Hoverboards are here!

Nerdist explains:
http://www.nerdist.com/2014/10/its-finally-here-a-hoverboard-you-might-actually-buy/
The Hendo hoverboard uses Lenz law which means it uses currents in the medium below to create magnetic fields to repel those on the hoverboard.

So water can have currents in it, but will that be enough to hover? And you'd probably need rockets to propel you like with Marty McFly's adversary right? =P

Want one? Grab one for $10k at the kickstarter or a dev kit for $300:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/142464853/hendo-hoverboards-worlds-first-real-hoverboard

Star Citizen claims Guiness World Record - Most Crowdfunded Project Overall

Hey guys, I (kind of) got into the Guiness Book of World Records!!! (well CIG did, but I backed Star Citizen so ... =P)

Guiness Book of World Records 2015, page 17:
- Flash/HTML version
- SEO version

And this was when Star Citizen had raised $39.6 million back in March, and it's now over $55 million!!! Note that sponsorships and subscriber monies do NOT count towards the total you see on the funding goals webpage.

In the latest Letter From the Chairman, Chris Roberts describes CIG's budgeting planning, and how 'feature-creep' is actually part of the agile development process, with "creeped" features coming after Persistent Universe v1.0 release, although others may come before that since they're able to with increased funding, like higher fidelity ship models.
Go agile! (I'm glad I'm being taught Agile at my current uni, whereas I in the previous one I only touched waterfall/Vmodel. Maybe it's because I switched from hardware to software, but the idealogy should be taught/learnt anyway!)

You can also see other crowdfunded projects (also on page 16, it's a double page spread), including the pebble smartwatch (which came out before all the latest watches like Samsung, Sony and Apple's current-gen offerings). It features e-ink which is cooler and less battery draining than LED/LCD but is monochrome. I wrote about both Star Citizen and Pebble last year here. 

The return of the ISEE 3

http://spacecraftforall.com/home


Great website with cool interactive documentary-like experience! Check it out! Also, it'll be live-streaming the fly-by of the moon in a few hours (Sunday, August 10th 10:30am PT - 12:00pm PT) , but I'll be asleep. Also includes live data anytime! =)

This whole project was crowdfunded and they (the hackers/makers) work in a hackerspace/mission-control in an old Maccas building! Lol! And with NASA's blessing =) Them talking about *SCIENCE* so much reminds me of stuff like Portal, xkcd, KSP (get them science points!) haha.

Also, great post about SoftwareDefinedRadio; been meaning to get my HAM radio callsign sometime soon ...

Also, the initial swing-bys to get to the 1st comet flown through by man is so cool and complicated, it reminded me of an epic version of this:

I mean, orbiting in one plane is hard enough to learn (in a fun way) in KSP. Add in polar plane and crazy manoeuvres and orbits like Quasi-Zenith and I have to spend more time wrapping my head around more simulations, models and reading.
P.S. My short-term goal is to build and launch a (nano)sat in one of them Quasi-Zenith orbits servicing Australia =P Hopefully I'll get to crowdfunding when I've actually done work on it xP.

Star Citizen (finally) Officially Confirmed for Linux by the man himself!

YES, Star Citizen (finally) Officially Confirmed for Linux by the man himself!!!

"... by the way, we'll gonna be supporting Linux."

"We'll be on Linux ... we like it. I think most engineers will tell you that they prefer Linux ... to Windows actually, especially in the back-end server world."

1st quote is at 21:45 (already skipped to in that video link above.
2nd quote is at 45:20 (question & answer). CR (Chris Roberts) also says "all the major engines are supporting Linux" at [47:25]. =)


Here's another great video of Linux love and DRM hate (with an interesting developer's opinion on piracy) from last year's PC Gamer panel with more indies and game devs at PAX:




Click here for a brief history of speculation of Star Citizen on Linux on my part.
And here for an article about the rise of Linux (including gaming on Linux).

Here's also a new blog I discovered covering gaming on Linux which updates fairly frequently (multiple articles per day) as opposed to steamonlinux.com
It's like Phoronix but for games! (Since Michael is a self-professed non-gamer).

Facebook Acquires Oculus Rift VR

So earlier today, we saw this: FB buys Oculus Rift for $2bil in ~300-400mil cash and rest stock and the internet has been virally complaining.
People have been massively disappointed (myself included) and posting things like "FACEbook is taking things a little too literally", with a FB logo plastered on the front of the OR, but I think our fears shouldn't make us lose hope as explained throughout this article. 

Great article analysing both sides and future outcome of things:
http://gizmodo.com/facebook-could-give-you-the-oculus-you-always-wanted-1551561433 
Some other news outlets:
http://kotaku.com/facebook-buys-oculus-rift-for-2-billion-1551487939
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/25/facebook-to-buy-oculus-vr-maker-of-the-rift-headset-for-around-2b-in-cash-and-stock/
Minecraft backs out of OR:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/25/5547626/minecraft-oculus-vr-cancelled

At first I was like "What. In. The. World." Mark Zuckerberg's even considering ads!?

