Tuesday, April 28, 2009

NumptyPhysics on a multi-touch table

(Not really tablet-related, but related to NumptyPhysics, which has been initially written for the tablets. Feel free to skip :)

The summer semester is in full swing, and we have been working on our HCI multi-touch seminar work for the last few weeks. We plan on extending Tim Edmonds' NumptyPhysics to work on multi-touch tables and adopt the UI accordingly to take advantage of multiple input cursors. We did a trial run on a real table last week:

The cude currently only emulates mouse events, but will allow real multi-touch input soon. We will release the code as soon as some bugs have been fixed and the code design got a bit more stable.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Tennix 2009 for Maemo

The updated version of Tennix, the open source tennis game is now available in Maemo Extras for Chinook, Diablo and Fremantle (anyone with Fremantle hardware care to test if it works correctly? Thanks!). The 1.0 release has been announced to the public in February already, but I have only now had time to create a proper package for Maemo. It plays fine with stylus or the D-Pad.

Here is a gameplay video if you can't wait to download it onto your tablet.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Baby Number 4 On the Way!!

Congratulations to Heidi and Seal. The cute Tinseltown twosome is expecting baby number four. Seal confirmed the pregnancy at a recent concert. We're so happy for this perfect pair!

Amy's First "Big Splurge"

"It depends. I think your perspective of a large pay-check changes over time. So the first time I got what I thought was a large pay-cheque, I got a set of matching towels. I was like, ‘I can now get towels from Bed, Bath & Beyond’, because I’d taken hand-me-down towels from friends and family for so long. So that was a big pay-check for me at the time. Now I get them from Target. They’re the best towels in the whole world. They are! Thomas O’Brien towels! - Amy Adams reveals her first 'big splurge.'"

*Getty

Ashton Beats CNN

"In some ways this is kind of a commentary on the state of media. I believe we are at a place now with social media where one person's voice can be as powerful as a news network - an entire media network. That is the power of social Web ... an uprising of the Internet. Through your own stream [you] can have a voice that's as loud as a media network." - Ashton Kutcher brags about his Twitter triumph over CNN. The actor challenged the media company to a Twitter-off to see who could reach 1 million followers first.

*Getty Images

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Repurpose your tablet's car mount

If you do not use your car that often, and have built/bought a car mount for your tablet, why not repurpose it and stick it up to your desk near the main monitor? Having Mauku running in it which lights up the display whenever someone posts updates surely is nice. Some other use cases are monitoring servers with an open X-Terminal or listening to some music/podcasts with the media player of choice.

I built mine by buying a gooseneck mount and screwing the included car mount onto it. This still allows me to use the mount in the car, too.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Be Happy Pls

Hey don ever be sad ...
Even if u r sad, don cry.. think wat to do next...
Motivate yourself.. Share ur problems to ur parents... IF NOT..
IF NOT.. Share it ur dear friends.. Then ur friend will take care of U :)
Then be happy and keep smiling...
Kepps miling alwasys... :) :)

Monday, April 6, 2009

Proud Mama

Nicole Kidman shows off pics of daughter Sunday Rose at the Academy of Country Music Awards afterparty at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

*Getty Images