vendredi 23 décembre 2011
mardi 6 décembre 2011
mercredi 23 novembre 2011
Le tir à l'arc
Lors d'une formation à NAF, j'ai pris connaissance par l'animateur de l’existence d'un outil de création de cartes heuristiques gratuit sur android (thinking space), plus communément connu sous le nom anglais d'outil de mind mapping. Je suis d'habitude assez circonspect face à ce genre d'applications, mais je n'ai pas pu résister à l'essayer sur mon galaxy s2, et finalement, c'est assez intuitif et plutôt intéressant. Et c'est comme ça qu'on arrive en quelques minutes au graphe improbable suivant, censé modéliser l'approche du tir à l'arc par moi-même :
Ou comment mélanger, tir à l'arc, android, concepts heuristiques et framework d'architecture système dans un seul article de blog. Ca doit être une première mondiale.
En passant, je suis bien conscient que ce blog est plus ou moins en phase d'hibernation, mais que voulez-vous, Winter comes...(très bonne lecture soit dit en passant).
En passant, je suis bien conscient que ce blog est plus ou moins en phase d'hibernation, mais que voulez-vous, Winter comes...(très bonne lecture soit dit en passant).
mercredi 26 octobre 2011
About the final of the Rugby World Cup
This is a rant.
Sunday morning took place the final of the rugby world cup between New Zealand All Blacks and French "les Bleus" at Eden Park, the mythic sports ground in Auckland, NZ. It was expected to have a referee slightly inclined to favor the All Blacks, but I still hoped for a clean final. This is what happened.
Okay, maybe the level of play displayed by France wasn't that great until the final and the All Blacks deserved to win for the amazing rugby they showed through the World Cup. And so what ? This is a cup, not a championship. The truth is, on this match, France didn't get the shot they deserved to the win, because the referee didn't have the courage to take his responsibilities (and I'm being polite here).
I've seen many comments saying we have to respect the winner and the referee and forget it, the match was beautiful and the referee is a part of the game, we have to be "fair play". This makes me sick. That's so classical of the French spirit, the beautiful losers. This kind of refereeing has been happening for years now, and if we keep having this "fair play" attitude, we can forget ever bringing home the Webb Ellis cup. Rules are made to be followed, and referees are here to make sure players follow the rules, and above all they have to judge both teams on an equal ground. Mr Joubert, who I tought was a great referee, obviously wasn't up to this task in the final.
On another level, I was very disappointed by the behavior of All Blacks themselves and overall by the one of the kiwis. A huge lack of respect for France beforehand, no sign of recognition afterwards, and a very unfair-play during the finals (ask Parra what he tought of McCaw knee, and French kickers of supporters whistles). I had the biggest respect for this team and this country, and it got ruined in one week. This makes me sad, and I hope years to come will show me this was a one time event only....
Sunday morning took place the final of the rugby world cup between New Zealand All Blacks and French "les Bleus" at Eden Park, the mythic sports ground in Auckland, NZ. It was expected to have a referee slightly inclined to favor the All Blacks, but I still hoped for a clean final. This is what happened.
Okay, maybe the level of play displayed by France wasn't that great until the final and the All Blacks deserved to win for the amazing rugby they showed through the World Cup. And so what ? This is a cup, not a championship. The truth is, on this match, France didn't get the shot they deserved to the win, because the referee didn't have the courage to take his responsibilities (and I'm being polite here).
I've seen many comments saying we have to respect the winner and the referee and forget it, the match was beautiful and the referee is a part of the game, we have to be "fair play". This makes me sick. That's so classical of the French spirit, the beautiful losers. This kind of refereeing has been happening for years now, and if we keep having this "fair play" attitude, we can forget ever bringing home the Webb Ellis cup. Rules are made to be followed, and referees are here to make sure players follow the rules, and above all they have to judge both teams on an equal ground. Mr Joubert, who I tought was a great referee, obviously wasn't up to this task in the final.
