LuckyDonkey » Video

Update: PKR on VMWare

dazza — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:41:02 +0000

I'm still getting a lot of people asking me if PKR runs on VMWare. The current release of PKR and VMWare seem to be broadly compatible. Here is a scrappy video of my settings so people can give it a go. I run PKR off of my bootcamp partition but there is no need to use a separate partition. Click through to watch in HD where it is a little better.

It's a little grainy but you should be able to see the settings I've been using for DX, VMWare and PKR.

This doesn't mean that future verisons of PKR or VMWare are going to work btw.

Microcontroller Demo Scene

dazza — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:31:29 +0000

There is something really fucking cool about making demos and there is something even more cool about making the hardware it runs on as well.

I should point out that I came across this video when reading Make Magazines RSS Feed.

Data Visualisation

dazza — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:59:40 +0000

If you've ever had the displeasure to sit anywhere near me at work you will know that I love graphs. If I get a data set I love to graph it. I've used graphs in gnuplot to model player acceleration when writing the controls for a FPS, graphs to show people playing a game over time and graphs to show memory allocation over time. I just can't stop myself.

For me graphs allow me to unlock the huge potential of the human mind to see data. Numbers are abstract but graphs are somehow more real, more tangible. There are huge areas of the brain devoted to image and pattern recognition so I see no reason to ignore them with abstract data sets.

So when Webb Alert put me on to this TED talk I was really pleased to see graphs, graphs and oh yes animating graphs.

On an important note Hans Rosling uses his software to graph statistics for the third world and succeeds in changing my opinion on the nature of first and third worlds.

Here he is in 2006 with his graphs

and in 2007 with more graphs, more animated fun and good news about the opening of statistics about us (and mostly paid for by us as well)

VMWare Fusion Google Tech Talk Video

dazza — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:43:53 +0000

I use VMWare Fusion to run Windows XP and FreeBSD on my Mac Pro. To be honest I mostly run in for the single Windows App I can't find a replacement for RegexBuddy.

I'll admit it's an expensive way for me to be lazy. I could test regular expression in the python command line. I'm just to lazy Anyway, to get to the point. There is a good google tech talk by one of the authors of VMWare Fusion. He goes in to the ins and outs of OSX development touching on the 'Apple creates API's for it's own needs' which I think most OSX developers know. For some reason embedding is disabled so here is the link.

BBC Documentary: The Power Of Nightmares

dazza — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 15:53:46 +0000

nothing to say other then "fucking brilliant"

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

DTrace: Google Tech Talk

dazza — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:56:58 +0000

I've been hearing about DTrace for years now and I kind of knew what it was and that I would like to have it. In the back of my mind I've been waiting for it to appear in FreeBSD (although this seems to be faltering a little) so I could play with it.

Well one of the engineers from Sun that gave birth to DTrace has done a google tech talk about DTrace and it's very interesting indeed. Highlights for me were the amazing instrumentation of Python which I will definitely use. He also muses on the lack of support for DTrace on linux and tries to gather a posse of developers from google to kick it off, porting DTrace to Windows and how he can't find a good book on programming.

Apple II animation

dazza — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 11:05:51 +0000

This is a really cute movie of an Apple II animation rendered on an Apple II in 1988. The end credits has a credit for John Lasseter as coach. John Lasseter is the founder of Pixar. Steve jobs bought Pixar in 1986 (see Wikipedia). At this point Jobs had left Apple. It brings back memories of Dire Straits and their video for Money for Nothing.

Apollo Space Mission Proves Galileo Galilei Correct

dazza — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 15:02:24 +0000

One of the hardest things to get your head around when you are a kid (or even now as an adult I will admit) is that the time it takes objects to fall to the ground is the same even if they have different masses. It's just doesn't make sense that a lighter object falls at the same speed as a heavier one. After all the heavier one pulls on your hand more and your instinct tells you it is going to fall more quickly.

Well here is some excellent footage from the Apollo space mission where a hammer and a feather fall at the same rate toward the moon. The lack of atmosphere removes the effect of drag on the feather. It really does look fake... but it isn't.

Of course wikipedia has some excellent information on our long lost scientific friend including information on how he showed this to be true on earth.

Wozniak: Keeping the dream alive

dazza — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 23:49:31 +0000

It's really hard to keep the dream alive as you get older. Other priorities like family and friends increasingly take you time and attention. The feeling that nothing is new creeps in. Nothing feels exciting any more. All the adventure of life just disappears. Steve Wozniak seems to have defied these negative forces for the last 50 years. Here is a really interesting and long interview of Woz by Guy Kawasaki

The God Who Wasn’t There.

dazza — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 00:50:02 +0000

I watched this documentary about a year ago now. I bought it from the NSS in the UK. Now someone has pushed it on to google video.

At first I was not that impressed. It seemed to have low production values and the narrative was a little weak. However it does grow on you as you get further in to the documentary.

Check out the homepage for 'The God Movie'. Check out the directors blog here. The director, Brian Flemming, is an interesting character and his blog has a lot of good stuff in it.

If you like it, why not buy the video. If you are in Europe get it from the NSS Shop and support secularism in the Europe. If your outside the UK you can order it from 'The God Who Wasn't There' Homepage