Stuart's Thoughts

Modelling Update

2006-05-08T22:58:00.000+10:00

Just an update on my latest project. I'm pretty happy so far as this is the first car I've tried modelling. Still has a fair way to go yet, as you can see with some pinching here and there + the lighting bounces off a little funny. Right now its time for some sleep...

Film RIP

2006-04-28T20:04:00.000+10:00

Sorry guys, I've deleted my film blog. I hadn't updated it since October 2005 and I've watched about 30 movies since then :\ Ciao :)

Mags Anyone?

2006-04-25T22:00:00.000+10:00

Hi all. Heres a 3D update for you. I've been started to learn how to polygon model properly. Not sure how long it'll last cause I don't really have that much time on my hands these days. But here you go anyways, a WIP...

Lightsaber

2005-12-22T16:17:00.000+11:00

I just saw the Star Wars kid on Google VOTD, poor guy. But I saw someone mod it and put in the actual lightsaber effect which looked pretty cool. So I tried my own version (or this version, for a larger effect but not fully composited yet) to see if it was possible (right-click and save target, then change extension to .mov ;) I had to get around the free host file type restrictions)

Guitar+Tuner

2005-12-21T20:01:00.000+11:00

Guess what everyone? I got a guitar :) Thanks to humf for givin' me the run down on the models in my price range (since I can't, as of yet, play one). I also got a digital tuner so I don't sound unco. What I didn't know at the time is that its a Roland tuner which can tune pretty much any instrument. Pretty cool, huh? ('cause I need that feature and all ;)
I'd show you a pic of the actual guitar but its wrapped up under the tree :\ Bye!!

Uni Graduation: Reloaded

2005-12-18T11:11:00.000+11:00

Huzzah!! My turn for graduation. Funnily enough, it was very similar to Renee's graduation: speeches, presentation, speeches, food. You can probably guess my favourite part of the whole affair...

So to those who also graduated on the day, congratulations!! We finally made it. Now it's time to start thinking about the real world after our 15+ years schooling :

Almost There

2005-12-15T10:30:00.000+11:00

Another job bites the dust. This one was some concept sketches for a local real estate agent. Now all that's left is this website...

One Down...

2005-11-26T13:00:00.000+11:00

Ok, I can pretty much tick this item off my list of things to do. "This" would be the one and only Roster Designer 2005 program that I wrote for Racing Services. You can add meetings, roster stewards on to meetings, reorder meetings/stewards, modify them, and export reports. It has a save system built in and a (relatively) comprehensive warning/error system. For example, you could roster steward X on to a meeting on the 3rd of the month, and then accidentally roster them on to a different meeting on the same day - at which point a warning message would alert you to this fact. Pretty cool :) Since I signed a confidentiality agreement, I've sanitised the image and removed people's names ;)

Electrical Storm

2005-11-26T08:49:00.000+11:00

Hi all, just a quick post today - we had a cool storm last night and I thought I might try taking a pic of the lightning. Out of 16 photos, 4 were lit up, and only this one had any visible forks in it :)

A Weeks Work

2005-11-25T18:42:00.000+11:00

As you've probably seen, our house is in the process of being tiled... well it was. It's now finished and all we need to do is move all the furniture back in (and dispose of the destruction caused by ripping up the old floors). So here's a little pic of our foyer area from start to finish.

Exam Results

2005-11-25T09:31:00.000+11:00

It's that time of year again and what a year it was. I must say my results are much better than previous years - probably because I have no fine arts units in there. So here they are:


Code    Unit Name                       Sem Mark Code
-----------------------------------------------------
KXA351  Software Engineering Project A   1   80   HD
KXA358  Human-Computer Interaction       1   90   HD
KXA359  Knowledge-Based Systems          1   91   HD
KXE131  Introduction to Electronics      1   92   HD
KXA352  Software Engineering Project B   2   86   HD
KXA355  Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing  2   81   HD
KXA357  Programming Paradigms            2   92   HD
KXA362  Computer Security                2   84   HD

So as you can imagine, I'm pretty happy with those results :) It's good to go out with a bang. Huzzah!! Thanks to Humphrey for his uni marks graph template :) Looks like I've been getting better over the last 3 years ;)

FYI

2005-11-22T22:03:00.000+11:00

Hi all

I've been pretty busy lately and haven't been getting in touch with the usual guys (my bad :\ ). Currently on my agenda is:

A program to create rosters for Racing Services
A very basic In/Out program for personnel tracking
A local sports website
Conceptual art for a new housing design
And something to do with an animated restuarant menu for another local business

In the midst of this my PC has been playing up - I think I've narrowed it down to something to do with the SATA drive... I'm keeping a weekly backup of all work as a result (at least!!!). And all this work has been postponed the last couple of days because our house is being tiled (as you can see in the pic :). Plus I still owe Humphrey a bushwalk ;) I'll finish this work in the next week or so...

