In computer graphics, ray tracing is a technique for generating an image by tracing the path of light through pixels in an image plane. The technique is capable of producing a very high degree of photorealism; usually higher than that of typical scanline rendering methods, but at a greater computational cost. This makes ray tracing best suited for applications where the image can be rendered slowly ahead of time, such as in still images and film and television special effects, and more poorly suited for real-time applications like computer games where speed is critical. Ray tracing is capable of simulating a wide variety of optical effects, such as reflection and refraction, scattering, and chromatic aberration.

This isn’t the first time that some one has done ray tracing in real time in gaming. A few years ago I remember see a video of someone taking Quake 3 and doing real time ray tracing. Of course that video is on YouTube as well. If the video below plays fast just pause it and hit play again. I linked to the high quality version so that might be the reason.

Now what use to take a shit load of PC’s at a college can now be done using just 3 PS3’s in your house. Maybe it’s just me but I think that is awesome.

I have Mint installed on this site just to see what everyone is looking at. So here are some stats. Of course the number one most viewed post is Vista = Shit on a Stick followed by a post I made about getting the Red Rings of Death. The top referrers I get are from search engines with the words Vista and Shit in them. And as a side note, the most used browser used is Firefox. But stats aren’t everything.

Previous Next Close

Mint:Most page views

Previous Next Close

Top Searches

A few weeks ago I got my first Mac. Its one of the new MacBook’s that Steve Job’s announced during his last keynote. Since I have never really used a Mac as my main system, it takes some getting use to but the learning curve is not that bad. And since I been using my MacBook I haven’t even booted my PC at all. I bring this up because of the 55 comments on the other post. To all the people that didn’t like Vista as much as me I would take a serious look at the new MacBook’s and the iMac’s.

Now I do think that Vista has gotten better snice my other post but not enought for me to keep using it. The biggest reason that I was using windows before was for gaming. But since I got a 360 I haven’t played any games on my PC. So with that reason gone I swiched to a Mac. But one thing that makes me laugh now is Windows 7 coming out next year. Its as if Microsoft themself are saying don’t but Vista because who is going to buy it now when a new version is coming out in a year.

During the week they were storms in Wichita every night. I checked the weather for the time our first flight would be landing and all was good. But now we are going to land at around 9pm. Right when the storms start popping up. So I check the radar on my iPhone as we are getting on the plane and wouldn’t you know it - the storms are going to be right over Wichita right at the time we are going to land. Fucking great.

So were flying along and I am just playing with my iPod when the pilot comes on and say that we are going to be landing soon and that there are storms in the area. I have no control over the plane so I just go back to my iPod while we make are way though the clouds. The plane is just bouncing around and there is lighting everywhere (that was cool). Then as we just get below the clouds the plane drops for about 3 seconds. Some women in the front screams and the two older couple next to me look like they’re about to freak out. My heart picks up for about a minute after that then were back to just bouncing around as we come in for the landing.

I am in the left side of the plane were there is only one seat so I am looking out the window. I know Wichita and can tell that we are coming in from the north. As we get close to the ground the plane start bouncing around more and more but I see that we are really close to landing when the plane takes a sharp turn sideways. I hear the engines pick up power and the pilot pulls up and quits the landing.

Once he got the plane just below the storm clouds again he gets on the mic and tells us that he really didn’t like that landing and that we are just going to fly around for awhile and wait for a gap in the storm. Then he says that we are the last flight into Wichita and that all other flights were diverted to Oklahoma City and if we don’t get a gap in the storm we are going to have to go there because of fuel. Now I am thinking great, all the shit that has happen today and now we’re going to OKC to sit around some more and wait to fly back to Wichita. And I have to go to the bathroom now.

After about 15 minutes of bouncing all over the place the pilot says that we can’t wait anymore and that he’s going to try one more time to land and to turn off all radios and phones. At this point the old couple next to me looks over and sees that I still have my earbuds in and ask me if my radio is turned off. I wanted to tell them that it’s not a radio and that it’s not transmitting anything but they were still about to freak out so I just put it away.

