Programmer resources for all of your projects

Recently discovered (or more accurately Stumbled Upon) are some top quality folks to help with all your programming project tasks. On first appearances you may be sceptical, I was until I looked at the qualifications of the staff and believe me, these guys match or exceed many of the people I have worked with over the years.

Primate Programming Inc: The Evolution of Java and .NET Training

Superb! Electronic parrots! According to this article CCTV cameras are going to be programmed to "learn" noises and crowd sounds in order to allow for better response in the war against anything. How long, I wonder, before groups of youths will teach their local camera to associate the sound of a police siren with the need to send another police vehicle.

Tall bird hangs it's head in embarassment

Big Buck Bunny hits the streets (fields) ! My efforts at Blender clearly have a long way to go but at least the tall bird can now walk, stick it's head on the sand and wave it's left leg in a stretchy cartoon physics sort of way. It can't do any of them more than once.... but I'm working on that bit.

A tall bird

Blender again. I got confused trying to animate a 4 legged skeleton, so I tried something with only 2 legs and no arms. I realise that strictly speaking an ostrich should have short wings and a tail but this is only ostrich-like, not actually an ostrich.

It's quite odd getting the legs to walk properly when the "knees" bend the wrong way compared to human figures, the first few attempts looked like it was going backwards.

Driving tests

I experienced Cairo traffic for the first time this week from a relatively safe place, the passenger seats in taxis. The roads are just chunks of tarmac used for vehicles that are generally heading in the same direction, the best comparison I could think of would be a jumble of different size ball bearings rolling along a drainpipe. There were some lane markings they weren't taking any significant part in the proceedings. Tooting of horns and flashing of headlights played a large role, mainly as communication rather than aggression, but I failed to see the point of a "Let me through" communication when the traffic was clearly stationery on all tarmac spaces as far as the eye could see.

An empty glass

I've been dabbling with blender, partly to keep me off the streets and partly because I happened upon it and partly because it's fun. It's a full works 3D modelling and animation thing (open source, free, etc.) and there's a load of tutorials available as well. Here' s my first attempt at a recognisable object, complete with learning curves about materials, transparency, shadows, lights, scene setting, and lots more things I don't yet understand.

So my dad says....

... where do I learn about these "blog" things? Stupidly I agreed to look for him, and press a few buttons, and then try and tell him how it all works. I feel it may be a bit of a challenge because although he's a cool dad, he's just sufficiently literate with technology to be slightly dangerous. When he starts his blog (if he starts his blog) I may or may not add a link depending on whether I want people to look at it and comment "Ooo, noooo, he's got a way to go yet. Your father, you say?"