PSS: Please Say Something

PSS: Please Say Something is a 10-minute animated short film created by the German-based filmmaker David O’Reilly.  The film is a groundbreaking contemporary 3D short set in the distant future, which tells about a troubled relationship between a cat and a mouse; it contains 23 episodes of exactly 25 seconds each.  Please Say Something won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival and the prestigious Cartoon d’Or 2009 for best European animated short film.

PSS: Please Say Something

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Science, better than gawd.. gawd has not healed one amputee.. or anyone else

Two astronauts (Dennis Quaid & Ben Foster) awaken from a cryogenic sleep. They have no recollection of who they are or why they are on a spaceship. They learn they are locked in a room and a third astronaut mysteriously died before they awoke. If they could get out of the room they could find out who they are and where their ship is going.

Only one problem, they also find out the ship will blow up in less than two days.

Pandorum has a lot in common with Event Horizon as haunted spaceship movies go. But it has taken that concept and expanded it some with the whole paranoia/amnesia idea. Amnesia is very scary and just imagine if you are also locked in a train, plane or spaceship headed towards oblivion.

Pandorum is a “mind fuck of a movie”. There are scenes where you don’t know where is up is down and down is up. But as Foster’s character explores the ship and tries to stop it’s destruction he runs into blood-thirsty cannibals, temperamental surviving crew members and a mystery that is so warped you wont see it coming. The film’s twist ending had me going, what the fuck?

I have always liked Ben Foster ever since he terrorized Bruce Willis in 2005’s Hostage. Foster was brilliant in that film and has been brilliant in everything he’s done from Six Feet Under to X-Men 3 to 3:10 to Yuma.

Ben Foster & Dennis Quaid

In Pandorum, he’s hero yet thanks to Foster he’s complicated, tormented and has a bravado not deserved in this character. Dennis Quaid, who hasn’t been in a sci-fi flick since 2000’s Frequency and maybe five in his whole career, does a great job with amnesia part but seems lost or out of practice when it comes to acting against blue screen. He seems very out of place in scenes where he is alone.

German actress Antje Traue

Oh I must also comment on Cam Gigandet, who once more plays the attractive yet psychotic guy he played in The OC, Never Back Down and Twilight. The guy needs to mix it up some. Will he ever get a chance to play a romantic or heroic lead?

Another surprise of the movie was German born actress Antje Traue. She is one of survivors who has keys to the mysteries of the ship. She’s part Alice in Resident Evil and part Lara Croft. She is extraordinary. I love how her character is so subdued but she’s able to bring the viciousness, agility and charisma in the most unlikely of situations.

I liked Pandorum but found it lost me in parts. I think maybe one too many lost crew members were introduced (like why was The Cook important) or maybe the middle needed some reworking.

This was an interesting movie that blurred the genre. But basically the film is Resident Evil in space.

3.5 out of 5

So Says the Soothsayer

When the computer announced the name of my visitor, I winced.  Half-convinced she would know something was up the moment she got a good look at my face, I briefly toyed with the idea of pretending I wasn’t home.  But that would only be postponing the inevitable.  I couldn’t avoid her indefinitely, not if I wanted to maintain appearances.

Might as well get this over with, I decided.  Drawing a deep breath, I forced a smile and let her in.  “Hello, Maya.”

“Miss Kai!”  She bustled into the salon, a small, gently rounded female figure in cadet-blue tunic and slacks.  Short gray hair waved softly around a plump face aglow with delight.  Her arms were outstretched.  “I’m so glad to see you!” she exclaimed, sweeping me into a cushy, cinnamon-scented hug.

“I’m glad to see you, too,” I fibbed, returning the embrace.

“Here,” she said, clasping my shoulders to hold me at arm’s length.  “Let me look at you.”

“Maya.  It’s only been two months.”

“Hmm.”  Her soft brown eyes gave me a quick once over, lingering on my face.  “You look a bit pale, dear.”  She tsk-tsked.  “And look, you have circles under your eyes!”

“I’m a little tired, that’s all.”

