CrossOver and inability to resize

At work I am running an Ubuntu laptop.  I'm required to run Microsoft Office (as opposed to say, LibreOffice) and Outlook.  While I could manage the Wine config myself, I have found CrossOver to do a pretty good job.

One of the things that always annoyed me was that many times, with Microsoft Office apps, I would no longer be able to adjust the size/position. I had fixed it in the past by going into regedit.  This solution seems much easier:

From here:

1. Open Crossover Manage Bottles.
2. Select your Office bottle from the list on the left.
3. Click the Control Panels tab. Open Wine Config.
4. Under the Graphics tab uncheck Control & Decorate checkboxes.

Google Body Browser?

So I noticed today that the Google Body Browser has moved to zygotebody.com. When I went to run it, however, it didn't work.  It reported that my system didn't support WebGL, which is odd because it used to.

Then I found this link:

The easiest way to enable webgl/ work aound In Ubuntu is as follows

1) If not already placed there by you: Place the chrome/chromium starter in the (upper) starter panel.
( Drag it there from the applications > internet  dropdown menu, or 
- from the dropdown menu rightclick "add starter to panel¨ or exact english wording may very- i am using the dutch version)

2) right click it > properties > commandline 

3) Copy '--ignore-gpu-blacklist' (without the quotation marks)

4) Paste/insert it in the commandline just before the '%U'

5) close

6) start Chrome/Chromium bij clicking the starter Icon

That worked for me - so if you are having issues, give it a shot.

Slashdot: National Academies Release Over 4,000 Free Science Books

I'm always a big fan of huge tomes of learning being released to the public. Similar to the MIT OpenCourseware, the National Academies have released lots of PDF books to the public for free.  For example, maybe you'd like a free copy of "The Rise of Games and High Performance Computing for Modeling and Simulation"?

Announcing EEG access for independent developers & researchers

Time for me to upgrade :)

We are very pleased to announce that EEG access will be released to independent developers and researchers (individuals, companies or incorporated entities that had a turnover less than US$100,000 in their last fiscal year) who are creating free and commercial applications for the Emotiv EPOC that will be distributed exclusively through our online application store.

A Research Edition SDK including full EEG access will be soon be announced at $750 (includes SDK, TestBench and SDK headset).

As you are an early supporter of Emotiv and an early licensee, we wish to offer you the opportunity to upgrade your existing software license to the Research Edition for $150 ($100 discount) from the published price.

This offer ends 15 January 2010.




We look forward to working with you to further the field of BCI.

Wishing you and your family a wonderful Holiday Season.


From all of us at Emotiv.

Google Public DNS

I was going to change my DNS over to Google, but using Speakeasy's DNS is faster for me [checked via ping and traceroute].

Feel free to check your connection.  The full documentation is the title link above.  Google's DNS addresses are:

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

Emotiv Epoc Testing

Back in June I ordered my Epoc. It finally came in Monday and having a headache I decided to wait until today to test it.

The first thing I noticed after receiving the package is that the 'tamper seals' were both broken. At least the box wasn't ripped to shreds like most packages I get from UPS. I wasn't sure what to make of that, but since the product appeared to be intact (and the UPS guy knocked and left) I figured I might as well open the box.

The contents of the box included the headset, the cdrom (containing one PDF and one EXE), a USB dongle, a wall charger, a 2-page printed addendum to the installation instructions contained on the CDROM, a warranty card saying basically DOA or not covered and 2 bottles of contact saline. The box was supposed to include a 'hydrator' as well but upon reading the forums I found out that it was on backorder. Emotiv said the box should have included a notice about it being delayed, but that notice was not present. Also, in my box, there was 1 loose felt pad that had fallen off the headset.

I would have really preferred that my $500 investment include a printed perfect-bound manual, but instead you can only access it once the software is successfully installed.

Getting the headset to fit properly was very problematic. It is supposed to work well over long hair, but I literally spent a full hour trying to get solid green lights (which I never managed to do). One of them was black for a good 1/2 hour so I swapped it with the opposite side and the non-functioning one moved to the other side. I eventually got a partial signal from it. I couldn't get a connection at all while having a ponytail in -- I can't help but think this would have worked much better had I been bald.

Here you can see the final signal strength I settled on. I was never able to get all green.

The Expressiv Suite was interesting. It mostly worked ok. The eyebrows worked the best. Winking and smirking seemed to lag a bit.

The Affectiv Suite was by far the most fun. I spent quite a bit of time trying to control the graph. We were able to do things to raise or lower the excitement levels identified by the black line (and thus the orange one at the bottom). The blue, red and green were a bit more tricky.

The Cognitiv Suite was interesting. Here you see me playing with 'disappear'. Sometimes it seemed a little too responsive -- pushing or pulling without me trying. Other times it wouldn't do it no matter how hard I tried. I did eventually get push, pull, rotate and disappear all to work - but only when I had less than 3 enabled at a time.

Unfortunately, it appears that I will no longer be able to practice as the unit had completely died in under 5 hours. I tried charging it, power cycling it, resetting the dongle, even rebooting. No luck. Start time 12:30. Death time 5:30. Looking at the forums, it seems to be a common problem and people are saying that we have to send it back via the DOA dept. After waiting 4 months, I guess it wouldn't hurt to wait a couple more to actually have a $500 unit able to do more than be a doorstop.

