Power Outage Today

Our building will be having a power outage today from 9 to 5 so I can't do my usual web-savvy behavior nor Folding@home and SETI@home.

Not to worry, I'll be back as soon as the power comes back.

Our Zoomfest Film

Misconceptions of a Mistaken Mind (HD) from Jack Zhang on Vimeo.

As always, go to the video's page to see it in HD.

What do you think? Should I have at least won something?

Bryan Intihar's long lost brother...

Filming the CBI contracted workplace training video today, I bumped into the "tech guy" at CBI and oddly enough...



He could be the long lost brother to Bryan Intihar. SERIOUSLY!

Left is Bryan from that video episode of the podcast, Right is from self-shot footage.

The video's coming along really well and could be done as soon as Monday.

Official: Nobody from South hit paydirt at Zoomfest.

This includes us and Bang Bang.

Link

However, I have the "contract" with CBI Consultants to finish up their training video. But still, gonna need to play a lot of TF2 to get my mind off of this. Heck, I'll buy Left 4 Dead if I'm that pissed or depressed... I blame the private schools and the Gulf Island Film/Television School...

Might as well post our film now that it's not gonna be worth much of anything, expect it on Vimeo soon.

No!

More slower projects for the Folding@home GPU client have been released...

Seriously, do you guys expect less points for more crunching to really work? Think back to the metaphorical example in my previous post.

Yet another reason why newer is not always better...

Edit: In fact, they're trying to make all new Work Units 57xx work units! There needs to be at least a few 5506 or 50xx work units for point balance!!! Outrageous!

It's Done!

Jack's Angry Dance 2 from Jack Zhang on Vimeo.

As always, go to the site to see it in HD, I don't have Vimeo Plus so I can't HD embed.

Jack's Angry Dance 2: Confirmed!

It's true, and it promises to be better intro-wise than the previous one.

You know you're obsessed with "Team Fortress 2" when...

You make something like this in Garry's Mod:


The Sandvich Dispenser by ~lmracer2 on deviantART

I just had to post it...

And speaking of Team Fortress 2, here's a piece of art of someone I've been playing with made by someone I've been playing with:


Adee- Scout'n by ~Fataldose on deviantART

It's a picture of "adee" made possibly by "ovens". We did have arguments about who I was gonna engage with, but since... Oh, I'm not gonna go down that road on my own blog...

Yet another SNL parody in the works...

From a film worthy of Zoomfest:

Clearing the Air by Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Paul Rudd and Directed by Noah Baumbach.

Our's is "Clearing the Air: Vancouver Style" with Cody Knight, Riun Garner, me, and Catlyn.

This project however is NOT GREEN LIT and will continue to not be unless fate turns and we just happen to green lit it. You could say that all I need is to hire the actors, not join a group... but that's undoubtedly doubtful.

The Insomniac Games style parody of the Staten Island Zoo sketch is still on for completion while our Extreme Activities Competition is still on standby for sunnier weather...

I actually do feel a little sorry for Bang Bang in that they themselves did not like the result of their Zoomfest film. But you're more than welcome to do this if things don't turn out...

It's now super busy with my Video Editing stuff now that my free time has virtually doubled now that I get off from school at 1:50 every day. And I still have not finished my Flight of the Conchords Karaoke I started work on at the beginning of the year...

More anti-Folding@home's Project 5748 for nVidia GPU2 talk

I'm trying to be constructive on this:

A longer WU resulting in less PPU and more power resulting in still less points is something that you should consider releasing after more beta testing or more powerful hardware is released.

The change in the PS3 client also dropped it's ns/day to the 190-220 range when it used to be in the 300+ range. Same here with it used to be in the 380-450 range for 5506, now it's 70-100 for 5748.

There is now a general community outrage due to this change. I've already blocked the server IP for the 5748 WU server. If there is large protein folding planned, best to only launch it when you've got it so that it runs at least at the PS3's speed.

