10 Questions with Joost van Schaik

joost

Joost is the winner of the 13th HoloLens Challenge and the author of the Dotnet by Example blog, which has provided some of the best intermediate HoloLens tutorials available on the internet. He’s also been a Netherlands Microsoft MVP for almost a decade. Here are Joost’s answers to the 10 questions:

 

What movie has left the most lasting impression on you?

The Neverending Story, 1984. I still love it. I strongly identify with the kid Bastian. It feels like my younger self.

What is the earliest video game you remember playing?

Not sure, I think Donkey Kong on one of those mini LCD consoles (remember those?). It may also have been “Manic Miner” on a friend’s Sinclair Spectrum.

Who is the person who has most influenced the way you think?

My wife. She taught me that there’s an important difference between being intelligent (having raw IQ) and actually being smart and that women can be just as tough (if not more) than men. She also taught me that people who believe other things than you can be smart people as well.

When was the last time you changed your mind about something?

A few weeks ago. I finally caved in and bought an Android phone. My 950XL started to have hardware issues and I could not buy replacements anymore. It sucks, but it does what it needs to do and I can get by with it.

What’s a programming skill people assume you have but that you are terrible at?

Almost everything. Self-doubt is my second name. I actually continue to surprise myself when I pull something off.

What inspires you to learn?

Shiny new things. Something that really catches my imagination. No well-travelled roads. I love to be at a place where trail blazing still can happen.

What do you need to believe in order to get through the day?

Two things: 1 – I can make a difference 2 – (vulnerable moment here) there’s someone waiting at home who loves me no matter what.

What’s a view that you hold but can’t defend?

Hard one. My political view is that prosperity should be more equally distributed for the good of all. Even in the Netherlands that’s pretty left of center; in the USA I would probably be scaled to the left of Bernie Sanders. I also know this will never happen because of human nature.

What will the future killer Mixed Reality app do?

Collaboration. I imagine a meeting room with no one actually there. I imagine seeing people there that literally seem to be present. I imagine working, talking, socializing with people from all over the world with no one actually needing to board an airplane and go through all that hoopla. I imagine this getting so ingrained into society that the value of actually and virtually meeting are seen as (almost) identical. The impact this will have on productivity, social interaction and – leftist again – the environment and thus the climate will be amazing.

What book have you recommended the most?

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Especially to people who say they understand the monomaniac geek’s mind – which they invariably never do. They also never read it, because it looks too geeky on the outside.

10 Questions with Gianni Rosa Gallina

gianni

Gianni is a Windows Embedded, Emerging Experiences and now Windows Development MVP from Turin, Italy. He is perhaps best known for his Pluralsight courses on virtual and augmented reality. An expert on Kinect programming, he moved on to HoloLens development and architecture at about the same time that the Microsoft Kinect team evolved into the Microsoft HoloLens team.

 

What movie has left the most lasting impression on you?

Back to the Future (fate is not written and if you really want to do something, you can).

What is the earliest video game you remember playing?

“Sopwith” on my very first PC when I was 3, an Olivetti PC1.

Who is the person who has most influenced the way you think?

My parents. “Think well before talking or acting, and you will never regret the consequences.

When was the last time you changed your mind about something?

Earlier this week.

What’s a programming skill people assume you have but that you are terrible at?

Very low level programming. I can do that if really needed, but I don’t very much like low level stuff with 0s & 1s and raw signals. Fortunately, there are lots of people who love it.

What inspires you to learn?

I love learning because tomorrow I can create something new by mixing & matching skills or—the most important—teach or explain something new to somebody else.

What do you need to believe in order to get through the day?

That what I do is something useful for somebody else.

What’s a view that you hold but can’t defend?

Technology is the key to solving most human needs and problems.

What will the future killer Mixed Reality app do?

Seamlessly assist and help in our everyday life with tasks, adapting to context and knowing (or guessing) what we are about to do and anticipating our requests or needs.

What book have you recommended the most?

