Saturday, December 27, 2008

Shearing my life

I could seriously do for a indefinite timeout. With all the things in the world that needs to get done, 24 hour days ain't nowhere near enough.

I been wanting to make a website based around some 3D element. I got curious and looked at websites that did similar things, trying to figure out the simplest way of 3D-2D mapping. Skewing or shear mapping (which is another fancy name for a bizarre transform) actually preforms the kind of transform I've been wanting to do and it isn't really that difficult.

I began figuring out the geometric interpretation. I'm very much so a visual person in that I have to picture things before I can argue about their function. The above picture just came to by applying a really trivial skew transform over a period of time.

...but I need more time, all the things to do, all the things to see. I have to write up my Master's thesis, I got two jobs on the side which has to get done this week and I should really look for a third more permanent job. My time at DICE has been most wonderful, its truly a great place to be working at but I'm not certain I'll be able to continue once my internship is up. EA announced a 1000 people layoff 'til the end of March. My hope is that they let HR hire people along the side...

And apparently some stupid company got a 10-year old patent approved today. The consequence is that if you generate icons based on the contents of a file, you will be slapped with a lawsuit for patent infringement. Microsoft, Apple and apparently Google are on trail. What the hell is up with the USPTO!?