Converting RSS Feeds To a Dynamic 3D Scene In 120 Lines of Code 73
descubes writes "Tao Presentations is a 3D presentation tool based on a 3D dynamic document description language. This makes it very easy for developers to create their own 3D shows, illustrate talks in an innovative way, even build small interactive 3D applications. An example included in the latest release grabs RSS feeds from a variety of sources (including Slashdot) and turns them into a 3D scene, all in real-time and in about 120 lines of code. It fetches the pictures directly from the web site and maps them on 3D shapes. And this is only a starting point. Tao Presentations can display 3D objects, drive the majority of 3D displays (including glasses-free 3D displays from Alioscopy, Philips or Tridelity), use GLSL shaders for advanced effects, and much more. Tao Presentations is free (as in beer), and the document description language is based on the free (as in speech) XL programming language."
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*sigh* slashdot
And we had tried to use Coral [coralcdn.org] to minimize the load. Silly Slashdotters who actually follow links :-)
Underwhelming implementation (Score:2, Insightful)
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But 3D is the new 2D.
I'm just waiting for some advancements in augmented reality, so that I can see the world around me in 3D! /sarcasm
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if you can't make it good, make it 3d?
Just making it 3D doesn't make it good. Our goal is simply to provide a tool to create dynamic 3D contents easily. Remember the first HTML pages with the blink tag? They all looked horrible, it took a while for designers to catch up with this new technology.
So I'm not a good graphic designer? Not surprised. Well, we are looking for good designers to help us fix that. Do something beautiful with Tao Presentations, and we'll be sure to talk about it.
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I think the point people are trying to make here is that TFA title is "Converting RSS Feeds To a Dynamic 3D Scene in 120 Lines of Code"
and when we look at the examples, we are seeing the 3D equivalent of the "blink" tag.
Why bother with the announcement of the tools, without a bit more effort put into what they can do.
Maybe the tools are great, but how would we know.
3D is not the new 2D, 3D is the new color (Score:2, Insightful)
But 3D is the new 2D.
I'm just waiting for some advancements in augmented reality, so that I can see the world around me in 3D! /sarcasm
All sarcasm aside, 3D is not the new 2D, 3D is the new color. Black and white didn't go away, you can still use it to great effect [wikipedia.org]. But most digital content today is in color, just because we can. It looks more natural, it allows effects that you can't do in black and white.
When you print a PDF document on a black and white printer, you expect it to look right. What's the equivalent for 3D today? Taodyne's value proposition is to make it ridiculously easy to create portable, dynamic 3D documents that will s
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It should have atleast been events around the world (a globe with blob points each resprenting a news article, sized as large as the importance of the article).
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It should have atleast been events around the world (a globe with blob points each resprenting a news article, sized as large as the importance of the article).
Yes. And if you RTFA, you'll see:
Unfortunately, I didn't find any good way to obtain latitude and longitude reliably for each piece of news, otherwise we could have created a much cooler effect, showing each picture and news at the right spot on the surface of Earth... If anybody has an idea on how to do that, I'm interested.
The best there is GeoRSS [wikipedia.org], but Google News doesn't use that. So we can show the earthquakes on a globe [pastebin.com] if you wish. Hit the 'w' key for a small animation.
Now, if you know of a good database of geolocalized news, I'm very interested.
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3D visualization of GeoRSS earthquakes database available here [gitorious.org].
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but the concept is flawed in that it borders on the ridiculous. What is wrong with just reading the news in a list format? Do we need to see it rendered in 3D?
You can render it in 2D if you prefer. The point is that you can now have a Powerpoint-like presentation with, say, a twitter wall inside, or news related to what you are talking about.
Active Worlds (Score:4, Insightful)
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I'm getting a strong, familiar VRML-era stench about this hype.
We thought of it more like an innovative way to create tweeter walls than virtual words. Just like Powerpoint is not about re-creating realistic pictures, Tao Presentation is not about creating virtual worlds, but about telling a story.
Beer ain't free. (Score:1)
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"Chick" is a slightly pejorative term for a young female. "Chic" is a French word meaning "stylish."
