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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Big News!

So for those of you who haven't yet heard, I just had some big news this last week. The school of Art at ASU has asked me to teach their Upper Division 3D Animation Course! I'll be starting for the spring semester of 2009. I get to teach all by myself and I'm also putting together the curriculum too. It's gonna be tons of fun and heaps of work, I'm really looking forward to it and grateful for the opportunity. Thanks to all of you who have sent your well wishes, it nice to have so many great friends and family.

Happy Computing Everyone!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Wii bit of Fun

So recently my wife and I decided to get a Wii, and let me say it's been really a lot of fun.
We only have Wii Sports and plan to get the Wii Fit soon, but it's been actually a bit of a work out for us. The sports keep us entertained and make us get a little competitive too.
I must admit when I first heard of the Wii my thought was "Oh, That's not new, that's old technology" which it really is when you think about it. The Wii uses two infrared lights that are held in the sensor bar by the tv, the Wii remote is exactly that, a remote. It picks up on the infrared and then determines the postion of the controller. The controllers also house an electronic geospacial gadget that tell the controller at what angle it's being held. All of these are old technologies, but it's the first time they have been brought together into one place and then commercialized. I shouldn't say for the first time, because people have been using these technologies in other applications for at least the last 20 years or so.
So....am I impressed with the Wii....Yes and No. I think it is possibly the best console system out there for encouraging more group participation, and getting people active. I think that some of the technology could have been implemented a little better, but hey they didn't ask for my advice before marketing it so I won't give it.
But we do have a ton of fun playing it and hope to continue playing it for a very long time. Once we have the Wii fit I'll be excited to track my BMI and be able to better help myself stay in shape.