I'm alive and well !
Only busy with the non-virtual side of the World. I had a friend from Italy staying in my apt for a few days, then he left and two more friends came... and the celebrations, the parties, etc etc.
I've also got to write some good code before leaving the office. My first vertex animation compression. I used a 4-tap Daubechies wavelet. Haar seemed pretty worthless.. it turns out that Haar doesn't really do a good job at shifting larger values towards the top of the array that is being transformed.

Currently I'm compressing independently x, y and z values. It works nicely. I'm also using some sort of bitplane compression. But not in a hierarchical fashion like it happens with zero-trees.

Compression algorithms are different from 3D graphics, very interesting. It's a shame that most 3D programmers don't give much thought to it.
Actually I think it's in general a shame that there are "3D programmers". I sometimes define myself a 3D programmer for lack of better explanations, but it's really bullshit. Generally it's only the young punks that think that programming 3D graphics is "the thing".
I'm in charge of a (small) team that researches graphics.. but that's really only just the surface. I believe in looking far and wide, rather than getting stuck on APIs, techniques, tricks and tips like those that appear in those recipe books that come out every month (I know I said that before a few time already 8).

I took many pics in the recent days but now comes the time to clean up for this year.. memories are a double edged sword and technology makes it very hard to cut with the past. People can very easily keep in touch, share media evoking old times.. even my robotic dog manages to put me in difficult situations as it sometimes calls the wrong person at the wrong time !!!

geez
Enjoy your holidays 8)

Very busy and tired these days: I'm on holiday 8)
My mother and my sister came visit me and I've been taking them around Tokyo for sightseeing and.. shopping (arghhh).

I'm so tired... but I'm also laughing a lot and my apartment is a lot cleaner !

I'm not a big fan of holidays. The concept of having to go places, having to do things. I find that stressful, useless.

I think I'm gaining weight too, cause of course, you don't want to take people around and put them on a diet.. so much food to try !

ahhhhhh

P.S. After writing this I realized that I didn't have my digital camera with me and eventually went back to some shop where I had dinner to luckily get it back.. bhaaaaa !!!!!!!