So Wednesday this week is the day the new LHC supercollider is switched on at CERN. And apparently, worse case scenario doesn’t just include the usual suspects - like funding for the project running out - but a black hole being created and swallowing the earth.

I do love it what the media latches onto scientific events such as these, because they consistently feel duty bound to simplify things to the point where they no longer make sense. I mean - liking the supercollider to “An enormous microscope”? Right, that’s a perfect analogy, if you imagine a microscope working by smashing thing with an enormous hammer and then classifying the resulting bits by how far they flew.

Scientists conducting the experiment are essentially looking for something that hasn’t yet been observed in the Standard Model (the current accepted wisdom of particles physicists) - the Higgs Boson. So because they don’t know exactly what it will be, anything could happen, right?

I do have some sympathy for critics to this event. The Standard Model is a terrible theory - not because of it’s accuracy or predictive power (which has been very good thus far), but because of it’s seemingly lunatic-assembled rules and definitions - which sit together like some sort of ugly tangled web. If beauty is indeed truth, then we could safely assume that the theory presented in particle physics today is complete tosh, which might be why they’re having trouble finding the last few bits in experimental results…

But my sympathy quickly evaporates when you actually look at the postulated dangers from the scientists against the LHC (who are at present frantically filing lawsuits to try and delay it’s switching on). First off is the theory that micro-black holes could form and slowly eat the earth over a period of 4 years. This completely ignores the widely held belief that exactly the same kind of collisions are produced on the earth naturally, and even if micro black holes were formed, they cannot be surviving otherwise we’d already know. Second is the theory that the 120 tons of superfluid Helium II (used as coolant in the LHC’s superconducting magnets) could explode in a bosenova which would essentially be like an enormous thermonuclear detonation, but presumably with latin beats. These events are described as “inexplicable phenomenon”, which is not exactly hard evidence that one will be formed here. I mean, is there anything we know the LHC won’t do?

Sadly, i feel the media frenzy surrounding the fear of the unknown will quickly evaoprate once the damn thing actually goes online. And that’s a pity, because modern-day scientific discoveries do seem to suffer from a media blackout. For example, can you remember who won the Nobel prize for physics last year? Or in the last 10? Here’s hoping future LHC discoveries have a public interest that last a bit longer than a decaying Higgs Boson…

The latest trunk version of Away3d (currently version 2.1.7) has several new and exciting features which are to be officially released in the upcoming 2.2 version. However, being the enterprising souls that you are, i thought you may want to see some of whats on offer a little ahead of schedule!

This demo shows off a new feature to Away3d - full support for collada bones animation. A nice feature about bones is that they can control any number of meshes without incurring significant extra processing overhead. Of course, full source is available here, but make sure you have the latest trunk version of Away3d before compiling.

Those of you who were at the recent Flashforward conference many have seen me stumble through a whistlestop rundown of Away3d features at the Speaker Slam, after being denied a place to plugin my laptop. However, had I been able to do so, this demo is part of what you would have seen. At my next speaker gig at Flash on the Beach, I’ll have more opportunity to reveal the whole piece that this fits into… not wanting to give things away, but it ends up involving wiimotes. Stay tuned!

It’s been a cool Flashforward this year - my first for a while but I enjoyed the new one-track format (with short, occasionally bizarre couch-discussions between speakers), drugs advocation (thanx Robert!) and the largest conference screen i think i’ve ever seen (see above).

Too many people have asked now so i just want to clear up the following - despite setting my own hands on fire thanx to a flaming drink and a hand tremor, there is no permanent damage. But thank you all for your concern!

So many highlights… I loved Stacey Mulcahy’s unblinking breakdown of how developers see project managers, my personal favourite quote being: “Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”. Robert Hodgin did a quite incredible live performance with a cellist friend and some mindblowing accompanying visuals, Todd Rosenberg was a relief to all 30-somethings who feel like they haven’t quite ‘gotten there’ yet, Keith Peters took a misty eyed trip down memory lane - taking a well deserved swipe at Jakob Nielsen along the way (followed up by Hoss Gifford later in the conference…), and of course, Jared Ficklin’s lessons on how (and how not) to play with fire and sound were mesmerising.

My own presentation went well enough for people to turn up and ask questions. I was a little worried initially as i had trouble finding the breakout presentation room - and i figured if it was difficult for me, who else was going to be motivated enough to get there? I was quite relived when i turned up for my slot and found i wasn’t speaking to an empty room In fact, it was a pretty packed room, some of whom i hope are now Away3d converts!

Still got a lovely 10 hour flight to get through, and with no online booking available i’m sure i’ll end up sitting somewhere terrible. better get a move on…

This year’s Flashforward conference is set to be an exciting one due to the fact that it’s the first after Beau Ambur and Metaliq took over organising duties. I’m pleased to say that i will not only be attending, but presenting a session on Away3d! Flashforward is the longest running Flash conference in the world, and one of the first conferences i ever attended, so certainly holds a significance for me…

Away3d is also featuring as a Flashforward film festival finalist. If you haven’t already, i would urge you to vote for us in the People’s Choice category, which all nominees get automatically entered in. We are the only open source project nominated, so if nothing else you should do it in support of the os community and all the fantastic tools & frameworks that have helped you with projects over the years… Come on, you owe it to us!