On another level, I was very disappointed by the behavior of All Blacks themselves and overall by the one of the kiwis. A huge lack of respect for France beforehand, no sign of recognition afterwards, and a very unfair-play during the finals (ask Parra what he tought of McCaw knee, and French kickers of supporters whistles). I had the biggest respect for this team and this country, and it got ruined in one week. This makes me sad, and I hope years to come will show me this was a one time event only....
lundi 24 octobre 2011
La physique, c'est fantastique ! (bis)
La lévitation, c'est une passion de rêveur, magicien ou...physicien ! (ce qui n'est pas forcément incompatible d'ailleurs :))
Et pour mieux comprendre :
Merci à cafzone pour les vidéos :)
vendredi 23 septembre 2011
jeudi 22 septembre 2011
My new computer
As well as my new screen, my old computer and my old screen.
Desk is as clean as it will ever be, so I'm taking some pictures, to remember how it was in a few years ^^
Pretty geeky setup, you would think. Maybe, but it's also very efficient :
- there is a KVM you barely see on the top of the left tower to switch between the 2 computers. The old one controls the screen on the left, the new one controls both screens. Not like I often boot the old computer nowadays anyway.
- The hard drive you see on the right is connected to the freebox server and adds 1 To to the NAS server hosted by the freebox. To come, a true RAID1 NAS server. No idea where I'll put it though, maybe against the wall.
- The glasses come from the NVIDIA 3D vision kit. I was happily surprised by the rendered quality in some games (HL2, Dragon's Age, WoW), so I don't regret the buy.
All in one, I'm actually proud of myself on this one :)
Installation of the new computer went well, around 2 hours from receiving the (heavy) packages to finishing the install of Windows 7, all drivers included. Everything works well, or so it looks like. Maybe some issues with USB3.0, but not really game breaking at the time being. It'll wait until I actually have a USB3.0 device to plug in.
I've no idea what I'll do with 2 To of RAID0 space, time will tell I guess. The SSD drive works amazingly well, Windows boots in no time - not the system, the BIOS startup is actually quite long, with the RAID0 and the big GFX card - and once booted everything goes superfast.
Now I won't have to change computer for well, at least 2 years ! Okay, maybe 3 or 4...
Desk is as clean as it will ever be, so I'm taking some pictures, to remember how it was in a few years ^^
Pretty geeky setup, you would think. Maybe, but it's also very efficient :
- there is a KVM you barely see on the top of the left tower to switch between the 2 computers. The old one controls the screen on the left, the new one controls both screens. Not like I often boot the old computer nowadays anyway.
- The hard drive you see on the right is connected to the freebox server and adds 1 To to the NAS server hosted by the freebox. To come, a true RAID1 NAS server. No idea where I'll put it though, maybe against the wall.
- The glasses come from the NVIDIA 3D vision kit. I was happily surprised by the rendered quality in some games (HL2, Dragon's Age, WoW), so I don't regret the buy.
All in one, I'm actually proud of myself on this one :)
Installation of the new computer went well, around 2 hours from receiving the (heavy) packages to finishing the install of Windows 7, all drivers included. Everything works well, or so it looks like. Maybe some issues with USB3.0, but not really game breaking at the time being. It'll wait until I actually have a USB3.0 device to plug in.
I've no idea what I'll do with 2 To of RAID0 space, time will tell I guess. The SSD drive works amazingly well, Windows boots in no time - not the system, the BIOS startup is actually quite long, with the RAID0 and the big GFX card - and once booted everything goes superfast.
Now I won't have to change computer for well, at least 2 years ! Okay, maybe 3 or 4...
dimanche 11 septembre 2011
La liberté d'expression, définition par l'absurde
Ou comment s'exprime la censure des pouvoirs publics dans un pays censé être une démocratie.
Allez voir ici :
http://vidberg.blog.lemonde.fr/2011/09/11/quand-une-mairie-interdit-un-reportage-sur-casse-toi-povcon/
Allez voir ici :
http://vidberg.blog.lemonde.fr/2011/09/11/quand-une-mairie-interdit-un-reportage-sur-casse-toi-povcon/
mercredi 7 septembre 2011
I has new computer
Well soon anyway, it was shipped one hour ago and should be home tomorrow.