“Working too hard again,” she clucked, taking my arm to lead me to the divan.  “If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times:  Miss Kai, you work too hard—always have, always will.  Sit, young lady; I’ll make cocoa.  Nothing sets my girl right like a good cup of cocoa.”  I watched her hustle off stage left into the galley and felt a warm surge of affection.

Maya had nurtured Eran and me.  I had fond memories of her quarters on Deck Three—the salon plump with sturdy, overstuffed furniture and especially my bedroom.  A twentieth-century print of Rosie the Riveter hung above my narrow bed.  I remembered admiring her lovely but determined expression and the way she flexed her creamy bicep under bold lettering that proclaimed, “We can do it!”  I had a historical doll collection, too, my favorite being young Queen Victoria, a vision in cream-colored satin, her chestnut hair pulled softly away from her face and a spray of pink roses nestled above her left ear.

As Maya hummed in the galley, my mind’s eye continued its journey through my old room, finally coming to rest on the video frame I kept on my white desk.   A beaming couple dressed in khaki stood surrounded by lush green vegetation.  The man’s cocked Australian bush hat sat atop an unruly shock of bright red hair; the woman’s baseball cap, pulled low over her eyes, couldn’t contain the feathery auburn wisps framing her face and brushing her nape.  They mugged for the camera, each slipping an arm around the other’s waist.  Tom and Anna Fox always struck me as two people born to go through life together.

As a teenager I tended to smile indulgently as the Foxes blew kisses and waved from the video frame.  Being a member of a much more enlightened society, I considered their marriage charmingly quaint.  The Quingenti had no use for obsolete social conventions like matrimony—established twosomes had actually been screened out before liftoff, monogamous relationships outlawed for the duration of the voyage.  Nobody wanted to deal with petty jealousies, messy breakups, and acrimonious legal battles in multiple life spans.  Much better to keep life aboard ship one for all and all for one.

Three weeks after the video was made, Tom and Anna Fox had vanished together in that same jungle.  Their tandem disappearance seemed fitting somehow, even though it left their only child an orphan at the age of twenty.

Every time Maya caught me watching the video, she would sigh and say, “They adored you.  You suffered terribly when they didn’t come back.  You still miss them.”

But the grown woman sitting on my divan, dutifully waiting for Maya to ply her with cocoa, mused, I never missed Tom and Anna Fox.  How could I?  I never knew them.

Brought up short by that maverick thought, I couldn’t decide whether I should recoil in filial shame or accept it as the honest truth.  That might have been worth thinking about, but I was jolted by a more immediate concern:  For one heart-stopping moment I couldn’t be absolutely sure I hadn’t made the remark out loud.  I turned an uneasy gaze toward the galley.

“Here you go, Miss Kai.”  Maya appeared with a tray, her still-sunny smile welcome evidence that it had only been a thought after all.  The well-remembered aroma of hot cocoa enveloped me as she sat beside me on the divan, and I accepted a steaming cup.

“This is my favorite mug.”  I turned the pot-bellied ceramic cup so the printed side faced me.  You’re history! it crowed in fat, funky black print.  As if I needed the reminder.  I sighed inwardly and sipped.

“Yes, dear, I know.”  She waited a beat before asking, “Well?  How is it?”

Raising my mug in a toast, I admitted, “You haven’t lost your touch, Maya,” and drank again to prove my point.

Obviously pleased, she patted my leg.  “Thank you, dear.  Now, tell me what you’ve been up to.”

I choked on my cocoa.  Quickly setting the cup on the coffee table, I sputtered and gasped while Maya pounded on my back, and I berated myself furiously.   On a scale of one to ten, with one being a dumb idea and ten being the most idiotic, lame-brained decision you could possibly make, letting Maya through the portal was turning out to be a solid nine-point-five.  What have I been up to? How in the name of Hades was I supposed answer that?

Not much, Maya.  Merely asking myself if it’s time to rebel against the world as I know it, so I can get my personal corner of history back on track and figure out who and what I really am.  That, and trying not to get myself committed, of course.

Perfect.

“Are you all right, dear?”