Palmer tries to allay concerns, which is nice, but to small effect, although does confirm their independent status and FB not screwing them over like MS or Apple buying out a company and disassembling it (which was amusing for me, as most indie techs/devs probably has similar sentiments, especially supporters of Linux and open source or just people who were screwed by M$/Apple):
http://www.reddit.com/user/palmerluckey/comments/?sort=hot

But now that OR ultimately seems to be able to operate independently and do stuff as they've always had without excessive FB intrusion like needing an FB account to connect to OR, I am cautiously optimistic again. Especially with Palmer saying stuff like: (double quoted passages are Palmer quoting redditors)

Sure, we could have made more money down the road, but this deal was not about making the most money. It was about doing the best thing for the long term future of virtual reality.

This lets us make CV1 everything we want it to be, which is going to drive much larger sales and adoption.

We defined the milestones. They are exactly in line with our prior plans.

We promise we won't change. If anything, our hardware and software will get even more open, and Facebook is onboard with that.

They are champions of open hardware and software.
Our relationship with the community is not going to change, and we are not going to spy on anyone. Feel free to rag on me if things turn out the way you predict, but you have my word that nothing will change for the worse.

However, if anyone has more control or say on ANY decision then Palmer and John do, then I'm out. They were the top, they didn't answer to anyone but the consumers.

We have had to answer to people since the Kickstarter, and even more so after raising two rounds of funding from investment partners to hire the people we need. This deal gives us more freedom to make the right decisions, not less!
Facebook has a good track record for letting companies operate independently post-acquisition, and they are going to do the same for us. Trust me on this, I would not have done the deal otherwise.

Just promise me there will be no specific Facebook tech tie-ins.

I promise.
Why would we want to sell to someone like MS or Apple? So they can tear the company apart and use the pieces to build out their own vision of virtual reality, one that fits whatever current strategy they have? Not a chance.

And:

This deal specifically lets us greatly lower the price of the Rift.

We have not gotten into all the details yet, but a lot of the news is coming. The key points:
1) We can make custom hardware, not rely on the scraps of the mobile phone industry. That is insanely expensive, think hundreds of millions of dollars. More news soon.
2) We can afford to hire everyone we need, the best people that fit into our culture of excellence in all aspects.
3) We can make huge investments in content. More news soon.

And:

Nothing changes. Keep in mind that Mark Zuckerberg has publicly spoken against NSA surveillance.

is that 75-100 million dollars of VC not enough to bring the CV1 to market?

It it enough to bring a consumer product to market, but not the consumer product we really wish we could ship. This deal is going to immediately accelerate a lot of plans that were languishing on our wishlist, and the resulting hardware will be better AND cheaper. We have the resources to create custom hardware now, not just rely on the scraps of the mobile phone industry. There is a lot of good news on the way that is not yet public, so believe me, things will become a lot more clear over time.

Why did Oculus VR choose to risk their reputation with their core supporters in such a substantial way, before there is even a real product on store shelves?

Because it is the best thing in the long term for virtual reality, and the best thing in the short term for our core supporters. We are going to stay as community focused as we have always been! We now have the freedom to make the right decisions without worrying about short financial profit or investor returns.

Facebook is making a long term bet on VR, not a short term run on profit. We have more freedom to do what we want now that our investment partners are out of the picture.

 We are already working on our own VR game platform/launcher, but we are not going to force everything to go through it. Facebook has no interest in changing that, they believe in what we have been doing all along.

 I guarantee that you won't need to log into your Facebook account every time you wanna use the Oculus Rift.

And:

The appeal of Oculus (as compared to Sony, for example) is because it is on a PC platform, and thus allows us, the developers, freedom over what we want to do with it.

None of that will change. Oculus continues to operate independently! We are going to remain as indie/developer/enthusiast friendly as we have always been, if not more so. This deal lets us dedicate a lot of resources to developer relations, technical help, engine optimizations, and our content investment/publishing/sales platform. We are not going to track you, flash ads at you, or do anything invasive.

The Rift is absolutely targeted towards the gaming population, which tends to be teenage to early 20s/30s, which is the exact population that Facebook is currently losing. By partnering with Facebook, you are gaining access to a massive userbase of people that the rift is not targeted towards, which people might feel is a very bad move.

Almost everyone at Oculus is a gamer, and virtual reality will certainly be led by the games industry, largely because it is the only industry that already has the talent and tools required to build awesome interactive 3D environments. In the long run, though, there are going to be a lot of other industries that use VR in huge ways, ways that are not exclusive to gamers; the current focus on gaming is a reflection of the current state of VR, not the long term potential. Education, communication, training, rehabilitation, gaming and film are all going to be major drivers for VR, and they will reach a very wide audience. We are not targeting social media users, we are targeting everyone who has a reason to use VR.