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Although I agree that this is a pointless "innovation", I can see where you might do it in 120 lines of code, and you hinted at how yourself -- "120 lines of high level coding, from some crazy encapsulated api." I once wrote a program to reboot a DOS machine that took all of six bytes. Load a register with a value, call an interrupt. That was the entire program. All I needed to write it was Debug, didn't even need a compiler. Hell, I wrote a full featured word processor on a machine with only 16k of memory
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I am pretty sure we have moved on from individual content viewers. If they were to process https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/ [github.com] designed applications and use some tagging to define a distance relocating the perspective then this might have a value.
There are frameworks such as Reveal.js or Impress.js that try to present things nicely using CSS3, HTML5, etc. Taodyne didn't use markup languages on purpose [taodyne.com]. From that article:
Standard markup, yes, but still a new language
On the surface, this structure is well known, so that you can leverage what you already know about HTML.
But notice how the two examples above don't use exactly the same syntax. There's a reason for that: in both cases, the power of that code really lies in additional definitions using Jav
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Because Javascript isn't event driven? Excuse me?
Not transparently event-driven, no. For example, consider the following Tao Presentations code:
color "red"
rectangle 320, 200
locally
rotatez 20 * time
color "blue"
rectangle 400, 100
Because we used time in the inner block, we will re-evaluate that block more rapidly than the rest (roughly 60 times per second in that case). So we transparently detect that this or that part of the document needs this or that event. I don't think Javascript does that, does it?
Is this UNIX? (Score:2)
Do I know this?
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Can Apple ... (Score:2)
Not biased at all... (Score:5, Insightful)
So the founder and president [of] Taodyne [linkedin.com] submits a "story" extolling the virtues of Taodyne's latest program/thingie and this actually makes it onto Slashdot? Am I really expecting too much of Slashdot by thinking that this shouldn't happen? I mean the entire summary is blatantly written like an advert -- perhaps you could say the guy isn't trying to deceive anyone since it's obvious to anyone looking (eg. me) what's going on, but is that really a good direction to go in? Is even the barest of journalistic integrity a lost cause on this site?
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So the founder and president [of] Taodyne [linkedin.com] submits a "story" extolling the virtues of Taodyne's latest program/thingie and this actually makes it onto Slashdot? Am I really expecting too much of Slashdot by thinking that this shouldn't happen? I mean the entire summary is blatantly written like an advert -- perhaps you could say the guy isn't trying to deceive anyone since it's obvious to anyone looking (eg. me) what's going on, but is that really a good direction to go in? Is even the barest of journalistic integrity a lost cause on this site?
How is the fact that I'm the founder of Taodyne making the story irrelevant to Slashdot readers? What would have been unethical would have been to ask a friend to submit the story for me.
Of course, I'm biased. I've put years of my life into creating what I believe is the first interactive 3D document description language. I think that this is relevant to Slashdot readers. Remember, "News for nerds"? Our first tag line was "3D presentation software for geeks", it's still in my Slashdot signature.
My idea of b
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The problem isn't that the story is (necessarily) irrelevant to Slashdot readers, it's that you are in no position to make an unbiased look at the subject at hand and report about it to readers who are on what is ostensibly a news site. This doesn't make you a bad person and you were not the intended target of my rant because, as we both mentioned, you made no attempt to obscure the fact that you were tied to the subject matter. My issue is that Slashdot editors and/or firehosers (I don't even know how that
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I understand your position. To be honest, we didn't really expect to hit the Slashdot front page (not that I will complain). We were content with people who look at the Firehose.
But to respond to you point, I think there is a lot of value in this new brand of journalism made of first person straight talk: blogs, video posts on YouTube, etc. You talk to me, I respond to you. Nobody in between. You know it's me, an individual, who loves his product and is clearly biased, and not some abstract and distant enti
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Have you visited the firehose lately? If not, you have as much right to bitch about what gets posted as someone not registered to vote has about who got elected President. And if so, you don't have to click on the link if you're not interested.
Congrats on the +5, I'd have modded you offtopic. Posts like yours are what I fond distasteful about slashdot; if there are more than 100 comments I don't bother, because it's all bad jokes and people bitching about how they don't like the subject they're commenting i
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I'm not interested in my moderation score or what you would have modded me given the chance. You'll notice nothing about my 'bitching' was regarding the subject matter, it was in the complete lack of editorial control that Slashdot exhibits. I feel like it's getting worse but that might just be nostalgia, after all Slashdot editors have never been renowned for being thorough or professional.
