Submission Summary: 0 pending, 26 declined, 4 accepted (30 total, 13.33% accepted)
Submission + - Doing the math on Googles WIFI snafu
LetterRip writes: According to Google they have collected 600GB of wireless data in 33 countries. Lets assume that covers most of Europe (about 800 million people), North America (about 500 million people), Australia, and some of the wealthier Asian countries — say 1.5 billion population total. We'll assume a density of 10 people per wireless access point (given that there are residential and business WAPs, I think this is a reasonable assumption). So based on these numbers 600GB/(1.5 billion people)*10 people per WAP = 4.2kB per WAP or .42 kB per person. To put this into perspective, even assuming that there is zero overhead that amounts to at most the equivalent of 15% of the google.com graphic (28.1 kB) per WAP. Since the vast majority of web traffic is images and video (especially if sampled on a per second basis), it is fairly clear that if google is being accurate in its protrayal of method and actual quantity of data — then its claims that the information was gathered inadvertently (as opposed to just the location data which was what was intended) seems to be born out by the math. Some random packets of image or video data would be of no use to them.
Submission + - Googles Summer of Code open for submissions (blendernation.com)
LetterRip writes: Hi all, it is that time of year again where students have the opportunity to get paid for contributing to their favorite open source projects. We were fortunate enough to be selected again this year, and really look forward to the GSoC applications for Blender http://www.blendernation.com/google-summer-of-code-2010/ . Of course if 3D isn't your first choice there are hundreds of other great projects at http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/program/accepted_orgs/google/gsoc2010
Submission + - Robothespian (blendernation.com)
LetterRip writes: This video shows a real robot 'robothespian' being controlled by a virtual robot within Blender in realtime.
Submission + - Durian Film Project - coding, fame, fun (blender.org)
LetterRip writes: Blender Institutes next movie project Durian. has just released their feature wishlist, those who code new features used by the project typically get a mention in the credits. Also for those who want an easier way to fame and fortune (well fame anyway) they can prepay for their Durian DVD by the end of today and will get listed in the credits of the film as a sponsor. Previous projects by the Blender Institute are the open movie Big Buck Bunny and the game Yo Frankie! .
Submission + - Google Wiki seen in the wild (google.com)
LetterRip writes: "I just did some searches and noticed three new icons appearing next to each result a 'promote' icon, a 'remove' icon, and a 'comment' icon. Promoting shifts the selected result to the top of your search for that term (unless you've already promoted another site in which case it becomes second), and increases the sites ranks for some related terms. Pressing the comment icon adds a comment below the site for search results. On first click you have to read a EULA and accept it. I'm curious what impact spammers will have. Hopefully google has a way to prevent spammers having too much of an impact."
Submission + - Big Buck Bunny Movie Officially Released (bigbuckbunny.org)
LetterRip writes: "The short animated movie 'Big Buck Bunny' by the Blender Institute, which was created using open source tools including Blender for 3D animation, rendering, compositing and video editing, and the GIMP for texturing, has been released. It has great animation and is highly entertaining. Best of all it has brought many amazing improvements to Blender, including many of the features seen in the Blender 2.46 release."
Submission + - Blender 2.46 animation suite released (digg.com)
LetterRip writes: "Blender 2.46 has been released, bursting with over a years worth of new features and developments. It now has powerful cloth simulation, updated particle system that can allow complex hair and fur to be easily sculpted, cut, and styled, a number of new tools that make Blender of the most powerful animation and rigging tools available including cutting edge tools like bone heat weighting. Also a lot of work has been put into making the Game Engine run better and faster."
Submission + - Uwe Bolls Promises to quit making films if...
LetterRip writes: "If a million people sign this petition, Uwe Boll will stop making films. It is already at 188847, so already we are nearly a fifth of the way there."
Submission + - Big Buck Bunny Trailer (Peach Open Movie) released (blender.org)
LetterRip writes: "The Trailer for the Peach Open Movie "Big Buck Bunny" has just been released, it is beautiful, can't wait for the full release."
Submission + - Obama breaks 1 million contributors (barackobama.com)
LetterRip writes: "As I write this, the counter on for Donations to the Obama campaign has just passed 999,834 but donations are pouring in fast enough that before this gets posted it will have already passed the million mark."
Submission + - Backtracking a slanderous email? (factcheck.org)
LetterRip writes: "Two recent chain emails have been circulating that slander Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama. FactCheck.org and Snopes.com have taken the time to debunk them, however I'm curious 1) who started these chain emails and 2) are they affiliated with any of the political machines. So oh mighty slashdot is this something we can discover?"
Submission + - Your ideal game creation tool?
LetterRip writes: "If you had free reign to sculpt Blender into the ideal professional game content creation tool, what sort of features would you like added and what sort of changes would you like to see be made? What features do you think need the most improvement to fit into a professional game developers work flow? The Blender Foundations game project team Apricot wants to know."
Submission + - Creating the perfect game content creation tool. (blender.org) 1
LetterRip writes: "The team from the Blender and Crystal Space Project Apricot want to know what features would help make Blender the perfect tool for your game content creation work flow. If you would like to turn Blender into your ultimate tool for either creating your original game models, or for adding models for a 'game mod' then please post your request (here or at the blender development forum. The Blender Institutes other major project the open movie Rabbits Revenge (aka Project Peach) has already resulted in some pretty amazing improvements in Blenders tools for creating beautiful fur and for animation."
Submission + - How Blender compares to the Major 3D applications
LetterRip writes: CGWorld and CGTalk recently asked whether OpenSource software set to become the dominant toolset in feature film production? Also TDT 3D did a comparison chart with the Major 3D Digital Content Creation applications such as Maya, 3DS Max, and XSI, and of course Blender in this 3D Application Comparison. Blender came out surprisingly well, although it definitely still has some weaknesses. So what do slashdotters think? Can Blender 'take over' the 3D industry or will it always be just for 'freelancers and hobbyists'?