What we fear is not that Oculus will be partnering with Facebook, but that you are selling out the company to Facebook and no longer retain control over Oculus. I can say that I, personally, support Oculus because I believed in the goals and visions that you had.

This acquisition/partnership gives us more control of our destiny, not less! We don't have to compromise on anything, and can afford to make decisions that are right for the future of virtual reality, not our current revenue. Keep in mind that we already have great partners who invested heavily in Oculus and got us to where we are, so we have not had full control of our destiny for some time. Facebook believes in our long term vision, and they want us to continue executing on our own roadmap, not control what we do. I would never have done this deal if it meant changing our direction, and Facebook has a good track record of letting companies work independently post-acquisition.

If I ever need a Facebook account to use or develop for the Rift, I'm done. - You will not need a Facebook account to use or develop for the Rift.
If I ever see Facebook branding on anything that's not optional, I'm done. - Not really reasonable in a literal sense, but I get your drift.
If I ever see ads on anything that I've already paid for, I'm done. - That is a developer decision, not our decision. If someone wants to sell a game with built-in ads, they will have to deal with the natural consequences.

I'm just wondering if OR will go public and about how kickstarters don't actually get shares in the startup ... I know some kickstarters already feel betrayed, screwed over and that OR sold out.


Update: More interesting articles -
From a VR non-believer
A positive spin on things (or devil's advocate =P)

The rise of Linux

The Downfall of Windows (xP)

So I just read (or re-read) some news about ISS laptops being changed to Linux last year (2013) as Windows XP nears its EOL in April this year with no more security or technical updates. With Windows 8 being hard to use and the UI being unfamiliar, that's prompted me to write this post instead of sneaking it in a section within another post like I normally do =P
By the way, all those Windows XP users, it's a great time to switch to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, since Win 8 users will have to familiarise themselves with a new UI anyway. WinXP/7 users would probably want to use Kubuntu/Xubuntu to have a familiar desktop environment (you can set the UI up to be almost exactly like Win XP/7). You want LTS versions because they're supported for 5 years, although you're free to upgrade to different versions anytime when they're out. (LTS versions happen every 2 years, and non-LTS versions are supported for 9 months now, instead of 18 months previously.)

The adoption of Linux in the world

So why use Linux anyway?

• It's free - as in financially and in the sense of free speech. You can freely modify and customise it to suit your needs and use it however you like!
• It's stable and reliable - updates and patches happen quickly as it's open sourced, and won't fall into the traps of things like the Mac OS/iOS SSL bug. Security by obscurity is wrong in an OS context.
• It's efficient - My Linux (Kubuntu 12.04) is pretty fast and does things faster than my Windows 7 HP 64bit, even with KDE, which is a relatively intense DE compared with things like XFCE and GNOME/forks.

In Science:

Used by people and places like:
CERN
Experiment Platforms
NASA
-MSL (Curiosity Rover)
-ISS (probably almost everything since the move to Linux on desktop laptops).

Linux in Space

United Space Alliance, a NASA contractor that supports the laptops on the ISS used the Linux Foundation to train their devs to migrate and port apps over to Linux.
Apparently they have over 140 laptops with 80 online at any time; they chose Debian 6, it being Google's choice of distribution too. They also have Scientific Linux and RHEL/CentOS on some computers already on the ISS. Robonaut R2 uses it and the ISS has used it since Linux started, but rarely on the desktop PCs.

We migrated key functions from Windows to Linux because we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable — one that would give us in-house control. So if we needed to patch, adjust, or adapt, we could.

ZING! Apparently they have faced a few random crashes (probably BSODs lol) and in 2008 had some virus infect the ISS LAN.

Consumer Devices:

Android (kernels are being merged, and hopefully completely in a few years)
Tesla Model S

So why is adoption important at all? I think it's especially important in gaming where the catch 22 can clearly be seen - 'everyone' uses Windows to game, so game devs only build for Windows and so 'everyone' has to use Windows to game. So when devs have this alternate option instead of being locked into Windows (and perhaps DirectX), they can build for it and the Linux gaming community can back them and get rid of this catch 22 problem. Things like the humble bundle clearly show the Linux community is ready to throw money at devs who make games for Linux.

In Gaming:

Wow, GDC 2014 just prompted announcements of Linux support everywhere!
And look, someone else did a great article about the rise of Linux gaming! =)
While Phoronix downplays (or is disappointed by) the interest in Linux at GDC, it's a great improvement, from having 0 Linux announcements at GDC to having a Linux presence with SteamOS, CRYENGINE, AMD, etc. Valve's SteamOS and Steam for Linux official release announcements were only last year, so AAA devs haven't had time to announce and demo Linux games at GDC yet - but we've already seen heaps of indies get onboard. Like a Phoronix forum user said:

We have gone from "it would be cool to have a game on Linux" to "omg the next-gen CryEngine with its OpenGL 4.3 renderer might not be perfectly ported".

