06/23

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So, twitter is aflutter with calls for my head for not properly citing what tech the TED demo was based on. Yes, it’s totally based on FLARToolKit & Papervision and yes, I realize that it should have been said on stage. I’ve tried hard to re-iterate the fact that the demo is based on FLARToolKit & Papervision in all subsequent mentions but it appears that I could have done a better job of it. What’s funny is that the very moment I got off stage my glaring omission was pointed out to me by fellow Palm Springs TEDster and AS developer extraordinaire Grant Skinner. The fear and frenzy that a TED talk countdown timer can evoke is mindblowing and the fact that I got my name right startles me. I’ve worked on a lot of opensource projects ranging from a poker engine to a robotic vacuum and always make sure that I give credit where it is due. Fundamentally I believe that the best software comes from sharing ones “wins” and allowing others to innovate through iteration. This has been the model that I’ve applied to my projects because there is no doubt that when it comes to software we all stand on the shoulders of giants. I just want to make sure that I’ve clarified an important omission.
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So it’s probably no surprise that I’m now on TED, because more than likely I’ve been telling you about it since going to TED @ PalmSprings. The funny thing is that I didn’t go there because of the jailbreak stuff I’d done. No, I got to demo onstage with a FLARtoolit demo that I whipped up.

Attending TED was on my life’s list of things to do and getting the opportunity to demo the FLARToolkit and Papervision based augmented reality demo really made me happy. To see how far FLARToolKit and Papervision has come one should only look at July 2009’s Popular Science magazine that features GE’s “digital hologram” right on the cover!

There is no doubt that the would will be changed by augmented reality and it’s my opinion that the real future is in the mobile implementation. Last week, folks from Georgia Tech demoed a really awesome zombie game running on an nvidia targa based reference design. That is what I think the future looks like and the best part is that we’re only at the start of it.

For the curious you can grab the Flex/Flash Builder project that I used onstage and create you’re own!
Download Source - http://spazout.com/assets/tedflartoolkit.zip

Related Posts
http://spazout.com/ted_2009_source_code
http://spazout.com/ted_2009_and_why_it_was_the_best_thing_ever

05/15

For starters, I have a love hate relationship with the big G. Google is like a benevolent dictator that controls a society looking to build a utopia. Glassy eyed, cultishly fervent employees work tirelessly to help build the Google empire; they crank out awesome features to existing products or build entirely new stuff all the while improving Google’s bottom line or expanding it’s foot print. This cycle of awesome continues for 2-3 years, then they burn out and go to Facebook or Twitter.

Google has become a factory of innovation and it’s gotten so good at building cool stuff that if Henry Ford were around today he’d give Eric and Sergey a HI-5 (though he would’ve made sure Sergey wasn’t a Jew).

That brings me to their newest cool creation, the Google Native Client (or as I like to call it Google OS Alpha).

In it’s potential ramifications, this thing is absurd.

Remember when Microsoft completely dominated the browser market? They spoke of a future where the web browser could run these things called “ActiveX components”, X86 native code and software could be delivered right in the browser without the need of installation. Sounds really cool huh! Well turns out their security model was garbage. The browser ran as administrator of the system, this brought the advent of the “browser toolbar”, which later caused the creation of the spyware removal market. It’s kind of silly when you think about it, an entire highly lucrative market segment was created cause Microsoft screwed the pooch.

While the ActiveX idea turned out to be a mess from an execution standpoint the core idea remained sound. It’s just cool to find a way to run native code in a browser. Sun tried for years to get Java to play well but inconsistencies in the JVM made it difficult to get widespread adoption. Adobe has tried with Flash (which I am a fan of) which won the adoption battle but still lost the performance race. And let’s just face it, Flash apps aren’t respected by “real” engineers. Adobe has tried to remedy that buy creating a new Flash VM and a whole new language specification AS3, which is a step in the right direction but still not enough. Recently Adobe has also released a product called Alchemy that allows for C based execution in the VM, but again because Flash is seen as the programming language for designers, wide spread use of the tech may never happen.

Enter Google Native Client:

A browser plugin that allows people to port C code and run it in a safe manner WITHIN the web browser. Now, Adobe still holds the claim that they were first to port Quake into the web browser. But now that Google has done it, lots of “real” engineers are going to give this tech a look. Will this change the interwebs as we know it? Maybe, but one thing is certain it is a step int he right direction.

For the engineering minded, a really good writeup was by Matasano Security and they do a great job of explaining how it all works.
http://www.matasano.com/log/1674/the-security-implications-of-google-native-client/

05/08

So, it’s been a week since returning from my recent visit to the fatwallet.com offices in Barntown Ill. Lot’s of fun stuff has been going on for me personally but I wanted to make sure I got this post our before I moved on to other topics. Tim Storm the CEO at fatwallet was a guy I meet at TED PalmSprings this year, correction, I overheard a conversation that Tim was partisipating in and when he dropped the tidbit that fatwallet.com was his company I went into full fanboy mode. For the uninitiated, fatwallet.com is a community of bargain hunters, and I’ve been a long time user of the site. It started when I was a totally broke geek in school and wanted to find good deals on computer components to trick out my computer. The site also comes in really handy on “Black Friday” the day shopping holiday that coincides with the day after Thanksgiving.
Back to talking about Tim, so he was talking about how he ran the site and that was when I blurted towards them “OMG, I am such a fan! Your site has saved me a bundle over the last couple years and last Black Friday, I saved at least 2 grand… Oh, Hi, I’m Chris”

We hung out acouple times over lunch during the course of the rest of the conference and by the time we’d all leave we would become good friends. Since TED, we’d kept up with each others developments on twitter. He congratulated me on my departure from AT&T, I have him a virtual hi-5 on talking delivery of his new Tesla Roadster, and when I said I may be interested in a software change of pace, Tim invited me to come out to Rockton (Barnville) Ill.

Over the course of a couple of days I got a sense of how Tim manages a diverse group of talented people and has built a company that would make an MBA student’s head explode. Fatwallet is a company that could easily be pulled out of a trendy business park in Silicon Valley (except fatwallet is profitable) and is ran the way Google is in all of it’s PR documents. Colorful walls and an awesome arcade greet every visitor, and on the day I came in affixed to the purple painted cow were a bundle of balloons and a huge sign welcoming their newest employee.

Tim happens to be an avid reader and he asks that all of his employees read a set of books that will give them a common vocabulary. Everyone works on a performance based system, establishing goals daily and talking about any issues that may be blocking their efforts. This gives coworkers the ability to lend a hand to a colleague that may be struggling and in the long run allows everyone to get more work done. Fatwallet is a company that does not skimp on perks, they frequently hold game days and everyday after lunch the engineers take aim at each other in a game of Call of Duty.

Tuesday is “TED Talk Tuesday”, Tim pulls out a huge projection TV and gathers all of the employees to watch a TED talk. This provides an opportunity for all of his employees to share their ideas and on the day I was there I was fortunate enough to do a demo of what I presented at TED this year.

All and all the trip was a fantastic opportunity for me to hang out with some amazing people and I got a taste of rural life. Oh, and I got to drive Tim’s Tesla… and it was sweet.

I’ll post pictures when I find my card reader

04/25

I’m going to start producing videos of some of my new hardware and software hacks. I call the series Making Thinks and Breaking Things.

Enjoy project number one - The GhettOscilloscope

MTBT - GhettOcciloscope from Chris Hughes on Vimeo.

Big thanks go to Steve Dicky for the instuctable that was used to create this. Go to instructables.com/member/falconphysics/ for more of some of his awesomeness.