#bloggery — Public Fediverse posts

A first look at the ChumpCam
Some photos of the Pi Based, Arducam driven camera system.
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/a-first-look-at-the-chumpcam/
#Bloggery #classes #RITVP #arducam #pi #projects

Stolen Valor
I owe Bausch & Lomb an explanation.

In high school, I convinced my Chemistry teacher that my time for that class was better spent at the local community college (Go Flood Wall Tech ... Steamers?) learning Calculus, since we didn't offer it at Portsmouth High and I was first in my family to head off to the hallowed halls of Ohio State to learn Architecture.
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/stolen-valor/
#Bloggery #Folklore #calculus #honesty #math #optics #science #valor

Pixar Retirement Keyboard
An example of the clash between Caps Lock and 40+ years of emacs motor control.

When I 'retired' from Pixar in 1992 to go back to grad school, my friends got me a (digital) gold watch. Neftali "El Magnifico" Alvarez made this custom keyboard and had everyone he could find sign it. The layout is a little odd. Hard to type some words, others, pret
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/pixar-retirement-keyboard/
#Bloggery #Folklore #history #keyboards #pixar

The Veiled Virgin illustrates visual segmentation of shape by cause
The geometry of the physical object does not represent the visual experience.

Three-dimensional (3D) shape perception is one of the most important functions of vision. It is crucial for many tasks, from object recognition to tool use, and yet how th
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/the-veiled-virgin-illustrates-visual-segmentation-of-shape-by-cause/
#Bloggery #MyScience #perception #shape #VeiledVirgin #virgin #visit

Perceptual plausibility of exaggerated realistic motion
Squashing and stretching our way across the uncanny valley.

Abstract

The informal heuristic practices of the fine arts have much to offer to our understanding of the appearance of phenomenological reality. One interesting example is the use of exaggeration to enha
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/perceptual-plausibility-of-exaggerated-realistic-motion/
#Bloggery #MyScience #animation #balls #cognition #experiments #perception

Turdpaint
In my computer graphics youth, everyone wrote two programs - a 2D paint program and a 3D renderer.

Such was the curriculum of the time. Ed Tripp taught CIS 781-2-3, a three quarter sequence that took you from the Bresenham line algorithm1 2 all the way to a scanline renderer. I wrote 99% of my code for that class on an original Macintosh 128K, in M
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/turdpaint/
#Bloggery #Folklore #folklore #graphics #history #Macintosh #megamax #paint #pascal

Papa’s Draft Card
Found my Grandfather's draft card in a bunch of my Dad's stuff.

About a year before my Grandfather passed away, I visited him and he pulled his draft card out of his wallet. He handed it to me and said "I keep trying to get the shuttle bus driver to drop me off at the post office so I can burn this on the steps. He won't ever stop."

That is some serious joke long-game, this w
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/papas-draft-card/
#Bloggery #draft #DraftCard #family

Oh the things you’ll find…
I'm cleaning up a bunch of archived files.

While I was in grad school, after Pixar, I did a little bit of consulting to make ends meet. One of the more fun things that I did was write a bunch of audio software for a David Bowie interactive CD. (aka CDi)

I got to hang out with Brian Eno, visited him on Guy Fawkes Night
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/oh-the-things-youll-find/
#Bloggery #Folklore #MyDesign #bowie #cdi #interactive #ion #music #sound

MacRenderMan
Some historical floppy disk fun from old Pixar days.

When Pixar decided to sell RenderMan to the public we had to come up with a good name (It was REYES, Renders Everything You've Ever Saw / Seen). You could already buy a version that a ran on the Pixar Image Computer CHAP (Channel Processor) called CHAPREYES. I don't know if we ever sold any, but w
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/macrenderman/
#Bloggery #Folklore #folklore #history #macos #mathematica #pixar #renderman

Chernobyl Personal Geiger Counter
Issued to residents of Chernobyl and surrounding areas after the [Chernobyl Disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster).

Last I played with it, it still worked. It takes some pretty weird batteries and I think a coil has cracked inside, so I need to do a little renovation work on it.