Game Engines: Unity,
Unreal (announced 19/3!),
CRYENGINE (dev tools, CrySDK coming to Linux),
Source & Source 2,
Leadwerks (and the editor/IDE is on Linux thru Kickstarter too!)

Game Publishers: Steam On Linux (on a sidenote, Valve wants to move from Greenlight to a more easy self-publishing system where any dev can post something),
Desura,
 GOG.com (announced 18/3) 

Consoles/Hardware:
SteamOS, Ouya/Android, Oculus Rift

Games & Devs: Steam Library Catalogue, Upcoming games on Steam,
Devs liking OpenGL and freedom of Linux and hating Windows restrictions.
Recent announcements of games on the PC usually announce on Linux in addition to Windows.
GabeN also said devs like Linux! =)

Valve: check out these awesome vids at Steam Dev Days 2014 (where there are a whole lot more Linux and VR related stuff including):
Getting started on Linux (incl Myth-busting),
Valve seriously supporting and working on moving to OpenGL exclusively,
Modern OpenGL reducing Driver Overhead (by nVidia which looks like their portion of the GDC talk below).

Vendors: nVidia, AMD, Intel @ GDC "Approaching Zero Driver Overhead", nVidia sponsored video posted in the future. There'll probably be more news from them with the GPU tech conference in the next few days as well.
AMD plans to open-source kernel space driver support, while keeping user-space binaries for their Catalyst driver (so they can keep their "secret-sauce" optimisations away from prying eyes of nVidia). AMD roadmap/info summary from GDC here; I'm not feeling as much love as I was hoping, but tbh I mostly just care about GFX performance and that means high performing nVidia drivers, even if they're binary blobs. 


On a related note, check out all the awesome vids from Steam Dev Days (click for PDFs, etc.)! They have at least 4 talks related to Linux and OpenGL (including debugging hehe)!

Updated: 24/3 to include links to latest Phoronix wrap-up articles. 

BREAKING: CryEngine on Linux Officially CONFIRMED (and therefore Star Citizen =P)

Yes, after years of speculation, Crytek has announced that CRYENGINE will finally officially build natively for Linux.
Here's the excerpt pertaining to Linux:

During presentations and hands-on demos at Crytek's GDC booth, attendees can see for the first time ever full native Linux support in the new CRYENGINE.  The CRYENGINE all-in-one game engine is also updated with the innovative features used to recreate the stunning Roman Empire seen in Ryse – including the brand new Physically Based Shading render pipeline, which uses real-world physics simulation to create amazingly realistic lighting and materials in CRYENGINE games.

I first learnt about his when someone posted to the Star Citizen forums of a thread I was following. 
Obligatory Phoronix post. 

My speculation history to date:
Just recently Star Citizen advertised Kingdom Come: Deliverance which utilised the same CRYENGINE and promises a Linux port.  It's triply funded on Kickstarter now!
Remember in this post I talked about that Linux programmer position they were hiring for Frankfurt (Crytek HQ) as proof of "almost fully official" Linux builds? Filled.
Or that time Chris Roberts said in the 24 hour livestream for Star Citizen that they can't say anything about non-Windows builds yet but Linux (and Mac) users will be "pleasantly surprised"?
And then me wondering about it here?
And these posts were a year after I read Phoronix' article back in 2012 where I first speculated about CryEngine on Linux. Of course, at that time I thought the more the merrier, but in 2013 Star Citizen changed that thought into "Come out on Linux already!"

Linux is complete with gaming rant
Yes, you're getting another (slightly reworded) one ;P
With Valve's SteamOS, Steam on Linux and Source, Unity, Unreal and CRY Engines being native on Linux, games ARE moving en-masse to the Linux OS. This is welcome news, since gaming, and atm, only one particular game -Star Citizen- is the only thing holding me back from never booting Windows on my laptop.
Games I also like and play on Linux are: Dota 2, KSP, Guns of Icarus Online, L4D2, TF2, X-series, Bastion, Killing Floor, Gemini Rue, Dust, Monaco, Surgeon Simulator, and an ever increasing amount of games, indie and big-publisher alike. I find if I'm looking at a game purchase/Humble Bundle, availability on Linux is a deciding factor. I also find I can usually get a good old game on Windows that wasn't built for Linux working on Wine. Especially with WineHQ database and PlayOnLinux. =P

The past year has been - and the next few years will be - very interesting for Linux =)

_________________________________________________________________

Star Citizen Update!

So they just reached $40 million and every backer who pledges/pledged before the $42million mark will get a special Galactapedia (Hitch Hiker's Guide, if you will) viewer. They'll also get a TOWEL! HAHAHAHAHA!!!! xD

Also, since I've done an SC update on this blog, a lot of things have happened - they're at patch 11.1 with OR support in the Hangar Module; check out the stretch goals, which are just examples of the ways SC improves with the money and were usually planned long ago.
Also check out their new monthly reports (link to Feb 2014) for those of us who don't have time to follow every website post.