Intel Core i7 2600K processor on an Asus P8P67 Deluxe Rev 3.0 motherboard
2 x 4 Go of DDR3 RAM Corsair PCI12800 CAS 8
1 Club 3D Geforce GTX 580 1586 Mo RAM graphic card
1 OCZ Verex 3 - 120 Go SSD to host the system and a few applications
2 Seagate Baraccuda SATA Revision 3.0 - 1 To HDDs mounted in Raid 0
1 Asus VG236H - 3D screen with Nvidia 3D Kit System
And some other cool stuff like a Corsair Obsidian 650D tower or an Antec TruePower 750W 80+ Bronze alim.
It's going to be legend...wait or it...DARY !
More as soon as I have received and installed it. And yes, I'm kind of excited, it has been a long time I wanted to try the Nvidia 3D system, and this piece of hardware should be able to deliver some flawless gaming experience :-)
Intel Core i7 2600K processor on an Asus P8P67 Deluxe Rev 3.0 motherboard
2 x 4 Go of DDR3 RAM Corsair PCI12800 CAS 8
1 Club 3D Geforce GTX 580 1586 Mo RAM graphic card
1 OCZ Verex 3 - 120 Go SSD to host the system and a few applications
2 Seagate Baraccuda SATA Revision 3.0 - 1 To HDDs mounted in Raid 0
1 Asus VG236H - 3D screen with Nvidia 3D Kit System
And some other cool stuff like a Corsair Obsidian 650D tower or an Antec TruePower 750W 80+ Bronze alim.
It's going to be legend...wait or it...DARY !
More as soon as I have received and installed it. And yes, I'm kind of excited, it has been a long time I wanted to try the Nvidia 3D system, and this piece of hardware should be able to deliver some flawless gaming experience :-)
jeudi 4 août 2011
mercredi 27 juillet 2011
lundi 25 juillet 2011
vendredi 8 juillet 2011
Reality is beyond fiction
It may be a cliche, but it's nevertheless true.
Science will never cease to amaze me.
Science will never cease to amaze me.
lundi 4 juillet 2011
A school of patience
You may or may not know it but I've started to practice archery again for the last few months, and I really enjoy it. The only downside is the need to prepare your arrows yourself, especially the wings. It took me three hours, a movie (that I only heard, obviously, weird experience to follow a story more or less only with dialogs) and one or two glasses of Grand Marnier to achieve this :
GAWD it felt good when it was finished. More about archery in a later post, maybe. There is a lot to say, but to sum it up, building arrows is not the only thing that teaches you patience...
N.B. : I went to see Limitless with a friend a few weeks ago, not a future legendary movie but it was light and fun, so worth a watch imho :)
N.B. : I went to see Limitless with a friend a few weeks ago, not a future legendary movie but it was light and fun, so worth a watch imho :)
dimanche 3 juillet 2011
Android stories
During the last month I decided to renew my geek license, so I bought a pad (Asus Transformer, android 3.1) and a new smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S2, android 2.3.3).
All in one both products have been very satisfying, with a special mention to the Galaxy S2 screen, which is amazing, both in picture quality and reactivity. The funny thing is that both products work perfectly on their own, but are (almost) unable to properly communicate ! A bit frustrating considering both use android (though different versions).
The whole story : I wanted to share the 3G+ connection of my smartphone with the pad, so I decided to use bluetooth PAN tethering as I did between my old WM6 smartphone and my Asus Transformer. First surprise : Android 2.3.3 doesn't support bluetooth PAN as server unless the phone is rooted. The Galaxy S2 being brandly new, I decided to wait a bit before tempting the devil and to use bluetooth DUN instead (less efficient, but oh well). Second surprise : Android 3.1 doesn't support bluetooth DUN tethering as client ! I
was starting to be a bit nervous at this point, until I remembered the USB tethering option offered by the Galaxy...Third surprise (you saw it coming), Android doesn't support it on the client side either ! I was on my way to the window to throw all this junk away when I noticed android 2.3 could make a wifi hotspot off my phone. Eureka, it works ! And it drains the battery in a few hours, but who cares, as long as the phone is plugged to the Asus dock :-)
Next step is to have bluetooth PAN working, either via Galaxy S2 rooting or via android
2.3 update. More about it later.