I haven't used the firehose lately; in fact I haven't done much of anything on Slashdot in a while since most visits d
Now we will know .... (Score:2)
3D RSS feed sounds like... (Score:4, Insightful)
3D RSS feed sounds like it'll be the greatest thing since six-speaker stereo surround sound for the morse code coming out ham radios.
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+5 insightful to you sir
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"Free as in beer" is a concept generally associated with Richard Stallman. He was trying to explain his concept of free software. The basic idea is that when you say free beer, you mean that you don't want to pay money for it. When you say free speech, you mean that you don't want it to be restricted. Stallman's concept of free software was for it to be free like speech should be, not free like we wish beer was.
Links (from googling "free as in beer"):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_libre [wikipedia.org]
http: [c2.com]
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Beer is not usually free, sometimes beer is a trick, sometimes beer is home made, sometimes free beer is horrible, sometimes free beer fell off the back of a truck (free as in stolen), what are you talking about?
I hadn't heard the "free as in beer" term used that much recently but I didn't think it was _that_ long ago... maybe i'm just old :(
Lines as a meazsure of code size (Score:2)
Remember APL ? You could do an awful lot of stuff in one line using APL
Of course it was totally unreadable by humans
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Of course it was totally unreadable by humans
Are you really arguing that this is unreadable by humans?
feed "US News", "http://news.google.com/news?ned=us&charset=utf8&output=rss"
feed "Slashdot", "http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot"
feed "Twitter taodyne", "http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=taodyne
Vaporware or crapware? (Score:2)
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These guys cannot even figure out how to reinstall display drivers on a Win 7 box [taodyne.com] and they want to sell me a rendering package? Not gonna happen.
RTFA. We did reinstall the display drivers, and they just don't work. Unless you think that having full screen rendering blinks unless the screen is upside down is not a bug in the driver. Seriously. And the problem only exists on this particular ATI driver, never had that with the original driver or with nVidia...
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I have to say, having scrolled through all of these negative comments, I really feel for you for trying to respond to so many of them without losing your head. Not all of us readers feel the need to put down the little guy just because you got some attention on Slashdot. I'm saddened that so many are taking the time to do this instead of just skipping over the article.
Caution, clicker. (Score:1)
The links in the article are a bit ... odd
http :// www.taodyne.com.nyud.net / shop / en / blog / 42-showing-rss-feeds-in-3d
Whereas taodyne actually have their own site, www.taodyne.com/
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nyud.net is used to try and lessen a Slashdotting of the original site. Coral cache is another option if you don't want to use AWS
Youtube Video Link (also, this is stupid) (Score:2)
The site is slashdotted at the moment but here is the video on that page when it finally sort-of loaded.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk39a22wDL0 [youtube.com]
What sort of pointless nonsense is this? What actual purpose does this have that any normal RSS reader does not have? All it is, seems to be, sticking a list of RSS links on a "jaunty angle" in 3d and adding an associated image on a spinning cube. It's just... pointless.
It's not even much of a technology demonstration is it, I'm no 3d guy, but I'd have assumed
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It's just... pointless.
Rather, I think you just... missed the point. The point is not the end result, it is to show how you can now create dynamic 3D documents really easily.
I'd have assumed that using OpenGL or something one could knock something like this together in no time flat, probably any time in the last 10 to 15 years!
You'd assume wrong. In addition to OpenGL, you need at least: font rendering and typography, typesetting, JPEG image decoding, networking, text parsing. If you don't believe me, go ahead, do it. I did that short example over a coffee break, definitely less than 2 hours. Let me see how long your "no time flat" will be if you do "something like this" with strai
Data visualization (Score:2)
I must confess that I also missed the point. The headline of the submission focuses on the RSS feed in 3D, making me believe that it really is the "RSS feed" that is important. Perhaps you should frame this demo differently to convey your intent to the reader. "Create Dynamic 3D documents easily" sounds quite diffferent from "3D RSS reader" as a headline.
You are right I guess. I'll take that into account for my next Slashdot submission :-)
I looked as this tool as I would be interested in displaying my computer network / sysadmin type stuff dynamically in 3D. Stock market performance. That sort of stuff. But I can't see that this tool makes that easier.
Let's try making something like that together. Here's one way to do it:
1) Create a small web server somewhere that returns the stuff you are interested it, for example in CSV format. Say you get lines with X,Y,Z,"label".