And they now have 3 update videos every WEEK:

• Monday - 10 for the Chairman where Chris Roberts answers 10 questions from subscribers (monthly pledgers of $10/$20).
• Wednesdays - Wingman's Hangar (now moved to Wednesdays; the original development update show). 
• Fridays - The Next Great Starship, a kind of reality TV show featuring a competition for teams to make the next starship in Star Citizen with the judging and feedback of some folks from CIG (Cloud Imperium Games, RSI's real-world company name)!

Also Jump Point print copies are available, they look gorgeous! They're also a great example of how the folks at CIG tend to over deliver on promises and are always looking for the good of the game and the players - they promised 4-6 full colour pages of magazine format development updates for monthly subscribers and now they're averaging 50 pages a month! They've released some past Jump Point sections  to everyone before, check it out on their website (link goes to all slideshows in Comm-Link)! Check all their WIPs and Jump Point stuff at the link.

Can't wait to try the Dog Fighting Module after PAX East in mid-April!


Last Updated: 2014-03-16 06:39:53 AM AEDT; corrected Jump Point frequency to "monthly", added a few links.

Oculus Rift VR

Oculus Rift. (OR)
VR's big comeback. Or at least the biggest name in VR these last couple of years.

The set up OR of the day - we played on a laptop

I was, and still am extremely excited by the immense possibilities the OR brings to VR and can't wait to see how things will develop in the future!
Especially with Star Citizen "coming out" at the end of this year. This VR/AR headset has so many different applications that VR/AR comes with including remote tele-operations, education, entertainment media including games, videos, etc.

I was able to try the OR thanks to a fellow Computer Science student, after I participated in his research at the CSIRO/RSISE in ANU. He said many people experienced nausea and couldn't take more than 10 minutes with the OR on, but surprisingly, I didn't want to vomit at all, and quite enjoyed it! This might have been partly due to my biggest disappointment - being able to see the pixels and pixel borders after the LCD screen's light passes through the OR's lenses. The lenses let your eyes see the screen from individual perspectives creating a 3D experience, as well as helping you be able to focus your eyes to infinite distance while being able to look at the light from the screen.

Here are some photos:

Always RTFM first right? I like Friendly Manuals.

Includes 3 different lenses for near-sighted people. Otherwise, you can wear your glasses inside/under the headset.

 Le treasure chest. And headset.

 Side - angle views. The viewing angles on the display were pretty darn good.

Too bad you can clearly see the black pixel borders when you put on the goggles through the lenses. It's worse than it appears in this photo with my camera.


An OR with one lens cap (left) taken off.








And a close up of that area below:

I think the biggest thing going for the OR is that it makes you feel like you're there. This makes for just the wonder and awe of exploring the world that you're now in - when you wear the headset - to be quite a delight.

The biggest problem I had that broke the immersion was seeing the black pixel border lines, I hope this will be fixed in future higher resolution versions. It also alerted me to having to try before I buy the consumer version, since I definitely wouldn't spend $300 on the immersion breaking and awfully low-res to the point of blurriness (720p screen divided into half for each eye) dev-kit as a consumer product.

I could also feel a bit of latency or probably judder, although it's being worked on, and I think my head naturally compensated by moving my head slower. (Valve is supporting Oculus Rift and aren't manufacturing hardware for now, preferring to be a platform where OR users will seamlessly launch apps and games from). Unfortunately, this must also be checked out before I buy for gaming purposes, as when you're desperately looking around the cockpit for that hostile spacecraft, you don't want your vision to be blurry and laggy, creating more nausea or noobplay.


A little Carmack envisioning a SoC (running Android) 4K integrated headset/future OR:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/18/oculus-rift-john-carmack-interview/


And most recently:

CES 2014 (Crystal Cove) updates:

• 1080p OLED (still not sure that's enough resolution after the lenses)
• New Positional tracking via IR-LEDs on the OR and an external camera on your monitor. 
• Lighter, smaller
• Lower latency, via OLED & technologies as talked about in the video in the link below
• Apparently winner of "Best of CES 2014"
• Still aimed to price accessibly at ~$300
• No release date but 2014 "big year" for OR

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/09/the-oculus-rift-crystal-cove-prototype-is-2014s-best-of-c/
So apparently they sold 55k units, with only 7.5k units sold during their Kickstarter!

For those worried about nausea, with positional tracking, it might be better. Someone does a write-up of their pleasant experience with Crystal Cove after previous nausea with the old version:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/01/10/oculus-rift-crystal-cove-prototype-hands-on-at-ces-2014/

Ubuntu Edge ... Final Hours

While I posted about Ubuntu Edge before, It's at the final hours (17) of the campaign and with only 12.25mil and just under 20mil to go, it doesn't look very likely this crowd-funding campaign will reach its goal.