And the thing everyone can agree on: It's unbalanced in point claiming. My 9600GT SSC can finish a 5506 WU in 3-4 hours and get 480 points for it. It's energy efficient and doesn't require as much effort. While as 5748 is very power hungry and needs 7-8 hours and still only gets 511 points.

Right now the Folding Forums are a buzz with frustrated crunchers and a staff that doesn't want people to avoid crunching this WU or any other high molecule WUs. And a look at the project summary page shows a wealth of higher molecule WUs all ready to go out to the public, let's hope they don't until the GPU hardware improves.

Think of it metaphorically, 5748 is like your boss asking you to finish a blockbuster full-length movie in 1 day. But human limits naturally can't do that and you take longer. Then when you finish, you only get half of pay you needed for the movie. 5506 is your boss asking to do a really high-caliber short film in a day, but because the length is shorter, our natural limits aren't taxed as much and you get full pay afterwards.

Left 4 Dead + 24p = Amazingly Awesome...

I just played the Left 4 Dead Demo with the help of a FPS Limiter I found via Google to get it to 24p, and it truly does feel like playing a film. I had no problems during gameplay and the slower framerate actually helps you to see more enemies and helps your reaction times. The only frame drops I get are in expert mode with more zombies on screen.

I also couldn't notice any frame drops when running it at 1680x1050 on a 9600GT in 24p. When I was at 60fps, my card was at max power and could only get 60 constant in low draw areas, once that action picked up, the lowest it went was around 30 but never below 30. The only frame dropping I see were in the pre-rendered 720p videos used for the intro, the promo, and the background video, but that's about it.

If you have the L4D demo, try it out, the FPS limiter is here and with the included Java GUI, you can create a .bat file to run L4D in 24p.

To wrap this up...

Awesome.

*backslap!*

Technical News: Do not go to YouTube on any version of Firefox!

It seems there's a huge stability problem with this update caused by the Adobe Flash Player 10 plugin being very incompatible with some of the changes to Firefox's code, or vice versa, crashing at random times. I recommend not going to websites that use Flash intensely (Youtube) right now if you use Firefox and only do so after Adobe and/or Mozilla has addressed the issue.

Nov 13: Seems this is more leaning towards Adobe's side rather than Mozilla's, I've tried the latest Flash Player on both Firefox 2.x and 3.x and they both crash with the latest Flash Player on Youtube...

Zoomfest is over!

And with a little bit of luck, we might just come out on top...

And as a side note, as of this blog post, our rival enemies still can't burn their project onto DVD. I'd wish them luck, but it's a dog eat dog world.

Tiny Update

Work progressed a little on the 2nd SNL Sketch parody with Lombaxes. I have to prepare title sequences for both the credits and opening of our Zoomfest film. The titles have to be done tonight so that during the competition, there is no time wasted on that.

And all the rest of the time is what my computer and PS3 do usually, Folding@home on the GPU of my PC and the Cell on my PS3, and SETI@Home on my Core 2 Quad CPU. Basically, they crunch numbers.

My decision has been made...

Turns out the contest for the all-inclusive IG trip was only revealed to the people of the MyResistance community, it was over before I even had a chance to enter... But that's ok, cause I already went there.

The primary focus this week (if I'm doing it) is officially Zoomfest. Even though they had a Earthquake drill today and still used the video by Mario below:



I'll try to work on that for next year's airing.

I also have a second SNL sketch parody (the one about a message from the Staten Island Zoo about Giraffes) about Lombaxes, the official name for the race of bipeds that Ratchet is from the Ratchet and Clank series. Priorities will now vary, I'm still waiting for a sunny day to continue filming the Extreme Activities Competition.

This doesn't need an Angry Dance, but...

Paul F. looks a bit like one of my old EAs, Ayen.



Left is Paul, Right is Ayen. Yes, Ayen is into some Star Trek (while we were at the "Enterprise" ride at Playland at the PNE back in May of 05) and some Techno music. I think in this photo, Ayen's already California ready...