Mash-up is a term that not only applies to the web, but to many other forms of distributed media such as music or film. Although a Web Mash-Up is more to do with mixing different technologies rather than just different genres of media. The term 'Mash-Up', when applied to the Internet, came from the 'Web 2.0' bag of buzzwords, they are hybrid applications. They take two, or more, existing technologies and create a new service which was not provided by any of the sources. Examples of such hybrid applications are The WorldTimeEngine which allows users to find the exact time in any location on the planet using Google Maps and Star Viewer, a mash-up of Google Sky and YouTube from which you can watch videos showing stars, nebulae, and galaxies at quite high levels of detail.
I think that the use of 'Mash-Ups' is only going to increase, I think of it as being the web equivalent of RAD(Rapid Application Development), very few people do the hard work of creating new technologies and lots of people use them and act like they created the underlying concepts, however my view is quite a pessimistic one as I think that as these 'Mash-Ups' become easier to create then some web developers will become lazy and rely on the rest of the world to innovate , which in turn would bring the furthering of technology to a grinding halt. I think that 'Mash-Ups' will eventually be commandeered by the 'Social-Networking' scene, the mySpaces and Facebooks etc, they will be dumbed down to let anyone with half a brain stem use them, for no real use other than to say "Oh look I posted my Blog from here, It's a mile away from my house" or something to that effect. In conclusion I think that for most applications 'Mash-Ups' can be useful tools, and that they should be used by the people that know what they are doing and can create something that is truly new and innovative that can be used and enjoyed worldwide
Saturday, 12 April 2008
Wednesday, 20 February 2008
I know it's late..The strengths and weaknesses of Blogs as collaberative tools
To honest the reason this blog post is late is because I forgot about it and that I had to do it. I was stressing too much on the interin report and why my code was broken. However back to the task in hand.
Blogs are, baically, a way of comunicating with the world. They can be used for all different reasons, some good and some not so. As it can be seen wih a quick trip to myspace most people are using blogs to tell the world how psueo-interesting thier life apparently is. Personally I think that blogs should only be used for a productive reason, like this class. I'm asked for my thoughts I put them on the blog people comment, I get assessed and so on. I cannot really see why people would keep a blog chronicalling every mundane task they ever carry out, maybe this is one of the reasons I have a general hatred for popular culture, and every small incident that ever happens but enough about my hatred of the general public. I do think however that blogs can be used for constructive purposes; such as keeping track of a project, etc....I think that if a blog is witten for a good reason and the author has a good reason to pubish thier ideas/views/findings then it is a very useful and powerful tool. As for bing collaberative I'm still in two minds. Yes Blogs can allow collaberative working but the senario seems a little pointless to me.
1.Authorwrites on Blog
2.Another reads then comments
3.Author reads comments and relplies
4.Loops back to 2.
My main reason for thinking this is a bit pointless is that God knows how much time will pass between stages. For instance say that 2 days passes between each stage and that the blog is chronicalliing a software project. Then in the two days the author could have continued coding something that was yet to be pointed out as wrong at stage 2, then It would have been 4 days until the author realises that what they've just spent the past few days doing has been completely wrong. Personally I think that e-mail and IM are much better than blogs because they , in general, provide instant feedback and for time critical projects this would be crucial.
Blogs are, baically, a way of comunicating with the world. They can be used for all different reasons, some good and some not so. As it can be seen wih a quick trip to myspace most people are using blogs to tell the world how psueo-interesting thier life apparently is. Personally I think that blogs should only be used for a productive reason, like this class. I'm asked for my thoughts I put them on the blog people comment, I get assessed and so on. I cannot really see why people would keep a blog chronicalling every mundane task they ever carry out, maybe this is one of the reasons I have a general hatred for popular culture, and every small incident that ever happens but enough about my hatred of the general public. I do think however that blogs can be used for constructive purposes; such as keeping track of a project, etc....I think that if a blog is witten for a good reason and the author has a good reason to pubish thier ideas/views/findings then it is a very useful and powerful tool. As for bing collaberative I'm still in two minds. Yes Blogs can allow collaberative working but the senario seems a little pointless to me.
1.Authorwrites on Blog
2.Another reads then comments
3.Author reads comments and relplies
4.Loops back to 2.
My main reason for thinking this is a bit pointless is that God knows how much time will pass between stages. For instance say that 2 days passes between each stage and that the blog is chronicalliing a software project. Then in the two days the author could have continued coding something that was yet to be pointed out as wrong at stage 2, then It would have been 4 days until the author realises that what they've just spent the past few days doing has been completely wrong. Personally I think that e-mail and IM are much better than blogs because they , in general, provide instant feedback and for time critical projects this would be crucial.
