This evening I was watching Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and decided to do some more Star Trek stuff.  I’m working based on this picture and making up alot as I go. I’m not sure how I want to light it.  But here it is so far:

Clay Render

There has been alot of Star Trek floating around the world recently. It inspired me to begin a new project. I’m modelling the type 9  shuttlecraft from Star Trek: Voyager.

Here is an example of the shuttle:

Here is my progress so far:

I will update with more renders as work progresses. I know thats the model is still pretty messy.

This is only half of the final project, but I did it for class and it was due today so I had to put it on youtube regardless. I will post the full version when it is done rendering.

I recently downloaded and started playing with Autodesk’s Mudbox. I like it, its much mor intuitive then zbrush in my opinion, but perhaps thats is because I’m already acustomed to Autodesk.

I created this in the first half hour (its based off a basic head template provided by Mudbox):

My first attempt

There is a great post on CIS 471 comparing high speed internet service cost around the world. The breakdown is:

Where?	Monthly cost	Uplink (Mbps)	Downlink (Mbps)
Stockholm	$11	100	100
Seoul	$24	100	100
Hong Kong	$35	100	100
Tokyo	$61	100	100
Amsterdam	$127	100	100
Lafayette, LA, Municipal	$58	50	50
Lafayette, LA, Cox Cable	$140	5	50
US, where available, Verizon	$145	20	50

The post has some great insight into the differences and their causes. Check it out.

A new Quinnipiac University poll places Dodd well behind his 2010 challenger Rob Simmons. The poll was released today and shows Dodd trailing Simmons,  50-34 percent among Connecticut voters.  Dodd’s approval rating has also dropped to its lowest point ever, with 58% of residents disapproving of the job he is doing as the senior senator from the state.  These drops are due to Dodd’s mishandling of the bailout, with particular emphasis on the AIG bonus protection provision.

I posted an updated render of the robot I’ve been working on over in the gallery. Check it out.

When electronic arts released the much anticipated Spore, they included an intense DRM (digital rights managment) scheme known as SecuROM. A move which lead to intense backlash from digital rights advocates, it also pushed the game to become the most pirated game of 2008. 

It seems EA learned their lesson, they toned down SecuROM in Red Alert 3 and announced in an interview with Eurogamer that the upcoming Sims 3 will not include DRM and will instead revert to the tried and true serial number authentication.  I’m glad the evil empire of gaming is coming to their senses, its a shame it took massive copyright infringement to communicate to them how much us gamers hate DRM. You would think gaming companies would be better at listening to gamers.

When the average citizen has somethign to say about the way their government is being run, they right a letter. When a politician gearing up for a gubertorial run named Dick Blumenthal has something to say he writes a letter and lets the media know about it. To quote Bloomberg:

In a letter today to Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Blumenthal urged “every available action” to block the bonuses. An AIG document provided by the attorney general’s office indicates the $230 million is set to be paid to 407 people in March 2010.

Blumenthal is among a coalition of 19 state attorneys general investigating AIG for the possible misuse of federal bailout money and compensation policies that, he said, encouraged “financial gambling” in derivatives including credit-default swaps.

Blumethal does have special interest in the issue (AIG’s headquarters are in Hartford CT, where he works as Attorney General) but this still feels like a purely political move. Blumenthal can’t pass up an oppertunity to be seen fighting for the little guy, even if the whole country is fighting for him already.