Watched Avatar twice in 3D, why?

Avatar screenshot

So leaving out all the stuff about the movie being racist and what ever people want to say about the film. I thought I’d have a look at the 3D technology behind the experience, but I can confirm I enjoyed the film and watched it twice. Why?

First time I watched in Odeon Manchester’s 3D cinema (note this is not a IMAX screen, although the same cinema does have one) before Christmas. Then again with a friend in Cardiff, while I was in Bristol. We got talking about Avatar and my friend had not seen it yet. But worst still he had never been to a IMAX cinema ever let alone to a 3D screening. So we drove all the way to Cardiff Bay (Bristol’s IMAX was suspend earlier in 2007 year and was due to be open again) to the Odeon IMAX there.

So to be clear both Odeon venues but one is IMAX 3D and the other one is just Odeon 3D. Most people think there the same but there not. Just one look at the different glasses will show you that.

There’s 3 main 3D systems, Imax 3D, RealD and Dolby 3D Digital Cinema. Obviously Imax 3D was first then RealD and now Dolby 3D. 3D vision blog has all the details you need for them all but I’ll stick to the two I experienced.

IMAX 3D

This one is the oldest of the three standards that is famous mostly because of the very big screens present in these cinemas, but they are still not very widely available around the world with most of the IMAX cinemas present in USA. Up until very recently IMAX 3D was only analogue with the movies being shot on large frame 70mm film in order to achieve good image quality on the larger screens these cinemas use, as compared to normal 35mm film. The digital version was introduced last year and still very few cinemas use that and the resolution and respectively the projection screen sizes for these implementations are not as big as on the analogue ones. IMAX uses big linear passive polarized plastic glasses for the viewers that do not provide the best possible experience. Anyway, getting back to the user experience, there is something very specific for IMAX 3D and that is the fact that the movies shown there are usually optimized for more pop-out screen effect than depth. This means that most of the time objects literally seem to pop out of the screen appearing as if you can touch them, kids do love this effect, but this is also more tiring for the brain. So usually longer movies are a bit of a problem to watch and Avatar is close to 3 hours, so you should be carefully consider this, especially if you feel a little “out of this world” when watching movies in an IMAX cinema. Some other drawbacks that are not always present and most of the people miss are the lower contrast in some dark scenes, a bit more ghosting of objects and problems refocusing your eyes quickly enough to follow the whole picture in fast action scenes and thus you might miss some important parts. Anyway IMAX 3D is certainly the most easy way to achieve the WOW effect with just about anyone that is watching his first stereoscopic 3D movie, but it this is not the first for you, then the other alternatives might be better…

RealD

This is a bit newer standard, but a digital one from its start… digital here meaning that the movies are recorded in a digital format and the projectors being used are also digital. RealD 3D cinemas uses circular polarized plastic glasses instead of linear polarized to provide better user experience when watching stereoscopic content. Circular polarization is considered to be better, because viewers are able to move their head as they like without the loss of the 3D depth effect. With the linear polarized glasses you have to be a bit steady, not moving around too much and sometimes you might have trouble finding the right position for your head in order to achieve the best effect when watching the movie to fully enjoy it. The circular polarized plastic glasses used here are also cheap to produce, but this technology requires the use of more expensive silver screen for projection which makes it a bit more expensive to implement. Still at the moment RealD is the most widely used standard for stereoscopic 3D movie projections all over the world, so you will most likely have one of these cinemas where you live. The immersion experience with RealD is a bit different compared to what you get at IMAX 3D projections as here the depth perception is of actual depth so the action is more going inside the screen, and not popping out of it. This does not make things less impressive, although some people might get a little disappointed at first if they were expecting to have the IMAX 3D pop-out effects, but after some time of watching they still get the feeling they are right in the middle of the action. This way of going more in the projection screen and not out of it is also easier on your brain as it is not that overloaded with information and is considered better for longer movies. Also it is easier to keep track of quick action scenes and the ghosting is usually less, so most of the people prefer this technology, although it is still not perfect.

And this is very consistent with my experience. The IMAX 3D glasses were massive and the effect was bigger and bolder that watching it on the RealD setup in Manchester. I thought it was down to the size of the screen but to be honest the IMAX screen in Cardiff wasn’t anything like the IMAX’s i’ve been to in London Waterloo, Minneapolis, etc. I got a feeling it might be one of those Fake IMAX screens.

One of the weird thing about the RealD setup was that the screen didn’t feel as sharp as the IMAX but that could just be the seat position. So for the win, watch Avatar in IMAX 3D for now.

My Next Generation DJ competition mix: The sound of snow falling in sunshine mix

The sound of snow falling in sunshine mix from cubicgarden at Letsmix.com.

