Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Well, I've finally got the 3D math figured out I think. It's not that it's hard or anything, it's just that I haven't done it in a very long time. But I've got it sorted out now… so I'm moving into doing the actual simulator code (before it was really a simulator of a simulator). After that comes moving the code over onto the microcontrollers and starting to fly for real.
There's some pretty revolutionary stuff in this project, so I suppose I should do some patent filing before I blabber on about it too much publicly. But to make a long story short, I've designed a high speed scanning/mapping engine that can, at extremely high speed, create fully texture mapped vector representations of cities and buildings.
Multiple robots can fly in networked chaotic formation in order to increase the effective resolution and area covered in a given time. They can also be dropped out of a moving platform (back of a truck, back of a plane, whatever), and they can return to that platform autonomously afterwards (assuming they have fuel left; they are designed to be semi-disposible). They can broadcast these maps live to a central computer, which can be fed into, among other things, first-person combat simulators.
The early goal is to allow strike forces to accurately practice in the environment they are about to enter. Why would I — someone who fundamentally objects to war — be involved in something like this? Because this type of technology saves lives on both sides — especially civilian lives. Since I can't stop war, maybe I can, in some little way, make it a little less costly.
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
So… the 911 panel has said that Bush and his team “saw repeated warnings” and that the “system was blinking red” (more). Now, most of them have also maintained that there's nothing that could have been done about the attacks even if Bush had responded in some way — “We all understood (Osama) bin Laden's intent to strike the homeland but were unable to translate this knowledge into an effective defense of the country”. But where it gets a bit disturbing is when you see the CIA saying under oath that the US still doesn't have the ability to defend against al Qaeda, and it will take “another five years of work to have the kind of clandestine service our country needs.” (more)
The question is — what is that clandestine service?
There are two ways to fight terrorism. You either fight its root causes (whether you believe it's that terrrorists “hate our rock'n'roll” or you believe it's that terrorists “hate that we are occupying their countries and stealing their natural resources”), or you kill every single person that doesn't agree with you. Bush has chosen the latter, authorizing “decisive force” (more).
Remember, you can't just stamp out terrorism in one country. Terrorism of this type is not defined by national borders. The simple fact that there are cells all over Europe, America, Canada, and the rest of the world shows that. So if they want to play the “decisive force” game, they are going to have to be poised to strike with decisive force at US citizens and other citizens of “friendly” nations. That is the only way this can play out. So at a minimum, stop thinking that privacy is a right.
It's either that, or address the root causes.
Oh, and here's the big question that no one is asking right now in all these panels. It's the one that I want to see asked of Bush or Condi or someone… Why were those airplanes known to be hijacked for an extended period before any action was taken?
Other than that I started five heavy mod (and heavy play) interviews today, and I hope to do another five by the end of tomorrow. It's actually a lot harder work than you'd think coming up with good questions to ask people about their mods!!!
On a suggestion from Perk900 I've made it so the top-left key on your keyboard (the tilde key) also activates these functions (if you have them turned on)… that will keep it from aborting the load of the page (so you can see the hotkeys before the load is complete). And yes, my keyboard really is that dirty. I spilled coffee on it among other things…
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.
Anyway, she's used it as an excuse to fire up her
clothing line (and related anti-suicide BMX project) and I told her I'd be happy to mention it here… So check it out if you're interested. (Yes, I know I've told the intro to the story once before).
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.
