technology | μο.

6 12, 2008

Examined Life

By μο.|2016-01-12T21:10:51+02:00December 6th, 2008|documentaries, music, philosophy, research, technology|1 Comment

Examined Life takes philosophy out of the darkened corners of academia and into the hustle and bustle of the everyday, a visual reminder that great ideas are born through profound engagement with the world around us. It is directed by Astra Taylor, whose feature documentary portrait of world famous philosopher Slavoj Zizek, Zizek!, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2005. Examined Life interweaves fascinating “walks” with philosophers through places that hold special resonance for them and their ideas -- crowded city streets, deser ted alleyways, Central Park and even a garbage dump. The film is co-produced by Sphinx Productions, whose award-winning theatrical documentaries include Imagine the Sound (Best Documentary, Chicago Film Festival), Comic Book Confidential and Grass (both Genie Award winners). Featuring the “rock star” philosophers of our time, including Cornel West, Peter Singer, Slavoj Zizek, Judith Butler, Avital Ronell, Michael Hardt, Anthony Appiah and Martha Nussbaum. [quicktime]http://www.sphinxproductions.com/media/examinedlife/examinedlife_trailer.mov[/quicktime] [...]

25 10, 2008

mixed feelings, Autodesk acquires Softimage.

By μο.|2016-01-12T21:10:51+02:00October 25th, 2008|animation, CGI, Softimage XSI, technology|2 Comments

It has been officially confirmed that Autodesk signed agreement with Avid Technology to Acquire Softimage. http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?id=12022457&siteID=123112 Users' feelings are mixed for the future of the Softimage product line. In general the most important questions are: Are they to kill Softimage? Till now Autodesk acquired all major 3D packages. What about competition ? What are the pros and cons of such an acquisition? Some say no, Softimage is not to be killed, and this in a way is probable. Autodesk never killed any of its previous aquisitions, including Maya, Mudbox, Descreete Logic products etc. They still develop these products but evidently the "innovation curve" have changed. It is a truism that we havent seen any major additions to Maya since Autodesk aquired it. We hope this will change in the near feature. In general, the pros and cons that most users identified in various forum discussions are: Pros & Cons Autodesk, [...]

19 10, 2008

XSI 7.0: Bradley Gabe’s videos

By μο.|2017-12-04T21:03:23+02:00October 19th, 2008|CGI, Softimage XSI, technology|0 Comments

Bradley Gabe shows in his XSI 7 Video Tutorial how you can creates a static particle emission, then drives point animation using vectors pulled from curve tangency. here is the link: http://vimeo.com/user594481/videos ICE Demo: Building a Force from a Curve http://vimeo.com/1313863 Vortex Control http://vimeo.com/1330615 ICE: An Artist Tour #1 http://vimeo.com/1349449 ICE: An Artist Tour #2 -- Production Primer http://vimeo.com/1392786

18 10, 2008

Speed test for Firefox, Chrome and IE

By μο.|2016-01-12T21:10:52+02:00October 18th, 2008|technology|0 Comments

Here I provide a benchmarking test regarding the start-up speed of firefox 3.0.3, Chrome and IE 7. The test has been done with more than 30 identical tabs for Firefox and Chrome and with one tab for IE (it was actually crashing when storing more than 4-5 tabs.) I also provide a benchmark with MarineTraffic. Here is the video: [flv]http://xylem.aegean.gr/~modestos/mo.blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/benchmark.flv[/flv] Download high res video. The test was performed on an Intel Core 2 Quad 9300 2.50 processor with 4Gb RAM.

22 09, 2008

zotero runtime error 6, overflow

By μο.|2016-01-12T21:11:04+02:00September 22nd, 2008|technology|4 Comments

If you are getting this error, then you probably reached the limit of VBA script. I guess to many bibliographic entries... The solution to this is simple and it is a bug in zotero code that has been identified by Mat Hickman. Here is my zotero.dot file it you are interested. :: Here is the process (I copied and pasted from his post here): Vba is visual basic for applications and is a programming language by microsoft that allows you to automate programs in their office suite. Patching the code is, basically, safe. Anyway, just take a copy of zotero.dot before you start playing! Step by step instructions follow... 1. Shut down all instances of Word. Find zotero.dot and right click on it; choose open (default is 'New'). 2. You should be faced with a blank document. Press Alt+F11 and the vba editor will appear. On the left [...]

10 09, 2008

Nokia N95 firmware v30.0.015

By μο.|2016-01-12T21:11:04+02:00September 10th, 2008|technology|0 Comments

So, here is the new firmware update for the N95 series. The changelog includes quite a few features: New* welcome application Update* Nokia Maps 2.0 is now built-in + some corrections for the GPS software. Many users observed that GPS now takes less time to lock signal. Update* New version of Adobe FlashLite 3 with improved viewing for sites with video content i.e. YouTube Update* Nokia Search 4.0 with Google plug-in New* Share online 3.0 New* N-Gage client Update* Download! application updated (v 3.1.50) Update* for the Music Player Improvement* Current consumption improvements (for e.g. WLAN scanning) New* baseline for VoIP (with significant error corrections) New* themes Some Improvements to the camera software New* Rotate screen under display settings And a video with some of the new features: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvY0zzjjO7I

5 09, 2008

Incognito browsing for Firefox

By μο.|2016-01-12T21:11:04+02:00September 5th, 2008|technology|0 Comments

Would you like to hide surfing trails that the Firefox browser leaves behind? The solution is the distrust addon for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1559 This addon is similar to the incognito Chrome tab, AKA Private Browsing. Once turned on this extension monitors FireFox for its activities. Once turned off Distrust will remove history items cache and cookies that were used during the distrust session. Note: that cookies are not removed right away but only when FireFox is closed. Distrust does not remove the cookies but makes them expire when FireFox is closed. distrust icon

6 08, 2008

«σωματίδιο του Θεού», eh?

By μο.|2016-01-12T21:11:04+02:00August 6th, 2008|philosophy, research, technology|0 Comments

Ο άνθρωπος θα απελευθερωθεί από τις θεωρητικές δοξασίες... "Μετά τα πρώτα ολοκληρωμένα αποτελέσματα από το μεγάλο πείραμα στο CERN ο άνθρωπος θα νιώθει πολύ πιο απελευθερωμένος από τις θεωρητικές δοξασίες στις οποίες ως τώρα βασιζόταν για να κατανοήσει σημαντικά κοσμολογικά ερωτήματα όπως η γέννηση, εξέλιξη και δομή του Σύμπαντος. Βασιζόμενος πλέον σε επιστημονικά δεδομένα και όχι σε υποθετικές προσεγγίσεις, θα ατενίζει με μεγαλύτερη σιγουριά το μέλλον του, δηλώνει στον Ελεύθερο Τύπο ο ακαδημαϊκός και εθνικός εκπρόσωπος της Ελλάδας στο CERN, Δημήτρης Νανόπουλος." ολόκληρο το άρθρο CERN

14 06, 2008