Category Archives: Personal

3D and Wii: Useful Redeye!
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This is a brilliant video:

Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote

This is the effect I wanted to produce at university back in 1999 for my final year project – but no webcams had any good apis for tracking head movements (I just wanted to track heads, I didn’t think of using the wii).

The trick that Johnny is missing is that he could drop the sensor bar, and adjust the sensitivity to look for redeye reflections from your eyes (which plague all your photos).  With a bright IR source on top of the camera, the eyes should be easily findable, and the headgear wouldn’t be needed.

That would give us the headsetless 3D TV we always wanted.

London Marathon 2008
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I did it!

I hurt… :-S

First half felt great. Third quarter was great. Though the occasional spot of hail didn’t help.

Thankyou to the people with wine gums. Thankyou to the folks with fruit. Fiddles to the people with opal fruits. Curses to the bitch with the hard-boiled sweet.

At 21 miles or so, I hurt so much I decided to give up. But the person I spoke to said it wasn’t far, I’d have to wait for ages, and I might as well carry on. Thankyou to that person. After a mile of walking, I started to run. I ran through the pain and it cleared by mile 24 or 25. I saw my folks for the second time at mile 23, cheering like anything. That gave me a lot of energy. Knowing my girlfriend was at the finish was the biggest spur.

It was great to finish. I’d do it again.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/kenneth.kufluk/OfficialMarathonPics

Paris Half-Marathon 2008
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I made it!  Two hours, ten minutes, and about 7 seconds :)

This is a bit of a surprise, considering my usual problems.  Especially since I thought I ws going through a fairly bad patch (hadn’t been able to run for two weeks before, and could only manage an amble to Notre Dame the day before).  In fact, I’d only managed three runs this year, of about 5 kms each.  So this was impressive.  I was happy to make it halfway to be honest.

Today, of course, I’m in a vast amount of muscle pain and can barely walk – but that’s not surprising.  No sign of ME-style tiredness yet though! :)

Vietnam – Burn Baby Burn
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Ok, so there’s a few days left to your trip around the world. You’re looking for an easy life, maybe a last top-up to the tan marks. How about a relaxing boat trip?

If only. Here is our tour guide on the phone. Inside, where we’ve just been having lunch, you may see some smoke.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/kenneth.kufluk/VietnamBurningBoat
Yes, the boat’s on fire.

We’d just finished lunch – me and an Australian couple and four Americans. When we notice smoke in the window. A common occurence here: emissions tests aren’t the norm. However, then the smoke came through the floorboards.
As the crew panic like headless chickens, we cower at the front of the boat, (fortunately with all our bags as we hadn’t got our rooms yet), awaiting rescue.

The rescue boats arrive. The boat burns to the water. The crew all jump in. No-one knows where the dog went. We drive off and continue the tour on a different boat, pretty much as if nothing had happened.

I think for my final day here I might just stay here, safely hidden under the bed…

See also:
VN Express
Tin Tuc Vietnam

Vietnam – Hanoi
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I like Hanoi.
No-one hassles you, and the whole town has more of a easy-going vibe than Saigon. And there’s no KFC here.
There *are* a lot of motorbikes. On very small roads. Who try to kill you.
But they don’t seem to bug you as much here. I only got five offers this morning, and they all gav up on the first ‘no’!