Interesting Links for 22-01-2015

[andrewducker]

• Breastfeeding banned at breastfeeding summit
  (tags: breastfeeding fail )
• Crunch Makes Games Worse
  (tags: work working_hours games )
• A Designer's War on Misleading Parking Signs
  (tags: design transport )
• Something terrible has happened to Tom Felton
  (tags: harrypotter jkrowling )
• Great news everyone! None of George Lucas' ideas are being used in

Comments

[strawberryfrog]

> "If Microsoft's new Hologram Glasses work even 20% as well as they're advertising, I will be shocked"

What are you saying there? I can read this as

> "Bah. I am very sceptical of the feasibility. I doubt that Microsoft's new Hologram Glasses work even 20% as well as they're advertising."

or

> "Yay, I am thrilled with the design. If Microsoft's new Hologram Glasses work even 20% as well as they're advertising, I will be delighted."

[andrewducker]

Somewhere in-between.

Microsoft's hologram glasses look _AMAZING_. However, I am very sceptical at the moment, because there are major issues that need to be overcome:
1) Latency - overlaying objects on the real world while moving your head and tracking the items themselves (which may also be moving) in 60FPS is going to be _hard_.
2) Persistence of Vision - 60FPS isn't fast enough to remove blur when your head moves. The Oculus Rift has pretty-much solved this, but it's going to be harder when you've got real light as well.
3) Occlusion - how do they prevent the light from the real world from shining through the overlaid objects?
4) Resolution - I've used an Oculus Rift Dev Kit 2. It's really nice, but still very pixelated, because you're eyes are so close to the screen.

I'd like to hope that they've solved all of these, and it's simply staggering, but I am currently sceptical that they have.

[andrewducker]

But see the later link (about them being magical) - which gives me some hope :->

[andrewducker]

Chatting to a friend, and thinking about it more, if it's a _projection_ system, that's transmitting light directly at your retina, then it effectively lock out the outside world, and concentrate on pixels necessary for the precise bits of your vision (which is about 6% of it).

I'm still sceptical, but I'll wait and see (like I have a choice!)

[bart_calendar]

George Lucas has set the bar so low on Star Wars that at this point all Disney has to do to ensure that Episode VII will make it to the top 50 on IMDB is to have Han shoot someone first.

[gonzo21]

I'm not sure a bar has ever been set lower in regards popular culture...

[bart_calendar]

Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes

And the weird Godzilla sequel that's mostly two kids talking.

[ext_2864067]

Given how absurdly slavishly Star Trek: Into Darkness milked its fanservice element (while simultaneously destroying the setting in one fell gadget, but that's another matter), I have a distinct concern that JJ Abrams is going to do the same and still call it a win.

If he does screw it up, he will however be forever referred to as Jar-Jar Abrams.

[cmcmck]

FFS!

How ridiculous is that first one?

[andrewducker]

Very?

And you don't _need_ "special facilities" for breastfeeding. Being allowed to breastfeed anywhere you like is the law!

[cmcmck]

Exactly.

God knows what they thought they were doing!

[bohemiancoast]

Yes, but being able to take your baby with you places isn't. This is actually about bringing babies to the conference -- the 'breastfeeding' part of the story was a media-friendly smokescreen.

So yes, the law protects you if you want to breastfeed, but it doesn't necessarily let you have your breastfeeding child with you.

[gonzo21]

So Google and the makers of 3DTVs, having discovered people don't like wearing special glasses to use services, apparently didn't share this revelation with Microsoft?

I half suspect Windows 10 is going to be an annual subscription based service, that's why they're offering the 'first year free upgrade'.

[andrewducker]

They wouldn't be able to get away with that. Not without making it _very_ clear in the contract up front. What are they going to do - let you use it for free for a year and then say "Oh, sorry, your computer is going to stop working now unless you pay us." without warning?

There's be hangings.

[gonzo21]

You can definitely see why they bought Minecraft for so much money though eh. :)

[andrewducker]

Oh yes. They can build all sorts of awesomeness on top of that!

[a_pawson]

The drone article is probably the first of many. It can't be that hard to combine a GPS and a drone to create a cheap aircraft capable of flying a few miles whilst carrying a small load. I wonder what size an aircraft has to be before it can be easily detected by radar or similar technology.

[gonzo21]

Radar can pick up large birds in flight, and has to be calibrated not to so as to avoid too many false-positives.

So perhaps the next step will be drone aircraft that mimic Geese in flight or something.

[strawberryfrog]

It's not just size - an autonomous drone is probably much better at keeping low and hugging the terrain while heading where it needs to be.

I wonder why it failed? What are the odds that it's not the first run?