#technical journal

[spockvarietyhour]

Starlog Presents Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Journal

[vintagerpg]

This is the Death Star Technical Companion, a meticulous examination of the Death Star in RPG terms, published in 1991. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: books like this are almost entirely useless in any practical sense for someone running a roleplaying game, but damn, I love them.

The DSTC is useless for one major reason: the Death Star is operational for a tiny amount of time covered in the original Star Wars movie and explodes at the end of it. There is not a lot of time to get your characters in and out of it, especially without the gigantic problem of encountering or otherwise messing up the events of the movie. Further: most West End Star Wars material takes place after A New Hope, so the designers likely never seriously intended this to be a much-used book.

Still, for you continuity brains out there, this is probably a dream come true. Whatever questions you might have about the logistics and operation of a planet-sized laser cannon, they are likely answered within, in pretty tedious detail.

Let’s be honest: this was likely designed as a moneymaker with the RPG elements really an afterthought required by the licensing agreement. This sort of book, in the form of Technical Manuals filled with plausible blueprints, had been feeding the appetites of Star Trek fans since 1975. Following suit for Star Wars was a no-brainer. In fact, Starlog would publish several volumes of technical journals dedicated to both Star Wars and Star Trek, starting in 1995. I have the collected Star Wars one – if you’d like to see it, let me know in the comments and I’ll dig it out.

That’s it for Star Wars for now. Next week: the Old School Revival.

[spaceintruderdetector]

The Bell System Technical Journal (1922-1983) archive

The scientific discoveries and technological innovations produced by Bell System research and engineering were critical not only to the evolution of global telecommunications but, more widely, they had a considerable impact on the technological base of the global economy and, indeed, on our daily lives.

Bell Labs is the source of many significant contributions, of course, in the area of telephony, but also in memory devices, imaging devices, system organization, computers and software technology, as well as acoustics, optics, switching, transmission, wireless and data communication. New principles, new materials, new devices, and new systems from Bell Telephone Laboratories resulted in new industries, hundreds of new products, and thousands of new jobs. The invention of the transistor in 1947, and subsequent advances in related solid-state device and circuit technology formed the basis of a multibillion dollar global industry and ultimately enabled the digital world. Shannon's seminal paper titled >"A Mathematical Theory of Communication," published over 60 years ago, gave birth to Information Theory and has stood as the guiding foundation for communications scientists and engineers in their quest for faster, more efficient, and more robust communications systems ever since. The charge-coupled device (CCD), a technology that transforms patterns of light into useful digital information, is the basis for many forms of modern digital imaging. It has launched entirely new industries and markets and is widely used in devices as diverse as digital cameras, video cameras, and bar code readers as well as in security monitoring, medical endoscopy, modern astronomy and video conferencing. Optical technology and systems, from earliest advances in lasers to low-loss fiber, opto-electronic waveguide devices, and high capacity WDM transmission systems have enabled worldwide connectivity to build a truly global community. Cellular telephone service, the concept that multiple lower-power transmitters could be spread throughout a region employing automatic call handoff and frequency reuse changed the face of communications. Multiple input multiple output (MIMO) smart antenna technology in concert with LTE, based on OFDM technology, will define next generation wireless, delivering wider coverage and higher throughput.

"Technological innovation" is more than just invention. It is a process, often long and costly, of transforming new scientific knowledge into feasible technology, introducing it to use, and making its benefits available to the public. âTechnical integrationâ is intended to emphasize the more subtle flow of an intangibleâengineering information and understanding. Not only has Bell Labs innovated, but it also showed the world technical integration of the innovations. The Bell System Technical Journal was a key enabler for this achievement.

With this posting of the Bell System Technical Journal from volume 1 issue 1 in July 1922 to the final issue published in December 1983, we are pleased to be able to open the vault of this knowledge to our global technical colleagues.

Rod Alferness Chief Scientist, Bell Labs

https://archive.org/details/bstj-archives

[alessiocuschierissp]

Technical Journal

The finalized result, all screenshots of the GIFs posted within a Facebook group titled ‘’for single dating in malta’’, much to my amusement this allowed for the works to become fully meta, enabling them to co-exist with actual photos of individuals attempting to ‘’sell’’ themselves online.  This enabled the works to in effect come full circle, becoming in a sense what inspired their very creation. Overall I am satisfied and amused with the finalized result. 

[alessiocuschierissp]

Technical Journal/ Resolved Final work Segment

Programs used:

Photoshop Blender

Method:

The same manner of animating the full figure (parenting armature bones to a model) within Blender was employed within the head, but instead localized to the various areas of the facial features. Rather than allow said armature to function as is typically  desired ( basic facial movements) this was instead exaggerated and animated to augment entire chunks of the head. 

The overall  movements were frames and exported as separate images wherein they received a green-screen like effect, and where then exported similarly as the prior GIF created.

[alessiocuschierissp]

Technical Journal: Resolved Final Work Segment. 

Programs used:

Photoshop Blender

Method:

This GIF was perhaps one of the most basic animations in which the smaller ‘’child’’ bust was animated in a basic movement and each placement marked within the frames. 

This animation was then exported as separate images and placed as layers within Photoshop wherein the background was altered.Following this they where then exported in their final state. 

D with K ,stands for divorced with Kid, amused by the manner the smaller avatar figure eases into the scene. 

[alessiocuschierissp]

28/12/17

Technical Journal: 

Programs used:

Photoshop

Blender

Method:

This animation was made utilizing the same technique as those prior, with basic motion being use within blender to rotate the bust per frame. 

This was then edited and exported via Photoshop, wherein the layers where exported as Frames within the timeline.

Married But looking, an acronym which is complicated in  terms of  implication. Thus it served as an interesting exercise in creating what this acronym implies simplistically. Given the previous GIFs I have created, I chose to display this in the most minimal manner, as it would otherwise have been too visually busy. The concept of the uncanny Sam (being both a representation of any and all virtual profiles and avatars) returns and was utilized as needed to great effect. 

[alessiocuschierissp]

27/12/17

Technical Journal: Resolved Final Work Segment: All Images.

Programs used:

Photoshop

Blender

Method:

All prior methods where employed for this GIF.

The Bust was repeatedly placed and layered atop one another within Blender and then removed, with the final busy being  revealed in eventuality with the final frame.

This was then exported as single frames and given a suitable background. 

Tocotox, for those who are ‘’Too complicated to explain.’’ I found this phrase interesting and difficult yet interesting to try and interpret. 3 versions of the GIF with various transitional frames where attempted. before deciding on the final version