Dissertation is now handed in.Both copies have been bound, and CD burnt with the final dissertation upon it. Think I had 13 versions, but hey its all done and dusted now.I feel that the final copy really benefited from other people critically analysing it, as both my Dad and placement supervisor found various “school boy errors”.I am now fully focusing on my major. Going to try and treat the final few weeks as a full time job. 9-5ish everyday, so that I am able to chill out in the evening. At present I am working on the leaderboard, i have managed to create a table with the correct data displaying the top ten time. However at present it is being displayed in Php and not coming back into flash. But it seems to work perfectly, so this may be a permanent fixture.
Allrighty then. 1 week until the dissertation needs to be handed in and my parents and placement supervisor are currently reading the second draft.Apparently my Dad has found multiply errors (i knew he would, he always does). But I am glad that these are being highlighted before the final draft is printed and bound. Also as I mentioned above my placement supervisor (Steve Mersereau) is also proof reading the second draft at present. However he has yet to complete the entire dissertation and I am eagerly awaiting his feedback. Can’t wait to have this pressure off my shoulders and begin fully concentrating upon my Major, which is also coming along albeit very slowly.I have the viral aspect of the game working, whereby the users are able to type in thier own email addresses as well their friends inviting them to interact with the game.Currently I am tinkering with the stopwatch facility including in the game. The time can now be sent to a database but I am having numerous problems extracting the data from the database. But trial and error usual solves this, if not im sure someone on the course will lend a helping hand. Fingers Crossed.
<object width=”425″ height=”355″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rSG0aklLy0Y&rel=1&border=0″></param><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rSG0aklLy0Y&rel=1&border=0″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=”transparent”width=”425″ height=”355″></embed></object>< br> Im impressed, but want to see the source code…
http://www.daredigital.com/extranet/lynx/blow/ This example of user interaction was highlighted on Mondays lecture, of obviously for ‘research’ purposes i had to check it out….
not that hard, but thinking nevertheless.Joe’s lecture today on coding practices made me realise that I will make mistakes and errors with the architecture of my major production. However upon completion the he states you must ask yourself, “How would I change my approach in hindsight?”. This is very reassuring for me, as at present I still do not know exactly how the game itself will work and function, but it always gets done, right?When all is said and done, if you are able to understand the ins and outs of the game effectively you will defiantly know the desired route to take for the production. Additionally understanding that the data and the logic behind the website/game itself ensure that the most economical and least time consuming methods are adopted. Or this is how i decoded his lecture!!! As if you can understand what data will be present in the data, you can have a better understanding as to the interface. I feel that i am very much design lead thinking interface, logic, data.Whereas Joe tends to work in a more logic and ethical manner, the compete reverse. Data, logic and finally interface.Understanding this concept i feel will make me work more efficiently, well thats the plan. If not i can always write about this in my production analysis, highlighting the benefit of hindsight, and emphasize how i would do certain things differently.Anyway i think im chatting shit, But i have just bought another book. Here comes everybody by someone or other, upon Joe’s word, apparently it will help me to improve my structure for my dissertation, I hope so. 
Shit its March.Dissertation: Last Monday the 26th February i handed in my first draft of my dissertation to my Tutor (Joe). I am fairly pleased with the current situation with my dissertation, as I am meeting Joe tomorrow to receive feedback about the initial draft. This is hopefully highlight the areas that i need to improve in order to attain a higher grade, preferably at least a 2:1. I felt that the dissertation was lacking an interview and in particular a viewpoint from the industry, therefore i set about changing this. I have tried to contact various with limited success, however Gavin Lucas author of Guerrilla Advertising: Unconventional Brand Communication replied to my emails and phone calls on Wednesday. Thursday afternoon I emailed him a number of questions (10) that he said he would complete in due course. This is very good news as it will add a different element to my argument and also pad out my appendix, and in turn make it look better.Major: With the deadline looming (only 10 weeks away) i decided that obtaining my own hosting was essential as not only will it give me my own space to work, but is also good practice for future websites. My hosting is with streamline.net and so far so good, they have replied very quickly to queries and i have not encountered any problems (as of yet). I am currently making a prototype of my game, without attaching a webcam, so the prototype should function much like the completed game but without the added interactions. I have managed to get a stopwatch working effectively and also managed to get an uploader working in flash. This will be an excellent feature as it will allow the users to upload a photo to the leader-board if they wish. I have also managed connect databases to my website, so at present flash talks to dreamweaver which connects to my MySQL database that comes back to Dreamweaver then back into flash. This is the basic principle of the game, however the workshop on XML on Wednesday may allow me to integrate this into my project. The domain name i have also purchased is www.line-king.co.uk take a look if you get a chance.
