Honours Meeting: Gianna [02Mar10]

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.

Back Dated Entry: Notes from meeting with Gianna and Ian

Research Questions:

- Look at questions

Journal Articles

- Find a target journal

- Write for that journal

- Concise Language

IT Conferences for Work

30% Differences

Paluma Community

Using the displace of a VR environment for the actual environment

-> Does this represent your environment?

--- Validility of the tool

Future Scenarios

-> Technology to present (Context of responses)

-> How do you respond to that [Future scenarios]?

Stats

Townsville Community

Surveys VS Technology

-> How does this compare with the original methods of study?

Experimental Field Structure

Tourism Analysis Journal -> Q2.

Value of a vision?

- What is your end destination?

--> Future views?

Example:

Riverway

- Cafe' at Riverway

--> Popularity?

Journal Article - Structure

• Abstract ~ 1 Page (A5 Sized Pages)
• Introduction 2-3 Pages
• Gaps in Literature ~ 2 Pages
• Aims of Study ~1/2 page
• Methods ~ 4 Pages
• --- Procedure
• --- Sample
• Results and Discussion ~ 7 Pages
• --- Aim One - Analysis of Decision Making Process
• --- Organisation Process
• --- ... etc
• --- Constraints
• Implications - Exentending Existing Decision-Making Models ~ 2 Pages
• Future Research ~ 1 Page
• Summary and Conclusions ~ 1 Page
• References [As Required]

Questions for Different Fields:

IT VS Tourism

Q1. Aimed at IT

Q2. Aimed at Tourism

Q3. Aimed at IT and Tourism

How people respond to changes

[ Detailed Updates Later]

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.

CP5080/CP5090: Lecture Notes 4th Mar 10

Thursday will be used as discussion groups

Next week, read through Dom, then Pedro

Friday will be used for presentations, location is TBA

Papers will be stored on LearnJCU, as well as dunk. Or, emailed out.

There will be two papers that will be used for group discussion

--> dum.pdf * Week 3

--> pedro.pdf * Week 4

Focusing on how to talk about presenting papers

Why was this particular paper picked? (Parallel Prefix Computation)

• The paper is a landmark
• Although printed in 1979, it is NOT obsolete
• Short, only 7-8 pages
• Author/s are still alive
• Small references, --> at time, not many were available

Meta Data

• What isn't text
• --> Bibliography
• --> Names
• --> Etc

Content of Paper

Important

Presenter is obliged only to present which elements in depth. Depends on target audience. Generally for our presentation, audience will be much like ourselves.

Points

• What is the idea/s of the paper?
• --> Wider framework
• --> How does this fit into the frame of computer science?
• What are the authors trying to do?
• What is the motivation?
• --> Good way to convey points to audience
• Relationships among results, what is the core?

How is the paper organised?

Functions? Logically organised?

Proofs? Defintions

--> THings well defined?

Originality and significance?

Does the paper have structural errors?

In ~1970, knowledge was limited 0 how to take sequential methods and make them parallel

Explaining the paper

Motivation for tjheir work

Binary \

Radix (base 2)

Notation /

Integer addition

Binary addition

Carry the one

(1) (1) (1)

1 0 0 1 Textbook approach

+ 1 1 1 1

--------------

1 1 0 0 0

Finite State Automation

1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1

A B A B A B A B

Parallel Prefix Computation

Author's Motivation

Takes --------------> Boolean Circuit

FSA in parallel

\________________________/

This was a novel idea in the 1970's. The 'hook' of this paper is integer addition

Responsibility of the presenter -> What you think is central to the paper

Key point of the paper

ADDER_SIZE(n) = c.n

ADDER_DEPTH(n) = c.log2n

Cardinal Points

Lacunae - Paper missing on element, gap

Paper Overview

1. Introduction
2. Parallel Prefix Computation
3. FSA --> Boolean Circuit via PPC
4. Application of (3) ... addition FSA

A good presenter should allow the audience to read the paper profitably. Should provide a road map of the presentation and paper.

Originality and significance

Original result

Bullet points of paper

• How to present
• How to read intelligently.

Notes still incomplete.

BU4061: Lecture Notes 2nd Mar 10

Reviewing Paradigms

Gatekeepers - Methods of doing actions

Paradigm -> research sense

• Approach to how to see the world
• Approach to knowledge
• Approach to methods

Review words in glossary

Ontology - what we think reality is

(Think of the phrase: Are you a tourist?)

Trees VS Management

Naive Realist - Yes, there are trees, good management and tourists

Critical Realist - Argue what a tourist is: home is 6km away? 60km? 600km?

Looking at different notions of reality - if what others say exists, and the general public believes it, is it true?

- Ghosts at Malaysian Campus

- Campus was a battleground located near the Thai border.

Epistemology

• How we get to know 'stuff'
• summary device of objective reality
• argument of what is going on

View of reality and how we know things

Properties of the major paradigms

Powerpoints shades of interpretation?

Why are paradigms important?

--> Research Masteries

Note that business has external markers for honours project - inquire of IT the same

Positivist --> Naive Realists

• Have many simulations to create "the world"
• Have a view that they are independent of what they are studying and what they have mistakenly done is value-free
• e.g. Nuclear Bomb --> It's not value free, this point can be argued
• "We just create, what people do is not our responsibility"

Sometimes, we may be given a false reality

E.g. Book in anthropology

--> Don't believe everything you hear

Interpretation of reality, people believing that research is done in a controlled environment

e.g. Previous study

--> Shocking people

View that the subjects were not being harmed because experiment was controlled

Post-Positivist - 'modified' version of positivism

Performance VS 'Not so good performance'

Arguing employment figures - don't always trust the data

e.g. A town has a set amount of people, some of these people may have an income through crime, such as theft, drug dealing; although that is how they make an income, that is not a subject a person would list as employment, rather they see themselves as unemployed, thus data incorrect.