Stalling for time, I held up a hand and indulged in another round of shallow coughs.  Think! If I didn’t come up with an acceptable answer in the next ten seconds, I knew what would happen.  Maya’s face would go as blank as a mannequin’s, and her gaze would flat line into the thousand-yard stare that signaled a silent query to the behavioral guidance computer on Deck Three.  When I was a kid that expression never failed to put the fear of God in me, because it meant a long, scary, guilt-ridden remedial session with the chillingly calm Doctor Enid Huw wouldn’t be long in coming.

Maya was the closest thing to a mother Eran and I had.  She had diapered us, fed us, bandaged knees and elbows, read us stories, showered us with smiles, and wrapped us in cinnamon hugs.  She was devoted to us.  No, strike that.  Maya was devoted to our Primes.  Of course, according to her programming (and conventional wisdom) Eran and I were one and the same as our Primes.  As long as our words and actions matched the profiles, Maya rewarded us with all the love, attention, and acceptance our little hearts could desire.  And like all kids, our little hearts desired an unending supply.

But the minute we did or said something Alpha-inappropriate, Maya shifted into reporting mode.  I hadn’t crossed that line since I was twelve, but I was light years across it now.  The memory of what had happened all those years ago could still get to me, but I had a sick feeling those remedial sessions would seem like walks in the park compared to the course correction reserved for aberrant adults.  As far as I knew, the Alpha Genesis Protocol had never actually been rolled out.  Maybe that was why information about it was so scarce.  I made a mental note to find out what exactly that Protocol involved.  Living on the edge like I was, forewarned and forearmed suddenly seemed like the smart way to go.

“Miss Kai?”

Drawing a deep breath, I nodded.  “I’m okay.”

She handed me my cup.  “Take your time,” she admonished.  “Now where were we?  Oh, yes.  You were about tell me what you’ve been up to.”

Adrenaline as a catalyst for inspiration.  Who knew?  But how else could I account for my flash of genius?  “I’m about to start a new project,” I announced.

When she smiled, the Pavlovian knot in my stomach unraveled, leaving me both relieved and chagrined.  “Tell me about it.”

“I thought I would look into the history of education.”

“The history of education?”

“Uh-huh.  You know—theories and practices.”

It made sense, I decided with rising excitement.  I would focus specifically on Colonial education, birth through age eighteen, familiarizing myself with the Protocols and the rationale behind them.  I suddenly wanted to learn as much as possible about the forces and philosophies that had shaped my life.  Maybe I could use the added perspective to get a handle on what was happening to me now.

Not that the Protocols were deep, dark secrets; everyone on board knew about them and took them more or less for granted.  Like I said before, when it comes to human beings, some things never change.  We treated the Protocols with the same sentimental indifference past civilizations demonstrated toward their seminal documents—constitutions, charters, bills of rights, etcetera.  Everybody knew the foundational manuscripts existed; everybody agreed they were significant and embodied noble ideals; but most people had only vague, second- or third-hand knowledge about what those documents actually said.

“Oh, I see.”  Maya beamed.  “That should be very interesting, dear.  Which journal will you write it up for?”

“Journal?” I murmured absently.  “ I don’t know yet.  I need to do my research first.”  And I was darned near giddy at the prospect.

For a month now, I had been at the mercy of disturbing, chaotic thoughts, battered by an endless stream of apparently unanswerable questions.  I had hoped Eran would be able to help me make sense of them or at least show me how to live with them.  But in the week since we had spoken, I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him.  Waiting, worrying, and wondering were eating me alive.  But now, at last, I had a plan—something to do.  I wasn’t sure what answers, if any, I would find, but I couldn’t wait to start searching.

Ω

Chapter Seven coming December 13th!

©  2009, Kathy DiSanto, all rights reserved

Yey I finished it!

Icosahedron with simple pattern cut out of it

It was quite fiddley but I felt like I was in nursery doing crafts again. It was so much fun putting it together. For some reason I decided to make life a little difficult for myself too by cutting a simple pattern into it which took tonnes more time but now you can see how the pattern relates to the shape and also a kind of indication of the 3D structure that forms an Icosahedron.