Michael Crichton’s sci-fi novels.

10 Questions with Dwight Goins

dwight

Despite living only a short drive from Magic Leap headquarters, Dwight is a hardcore HoloLens developer. More than that, he is a huge advocate for programming Mixed Reality apps using Direct3D for improved performance. He has also dived into HoloLens Remoting to display 3D models composed of over a million polygons. Here are Dwight’s answers to the 10 questions:

 

What movie has left the most lasting impression on you?
It’s not 1 but a couple… The Matrix, Hidden Figures.

Matrix because of the hacker turned save the world only to realize the real world is really a hack of computers and virtual reality is what we think is the real world.

Hidden Figures because the original “computers” at NASA were a group of African American Female mathematicians, just to think that is my mother, sister, wife, and daughters, and I am from them, the original compute-ador…

What is the earliest video game you remember playing? Ping Pong, Moebius, Leisure suite Larry, and this EA sports baseball on an Atari 2800 where you had to take a cassette tape and load it to play it based on stats and probabilities.

Who is the person who has most influenced the way you think?
My Godfather – a Humanities and religious master teacher from the University of Cairo. Interestingly enough he has nothing to do with Computers or tech, but he is the person who advised me to go into computer programming.

When was the last time you changed your mind about something?
Right before typing this sentence you read now.

What’s a programming skill people assume you have but that you are terrible at?
Problem with this question is I’ll never let you know, because if I don’t know it, I’ll learn it, either I’ll get a book, or take a course on it and you’ll never know.

What inspires you to learn?
The better question for me is what expires me to learn. I’ll answer the inspire first. The first is my relatives. Because they relate to me on so many different levels. The internal conversations, and thoughts provided give me advice on what to do and not to do. However sometimes the internal communication is lacking because I don’t know enough, thus I must continue learning. 

The external factors or what expires me is the previous question above. People make a lot of assumptions and they prejudge you on the color of your skin, or your hair texture, your eyes, your sexiness, handsomeness, or your dress, or gender. Rather than looking at the fruit of your labor: works, applications, speeches, and writings. I’ve always been taught to assume is to be an ass of you to me, and the ignorance that comes from assumptions should be a learning experience. Sometimes I’m the learner, sometimes I’m the teacher. It goes both ways. Watching and learning others’ assumptions and removing mine is what expires.

What do you need to believe in order to get through the day?
I don’t accept the need. The day will happen with or without you. The better question is what can you do to make the day a day of remembrance for someone else.

What’s a view that you hold but can’t defend?
Not a view worth discussing.

What will the future killer Mixed Reality app do?
Hopefully it won’t be a killer app, but rather a growing and learning (AI) one that enhances your every day life to make things easier, healthier, and all around better. For example, an AI assistant that monitors and displays your vital signs and notifies you when it would be a good time to get a glass of water, or there are toxic gases around so it would be a good time to leave the immediate area.

What book have you recommended the most?
Still counting…

10 Questions with Sean Ong

sean_ong

Sean is a fixture on the HoloLens Developers Slack group and probably one of the busiest freelance HoloLens devs in the business. He is based out of Seattle, already a hotbed for AR and VR innovation, works on cool community projects like myxd3D, and recently did the first known unboxing video for the new Acer MR headset. He authored Beginning Mixed Reality Programming published by Apress.

What movie has left the most lasting impression on you?
Minority Report comes to mind. I remember thinking that the future depicted in that movie looked very cool, but somehow very achievable. Sure enough, I’ve seen a majority of that technology come to fruition over the past several years. Holograms and AR are what’s next!

What is the earliest video game you remember playing?
My first game system was the Nintendo Entertainment System (I used the Japanese version of it, called Famicom). I think it was the original Super Mario Bros.

Who is the person who has most influenced the way you think?
Probably my dad. He always had great advice and made me focus on the bigger picture. The “why” of what I do, and not the “what.”

When was the last time you changed your mind about something?
Just a few minutes ago. I keep an open mind, and not afraid to change my opinions based on the best available information.