Interpretative, constructed reality.

Missed the rest of the lecture for a meeting.

Paper Presentations, Maths and Thought Trails

Ah, we just had the presentation example given to us by Bruce earlier for CP5090, and damn... The paper is well... pretty full on.

The paper is about parallel Prefix Composition, basically doing things in parallel rather then sequential and the principles behind it.

I have not properly looked at anything maths related since... Oh, about grade 11? 12? I dropped out of Maths C and switched to account in grade 11 because I didn't enjoy it. And that was some 4-5 years ago, so trying to wrap my head around the concepts being talked about in the paper - just straight over my head.

Regardless though, it was interesting to get an idea of what kind of presentations we have to do for our own in week 7 onwards.

Main points to look at for presentations:

• What is the idea of the paper? Or ideas?
• What is the author trying to achieve?
• What is the motivation for the paper?
• Looking at the relationships amongst the results, what is the core element?
• How to convey the information to the audience?

"A good presenter should allow the audience to gain enough knowledge from the presentation to read the paper profitably. It should read as a map of the presentation and of the paper."

Now, here's hoping the papers that I get assigned I can at least read. If I can avoid anything maths related (kinda hard if its computer science) then that'd be alright. I'm not exactly sure what type of papers we have to look at. A tourism one probably wouldn't be so bad as it ties in to the project, impacts and what not. Then a gaming one with how people interact in virtual environments (seeing as we haven't got the gaming virtual reality stuff completely down pat yet - but the technology is there) and maybe something else... I dunno. I'll have to find out anyway.

Note to self: See if there are recordings of people doing a critical literature review at all, and see how one plays out in reality rather then as an example.

Found out about CP4100 as well. Tis a thesis subject. Placeholder if you will. In other words, more free time! Hurray! Currently I'm sitting in the computer labs in the uni, and I think I'm going to have to get into the habit of coming out here and working at least until I can get some office space. As stated earlier, distractions at home = very time consuming. The labs are good in the late afternoons, but during the day, hectic, especially when students are clambering around looking for computers to use. Particularly the first years. Library may be an option. *ponders*

I think I may have to invest in a second computer/laptop when I get back from Brisbane. My current laptop I think is slowly dying and I need to take it in for repair but still using it for uni. Keeps making funny sounds and I think the DVD drive may not work. That and it randomly freezes up on me, despite doing a full clean a week or so ago. PC at home I'm paranoid about it crashing. Got backups and what not, but still paranoid.

Must invest in a blu-ray burner for this project. External harddrives are good and all for backup purposes but past experience has taught me that harddrives are not 100% reliable. Subject to crashes, data corruption and loss. At least blu-rays, like DVDs and CDs are hard copies where you only really loose the data if it a) scratches (very hard to scratch a blu-ray, I've only seen two scratched PS3 discs before, and they were stepped on), b) cracks or c) becomes lost. I checked the pricing, it's not too bad. Should be able to pick one up for under $200. Plus the discs get a good 25GB out of them, without Dual-Layer, so perfect to keep full HD renders and models on.

Ah, I think there may be a class coming in soon. People keep slowly weeding their way into the room. So shall leave it at that for now.

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)

Tasks for Wednesday/Thursday

My list of things to do over Wednesday and Thursday. Most likely Wednesday, considering I'm working all day tomorrow (or today, depending on what time this is timestamped)

1. Throw up notes from CP5080
2. Read through "Pedro"
3. Notes from meeting with Gianna
4. Read through Honours Thesis
5. Notes from BU4061
6. ... What is happening with CP4100? The subject was empty last Friday. Find out who is running it.

Oh, and remember, dentist appointment Thursday morning (checking calendar)

Ideally, may want to set some time aside after the dentist and after CP5080 to sit down and go through and throw up the entries. May not be able to achieve too much tomorrow with work.

BU4061: Brief Notes

BU4061: Research Paradigms in Business

https://secure.jcu.edu.au/app/studyfinder/?subject=BU4061

Attended my first lecture of this subject today and must say, very confusing, and yet at the same time, makes sense (strangely enough) and is rather interesting.

I'm not going to write up too much tonight as I don't have enough time to get everything up, but just some terminology that was thrown around for the subject:

• Gatekeepers
• Paradigm
• Ontology
• Realists - Naive VS Critical
• Epistemology
• Positivist
• Post Positivist
• Interpretative

There were a few more, but I have to go through my livescribe notes to get all the details. Most amount of notes I've taken in a 50 minute class though. Was a bit put out that I had to leave early as I really did find it all very interesting.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get out an entry and explain/summarise notes from the subject.

Google Building Maker

After posting up a few entries and going through some notes, I remember Ian mentioning Google Building Maker, so for a bit of fun and playing around, I decided to give it a go.

First installed the Google Earth plugin, then the Building Maker Plug in (links can be followed from here: http://sketchup.google.com/ then click "Make buildings for Google Earth")

Wanting to do some buildings for Australia (was honestly hoping for Townsville, but only Melbourne is available), went in and selected the city, then randomly picked some buildings.

City View

(Oh, and if you do this, have a reliable connection - mine isn't too bad at home, but there was a delay of a few sections every time I zoomed in)

Select Your Building:

Model it - (not as easy as they make it out to be in the video)

Preview:

... Not a bad program for a web based application. I do like the idea of it. It's pretty cool to have 3D maps of areas, and gives me a little insight into some ideas I can play around with for my own project.

Recommend to have a look at it if anyone is interested.

Enough for now though. Goodnight.

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.