Hope to see you there.

I finally got sick of grey the other day, and vowed to update my blog theme before it started to affect me mentally. Having an unfashionable love of fractal art, I thought this theme was perfect (if a little brooding), and quite apt given that fractals are prone to infinite characteristics. Must dig out that julia script I’ve got kicking around somewhere to indulge in a bit of fractal procrastination…

hope you like it!

The presentation notes from my recent WebDU session “The 3rd Way - Handling 3d on the Web” can be found here

You can also find a very nice synopsis of the session on Flashmagazine.com - thanx a lot Jens!

Here are a few useful links that were included in the talk in case anyone wants to take another trip along the 3d web timeline. Cheers to everyone who attended!

VRML links:

• Plugin Detector
• Interactive Robot
• Dungeon Demo
• Cybertown

Java3d links:

• Java3d webstart examples
• Java3d plugin for mac

Shockwave3d links:

• Simple Shockwave demos
• www.shockwave3d.com

Sandy 1.0 ( Flash 8 ) links:

• Kitty demo
  
• Johnnie Walker

Papervision links:

• 3d Speedpool
  
• National Geographic Globe
• Nike Suite23

Away3d links:

• Tiltviewer
• Fifa Street 3
• Evoflash ADHDTV
• Evoflash Assembly08 Intro

OpenGL ES links:

• Plugin info
• Teapot
• X3D loader

Unity3D links:

• Tropical paradise
• Shadows demo

Misc. links:

• Sandy
• Papervision3D
• Away3d
• Google Sketchup (free version)
• EvoEngine Effects / Demo library

This started out as a demo for the depth-of-field sprite object, but quickly metamorphosed into something involving blendmodes, bitmap sessions, marbles…

With the tiled atoms in the background, strictly speaking the dof shouldn’t be apparent at all, but i do suffer from tweak obsession, so probably best to leave it. I may do another demo soon to illustrate the DofSprite2D object in more detail. For now, enjoy! Although please don’t stare at the background too long - might do irreversible psychological damage. As usual, sources can be accessed using the right-click menu or from here.

Here Mike Downey presented a ton of new web possibilities using the Adobe AIR runtime - hence the keynote strapline: “The long arm of the web”. Sounds like a mix between a Tim O’Reilly soundbite and a totallitarian government mantra…

Happily the content was less opressive and more inspired than the strapline suggests! A few interesting facts about the AIR runtime were noted:

• Uses Webkit - the HTML engine that drives Safari.
• Includes a Javascript - Flash bridge for easier integration between technologies.
• Includes SQL Lite for database communication.
• Inbuilt remote application updater - allowing seamless upgrading for new releases of created apps.
• Background runtime doesn’t require GUI - allowing AIR apps to be created for background processes.

There was a selection of example AIR apps showcased:

• Acrobat.com for file sharing - a new online filesharing platform that can be downloaded as an AIR implementation.
• E-Bay widget - can monitor bidding progress on an active item, notify participants when their bid is exceeded and allow new bids to be placed.
• Finetune - A music player combining local desktop music with online music from the Finetune database
• Google Analytics - offers more visualization options, and data exports for excel spreadsheets etc.

Finally a few options were shown for the creation of AIR applications. Currently two methods exist:

• Using the AIR export option in the Flash CS3 update
• Using the AIR project option in Flexbuider3 (including a new components folder containing Flex components created specifically for AIR)

There was also mention of a 3rd export option in Dreamweaver, allowing HTML to be published directly to AIR, although it wasn’t clear whether this was an available release or something coming soon.

Next week I’ll be landing in Sydney to give a presentation and a workshop session all about web 3d. The workshop on the 11th will be focussing on how the Flash player can be used as a 3d engine using Papervision and Away3d, while the session on the 13th takes a broader look at how 3d on the web has progressed since the inception of VRML in 1994. While some of the old applications verged on 3d abuse, the present possibilities in Flash offer a way of marrying rich media design with simple, effective 3d UI’s that could be considered a step forward in web evolution.

I’m not looking forward to the flights, but I am certainly looking forward to the event! See you at the barbie

This update of the Away3d engine has one overriding purpose - to make things easier to use!

The updated livedocs section of the site has been completed for all classes, with a new version available in the trunk of the svn repository, accompanying the source. There is also a new folder for demos that exists as an svn folder and a new zip file in the downloads section of the site. Accompanying these updates are a fair few framework tweaks to aid the use of the engine - my personal favourite being the new setter properties on all 3d primitives that can be adjusted on the fly!

For more information about the update, you can read the release announcement on Away3d.com.