 3D input is also now available with Apple’s latest in the line of Intel Xenon driven processors.

Change the way you see the world… and look pretty stylish too

Stereo 3D is just one step into the world of virtual reality. When connected to a video source with the correct software, amazing entertainment and good times in your living room are to be had by all.

As Fate would have it, it is estimated that this market will probably first be driven by adult entertainment (i.e. porn), then enhanced video games, then the major film industry.

E-DTM 3-D
Here’s a pair of 3D specs that I thought sounded rather appealing (exerpt taken from www.edimentional .com):

The E-DTM 3-D glasses instantly convert virtually all of your existing PC video game titles into true 3D. That means a real sense of depth and distance as you’re taking aim at the enemy battalion approaching, trying to find the apex of the next turn, or coming in for a carrier landing in your F-14. It’s why so many customers report improved game play performance when using our glasses in addition to stunning scenery and visuals

Note for interested buyers:
When researching a good pair of 3D goggles, make sure you know the difference between goggles that only enlarge a TV image and ones that actually provide a true 3D view. While more expensive models incorporate 3D technology, the basic models only enhance the viewing area to the size of a super-large television screen.

•Next time we will take a look at stereoscopic displays and haptics (force feedback devices). These are those appendages such as the cyber-glove, that take one’s virtual experience that much closer to reality.

See also: The reality of the virtual part II

Related posts:
The reality of the vitual
Experience the Internet in 3D
Too hot to handle: Future gaming and PC’s

Friday Easter Egg for Geeks

Here’s something quite cool. Open Microsoft Word and type “= rand(200,99)” (without the pull quotes) and hit Enter. What you should get are a bejillion lines of “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

Pretty sweet hey? I thought so. Just a little something special to take with you.

There is an urban myth that this is a bug with Word for Windows. A variation of this myth is that Microsoft programmers left it as an ‘Easter Egg’. Some scheme that programmers often leave code in programs, partly to amuse, partly to test, but mainly because most programmers are geeks and game players.

Yet the truth of the matter is that = rand(200,99) is simply a function included by design to demonstrate the maximum parameters of sentences and paragraphs. If you are intellectually gifted, you may have realised that the first number refers to the paragraphs, while the second number refers to the sentences.

Example: = rand (1,5)
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

You can type in any numbers between the brackets or simply type = rand() to get the same effect. = rand() is a well known random function hand for statistics and is used for simulating card games such as blackjack. My spidey senses are telling me that “rand” is somehow short for “random.”

Finally today, the reason why the sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” is used is because it contains every letter in the English alphabet. You might recall having to write this sentence a lot in your early school-going days during English lessons. In programming it is used to test different fonts and see how letters with tails appear.

Don’t say you didn’t learn anything today!
Happy Friday.

PS: Another Urban Myth is that Excel 1.0 had a complete version of Doom. To find it you had to go through a mind numbing sequence of keystrokes. Cynics say that Microsoft Executables are so large because they are full of this extra Easter Egg code.