* Because of overwhelming interest on the Microcontroller Study Group Mailing List

Hi all,

We officially have set aside today from 6pm to 9pm as a Blender study
group. All are welcome, whether you have some blender experience or
none. We will have a projector set up to demonstrate how to use the
interface for new users. Basically, bring what you know, or questions
about what you want to know and we will try to get them answered. Or
bring an idea for a project and we can talk about how it would be done
using Blender 3D.

For those who don’t know, Blender 3D is a 3D modeling, animation,
compositing, and game creation tool (among other things). It can be
used to create still images, animations, or interactive content. It is
completely open source (free as in free beer and free speech) and
available for download at http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
. If you want to get an idea of what is possible with Blender watch
Big Buck Bunny (http://www.vimeo.com/1084537) which is an open source
movie created by the Blender Foundation. One of the great uses of
Blender is designing 3D models which can be printed out on 3D printers
such as RepRap (www.reprap.org) or MakerBot (www.makerbot.com). I am
told that there may be some MakerBots set up this Wednesday and we may
have an opportunity to print out some models.

I primarily use Blender professionally for modeling and animation,
though I have dabble in compositing, non-linear editing, physics
simulation, and the game engine. Bring a laptop and be ready to have a
great time and learn something new!

NYCResistor is located at

397 Bridge Street,
5th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201

See you there!

-Angelo Tartanian

P.S. If you want to get a head start, download and install Blender on
your favorite laptop and bring it ready to go! Blender is available
for all major operating systems. As with any graphically intensive
program Blender will run best on a computer with a fast processor, a
good video card, and as much RAM as possible. None the less, Blender
is an incredibly light program and many of its features can be run on
average hardware so don’t assume it won’t work on your computer.

Mike liked it.

Don’t know if anyone likes my reviews yet, but in light of the LCROSS, and LRO NASA projects currently orbiting our celestial ornament, I think this particular work is applicable fodder for my errant scripture. Oh and of course meeting Buzz Aldrin didn’t help any.

In 1966, Robert A. Heinlein one of the great science fiction writers of the age released a work that he hoped would eclipse all of his prior established works. Some consider this to be his literary coup de grâce. Personally, I’m not quite sure. Despite my enjoyment of the work, there is something more primal in the way he expresses social commentary in works like starship troopers that really rob this work of any real controversy. That being said, this work may yet be seen as a harbinger of real events yet to come. Though, I’ll try to spare you the spoilers.

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Buzz Aldrin visited NYC on Tuesday night. I wandered by because Buzz Aldrin is a fairly awesome guy. Buzz was part of the first manned flight to the moon. He was second to ever touch lunar soil. And he’s an all around amazing guy. In the Korean war he shot down 2 MiGs. He has a doctorate from MIT. And he’s worn a hell of a lot of hats and helmets in his life. But when it comes right down to it, he’s got a real first person memory of having walked on another celestial body. Only 12 men have ever experienced that.

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Rich Gibson is visiting New York City from his normal digs in California (he works for the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA-Ames/CMU-West). NYCR has asked him to give a public talk about the work he’s been doing on the Gigapan project (http://www.gigapan.org) — and you’re all invited!

Gigapan photographs are gigapixel panoramic images, composed of many (sometimes hundreds) of individual photos taken with an ordinary consumer camera using a robotic unit that simplifies the process of capturing the images and later stitching them together. The result is explorable panoramas of astonishing depth.

Rich will start at 7pm with a short slideshow and talk, then shift to a demonstration of the hardware and software that makes the whole thing possible. We look forward to seeing you!

This is the first of possibly many book reviews, or possibly the last of them.

MythOS is the fourth installment in the masterful Web Mage book series written by Kelly McCullough. Here at NYCR we are no strangers to this series, and anyone who has ever spent considerable time in our bathroom is well acquainted with the books. Blending ancient Greek mythology with modern technocracy has produced a profound work of literature that finds a balance in classical interpretation of drama and tragedy with the common parlance of our times. As true today as it was two millennium ago, the Greek’s hallmark style of story telling and character development has inspired Ms McCullough to craft a masterwork in the genre of science fiction. The primary character is Ravirn, or Raven. We are taken through a roller coaster love affair with Hellenic age foes, and divine heroines whose allure wafts from the pages like a fine perfume. As you are introduced to this magical world of web goblins and code spells, you find yourself gripping the pages like the last stable purchase holding you to your mundane reality and saving you from the adventure within. But you wish for nothing more than to let go.

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