As an aside, Sherlock Holmes: The Riddle of Crown Jewels is my favorite text adventure game. The humor there is fantastic. Try getting it and shooting Holmes when you get the pistol.

Having flown one of these machines this year, I think these machines give you the best powered flying experience ever. Thank you, Ken Wallis, for contributing to the development of the awsome technology that combines the best of the airplane and the helicopter in one amazing machine.

I have used Snapily3d services as of this year - so they are active at least - and was happy with their service. Didn't know about HumanEyes until today, though.

Thank you for the link! It's old news for you, but some of us are not so up to date.

It seems like some of this research might have been implemented in this commercial product. I wonder if it is so.

Yes, it will be, but there is a serious lack of 3D stereo equipment on the market today. Affordable stereo cameras are not of high quality, and I have yet to see one with adjustable lens separation. Two camera solutions come at twice the cost, size, weight and battery worries.

Also, if I can't afford one D3x, I surely can't afford two of those plus a sync kit and a tripod, nor would I want to carry such a setup with me on a hike. There are plenty situations when all you have is one camera, and you want to make the most with what you have.

Additionally, there's plenty of panoramic data out there shot without a panoramic tripod that can be fed straight into their algorithm. I know I have plenty, since I've shot many panoramas, but never had a pano head (and many of those were shot hand-held).

Therefore, while this may not be the best solution to shoot a 3D panorama, it still has plenty of applications in processing existing data or dealing with situations where specialized equipment is not available.

Google StreetView already has a 3D mode, though, although its output is not that controllable (probably because it has been preprocessed into anaglyph - a pity for those with 3D monitors). The ability to adjust separtion/convergence would be a simple add-on, though. Also, Disney's panoramas are closer to real 3D than just a stereo-pair based imagery; there is one degree of freedom in viewing positions - and that's all you really need for most applications.

I've been a long-time panoramic and 3D photography enthusiast, and have gigabytes of data that could be fed straight into this software.

Shooting a 3D photograph is easy (just take two frames, correct issues in software later); shooting panoramas is easy (let the stitchers do their job); shooting a 3D panorama has always been too much work for me.

It's a pity I can't get my hands on any working code yet, and any commercial product is probably way off in the future.

Also, here's a link to their paper[PDF] for those interested. It's quite readable.

Indeed, that would be awesome. There is a place for voice acting, but most of the lines in adventure/RPG games could be left to machines. One of the reasons re-making Larry is taking $500K on Kickstarter is that they have to record thousands of lines of speech, most of which probably wouldn't even be heard by the majority of players on the first play-through.

Because of expenses like that, I sometimes wish the dialogues were un-voiced (as in Fallout 1/2); however, a TTS engine would be a good alternative to that.

It's clear you know nothing about music making.

Developing virtual instruments brings down the cost of music production, but controlling, say, a virtual violin to get the same kind of articulation as an actual violinist would, in real time, requires - essentially - a violin as a controller, with all the skills necessary to play it.

We already have sample libraries that fit the bill to make demos and a wide variety of music. We have hybrid synths/samplers. Doing it on the GPU won't revolutionize music.

What if can revolutionize is sound generation in virtual environments - e.g. the sound a collapsing building would make in a shooting game. However, it still requires more processing power than even the GPU can handle.

You must be one of those guys who complains about ATM machines, PIN numbers, PC computers, and such. I guess the people working for the IRS service are just not like that.

The twist is that Washington Post is actually owned by the buffet you're going to.

Well, turning yourself in is admitting guilt and is psychologically hard. This way, he is not directly admitting guilt (he does the same thing 90% of people in the neighborhood are doing), and there's a chance they won't get him, so it probably is much easier to (effectively) turn oneself in this this way.

What should they be worried about? A crazy hobbyist running around with a dangerous laser in his garage? A chainsaw is more dangerous in terms of power, speed and portability, and good old gasoline canister is a greater fire hazard.

I thought lasers stopped being scary after everyone played with a laser pointer. Or a CD/DVD drive. Or a laser mouse. Or a laser barcode scanner in a store. Or after the Star Wars style laser weapons didn't exactly materialize after all the years of research and investment. As for CNC machines, waterjet systems are more powerful (try cutting stone with a laser), and turret/punch systems are, IMO, more dangerous (things are actually slamming around). I always thought that you'd use laser when you need the extra precision that laser CNC gives you, not the "dangerous" power. As for the fire hazard - try setting a block of wood on fire with a magnifying glass. In general, you would use a laser CNC to cut wood, not to set it on fire (and it cuts nicely indeed). It seems like all the issues the summary talks about are not the real reason why DIY laser cutters aren't abundant. The real reason - talked about in the article - is that commercial cutters are already available for less money than even this kickstarter is asking for (you get a smaller, but metal-framed and fully assembled device).

First of all, you don't need to install the PC suite. You can download your maps on the phone, and I have downloaded mine on my computer directly (the list of direct download links available here).

From my experience, their PC suite was stable, I never had any problems. I just never have to use it for anything. And I don't know what the hell you are talking about when you speak of automatic deinstallation.

I should also note that, at least on my Nokia 5230, Nokia suite is not required for file transfer or tethering. It simply installs itself as a USB modem (or flash drive) if you connect via USB, or detects as a Bluetooth modem (same speed, but eats up battery faster).