A few more photos are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/malachid/EmotivEpoc#

Google Fusion Tables

I was looking around some of the recent Google Labs products and came across their Fusion Tables project.

In this example, I opened an email from the Title Company, clicked on "Open as a Google Spreadsheet", then saved the result.  In Fusion Tables, I told it to open that document, clicked on Visualize, clicked on Map.... and this was the result...

You can try it out yourself. Click on the image to see the data, then choose Visualize from the menu.  It would have been nice if it let me embed the google map directly.

Emotiv shipping

I was curious when my headset was going to arrive, so I emailed them. In case any of the rest of you are wondering, notice the highlighted bit from their response.

Dear Malachi,

Thank you for licensing the Emotiv SDK.

Licensing of the Emotiv SDK

As a developer or researcher, the process for licensing the Standard Edition of the Emotiv SDK is as follows:

1. Select the Emotiv SDK and click on the "Buy Now" button.

2. Provide us with your shipping address. Our worldwide shipping rate for the SDK headset is $24.95. The SDK headset can be shipped to an address other than your billing address.

3. Follow the checkout process with PayPal to complete your order.

4. Once payment is successfully processed, the Emotiv SDK will be available for immediate download. An order confirmation email will be sent to you providing you with your unique order number and serial key, required for installation of the Emotiv SDK.

The Emotiv SDK is a proprietary software toolkit that exposes the Emotiv APIs and detection libraries. It includes EmotivControlPanel.exe, EmoComposer.exe, EmoKey.exe, header files and import libraries, and sample code. The EmoComposer & EmoKey is a hardware emulator that will enable you to commence immediate development for the headset.

5. The SDK headset will ship approximately 10 weeks later to enable you to fully test your application.

When we charge your account, we will charge you for the price of the product, any applicable taxes and shipping to the address provided at the time of order.

Please note that Emotiv does not offer refunds on Electronic Software Downloads. Click here for our Returns & Refunds Policy.

We will send you a tracking number in due course.

Regards,

Emotiv Customer Service Team

Emotiv Systems Inc.

What's your Local Apparent Sidereal Time?

Step 1. Go to Google Maps and locate your house.
Step 2. Center it in the map.
Step 3. In your browser's location bar paste in:

javascript:void(prompt('',gApplication.getMap().getCenter()));

Step 4. Copy the info in the popup dialog [for example: (45.483254, -122.838127)]
Step 5. Go to this page.
Step 6. In the second section ("Decimal Degrees to Degrees Minutes Seconds") type in the decimal (latitude,longitude) you got from Step 4.
Step 7. Click compute and copy the longitude from the bottom right box [for example: -122° 50' 17.2572"]
Step 8. Go to this page.
Step 9. Enter the values in the first 3 boxes [for example: 122 degrees, 50 minutes, 17 seconds]. Leave off decimal fractions and negative signs.
Step 10. If your value in #7 started with a negative, selected West. Otherwise select East. [in this example, I choose West]
Step 11. Click compute
Step 12. There you have it. Your Local Apparent Sidereal Time.  In my case, it was 04:02:03.4 LST.

Oh wait, you are wondering wtf LST is? Glad you asked.









Thanks to qmchenry for providing Steps 1-4, FCC for the longitude converter, the US Naval Observatory for the Sidereal converter and to Wikipedia for the graphic.


Sensics piSight™ HMD

Now that my Emotiv EPOC is on order, it's time to go for the other half of the equation... I've been wanting the Sensics piSight HMD for 3 years now and I think it would make an excellent addition to the EPOC.

Here's the current stats from their product page:

	Panoramic field of view (82° to 180°, depending on model) provides situational awareness, active peripheral vision and enhanced realism
	High resolution: Most models offer better than HD 1080p resolution, with up to 4200x2400 full-color pixels per eye
	A balanced design that is comfortable and stays cool.
	Over 30 models to choose from, offering the perfect fit for most performance and budget requirements

When I talked with Jim Bradford 2 years ago, the stats were a bit different.

It costs $30k+; half down rest in 3 months
Recommended 3 PNY (nVidia) FX4500 [X2 means 4 outputs]
which would drive the 12 screens (if outputs in 2400x600 mode)

Now it seems that it can be driven from 1 or 2 DVI inputs. I'll need to check back with Jim to see if I can get an upgraded recommendation on video cards and costs.

Emotiv SDK including an SDK headset is now available!

I ordered mine... you ordering yours?

Dear Malachi,

We are very pleased to announce that the Emotiv SDK including an SDK headset is now available for immediate license. This product ships worldwide.

The Emotiv SDK- Standard Edition includes an SDK Headset and our proprietary software toolkit that exposes our APIs and detection libraries. This is now available to independent developers and researchers for only $500. To license the SDK, please visit http://www.emotiv.com/corporate/1_0/1_6.htm

Enterprise, Enterprise Plus and Research Plus Editions of the SDK are also available for license. More details on the Emotiv Developer Program can be found at http://emotiv.com/corporate/1_0/1_3.htm.

