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.

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.

Not much achieved over weekend

As stated in an earlier post, I think the weekends are probably the worst days for me to actually get any work done.

I just did some backdated entries just then from my notes, but not in great depth (haven't gone back through the audio yet, just put the template information there) and I still gotta throw up the entry for the meeting with Gianna.

I hoping this week I can at least get some work done on the project proposal to have ready to hand in before I'm down in Brisbane, and also have the papers selected. Bruce gave a lecture about how to present the papers and it was an interesting experience, though I would certainly like to see further methods and presentations of papers. I can't remember what the time given for the presentations are, I think it's about 20 minutes. Maybe more. I gotta double check that.

Was supposed to have Japanese classes earlier, but they got cancelled, so figured I'd do a few entries before heading off for an early night.

Once the project proposal is done, I want to go up to Paluma sometime, or even go to the Palmetum to look at the trees and start exploring modelling approaches for those. I may have already discussed this on here (I can't keep track of what I've said here, or out in the real world), but looking at different methods.

1. High resolution trees with details on leaves, using particle generators for the leaves
2. Medium resolution trees with general shape of tree, minimal leaves detail
3. Low resolution trees, very basic shape, possibly even two 2D images crossed over each other in a cross section such as + when viewing from top

Different ideas there. I'd also like to have a look at the environment at which to model the trees upon, looking at the geography of the place and figuring out what kind of software will be required to accomplish that task.

I had a look at some of the student version of the software. I was looking at the Adobe Masters Suite and the commercial edition is $4599 whereas student edition is $599, so may look into getting that for doing my video editing and blueprints for my models. Main programs I'd be looking at is Photoshop and Premiere, though I may consider DreamWeaver to use for the website creation abilities to host some actual in depth views of the project. Maya and 3DS Max is still an option to look at, so must look into that.

Ideas of resources for project proposal anyway.

Just some thoughts.

Modelling Approaches: CUDA

When discussing with another student about what options I want to consider for my project (on Saturday night), in particular, the amount of power I need to draw from the computer to get the quickest compilation time, CUDA technology was recommended.

CUDA is NVIDIA’s parallel computing architecture that enables dramatic increases in computing performance by harnessing the power of the GPU (graphics processing unit).

[Source: What Is CUDA?, accessed 1st March 2010]

I was given a very brief overview of what the technology does, but basically, it allows rendering direct to the GPU. Some interesting information here about the new line of graphics cards from NVidia:

The next generation CUDA architecture (codename: "Fermi") which will be standard on NVIDIA's upcoming (GeForce 400 Series [GF100] (GPU) to be released available Q1 2010) GPU is designed from the ground up to natively support more programming languages such as C++. It is expected to have eight times the peak double-precision floating-point performance compared to Nvidia's previous-generation Tesla GPU.

[Source: Future CUDA Architectures, accessed 1st March 2010]

It looks like a good concept. Looking around at things on forums, there are plugins available for Maya to render using CUDA which would be good. I'd love to sit down and experiment on rendering time using CUDA VS my current computer.

I've been considering what sort of computer I want to use for my project, and just trying to figure out costs. My current system, see specs below, runs maya quite well.

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9300 @ 2.50GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.3GHz

Memory: 3582MB RAM (4096MB Total)

Hard Drive: 2.8TB

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX 512DDR3

Sound Card: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device) 7.1+2 Channel High Def Output

Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium 32bit (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_gdr.080425-1930)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P S775 P35 FSB1333 DDR2 PCIEX16

Computer Case: Antec 900 Gaming Case

Much better then my friends system that I used to render one of my assignments when in Cairns. A total of 8 hours rendering time VS 15 minutes. Drastic improvement. If I could get something similar or better to use for my project, that'd be pretty good. I like the idea of the i7 processors that Intel released this year and how they use hyper-threading to achieve faster speeds. (http://www.intel.com/products/processor/corei7/index.htm). I think if I were to combine a system with an i7 processor and a CUDA enabled graphics card (wishing the GeForce 400 series would come out soon) then it'd be pretty interesting to see just how well the system can render. Especially considering if it's a scene filled with trees (or more specifically, leaves). It'd be the same concept as particle rendering, and that can cause my current system to get upset if the particle count is too high.

Something to think about anyway. I'll definitely have to look further into the CUDA technology.