I saw a talk by Paul Torrens back in December, entitled ‘Geosimulation’.
Simulating Urban Sprawl
A brief explanation of his research, in his words, is ‘GIS + time’. The idea is that a simulation is run, based on a known geographical model, where a mathematical model is developed of human behaviour, by modelling human interactions and their results on an individual level.
This is very similar to techniques discussed in Critical Mass by Philip Ball, however the results of these computer animations speak for themselves- a fact that is testified by his consultancy work for
Autodesk.
Paul’s visualisations model diverse topics of human bevaviour at small and large scale, including urban sprawl, urban gentrification, crowd behaviour, children at play, and even rioting.
Which raises the question, who stands to gain by modelling rioting? Is a computer simulation of a riot beneficial to the human race? John Buckley asked the question, who is funding this research? The answer was, Arizona state police.
I don’t subscribe necessarily to the knee-jerk reaction, that the use of computer models by the police, to gain insights into rioting, is necessarily an evil. I can imagin a situation where better management of resources based on greater understanding, would lead to less casualties or collateral damage in a riot. However there was definately something creepy and offsetting in descriptions of the modelling of dissatisfaction and fear in a crowd, and seeing how reducing the number of police agents in a crowd would lead spontaneously to a riot spreading.
If like Me, you’ve ever tried connecting a second monitor to your computer running ubuntu (7.10), and if (like Me) you’ve found yourself tearing your hair out in frustration, look here! I finally got it working.
To describe my problem more succinctly:
My laptop has a Quadro nvs 110 chip (’nvidia’, restricted driver)
When I try and connect an external monitor, it is detected, but the modes on the external monitor seem to affect the built in screen, I always seemed to end up with the pixels stretched and low res (i.e. displaying at 800×600, stretched to widescreen).
THE SOLUTION:
When choosing the type of monitor for the built in display (i.e. LCD Panel 1440×900) in preferences/ screen and graphics, check the ‘widescreen’ box. (I would have thought 1440×900 was always widescreen, but it won’t select anything higher than 1024×768 without it).
Now (after logging out & in) I end up with the built in screen displaying a lower res, and scrolling at the edges- ie.. the desktop is 1440×900 but the display is 1024×600.
To fix this behaviour, you have to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Find the section relating to the builtin panel, and remove all of the modes you don’t want it to display.. (i..e all except the highest one).
And log back out & in! Hey presto, two perfectly configured screens.
Hope this helps.
I was in Berlin at the weekend hanging out with Julian Gough and spotted this gimmicky product in a shop:
Jelly Lenses are minature self adhesive special effects filters that attach to your camera phone (or to a digital camera, as long as the lense is less than about 10mm across).
The lenses have a range of effects- ’star cut’ and multi filters, coloured gradations and vignettes- but my favourite is the closeup lense, allowing your camera phone to ‘macro’ focus on small objects ~20-30mm away.
Of course the depth of field is shallow and the chromatic abberation (rainbow fringing) is intense but I still think this is a good product, well worth the price at €1.95!
See the photos on flickr and judge for yourself.
