Tony is a Geek

If you've heard about StrongLoop or IBM API Connect or the new API economy and fancy having a go yourself, follow my guide to getting started. CLICK HERE FOR AN INTRO & WALK-THROUGH

So, this happened today: Bristol Virtual Reality World Conference (VRWC) Expo. I attended (it would have been rude not to....) and took some photo's and had a wander around / chat. >CLICK HERE FOR MORE<

The Oculus Sample Framework for Unity 5 is an experimental sandbox for VR developers and designers. It consists of a set of simple scenes that illustrate solutions to typical problems in VR, including the mechanics of first-person movement or gaze-based UI. Each sample provides an in-app control panel allowing users to change parameters such as the length of the fade to black in a teleport, the delay on a UI element, or the z-depth of a crosshair reticle. This control panel is itself an illustration of in-VR controls that can be used to help build similar controls in your own applications. Each scene in the project explores a concept relevant to VR. We have provided a Unity 5 project for the whole framework. an executable for Windows, and a free download in the Gear VR Concepts store. The binaries allow you to dive in and explore a range of ideas without opening the project in the Unity Editor. Each scene provides in-VR documentation, so you can jump straight in. The samples can...

http://enough.de/en/app-coaching/devguide/ http://enough.de/en/app-coaching/devguide/ "Our free Handbook for App Developers, Designers and Managers We are offering this free, non-commercial book since 2009. The latest 16th edition has been published in late February 2016. It provides an overview on the different mobile technologies and platforms for developers and decision-makers on more than 270 pages. Learn how to enter the app business and how to do your first steps as a developer for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Firefox OS, Java ME or Windows smartphones and tablets. More than 20 writers from the mobile community share their know-how in dealing with topics such as accessibility in mobile apps, UX design, mobile analytics, prototyping, cross-platform development, native development, mobile web and app marketing. As of today, we have distributed over 80,000 hardcopies. Free pdf and e-book downloads are also available in several languages. " ...

Really?.... I was playing around with WikiTudes Augmented Reality mid-2015 and I was impressed at what was on offer. Now, this startup has just sprouted and is currently offering their software for "free" - the plan looks like they will charge a monthly subscription eventually, would be interesting to know what the price range is likely to be, we'll have to wait and see. Anyway.... WakingApp.com have this Augmented reality creator tooling that they reckon, even Sales & Marketing can use, with no need to write any code......  :-D Well, you know me.....I have "hotel evenings" and they have a " free download ", what's to lose? apart from some time.  It might be a good investment, let's find out! CLICK HERE TO CHECKOUT THEIR WEBSITE

Well.....it was only a matter of time  :-) Working with  IBM’s Watson platform , Rectangular Studios is creating a virtual reality experience that will allow you to speak in natural language to avatars in the virtual world and have them reply in kind. Rectangular’s game, which is still untitled, is played underwater due to a natural catastrophe. In the game you are tasked with using your wits to find a way to fight against groups who are trying to control the little natural resources that are left. Diana Lopez of  Rectangular Studios  describes this as an “intelligence fight” where you are having conversations with non-player controlled avatars that are powered by IBM’s Watson platform. Right now Rectangular’s Watson implementation is elementary, as the game is very early in its development. “You can tell it is a robot,” says Lopez, “but we are working to get to the point where it feels much more human.” Rectangular Studios may not be the only ones who are...

It's all about the IoT..... Apparently, Gartner predicted in November 2015 , that during 2016, 6.4 billion device will be connected to the Internet and will be classified as "The Internet of Things".  By 2020, that figure will rise to 20.8 billion.  Staggering. Just connecting devices to the Internet is one thing, but it will mean that the devices will be pushing a tremendous amount of data around.  I'm pretty sure that being able to make sense of that data, to gain insights from the data is also going to bring great rewards to the companies that get smart to this. Now, as you may or may not know, I've been making "stuff" that we used to call "Client-Server" apps (back in the day), which is great for small proof of concept stuff, ie. getting my robot to send data to a server humming away in the corner of the room, triggering events and sending a signal to activate a solenoid that opens a door before the robot hits the door.  This i...

MobileFirst Platform Server v7.1 running on a Raspberry Pi 2.... Yes, I just did that.  Well, truth be told, I started it back in September 2014 with Worklight v6.2... I know this because I just got around to re-configuring my little collection of Raspberry Pis to use the "new" WiFi router settings.... and upon poking around one of them I noticed a /wlp folder.  It looked like I had gotten quite far, but not quite got it working....and then moved onto doing something else... ... I also noticed I had a Raspberry Pi 2 that I was just using as a Webcam motion detector, which was a bit of a waste really....so I thought, "why not!?!" CLICK HERE TO SEE THE WALK-THROUGH INSTRUCTIONS ON INSTALLING A FULL BLOWN ALL SINGING, ALL DANCING MOBILEFIRST PLATFORM SERVER WITH APPLICATION CENTER (might get around to the Operational Analytics setup tomorrow) I know...exciting stuff :-D  I really know how to live. On a more serious geeky note, once you get to understan...

This year, I think I shall be mostly MQTT-ing.... BLUEMIX seems to be a central element in this equation  :-) After checking through some "old code", I wrote my own MQTT back in 2006...but got distracted and moved onto working on other things (I think it was called a "PassThru Server" or something as catchily named as that - I'll see if I can find the images/docs later) - sigh...but then again I was working for Sybase/iAnywhere at the time, so it would have get buried inside SAP by now...

Car mechanics are no longer the stereotype of knuckle scraping monkey's... some of them are smart.  Where do smart mechanics go to ask questions?  StackOverflow?  Well... Mechanics.StackExchange.com to be more precise: I wonder if the [hot rod] tag will become more popular over time :-) CHECK OUT THE SITE HERE