What’s a programming skill people assume you have but that you are terrible at?
Coding in C#, and software engineering in general. I can hack my way through anything, but I don’t have a background in software development.

What inspires you to learn?
The excitement of seeing things progress, pushing new frontiers, and knowing that I’m at the forefront of building our future.

What do you need to believe in order to get through the day?
I need to take a step back, get my head out of the “now” and look forward into the future. I need to remind myself why I do what I do, and how today is only a small but necessary step in the journey.

What’s a view that you hold but can’t defend?
I don’t like holding views I can’t defend. Some of my moral, religious, and social views may not have definitive right/wrong answers – but I can still defend why I hold those views while still understanding why others may not.

What will the future killer Mixed Reality app do?
Enabling everyone to be part of a shared mixed reality experience that can be viewed through mixed reality devices. An augmented world that co-exists in the same location as our physical world.

What book have you recommended the most?
I’d need to think a bit more about the book question. 🙂

10 Questions with Jasper Brekelmans

This is the first in a series of interviews intended to help people get to know the movers & shakers as well as the drones & technicians (sometimes the same person is all four) who are making mixed reality … um … a reality.  I’ve borrowed the format from Vox but added some new questions.

brekel

Though not widely known outside of certain circles, when you ask experienced HoloLens developers who they most admire, Jasper’s name usually comes up. Jasper is the creator of the Brekel Toolset, an affordable tool for doing motion capture with the Kinect sensor. He also works with HoloLens, Oculus, and the Vive and his innovative projects have been featured on RoadToVR and other venues. His work on collaboration between multiple Vive headsets was mind-blowing—but then again, so was his HoloLens motion capture demo with a live dancer, his HoloLens integration with Autodesk MotionBuilder, and his recent release of the OpenVR Recorder.

Without further ado, here are Jasper’s answers to 10 questions:

 

What movie has left the most lasting impression on you?
Spring Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring“, “A Clockwork Orange“, “The Evil Dead“, “The Wrestler“, “Straight Story“, “Hidden Figures“…… too many to choose 🙂

What is the earliest video game you remember playing?
Pac-Man (arcade) and Donkey Kong (handheld).

Who is the person who has most influenced the way you think?
A work mentor and some close personal friends.

When was the last time you changed your mind about something?
Probably on a weekly basis on something or other.

What’s a programming skill people assume you have but that you are terrible at?
Heavily math based algorithms and/or coding for mobile platforms.

What inspires you to learn?
The goal of having new possibilities with freshly learned skills.

What do you need to believe in order to get through the day?
That what I do matters to others.

What’s a view that you hold but can’t defend?
That humanity will be better off once next generations have grown up with true AR glasses/lenses technology, have played with virtual galaxies and value virtual objects similarly to physical objects for certain purposes.

What will the future killer Mixed Reality app do?
Empower users in their daily live without them realizing it while at the same time letting new users realize what they miss instantly.

What book have you recommended the most?
Ready Player One.

HoloLens fix – Visual Studio 2017 build error

I’ve been using the latest Unity 4.6.1f1 to build HoloLens apps for Visual Studio 2017. After exporting to VS17, though, I run into the following error trying to compile my app.

1>—— Build started: Project: Assembly-CSharp-firstpass, Configuration: Debug x86 ——

1>CSC : warning CS8021: No value for RuntimeMetadataVersion found. No assembly containing System.Object was found nor was a value for RuntimeMetadataVersion specified through options.

1>  Running SerializationWeaver…

1>  System.Exception: project.lock.json file at D:\Documents\Unity\testnuget\WindowsStoreApp\GeneratedProjects\UWP\Assembly-CSharp-firstpass\project.lock.json does not exist!