So continuing from last week the images below show the process for making it:

Icosahedron template

Cutting pattern into each face of the Icosahedron - which is made up of equilateral triangles

Template of icosahedron with pattern cut in all faces. The thicker borders are where the tabs are for attaching edges to the neighbouring edge

Assembling the Icosahedron

So obviously as soon as I got that done I just had to start experimenting. I used my reflective sheets and cut-out from a few weeks ago and formed a quick sculptural piece similar to what I would submit for an installation. I laid this flat, turned the lights off and left the small PIR unit at the end of the cone like shape to allow the light to flow through this towards the icosahedron and onto the cut-out pattern below.

View of installation prototype from above

View of prototype head-on - before main light is turned off

prototype side view in dark which is how it would be exhibited

Only the PIR light has been left on and creates the view seen here. There is a mix of shadows competing with reflections and larger areas of light and shade.

Close-up looking into the cone like area to where the icosahedron sits

I like how this looked against the black of darkness. It conveys the high contrast I was after and allows the distinctive shapes to show clearly.  The reflection of light makes it much brighter and the shadows cast from the patterns much darker therefore it stands out with much more contrast and visibility. I also like the fact that the whole piece is surrounded in darkness and therefore allows it to seem like a standalone installation that could fit into a generic gallery space.

In addition to this it looks quite futuristic and space age – not really something I considered before. I may contemplate this at a later stage – whether I want to leave this aspect as it is or change or remove it.

I also realised that the shapes and lines and use of the cone shape remind me of architectural structures. This was reaffirmed when I received feedback in which a similar comment was made.

I don’t think the photos do this piece justice though. It’s meant to be viewed in its physical form with the naked eye. In trying to capture it as an image it loses some of its awe. The good thing about it being a physical and 3D piece is that it encourages the viewer to move around it and explore it from different angles. By doing this the view changes with shapes changing according to the direction of light and casting of shadows and reflection.

I think for this point of the course – with the Unit 1 assessment just around the corner – it’s a good thing I’ve been able to experiment with the shapes and lighting even if it is still only the early stages of this.

The set-up of all the parts and the addition of the lighting meant a lot of time has to be set aside for this in future.

My next objectives are to:
- Do more research into lighting – especially motion sensitive options.
- Look into stronger materials for another prototype.
- And sooner or later I will need to pick my final pattern – which I will need to convert into a vector image suitable for use with the laser cutting machine.

That question may soon be answered by the light itself. If designer Damjan Stankovic has his way, the red light would tick down like a progress bar informing the driver of how long they have to wait till the light changes. This could also be beneficial to motorcyclists who are not sure if the street sensor has been triggered by their bike.  Pretty innovative!

via

How a Government Gets a Job Done

Graph by: emanedoc1 via Graph Jam Builder

It’s all about keeping up your momentum, as you run parcour first person on tops of futuristic scycrapers. Obstacles and enemys challange you to make use of your surroundings to find the fastest way to your destination. The level design is a bit linear but there are several different routes and short cuts that challenge your control of movement and interaction with the environment.  The character you play is a “runner”, a person that delivers vital information and is hunted therefore by goverment and officials.

Fifth Element, The (1997)
★★★ / ★★★★

I didn’t know much about this movie when I decided to watch it so my expectations were not that high. I thought it was going to be another one of those science fiction movies that deals with the apocalypse and so happens to take itself way too seriously. I couldn’t be anymore more wrong because “The Fifth Element,” written and directed by Luc Besson, was as funny and interesting as the vibrant colors that could be found in it throughout. Every 5,000 years, a strange power appears and tries to engulf life. It could be stopped by combining the powers of fire, water, wind, earth and the supposed “fifth element” for another five thousand years and the cycle continues. Bruce Willis stars as Korben Dallas, a taxi driver in futuristic New York who used to work for the military. He got sucked into the madness of intergalactic battle when Milla Jovovich–the fifth element, also known as the perfect being–literally dropped into his taxi. Their mission was to gather all the elements and save the planet from being obliterated into oblivion. Gary Oldman as the evil Zorg, Ian Holm as the priest, and Chris Tucker as the hilariously flamboyant DJ also star. I enjoyed this movie more than I expected to because its pace was quick; it didn’t dwell on the specifics on who’s who and what their intentions and motivations are. This film definitely reminded me of a hybrid between the “Star Wars” saga and the B movies of the 1950’s because it had that nice balance of imagination and humor. The only minor complaint I had was that sometimes it managed to distract itself from the story to make room for some of the more obvious funny moments. Tucker was the one who stole most of the scenes he was in because he was able to focus his manic personality into a character that had to be very enthusiastic about everything every time he was on his program. As for the visual and special effects, yes, they are sort of dated but I really didn’t care because I’m more concerned about the concept, how well a film builds on the story, and how it utilizes its characters. “The Fifth Element” is one of those movies that one can really enjoy if one doesn’t mind watching something over-the-top on a slow night.

