Intel has announced new technology for connecting computers and peripherals. Thunderbolt. It is promises to be twice as fast as USB 3.0 and offers two bi-directional channels that transfer data at a whopping 10Gb per second. However it won't reach its theoretical maximum because Intel has opted to use copper wires rather than fibre optic cables. Apple is the first manufacturer to adopt the new technology and its new range of Macbook Pro boasts the new Thunderbolt slot alongside ethernet USB and firewire slots.
Thunderbolt was developed by Intel who have been working on it for several years. It was first announced in 2009 under the codename Light Peak. Intel claim future versions could reach 100Gb per second most likely if they start to incorporate fibre optic cables.
In personal news I've just had my first placement interview on Tuesday. It was with Schrader Electronics in Antrim. They are the market leaders in the design and manufacture of remote tyre pressure monitoring systems. I think the interview went well even though I nearly messed up the programming question which is actually one of my strengths. Hopefully they will get back to me but if not there are plenty more companies to apply for.
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
Building A Website
It's been a while since I built a website. The last one I built was thrown together for an assignment for my Multimedia module last year. I used Dreamweaver to build that. But now Networks and Operating Systems module needs me to build another website, well an online CV but I decided to build a slightly bigger and better site than needed to show off my skill, after all I'll be referring some employers to this site.
I started by designing the layout of the site in Photoshop. It's coming along nicely. Here's a preview of the banner:
As you can see it will include the posts from this blog. I've used the slice tool to separate the layout into different images and saved them in my website folder.
Usually I would have used Adobe Dreamweaver to build the website but thanks to the generous people at Microsoft, who allowed me to download thousands of pounds worth of free software through the MSDN Academic Alliance, I've decided to use Expression Web to build the website. Expression Studio 4 was available to download but I used Web because it was pretty straight forward to become accustomed with.
I used Div tags (<div></div>) and CSS to build the website. The sites coming along nicely now but I'm only about half way through so I won't be providing the link in this post. The design and layout is probably the simplest part of this project. I find it hard to write about myself or to summarise my personality without waffling on and unintentionally making the content boring or coming across as cocky (I'm just confident). My CV is already wrote and the example code which I'm going to include in the site is already wrote so that's a matter of copy & pasting.
That's all for this post. I'll be back next week with the finished site and something else to talk about.
I started by designing the layout of the site in Photoshop. It's coming along nicely. Here's a preview of the banner:
 |
| Website banner preview |
Usually I would have used Adobe Dreamweaver to build the website but thanks to the generous people at Microsoft, who allowed me to download thousands of pounds worth of free software through the MSDN Academic Alliance, I've decided to use Expression Web to build the website. Expression Studio 4 was available to download but I used Web because it was pretty straight forward to become accustomed with.
I used Div tags (<div></div>) and CSS to build the website. The sites coming along nicely now but I'm only about half way through so I won't be providing the link in this post. The design and layout is probably the simplest part of this project. I find it hard to write about myself or to summarise my personality without waffling on and unintentionally making the content boring or coming across as cocky (I'm just confident). My CV is already wrote and the example code which I'm going to include in the site is already wrote so that's a matter of copy & pasting.
That's all for this post. I'll be back next week with the finished site and something else to talk about.
Monday, 24 January 2011
Kinect Hacks
Homebrew Kinect software just passed the "cool" threshold into "a little scary," making Microsoft's camera device do things we shouldn't reasonably expect out of controllers. In the two-plus months since the creation of open-source drivers for Microsoft's Kinect made it possible to hack the popular motion controller, the device has been used as a sophisticated piano, to add voice control to popular video games, to create 3D renderings of a car's path, and even for a demo of soft-core porn. Martin Szarski strapped a Kinect sensor to his car, hooked it up to a laptop and Nexus One phone (for location data) and set about creating a "point cloud" of his car's path. Using a phone with a gyroscope to better sense the car's movement, Szarski said, the cloud would appear clearer. But for a 3D space captured by a $150 game controller, it's pretty impressive, no? Imagine this cheap DIY tech in the hands of indie devs, who could create levels by exploring in real life. So far, hackers have figured out how to get the Kinect to do all kinds of things Microsoft never imagined. Here, we see a still from a video showing a hacker who rigged a Kinect to an iPod Touch in order to control the hit game Angry Birds with hand gestures.
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