About the Asus Transformer, I can say I am very satisfied with the product : even if theOS is rather young, it's quite stable and the lack of applications in the android market is less and less noticable every day. I'm pretty confident it will catch up with the apple market in the next few months. About the hardware, the dock is a stroke of genius : to be able to transform a pad into a netbook in two seconds is unvaluable, and so are the
6 hours of battery life added. The gorilla glass screen is very pleasant to use as well, altough it suffers from two small issues : a few light bleeds here and there that are quite noticable in the dark, even if they don't really alter the user experience (most of AT suffer from this problem), and in my care TWO DEAD PIXELS ! hardly noticable except with a black screen, and who uses a pad to stare at a black screen ?!)
The Galaxy S2 is even more awesome, as Android 2.3 is a lot more mature than Android 3.1, and the hardware is just brillant as you can see if you look at the different tests made on the internet. There is one drawback, battery life is around one day or two, even less (8 / 10 hours) if you play with your toy all day long (GPS, screen use and wifi hotspot drain the power a the speed of light - no kidding...-). However, I got told this problem is common among the new generation of smartphones, so it shouldn't prevent you to join the
ranks of the Samsung fashion victims :D
About Android, I've been playing a lot with it lately, more about it later when I find the time to make a list of all the good apps I've found around the internet (last to date : PSX and SNES emulators ^^)
All in one both products have been very satisfying, with a special mention to the Galaxy S2 screen, which is amazing, both in picture quality and reactivity. The funny thing is that both products work perfectly on their own, but are (almost) unable to properly communicate ! A bit frustrating considering both use android (though different versions).
The whole story : I wanted to share the 3G+ connection of my smartphone with the pad, so I decided to use bluetooth PAN tethering as I did between my old WM6 smartphone and my Asus Transformer. First surprise : Android 2.3.3 doesn't support bluetooth PAN as server unless the phone is rooted. The Galaxy S2 being brandly new, I decided to wait a bit before tempting the devil and to use bluetooth DUN instead (less efficient, but oh well). Second surprise : Android 3.1 doesn't support bluetooth DUN tethering as client ! I
was starting to be a bit nervous at this point, until I remembered the USB tethering option offered by the Galaxy...Third surprise (you saw it coming), Android doesn't support it on the client side either ! I was on my way to the window to throw all this junk away when I noticed android 2.3 could make a wifi hotspot off my phone. Eureka, it works ! And it drains the battery in a few hours, but who cares, as long as the phone is plugged to the Asus dock :-)
Next step is to have bluetooth PAN working, either via Galaxy S2 rooting or via android
2.3 update. More about it later.
About the Asus Transformer, I can say I am very satisfied with the product : even if theOS is rather young, it's quite stable and the lack of applications in the android market is less and less noticable every day. I'm pretty confident it will catch up with the apple market in the next few months. About the hardware, the dock is a stroke of genius : to be able to transform a pad into a netbook in two seconds is unvaluable, and so are the
6 hours of battery life added. The gorilla glass screen is very pleasant to use as well, altough it suffers from two small issues : a few light bleeds here and there that are quite noticable in the dark, even if they don't really alter the user experience (most of AT suffer from this problem), and in my care TWO DEAD PIXELS ! hardly noticable except with a black screen, and who uses a pad to stare at a black screen ?!)
The Galaxy S2 is even more awesome, as Android 2.3 is a lot more mature than Android 3.1, and the hardware is just brillant as you can see if you look at the different tests made on the internet. There is one drawback, battery life is around one day or two, even less (8 / 10 hours) if you play with your toy all day long (GPS, screen use and wifi hotspot drain the power a the speed of light - no kidding...-). However, I got told this problem is common among the new generation of smartphones, so it shouldn't prevent you to join the
ranks of the Samsung fashion victims :D
About Android, I've been playing a lot with it lately, more about it later when I find the time to make a list of all the good apps I've found around the internet (last to date : PSX and SNES emulators ^^)
samedi 4 juin 2011
vendredi 27 mai 2011
La page culture (2)
Mieux vaut tard que jamais, parlons aujourd'hui de littérature.
