where is the turtle farm

Pino spent a long time in Savusavu, but by then, we were growing tired of this scenery, not of the market, or of the company to be found here, but just of having that same view every morning. We love this city, but when it's time to go, it's time to go!

We left our mooring at 9am, and moved along over to Cousteau's resort to anchor (16 48.623S, 179 17.331E). The water was unclear, and the clouded sky made it difficult to see bommies beneath us. Devine dove in and checked out our anchor, which was set in sand, and...

captain what is this

After 15 days on the water, we were to get into port. It was the 27th of June, and we'd left Opua on the 12th. We hove-to for the night, waiting for sunrise before entering Savusavu bay. 'Entering a strange harbor at night is for morons and fools,' people told us. We didn't listen right away, but they were right. In this particular case, there was no point in arriving early, considering yachts cannot anchor in Fiji waters before checking in, and that check-in is only possible after 8am.

At dawn, we pointed towards the island of Vanua Levu and sailed...

projects and pain

We arrived in New Zealand with a long scary list of things to fix or replace on Pino. We needed new batteries, a new mainsail, a fresh coat of bottom-paint, galley plumbing, new intermediates shrouds, new backstay, new top hatch, new windows, new control cables etc.

That was the deal. There was too much ocean between us and Japan. Our vessel needed to be made safe to endure it, and to ensure our safe passage.

When we landed in the country, we had grand ideas, 'grand illusions' I should say, about...

an island to oneself

Traveling to New Zealand, after a year of unknown, was a great comfort to us. There are a few things Devine and I were really looking forward to, like a good latte, craft beer, a fresh food market and a bulk food store. I found a city that checked all of the boxes.

Many of the cruisers we know want to arrive in Opua – with reason. It's warm, damn gorgeous, and you know you'll find friends there, because that's where everyone goes during the cyclone season. Arriving in a strange place, with familiar faces, always makes the experience better, but...

Дайджест #16

В этом эпизоде: Super Mario Odyssey и снова немного про Nintendo Switch, дизайн-студия на лодке, Иммигранткаст, VPN (или как пользоваться интернетом относительно свободно), нехороший перфекционизм и альтернативы Твиттеру: Mastodon и Micro.blog, душевный ютьюб-канал и дроны.

Я тут прошел Super Mario Odyssey на Nintendo Switch. Понравилось: столько разных королевств со своими особенностями (в Нью-Йорке можно ездить на скутере, ходить по крышам небоскребов и прыгать на светофорах, на Луне меньше гравитация), костюмов для самого Марио (клоун, водолаз, строитель), шуток, хорошей музыки, атмосферы, переходов из нового 3Д-мира в ретро-2Д, говорящая шляпа-друг (мне бы не помешала) — текстом не передать.

Чтобы вставить сюда эти скриншоты, мне пришлось достать из Raspberry Pi MicroSD карту и перенести с помощью нее — такой вот Свитч.

Если хотите быстрого и яркого погружения в игру (а покупать в ближайшее время не планируете),...

Digital License Plates are on the way!

We are all familiar with the standard license plate for cars as it is a simple metal plate that fits all cars and is fairly easy to upgrade each year with online State services. It has been the standard for years and is the most simple of all things related to motor vehicles. But, that is changing and like all new cars, it is a digital mess that frequently cannot be repaired by the home mechanic. Welcome to the world of the digital license plate!
Although it is the a bit heavier it will fit the standard bolt configuration but...

Can we stop bombing please?

After the WWII, the entire field of operations was taking to a different level where analogue contexts no longer defined the course of action, policy and the direction of future investments. RAND took the battlefield to space, thereby introducing and eventually rendering the axiomatic drivers to the digital age of computers and coding. It was the clear insight of the military commanders and political leadership that the new operational fields would require a new kind of intelligence to lead and co-direct with the traditional military expertise; the speculative and creative engineer-researcher able to define his very own new...

Procedural Bestiary and the Next Generation of CG Software

https://player.vimeo.com/video/703402772

In the previous essay “Procedural content creation F.A.Q.” I’ve claimed that it would take few months to assemble a full-scale creature generator. So I took those months and did it – introducing Kozinarium v1.0 v1.5:
Procedural Creature Generator from Denis Kozlov on Vimeo.
Procedural systems I’ve been developing during the recent years served different purposes, not the least one being exploration of how far one can go in formalizing the visual art, expressing its language in machine-readable terms. “Quite far” is the answer I’ve got, and today I’d like to share my vision of the next generation of artistic tools which could...

Gameplay Concepts

Over the last 6 months I've been working almost exclusively on new adding gameplay elements to enrich the overall game environment.  Some are general concepts, applicable to the main universal sandbox.   Others are more specific and fill out the lore of the gameworld.   Others such as missions, factions etc. are still to come.
Here are the last 6 months worth of gameplay concepts, in alphabetical order.
Air Resistance
When ships enter/leave atmospheres they encounter air resistance.   This is imparted as a drag on the physics of the ships, with the primary effects being reduction of top speed, and dampening of flight controls.
Ships may...

Ship Dashboards

Here's a quick look at a prototype dashboard for spaceships.   Like everything else in the game so far, the artwork is 100% prototype.  In Pegwars, spaceships are like future cars, so I've modeled the prototype from an 80's classic sports car.   The 80's really was the bomb, I love it how car designers tried to get so futuristic for a period of time.
The gauges, from left to right :
- Hull Integrity
- Shields
- Engine Revs
- (Top) Set Speed
- (Bottom) Actual Speed
- Current Gravity Forces
- Power Usage
- Power Available
Left and right of the dash will be a couple of MFD's (multi-function displays)...