So the pilot brings us back around and starts to bring the plane down and we are still bouncing around as much as the first time. I kept waiting for him to pull out again but then I fell the wheels hit the runway. For about 20 seconds nobody made a sound then everyone started to clap. And to top this wonderful day off then don’t bring the plane up to one of the covered loading docks. They stop the plane at the end of one of the terminals and bring a latter over for us to get off in a downpour.

So ya…that is how I almost died.

2.0 Update

Not a lot has really changed with the 2.0 update for the Edge phones. There is the stuff that every one already knows like the Scientific Calculator, the support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and of course support for MobileMe. You can now save pictures from Safari to your phone by just holding your finger on the image for a few seconds.

What really stands out for me are the things that I wished the iPhone had from the start that I posted about before. The syncing of the calender can now be done with MobileMe. You can now get a better weather app then the default on in the App Store and there are a few to do apps you can get so Notes seems kind of pointless now.

(Links with the iTunes logo next to them will open the app in iTunes.)

Here is one that I don’t understand why it didn’t make it in. You can not sync your podcast from iTunes to the phone over your own Wi-Fi. But Apple themselves released an app called Remote that allows you stream music from iTunes to your phone. If anyone can make a app for syncing podcasts over Wi-Fi please do. I would even pay for it.

Another thing that really needs to be added is support for MMS (Multi-media Messaging Service). Why the so called most advance phone out there can not do MMS make no sense to me. Even if it was only on the 3G phone would be fine to me. Its just another reason to update.

Apps and the App Store

The reason that I jailbroke my phone a few months ago was just for the apps that people were making. The only reason now to do so is to use the iPhone on other networks. There are just about any app you can thing of out now and some of the best ones are still free.

If your a Twitter freak you can get Twitterrific free or there is a pay version with no ads but the one that I like best is Twittelator . Twitterrific seems to run slow on my EDGE phone and the free version has ads. They can add pictures to your update with twitpic.com and both can add your location. But for some reason when adding a picture with Twitterrific I lose the keyboard and taking and uploading it. Plus it has crashed my phone a few times.

Some of the other ones that you should check out are YPmobile . It is yellowpages.com app that uses your location to help you find what you tell it to search for. If you want a free game there is Cube Runner . If you want to share anything with a bunch of social sites there is ShoZu . If you like me and live in a area where the weather can change in minutes you need the WeatherBug app.

Some of the app are just using there site and running it through the app like Google. When searching for something with the Google app it just brings up the Google search results page without launching Safari. Not really a big deal but they didn’t think about the Edge users still out there. If they did it would bring up the mobile version of there site. So I am just staying with google.com/m for now.

The Facebook app is also disappointing. It is using the default iPhone images for just about everything from the background to the title bar. And for some reason you can not read the wall for anyone with the app. The mobile version of there site at iphone.facebook.com is so much better.

Mobile Flickr is another one that missed the mark. It has the basics that you would want are there like finding people photos, upload photos, tag them and so on but they want you to pay $2.99 for it. There are other apps that will allow you to much of the same things for free ShoZu. If your a pro user of Flickr you should get Mobile Flickr for free.

If your a Edge user there is not much in the 2.0 update other than the App Store and I fell that there is still a ton of things that Apple can do to make the iPhone so much better. So what are your thoughts on the new update?

Getting Started

To get started you have to install a small file on your system and it sits in your tray. You then link through there site your computer to your Dropbox. After that your ready to go. On Vista it puts a new folder inside your Documents folder called My Dropbox. On a Mac it’s under your Home folder. Now your ready to share.

Previous Next Close

Dropbox Tray Icon

Public vs. Private

To start any files that you have are private and can only be seen and changed by you or any computer linked to your Dropbox. But if you wish to share a folder with another user its as easy as making a new share folder through the site and putting in the email address of the person you want to share it with. But if you only want to show someone some photos its even easyer. On your system just go to your Photos folder and right click on it and go to down to Dropbox and click on Copy public gallery link. You now have images that anyone can see like this one.