Sadly, being British, I have no turkey-related festival this week. On the other hand, next week end I’m going to Copenhagen to poke at rune stones and drink mulled wine (in a yearly ritual with my dad and brother) so it’s not all bad.

I’m still jobless and PhD-less, although I still have hope – in the same way that someone clinging on to a precipice by their shredding fingernails as hope – but still hope. Four writing days left of NaNoWriMo, and I think I can get there. I’d be more on target if it weren’t for being woken up at 3 in the morning of Tuesday. Phone calls in the middle of the night are rarely good things, so when my mum called me at 3 in the morning at my dad’s house, I was pretty much paralysed with fear – especially when she asked me if I could get my dad to run her to hospital.

Anyway, it wasn’t a life-changing thing: she had a suspected pending detached retina which turned out to be a vitreous detachment. After all the fuss, bother and angst (not to mention looking after my mum’s cat-herding Border Collie), writing rather went out of the window.

Somewhere in the middle of this, I finished Sin by Sharon Page, which was very enjoyable, and reminded me that I haven’t read enough historical romances in a while.

I also read Gossip Girl: You Know You Love Me, in one of my forays into YA fiction. I like the TV series, I really do, although it’s not in my usual line of things (BtVS, Angel, West Wing, BSG, B5, and other geeky goodies). And I liked the first Gossip Girl book (in a I-can’t-read-to-many-of-these way), but this was unbearable. I had a real problem with the fact that I hated almost every character: I accept that most of us look back at our teenager years and cringe, but this seemed to take every facet of this and condense it. Almost without exception, the characters were selfish, spoilt, stupid and self-involved. As the narrator was one of them, there was nothing to cut through this, to give it narrative edge, to provide a contrasting view point. And without a character about whom I could honestly give a shit, there was no strong narrative thread. Instead, it read as a long litany of pointless, selfish, shallow episodes in which even the most sympathetic character was at best a puppet of circumstance. Even if this is a true record of the lives of the Upper East Side, it’s bad narrative.

At the other end of the scale, I’m about 100 pages into ‘The Quantum Rose’ by Catherine Asaro, a romantic science fiction novel (as opposed to sci fi romance or futuristic romance) which I can’t recommend highly enough. There is all the emotion and drama of soft sci fi, and the science which most hard sci fi only aspires too. In fact, I want to recommend this book to my brother, who’s a particle physicist (little brother ). The chapters and many of the concepts are based around quantum physical ideas (the author has a PhD in Chemical Physics). You can immerse yourself in this physics, or you can ignore it entirely, depending on what you want, but it forms a sci fi world which is complex and interesting without being inhuman. Despite Brother Dearest, I don’t know as much about quantum physics as I should, but I have recently taken a course in planetary science, and it was great for me to see the concepts I learnt there applied in sci fi. So far, this is a beautiful book, and Vyrl is a truly gorgeous hero. I would love to be able to do half as well, and it is a relief after Gossip Girl. The latter was supposed to be escapism during NaNo and failed; I wouldn’t exactly call The Quantum Rose escapism either, but it did rather prove that genre fiction can be as beautiful and profound as any modern literature.

Its huge for the future of transportation as a whole.

The first flight of a hydrogen helicopter recently took place at United Technologies Corp.

It important to note that the helicopter was merely a remote control, scaled down version of the real thing. But, it ran with no battery power whatsoever, solely on hydrogen as its fuel source, for 20 minutes. Helicopters normally require more power for a vertical lift than an airplanes traditional take off. So, the future of Hydrogen related travel may have begun with this flight…

When was the last time you’ve heard of a new musical instrument? I just stumbled upon an amazing new electronic instrument called the Eigenharp (through Tim’s Encosion blog). It’s made by Eigenlabs in the UK and comes in 2 versions, the Alpha and the Pico (the smaller version of the Apha).