At the discounted price of $695/phone, that is now 46k units instead of 40k units, which is a decent manufacturing run, although I'm not sure on the exact numbers in the economical analysis of these things.

Spec-wise, and functionality-wise it trumps anything in that price-range, Xperia Z or HTC One. Unfortunately, probably due to inadequate advertisement/social media-ring and just not enough people ready to upgrade/commit (a lot of the early adopters may have already bought something this year like the previously mentioned phones), the campaign won't be breaking crowd-funding records like Star Citizen's record breaking crowd-funding dollars.

Still, 12mil is pretty respectable, it was 11mil yesterday and comes close to the 14.6 mil that Star Citizen had when I posted about Ubuntu Edge before (see previous blog post link). Right now Star Citizen has a whopping 15.7mil and growing everyday. Hangar module comes out 24th August at GamesCon, so can't wait to see the news and test it.
I hope they release something like an OpenGL version soon because apparently it'll be DirectX11 and my GT330m doesn't have that support T_T. Also, recent look at ATI's open source driver support leans me towards getting an ATI graphics next time. These nvidia binary blobs sometimes screw up and took me an hour to get my 319 driver working with Linux 3.8 and jockey -_-.



P.S. So for Systems Engineering Analysis (ENGN2226) I get to look at nanosats woot.

ArduSat is In SPACE!!! (and AIAA Sydney Section tour of Canberra)

omg it's SPACE!!!
So Greg Chamitoff came to speak at the ANU a couple of weeks back (with U Syd and AIAA) and he said everyday, his commander would wake him up with "Guess what? WE'RE IN SPACE!!! =D"

Anyways, ArduSat was launched into space in the early morning (AEST, which is similar to Japan time) between the AIAA tour days when some students from Sydney came over to visit Canberra's Aeronautical and Aerospace stuff =P

I was so tired helping out and staying up and waking before 9 that I skipped the live launch, but here it is in all its glory (launch at 47:30). Rocket is JAXA's H-IIB, ArduSat is piggybacking on the HTV-4 resupply mission to the ISS, and will be deployed off Kibō [yes, I was a bit annoyed with the pronunciation of Kibō xP]



ArduSat was my first Kickstarter project I backed with $1 =P (Poor student who really wanted to afford time for operation of ArduSat). It's also apparently partly built in Australia. And has a goal for education and science, you could buy time on the kickstarter and I assume before EOL they'll have time for other people to do some science/education with it! Test and learn your arduino programs on the spacecraft here! =)


Here's a video about AITC, one of the places (CDSCC, AITC, ATSB and ADFA/UNSW@Canberra)  where the AIAA tour went in Canberra; by a Melbourne Hackerspace/Maker Jonathan Oxer (who not so coincidentally worked on ArduSat):


UPDATE 16/7/2014:  I posted some photos of the AITC when we visited here. I posted a lot more (100+) photos on facebook back around when this post came out which you can view if you're my "friend". =P

NASA uses the Rift and Omni

So NASA uses the Oculus Rift and Omni. Specifically JPL, who do everything (friends, see my recent Facebook album on the AIAA Sydney Section's Sydney student tour of Canberra and its CDSCC, AITC, ATSB and ADFA/UNSW@Canberra.

Video here:
Iframe here:

Can't wait to just strap one of these with translation sensors on and start up Star Citizen. =)

OpenShot video editor v 2

So I realise I've been blogging about games (most on Linux) lately, especially with my yearning for Star Citizen to hurry up and get made.
This post, I won't use the 'games' tag. =)

So I was casually browsing kickstarter as you do, and found THIS. Evoking memories of trying hard to find a proper video editing software, finding the most feature filled one on Linux being a readily crashable OpenShot video editor ;P It also kind of reminds me of getting blender and being completely stumped at how to use it. (Along with Maya).
This was back in 2010, and we were able to put together a simple video:


Now, I'm happy to see more work being done, OpenShot getting a new framework, fixing apparently 99% of previous bugs, and cross-platform support.
Oh, and they're switching to Qt from GTK. I liked GTK back on Ubuntu10.04 with GNOME, because Qt would usually look ugly or fail, but now that I'm on Kubuntu12.04, both work pretty well from an end-user point of view. Here's a funny port GIMP to Qt thread that descends into mini-flamewar from the middle till near the end.
Anyway, obligatory iframe of latest blog post (which includes a restrained comment on Operating Systems for devs which I can understand/agree upon):


P.S. Yes, I'm running out of holidays to finish two arty projects in the works, one which was intended to be released a while ago =S; Also, may be starting a eng/tech project (finally!)

Star Citizen wows everyone (funding, backers, economy!)

 Funding Update

This week has been o.O for Star Citizen, pushing through the 12mil and 13mil and looking to push through 14mil in the next 24 hours (they're 40k away).