J'ai donc lu en mars (oui, ça commence à dater...) Carbone modifié, le premier roman de Richard Morgan qui a obtenu pour celui-ci le prix Philip K. Dick en 2003. J'avoue avoir été assez surpris et happé par ce thriller haletant dont l'idée de base est particulièrement intéressante : les cerveaux des humains sont sauvegardés dans deux petites "piles" à la base du crâne, ce qui permet des fantaisies telles que se cloner à de multiples exemplaires (formellement interdit, donc activement pratiqué), atteindre l'immortalité (en renaissant dans un corps identique au sien cloné), ou occuper le corps d'un(e) autre. J'ai particulièrement apprécié le traitement sous-jacent du thème de la vie éternelle, ou tout du moins prolongée, et les effets sur la psyché humaine. (ennui, impression d'omnipotence, etc)
J'ai appris avec joie en rédigeant ce billet que l'auteur a publié deux suites à Carbone modifié pour former une trilogie, un petit tour sur Amazon va s'imposer prochainement !
Pour les fans de jeux vidéos, petite trivia : Morgan a participé au scénario de Crysis 2, ce qui va peut-être m'inciter à y jouer (les critiques pas forcément positives m'ayant jusqu'à présent dissuadé...)
N.B. : Si vous comptez aller au cinéma prochainement, évitez le nouveau Pirate des Caraibes, il est vraiment très mauvais...(en vrac, trop sombre, particulièrement en 3D, histoire prévisible et à moitié à dormir debout (très très fort d'arriver à faire les deux à la fois...), et la performance des acteurs ne suffit pas à le sauver, le seul sortant du lot étant Johnny Deep et on commence à connaitre son numéro par coeur...)
J'ai donc lu en mars (oui, ça commence à dater...) Carbone modifié, le premier roman de Richard Morgan qui a obtenu pour celui-ci le prix Philip K. Dick en 2003. J'avoue avoir été assez surpris et happé par ce thriller haletant dont l'idée de base est particulièrement intéressante : les cerveaux des humains sont sauvegardés dans deux petites "piles" à la base du crâne, ce qui permet des fantaisies telles que se cloner à de multiples exemplaires (formellement interdit, donc activement pratiqué), atteindre l'immortalité (en renaissant dans un corps identique au sien cloné), ou occuper le corps d'un(e) autre. J'ai particulièrement apprécié le traitement sous-jacent du thème de la vie éternelle, ou tout du moins prolongée, et les effets sur la psyché humaine. (ennui, impression d'omnipotence, etc)
J'ai appris avec joie en rédigeant ce billet que l'auteur a publié deux suites à Carbone modifié pour former une trilogie, un petit tour sur Amazon va s'imposer prochainement !
Pour les fans de jeux vidéos, petite trivia : Morgan a participé au scénario de Crysis 2, ce qui va peut-être m'inciter à y jouer (les critiques pas forcément positives m'ayant jusqu'à présent dissuadé...)
N.B. : Si vous comptez aller au cinéma prochainement, évitez le nouveau Pirate des Caraibes, il est vraiment très mauvais...(en vrac, trop sombre, particulièrement en 3D, histoire prévisible et à moitié à dormir debout (très très fort d'arriver à faire les deux à la fois...), et la performance des acteurs ne suffit pas à le sauver, le seul sortant du lot étant Johnny Deep et on commence à connaitre son numéro par coeur...)
mardi 3 mai 2011
We mortals are but shadows and dust.
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
mercredi 27 avril 2011
La page culture
Mes goûts en matière de littérature et de cinéma étant ce qu'ils sont (surs et universels), voici un florilège des oeuvres qui m'ont marquées ces derniers mois.
Du coté du septième art, commençons par Le discours d'un roi : film historique oscillant entre la comédie et le drame, une réussite en matière de divertissement. Sortir d'une séance avec le sourire aux lèvres est généralement un bon indicateur de la qualité de la projection, et les divers retours que j'ai collectés sont unanimes : si vous voulez passer un bon moment, allez voir ce film.
