Granted » Geeky

Multi-touch for the desktop?

Grant — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:00:49 +0000

It’s just a concept at this stage, but Clayton Miller’s 10/GUI project is getting people’s attention. It proposes a way multi-touch might work in the desktop scenario – detached from the screen, like a giant trackpad, or tablet.

It’s hard to see it working perfectly, or being as universally applicable as the trusty mouse, but there’s certainly some good ideas there, some I’m sure we’ll see one way or another in years to come.

Media convergence XPLANEd

Grant — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:20:09 +0000

XPLANE are well known for their clarity-causing diagrams and illustrations. It’s nice to see them branching out into motion graphics like this one for The Economist’s Media Convergence conference.

Bang! Or not.

Grant — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:40:46 +0000

A slick short video about the origins of the universe. Funny that it’s called the big bang, when there’s no sound in space.

It still amazes me that some people spend so much time working out what happened all those billions of years ago – with the knowledge it may have little or no consequences to our everyday lives. I mean, I’m glad someone’s working on it – but I’m also glad it’s not me. Studying the human condition seems so much more appealing and practical. Don’t you agree?

Evolution 101

Grant — Thu, 28 May 2009 23:33:30 +0000

A well paced overview of evolution that responds to some of the most common misconceptions about it.

Reintroducing Montage-a-google

Grant — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:53:58 +0000

Over 5 years after it was initially launched, I’m happy to have a new version of Montage-a-google up for people to play with and enjoy. The new version has many of the features people have been asking for over the years:

Saving montages – It’s now easy to download a jpg of any montage you create.
Resizing – You can now make a montage as big as you like by simply resizing your browser window.
Bookmarkable – You can now bookmark or send a direct link to a specific montage.
Speed increases – I’ve been able to make many speed improvements with the port of the code to ActionScript3. Resizing and changing the tile size is now over 10x faster.
UI improvements – Montage-a-google is now easier to use than ever.

I hope you enjoy playing with the new version of Montage-a-google. I look forward to your feedback.

Vimeo’s fun with auto-tuning

Grant — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:32:30 +0000

Vimeo’s Auto Tuning video has been online for a couple of months now, but it’s still giving me joy. I thought it was worth sharing on the off chance someone’s missed it – although I suspect you need to be in the web-design scene to fully get it.

Moon Buggy Honeymoon

Grant — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:20:58 +0000

My friend Simon, being a poorly student but unfairly talented, decided to make Lorin and I a song for our wedding present. The song had to include specific words, phrases and concepts that we got to choose. Amazingly, he managed to pull it all together into this classic track called “Moon Buggy Honeymoon”. Listen to it by clicking the play button below.

Lyrics:

Moon Buggy Honeymoon
Grant and Lorin’s Wedding Present Song

Hey there Lozza and G, freshly married and busting with glee
I suggest one thing for your honeymoon, why not hoon with a buggy on the moon?
Relax about rock cavities; you can jump real far in moon gravity
Forget about flying saucers, your buggy has space mortars
When aliens spot you zipping along, they pause and they say:
“Our cruisers can’t repel firepower of that magnitude”
So sit back and enjoy the ride, and by the way,
Congratulations guys!

Bloody good effort Lozza and G
You’ve got yourself all married
Quite a clever move by you guys
Cause now you’ve got a friendship that the police will recognise

Congratulations
From here on in the church will bless your romancing
And even though this is written beforehand
I’m pretty sure the party’s gonna be awesome
But now it’s time for moon buggy adventuring

Moon buggy time go on get in
Time to take one for a spin
Guess who’s your driving instructor?
It’s Yoda, Jedi Master!
So yo Yoda, what have you got in store on the honeymoon moon cruise today?
“Things you will see, other places”
That’s sounds awesome, let’s cruise!
“Patience!”
But we’re ready to go…and you know what happened to Anakan when you held him back

Lunar navigation in your moon buggy
Starlight constellations make it easy to see
Women are from Eastbourne and men are from Timaru
We’re all in this together when we’re cruising on the moon

There’s no coverage for your iPhone
But Willis came along so you will never be alone
On the moon he’s no ordinary pet
He’s a galactic cosmic space cat!
But now it’s time for moon buggy adventuring

Yo Yoda, how about a solo on that space organ!

But now it’s time for popcorn and ice-cream

Yoda would just like to say one more thing
He said he’s checked his user interface, and that marmite is better than vegemite because it’s got more force in it
And he also said there is no one ring to rule them all…but then he winked.

Daddy, where did the internet come from?

Grant — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:20:26 +0000

An animated documentary explaining the inventions from time-sharing to file-sharing, from arpanet to internet. Via Read write web.

And you thought multi-touch was cool

Grant — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 01:34:52 +0000

From Fresh Creation: Tan Le, co-founder and president of Emotiv Systems, gives a live demo of a mind control device that uses a person’s thoughts to input computer commands.

Wikipedia – well worth supporting

Grant — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 05:16:16 +0000

I love Wikipedia. Sometimes I’ll end up referencing it several times in one day – and I bet you do too. It truly is an invaluable resource – and well worth supporting. Go on, click on the button below and donate a little cash to keep one of the best parts of the net going.