Archive for 2011

A Ray Tracer - Part 2

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Wed, 12/28/2011 - 01:17

Tags: C, Graphics, Mathematics, Programming, Ray Tracing

Last time we build up the basics of the raytracer: some essential math and the corresponding function implementations and structures in the C programming language. We will expand the ray tracer this time to generate actual graphics and to generate these images with multiple spheres, light sources, and reflections.

Painter

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A Ray Tracer - Part 1

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Sun, 11/13/2011 - 15:28

Tags: C, Graphics, Mathematics, Programming, Ray Tracing

I've always been fascinated with computer graphics. One of the first things I learned to code when I was a kid was a ray tracer. It was a simple and straight-forward assembly implementation on an early home computer, but it taught me a lot about how computers deal with graphics and just programming in general and its connection to mathematics.

Raytrace Scene

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Sabayon Linux and an HP Laptop

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Sat, 11/05/2011 - 07:24

Tags: Computer, Linux

As a long time Linux user, and Gentoo in particular, I wanted to try a Gentoo derivative called Sabayon on my new used HP 6730b.

Tux Gentoo

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MIPS 101

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Fri, 10/28/2011 - 05:19

Tags: Computer Architecture, MIPS, Programming

To truly understand how a computer (or rather, the processor) does what it does, I highly recommend trying out an assembly language. You might never need it in your professional life (unless you're an embedded coder, or when you're working with portable devices and need to use ARM NEON for example), but understanding assembly can give you more insight into the inner workings of a computer system and help you design better code in other programming languages.

SPIM screenshot

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RoboCup

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Mon, 10/24/2011 - 08:10

Tags: Botnia, RoboCup, Robots

A couple of days ago I started to clean up my laptop and found a whole folder full of software I wrote for the Botnia RoboCup Small Size Leage team (http://robotics.puv.fi). While most of the stuff is not very useful outside the team, I did find a simulator which was used principally to test the RRT algorithm for path planning, but also to test some basic strategies and as a teaching aid in a course on Object Oriented Programming.

RoboCup Logo

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Clickatell with Qt

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Mon, 09/05/2011 - 00:28

Tags: Programming, Qt, SMS

Over the past couple of weeks I've been working extensively on the Linux kernel, specifically working on drivers and board support for the the new Genesi hardware based on the Freescale i.mx53 ARM SOC. I needed a little 15 minute break from the Linux code and decided to play with Qt again. Specifically, I wanted to send SMS messages from a Qt application, just for fun.

Qt Logo

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FTF 2011

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Tue, 06/21/2011 - 21:29

Tags: ARM, FTF, Genesi, Neon

The Freescale Technology Forum is well underway here in San Antonio. We have a booth where Genesi are showing our latest developments and systems. I'll post some pictures later, but for now here is an interview with Konstantinos explaining some of the work we're doing on ArmHF.

FTF 2011

 

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Last Class

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Sat, 05/28/2011 - 15:03

Tags: School

These guys below are right now third year students in the Technology and Communication department at VAMK. They are also my last group of students (at least, for the time being).

Last Class

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Just Married

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Thu, 05/05/2011 - 13:56

Just Married

Retro Gaming

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Fri, 03/18/2011 - 19:29

Tags: Gaming, Retro

Remember those computer systems and accompanying games from the 80's? Playing International Karate and other such great games on the Commodore 64, but also trying to write (with various degrees of success) own games is what got me into engineering and computer science in the first place. 

For the younger generation, this might not be familiar at all. Luckily there are user groups all over the world keeping these old machines going and providing others with a chance to see and play those games.

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