Ten To Nine

When we first moved up here I noticed a peculiar pattern...it seemed like every night the fire horn would go off. After a few days I thought I was having some pretty serious deja vu when i'd hear the horn again, at what felt like the exact same time. 

Turns out that sometime way back in the dark yonder years of Rutland's past there was a strict curfew from 9pm-9am, and Big Brother would sound the fire horn at ten to nine in the evenings, and mornings, every day. In more recent history the horn fell into disrepair and a previous mayor eventually decided to lay the tradition to rest. Wouldn't you know that the citizens of Rutland so strongly disagreed with such a crazy idea that they fought to have the horn repaired and reinstated. So now every night, 365 days a year, everyone in Rutland knows exactly when 8:50 rolls around. 

Ten To Nine horn:

JS1K 3-D Rose

JSK1K is an annual contest where people can submit all kinds of stuff using just 1k or less of script. There are also some competitions in between. I always have fun browsing the demos and skimming the source because the entries are a good way to see just how clean the pros can do it. Occasionally some one will go so far outside the box to accomplish their idea that you gain an entirely new perspective of what can be done with so little.

It's mind boggling some times. It's not really about the product-anyone can push this stuff out nowadays-what's so impressive is how tiny and clean the scripts are that they render this stuff with. It's the difference between sloshing through a rock garden on a $6k fully suspended rig, or cleaning the same line just as quickly on a cross rig. Sometimes a little elegance goes a long way. 

This year a guy named Román Cortés' rendering of a procedurally generated 3-D rose for the love themed contest caught my eye. He provides a good step by step analysis of exactly how he was able to do it here. To see the actual rose click here. Compared to the other demos I think it's in a league of it's own. The same guy did this Christmas Tree too. Cool stuff. 

Some sweet looking trails

Thought this video was exceptionally scenic. What a breathtaking place to shred.


Into The Trees from Sam Needham on Vimeo.

Punxsutawney Phil Sees Six More Weeks Of Winter

I wonder what else he told these guys?