So a friend of mine found herself without a job. A pretty similar situation to what a lot of us have found ourselves in, and, surprise surprise she was depressed as well. So, the government decided she couldn't take care of herself and moved her up to northern Ontario where she can't find work (because it doesn't exist), and the government gives her meat-heavy boxes of food because they don't trust her — a vegetarian — to buy food rather than booze or something like that.
OK, I have this rendering figured out, with my exceedingly sloppy 48-sided “ball” with a square shadow being my test model. I can spin it around, whack it in different directions, and it has basic physics modelling of friction and gravity. I realize this stuff is child's play when it comes down to it, but I haven't done this type of work since the DOS days! Screencap:
Maybe someone who is still in grade 11, or someone who can remember grade 11 at least, can help me with this. Given a three dimensional angle (ie. rotation around Y and an angle off the ZX plane for example), how do you compute the “step size” along X, Y, and Z. Or, to put it another way, if I rotate you a certain number of degrees around the Y axis, and then inclide you up or down (like targetting a mortar), what is the co-ordinate 1 unit of measurement along that line?
Yeah, I'm rusty.
UPDATE: I do know how to do the above using matrix math. I was just hoping there might be a shortcut since I only am doing an ultra-simple variation on a 3D rotation.
This is really only interesting to me I think, but I just compiled my first ever DirectX-based graphics application. It's an animated cube that you can “whack” in any direction you want, and it's affected by friction and turbulence. Flight simulator, here I come!
A new image update (2,236 new pictures) has just been posted, bringing us almost entirely up to date. Thanks to Louis Fleischauer of AMF for being on the cover (check out his upcoming show in LA), and to everyone who helped out. Anyway, I've still got a bunch of programming to do today… I'm trying to get my plate a little clear so I can get some work done on the simulator before the video editing gear comes back and I have to get to work on that.
Oh, and while I found this article on Google's future as a megacomputer fascinating (and possible), I have my own prediction as to what they're working on: automated magazines. I believe they are working on a tool that will collect data from all over the web a la Google Images and Google News, and construct custom magazines on any subject you want. It will be an important feature legally because of the way it challenges copyright (many have argued they're already pushing their luck with their image search).
I also think it's possible that Google will never do an IPO. Why should they? They have an operating budget that's large enough that they don't need it, and staying a private corporation gives them a lot of power to operate silently, which would help them avoid some of the lawsuits Microsoft has suffered. The article I linked there predicts that Google could become the world's largest corporation within 5-8 years. I agree, it's possible, but if that happens, I also predict that we'll be royally fucked and hate ourselves for having allowed it to come to be.
PS. Non-IAM-members: the bug blocking you from reading all of The Lizardman's page has been fixed.
…I wonder if I should add it to BME?
I've been thinking that the buddy list system could really easily be expanded to include some more information, such as the “type of link” between people (ie. are they on your buddy list because you think their page is cool, because you know them online, offline, whatever). If that was done, you could do things like ask the system, “do I know any plumbers near me?” — IAM could then reply with something like “Your friend (username) knows (username) in (location) who is a (search-criteria).”
Obviously there are privacy issues to seriously consider first, but it could be fun and it's a really simple system. Where it gets really useful is when you start talking about chained IAM servers (ie. like Rachel's aviation site, etc) and chained buddy lists (since some people will have accounts that map to multiple servers)…
Anyway, back to my work on this update. I really want to get some work done on my flight simulator software, and I have to patch a couple problems on IAM as well so I hope it goes fast.
