Recommendation Systems
For my database class I am doing a project on recommendation systems inspired by a couple of papers from SIGMOD 2009 and 2010. In these first stages I am looking for some people to help me out with collecting some data. And I would be forever grateful if you took a few moments to help out.
Below are 6 videos from youtube, please watch four of the videos below, and note down in what order you watched them and how much you liked them on a scale from 1-5 (1=Didn’t like, 5= Liked a lot). Then please enter this information into the form at the link at the bottom. There are two categories of movies, dogs and artists talking about their craft and inspiration, please watch the videos you thing are interesting.
Handmade Portraits: Pearson Maroon
Handmade Protraits: Skinny laMinx
Thank you for your time.
Twists and yarns and socks…
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of knitting. This is my current project, a pair of socks based on a pattern I found on knitty. The pattern is called Twisted Sock and I quite like working on it. The yarn I am using is Dream in Color’s Smooshy. Sadly when I picked it up I misread the instructions and only picked up one ball of yarn when I think I need two for full length socks. So I am making ankle length socks. After this I have a pair of knee length socks planned for some wonderful yarn I’ve had since this summer. I have not entirely settled on pattern, but I have an idea of one from Drops . After that I am planning a simple shrug. It get’s cold in my apartment, but I don’t really like wearing long sleeves when I am typing a lot (elbow length is perfect for me) so I was planning something simple to throw on in wool.
Augmented Ping Pong
This is my lastest project that I am working on with Jia. We are working with C and OpenGL, Glut and ARToolKit. The idea is to have a ping pong game where the players first have to break down a wall between them, they have a ball each. Then they can play ping pong with two balls. We might also (if we have time) implement a magic dice, where when you roll it random things like another ball, a bigger paddle or other things happen. Currently we have one paddle, a field and two balls implemented. I will work more on this today, the goal today is to add the second paddle, fix the balls bouncing off the paddle (it only does x direction, we want y and possibly z as well). I was also hoping to add it getting progressively harder (balls move faster). Then tomorrow/tonight we’ll work on the wall in the middle as I have a feeling that will be a big thing. Then scoring and player names on Friday, possibly starting on the magic dice and then Saturday/Sunday/Monday is for writing documentation, debugging and user testing. Busy week, considering I have regular classes and work and Claire arriving and Jia has a pilot study on his research to do.
Mastermind
Master Mind is a game I played a lot when I was younger with my mom when she was cooking dinner. Recently I was looking for a game that was relatively simple to implement on the android.
The simple first implementation was written in Processing. Processing was chosen because the development platform comes with a very easy to use export tab to create a java applet for online use. Processing is an derivative of java.
The first implementation of Mastermind for processing can be found here.
The next plans are to find best colors for it and how to make the interface better. And then then work on a similar implementation for android.
Addy’s Gloves one and a bit in
One of my favorite crafts, simply for how portable it is, is knitting. I am currently working on a pair of gloves. I call them Addy’s gloves because they made me think of the 3 fingered look of the Tauren race in WoW. Addy is one of these Tauren. The pattern I am using is Triadactyl at Knitty.com
I am doing a few changes to the pattern myself. First of all I needed to make the gloves smaller, both because I have small hands and like my gloves tighter. I both decreased the number of stitches and the number of rows in the various parts. The pattern have some very nice instructions for doing so.
I do have some ideas for the next pair of these gloves I make. One is to line the inside with fleece.
Steampunk first take
The steampunk outfit was something I thought up for Conbust 09. I am very happy with the top half of this outfit, the bottom I am rather unhappy with.
The boots are doc martins that I got from my grandmother a while ago. The persona I was trying to portray was a sometimes mechanic on an airship rather than a fine lady. For that reason high heels wouldn’t have fitted. Imagine trying to walk around a messy engine room on a moving ship in high heels (I am sure it can be done, I just don’t want to).
The jeans was because jeans make a lot of sense to me, they are sturdy and old enough be correct. They are working man’s pants and started as sailor’s pants before Levi made them big in 1850s. They are also fairly fire proof (I wear jeans when I juggle fire to protect my legs during leg wraps). I should have worn them long and just tucked them into my boots.
The shirt is made by me (some help from my mom as I am still learning button holes). It is made of silk essence from Joanns and using this (free) pattern from Burdastyle. I feel that the shirt was one of the features of the outfit I liked the most.
The corset was made of heavy rawhide leather and handstitched together using standard leather working techniques (at least the ones my dad thought me); after cutting the panels where the stitches would go was marked with a special marker, the two panels was then left to soak some water before the stitching began. Sewing the entire thing together took about a week with around 1.5-2 hours every day. After it was all together, grommets was put in and the entire thing soaked for fitting. With the help of my brother (they are perfect for this, because they hate you just enough to do this, but love you enough to help you with your crazy costume projects) we laced me into the wet corset and let it dry on my body to give it shape. The corset has no boning, no busk or anything else like that. However the leather is stiff enough that it is like wearing armor. Here I think I over estimated my squish factor and I think I should open the front so that it is front and back laced, I think that will help with the rather boring front panel.
The sweater is knitted by me, I used a pattern found at knitty.com and just sized it up a little. The yarn is Lambs Pride Bulky and is pure wool.
Little other bits:
A cheap shawl (not worn) from H&M
A necklace my grandmother bought in Etiopia 50 years ago
Watch (not shown) from Mr. ARM.
Green Corset
The idea started with a post at Corsetmakers where synj_munki had made a corset out a patent at haabet.dk<. I have since lost the link to both the original post and the patent, but I will see if I can find it. I really fell in love with the shape and style of the corset and decided to give it a try myself.
The whole process started with me and a friend of mine scaling up the pattern and doing the first adjustments. This was done using a projector. We first made the waist what it would need to be and then fitted the bust and hips to my measurements.
Then there was the first fitting where I found that only a few things had to be changed (Thankfully). The back panels were replaced because they tore, due to not using strong enough fabric.
The finished product is two layers of fabric (one being the fancy fabric), two spring steel bones at every seam, waist tape, a busk and eyelets for lacing. The boning is in boning channels and the fancy fabric is hand sewn to the main construction.
ideas for next time:
-do not sissy out on the main fabric of the construction, make sure you got something strong enough
-boning channels are wonderful
