Category: Life

So It Begins

John Winkelman

This morning I spent a couple of hours planting the last of my salsa plants for the year. I have twelve pepper plants in the ground, and three tomato plants in containers.

070520_peppers_1
I have eight plants in my front bed, six of which are visible in this photo.

070520_peppers_2
Four more plants are in the back, near my recently-planted Arborvitae at the north end of my property

070520_tomatos
The tomatoes were a spur-of-the moment decision, and will supposedly thrive in the pots.

The pepper plants are as follows:
1 Red Cherry
1 Kung Pao
1 Hungarian Wax
1 Concho
1 Serrano
1 Pimienta “Cowhorn”
2 Anaheim TMR 23
2 Super Cayenne II
2 Jalapeño

The tomatoes are as follows:
1 Amish paste tomato
2 San Marzano paste tomatoes

That’s right: twelve pepper plants this year. I had three last year, and they did amazingly well in containers. This year I wanted something a little more aesthetically pleasing, as well as manageable, considering my limited space. I do not expect all of them to thrive, but the ones that do bear fruit at the end of summer will help me to learn where to plant things next year.

I have a couple of unused containers left over from last year, so if I find any more interesting/promising pepper seedlings, I may put them to some use.

Le Car Est Mort!

John Winkelman

070501_saturn

This here is a picture of my Saturn. It is totaled. Can you tell?

Thursday last, which is to say April 19, I was on my way in to work at about 8:30 in the morning. I was driving west on Michigan Street, approaching the intersection with Lafayette, when a city bus ion the oncoming left-turn lane turned in front of me heading north. I slowed down to give it room to get through, and as the bus completed its maneuver, the traffic light turned yellow.

So rather than run a red light, I stopped.

I saw the grill in my rear-view mirror about one second before a big white SUV slammed into the back of my car and pushed me all the way through the intersection and into a car in the oncoming left-turn lane. I remember pushing myself back into my seat to protect my neck, and then I was laying flat in the back seat of my car staring up at the roof. I felt my car moving, then it hit something and stopped.

I lay there for a couple of seconds, waiting for pain to kick in. Nothing happened. So I flexed my back and neck. No pain or stiffness. I moved my arms and legs around. Everything seemed okay. So I sat up and looked out the rear passenger window.

Next to me, about a foot away, was the drivers’ side window of the car I had been pushed into. On the other side of that window was a very confused woman who had just (from her point of view) seen an empty Saturn hit her car, then some dude suddenly appear in the back seat.

If you are not familiar with Grand Rapids, I should point out that the intersection of Michigan and Lafayette is the focal point of what we are starting to call the “medical mile”; a hill chock-full of hospitals and medical research facilities. If you can manage it, I highly recommend getting in a car accident outside a hospital. Even if you are not hurt, there are doctors EVERYWHERE!

It took me a moment to extricate myself from my car (which was still running!) because I had to crawl through the passenger door to get out. I grabbed my laptop and stood up. Still no pain. Good enough for the moment.

The SUV which had hit me was stopped on the other side of the intersection. The front bumper was caved in, the grill was smashed and unseated, and the engine was making a nasty grinding noise. At this point someone told me “You better turn you car off.” Oh, yeah. It was still running. And in gear.

A few people came over to see if I was okay (which I was). The SUV suddenly moved ahead and, engine sounding like a strangling velociraptor, pulled into a driveway. The driver got out and limped over to me, in tears, near hysterics, and apologizing like there was no tomorrow.

She had seen – she said – the bus turn, and was so focused on it that she never noticed that my car had stopped for the light.

BAM!

She was in worse shape than I was, physically and emotionally. We talked for a bit while waiting for the police, and she eventually got herself under control.

The police dude came and took our statements, a tow trucked was called for the SUV, and I got ready to head in to work. My car seemed to still be running just fine. The trunk was popped and would no longer latch, and the drivers’ side mirror was torn off; and there was a long gouge along the side of my car where I had scraped against the oncoming left-turn lady. Well, nothing too earth-shaking – just a $500 deductible and a couple of weeks for repairs.

