March 2011 Archives

I quit my PhD studies and gave up the associated scholarship at the start of September 1997. I needed to find a job fast and I wasn't sure how to go about getting one. A friend suggested some agents and I was soon interviewing at various places. The first couple of interviews went badly (including the agent sending me to one for which I was completely unqualified - at least it was short). I began to calculate how long I could cover my rent before resorting to selling stuff. Then in late October I found myself talking to Alain at the agent's offices. It was supposed to be a proper interview, but Alain's company didn't have any offices and it was more a friendly chat than the interrogations to which I was now accustomed. He offered me a 3 month contract starting a couple of weeks later. I accepted.

When news of last week's earthquake in Japan first broke, the details and images were largely provided by Japanese media sources. After a couple of days this changed - the UK media had arrived! These newsreaders added nothing to the coverage. They stood in front of devastation and read the news, as opposed to sitting in a London studio and reading the news. They are just talking heads, what difference does it make where they are physically. The same goes for reporters parachuted in to Japan (I hesitate to call them journalists considering their output so far). One reporter after being asked how hard it would be to evacuate, said he had no idea, he had only been in the country a few hours. Why did he bother? The UK media people just seem to be adding "colour" and making comments on ethnic stereotypes ("aren't the Japanese calm and stoic").

Why does this disaster migration occur? Is it delusion, that the UK-based reporters can provide a better new service if they are there? Perhaps it is self-importance, that an important story requires important newsreaders to give it weight? Alternatively: a junket; profile building; to give an air of authority; or, to provide a more interesting slant to a downbeat story? They add nothing and must subtract a great deal. I can only imagine they are in the way of the rescue effort for a start, and consuming resources (water, food, housing, power, etc) that could be more charitably utilised.

All the major news programs in the UK seem to be doing this type of reportage - Channel 4 have at least 3 unproductive reporters in Japan right now (not including their production teams). They must have racked up the frequent flyer points after arriving fresh from Libya and Egypt. Perhaps the reason the growing crisis in the Ivory Coast is being largely ignored is because the reporters can't get visas. This travel can come across as hypocritical. Jon Snow took a trip to Brazil for reports on global warming in advance of the Copenhagen climate summit (he was heading in the wrong direction for a start). While there I didn't see him do anything that couldn't have been done by a local reporter. Back in Europe the next week for the summit itself, his reports noted the increasing evidence that flying is becoming a notable cause of global warming - like sending a news crew half way around the world for no good reason!

Am I missing something? I can't believe that the audience need this travel to occur to be interested in stories of disaster or revolution. It just seems pointless and ego-boosting.

Available on iTunes and OU Podcasts

These podcasts were produced as part of The Open University course A330: Myth in the Greek and Roman Worlds. However, it just concentrates on a single example, the artifacts found at the Temple of Diana at Nemi, popular in Ancient Rome. The series is composed of 8 episodes, although only 4 of these are on the temple. The remainder are introductions or discussions on context. The 4 temple podcasts are video slideshows of photos with narration describing what is being shown. The video podcasts are all around 5 minutes long (50MB) and recorded at 640×360 resolution, or a smaller iPod optimised format. Transcripts are available in PDF format.

Very little of the original temple and sanctuary still exists at Nemi, so these podcasts look at four of the items found on the site. There is a podcast devoted to a model of a temple, about which not much is known. Perhaps it is a votive offering like the small sculpture of a women with some internal organs visible. Apparently Diana was not just the goddess of the hunt, but also had a healing aspect, especially for women. Thus when ill, Roman people may turn to Diana and leave votive offerings representing their ailment to aid their recovery. Another offering is an oil lamp decorated with what may be a proud statement of profession - a painting of a street entertainer with his monkey and cat. This is a low status profession, but gifts to the gods (and funerary monuments) were the main way the poor and slaves could celebrate their backgrounds. Hence the stern statue of his ex-owner paid for by a freed slave. The narration proposes the statue is constructed in an archaic style, the herm, so as to suggest the ex-owner as almost an ancestor to the ex-slave.

The non-temple episodes introduce the series and discuss the role of myth in the ancient world. Myth surrounded the population and provided purpose and entertainment. There is also some talk about how classical myths have continued through the ages and still influence us now. These episodes add little to historical understanding, instead justifying the course in a modern context.

The temple artifact episodes are interesting, but not vital viewing.

A previous tutorial showed how to create a simple program allowing control of a mech model using Ogre3D (the mech model was created separately in this tutorial). Now it is time to add a little more functionality to that program and create a simple shooting game. In this tutorial we will place some other objects on the screen that our mech will need to manoeuvre around. Thus some collision detection is also required. To provide some competition, a computer controlled opposing mech is added. Lastly, the mechs are given the ability to fire lasers at each other - the first to score a hit wins.

The continuation of this post is a set by step tutorial detailing my methodology.