Monday, November 29, 2010
London Boulevard <= 15 Words
Monahan's raw talent without Scorsese's finess. The Departed, it's not. Worth your time, it is.
Friday, November 19, 2010
The Day Job: Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
If you're reading this blog and don't actually know me in the real world then you might be wondering "who actually is this guy?" and possibly even "what is it that he actually does, aside from starting to talk about procedural landscape generation, and then falling suddenly silent?" Well, clearly I'm a person who is currently coming to the end of a PhD, and I have a full time job. But doing what, exactly?
If in fact you do know me in the real world, you still might be wondering about that.
For the most part, what I do is work with Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), either at the Ocean Systems Laboratory or SeeByte Ltd, depending on which hat I'm wearing. Let's talk a little about that now, in general terms. Or rather, let's watch an educational video about it.
First, a bit of preamble: this video was made around three and a half years ago (according to my reckoning) in order to present a potential example of the capabilities of AUVs and related technologies. At the time it was very much "looking forward," rather than presenting results. In particular: most of what you're seeing is "mocked up," rather than part of a real operation, and features several technologies which hadn't progressed beyond early prototypes at the time. It's now quite out of date, but it still gets shown at conferences by some of my colleges, since it makes a fairly good introduction.
The video was also aimed primarily at the defense industry, which is why the presented scenario has that sort of slant. Rest assured that not all uses of AUVs are militaristic in nature, but yes: they can be used to help save soldiers lives.
Furthermore, I did all of the camera work and direction (except for in any stock footage), as well as the editing and titles. Writing was a joint effort between myself and several of my colleges. As such I consider the video itself to be part of my "portfolio of work." That's not my voice, though.
So, here's the video (you can click for a bigger version):
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/16996183]
If you know what you're looking for, you can see a very early version of my PhD work in amongst all of that. Perhaps I'll come back later and talk a little more about how what I do specifically fits into all this.
Slight digression: I'm using Vimeo rather than YouTube because it seems like a better fit. Also the website appeals more to my aesthetic sensibilities.
If in fact you do know me in the real world, you still might be wondering about that.
For the most part, what I do is work with Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), either at the Ocean Systems Laboratory or SeeByte Ltd, depending on which hat I'm wearing. Let's talk a little about that now, in general terms. Or rather, let's watch an educational video about it.
First, a bit of preamble: this video was made around three and a half years ago (according to my reckoning) in order to present a potential example of the capabilities of AUVs and related technologies. At the time it was very much "looking forward," rather than presenting results. In particular: most of what you're seeing is "mocked up," rather than part of a real operation, and features several technologies which hadn't progressed beyond early prototypes at the time. It's now quite out of date, but it still gets shown at conferences by some of my colleges, since it makes a fairly good introduction.
The video was also aimed primarily at the defense industry, which is why the presented scenario has that sort of slant. Rest assured that not all uses of AUVs are militaristic in nature, but yes: they can be used to help save soldiers lives.
Furthermore, I did all of the camera work and direction (except for in any stock footage), as well as the editing and titles. Writing was a joint effort between myself and several of my colleges. As such I consider the video itself to be part of my "portfolio of work." That's not my voice, though.
So, here's the video (you can click for a bigger version):
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/16996183]
If you know what you're looking for, you can see a very early version of my PhD work in amongst all of that. Perhaps I'll come back later and talk a little more about how what I do specifically fits into all this.
Slight digression: I'm using Vimeo rather than YouTube because it seems like a better fit. Also the website appeals more to my aesthetic sensibilities.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
...and Another Thing...
As a small adendum to my previous post:
You how annoying it is a couple of hours after an argument which didn't entirely go your way, when you suddenly start coming up with really good comebacks?
You have no idea.
It's nothing that would have saved me from the majority of the corrections, but still. Quite frustrating that I missed an opportunity or two.
You how annoying it is a couple of hours after an argument which didn't entirely go your way, when you suddenly start coming up with really good comebacks?
You have no idea.