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
And now for something completley different
Well not completely, but hey nothing about Torchwood.
Some of you know what my honours project is about, and for everyone else the details are too long to make up one blog post but the meat and bones of it are, that my implementataion of NEAT(an AI algorithm) has been based on Mat Buckland's WindowsNEAT(<- He wrote a book or two about AI programming), but thanks to the fact that he 'proof read' his book I'd noticed that in one of the classes ('SLink' to be precise) contained variables of the type CNeuron*(a dynamic object type), so I assumed that he had re-used the neuron class he had written earlier in the book but no, CNeuron was a typo. It was supposed to be SNeuron. So I implemented both and used CNeuron where it told me to. That means that I had basically implemented both NEAT and Half a back prop algorithm(another AI algorithm), and because I didn't know it was a typo, memory wasn't being cleaned up and it was becoming a problem, especially for the DS(the handheld console) version, so thats where the massive memory requirements came from on the DS(I was having amjor problems with that), pointers(the dynamic object, for you non-programmers) to the wrong type of neuron weren't being cleaned up and eating the DS's memory like a fat kid at a buffet. Once I get the right classes added and the wrong ones removed. The memory requirements for NEAT should plummet, making my DS version once again feesible, but now I don't know if I really want to do it. I get a lot more freedom on PC, I don't have to limit the population size (massively) and I get to use funky shader effects, which is what I plan on using for all my evolutionary changes, and I've found a way to deform meshes at run-time with a couple of vertex shaders. So I'll update when both versions are fixed and see where I'm going from there...
P.S. And for the record, yes I know. Wall of Text crits you for 99999, and shit you have no potions
P.P.S And before you say it Gordon, I know that was a bit fail.
Some of you know what my honours project is about, and for everyone else the details are too long to make up one blog post but the meat and bones of it are, that my implementataion of NEAT(an AI algorithm) has been based on Mat Buckland's WindowsNEAT(<- He wrote a book or two about AI programming), but thanks to the fact that he 'proof read' his book I'd noticed that in one of the classes ('SLink' to be precise) contained variables of the type CNeuron*(a dynamic object type), so I assumed that he had re-used the neuron class he had written earlier in the book but no, CNeuron was a typo. It was supposed to be SNeuron. So I implemented both and used CNeuron where it told me to. That means that I had basically implemented both NEAT and Half a back prop algorithm(another AI algorithm), and because I didn't know it was a typo, memory wasn't being cleaned up and it was becoming a problem, especially for the DS(the handheld console) version, so thats where the massive memory requirements came from on the DS(I was having amjor problems with that), pointers(the dynamic object, for you non-programmers) to the wrong type of neuron weren't being cleaned up and eating the DS's memory like a fat kid at a buffet. Once I get the right classes added and the wrong ones removed. The memory requirements for NEAT should plummet, making my DS version once again feesible, but now I don't know if I really want to do it. I get a lot more freedom on PC, I don't have to limit the population size (massively) and I get to use funky shader effects, which is what I plan on using for all my evolutionary changes, and I've found a way to deform meshes at run-time with a couple of vertex shaders. So I'll update when both versions are fixed and see where I'm going from there...
P.S. And for the record, yes I know. Wall of Text crits you for 99999, and shit you have no potions
P.P.S And before you say it Gordon, I know that was a bit fail.
Sir Chamberpot Wrigglesworth IV
So this is my avatar in Second Life, Sir Chamberpot Wrigglesworth( the IV). I still can't seem to get a hold of a tricorner hat though, or a big long jacket (that doesn't delve into my ass crack). I just want a long flowing coat and a tricorner hat. Is that so much to ask?
Monday, 4 February 2008
Second Life, First Impressions
So, Second Life. Well I've got to be honest it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be teaming with furrys wherever you went, but it wasn't. I do think however that it is only a matter of time before someone in the class( looks at Gordon) finds themselves glaring at the seedy Underbelly of the beast of Second Life (and NO, not the beast of Craggy Island). My only problems with it so far is the lag, but that, as Daniel explained, is because of the massive amount of content being loaded. On the upside though I can explore Second Life with my 360 controller, and it works rather well...but now I've ran out of things to say about Second Life, so far, so I'll stop here.
"It starts..." - Timon (The Meerkat), The Lion King
So, this is my new blogging space. Hmm like the decor...not too hot on the text stuff though
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