Speech Writing and Photography

Was just trying to transcribe my speech earlier but battery is out on my livescribe pen and can't seem to find my cradle to charge it again. Got to really figure out where I put that...

I went out earlier and took some pictures of the area that I'm going to do the rough model of, they're 7MP photos so I'm hoping they will be high enough resolution.

On a side note, I was looking at the HX5 at work and really like the camera. 10MP but the lens quality looks fantastic and I really like the idea of intelligent panaroma as well as having in built GPS and compass feature where you can upload images directly into google earth.

Back to the photos... So I think I have a good amount there to do up some plane setup senarios, it's just finding the time to do it.

For this week, I've got my speech to hand in, gotta get my thesis proposal signed off (still), literature review, biography presentation as well as the other items which have begun piling up. So much work...

Thankfully I've only got work on the weekend so I have today free (where I've been working on BU4061) and Wednesday free, so using those days to catch up. Thursday morning to read the assigned paper (though may have to read more earlier as it is 28 pages).

AND when I get a chance... catch up on missed entries for this blog.

Comments and Meeting Points

Just a random tid-bit here before I gloss over points from today's meeting.

I actually had no idea that other people were reading this bar myself and supervisor, so thanks to anyone who has been reading this. It may not make much sense to you a lot of the time, as it is an area for me to record thoughts and ideas, but still, thanks for taking the time to read and even comment.

After seeing that comments had been made I went through and checked each of my entries for any other comments and I was surprised to say the least. I'm actually quite happy to see that people have commented, so once again thank you. ^_^

So, now..

Meeting notes:

Key points from meeting

• Keys
• Office Space
• Paluma Trip
• Geotagging
• Google Maps - SketchUp
• Microsoft Photo Synth
• Thesis Proposal
• Modelling Approaches

(didn't have my livescribe pen on me at the time so didn't get everything, if I remember anything I'll add it)

Proposed work:

• Model an area (rough, just using basic polygons and textures) and see how long it takes (e.g., street view or something basic)
• Basic models of trees/bushes
• Build a texture library~!

Weekend Coverage, Internet and Laptop

Finally back after a rather long weekend. Was rather enjoyable none the less.

Interestingly enough I got up on stage twice for public speaking, both of which were rather large audiences, one was about a room the size of one of the lecture rooms in DB17, the other room was probably comparable to CLT. Strangely though, I found that getting up there and talking was far easier than the debate.

Internet access where I am currently is rather.. painful. In a black spot simply put so the internet is very temperamental, making it difficult to open basic things such as Gmail or even download file attachments. I haven't even bothered to try and upload a file yet, seeing as I couldn't even get a steady enough connection to actually check my account balance for online banking.

The biggest issue by far though is that my VAIO laptop just crashed. It doesn't seem to want to stay on and keeps powering itself off. At one point it flat out refused to turn on. I managed to get it to power on long enough to get my files for my thesis off as well as a few other files I needed. Right now though, I'm really glad for purchasing the netbook. I had expected the laptop to crash so I'm glad I took that into consideration. When I get back to Townsville I'll have to get it dropped off for repair and figure out whether I try and salvage it, replace it completely, or leave a desktop on campus with remote access from my netbook. Will figure it out when I get back anyway.

During the week, I'll be going up to O'Reiley's and hopefully might talk to some people there to get their views on the before and after of tourist development.

I'm also looking at going up to Paluma sometime during lecture recess to get some photos as a backing to help out with starting my modelling for the project. I really want to get that part of my project started and a fair amount of it done before the end of the semester.

For this week, I've got to finish my BU4061 assessment and also get in contact with Bruce (again) to find out what is happening with the presentations. I've still yet to receive confirmation on where I'm to present. Or even when. I also have to find out if Ian did manage to get an example of a Thesis Proposal for me to look at as well... Hm.

Definitely a lot of work to accomplish over the week. Shall see how I go.

Brisbane, EEE PC and Internet

Landed in Brisbane about an hour ago.

Also got an EEE PC (1005P) yesterday. Battery life on it - FANTASTIC! Have yet to charge it again, but has lasted the whole plane ride (playing movies) and about an hour of surfing on wireless while doing a system backup - and it's still going. (With four hours more to go apparently)

I read through the following paper while on the plane: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=833826

Nifty stuff. It's a paper from 1995 and basically talks about Virtual Geographical Information Systems and how it could be used for military operations. At the time, they only had 2D visualisations and the concept of creating it in 3D was very new. Now, its something you can see in pretty much any game. Call of Duty for instance, mini map with building views that corresponds to the surrounding environment.

I've still yet to 'decide' on two other papers for my review. I had two others I was looking at (links in a previous blog) but I found them not to be exactly what I'm looking for. One was about immersive interaction techniques, the other was about 3D Map Building with Stereo Vision. I need to read that second paper more in depth as the maths in there really throws me off so I only really skimmed read it..