Previous Next Close

Making a new share folder

Simplicity by Design

One thing that stands out the more I use Dropbox is that how easy it is to use. Now I am not your average use but even the so called “AOL user” should be able to understand quickly how to do anything. Most people would use this just to keep files backed up or to be able to get files from work and home. And if they wanted to add new files its just drag and drop. Everyone knows that. The web layout is also clean and easy to understand. There is no real Web 2.0 stuff going on. Just the info you need.

Previous Next Close

Home Folder

Deleting Files and more

No such thing as losing files here. If you or someone else deletes a file its not really gone. Just go back to the web site and there is a link at the bottom that says show deleted files. From there you can restore any file that you have recently deleted. Dropbox also saves the changes to your files each time and labeling them different versions. Again you don’t lose anything.

Previous Next Close

Undelete Files

Overall…

Overall i really like Dropbox. It is easy to use and understand. Can be used on PC or Mac at the same time (sorry Linux). It is free and you get 2 gigs of space. That is not a lot once you start adding files but this is still a start up and still only by invite. The only thing that I wish Dropbox had is a way to add files through email. I was thinking of this when I was checking my email on my iPhone. If I receive a Word file or a picture on my phone I could foward that email to my Dropbox address and have it pull out all the files and put them in a folder that I choose. That would be nice.

This is a very nice and will thought out cloud computing idea. I can tell I am going to be using this for some time. And being in beta I hope it only gets better. If you would like to check out a good screencast of what Dropbox can do check out getdropbox.com.

Now that SP1 is out and I have been using Vista again for a few months it hit me. Its just bad design. Most of the time I don’t think about this but it hit me when I was using my girlfriends Mac Mini. The User Interface is like night and day and I am not talking about the fancy stuff like Expose on the Mac or Flip 3D on Windows. Its about how many clicks of the mouse will it take to get to where I need to go. To show how it is much better on a Mac I made three videos where all I wanted to do was change the time it take for the screen to shuts off.

There are two ways of doing this in Vista, at least for a normal user. The first way that most people will do is thru the start menu. So it gos as followed - Start Menu, Control Panel, System and Maintenance, Power Options and then what you need to click on is in the left hand menu.

Now the way I did it was right click on the desktop, Personalize, Screen Saver (brings up new window), Change power setting (brings up new window), and then Choose when to turn off display which is on the left side menu again.

Now lets do the same thing on a Mac. Click on the Apple logo, System Preferences (video did show me doing this, it jumped), Energy Saver. Thats it.

So what do you think? Is Mac OS X really better then Vista or am I just giving in to the marketing hype?

The only problem with using a desktop email program with a calendar is what if your away from your computer? Getting your email when your away from your computer is easy. I use Google Apps for this domain and have my email setup as a imap account. So even if I check my mail from computer, my phone or even someone elses system online its always the same. But how do you keep your calendar sync up?

The key is the extension called Provider for Google Calendar. It allows bidirectional access to Google Calendar so you can read and write. Once added to Thunderbird you have log in to your Google Calendar and pick what calendar you want to share. To do this click on the drop down arrow and pick Share this calendar. This will bring up the details and at the bottom is Calendar Address. Pick the iCal link and copy the link.

Open your calendar in Thunderbird and go to Calendar and add a new calendar. From there pick On the Network. The format is Google Calendar and put in the link that you copyed. Thats it.

At EETimes.com they have a story about Bryan Lewis, research vice president and chief analyst at Gartner, and what he found out. It seems that the problem is the graphic chip that Microsoft designed on its own. Now why would a software company design there own graphic chip? To save millions. Of course in the end it cost them a lot more then they were tring to save but what the hell, good try.

But in the end, by going cheap–hoping to save tens of millions of dollars in ASIC design costs, Microsoft ended up paying more than $1 billion for its Xbox 360 recall.

To fix the problem, Microsoft went back to an unnamed ASIC vendor based in the United States and redesigned the chip, Lewis added. (Based on a previous report, the ASIC vendor is most likely the former ATI Technologies, now part of AMD.)

The best quote from Bryan Lewis is this.

When it was pointed out that Microsoft still has its own semiconductor technology group that is still designing various chips, Lewis responded, “How many ASICs per year does Microsoft design? Not many” compared to experienced ASIC/ASSIP vendors.

I still have not read about millions of PS3’s crashing.