It took a bit of research to figure out exactly what the Eigenharp does, but it turned out more along the lines of “What does it not do?”. From their website: “A professional level instrument which allows the musician to play and improvise using a limitless range of sounds with virtuoso skill. The unique design of the keys makes this the most expressive electronic musical instrument ever made. The Alpha can play and record loops, change scale and key, transpose, alter tempo, program beats, create arrangements, switch and layer multiple sounds, all while the musician is performing live on stage”.

For more details, I’d recommend that you visit the Eigenlabs website to read up a bit more, or watch this informative demo video:

]]> http://fashionthreads.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/malak-ezzawys-lbd-limited-edition/ Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:44:46 +0000 fashionthreads http://fashionthreads.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/malak-ezzawys-lbd-limited-edition/

Malak El Ezzawy, one of our favorite local evening wear designers, tributes the “Little Black Dress” this fall with her limited edition collection.  What I love, is that it is a perfect addition to my LBD post (posted a couple of weeks ealier, click here).  As mentioned before, the LBD transcends time and trends and is the perfect “throw it on and still look chic” dress.  A staple in every woman’s wardrobe, just like a man’s white chemise.  Below is a sample preview of her limited edition collection, more on this Facebook link, and in store at the Melodies Atelier at 24 Tharwa St., Mohandeseen, ground floor.

Malak’s LBD collection is full of lace, as we call it in Egypt, dentelle.  The dress below worn by Menna Shalaby is a dentelle top with a chiffon and tulle skirt and a sexy low back.

Menna Shalaby wearing Malak's LBD

This LBD is the perfectly structured tube dress, which I believe, will be flattering to many.  The dress is very futuristic (which I don’t usually like, but this is cool).  I also love how the designer utilized both polka dot and stripped prints on one canvas.

Polka Dot & Stripped Structured LBD

This matte paillette, aka sequined, one shoulder LBD is IT! The fall season is all about embellishment & sequins, in addition to asymmetric dresses.  I guess this LBD is an ALL-IN-ONE must have!

Matte Paillette One Shoulder LBD

I decided to end this post on the perfectly simple, yet sexy, LBD.  The uniqueness of this dress comes not only from its simplicity but its texture.  Velvet is a material that faded away for a while, but is back it style and feels very rich.

Perfect Velvet LBD

This was a fun concept for a gaming pedal design that was created by MVC Agency in 2003. This futuristic gaming pedal was intended for use with only one foot and featured a swivel heel and position sensitive pedals that produced different results based on the position of the user’s foot. Concepts ranged from retro 80’s to “Alien’s” inspired. Concepts, trend boards, renderings and prototypes are presented here.

ok so another collar build this time its for me though ^^

so i was at open collar the other day (OC) and they have this fairly nice “glow collar” yeah its kinda nice, but i wasnt a 100% convinced of the look of it nice idea though and sorry i dont have a pic but if you go to OC you can see it on the far wall on the right hand side.

i used to build stuff using darien coldwell’s scripts and since she left SL she has given out her stuff for free god bless her but eventually due to the scripts not going to get updated they are going to stop working at some point, so after a bit of convinving from shuggi the majority of my collar builds are made with OC scripts, and one big difference i saw with OC compared to a lot of other collars is the “floating kneel pose”, now i dont know about you but the 2 foot floating off the ground used to annoy me a lot and without making my AVI a midget and removing any footwear (and yeah i know apparetnly subbies/slaves/pets etc arent supposed to wear heels, no idea who said that to me but im pretty sure the conversation didnt go on much longer, but hey i spent alot of time and money training my MD ballet heels and im going to wear them okies, or heres an idea, how about you pay me NOT to wear them LOL) the standard OC kneel pose sort of adjusts your avis height to floor ratio and makes you kind of stick to the floor, an lets face it that can only be a good thing right? so anyway on with the collar i made

so i wanted the collar to look black or atleast a dark metal loking as i wanted the glowing parts to stand out (usual bump mapping scripts used to get the metal texture), oh and by the way even with the silver or white color it still looks pretty nice, so i used a few torus prims, sides where shaved a little to give a sort of beveled look, and a a few hollowed out and cut down to size with “cut start and end options” rings to make the the outer covers. also used a really thin ring in the top of the collar to give the top of it a glow aswell.