I may have mentioned this already but I would really like to get a paper about the 'experience' a person gets out of immersive technology compared to standard viewing, still yet to find anything.

Also have to finish off my thesis proposal draft tomorrow and get that sent off. Hopefully will get that done tomorrow between everything else that's happening.

Planned Work Ahead and Time Management

So, tomorrow will be a very busy day. Have tutorials, meetings with Gianna and Ian, as well as the lecture tomorrow regarding the dom.pdf file (which I've still yet to finish reading, ahh...)

These past few days, haven't had much time, but thankfully, Friday is empty so will use that to catch up on all the work. It looks like at this stage, I think Monday and Friday will be my catch up days to do work, such as typing up items for my blog entries, working through assessment and reading papers. Just a matter of better time organisation.

I'm not normally overly organised with time, but I think this year, I'm really getting the hang of time management. Google Calendar, calendar.google.com has been a extremely useful tool for better managing my time. Using Google Calendar Sync to link the Calendar with my computer one, and then again with the one on my Nokia phone (though I have to fiddle a bit to get all of the calendars to sync, as I use multiple calendars). Tomorrow will be a good indication of how well that time can be managed as I have events running from 9-10, 10-10.30, 11-12, 12.30-1, 1-2, 2-3, 3.15-4, 4.30-5.15. Quite literally, things running back to back.

I think when doing something like honours, it's really necessary to take that little bit of extra time to plan what work you want to achieve and also what time you have to play with. No matter if you sit around and procrastinate, time will move on - with or without you; and learning to adhere to strict deadlines is absolutely essential.

On a separate topic, I've got a group debate that will need to be worked on for my business class. We're arguing the importance of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences VS Sciences and Information Technology (I think the lecturer threw me in the opposite team for good reason). It'll be interesting to see the different points made, as I can think of points for IT easily enough, but Humanities is different. The different subjects that the group members have brought up though have been rather interesting. That debate I think will be presented at the end of March, before I go to Brisbane, thankfully.

After tomorrow's meeting I'm looking at starting to jot down some key points for building my thesis proposal, as I want to get that under the way as quickly as possible. Bruce mentioned that he will read drafts, but ideally, I want to make sure I try and get most of it right the first time (doubtful, but here's hoping).

Shall see how tomorrow goes anyway.

CP5080: Lecture Notes 25th Feb 10

Please note that this is a record of notes that have been electronically recorded for backup purposes. These entries may not be reproduced without the express permission of the author.

CP5080:

Introduction to Subject:

Literature review, essential component.

Why are we doing literature reviews?

Student Responses:

- Looking at methodologies to help build our own thesis

- No duplicates (happens anyway)

- Keep current

Skills to obtain:

We want to avoid hitting walls

--> Supervisors will be able to help with that

Convincing others about what is being done.

Methods, techniques, insights --> Skills that will be learnt

The subject will teach about techniques, what type of lit reviews there are, and subseqentially write the thesis.

Look at getting a repository (note: Items will exist at Google Code http://code.google.com/p/honours-3d-paluma/ and on blogger http://honours-3d-paluma.blogspot.com/)

The repository is worth 15%. Keep a record of the bibliography, drafts, papers and logs

These items should include everything that you use to help build your thesis.

Version control repository is an option. (For version control of the maya project, do each scene change, history kept in model for each part)

Do Not Delete Anything!

Considering google code as an option (was implemented on Friday, the following day)

Subject we will be spending an hour-two hours each week.

Work to be done:

Research Proposal - Draft due in week 6

Will be reading 4 papers

Read through "Pedro" - find 3 papers to read, as suggested by supervisor. Pick something of appropriate length.

Look at the concept of Annotated Bibliographies. Highly useful.

Papers that will be looked at are all available via the dunk link. Several different papers there, some rather long, but will still be good.

Summarise each paper. Will be useful.

Up until now, we've been taught to read texts book and believe what we are being told. Now we need to be critical of the text, question it. Question it's validity.

Presentation - a summary of the literature review

[Continue from 19:30 timestamp later]

For repository options, may consider using a website in combination with google code? (Google code to host the files, website to link everything together in a easy to navigate structure)

When reading papers - make genuine objectivity

-> Critical Review

Look at keeping journals. (This blog is an example)

Wiki, Project Licences and Previous Notes

Started doing some work on the wiki today, just throwing up information on the project. Started giving info on the project overview and then also resources.

One other thing I have to do is the licence required for the google code project. I've just picked a general public licence for now, version 3 I think (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.html). In a meeting with Ian, I remember him showing Google Sketchup and I do like the concept of having a large map that anyone can go in and edit, add and build off of it, but my main concern is people nicking things and claiming as their own, so I may have to review the licence options at some point.

If all else fails, I can just leave main components of my project offline. I would prefer to have it as something that the public can view though.

Notes on items from class and also meeting notes will be thrown up soon.