On the 29th June (pre-livestream), the numbers were $10.926mil and 198k citizens.
After the livestream, we were at $11.7mil and 200.3k citizens
On the 5th July, we were at $12.9mil and 206.5k citizens.
At writing, we are at $13.9mil and 210.5k citizens.

This whole grace period after the new website, and 24 hour livestream has generated >$3mil in just 1 week; now the grace period is over, LTI (lifetime insurance, no need to periodically insure your ship ingame with ingame credits) ships are now no longer available (unless you're an original campaign backer, who are able to get LTI and packages till November 2013).

With the hangar module coming out in late August, and dog-fighting module coming out December this year, Star Citizen seems like it will never run out of momentum =P Still, there's almost 1.5 years till final release, but if it takes $21mil to fund this game (as Chris Roberts has approximated), we're 2/3 of the way there already.

The ECONOMY

It's the economy, guys =)
Seriously though, we know Valve hires economists for their micro-transactions and in-game cosmetic items, but I wonder if CGI has hired any just for their universe economy and future micro-transactions. This preliminary sketch of the universe economy simulation/modelling and the physics - rigid body simulation and detail they have in this game remind me of those physics modelling we did with Mathematica/Matlab and step sizes xD.
This is like my dream game come true, achieving all I ever wanted a spacesim to be like: persistent universe, walking around instead of stuck in a cockpit, MMO, player actions affect universe, good simulation and detail -nerdgasm-.

Check out its full glory below:

FYEAH - Star Citizen On Linux woot!

I know I've posted some rumoury stuff about CryEngine 3 on Linux but:
Here is a 24 hour livestream past video from twitch on their 1st channel, go to 4:46:51 and enjoy a non-announcement about an announcement they can't make yet that will make Linux and Mac owners "happily surprised" ;P


Watch live video from roberts_space_ind_ch_1 on TwitchTV

Youtube version: (go to 16m48s)

Now this comes over a year since the rumour about a native port of CryEngine 3 on Linux =3
Thanks to the lurkers on the 24hr livestream chat for filling us in! =)


Also, here's some links to Chris Roberts on Linux support for Star Citizen questions on Campaign Reddit's AMA:
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/12grru/i_am_chris_roberts_creator_of_wing_commander/c6ux0x3
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/12grru/i_am_chris_roberts_creator_of_wing_commander/c6v1fep


This news comes after this poll during the original fundraising (including kickstarter). You'll find that 21% of votes wanted Linux support! (And 8% for Mac).
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/12760-Poll-Additional-Stretch-Goals

______________________________________________________________________________________


Also, since I've last posted on Star Citizen on this blog (but have been filling my FB with it =P) CGI's SC is now the most funded crowdfunding project of all time. It surpassed the pebble watch, and make sure you check out the 300i commercial! Fully in-universe an in-engine =)


This 2nd video was released as a director's cut during the 24 hour livestream:

2 lovely things - One Piece & Startups

http://www.techinasia.com/3-startups-learn-reading-piece-manga/
Yep, 2 lovely things I thought had no relation to each other xP

Public Laboratory Spectrometer

for those who've missed the Kickstarter for Public Lab's spectrometer, here it is (the paper version):
http://publiclaboratory.org/notes/mathew/11-30-2012/final-fold-mini-spectrometer-print-files-and-instructions

Can't wait for my aluminium desktop USB one, although the first thing I want to test is HK water (and why it tastes funny, and requires boiling/filtration) and I got them to send it to Australia ...


Also on Kickstarter, Star Citizen raised 6.2mil in total for the campaign, with >$2mil from Kickstarter. Since, they've raised a bajillion dollars and are now at almost $7mil. (You can still 'pledge' and buy ships till what I'm assuming is alpha (they say "12 months from now"). However, there are less benefits than the campaign pledges like no life-time insurance on ships.) Totally can't wait for this! Especially if Oculus Rift fairs well with Star Citizen, will defs try this euphoric combo.

Star Citizen - RSI, from the makers of Freelancer etc.

from the makers of Freelancer ... THIS. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen

• A rich universe focused on epic space adventure, trading and dogfighting in first person.
• Single Player – Offline or Online(Drop in / Drop out co-op play)
• Persistent Universe (hosted by US)
• Mod-able multiplayer (hosted by YOU)
• No Subscriptions
• No Pay to Win

Only thing missing from it is shiny MMORPGFPS gameplay on the planetary surface found in the likes of Precursors (which gameplay-wise was amazing =D).
What makes me so excited: MMO persistent universe, FPS elements, Ship combat which is like Freelancer and not MOBA-style (sorry DoTA2, D3, Torchlight, just not so into click click click =P).
Shameless plug for my favourite game of all time (Tribes 1) remade into an arcade style FPS: less gameplay complexity, and weird speed gain when skiing but nevertheless FUN.


