Blog and Burps

Taking realism to the next level – Facial realism that is

Merry — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 04:01:49 +0000

Imagine that the answer or a clue that would enable you to proceed into certain stages of a game lies on the character’s facial expression.

Watch the video below.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Understanding recent flood in Bangkok – 2011

Merry — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:27:35 +0000

A clear and easy to follow video of simple animation with nice illustration to explain the cause of recent Bangkok flood. It’s in Thai but it has English subtitles :) Watch the video below.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Selective Attention and User Experience – Something that we should know

Merry — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:51:00 +0000

UX Magazine published an article called Selective Attention and User Experience by Andrew Turrell, just yesterday. Well If you’re in an industry that strive for better User Experience whether it be your work or product, you would have already known about most if not all of the things that are mentioned in the article.

Have no idea what it’s all about? Well then you might want to read the article.

Hm, this reminds me of a slightly more in-depth knowledge and researches that were shared by Human Factors International when I went for their 3-day courses (held at Holiday Inn, Sommerset) last year.

Actually I was quite disappointed with the researches that they showed us as they were conducted from many years ago of what it seemed to be sometime around 90′s. I am sure that even though some of the underlying theories, practices and discoveries may still be the same, if they’re to conduct say even the same kind of research in the present, today, the result could be quite different as the rate of which technologies have “invaded” us for the past few years are affecting how we perceive things and changed our daily live to a certain extend.

We all need that sleep. Number of hour is subjective. Don’t deny them.

Merry — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 03:53:17 +0000

A lot of people would easily sacrifice their sleeping hours for something else. If it’s really worth it, I suppose why not? Then again most people think that by staying up late to continue working is worth it; in order to keep their job. Well then I suppose for those people who REALLY don’t need that 7 to 8 hours of sleep might give them more time to produce more work.

In my case however, I need as much sleep as I can get cause otherwise, I just won’t function. I’ll be much less productive the next day cause I’d feel sluggish. A day often not enough for me to recuperate unless I really get a quality sleep. So how much sleep do I need? From what I notice, it would be around 8 to 10 hours. 10 hours is really is the max cause otherwise, it’s just gonna give me the same kind of lack of sleep effects. Being deprived is no good and the same for being excessive.

In one of my previous jobs, I “had” to stay late for most nights and I felt really terrible. It just didn’t work for me and definitely not for the company too. I thought to myself, how would I be able to keep my job when I can’t give my best during the day after staying up late the night(s) before? Those late nights didn’t just affect my working life but it also affected my personal life. I felt that my health was slowly deteriorating and I did lose a few kilos within one and a half month.

This is not to say that I refuse to work late when needed. I understand that there will be times when I’d need to stay late to rush on a project. However, if it’s already part of the company’s culture that people always stay late for most of the days during the week then it would be much of a pity, at least to me.

So I decided to write a bit of this here cause I’ve just read an article of this topic which is called Sleep is More Important than Food by Tony Schwartz. I’m just glad that he wrote it and further more, he mentioned something that I’d usually tell other people if we’re on this topic:

“I’d rather work at 100 percent for 5 or 6 hours, than at 60 percent for 8 or 9 hours.”

Well for my case, it would be:

“I’d rather work at 100 percent for 6 to 7 hours, than at 60 percent for 9 hours and more.”

Upular to listen to on this rainy day

Merry — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 03:45:57 +0000

It’s been a while since I last browsed YouTube and looking through my Fave list I found this remix by Pogo which was created from the UP animation by Pixar. I’ve never really interested in Remix songs and only a few would go into my list and Upular by Pogo is one of the few exceptions. They’ve also done remixes from other animations but so far, Upular is the one on top, on my list.

Having that said, I did watch the Disney remixes. Made me want to call up my mom to ask if she still keep the old video cassette tape of my fave Donald Duck cartoon; and the player too of course! XD.

Anyhoo, right now Upular is the kind of music I’d listen to on this lovely rainy day.

Watch the video below or you can watch it on YouTube at:
http://youtu.be/JVxe5NIABsI

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

On my Safari’s homepage today …

Merry — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:43:55 +0000

I learned that Steve Jobs had passed away. I opened my Safari browser this morning which was set to apple.com as the homepage and to my surprise, I saw Steve Job’s photo featured as a tribute to him.

Honestly speaking, I had never really taken a much interest in him although without a doubt I do find that he’s a great guy like most people would agree. He’s just that smart and brilliant to have gotten what he had achieved.

Rest In Peace Steve Jobs. My condolences to Steve Jobs’ family as well as to the fans around the world.

Why Google has oodles of doodles

Merry — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:04:21 +0000

by John Lloyd.

From clever to cute, Google’s doodles are more than just a gimmick, they reflect the company’s ability to be both a global and local brand…

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/current-issue/crit-why-google-has-oodles-of-doodles

Ants digging the Apple – Lion’s eating the candies

Merry — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 06:06:48 +0000

So I’m using a new MacBook Pro which I bought a few weeks back and the ants have been migrating their colony inside my dear MBP since day 3! I have never once spilled anything on the MBP. Regardless, I took the time to clean it up and that’s when I realised that I had left a giant lollypop on the table >.<

I’ve moved the lolly away since then but I still see a few ants going in and out of the MBP’s keyboard.

So that’s the ants issue. I have another one and it’s the Lion issue. It’s such a RAM addict that I feel like I’m using an old computer. Even my 4 year old PC is faster than this MBP = /

Taken from Apple’s website:

General requirements

Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor
2GB of memory
OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
7GB of available space
Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.

Well, mine is ~~2GB~~ 4 GB of RAM. Perhaps Lion isn’t all that greedy cause I’m also using Core i7.

PS: OMG, I totally forgot that my MBP has 4GB of RAM. So 4Gig still isn’t enough … sheesh …

Pink Ponies = Brilliant!

Merry — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 04:34:33 +0000

Greatest Case Study by Toronto based agency, John St.

I reckon it’s just brilliant! Watch this video below :)

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Interface that you can eat!

Merry — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 03:17:30 +0000

Steps to make an interface that makes you want to take a take a bite(or more) out of:

Brainstorm ideas.
Organise the content.
Draw out the interface.
Bring the interface design into the kitchen and bake it.
Take the pieces out of the kitchen and start taking photos.
Assemble them on flash.

This is what you might get: http://www.sagres.pt/sagrespretachocolate/#/baking-of

The website interface is made of chocolate to promote a chocolate-flavoured stout by Sagres, a Portuguese brewery.

Would be wonderful if I get to be involved in such fun and creative project.