It's nothing that would have saved me from the majority of the corrections, but still. Quite frustrating that I missed an opportunity or two.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
The Boardroom
That important thing I was talking about before? It was my PhD viva, and it happened last Friday. Remember, remember, the fifth of November, indeed. It's possibile that given time I'll look back upon it as a positive experience (as many others do), but right now I'm still reeling a little. The closest thing I can compare it to is a really intense job interview. A job interview which lasted four and a half hours. One which is comparable in intensity to... say... one of the boardroom sessions at the end of each episode of The Apprentice. Okay, it's possible that I'm overstating things a little here, but you weren't there, man!
Know this, though: It was very difficult and it lasted a long time... which felt a lot longer than it actually was. The viva is also sometimes referred to as "defending your thesis" and that is a very apt term, because that's definitely what it felt like. It's not just your thesis which is in the dock, though, you're in there with it. Not only do you have to be able to defend any criticism which can be leveled at your work, you also have to be able to show that you understand it completely. When you get a PhD in particular subject, what this essentially means that you are (at that moment) the world's expert in your particular specialisation. You should expect to have to prove that.
So, if you're reading this wondering "should I do a PhD?" you should know that it is not my intention to scare you. I only wish to prepare you. A PhD may or may not be the right thing for you. You might be better suited to any number of other things, but you have to figure that out for yourself. You do need to be able to devote yourself to a single, extremely narrow, subject for at least three years. You also need to be prepared to write a whopping great document at the end of it (mine is 338 pages) and then be ready for both it, and yourself, to be placed under the microscope. It can be extremely rewarding, but it can also be utterly soul destroying. Sometimes in the space of a single day.
After all that, you might be wondering how I actually did. In short: frustratingly. First the good news: I successfully defended my thesis. I passed. This takes a large weight of my shoulders. The bad news, though, is that I have to do "significant corrections." This puts another, albeit smaller, weight straight back on. Based on the final assessment, I'm given to understand that the majority of my thesis is very good. Heart warming adjectives such as "exciting," "heroic in scope" and even "ingenious" were used. Unfortunately, it seems that I need to add a few clarifications and citations, and my results chapter doesn't live up to the standard set by the rest of my thesis. This was a worry I had, and it is good to get some solid feedback on it, even if it does mean more work. As result, I need to rewrite some of it, add some statistic tests and do some further analysis of my data. I also have an embarrassing number of typographical errors to fix.
In summary: It's good to know that the light isn't a train, even if I am still in the tunnel. I'm not calling myself "Dr. Nick" just yet. By God there'll be a party when I do, though.
So now you know. That's what's been taking up my time as of late. I'll get back to Clockwork Aphid just as soon as I can.
Know this, though: It was very difficult and it lasted a long time... which felt a lot longer than it actually was. The viva is also sometimes referred to as "defending your thesis" and that is a very apt term, because that's definitely what it felt like. It's not just your thesis which is in the dock, though, you're in there with it. Not only do you have to be able to defend any criticism which can be leveled at your work, you also have to be able to show that you understand it completely. When you get a PhD in particular subject, what this essentially means that you are (at that moment) the world's expert in your particular specialisation. You should expect to have to prove that.
So, if you're reading this wondering "should I do a PhD?" you should know that it is not my intention to scare you. I only wish to prepare you. A PhD may or may not be the right thing for you. You might be better suited to any number of other things, but you have to figure that out for yourself. You do need to be able to devote yourself to a single, extremely narrow, subject for at least three years. You also need to be prepared to write a whopping great document at the end of it (mine is 338 pages) and then be ready for both it, and yourself, to be placed under the microscope. It can be extremely rewarding, but it can also be utterly soul destroying. Sometimes in the space of a single day.
After all that, you might be wondering how I actually did. In short: frustratingly. First the good news: I successfully defended my thesis. I passed. This takes a large weight of my shoulders. The bad news, though, is that I have to do "significant corrections." This puts another, albeit smaller, weight straight back on. Based on the final assessment, I'm given to understand that the majority of my thesis is very good. Heart warming adjectives such as "exciting," "heroic in scope" and even "ingenious" were used. Unfortunately, it seems that I need to add a few clarifications and citations, and my results chapter doesn't live up to the standard set by the rest of my thesis. This was a worry I had, and it is good to get some solid feedback on it, even if it does mean more work. As result, I need to rewrite some of it, add some statistic tests and do some further analysis of my data. I also have an embarrassing number of typographical errors to fix.