2) Read that web server with Tao Presentations, using code that looks like this:
get_url_csv "http://myserver/data.csv", "drawit"
drawit X,Y,Z,Label ->
locally
translate X,Y,Z
text Label
drawit MalformedInput -> false
Of course, your server could also send color, or a sphere diameter, so you could have something like:
drawit X,Y,Z,Color,Radius,Label ->
locally
translate X,Y,Z
color Color
sphere Radius
translate Radius, 0, 0
text Label
If you don't want to acce
What the hell? Don't bother to RTFM (Score:2, Insightful)
Is this a blast from the past post from 1998?
I admit I skimmed the Slashdot summary and thought it was compressing 3D information into Twitter-sized bites, similar to the Twitter music notation from a while back. But then I click on the links and see RSS FEEDS IN THREE DEES! Not even really in 3D, just with perspective.
I'm not even going to dig up any of my "Oh, just stop with trying to display text in 3D" rants because everyone has to know by now, right? Everyone but these guys. (Hint: Do a search for VR
It is actually 3D, if you explore the View menu (Score:2)
But then I click on the links and see RSS FEEDS IN THREE DEES! Not even really in 3D, just with perspective.
Use the "View->Display Mode" menu and select your favorite 3D mode, and you'll have actual 3D. Including 3D without glasses if you are lucky enough to own Alioscopy [alioscopy.com], Dimenco [dimencodisplays.com] or Tridelity [tridelity.com] displays.
And what's with the "120 lines of code" crap? I could probably do the same thing in 5 lines of Processing.
Why don't you do just that? But knowing Processing, I seriously doubt this is more than trolling.
But this is a stupid thing that should never have been done. And not "stupid as in awesome" like launching flaming pianos with a trebuchet or "stupid as in a challenge" like getting a toaster to play Oregon Trail, but stupid as in pointless with no redeeming value.
And someone modded this insightful? Ach, Slashdot.
Amazing (Score:1)
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New definition of 3D: Stick 2D pictures on a box and spin them.
Well, you should see our virtual Giacometti head [youtube.com] on a glasses free 3D display. That might change your mind.
actually running the 120 lines is not free (Score:2)
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the 120 lines of code under review actually need a pay version of Tao. The free evaluation version does not work with the example code TFA shows. [Nice although that a linux version is available.]
So you have to dismiss two dialog boxes mentioning that we use pay features in that presentation. Big deal! The only downside of using the free version or modules you didn't pay for is that you will have a Taodyne logo showing up in the corner of the screen. No time bomb, no other limitation. Seriously.
Wow, 120 lines! (Score:3)
...is that a lot? Not enough?
Anyway, my new language has a built-in function to do this, so it needs only one line of code!
Malware? (Score:1)
McAfee doesn't like those links. Whazzup with that?
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I kept on getting a "not available in your country" notice.
I'm in Canada - anyone in Europe able to see past the first page?
I think this should be fixed now. Thanks for reporting. Believe it or not, Canada was not listed in the "known countries" in our database. Sorry...
Mmm, XML parsing with regexps (Score:2)
Apparently we need a nice high level 3D presentation library but we don't want to work out how to use libxml2. I shall leave http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags [stackoverflow.com] here and leave you to consider the error of your ways.
(Also, what language did you base that on? It's surprisingly hard to read.)
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Apparently we need a nice high level 3D presentation library but we don't want to work out how to use libxml2.
The idea here was precisely to show the kind of things you could do with mere regular expressions (we introduced a regexp module recently). Yes, I know it is theoretically wrong, and if you knew how much I don't care, you wouldn't bother insulting me with the suggestion that we wouldn't know how to use libxml2. XML parsing is on its way, but if you want to add it yourself, Taodyne provides a C++ SDK (here is an example [gitorious.org] to get you started).
(Also, what language did you base that on? It's surprisingly hard to read.)
As mentioned in the story, it's called XL [sf.net]. Can you elaborate why you
With virtual reality glasses: Yes (Score:2)
But on a computer screen? Naa. Waste of time.
Great ! (Score:1)
Gitorious project for sample code (Score:2)
We created a Gitorious project to share sample code [taodyne.com]. The first sample shows the location of earthquakes in real-time.