As I was pulling up the steep slope to the parking lot at work I discovered that the ratchet which holds the back of the driver’s seat in place was stripped. There I was again, flat on my back in a moving car.

Long story short: cars like Saturns, which have lots of fiberglass in the body, tend to not show all of the catastrophic damage which happens in violent accidents like the one I had just survived. The assessor dude took one look at my car and said “Oh, boy.”

“What?”

“Your frame is bent.”

“Nunh-uh!”

“See how the driver-side doors are all kind of hard to open, and the passenger-side doors have kind of a gap around them?”

“yeah…”

“Bent frame.”

So it was. The SUV had accordion-ed in the left side of my frame, bending my car into a very slight (but irreversible) banana shape.

And I only had five more months before it was paid off.

I should also point out that this all happened the day before I had to drive to Toronto for a four-day conference. I have spent the last two weeks driving around a rented Mazda 3, which is a fine ride, but it seems too light; all of the parts seem less substantial than they might be, as if the car were made of recycled aluminum, or something.

Which brings me up to now: Tomorrow I will pick up my new car, and post photos and its pedigree. I appear to have no lasting damage from the accident; sixteen years of kung fu practice have taught me how to take a fall, which was essentially what happened to me in the accident. Oddly, this is the second time I have had a car totaled in an accident where my training kept me from being hurt badly. I guess, in a town full of crazy drivers like Grand Rapids, it’s good to have an edge.

FiTC: Notes from Papervision3D

John Winkelman

introducing papervision3D
carlos ulloa
www.papervision3d.org
blog.papervision3d.org
wiki.papervision3d.org

open source 3d library or Flash

genesis: Spark conference Amsterdam 2005
-presentation by joost korngold – renascent

2006.12.02 – papervision went open source
-papervision license: MIT license – free for commercial use
-open-sourced so that people could use it

2006.12.10
ralph hauwert – the guy who built he rhino

core team: carlos ulloa, John Grdner, Ralph Hauwert

COMMUNITY has been very important. Feedback has been invaluable

WHY PAPERVISION?
-powerful: Flash 3d is extremely difficult to do well.
-easy to use : people should be able to pick it up quickly, immediately be useful
-production driven design
-high performance realtime 3d rendering
-linear texture mapping per face
-hierarchy, instances, materials management

EASY TO USE
-useful for developers and designers
-designed for Flash
-AS3-style syntax -3d objects should not be more complex than movieclips
-no maths required defaults to using degrees

-you can use your own 3d package
-create and modify without recompiling
-preview your scenes in realtime

COLLADA – data format
-open standard
-XML based
-scene format
-multiple objects and textures per scene

-supports camera, materials, paths, tween & skeleton animation, physics
-originally created by Sony for PS3 and PSP-now property of Khronos

Free plugins available for Maya, 3dsm, softimage XSI, and Blender
-adopted by many commercial game studios, game engines, and Google Earth
-Thanks, Collada!

METAPHOR which we use in papervision
-in a computer, 3d data must be rendered in 3d

1. Scene (stage) -> Objects (thing) -> materials (look and feel) ->
2. Scene -> Camera (viewpoint)

OBJECT
org.papervision3d.objects
displayobject3d -> xyz pos, xys rotation, scale, scale xyz, visible, name, parent, root

3d model
-created by a 3d artist in a 3d package (GENERALLY NOT DESIGNED BY THE DEVELOPER)

planes
-planes moving in 3d, mimicking a 3d object

Primitives
-cube, sphere, cone, cylinder

Skybox
-panorama

Particles
-e.g. stars

Materials
org.papervision3d.materials
Textures
-bitmapdata, MC, library assets, jpg, png, flv
-Photoshop CS3 extended

Cameras
-the location from which the scene is being viewed
org.papervision3d.cameras
extends displayobject3d
-target – a thing the camera follows

ONE LINE OF CODE
-each behavior can be implemented with one line of code
-Flash CS3 component in the works

MORE COMING SOON
animation
-Tim Knip – skeleton animation
-Jim Armstrong – classes for hands, arms, etc.