In summary: It's good to know that the light isn't a train, even if I am still in the tunnel. I'm not calling myself "Dr. Nick" just yet. By God there'll be a party when I do, though.
So now you know. That's what's been taking up my time as of late. I'll get back to Clockwork Aphid just as soon as I can.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Let Me In <= 15 Words
No subtitles, more CG, but otherwise, well, I kept expecting people to start speaking Swedish.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
A Short Note Regarding the Deafening Silence
For a while there it really looked as though I was on top of this whole blogging lark, didn't it?
The problem is that writing this blog (and to an even greater extent, working on the Clockwork Aphid project) doesn't feel like procrastinating. It feels like doing something. Not working exactly, but definitely making an active contribution.
As a result, if there's something else I'm supposed to be doing with my time, I have a really hard time working on either without the guilt setting in (it's happening right now). This doesn't stop me from dicking around on the web, complaining about the latest change to Facebook and working my way through my mountain of articles which get dumped into my RSS reader on a daily basis, of course. They do feel like procrastinating, you see, so I waste plenty of time doing those.
This is one of those times when there's something more important I need to work on.
Hopefully I'll be able to talk more about it later. That doesn't mean I'm not spending time thinking up new blog posts (I have at least three fairly big ones sitting in my head) or going over possible implementation strategies for Clockwork Aphid (I probably need to find a catchier name for that). At the moment I'm giving some thought to the management of the landscape data. As in:
To help with this I'm doing a bit of research and reading a journal paper called "Terrain Simplification Simplified: A General Framework for View-Dependent Out-of-Core Visualization" by Peter Lindstrom and Valerio Pascucci. The previously mentioned Shamus Young used in one of his previous projects and talked about it here. The links he gives are dead now, but if you're interested you can find a copy of the paper by googling the title.
As for Shamus' current project, he's doing something with a landscape subdivided in hexagons. This makes me think it might be some sort of turned based game, as hexagons have the nice side benefit of being equidistant from their neighbors (measuring the distance from centre to centre). Interesting... This makes me wonder if there's a good method of doing fractal subdivision using a hexagonal (rather than square) topography...
The problem is that writing this blog (and to an even greater extent, working on the Clockwork Aphid project) doesn't feel like procrastinating. It feels like doing something. Not working exactly, but definitely making an active contribution.
As a result, if there's something else I'm supposed to be doing with my time, I have a really hard time working on either without the guilt setting in (it's happening right now). This doesn't stop me from dicking around on the web, complaining about the latest change to Facebook and working my way through my mountain of articles which get dumped into my RSS reader on a daily basis, of course. They do feel like procrastinating, you see, so I waste plenty of time doing those.
This is one of those times when there's something more important I need to work on.
Hopefully I'll be able to talk more about it later. That doesn't mean I'm not spending time thinking up new blog posts (I have at least three fairly big ones sitting in my head) or going over possible implementation strategies for Clockwork Aphid (I probably need to find a catchier name for that). At the moment I'm giving some thought to the management of the landscape data. As in:
- how much do I show to the user?
- How much do I keep in memory?
- How much do I keep on the disk?
- How much do I keep just on the server?
- Also: why don't I use more bulleted lists?
To help with this I'm doing a bit of research and reading a journal paper called "Terrain Simplification Simplified: A General Framework for View-Dependent Out-of-Core Visualization" by Peter Lindstrom and Valerio Pascucci. The previously mentioned Shamus Young used in one of his previous projects and talked about it here. The links he gives are dead now, but if you're interested you can find a copy of the paper by googling the title.
As for Shamus' current project, he's doing something with a landscape subdivided in hexagons. This makes me think it might be some sort of turned based game, as hexagons have the nice side benefit of being equidistant from their neighbors (measuring the distance from centre to centre). Interesting... This makes me wonder if there's a good method of doing fractal subdivision using a hexagonal (rather than square) topography...
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