As you can see, none of my images are loading at all anymore. This may be the death knell for this journal until I can find something which will frakking work.
The days of straight html (and none of this database-driven shite) really were better for my needs.
Computers really suck lately.
[Update: the minor stuff seems to be working again, but the main site I host all my images on is still down, down, down.]
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
Ad astra per luna.
I'm tardy in getting this up, but this is relevant to some work I did recently (movies currently available through Team Phoenicia's site), and is important.
Currently, there is a donation drive up for the project.
Team Phoenicia's blog has been added to the blogroll: Go Go Rocketship _Team Phoenicia_ Go!
Currently, there is a donation drive up for the project.
Team Phoenicia's blog has been added to the blogroll: Go Go Rocketship _Team Phoenicia_ Go!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Gone Missing from the Edge
Sunday (3 August 2008), a friend died. He was battling cancer, and had been diagnosed very recently. Now, it looks like the battle's over before it had a chance to begin.
Jeff had the capacity to explain things so well that even I could understand him.
In spite of the foreknowledge of his health, this is very sudden, and I won't pretend to be anything but frustrated and a little exhausted by this news (even coming as it does on the heels of a frustrating and exhausting weekend). You can get an inkling of how cool Jeff was by reading his Wikipedia entry.
Every time I had a conversation with Jeff, I learned something awesome, something important, or something cool, usually in combination.
He will be missed.
Jeff had the capacity to explain things so well that even I could understand him.
In spite of the foreknowledge of his health, this is very sudden, and I won't pretend to be anything but frustrated and a little exhausted by this news (even coming as it does on the heels of a frustrating and exhausting weekend). You can get an inkling of how cool Jeff was by reading his Wikipedia entry.
Every time I had a conversation with Jeff, I learned something awesome, something important, or something cool, usually in combination.
He will be missed.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Some Sort of Scribbly _Pachyrhinosaurus_
I'ven't posted my art lately. I haven't been doing much. But here's a little:
Very busy now. I'll try to put more up later, after I get some stuff done (most primarily, invoicing some work I've done that will actually enable me to go to SVP this year).
Very busy now. I'll try to put more up later, after I get some stuff done (most primarily, invoicing some work I've done that will actually enable me to go to SVP this year).
Monday, July 7, 2008
The Failed Reunification of Gondwanaland
Yesterday I assembled the two nodes on my Origin 200, and discovered something annoying. One of them was very dead. Since the logic appears to be getting power (even if it doesn't completely power up), and the cable is probably not suspect (each node independently confirms that one node runs perfectly fine), I'm ruling out everything but the logic carrier, which appears to be hosed.
This leaves me with a dual-processor Origin 200, and a fifty-pound doorstop for parts. Not great, but not a total loss, either. And I think it just sort of emphasizes the necessity of obtaining more current iron for an IRIX-based renderfarm. The Origin200 is 1996 vintage, and, on reflection, none of my IRIX machines break the 2001 mark.
Why don't I go to the PC? It's not a jump I'm willing to make. It will involve learning a new OS (Linux), and I feel I sacrifice far too much of my creative time to technical endeavors as it is. Migrating over to the PC therefore makes no sense to me.
This leaves me with a dual-processor Origin 200, and a fifty-pound doorstop for parts. Not great, but not a total loss, either. And I think it just sort of emphasizes the necessity of obtaining more current iron for an IRIX-based renderfarm. The Origin200 is 1996 vintage, and, on reflection, none of my IRIX machines break the 2001 mark.
Why don't I go to the PC? It's not a jump I'm willing to make. It will involve learning a new OS (Linux), and I feel I sacrifice far too much of my creative time to technical endeavors as it is. Migrating over to the PC therefore makes no sense to me.
Friday, July 4, 2008
On Computer Renderfarms
My recent animation experience has taught me that I need every scrap of CPU time I can get my hands on, and it needs to be MIPS-based (it has to do with the different ways different CPU vendors do floating-point calculations--believe me, there is a reason there are no mixed-cpu render farms, where some CPUs are Intel, some are IBM/Motorola, and some are Sun SPARC--those differences can add up to peculiar flicker in procedural textures ).
So even as I relax this weekend, I am taking my Origin 200 server, Gondwanaland apart from the state of storage it's essentially been in for the past two or three years. At this point, I have no idea whether it will even power on. But I can't say no to 4x180 MHz R10000s. This system is positively ancient, certainly no more recent than 1997.
But it is still useful.
Additional adds: an R4400 Indigo2 (Carcharodon), another Octane and possibly an R5000-based Indy. If my living situation were different, I'm certain the electricity costs alone would not be worthwhile. But it might be interesting to see if systems from 1994 can still be used in this environment.
If I'm successful, I may write about the composition of the network later.
So even as I relax this weekend, I am taking my Origin 200 server, Gondwanaland apart from the state of storage it's essentially been in for the past two or three years. At this point, I have no idea whether it will even power on. But I can't say no to 4x180 MHz R10000s. This system is positively ancient, certainly no more recent than 1997.
But it is still useful.
Additional adds: an R4400 Indigo2 (Carcharodon), another Octane and possibly an R5000-based Indy. If my living situation were different, I'm certain the electricity costs alone would not be worthwhile. But it might be interesting to see if systems from 1994 can still be used in this environment.
If I'm successful, I may write about the composition of the network later.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
This Weekend's Results...
I'll talk more about this project soon, but I wanted to post these now.
http://www.coherentlighthouse.com/commissions/TravellerCam.mov
http://www.coherentlighthouse.com/commissions/ObserverCam.mov
These movies were the actual deliverables. They are somewhat rough, primarily because of the level of haste required by the deadline (Monday, in fact).
More later.
http://www.coherentlighthouse.com/commissions/TravellerCam.mov
http://www.coherentlighthouse.com/commissions/ObserverCam.mov
These movies were the actual deliverables. They are somewhat rough, primarily because of the level of haste required by the deadline (Monday, in fact).
More later.
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