MATERIALS
-visual quality
-z-flat shading : quick, easy, not the best
-phong shading
-z-flat shading textured implementation
-phong shading

-argh! Too many ways of rendering to copy down!

BumpMapping

COMING SOON
Normalmapping – high poly to low poly without datsa loss
specular maps – reflection mapping
cubic environment mapping – thing the Terminator 2
Mip-Maps
Real silhouettes/outline shading..not cheating using a filter
plugin structure for custom materials
lighting structures
shadow structures
z-buffer(?)

PERFORMANCE
current RC2 speed increase: 20%

better clipping, fogging, depth queuing

Demo reel: HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!

[also lots of photos of the screen]

FiTC: Notes from Experience Information

John Winkelman

Experience Information
Marcos Weskamp
www.marumushi.com

-one number really doesn’t mean anything until compared to another number

wikipedia: information visualization

many different ways of visualizing a dataset.
many different datasets can be included in one visualization

Voronoi diagram — look this up

data can be both useful and beautiful

[.eps printouts of dynamic visualizations]

PARSE
ANALYSE
reduce
organize
learn
VISUALIZE
difference
contextualize
reduce

PROJECT: Wieden + Kennedy (www.wk.com)
used QT back in 2001.
brought in MW for a re-build of their site

anything can be information
in any data source, decide what the information points are, and create the interface based on which aspect of the data is most important

APPLICATION ARCHITECTURE

Justin Lewis, Instrument — www.instrum3nt.com

“restful” : CMA
-RoR /Ajax
-beautiful

[I need to dive into Flex]

EXPERIMENT EXPERIMENT EXPERIMENT!!!!!!!

DIGG API EXPERIMENT

FiTC: Introducing the Chumby

John Winkelman

Introducing the Chumby
Steve Tomlin CEO
Duane Maxwell Head of Software Engineering
www.chumby.com

What is Chumby?

-still in Alpha-level prototype
-A device
-a company
-a media (widget) network

-plug powered, wifi connected
-connects to Chumby network
-runs Flash Lite 2.1.1, eventually Flash Lite 3

Flash Lite community
-Chumby team
business partner
flash community at large

Why is Chumby?
-some stuff on internet is REALLY important to us
-we can’t spend all day in front of our computers
-but we want the internet around us all the time
-PCs require interaction and full attention and don’t integrate well into our lives
-smartphones don’t PUSH, they PULL
-think “look at your watch” rather than “browse on a PC”
-we want a lot of info in our lives

Chumby: the religion
-make it inexpensive
-make it powerful
-make it “open”

SO WHAT’S THE DEAL FOR US?
-we sell Chumbys as close to cost as possible
-Chumbys display, they don’t store—always connected to Chumby network
-network grows: more widgets

WHAT’S THE DEAL FOR JOHN WINKELMAN (DEVELOPER)?
-we create audience for your work
unlike mobile phone ecosystems, Chumby is open
-no taxes, no publishers, no carrier certification, no deck placement issues
-i.e. fewer middlemen
-Chumby is viral; Chumby content providers retain total control of their content; think of it as Chumby having a license for our work

WIDGETS
if widgets are good, they should be available everywhere
-virtual Chumbys in MySpace, apple dashboard, cellphones, etc.
-widgets should be everywhere, and Flash is more fun

NEW CHUMBY INFORMATION!!!!!!!
-price $165, +$9.95 s&h
-if it is cheaper, we will lose $$
-no additional fees
-no subscriptions
-accessories (chumBling)
-new classic colors, plus limited editions

-accessories to customize chumby (currently 1 USB port, later probably 2)
[input from stuff talked about in “making it physical” ]
-FM radio adapter
-IPOD

-launch this summer with Flash Lite III
-Flash video & audio
-based on Flash 8

WE NEED YOUR HELP
-create and upload cool Flash Lite Widgets
-stay in touch with us (blogs, forms, wikis)
-move to San Diego and work for us!