I got
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/chernobyl-personal-geiger-counter/
#Bloggery #Chernobyl #ColdWar #disaster #GeigerCounter #history #measurement

On Talks and Slides
Some history of style.

Once upon a time, Ed Tufte called me a "sanctimonious assohole". I suggested that he up the dosage of his medications and stopped recommending his books to my students and colleagues1. But — The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint remains a pretty good essay (sometimes excessive) on some of its il
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/on-talks-and-slides/
#Bloggery #Folklore #history #knuth #latex #pixar #porter #powerpoint #presentations #talks #tufte

Whenever I have post something that's going to surpass 500 characters, you can find it at my Dreamwidth.

https://lastofhisname.dreamwidth.org

#blatantselfpromotion #myblog #blogging #bloggery #dreamwidth

Whenever I have post something that's going to surpass 500 characters, you can find it at my Dreamwidth.

https://lastofhisname.dreamwidth.org

#blatantselfpromotion #myblog #blogging #bloggery #dreamwidth

Whenever I have post something that's going to surpass 500 characters, you can find it at my Dreamwidth.

https://lastofhisname.dreamwidth.org

#blatantselfpromotion #myblog #blogging #bloggery #dreamwidth

The PICS 2000
A medical imaging workstation - the beginning of volume imaging

When I got my interview at Pixar, I was at Ohio State working on volumetric rendering of CT and MR images. There are a few callbacks to that on here, OSU MRI Flashback – 1984 for example. We were at the leading edge of that stuff back then. Pixar was looking for commercial s
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/the-pics-2000/
#Bloggery #Folklore #folklore #ImageProcessing #MedicalImaging #pixar #VolumeRendering

Listerine Prank
How to drink a few bottles of Listerine, scare your clients, and ultimately see your clients repeat your prank.

I told this story to Penn years ago and he decided it was worthy of a place in their book. There are some great stories in there and I'm proud to have been part of it.

TL;DR - We were making commercials for Listerine, Pete Docter and I gaffed up a
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/listerine-prank/
#Bloggery #Folklore #listerine #penn #pixar #prank #Teller

Highland Aire
Highland Aire

I just finished a row. It’s about 99% humidity this morning, which, to credit Chris Wedge, reminds me of having just rowed inside someone’s mouth.

Chris and I used to ride our bikes together when we were at CGRG. That was back in my racing days, I was decidedly a mediocre racer1 but I had a lot of fun. That was right when Greg Lemond became the gr
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/highland-aire/
#Bloggery #Folklore #folklore #history #Marin #MtTam #music

Travels in the uncanny valley
Here's a screencast of my talk at the Rochester Institute of Technology Symposium on VR/AR Technology.

It is from 3 December and a little low-key, so drink a little coffee before you start watching so you don't fall asleep. Amazingly, the MAGIC Center had no lecture recording, so I've recreated it here with about 60% less energy because I wa
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/travels-in-the-uncanny-valley/
#Bloggery #MyScience #keynote #talk #uncannyvalley

Cat Came Back Jeans
Sometime in the late 80's, I was a guest at a Spike n' Mike animation festival, Santa Cruz I think. A bunch of us from Pixar went down, JL was probably the only 'true' special guest, but somehow I ended up at the autograph table, signing posters and stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck0jwS0CvKk
The Cat Came Back, Cordell Barker e
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/cat-came-back-jeans/
#Bloggery #Folklore #animation #festival #folklore #nfb #pixar #spikeandmike

IMSAI 8080
Back and forth in time…

The IMSAI 8080 was the first "clone" microcomputer, introduced in 1975 – a lower cost version of the MITS Altair 8800, introduced a year earlier in 1974. I first saw the Altair on the cover of Popular Electronics. Dad got me a subscription to PE because of my insane interest in taking apart phones and other electronics that he brought home. I was very go
https://flipphillips.com/bloggery/imsai-8080/
#Bloggery #cp/m #cpm #imsai8080 #retrocomputing