_______________________________________________________________________

You can choose an SDK License that best suits your development needs:

If you are an independent developer or commercial enterprise:

Introductory (SDKLite) - An introduction to the Emotiv SDK and APIs. For application developers who want to get started immediately. This introductory package includes a hardware emulator in place of the SDK neuroheadset.

Standard - Single license - For indepedent developers who are creating free and commercial applications for the Emotiv EPOC that will be distributed exclusively through our Emortal online application store.

Enterprise - Up to 5 licensed users - For companies that are creating proprietary applications using the Emotiv EPOC.

If you are a researcher or educational institute:



Emotiv is committed to supporting the research community in developing more detections/applications that further improve the capability of Brain Computer Interface (BCI). We have created a program that takes into account the needs of educational institutions, research organizations as well as individual researchers that want to contribute their knowledge to further the field of BCI.



Research Standard - Single license - For individual researchers and research groups that are developing free and/or commercial applications for the Emotiv EPOC that will be available exclusively through our Emortal online application store.



Research Plus - Up to 5 licensed users - For research institutes that are developing new applications/detections utilizing raw EEG data from the Emotiv EPOC.


_______________________________________________________________________



Please let us know via return email to apps@emotiv.com if you wish to license the Enterprise, Enterprise Plus or Research Plus versions of the Emotiv SDK.

We look forward to collaborating and partnering with you to further the field of Brain Computer Interface technology.

Best regards,
Emotiv Team
Emotiv Systems Inc.


________________________________


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MindMappers

As many of you know, I have a tendency to have way too many projects. I decided I needed to do something about that.  I remember using the old java-based mind mappers to solve this problem in the past, so I thought I would try one of those out.  I have also had multiple machines die on me and loose my data recently, so I decided I wanted a hosted one.  Cheap is good, free is better -- but... it has to be able to work for me.

So I started looking around.

I found a high level overview of options here

This place had a detailed list of options here


And now some really quick (and most likely unfair reviews):

http://wisemapping.com
looks really good. very easy to use.
unfortunately doesn't have 1 feature I require -- crosslinking

http://mind42.com
all the reviews said it was unreliable and they lost data, so no go

http://mindmaps.kayuda.com/
dead

http://www.glinkr.net/map/sandbox/
didn't work

http://bubbl.us
looked nice but was kinda annoying
took 4 tries to get it to let me edit the text in a box
linked 1 node to 2 cousin nodes and the arrows disappeared behind them

http://webofweb.net
the "try it live" had editing disabled so couldn't test it

http://touchgraph.com
have to register to try it, so didn't do either

http://mindomo.com
pretty.  nice connecting links.
kinda annoying.  try to move a couple nodes closer to each other and they
kept jumping off the page. seems impossible to move an element further away --
ie: using their demo, I dragged a new link to the other side of that huge
section on the left and there was no way to place it without it disconnecting
from the center and reconnecting over there.
best ui so far - but also most buggy

http://www.mindmeister.com/
the demo on the front page didn't have the same ui problem... but functionality
was fairly limited in it so I was unable to attempt cross-linking

http://www.mywebspiration.com/
I was going to skip this one by since I'd have to sign up to test it... but since
they are just down the street from me, might as well try it...
Overall pretty simple to use. I've submitted a few suggestions already. Overall,
I'd say doable.  So I am trying this one.

Omni Dual Saw

I was flipping through channels tonight and saw something called Pitchmen. This fireman had designed a circular saw that had two counter-rotating blades. Conceptually, I was like "yeah, that's kinda kewl... I like counter-rotation"... then I saw him cut a non-boiled egg without any kickback. Ok, that's pretty friggin kewl. Maybe I should get one for my home repair bag... $220 though?

Maven Tech Talk [Presentation]

At work, I am supposed to be giving a Maven tech talk to a team that is used to using Ant. I went ahead and created the presentation (see link above or embedded below). Most of the material is gleaned from Maven's site and just organized a bit differently. There's no voiceover or anything, it's just a slide-show... but it's there if anyone would like to use it.

Apache Archiva

Today I was browsing through some of the more recent Apache projects, and came across Archiva. I decided to give it a whirl.

I didn't manage to get it to work as a windows service, and a few things (like uploading artifacts to it) were kinda slow, but overall I'd say it's pretty slick and definitely something I think I will use for awhile.

Go ahead and take a look at my setup instructions (which I honestly put together so I don't forget the steps when I go to do it at home) and give it a try. I think you'll like it.

SD/MSC Generator

At work today, I was asked to do a sequence diagram for one of the processes we recently changed. I don't have Rose or Visio installed, so thought I would do a quick google search instead.

I came across the SD/MSC Generator. This tool allowed me to easily draw my diagrams using simple ASCII arrows. Very nice.

User->Blog: Read main page
Blog->Analytics: Register information\nabout the user
note left of Analytics: TBD\nConspriacy theories
User->Blog: Select timestamp at\nbottom of story about\nSD/MSC Generator
Blog->User: Serve up the permanent\nlink to the story
User->Blog: Click on 'Post a Comment'

The text to generate this image: