ESA recently released the results of the 2 year long mission by GOCE satellite to map the earth's gravitational field in more detail. The more detailed geoid unvieled by GOCE provided researches around the world with better information on which to base weather, ocean and geological studies.

As Human beings gather more information like this, we are able to better understand the environment around us and how various factors impact on it.

Hackerspace-Adelaide & the Format Festival

As part of the Format Festival, Hackerspace-Adelaide had a chance to showcase the type of work it does. This year Hackerspace-Adelaide showcased the SpokePOV kits from the RI-Aus Science Outside the Square event which Hackerspace participated with; the Force-Petal-Mind-Game which was build with the assistance and guidance of Dr. Zoz for the RI-Aus quiz night.

Also on display were the two centerpieces of the day, the Peel St Lantern, a group project being constructed with the help of most Hackerspace-Adelaide members, and Tekken Torture, made by Ryan and Pix.
Unfortunately Hackerspace-Adelaide was unable to get the Lantern running before the day, but Tekken Torture was a success with most people through, having a go on it.

The final couple of things on display were the Xbox Kinect Virtual Piano and a knitted computer. Towards the end of the day/evening some of the guys had fun rolling a tire along the virtual piano for fun. Overall the day was a big success, with everyone who came through expressing a real enthusiasm for what Hackerspace-Adelaide has been up to.

Kinect Keyboard-Anywhere

Getting the Xbox Kinect working as a giant piano for the Hackerspace-Adelaide demonstration day for the Format Festival. The keyboard-anywhere was written in Python by petermoz, and was released after much public interest. Using a QGLViewer and Fluidsynth to display the Kinect point could and synthesis keyboard notes.

Petermoz provides a ReadMe file with the project containing dependency installation instructions(see below)

== Detailed Dependencies

I got keyboard-anywhere working on a fresh Ubuntu 10.10 install with the
following steps (hopefully I didn't leave any out).

1.  apt-get install the following (this is AFAIK the minimal set):
    (to get PyQGLViewer / PyQt4 working)
    - build-essential
    - pyqt4-devtools
    - qt4-qmake
    - libqt4-dev
    - python-qt4-gl
    - python-qt4-dev
    - python-numpy
    - python-setuptools

    (to get freenect working)
    - cmake
    - libusb-1.0-0-dev
    - freeglut3-dev
    - libxmu-dev
    - libxi-dev

    (for audio output)
    - fluidsynth
    - fluid-soundfont-gm

2.  use easy_install to get cython 0.14
    - sudo easy_install cython

3.  compile libfreenect (with BUILD_PYTHON set to ON)
    (follow the instructions at https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect)

4.  download, compile and install QGLViewer and PyQGLViewer (follow instructions in the 
    INSTALL or README files)
    - https://gforge.inria.fr/frs/download.php/28138/libQGLViewer-2.3.9-py.tgz
    - https://gforge.inria.fr/frs/download.php/28139/PyQGLViewer-0.9.0.zi

The first problem encountered after following the instructions was that there did not appear to be a python wrapper for Fluidsynth. Help from shenki (a member of Hackerspace-Adelaide) directed me to  pyFluidSynth, a python wrapper for FuildSynth.
The Second problem was not having either the libfreenect/lib or pyFluidSynth path variables setup. With a little more help from shenki, and using "export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=`pwd` " from within the libfreenect/lib folder and "export PYTHONPATH=`pwd` " from within the pyFluidSynth folder.

Dissembling an HP Storage Works

I took apart the HP Storage Works box I have had sitting around for a while now not being used, to see what components could be used to other projects. The power supplies are probably the most likely component, although I am not entirely sure what to do with them. I'll take one into Hackerspace-Adelaide to give them a look at one. As it is, it was really interesting to pull apart and see how few components there are in it.

A Home Theatre PC build from spare parts

So it's 2011 and I thought it was time I did something about setting up a HTPC as an entertainment system. So gathering the necessary parts from the rather large collection of spare parts which have been stored away, along with a HTPC case on permanent loan from a friend. I have put the system together and got it working smoothly. In building the system I was looking for any easy solution. I did not want to spend lots of time trying to sort out compatibility or configuration.

A few issues encountered during the whole process were unsupported video card hardware in Element OS. Element OS is a linux operating system build specifically to run as a HTPC. It seems the major problem is the limited support for some hardware that linux has, because other than that it was easy to install and use. It installs XBMC as part of the installation so you don't need to download/install any other software.

Having tried the linux solution, I moved onto Windows 7. Like Element OS, Win 7 comes with some HTPC software as part of it. Windows Media Center is the Microsoft equivalent of XBMC, and is closed source software which means there are less customisation packages available for it.

Now that I had an Operating System which supported all the hardware, it was time to choose the HTPC software package to run. I experimented with Windows Media Center, XBMC, MediaBrowser and MediaPortal before deciding to go with MediaPortal combined with the Moving Pictures plugin and Media Scout to retrieve metadata. All the HTPC software was easy to install and use, the differences lay in the look & feel of them.

The final problem encountered after the system was setup, was an audio streaming issue. The system was setup to stream video + audio over HDMI to the tv, but when they system was stream HD video + HD audio the audio stream would break up every minute or so. The obvious problem being the drivers for the video card and the solution was to update the drivers for the ATI Radeon  HD5700 video card. Unfortunately there seems to be some conflict with the latest version of the drivers and Windows 7 because after upgrading to Catalyst 10.12 every single media application on the computer crashed when you attempt to start it(Even Windows Media Player).

As a result I was forced use google to locate the previous version as the support site for ATI Radeon video cards does not provide an easy mechanism to locate previous versions of drivers. I was able to locate Catalyst 10.11 and after installing it, the system functions perfectly.