Half-Life: Alyx

posted in Virtual Reality by Cargo Cult on Thursday November 21 2019

Sorry for being a bit quiet lately. I've been busy.

Half-Life: Alyx

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Photogrammetric Catch-up, part 1 of WHO KNOWS

posted in Virtual Reality by Cargo Cult on Tuesday December 25 2018

I really ought to post more to this blog-beast. So, in a brief moment of calm and as a Christmas / Saturnalia / Newtonmas / Whatever gift, have some recently posted photogrammetric captures for VR!

First up, Cadillac Mountain, Maine, USA - with photos taken back in September. (I have many more conventional photos I need to post as well.)

With disappointingly few synths, radioactive creatures and/or post-apocalyptic fog, there's a suspiciously clear view of Far Harbor, sorry, Bar Harbor below in this autumnal scene.

In Washington Sate, we'd call this a valley. No flesh-consuming fog today, sadly enough. I tried saying hello to DiMA and the crew, but there was a gift-shop instead.

Secondly, have the InSight Landing Site, Elysium Planitia, Mars lovingly rendered in room-scale VR and put together from recently posted raw images from this NASA space probe. The landscape is ominously flat - the interesting stuff being underground. I, for one, welcome our new Bayer filtered engineering cameras. Full colour!

Expect more, conventional photos - eventually?

Photographic Catch-up, part 1 of MAXINT

posted in Photography by Cargo Cult on Sunday March 11 2018

Starting to catch up with unposted photos, starting from August last year and making it all the way to October.

Beautiful Derbyshire Ugly old Canada

There's some Belgian ones in there too. These are just vague highlights - and I've got another trip to post stuff from too...

Apocalypse Now

posted in Photography by Cargo Cult on Tuesday November 14 2017

Incoming Powerless Post Windmageddon reference material #63759 Post Windmageddon reference material #66743 Post Windmageddon reference material #61244 Post Windmageddon reference material #68763 Post Windmageddon reference material #63456 Post Windmageddon reference material #85643 Post Windmageddon reference material #66754 Post Windmageddon reference material #76753 Post Windmageddon reference material #87266 Post Windmageddon reference material #89574 Post Windmageddon reference material #84674 Post Windmageddon reference material #86456 Post Windmageddon reference material #86463 Post Windmageddon reference material #84673 Post Windmageddon reference material #85775

I certainly didn't learn from last time - the main camera's battery went flat, the spare battery was already flat, while the spare spare battery was also flat. Cue choice between a point-and-shoot with focus issues in dismal post-apocalyptic lighting, and an elderly dSLR with an allergy to ludicrous ISOs. Hmm. I decided to embrace the crappy apocalyptic aesthetic. It absolutely felt like a real-life Left 4 Dead.

Oh, and the impromptu, augmented foodie-compatible earthquake response kit was distinctly handy for a fully-electricity-dependent flat. The all-important French RCIRs, incidentally, were an eBay-fuelled response to the grotty-looking energy bars provided with the original emergency kit. So absolutely any excuse to try these French combat rations - they're famous for their edibility. The cassoulet au canard didn't look like much, but was rather good! I'm now considering which red wine to pack in this emergency kit...

...

The power went back on some time during the night. Quite disappointing, really.

Yes, I'll get back to posting more frequently. I've got photos from multiple international trips to get round to uploading eventually!

Sunday Things - something is wrong edition

posted in Links by Cargo Cult on Sunday July 9 2017

What, this? It's the Sunday Things. Remember?

Broken News

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Broken News - something has gone terribly wrong. Huw Edwards takes several minutes to reboot, it turns out. Apparently a computer glitch rather than a piece of modernist performance art.
PotatOS, your turn next.
Self Driving Potato Hits The Road - vegetables provided with agency. What a world we live in.
Something is terribly wrong.
What football will look like in the future - do you hear that? Do not be afraid, but something is terribly wrong. I'm afraid that this page is going to disintegrate. Is this what all modern sports writing has become, and if so, why did nobody tell me? Avoiding spoilers, but this is pretty much the Frog Fractions of American football - and there's still a week to go.

Bonus Musical Hacking corner:

  • The Red Special: Brian May's Handmade Guitar - as a youngster, the noted astrophysicist, friend of badgers and Isaac Newton lookalike made an electric guitar with his dad. Apparently he still plays it.
  • The Legend of the Deacy Amp - meanwhile, the fellow hacker, engineering student and part-time musician John Deacon finds an old circuit board in a skip and turns it into a guitar amplifier for his own musical stylings. Supposedly he used it quite a lot.