I decided to go with the straight forward trance mix after listening to both this one and the previously mentioned created one. I just found myself turning up the volume after almost every single track, so I rethought the whole idea of putting in something a little lesss trancy. It all went out the window once I heard it. I promise to upload the other one to soundcloud later.

Its 11am and the snow is falling on the cold streets of the inner city. Its too cold to go out and if you listen carefully there’s the sound of snow falling on the trendy rooftops of Manchester.Then for a moment a hint of sunlight from beyond the clouds. Before long, the sun is out but its still snowing.

Its warm enough on the balcony to do a pacemaker mix, this mix. Its a uplifting celebration of the last few years of Trance.

  1. Sinister – Airbase
  2. Constellation (john O callaghan remix – Thomas Bronzwaer
  3. Summer Melodies (Frequence remix) – Frequence
  4. Bulgarian (Signum Remix) – Travel
  5. Beauty hides in the deep (john O callaghan remix) – The Doppler effect
  6. Shadow World – Thomas Bronzwaer
  7. Serenity (alphazone remix) – saltwater
  8. Rewire – Robert Nickson & Daniel Kandi
  9. Key of life (Marlo remix) – Ohmna featuring Nurlaila
  10. Attention (steve birch remix) – John 00 Fleming vs Christopher Lawrence
  11. She wants him – Moussa Clarke & Terrafunka
  12. Into the danger (M.I.K.E remix) – M.I.K.E vs Andrew Bennett
  13. Certitude – Thomas Bronzwaer
  14. Ultra Curve – Cosmic gate
  15. It’s the beat – Simians mobile disco

Would I get a Google Nexus One?

Get your nexus here

I like what Google have done with there own mobile phone. Lots of nice software tweaks to a frankly great phone. There’s no doubt that HTC make the best mobile phones in the world, be them for Microsoft like the HTC HD2 or for Android in the form of the Droid or now the Nexus One.

Would I buy one myself? Well my contract does run out soon but the Nexus One doesn’t come on Orange or Tmobile in the UK which means I won’t get the data package it deserves. I’m still feeling the HD2 which has a even larger screen at 4.3 inches.

Anyway you can now buy the Google Nexus phone online today at Google’s own microsite.

Is this a competition winning mix?

I’ve been thinking about the mix for the mix competition and decided to do a more upbeat tech electro mix instead of trance. I’ll post it on soundcloud very soon, just need to edit it a little because the pacemaker didn’t record the first mix correctly (again!).

Break dance to this mix by cubicgarden

  1. Where’s your head at (Stanton Warriors Remix) – Basement Jaxx
  2. Hustler – Simians mobile disco
  3. Shifter – Timo Maas
  4. Wooden – Simians mobile disco
  5. Roundabout – Sam Sharp
  6. One for you (Oliver Klien)
  7. Shnorkel (original mix) – Miki Litvak and Ido Ophir
  8. Its the beat – Simians mobile disco
  9. Higher state of consciousness (dirty south version) – Josh wink
  10. Tits and Acid – Simians mobile disco
  11. Verdi (the others) – mauro picotto
  12. Grasshopper (raw version) – Sander Van Doorn
  13. Communication (more) – Mario Piu
  14. Friday (trentemoller remix) – Fred Everything and 20 for 7
  15. Rheninkraft (extended version) – Oliver Klein
  16. Prosac – Dj Tomcraft
  17. Sleep Deprivation – Simian mobile disco

What do you think? Shall I submit this one or stick to the trance?

My New Year Resolutions of 2009

So its about time to start looking into the future again and making those resolutions… Looking at the previous ones for 2009 things have not gone exactly to plan.

  1. Go skiing on real snow
    Didn’t happen, will have to carry this one over…
  2. Work and execute a Alternative Reality Game
    Also didn’t happen, but I may have to sub this one for writing a book
  3. Build up a better routine
    Its starting to happen but not quite yet, but give it a little more time and things will be better. I’m going start getting up earlier and go to bed earlier that currently.
  4. Work smarter, with less pace and less stress
    This is happening, but there is still smarter ways I could be working. I’ll try and document some of this too of course.
  5. Go out more and be live more heathly
    Yep, I think I’ve drunk more beer and wine this year that ever before. So I’m certainly going out a lot more but living more heathly, not quite. This year that will change.
  6. Be more daring with matters of the heart
    Yeah I’m not doing so bad there… Between OKCupid, Speed Dating, etc I’ve done a reasonable job enjoying myself and not holding back.
  7. Start organising Werewolf and Werewolf+ nights in the North
    Started well but dropped the ball a bit half way through the year when barcamp, tedx, etc kicked in. I should certainly get this going again, as I do enjoy a good game of Werewolf.
  8. Build a web application
    So I got a couple of kick ass ideas which I do want to build and with my new thoughts about using Xquery instead of Python, means I’m a lot more likely to build what I’m thinking in my spare time.
  9. Blog every film I watch
    So I started doing this via twitter using the hashtags film and movie but due to twitters archiving system, they got sucked away before I noticed. Someone pointed me towards 140 film review. So who knows maybe I might use that or come up with some simple Xquery to pull my reviews into a storage container using Twitter/Indenti.ca
  10. Read more
    This has happened a lot, since I bought my ebook reader I’ve read about 15 books in about 4x the speed I usually would. I can see this increasing in the future.
  11. More Trance music
    I’ve not done may trance mixes recently but once I get this competition mix out the way I’ll be uploading them regularly again. I’m also making a habit of listening to Armin Van Buuren and other dj shows at work and making a note of top tunes. I also noticed I spent about 150 pounds last year on tunes from AudioJelly and Juno.
  12. Lots more graphics
    Yep this is happening, I’m also getting faster at drawing in inkscape and explaining the after graphics. I’m hoping next year to be able to do complete presentations based on the graphs alone. I’m also going to start using some of the techniques Dan Roam uses in the back of the napkin

