Good evening,

I've completed the next Blender tutorial. This time it's a still image of a sofa. The full high-res images are hosted in the Blender set of my new Flickr account here, but here are smaller versions for you to enjoy. Both are the same sofa, one with an image texture, and the other with a solid colour.

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

He who laughs last, thinks slowest.

A day without sunshine is like, well, night.

Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.

The things that come to those that wait may be the things left by those who got there first.

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Flashlight: A case for holding dead batteries.

The shin bone is a device for finding furniture.

A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of 12 people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

Howdy,

I'm pleased to say that my first experience with Vimeo was not typical. I have created and uploaded a video just under 20 minutes and just under 30 minutes, and there was of course some processing time (this is expected) and they didn't take seven hours to process a four second clip! I created the videos with a very low quality as proofs of concept, and the concept worked great! It really looks like Vimeo will allow you to have any length as long as the file size comes within the restrictions.

I've deleted the videos since they were only for me to test, so don't go looking for them.

My Vimeo page is here: http://www.vimeo.com/troydolyniuk

* Updated! *

Hi folks,

This post is just me testing different video hosting sites - nothing new to see here. If you like, send me an email with which one you think looks best. Also, please tell me what OS and browser you're using.

Thanks!

Facebook:


YouTube:


Vimeo:
(video uploaded, waiting for encoding...)
Update - it's been just under six hours since uploading the video and I'm still waiting in line for it to be converted. Really?!?
Update 2 - It took almost SEVEN HOURS before Vimeo had my video up. That's insane!

My first Blender animation - Yellow Submarine from Troy Dolyniuk on Vimeo.

Okay, now that all three are up, it looks like they are all about the same quality. This is good, because YouTube used to be much worse than the others, but it's really come a long way. I guess I should fill you in on the background - the reason I'm even considering another provider than YouTube is because of YouTube's ridiculous 10 minute limit for mere mortals like you and me. I haven't bumped into the 10 minute limit with any of my videos yet, but I just put one together for some friends of mine from their baby's baptism and it ran just under 15 minutes. If that was for my event, I'd want to put it up on the web, but YouTube would reject it.

Facebook has a 20 minute limit which is much better, and I'd jump there in a heartbeat except that the player window is only 400 pixels wide, not configurable. Sure, I can edit the code to make it 480 pixels wide (and I did but then undid), but the video is scaled up from 400 to the new size and fuzzy, not scaled down and crisp from the 1280 pixels wide I uploaded to the service in the first place.

Vimeo's free service lets me upload 500MB per week, but no word on length. My next test will be to use some or all of my remaining 498.3MB in this week's quota to upload a low quality but long video. I'll try for 20 minutes first, and if I still have room in my quota I'll try a 30 minute video too.

That's it for updates to this post. Any new information will go on a new post.

Hello!

A long time ago, I tried my hand at raytracing. What does this mean? I could explain it, or I could let this blurb from Wikipedia do it for me.

In computer graphics, ray tracing is a technique for generating an image by tracing the path of light through pixels in an image plane. The technique is capable of producing a very high degree of photorealism; usually higher than that of typical scanline rendering methods, but at a greater computational cost. This makes ray tracing best suited for applications where the image can be rendered slowly ahead of time, such as in still images and film and television special effects, and more poorly suited for real-time applications like computer games where speed is critical. Ray tracing is capable of simulating a wide variety of optical effects, such as reflection and refraction, scattering, and chromatic aberration.

Simple, right? I've dabbled in it here and there over the past several years, and now it looks like I'm back into it again. This time around, I'm using an excellent free 3D modeller and renderer called Blender. I'm also using the excellent Blender tutorial by Neal Hirsig that is available here. This is the result of my "homework" project at the end of learning unit 1. It is to make an animated submarine based on the cover art from The Beatles' Yellow Submarine.




Here is my video. Note that I decided to store it on YouTube instead of hosting the QuickTime file myself. This is because lately I've been disappointed by the bandwidth speed from my web hosting provider. It used to be blazingly fast, but now they offer unlimited storage and bandwidth for an amazing price and I guess had to dial back the speed accordingly. But I digress. Here is my video.



Stay tuned for the next one!

I share with you an oldie but a goodie.

--
After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form called a “gripe sheet” which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft.  The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight.  Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humour.
 
Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by the maintenance engineers.
 
 
P:   Left, inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S:   Almost replaced left inside main tire.
 
P:   Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S:   Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.
 
P:   Something loose in cockpit.
S:   Something tightened in cockpit.
 
P:   Dead bugs on windshield.
S:   Live bugs on back-order.
 
P:   Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200-feet-per-minute descent.
S:   Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
 
P:   Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S:   Evidence removed.
 
P:   DME volume unbelievably loud.
S:   DME volume set to more believable level.
 
P:   Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S:   That’s what they’re for.
 
P:   IFF inoperative.
S:   IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.
 
P:   Suspected crack in windshield.
S:   Suspect you’re right.
 
P:   Number 3 engine missing.
S:   Engine found on right wing after brief search.
 
P:   Aircraft handles funny.
S:   Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and to be serious.
 
P:   Target radar hums.
S:   Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.
 
P:   Mouse in cockpit.
S:   Cat installed.

P:   Noise coming from under instrument panel sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S:   Took hammer away from midget.

Good evening,

Yesterday was the last day of the month, which is of course the day of my latest fitness test. I'm pleased to say that I've made a lot of progress this month, even though all the indicators are red.

September 30, 2009
Pullups goal: 17 (actual: 0)
Lat pull down goal: 2 x 10 @ 110 lbs (actual: 105 lbs)
Pushups goal: 90 (actual: 55)
Waist around navel: 34.5” (actual: 36.25" )

I've really brought the pushups back from the slump they were in and had my best month yet there. Lat pulls progressed a lot, although I think increasing the weight 30lbs per month is too steep. I couldn't quite make 2x10 at 110lbs, but 105lbs was okay. Besides, I've been finding myself with some shoulder and neck discomfort in the last week or so from straining by bumping up the weight too quickly. If you look at the goal tracker page, you'll see that I've relaxed from 30lbs a month to about 20lbs a month; more specifically, 5lbs a week. I know that at this rate I likely won't get a pull up in this year unless I drop 25lbs, but that's okay because I have still made a great deal of measurable progress and that's really what this is all about.