BOARDING SHIP MECHANIC explained
Multiplayer and Single player instancing explained.
Because, FIREFLY for inspiration. =) - would love that job xD
Support Linux at the poll for stretch goals (click thru to RSI website for the poll), give CryEngine3 the incentive to go to the quickest growing gaming platform right now with Source, Steam, Unity supporting =) Linux. Speaking of Linux, Humble Bundle for Android 4 finishes in 6 days!


Final-week's (3 days left to pledge!) pitch:


FINAL WEEK PUSH from Roberts Space Industries on Vimeo.

So a few points of our next major stretch goal (from boarding ship mechanic post and RSI star citizen website):
$4.0 million Level Additions

• Melee & Heavy Weapons
• Zero-gravity Simulation
• Suit HUD Options
• Increased Customization
• Outside-the-ship combat (magnetic boots on a hull; think Moonraker)
• Pro MOD TOOLS FREE to players!
• Persistent Universe (forever instead of 30 months), 50 star systems
• More Squardron 42 campaign gameplay
• Increased community updates

- According to RSI website, we need $250k left till $4mil. Also, back on Kickstarter, your pledge will go towards stretch goals of BOTH kickstarter and the overall stretch goals at RSI.  
SO PLEDGE ON KICKSTARTER NOW =D.


I've always wanted to do Precursors MMO'd with friends. This is the closest thing I have ever seen. No amount of procedural universe generation, even if done by big industry pros would sway me. Just damn good gameplay with friends =).
That said, I've had my eye on Infinity Universe for years, because dang-it, its got great gameplay and scale, just without the FPS element >=| and definitely will be happily playing when it comes out.

Star Citizen - Space Sim MMORPG on Kickstarter!

*** Update: ***
 GLXP posted about it on FB!

 https://www.facebook.com/googlelunarxprize/posts/284421335009192
***

Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen
Website: http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/star-citizen/
Donate at kickstarter, because funds at kickstarter help stretch goals both at kickstarter AND the website!! =)
The whole project is funded, with 19 days to go and rapid increasing in funding.

I've always wanted an MMORPG Space Sim with FPS elements. Sort of like Precursors with multiplayer and a persistent player-affected evolving universe. It would be up there with my favourite games of all time (Tribes 1- Annihilation mod, Team Fortress 2). The Freelancer, X series, Vega Strike and Wing Commander (this made by the same company) have all been great space sims, but I think lacked planetary/out of cockpit exploration/gameplay. 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen/posts/332531 
This update post answered all my questions lol. 
While they said has "first person shooter" elements like running around on the ship, the demo vid only has 3rd person running around on the flight deck. Planetary exploration is probably what will tip me to buying it, but they're not promising it T_T
I liked Precursors as it was as much a normal FPS/RPG on planets and ships/stations as it was space ship pew pews complete with space anomalies, upgrades, the works. 
 
If they do put planetary walk around in, it'll have a leg up on http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=35 [oo Joomla] which allows you to land on planets but not walk on them. 
And at Nov 2014 release date, it looks like it may arrive faster than Infinity. Especially if I get to play the Alpha/Betas.


I will most likely back this, it's sooooo tempting!! Just backed this as the last $30 digital download pledge on Kickstarter xD. Making it the first game related project I backed on Kickstarter, passing by Ooya, Planetary Annihilation, That adventure game,  Homestuck, FTL, etc. Been wanting an MMORPG Space Sim for aaages (Been following that Infinity project for more than a few years now xD) 

Only downsides are: no Linux support on CryEngine3 (although Android is supported), is possible there will be pay 2 not grind instead of subscription, which would be horrible (though you need to pay a once off fee, which hopefully should prevent that, and if the devs are as community oriented as this game relies on, then it would be in their best interests not to payORgrind). They're also allowing community content like TF2 hats and levels =P

Parrallella Epiphany Kickstarter by Adapteva

$100 credit card sized Parallella combines FPGA, ARM, & DSPs. 18CPUs @800MHz with 5Watts! o New vid, so tempting! xD http://kck.st/UGQjG3

I wouldn't really know what to do with it that I wouldn't be able to do on a gumstix/raspberry pi ... apart from BOINC and testing 2048-bit RSA or AES cracking solving chess.

Here's an excerpt cos I'm too lazy to iframe, just click the kickstarter link above for full updates, videos and graphics. The project still needs $185k/$750k in 48 hours so if you want to see this project go ahead, support!

The following list shows the major components planned for the Parallella computer:

• Zynq-7010 Dual-core ARM A9 CPU
• Epiphany Multicore Accelerator (16 or 64 cores)
• 1GB RAM 
• MicroSD Card
• USB 2.0 (two) 
• Two general purpose expansion connectors
• Ethernet 10/100/1000
• HDMI connection
• Ships with Ubuntu OS
• Ships with free open source Epiphany development tools that include C compiler, multicore debugger, Eclipse IDE, OpenCL SDK/compiler, and run time libraries. 
• Dimensions are 3.4'' x 2.1''  

Wow, it ships with Ubuntu ... no more annoying qemu images (from my experiences with the gumstix) I guess =P