As I Xi It

I’ve been playing with SketchUp this afternoon. I dunno why it pauses between the key frames, I’m pretty sure I’ve set it properly.

Unsatisfied with the botched mouse test. I did another using something more complex (Mini replica of the Fat Lady statuette found at Hagar Qim) and with more consistently exposed frames and the result I’d say is pretty neat! If I really wanted to, I could manipulate it and have the resulting object 3D printed.

Further to my previous post, 123D Catch is also available as a webapp.

Over the past couple of days or so, I’ve been fiddling around with some 3D drawings and came across 123D Catch. It’s available as an iPhone or iPad app from the US iTunes store or you could download the PC version from their site and use pics from your camera. In a nutshell, it takes your series of photos and generates a 3D model out of it. A bit like Photosynth but in 3D. The nitty gritty processing happens in the cloud which is pretty neat, but it does take a while.

My first test was of a dental floss container using my iPad and the results looked like an amorphous blob. I gave it another whirl using my G11 and the PC app with my mouse as the test subject. It’s still not brilliant and shows dents that’d rival my car but an improvement over the dental floss one.

Botched attempt

Hmn… not too bad for a first try. There wasn’t any planning involved in the way I shot the individual frames. More frames required though.

I have a new Tumblr account primarily for the curation of things I’ve found interesting on the Web. It’s called ‘The Repository of Nonsense‘. From now on, this blog will focus on my own original content.

Yes, I could’ve used Pintrest, but it’s become too mainstream.

http://therepositoryofnonsense.tumblr.com/

Ahh, retro games on the iPad. Love it! I wonder if Nintendo will ever bring something to the App Store.

Arkanoid (Arkanold App Store)/Space Invaders (Space Inversion App Store)

Is that a SNES controller I see?

Hours of entertainment

For months I’d been wanting an iPad but couldn’t really justify getting one, but towards the end of last year, I got my hands on one and have since put it through its paces. All I can say is that I wished I’d got one sooner.

It’s been pretty good for travelling, quite handy for backing up pics on the road and I can quite happily spend hours on it playing inane games. Current favourites include Temple Run and F.Godmom from those DOS days gone by.

Yes, it is like a bigger iPhone minus the phone component, but it’s much nicer to read content on a bigger screen. I find myself preferring to catch up on news using Flipboard and Google Currents than browsing from my desktop.

The downside of the thing is that it prevents me from going to bed. Well, technically it gets me in bed sooner, reading and browsing, but I’m far less inclined to fall asleep. It’s amazing how many hours it so effortlessly sucks up. Other than that, the iPad is pretty muy bien.

HSBC and McAfee are in cahoots!

Last month, I got an email from McAfee telling me that the subscription for my anti-virus was going to expire soon (4th Nov 2011 to be precise) and that I should renew it soon. I had better things to do and quite quickly forgot about it. Anyway, I figured I wouldn’t be charged in any case as I’ve got a different card from when I renewed by license the last time (in the past 12 months, I’d managed to loose my credit card twice!).

This morning, I got an email from them telling me that they have received payment for renewal of my license. I didn’t want to renew it. Previously it was free as I’m an HSBC customer, then they charged around £24 last year and now the cost has gone up to £40-something. I got home this afternoon and logged into my McAfee account to find that auto renew had been switched to on and I’m pretty sure I had switched it off to start with. I went on to check my credit card details and well I never, they seem to have somehow automatically updated the details in line with my current card. HSBC has obviously passed my details on.

Some might say that all this is just to make one’s life easier, but quite frankly, I find it rather intrusive.Thankfully (I might be saying this too soon), I managed to contact them via online chat and my refund request has been put through. I should expect to be credited between 5-10 days.

In addition, Skype for some reason has changed my top-up option back to auto-renew. You really need to keep an eye on these things.

I mean, really, isn’t it like a public Facebook??

Is it just me or are those spam comments getting smarter? At first glance, it would appear that someone actually took the time to read and leave a comment, but upon further examination, why on earth would Panama offshore leave a comment about blue skittles?

Delete