r3dux.org

The basic idea of the IllumiRoom setup is that you tap into visual content from a console and have that content affect how a projector displays additional/augmented/related content onto the walls surrounding your TV – you’ve really got to see it to get it:

Interesting, huh? I like the idea, but… it seems a little impractical to have a projector on your coffee table. Also, to really take full advantage games would have to be created which deliberately interact with this system, which is increased developer effort, and how many people will have and use one of these devices? I really do like the idea, but I just don’t see it reaching critical mass right now. If there was a drive for people to move from buying large TVs to projectors in the first place – then maybe it would stand more of a chance of gaining high adoption, but in that case you generally clear the projection surface so it wouldn’t have to compensate for room geometry in the first place. Still, it’s a great idea and some very cool tech!

Can’t save your Word document? Used equations recently? Thought so.

Don’t panic though – the problem is simply with soft-carriage-returns (i.e. using Alt+Enter) in the equations.

To fix things up, remove all soft carriage-returns from your equations – making sure to include those still left behind in the in the tracked changes! (just accept the changes involving equations, or accept all changes).

Further details can be found here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-word/equation-editor-causes-crashes-in-word-20102007/ – look for the post from bryan p.

Saw this on the net somewhere and it made me grin so I thought I’d share…

1. We admitted that we were powerless over Microsoft Windows and that our computers had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that an operating system greater than Microsoft Windows could restore us to greater productivity.
3. Made a decision to turn our hardware and data over to the care of better software as we understood it.
4. Made a fearless and searching inventory of our wrecked data, wasted time and thrashed hard drive.
5. Admitted to our higher power, ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of Microsoft Windows.
6. Were entirely ready to have Linux remove all of these defects from our computers and from our working lives.
7. Checked that our hardware was compatible with Linux.
8. Made a backup of all files that Microsoft Windows had harmed.
9. Corrected data to such files where possible, except where such corrections would harm other files.
10. Humbly installed Linux onto our hard drives.
11. Searched through man pages, HOWTOs , the Internet and Slashdot, to improve our understanding and use of Linux.
12. Having had a productive awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to windowholics and to practice these principles in all of our affairs.

Flippancy aside, once you make the switch to Linux, I’d say that it’s pretty unlikely that you’d ever willingly go back to running Windows as your main OS – because overall, and once you get used to it, Linux is simply better.

This isn’t to say that a *nix system will do you for absolutely everything – I still run a little MS Office in a Windows 7 virtual machine (via VirtualBox) because it makes life easier to be able to natively edit docx files and powerpoints for work, but that’s pretty much it. So I guess the message here doesn’t have to be abstinence but moderation. If you’ve got high-end Windows-only applications that you can’t live without and which require 3D hardware acceleration, then you’re pretty much stuck, but any other 2D Windows apps tend to work just fine under virtualisation (Flash, Photoshop, Office etc). The only thing that’s not so good under Linux is gaming (and this can be a deal breaker for many people), but if I want to game these days I just get on the 360 or PS3 anyways, and if PC gaming’s really your thing then you can always run a large number Windows games under Wine.

If you’re going to try out a *nix, most distros (Linux distributions i.e. flavours of Linux) allow you to try out the OS entirely from CD or DVD and make zero changes to your hard drive, and then you can install it later if you like, or not. Linux will also happily sit beside Windows in a dual-boot configuration so you can choose which OS to boot at startup. One thing to add though is that you shouldn’t judge the performance you get from a live distro instance as anywhere near the performance you’ll get from a proper install – running an OS from a disc (as opposed to hard drive) is really pretty slow and clunky, but the facility exists if you just want to have a look around, or take a Linux distro around with you. A better solution (even for trialling a distro) would be to find a USB stick which is a couple of GB in size, and then install the distro to that and boot it. If that appeals, then a list of USB compatible distros can be found here (Ubuntu’s included via the bundled usb-creator tool).

The main problem with trying to convert people to *nix (apart from the whole zealotry thing, and that Windows users are commonly happy with their lot, as they [usually] don’t know how much better things can be) is that it’s different to Windows. The interface is different, things work a little differently, and if something doesn’t work perfectly out of the box then it can be tricky for newcomers to fix. Also, nobody likes change – so there’s definitely an inertia thing involved too. But if you stick with it, put in a little time and effort, and look up how to fix stuff on sites like UbuntuForums, you’ll be rewarded ten-fold with an OS that does exactly what you want, when you want it done, quickly and stably – for free!

There are stacks of distributions out there, geared towards things like multimedia, stability, security, flexibility or ease-of-use – why not have a look to see if there’s one there that speaks to you? I mean, what have you got to lose? If I had to recommend one, I’d have to say most standard to advanced users should be happy enough with either stock Ubuntu or Linux Mint (a customised version of Ubuntu with tweaks and improvements for eye-candy and ease-of-use).

Finally, if you want to see how people have customised their *nix desktops, check out UnixPorn (tagline: It’s not Porn, it’s Unix!) – I even have an old desktop up there

Bonus Gubbins: That UnixPorn desktop was kinda old and Windows-y, so I’ve just posted my current desktop setup which uses Jix’s Artistic Wallpaper HD no logo along with Kouri1977′s Streets theme for conky (which uses the bring tha noize and the B.O.M.B fonts):

The CPU/RAM etc. counters along the bottom update at 1 second intervals - conky is sweet =D

Anyways, if you’re not already converted, are you maybe tempted? If not, why not? I’d love to know, and as always, comments/flames are always welcome =D

The Kinect has really fired people’s imaginations and there’s some great work happening right now – I can’t wait until I become a part of it =D

1.) The OpenNI library working with the Kinect to perform skeletal mapping:

2.) Using gestures and voice commands to navigate medical imagery:

3.) Apparently Microsoft are working on modifying the Kinect to quadruple its 3D sensing (structured light camera) accuracy from 320×200 to 640×480, at which point it will be able to detect fingers and other small features: ms-quadrupling-kinect-accuracy [eurogamer].

The Kinect just came out in Australia today, so I’m already a little bit late to the party, but I’m keen to see what I can do with it so I went and picked one up earlier – a couple of minutes after unboxing and it’s happily working with Linux. Awesome =D

The GLView example running on LibFreenect

Anyways, here’s what you need to do to build the library for yourself:

1. Using synaptic or apt-get, install the following packages: libusb1.0-dev, freeglut3-dev, git, cmake

   sudo apt-get install libusb1.0-dev freeglut3-dev git cmake

It’s possible you may need to install some other packages as well depending on what you currently have or don’t have installed, but if you need anything additional then cmake will let you know about it when you get to that step.

2. Download the libFreenect source code using git (this will make a directory for you called libfreenect):

   git clone https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect.git

3. Make a directory inside the c folder where you’ve downloaded the libFreenect source code and use cmake to configure the build:

   cd libfreenect/c mkdir build cd build cmake ..

4. Actually compile the library:

   make

That’s it – you’re done!

Now you can check out what the kinect’s seeing by going into the examples directory (which will now exist at ~/libfreenect/build/examples) and running ./glview as root:

cd examples
sudo ./glview

I think we’re going to have a lot of fun with this… =D