CHUMBY TECHNICAL SPECS
3 versions of Chumby
-foo — prototype last august
-katamari — 2nd gen prototype
-ironforge (production)

[photo of lots of screens — too much info to type]

Chumbys talk loudly over LANs

-Chumby doesn’t need to be on network to test new hardware/software

-public widgets are hosted on chumby server, but content that Chumby displays can be pulled from anywhere

-the CHUMBY is going to be freaking cool!

-Chumby native resolution is 320 x 240px, but it is Flash, so it is vector

-ads will be more sponsors, rather than commercials
-“chumBooty” — offer for stuff, ring tone, scavenger hunt clue, etc.
-“advertoon” think YouTube, but with advertising
-ads will keep the bandwidth free.
-possible future subscription for people who don’t want ads at all.
-“we’re trying not to screw it up and make it annoying”
-pin-out for larger LCD? Yes, info on forum.
-video — playing 12fps full screen takes up 60% CPU, on the alpha build of Chumby

-Chumby network — limited to Flash files
-a lot of work has gone into privacy/security, so there won’t be any Benedict Chumbys

FiTC: Notes from Building Casual Games in Flash

John Winkelman

Building Casual Games in Flash
Philip Kerrman
philipkerrman.com/fitc/

Built most of these games for MSN messenger.

Casual Game: “Carefree game”

<50 megabytes
try -> explore -> buy

“adver-game”
-either fully sponsored (branded up the wazoo) or maybe a subtle watermark, or an ad you have to see before you play

casual games are not usually done in Flash—more often director/java, etc.

Casual game -> you pay for
advergame -> client pays for it

casual game market is HUGE, >50% women

a casual game will sell for ~$20

try/buy conversion rate:
>2% is a hit
1-2% is the norm
<1% is poor

portals will pay the author ~30%

Advergames
-usually work for hire
-simply skinning an existing game isn’t popular
-wide range of money-making opportunities for free games with advertising
-banner ads
-in-game sponsorship
-pre game ad
-in-game (break-time) ad

ARMS RACE
-more and more advanced graphics
-increased user expectations

XBLA—6m xbox users
-try but — very frictionless
-they say 75k – 300k to produce a game
-certification
-games sell for $10
conversion rates around 30-35%
-better revenue share: 50/50 or better
-gatekeepers

WINDOW LIVE MESSENGER
-250m users
15 unique game users per month
-potentially 30-35m players
30% average yearly growth

-subscriptions
-ad revenue

NOMENCLATURE
Up sell — try version gives you a nag screen to buy the full version

frictionless —

Portals — “publishers” for your casual games.
-big portals take a bigger cut, but tend to be more stable and more trustworthy

badges/achievements — visible “pride” based declaration of your awesomeness at a game

ADAPT YOUR SKILLS
-use the appropriate tools for the target market

TECHNICAL STUFF

1. GAME MUST BE FUN!!!!!
2. user experience
2. user experience
4. user experience

USABILITY
MS Games prototyped using PAPER mockups of all the screens

Casual games often have to live within a framework, which YOU have to adjust to, because THEY won’t change it for you.

You will need to include “ad breaks” functionality in your game

You are living in reality
-lean toward the lowest common denominator

MULTI-PLAYER
-griefing situations
-race conditions
-technical limits
-home-made random seed
-turn-based is MUCH easier
-don’t underestimate difficulty involved
2 player game > single player game * 2

AI
-many different ways of thinking about it

PORTING OF GAMES
-many many many venues in which a game can live

LOCALIZATION — allow for many different fonts, lengths of words
-this could be the hardest/most frustrating part of the development

CHEATS
-think of them as “hints”

-Keep the number of server requests to a minimum.
-synchronizing is difficult, but very important
-if two people perform an action on an object at the same time, before the info is sent to the server
-learn ways to make data smaller so it gets sent faster, especially in situations where a lot of info is constantly going back and forth

GRIEVING — one person quits, the other stays on, expecting to play

Games need to be bulletproof, and they need to talk loudly but briefly to the server

[jigsaw game] — every piece has the same registration point: 0:0. Even if it is visually all thee way across the stage, it is a small visible portion of a big empty movie clip

-international portal games can have a long development process