This is getting surreal. Checking on what was up on HugVR today, I found the Canadian chap I was talking to last night experimenting with another guy in England, attempting a two way VR hookup.
Tag: gadgets
For this chap, it is his job – he has started a company producing and consulting in VR for sales, education and entertainment; I’d come across him chilling and playing with kit, but when he knew I had the same camera as the one he was using tonight, he was interested in my opinions on quality. Then when he found I was an amateur musician, he really got excited, and got his guitar out, and we spent time discussing how cool live streamed 360° could be for virtual house concerts.
But it also led me to play with Google Cardboard, which is a deliberately cheap design for a Virtual Reality headset. In particular, video taken with the Theta and uploaded to YouTube can be viewed using Google Cardboard, and as you move your head, the frame of view moves accordingly. It is an amazing immersive effect, even with the crudest resolution of video.
Post from RICOH THETA. – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA
I’ve been encouraged to look at a few large packages, including Notion and the more affordable Progression. I do intend to examine those, but for the moment, I have been using the free and open source MuseScore. This has been a revelation; although I expect it has less functionality than the more commercial packages, I’ve managed to hit the road running and produce a decent bit of sheet music.
However, the price of specialist conversions have been coming down recently, and for 80 quid I could have the internal filters removed to turn it into a full spectrum camera. This would let me use it, with appropriate external filters, both as an infra-red camera, and for astro-photography with better response in the Hydrogen Alpha band.
I’ve had a GR-33 Guitar Synth for some years, which I use with my Godin Synth Access guitars. The GR-S has nothing like the features of the GR-33 – it essentially has 4 sound/affects: Crystal, which is a bell-like synth sound; Rich Modulation – an enhanced chorus effect; Slow Pad, a warm synth, with octave control; Brilliant Clean adds additional octaved strings (above and/or below) for a 12 or even 18 string effect. There is also a brilliant freeze function, which allows you to hold a pad on the synth, while continue to play on the guitar.
I’m going through a fairly creative time at the moment, and have both been writing some new material and arranging other folk’s material. I’ve recently bought some new instruments that are challenging me (in a good way), and have been doing some music with others, in particular, my friend Annie.
By default, a FON device offers two networks – one private and one public. In my case the private network is POSHGAMES, which my friends use; the public FON network is one that *anybody* can log into if they have FON credentials. The good part is that by hosting FON access, you yourself gain free access to any other FON point in Europe, which also includes many BT access points.
Since then, a number of new content partners have appeared, most of which I’m not particularly interested in – Sky, NowTV (which I think is another permutation of Sky), UKTV, Dave etc. But this month, NetFlix has made a welcome appearance. The app is slick, and miles better (in appearance and perfomance) than the app I have been using on my BluRay; so I’ll be watching it on the YouView box from now on.
But no, the centre part of the screen, in an irregular blot about 3 inches wide, was actually slightly green, and not as sharp as the rest of the screen. Opening a blank page of white, this could be seen quite clearly; and it was nothing on the surface, this was in the screen itself.