…..Not only that — yes we know about google docs and all the other online word processors out there — it also allows you to go offline while editing your documents and sync when you get back online. All this is done through the magic of Google Gears browser plugin (Thanks G). So throw away that old copy of MS Office, uninstall it off your harddrive and start using Zoho Writer. While you’re at it you might also want to send them a “thank you” note for taking another MS shackle off your computer/ankle . More details + movie….

Speaking of hand tracking, here is a video of a guy playing around with an unknown system (looks a bit like linux). Very cool demo and almost perfect tracking. Not sure if it’s IR or not, you can see him in the corner of the screen, but can’t quite tell how it’s done. Anyways, I’m posting it since it’s one of the better ones I’ve seen. From the description:

A C++ computer vision application to emulate the mouse and the keyboard in any application using hand gestures and a low-cost webcam.

Great tutorial video by Johnny Lee from Carnegie Mellon University showing how using an IR LED array and some reflective tape, you can track fingers in thin air using the Wii Remote. Great alternative to those FTIR (Frustrated Total Internal Reflection) tables.

This is one of those gotta haves. Beautifully done and Free. Grab it here.

If you’ve been tuned into Digital Cinema Projection for the past couple of years, you’d know that when it comes to 4K projection (4Kx2K image), sony’s SXRD series was pretty much the only game in town. DLP is limited to 2K and most of the projectors out there (Christie, Barco, NEC) are all 2K projectors. A downside of Sony’s projector is that although it is as hefty as a small car it only has a 2000:1 contrast ratio (measured less than that calibrated). Its rated aggresively for 40ft screens which is not nearly big enough for true cinema applications.

That was true until JVC announced their 1.27-inch 4Kx2K D-ILA (Direct-drive Image Light Amplifier) chip at InfoComm 2007. The chip can produce a 4096×2400 pixel image with a 20,000:1 contrast ratio. That’s nearly 10x the contrast ratio of the Sony behemoth.

Major Specifications:

The DLA-SH4K, which packs the 4k D-ILA chip, touts a 4,096 x 2,400 resolution, 10,000:1 contrast ratio, 3,500 lumens, a dual-link DVI input, multiscreen mode, an Ethernet port for remote operation and RS-232 / USB connectors. It measures 660 x 827 x 340 mm and is slated for launch in the first half of 2008.

I’ve been trying to figure out a way to do this on the cheap for a long time and I finally figured it out today. This process allows you to grab HDV from a HDV Camera via firewire, feed it into linux, transcode the 25Mb/s mpeg-ts stream to a 4 Mb/s mpeg4 stream (inside a TS). This mpeg4 stream in turn can be viewed at full resolution (1920×1080) on a remote client running just vlc. Here is the prerequisites:

sudo dvgrab -f hdv -noavc -nostop -|vlc -
You have to use sudo under ubuntu to get proper access to the firewire device. The above command runs dvgrab with hdv format and makes sure that 1394 AV/Device control is turned off (this way you can be in Camera mode and get a live feed). The nostop switch prevents dvgrab from sending stop commands to the camera everytime you stop it via Ctrl-C, which I though was a good thing. The last dash forces dvgrab to output to stdout, which we’ll then pipe into vlc (the dash for vlc tells it to use stdin as input).

sudo dvgrab -f hdv -noavc -nostop -|vlc - --sout '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,vb=4096,acodec=mpga,ab=256,scale=0.5,deinterlace,width=1920,height=1080}:duplicate{dst=std{access=udp,mux=ts,dst=receiver_ip_address:1234}}'
This is one massive command, the first part we already discussed, so lets take a look at the second half:

• –sout is our output chain.
• #transcode tells vlc that we first want to transcode the input using parameters to follow
• {} contains our transcoding parameters
• vcodec=mp4v sets the video codec to mpeg4 video
• vb=4096 sets the bitrate of the transcoded video (4Mb/s)
• acodec=mpga sets the audio codec to mpeg audio (mp3)
• ab=256 sets the bitrate of the transcoded audio (256 Kb/s)
• scale=1 sets the scaling value
• deinterlace sets guess what?
• width=1920 sets the width of the transcoded video to 1920 pixels
• height=1080 sets the height of the transcoded video to 1080 pixels
• :duplicate tells VLC that we want to duplicate the transcoded signal and send a copy of it to our receiver machine.
• dst is the destination string
• access=udp specifies UDP protocol
• mux=ts sets multiplexing to mpeg-2 Transport stream
• dst=receiver_ip_address:1234 is the ip address and port number of the receiving machine

So now you should be able to open up vlc on the receiver machine, goto File/Open Network menu and select UDP/RTP and specify port number 1234. Once you press OK, you should see the video stream on your receiver machine. Audio works as well and is perfectly synced since it’s captured by the HDV camera at the source and travels together with the video at all time. The delay is about 3 seconds.

This is a great way to quickly setup a HD Video Conference between a couple of locations. You could even modify the network portion of the chain to let VLC multicast the HD stream onto your network…..lots of possibilities. Enjoy

Here is a quick way to enable full path display in the finder windows under Leopard. You can turn this on by issuing the following two commands in a terminal window:defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES
killall Finder
You can also undo this effect by issuing the following two commands in a terminal window:defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool NO
killall Finder

It’s official, Avid will not have a exhibit booth during NAB2008. According to the Press Release

Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) today announced that it will introduce a major shift in its approach to serving industry professionals in the digital content creation, management, and distribution industries. Based on extensive market research, Avid plans to announce a series of customer-focused initiatives in 2008 – all of which will be designed to make it easier for customers, prospects and the media to interact with the company. The company said it would reveal the full details of its 2008 plan to the public in February, which will set the stage for a blitz of new user-community initiatives, technical support programs, highly-personalized events, and innovative product announcements throughout the year. The company also announced that it will not have an exhibition booth at the 2008 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Convention, but plans to be in Las Vegas next April to meet with customers.

Wow…now, why would Avid do this? I think that Apple and Sony might just have Avid cornered. Apple’s pounding them in the high end editing market and Sony’s bringing up the rear with Vegas. I guess some companies never learn, proprietary never pays….any one remember SGI…they used to have monster booths at NAB and would only talk to you if you had hollywood written all over your face…..Now they are next to non existent. It’s time for me to listen to my favourite Queen song….”Another one Bites the Dust”.

So now that I have a basic OSC receiver for aka.iPhone’s XY controller, I’ve been going through Apple’s Demo Compositions – under /Developer/Examples/Quartz Composer/Compositions — and adding my portion of the OSC receiver to them. Here is the latest one, akaRemote-Caterpillar, which is a adaptation of “Caterpillar.qtz” under /Developer/Examples/Quartz Composer/Compositions/Interactive. Again I need to remind you to read the first Article to get started and that these QC compositions are for Leopard/QC3.0 only and require a jailbroken Ipod Touch or iPhone.

I assume you know what aka.iPhone is and what it does. If you don’t please see this article over at Create Digital Motion. I’ve got aka.iPhone 2.1 installed on my ipod touch and while I enjoyed playing around with the accompanying MAX/MSP patch — via the free runtime — I wanted to see if I could get it working with Quartz Composer.

Have a look at the picture above…..This is fresh from my Macbook this morning (when it woke up from sleep mode). Notice anything strange…..let me help you, have a look at the Aiport icon in the menu bar and the actual Airport device setting in Network preferences. Yep, Icon in menu bar says Airport is turned off, the device setting shows it’s on and associated/working. Apple FIX THIS WILL YA…….Oh btw, if you want a temporary fix for this just flick the “show Airport status in menu bar” check box off and on again and the menubar icon will be fixed.

If you like to get rid of the stripes in the list view of the new Leopard Finder, open a Terminal Window and type in the following two commands:defaults write com.apple.finder FXListViewStripes -bool FALSE
killall Finder
If you want the fancy stripes back at some point later, type the following two commands in Terminal:defaults write com.apple.finder FXListViewStripes -bool TRUE
killall Findermore to come soon…..

Here we are again and I have to sadly say…..yet another OS (which I also love) that does not do what it promises. I know that you can do some major iptables kungfu under linux through command line, but when SuSE/Novell tries to sell you Yast as a graphical admin interface they should atleast check to make sure things are working properly.

microsoft-ds netbios-dgm netbios-ns netbios-ssn

• Under heading FW_SERVICES_EXT_UDP make sure you have the following:

netbios-ns

• Under heading FW_ALLOW_INCOMING_HIGHPORTS_TCP make sure you have the following:

microsoft-ds netbios-ns

• Under heading FW_ALLOW_INCOMING_HIGHPORTS_UDP make sure you have the following:

microsoft-ds netbios-ns

• Under heading FW_ALLOW_FW_BROADCAST_EXT make sure you have the following:

netbios-ns netbios-dgm