After some deep brow rubbing and a headache, the realisation is that the funtional aspect of the toolbar will not be able to be demonstrated so time has been spent making an animation that was as natural as possible. Based on mouse clicks starting animations when others have completed but also inclusing text input and browser functions.
A test has just been run with a piece of online screen recording software called ScreenToaster and a small animation.
The results were automatically uploaded and are now displayed below. Just click the full screen icon to automatically play in full screen.
Microsoft announced at E3 this year that the Xbox Dashboard would be getting revamped, more than that, it would be getting replaced by a newer supposedly better user interface. There are two parts of this that I am interested in, one being what the new interface will be, what new features it will have and how I will feel about the console I have come to know and love changing. The other is the fact that Microsoft is updating millions of Xboxes all over the world with nothing more than a download via the internet – something that I find staggering as the Xbox Live system will only be down for 24 hours.
Judging from the keynote speach at E3, the change will be a big one but not necessarily a good one. The new interface is drab – grey and black, not the colourful one that greets me currently. Lovely oranges, reds purples, greens and blues will be banished in favour of a more PS3 meets Wii style menu.
Next is the introduction of avatars. The most annoying creation of recent years in my opinion. You can spend half an hour creating a virtual character that is ridiculous and looks nothing like you. Designed so you can share more of your personality with the online community. No thanks. With the new interface when I sign in to Xbox Live and go to my ‘buddy list’ , god help me the American influence, I will now see stupid characters standing around on the screen instead of a list of friends. Is that better user experience? I think not.
This new interface is designed to make the Xbox more family friendly and in doing so will alienate many of its fans. I much prefer the existing Dashboard and even that of the PS3 which is clean, slick and easily navigated. In changing this, the most basic of functionality, Microsoft is trying to take some market share away from the family friendly Wii but will inevitabley dilute it’s niche market and will gamers struggle to identify with the console.
Best Feature: The ability to rip your games to your hard drive for faster loading times and reduced lag.
Worst Feature: Avatars. Trying to compete with second life, PS3’s HOME and the Wii means once again Microsoft have shown they have no imagination or creativity of their own and are simply copying the other guy.
In other words i think Microsoft have shot themselves in the foot with this one, but the technical skills involved with doing so are so mindboggling that I can;t wait to try it out.
I found this ad on YouTube. Its pretty lame really but Microsoft has spent $300 million on a new ad campaign with the ‘…and I’m a PC’ guy from the Apple ads in a similar style. I’m looking forward to seeing those.
Someone in the marketing department should be fired…
I love Robot Chicken. It’s official.
I knew Robot Chicken was made by the people that do Family Guy, and I knew that it was stop motion but for some reason I had never watched any of it until my holiday when I put two seasons of it on my iPod.
I think it is definitely on par with Family Guy, maybe even edged it a bit becuase it was new and unexpected. I laughed so very hard at the Star Wars special they did, not about the actual Star Wars storylines, more about the storylines around the outer edge of Star Wars, things that could be infurred as true from the films.
Below is one of the funniest things I have seen in a while. I love Star Wars and I love comedy, you have to have seen Star Wars a few times to understand the comedy in this. So I hope you have.
I was just having a browse through Apple’s film trailers as I normally do and I was taken aback by a film titled ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’. Considering that the 1951 film of the same name is one of my all time favourites I was hoping that this would be a remake rather than a completely unrelated film. To my delight it turned out that it will be a remake but now the problem is whether they will do the original justice or make a hash of it instead.
The original film was based on a book by Harry Bates called “Farewell To Master” and the film obvioulsy uses some creative license and includes things not spcifically in the book and also leaves out something at the end (Gort reveals he is the master and not Klaatu). The 2008 remake is rumoured to follow more closely to the book but should be a pretty accurate representation of the original film set in the present.
As sci-fi films often reflect the current social / political climate showing the hopes and fears of that generation it is no surprise to find that the film is about escalation of violence and what the consequences of that hold considering the times at wich the original was made. The original film was made after WWII and the remake will be released with the war on Terror being at its most prevailent.
I am looking forward to this (released December 12th) but I feel that it won’t be quite as good as the original but should be visually stunning. Oh and Keanu Reeves stars as Klaatu.
I found this amazing YouTube video in which someone draws a werewolf from scratch in Photoshop. I wish I could do this!
Needed to do today:
- Need to ‘bang’ through a single number without it constantly updating.
- Send messages from Flash to Max.
- Playback from collisions in Flash.
To start with the Beta that had been the focus of our efforts had ‘broken’ as certain tweaking had meant that a few files had been edited for the worse.
After much painstaking research into how to only bang through a number once, the help of Stewart was enlisted and he helped us understand the logical way to do it, then we helped him understand why that wasn’t possible in Max. So together we overcame the ’single number bang’ issue and the project was then able to progress. (See 1 Below.)
Thankfully sending of information from Flash to Max didn’t appear to be a difficult one but the reference was less than comprehensive. The problem was not sending the information as we could ‘print’ the information in the Max window to confirm that information was transmitting, it was getting that information into the patcher window and then doing something with it.
It was the [remote] function that was needed and when turned on allowed a receive object reference in the Flash actionscript to receive a message. Further problems arose when Flash tried to send the ball number on collision as you can just insert the variable so 10 different functions needed to be created to send each number when called. (See 2 Above)
This linked to the playback patcher in Max, which was straight forward linking to the already existing playback setup.
Here is a video of the RC1 in operation in its proposed display space.
See also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ7EiZLmqIM
I was browsing around YouTube to find some videos about Microsoft surface to post about the actual point of it all as I was discussing today that the only thing you can do with most touch screens is look at photos, resize them and have a really cluttered desktop. Anyway, I came across the promotional video here which I recommend you watch but then I came across the video below which is a parody of the ad.
…and so you don’t think I just hate Macs, I also hate Microsoft… I am doomed.
Normally when you hear about tracking you just assume that it’s a very expensive piece of kit or a highly sophisticated algorithm. Well Cam-Trax is sophisticated but with its simplicity.
The system allows you to control anything you like by tracking an object’s colours. You will understand when you watch the video below. It seems very apt considering we are all experimenting with tracking in some form or another at the moment.
This is a really cool use of touch screens and interactive visuals in a DJ music environment. This would have been great for Rave On Air and it seems to show great use of new digital media taking over again from the ‘analogue world’.
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