Archive for June, 2008
Zap goes home – Mashed 2008

2602347960_673a22ae57.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27869619@N02/2602347960/

Just back from bbc mash 2008, wow what a 24 hours, it was a seriously geeky event, truely
more geeky than anything i’ve done in the 4 years at the beeb,

I spent the weekend at a boot camp for 700 geeks ran by the bbc backstage guys called Mash2008,
all the geeks had 24 hr’s to write something fun, there was some amazing stuff on show,

typical example one guy wrote a automated language dubbing service for any video stream,
tested on eastenders, dubbing it into german for much geeky fun,

fantastic experience,being the only Scottish beeb representative I tried to put in a good show, i think i held my own
against the other geeks in the competition, for my bbc super search project, I made a web scraper which successfully
crawled and extracted the metadata on all the 4000 or so root folders and index.shtmls on the bbc web site, created a
real-time client side search app for them and the iplayer metadata, made a tag cloud version, then put the tag cloud
into 3d, then made a end screen in 3d :)

Unfortunately during the actual presentation i only got onto the tag cloud when i ran out of time and Sylvester McCoy
(yes the ex-doctor who) dragged me off the podium with his umbrella handle…
Still great laugh good fun,

Alas here’s links and source of what was achieved, I didn’t even get a chance to thank Cris who parsed and did the proportional weighing of the tag cloud for me…

Sorry Cris, anyway here’s our 24 hour project it’s it’s full glory

My Examples and Source

not a bad bunch if i don’t say so myself, considering we only had 24 hours

BBC Screen Scraper

http://extdev.bbc.co.uk/scotland/test/bbc_super_search/screen_scraper.html

BBC Super Search

http://extdev.bbc.co.uk/scotland/test/bbc_super_search/controller_bbc_co_uk_app.html    iPlayer Super Search

http://extdev.bbc.co.uk/scotland/test/bbc_super_search/controller_iplayer_bbc_co_uk_app.html
Non-3d Tag Cloud (Takes a while to load)

http://extdev.bbc.co.uk/scotland/test/bbc_super_search/controller_tag_clouds_app.html    3d Tag Cloud (Takes a while to load, try searching ‘teenager’!)

http://extdev.bbc.co.uk/scotland/test/bbc_super_search/controller_3dtag_clouds_app.html

End Screen
http://extdev.bbc.co.uk/scotland/test/bbc_super_search/end_3d_app.html

Source

http://zapper.hodgers.com/labs/?p=73
More Photos
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=mashed08&m=text
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=mashed2008&m=text

Mash 2008 – BBC Super Search

Had an idea called bbc super search for mashed 2008 this year,

1. I made a web scraper which successfully crawled and extracted the metadata

on all the 4000 or so root folders on the bbc web site,

2. created a real-time client side search app for them

3. did another one for the iplayer metadata,

4. made a tag cloud version,

5. then put the tag cloud into 3d,

6. then made a end screen in 3d :)

Unfortunately during the actual presentation i only got onto the tag cloud when i ran out of time and Sylvester McCoy

(yes the ex-doctor who) dragged me off the podium with his umbrella handle…

Still great laugh good fun,

Alas here’s links and source of what was achieved, I didn’t even get a chance to thank Cris who parsed and did the proportional weighing of the tag cloud for me…

Sorry Cris, anyway here’s our 24 hour project it’s it’s full glory

My Examples and Source

not a bad bunch if i don’t say so myself, considering we only had 24 hours

BBC Screen Scraper

http://extdev.bbc.co.uk/scotland/test/bbc_super_search/screen_scraper.html

BBC Super Search

http://extdev.bbc.co.uk/scotland/test/bbc_super_search/controller_bbc_co_uk_app.html

iPlayer Super Search

http://extdev.bbc.co.uk/scotland/test/bbc_super_search/controller_iplayer_bbc_co_uk_app.html

Non-3d Tag Cloud (Takes a while to load)

http://extdev.bbc.co.uk/scotland/test/bbc_super_search/controller_tag_clouds_app.html

3d Tag Cloud (Takes a while to load, try searching ‘teenager’!)

http://extdev.bbc.co.uk/scotland/test/bbc_super_search/controller_3dtag_clouds_app.html

End Screen

http://extdev.bbc.co.uk/scotland/test/bbc_super_search/end_3d_app.html

Source

     bbc_super_search.zip

More Photos

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=mashed08&m=text

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=mashed2008&m=text

Zap’s 10K

Zaps Year so far by pictures

diet_is_working.jpg

Results form the glasgow 10K are in, zap did it in 56 minutes! thats a whole 4 minutes under my goal, and only 7 minutes slower than my arch rival mr crispin, whoope!

I did it without stopping and I even managed to do a wee sprint at the end, all this despite my raging hangover [  cheers vicky  :-)   ]

Name
McKALE, Anthony

Place
1935/2539 (alot of folks didn’t finish … honest)

Chip Time
0:56:22

Me and Pandora’s Star

Cover

As anyone at bbc’s big o2 night out in london would of realised, i spent most of the time reading, reading , and even at slightly inappropriate anti-social times, reading.

This wasn’t because i’ve found some conjugatious disease and am currently researching for a cure, no it’s because of Peter F. Hamilton that genuis of science fiction i discovered about 2 months ago.

I can’t recommended this author enough, his humanisticly life affirming, page turning, space opera Pandora’s Star is amazing it’s also more addictive than crack, at only £7 for hours of entertainment the book’s seriously good.

The book sends you 300 years into the future where death is beaten, the stars are only a train away, and machines can think. Humanity hasn’t wiped it’s self out, it’s doing great, everyone’s doing great, every thing is so happy and good. yes, lawyers and politician still suck, as does being poor, or living in the sticks but all in all humanity aint done too bad for it’s self.

However… those pesky terrorists are still out there ‘blowin shit up’ and some suspious stars are acting wierd what will happen next! buy the book it’s great, the best read i’ve had in years, DONT LOOK IT UP IN WIKIPEDIA it’s full of spoilers!