(I accidentally smashed the light while breaking up those tiles :)

Haunted Mansion

2005-11-02T20:52:00.000+11:00

Humphrey just put up his old college graphics animation so I thought I'd do the same. Unfortunately, about 3 years ago, I reformatted and lost all the source files. So I've recompressed the old compressed video which I submitted. Ugly? Yes. Unfortunately, the Yahoo storage I'm using has a 5mb limit - so you have to put up with a bad framerate aswell. Sorry guys, hopefully you can see through the pixelation.

View Animation (Quicktime, 4.5MB) - Sorry, need to find a host before you can download it :(

Stupid Computers

2005-10-28T18:16:00.000+11:00

I've finally figured out what's wrong with my PC (with help from the usual gang). In short, my hard disks are overheating, causing my computer to run extremely slowly and cause errors in the files I create. I've now remedied the problem by doing the following:

Ripped out the floppy disk drive
Pulled the Thermaltake case fan out and jammed it in the front of the drive bay
Drilled holes in the case so I could fasten the hard disks
Hooked up the fan and hard disks and opened up all bay covers on the front of the box

The result? A 20°C drop in temperature and a stable system once again :)

Motherboard 41 °C (106 °F)
CPU 19 °C (66 °F)
MAXTOR 6L040J2 34 °C (93 °F)
WDC WD2000JD-00HBB0 27 °C (81 °F)

Still Alive

2005-09-20T00:03:00.000+10:00

What's this layer of dust here?! Sorry, haven't posted in a while, but I'm still kickin'. Here's a quick run down of the last couple of weeks:
- School

That about sums it up. Well I might have to update my film reviews. Yep, that's what I'll do; I'll have a shower.

Melbourne Mayhem

2005-09-07T18:01:00.000+10:00

As part of our Uni break, the project team went on a trip to Melbourne. This was actually arranged about 4 months ago and we got $60/return flights (sweet :) Those of you who want awesomeness details, check out Tom's or Humphrey's blog. For those who are in a hurry, check out our DVD below ;) In Stores Now!

A New Blog

2005-08-30T23:37:00.000+10:00

Hi guys. Right onto business, I've created a new blog over at postfilm.blogspot.com which I've dedicated to film reviews. Since the whole reason I got my surround sound setup was to watch movies, I may aswell give them the credit they deserve. Enjoy!

Who Am I?

2005-08-29T15:49:00.000+10:00

So Tom did a Nerd/Geek/Dork test and I thought I'd better give it a go aswell. Here's the damage:

Joe Normal
39 % Nerd, 21% Geek, 21% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.

A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.

A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

You scored less than half in all three, earning you the title of: Joe Normal.

This is not to say that you don't have some Nerd, Geek or Dork inside
of you--we all do, and you can see the percentages you have right
above. This is just to say that none of those qualities stand out so
much as to define you. Sure, you enjoy an episode of Star Trek
now and again, and yeah, you kinda enjoyed a few classes back in the
day. And, once in a while, you stumble while walking down the street
even though there was nothing there to cause you to trip. But, for the
most part, you look and act fairly typically, and aren't much of an
outcast.

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 19% on nerdiness
You scored higher than 20% on geekosity
You scored higher than 22% on dork points

Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on Ok Cupid

Shouldn't You Be Here?

2005-08-20T11:56:00.000+10:00

Hi all

Well after 8 months our bathroom is finally complete. Half that time we were without a shower, and I can tell you baths get pretty boring pretty quickly.

Anyways, now you have to ask yourself, "Shouldn't you be here?" Or is it, "Lost, the best place to be." I'll let you decide ;)

Desktop Fun

2005-08-15T22:21:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone, just thought you might want a new desktop. So those of you in Computing @ UTas, you can feel at home... at home. Yeah, anyways...

Uni Graduation

2005-08-13T22:15:00.000+10:00

Not mine of course, I graduate at the end of the year (what? you didn't know?). This was for my sister. It wasn't a bad ceremony, although I didn't listen to all the speech's, they were boooring. I did see some lecturers from my degree, Computing, so that was fun. Then it was over to Inveresk for free food. I thought I'd better try everything just so I knew what to get at the end of the year ;)

Anyway, I'm just procrastinating from doing this Computer Security assignment, so back to it. Ciao.

The beginning...

2005-08-10T12:13:00.000+10:00

This is my first post dudes, I'm going to check out these options. See ya soon guys