so here are two pics of the collar with the blue texture, the first one is of the collar in its less blue glowing state

and here is the collar in its sort of maximum blue glow 

ok so it doesnt look that different but it looks much better inworld the pics here dont really do it justice to be honest.

so i figured out about the glowing effect and its a lot easyier than i thought, i had thought it was some sort of clever scripting, oh how wrong was i, its simply a texture i made in PSP and removed some of the midle parts by removed i mean made an alpha channel, uploaded the texture, applied it and rotated it 90 degrees so teh glow effect goes from top to bottom so it gives a sort of “pulsing” look, no to get the texture to move like that i went to a freebie place and picked up a lot of scripts,,,,,,,an i do mean a lot several 1000 i think in one of the boxes lol.

*lil side note, yes freebie places are trully terrible and we have all been there lookgin at the the stuff and wandering if we could look good when with hindsight we know that wasnt the case, but freebie places have, buried deep in them sometimes absolute gems, like scripts mainly, go check out “sarahs nerd herd” or “freebie dungoen”, for me these scripts area a godsend coz it means a “non-scripter” like me can have a look and fiddle with them as they are full perms and even use them in some of my builds. but anyway dont be a snob go have a look and watch out for virtual vampires lol*.

so ok back to the collar, right used a simply  texture rotation script to get the effect i was after and also edited the texture a little, the bit where you go to the texture tab and you have the “repeats per face” well i set them to 0.000 on both the vertical and horizontal and that give it a really nice glow, or pulsing look, and because the texture can be colored, you can get some interesting colors aswell, so the first pic showed the blue i’d used, heres a few different colors.

and of course a pic of the blue one being worn, have to say the blue one is still my favorite one unless im wearing my black and white latex like my graves G76 with the G97 boots.

the texture color comes from editing them in world just using the prim editing texture thingie so i think your limited to, what is it 16 million color pallete,,,,,shame .

So collar build finished and all that was left to do was rezz and OC collar and edit the link parts, remove the cube that is in the middle and place it in the middle of teh new collar in about the same position, and remove the invisible prim sphere thats on the front of the OC one, so unlikned and link the new collar to the sphere i removed from the old one making sure that you make the sphere you removed from the OC collar is linked the rigth way making it the root prim on the new collar.

so there we go a nice simply futuristic looking collar thats only 17 prims, fully scripted with OC, oh and i added my own forcewear and amethyst plug in scripts (at someones request )  and it does look pretty nice inworld aswell

Toronto November 21 – 6.00pm at The Royal – 608 College St.  A Whole Life Ahead/Tutta la vita davanti (Italy 2008, 117 min.) Director: Paolo Virzì Cast: Isabella Ragonese, Sabrina Ferilli, Valerio Mastandrea, Elio Germano, Massimo Ghini. Synopsis: A comic look at the trials and tribulations found in the world of temporary employment.  Marta, a recent university graduate, finds work at a call centre marketing a futuristic home appliance.  In this bizarre new world she must deal with teeny-bopper telemarketers, psyched-up salesmen,  motivational dances, corporate jingles, bonuses, applause and self-inflicted group punishments.  A delightfully biting examination of contemporary society, seenthrough the eyes of a philosophical  young woman.

Forget LCDs. The future is now, with OLED technology making cel phones, computer monitors, and television screens paper thin. OLED, or Organic LED is just on the horizon and will be available soon to tech savvy consumers looking for the next big thing!

The OLED (organic light emitting diode) display trumps the traditional LCDs (liquid crystal displays) in that it does not require a backlight to function. OLEDs display deep black levels, draw less power, and can be much thinner and lighter than an typical LCD display. In addition, at 1,000,000:1 (yes a million to one), OLED displays have a much higher contrast ratio than traditional “dumb old fashioned” LCD monitors.

Initially the prices will be high but as with everything technological, prices will fall as consumer demand increases. Look for OLED technology to hit shelves in full force in 2010-2011. I just love this crap!