Interested in buying my Sony Ereader?

Sony PRS505 vs Sony PRS600

After buying the Sony PRS 600, it made sense to sell the old one on Ebay. The new ereader is a better machine in everyway except contrast. As you can see in the photo above the one on the right (old one – PRS 505) is much better in its range of greyscale. The black is black and white very white. While the new one (PRS-600) isn’t so black and white. This means while reading the words are not as sharp. It would be picking up a nice modern hardback and comparing it to a used paperback. Both are perfectly readable but you can see the difference when put together. Obviously I’m not the only one to see this issue.

For me all the other features out way this issue, I’m still looking forward to writing the XSL to convert Tomboy Notes into Sony Notes and back. But if your interested in picking up my old one for cheap, head over to ebay soon.

The world’s most important 6-sec drum loop

Matt showed me this earlier in the week but I had to blog it. This is a excellent example of remix culture… Imagine if Amen had claimed copyright over the break? Or if they had licensed it only to the top producers in the music industry.

This fascinating, brilliant 20-minute video narrates the history of the “Amen Break,” a six-second drum sample from the b-side of a chart-topping single from 1969. This sample was used extensively in early hiphop and sample-based music, and became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music — a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures. Nate Harrison’s 2004 video is a meditation on the ownership of culture, the nature of art and creativity, and the history of a remarkable music clip.

Hello 2010, welcome to the new blog

2010

So I finally decided to switch my blog to wordpress and on top of that I was able to install storytlr open source.

I’m still in the process of doing all the redirects and general cleaning up but its coming together quite nicely. Once its all stable I’m hoping to spend some time sorting out the styles and themes.

Getting the entries out of Blojsom was easy as pie but then converting them into a format which WordPress wouldn’t barf on was a big problem. In the end I wrote a throw away XSL to do it, because it WordPress didn’t like namespaced elements or generally anything over the standard RSS 2.0 elements. I did manage to push over the Categories and Tags but had to split them apart in WordPress later.

My whole thing is hosted with GoDaddy on their new European Servers and will be quite slow while it caches all requests.

I love Blojsom but I never upgraded to version 3.x which required a database to work. With the need for a database, it meant the ground between WordPress and blojsom was a less so. Then add cheap hosting, amazing plugins, themes and community. And its pretty much a no brainer. I also found that less and less blog editors are supporting Blojsom (some kind of metaweblog xmlrpc category issue). So now I’m able to use Bilbo which is a KDE editor with support for pretty much everything WordPress allows. I’m also able to use Google Gears which is useful when offline.

This was also a chance to get a little more serious about my blogging and footprint online. Hence I’m really hoping to stretch what storytlr can do for me and some of the projects I have for it.

In the meantime, let me know if you see anything very weird which I may have missed….

Storytlr joins Sweetcron in the opensourced club

Storytlr: we're now open

Full credit to the guys behind storytlr, they have fully open sourced the storytlr platform in record time under the Apache 2.0 licence.

As promised a while ago, we are open sourcing our platform. A first version is now available at http://storytlr.googlecode.com with a detailed set of instructions on how to install.

With this code, you can host your own storytlr on your own server (or on a shared hosting environment). By default, it is setup as a single user mode, but you can easily change it to a multi user host and therefore reproduce the exact service we are hosting on the current storytlr.com.

If you remember they announced they were shutting down the service a while back, they want to move on to bigger and better things. Funny enough in that period Sweetcron also went open source and the creator moved on to something else. Sweetcron is GNU GPL 3.0 licensed and seems a lot harder to install that Storytlr.

Right now I'm still using Soup.io for ianforrester.org but I am going to install Storytlr and switch it over when I get the chance. I'd also like to do some changes to the code to support APML for one of my projects, I had also considered using storytlr lightly to dynamically pull together BBC backstage media and something very special which I won't reveal yet.

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