Le deuxième film dont je vais parler est autrement plus polémique : il s'agit de la dernière réalisation de Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) : Sucker Punch. Je vais être clair d'emblée : j'ai bien aimé. Alors évidemment, le coté scènes d'action mâtinées de jeux vidéos, d'héroic-fantasy et de jeunes guerrières sexy trouve en moi un bon public (quoique en l'occurrence, Snyder en fait un peu trop à mon goût, et je peux comprendre que certains en aient été rebutés), mais pour moi, la vérité de ce film est ailleurs. Il s'agit avant tout d'une vision de la folie et de la façon dont elle modifie la perception de la réalité. Si vous voulez une lecture un peu différente de ce film, allez voir >>> ici <<<. Je sens d'ici venir les critiques qui qualifient cet article de masturbation intellectuelle, c'est d'ailleurs compréhensible, mais ce qui est intéressant c'est que ces critiques proviennent souvent de ceux qui ont peu appréciés l'esthétique du film. Donc à ceux-ci je réponds :"tant pis pour vous et arrêtez d'essayer de gâcher le plaisir des autres !". Dernière chose, la B.O. est splendide, et j'ai hâte de pouvoir me passer le director's cut sur mon home cinema. Vivement la sortie en DVD(rip) !
Du coté littéraire, j'ai lu quelques bouquins de S.F. sympathiques qui m'ont été offerts par une jeune auteur prometteuse, je vous ferai part de mes commentaires plus tard.
Du coté du septième art, commençons par Le discours d'un roi : film historique oscillant entre la comédie et le drame, une réussite en matière de divertissement. Sortir d'une séance avec le sourire aux lèvres est généralement un bon indicateur de la qualité de la projection, et les divers retours que j'ai collectés sont unanimes : si vous voulez passer un bon moment, allez voir ce film.
Le deuxième film dont je vais parler est autrement plus polémique : il s'agit de la dernière réalisation de Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) : Sucker Punch. Je vais être clair d'emblée : j'ai bien aimé. Alors évidemment, le coté scènes d'action mâtinées de jeux vidéos, d'héroic-fantasy et de jeunes guerrières sexy trouve en moi un bon public (quoique en l'occurrence, Snyder en fait un peu trop à mon goût, et je peux comprendre que certains en aient été rebutés), mais pour moi, la vérité de ce film est ailleurs. Il s'agit avant tout d'une vision de la folie et de la façon dont elle modifie la perception de la réalité. Si vous voulez une lecture un peu différente de ce film, allez voir >>> ici <<<. Je sens d'ici venir les critiques qui qualifient cet article de masturbation intellectuelle, c'est d'ailleurs compréhensible, mais ce qui est intéressant c'est que ces critiques proviennent souvent de ceux qui ont peu appréciés l'esthétique du film. Donc à ceux-ci je réponds :"tant pis pour vous et arrêtez d'essayer de gâcher le plaisir des autres !". Dernière chose, la B.O. est splendide, et j'ai hâte de pouvoir me passer le director's cut sur mon home cinema. Vivement la sortie en DVD(rip) !
Du coté littéraire, j'ai lu quelques bouquins de S.F. sympathiques qui m'ont été offerts par une jeune auteur prometteuse, je vous ferai part de mes commentaires plus tard.
Slytherin pole dancing
I rarely find interesting videos on youtube, but this one is really well made (and really nice to watch...)
Android on HTC Touch HD
And it works ! Quite nicely I must add. Many thanks to xda developpers.
Now I can use funny apps like Angry birds (lagging like hell) or whatsapp (hi Mags !)
There are a few drawbacks of course, it's a bit slow, battery is going down fast and there are a few things that don't work very well, but all in one it's usable and makes me want to buy a real android phone (maybe the new galaxy in a few months ?)
I had to buy a new MicroSD card as well to make it work, my old 8 Go Transcend card wasn't compatible.
Now I can use funny apps like Angry birds (lagging like hell) or whatsapp (hi Mags !)
There are a few drawbacks of course, it's a bit slow, battery is going down fast and there are a few things that don't work very well, but all in one it's usable and makes me want to buy a real android phone (maybe the new galaxy in a few months ?)
I had to buy a new MicroSD card as well to make it work, my old 8 Go Transcend card wasn't compatible.
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