This has been a busy and interesting year. I am always looking forward to new challenges and this year really had some nice puzzles to solve ;)
2023 has brought us „AI“ in all its glory, for content creation and in many development areas. There is no way around it and no way to stop the current revolution. Either we adapt or parish as a developer or content creator.
I have never been a bloom and doom person. If I was, I would no longer be working as a fullstack developer.
LM Studio, ComfyUI and invokeAI, are only a part of the local tools I have been experimenting with. I have always set a side a day during my week to play with new tools or expand my knowledge.
New clients, new connections, old friends and thrilling puzzles :)
Its always difficult to find time to work on my own tools, website and experiments. I really hope that I can set aside a bit more for this 2024.
I wish you all Happy Holidays and a joyful transition into 2024.
Keep on coding!
Alex
Moin! Im Juni hatte ich den Umbau von portalZINE TV angekündigt und kündige jetzt den Umzug des Podcasts – 5 auf einen Streich – an.
5 auf einen Streich findet man jetzt hier.
Durch die Themen werde ich weiterhin rotieren, aber den Fokus stärker auf Entwicklung & Design setzen.
Mal sehen, wie sich das so entwickelt :) Die erste Folge für 2021 folgt bald …
Damit ist portalZINE TV jetzt ein reines Archiv.
Gruß
Alex
portalZINE TV was my / our youtube review channel till 2014 ( purely in German). We also shared our magazine via a live satellite broadcast every month. I continued doing a short podcast series (5 auf einen Streich) until 2019 and it has been waiting for something new since then.
I kept it in a waiting position, not really knowing what to do next. A complete revival is out of the question and not really enough fun to make it happen.
What I need is a fresh start with a mix of editorials, reviews, audio (possible restart of the podcast ) and maybe some video down the road.
While doing a complete cleanup of my attic, I really reignited some retro passion.
My old 5.1 hifi setup is back up, with a record and cassette player attached. Also dug up an old Sony Walkman, which I fixed and will be doing some more work on.
So the new setup of topics, will be centering around those things and things I have talked about on portalZINE TV in the past. I have no clear roadmap ahead, I just know that I am not ready yet to let portalZINE TV die ;)
The first step will be a complete cleanup and fresh design concept. After that, I will deal with my first editorial and see what else I need.
Time to roll up those sleeves and make some magic happen ;) But no pressure, this is a pure passion project. Free time is a rare commodity these days, so this needs to be fun all the way :)
Oh and the new setup will most likely be purely English, at least for the written content!
Frohe Ostern aus dem Norden. Da an Urlaub dieses Jahr nicht wirklich zu denken ist, ist Kreatives gefragt!
Wie wäre es mit dem Eiertrullern (geht auch im Garten oder in der Sandkiste )
Auf den Ostfriesischen Inseln – speziell auf Norderney – spielen Einheimische und Touristen das Eiertrullern traditionell in den Dünen. Die Mitwirkenden stellen sich dabei auf die Sandseite und lassen die Eier auf planierten Rampen, einer „Lünskebahn“, hinunterkullern, ohne sie dabei zu werfen.
Sieger ist derjenige, dessen Ei am weitesten kommt und dabei unbeschädigt bleibt. Als Gewinn erhält er das Ei des Gegners. Aus Naturschutzgründen findet das Eiertrullern heutzutage nur noch auf künstlich aufgeschütteten Sanddünen am Strand statt.
English – „Happy Easter from the north. Since vacation this year is not really an option, some creativity is required!
How about the –Eiertrullern– (also works in the garden or in the sandpit)
On the East Frisian Islands – especially on Norderney – locals and tourists traditionally play the –Eiertrullern– in the dunes. The participants stand on the sand side and let the eggs roll down on leveled ramps, a „Lünskebahn“, without throwing them.
The winner is the one whose egg gets the furthest and remains undamaged. As a win he receives the opponent’s egg. For nature conservation reasons, egg trolling now only takes place on artificially raised sand dunes on the beach.“
Ein paar schöne erholsame Tage im Kreis der Familie.
Moin aus Löningen
Alex
VR is a new passion of mine, that I play with in my freetime, but also explore as a developer and tech enthusiast.
As video quality has evolved a lot in the past 2 years, the big topic now is full body immersion.
The following things are becoming more important:
I will use this article to collect things that are already available, diy projects, experiments and things that are in their early stages.
Hand & finger tracking is already making its way into consumer products. It is still not widely integrated, but has made big jumps the past year.
Eye tracking is not only important to make avatars more life-like, but also to track your eye focus and help to reduce processor load.
Lip tracking has made a big jump, with the new Vive Lip tracker and is important for social interactions.
Body tracking is one of the areas, that has so many projects attached to it. There are so many neat solutions out there, that almost anyone can use it by now.
Free locomotion is one of the biggest challenges in VR right now. You can increase your playarea, but that is still limiting and requires space. Their are VR treadmills, but none of them really reproduces life-like natural movement yet. And those solutions that come close, are still out of your reach. Most of the tracking above is somehow covered and will be available soon, while real locomotion is really the hardest to solve of them all.
Always crucial to have the right look for yourself in VR :)
Time to slow down and enjoy some time with family & friends.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
“Christmas Bells” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
All the best wishes.
„After Meltdown, Spectre, and Foreshadow, we discovered more critical vulnerabilities in modern processors. The ZombieLoad attack allows stealing sensitive data and keys while the computer accesses them. While programs normally only see their own data, a malicious program can exploit the fill buffers to get hold of secrets currently processed by other running programs. These secrets can be user-level secrets, such as browser history, website content, user keys, and passwords, or system-level secrets, such as disk encryption keys.“ – zombieloadattack.com
There seems to be a new security related story every day. Read about the latest CPU related issues at CPU.fail.
I am taking a small easter break to join up with family and friends. We will have perfect weather up here in the north for the coming days.
I wish you all Happy Easter and many lovely days away from routine business life.
Enjoy
Alex
With Chrome 56, web apps can now communicate with nearby Bluetooth Low Energy devices using the Web Bluetooth API, position sticky is back – making it easy to create elements that scroll normally until sticking to the top of the viewport. And HTML5 by Default is enabled for all users.
Chrome 56 on iOS also adds the ability to scan QR codes directly within Chrome. So many thought QR-Codes were dead, well not so much !