Here’s the situation at present. Dissertation i have written 5411 words to be precise and I’ve just started to introduce the idea of guerrilla advertising. I feel that my diss is steadily improving however I feel with the additional input from the book I am reading at present, it will improve further. Today i received ”The system of object” by Jean Baudrillard through the post, and i have begun reading it. I having immediately skipped to the relevant section of the book, as to save time and effort. The book itself is very complex and understanding Baudrillard’s main concept will take some time. But this is an intricate element to my dissertation that requires extra time. I have managed to obtain a number of quotes from the advertising section that I will be able to weave into my essay. I am however still waiting for Guerrilla advertising which has been delayed due to the supplier running out of stock. At present I am not sure which section to dedicate the majority of my time to. My Major work which is due in roughly 3 months or my dissertation which is over half way complete that is in on the 26th March. I am finding it difficult to manage my time and delegate tasks. Hopefully this will become easier when the deadlines loom even closer. At present I am planning on working solidly on my diss tomorrow and then refocusing upon my major after Wednesdays workshop. However i seem to be pushing this start day back as i really dont know where to start with the technical aspects of my webcam game. I feel that i need to nail down the technicalities before i can begin the front end aspects of production. The most difficult element to the technical side will be recognising the wand, so this will be my primary focus. It is a very daunting task as i have never encountered most of the coding that will be needed, by i have joined a number of forums posting my problems and i am awaiting responses. My optimistic seems to change every day. Yesterday i was extremely confident of completion, as i wrote a great deal on my diss and completed a lot of reading. But today i have been the total opposite, actually at this point i cant even see myself making the game. I have a vision of the completed game in my head, but very little understanding of the process i need to undertake in order to produce it. As much as it pains me to say it, i dont think football will be a good idea for the coming months as is takes up valuable time, that could be used for major production research and actual production. Tomorrow i will probably feel totally different, i shouldn’t have stayed up and watched the superbowl, maybe im just cranky, yeah thats what it is, its all in hand really.hahaha
http://www.o2blueroom.co.uk/Rugby/NeverSurrender/StareOut/ 
From the UK, an original advergame to celebrate O2 as sponsor of the England’s rugby team at the upcoming World Cup. It’s called Stare Out, and you play it with your webcam. It’s a challenge against three tough England’s players, the first who blinks, lose.Adverlab has also the explanation of how the game works (technically): “We capture the output of the webcam using BitmapData, using the current and previous frames of data we apply a Difference filter to the two images and then we analyse, pixel by pixel, what has changed.“ This game combines both my major and my dissertation, perfect!
Human beings become “human joysticks†in the latest MSNBC.com invention to entertain spectators waiting for a movie to begin. Adage today has an article on what is called “crowd gaming†and looks like a group Wii experience. Motion sensors throughout the theater track the audience’s collective movement and use them as human joysticks to play an arcade game on the wide screen.Crowd gaming could be an interesting (but expensive) new option to refresh advertising in movie theatres, but personally I would appreciate it (maybe) only as a one-shot experience. Also, it could fit only a certain kind of movies, blockbusters such as Spiderman or the Fantastic 4. I can’t imagine playing such a game before watching for example, The Lives of Others… In the end, kudos to MSNBC for creating a PR story (yes, I’m also writing about it) but I definitely hope “crowd gaming” in theatres becomes a trend! The idea is part of the MSNBC.com “A Fuller Spectrum of Newsâ€, and presents also an advergame Newsbreaker, which is an updated version of the sticky arcade Arkanoid.
Filed under: Minor/Major Production
Gates logs out, predicting new digital era
· Microsoft’s retiring boss announces futuristic deals
· Voice-activated cars and clever tables on the way
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- The Guardian,
- Tuesday January 8 2008
He may be preparing to relinquish his role as virtual ruler of the hi-tech world, but Bill Gates’s vision on the future of the industry still carries weight. So when the soon-to-be-former chairman of Microsoft predicted voice-activated (Microsoft) programs in cars, smart phones that buy your movie tickets, and computerised furniture as he opened the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Sunday night it was worth taking notes.
Delivering the keynote address for the technology world’s top trade show for the 11th and final time, Gates said the “first digital decade”, centred on the keyboard and the mouse, was over.
“The second digital decade will be more focused on connecting people,” he said, predicting it would also feature progress in training machines to react as people do, with “natural user interfaces” responsive to speech and touch.
To demonstrate, he once again showed Surface, a touchscreen coffee table that can interact with devices placed on it – including mobile phones and even household objects. He also described a smart phone which could be asked about a film, then find the closest showing and book you tickets. He said that such technologies could become ubiquitous within a few years.
Maybe Bill Gates will one day play my webcam game…..