1>     at usw.Program.CheckLockJsonFile(String lockJsonFile)

1>     at usw.Program.RunProgram(ConversionOptions options)

1>     at usw.Program.Main(String[] args)

1>D:\Documents\Unity\testnuget\WindowsStoreApp\GeneratedProjects\UWP\Assembly-CSharp-firstpass\Assembly-CSharp-firstpass.csproj(184,5): error MSB3073: The command “”D:\Documents\Unity\testnuget\WindowsStoreApp\Unity\Tools\SerializationWeaver\SerializationWeaver.exe” “D:\Documents\Unity\testnuget\WindowsStoreApp\GeneratedProjects\UWP\Assembly-CSharp-firstpass\bin\x86\Debug\Unprocessed\Assembly-CSharp-firstpass.dll” “-pdb” “-verbose” “-unity-engine=D:\Documents\Unity\testnuget\WindowsStoreApp\testnuget\Unprocessed\UnityEngine.dll” “D:\Documents\Unity\testnuget\WindowsStoreApp\GeneratedProjects\UWP\Assembly-CSharp-firstpass\obj\x86\Debug\x86\Debug” “-lock=D:\Documents\Unity\testnuget\WindowsStoreApp\GeneratedProjects\UWP\Assembly-CSharp-firstpass\project.lock.json” “@D:\Documents\Unity\testnuget\WindowsStoreApp\GeneratedProjects\UWP\Assembly-CSharp-firstpass\SerializationWeaverArgs.txt” “-additionalAssemblyPath=D:\Documents\Unity\testnuget\WindowsStoreApp\testnuget\Unprocessed” “-unity-networking=D:\Documents\Unity\testnuget\WindowsStoreApp\testnuget\Unprocessed\UnityEngine.Networking.dll”” exited with code 1.

2>—— Build started: Project: Assembly-CSharp, Configuration: Debug x86 ——

2>CSC : error CS0006: Metadata file ‘D:\Documents\Unity\testnuget\WindowsStoreApp\GeneratedProjects\UWP\Assembly-CSharp-firstpass\bin\x86\Debug\Assembly-CSharp-firstpass.dll’ could not be found

3>—— Build started: Project: testnuget, Configuration: Debug x86 ——

3>CSC : error CS0006: Metadata file ‘D:\Documents\Unity\testnuget\WindowsStoreApp\GeneratedProjects\UWP\Assembly-CSharp-firstpass\bin\x86\Debug\Assembly-CSharp-firstpass.dll’ could not be found

3>CSC : error CS0006: Metadata file ‘D:\Documents\Unity\testnuget\WindowsStoreApp\GeneratedProjects\UWP\Assembly-CSharp\bin\x86\Debug\Assembly-CSharp.dll’ could not be found

And the VS error window looks like this:

error

It’s actually a dumb problem, but since I’ve been struggling with it for days, I’m hoping blogging about it will save you a few hours of head banging.

The best clue to what’s going on is the reference to the missing project.lock.json file. This is a nuGet file and somewhere in the HoloLens documentation it mentions that a HoloLens app built with Unity requires some nuget files in order to work.

nuget

In Visual Studio I went to Tools | Options | NuGet Package Manager and discovered that I had NuGet configured incorrectly in my shiny new VS install. I’m not totally sure why. By not allowing NuGet packages to be automatically downloaded, my HoloLens app was missing required files.

fix

Both Allow NuGet to download missing packages and Automatically check for missing packages should have been selected.

After that, HoloLens builds have been working for me and I have been able to start deploying apps again.

Playing with the HoloLens Field of View

I was working on a HoloLens project when I noticed, as I do about 2 or 3 times during every HoloLens project, that I didn’t know what the Field of View property of the default camera does in a HoloLens app. I always see it out of the corner of my eye when I have the Unity IDE open. The HoloToolkit camera configuration tool automatically sets it to 16. I’m not sure why. (h/t Jesse McCulloch pointed me to an HTK thread that provides more background on how the 16 value came about.)

fov_question

So I finally decided to test this out for myself. In a regular Unity app, changing the number of degrees in the angular field of view will increase the amount of things that the camera can see, but in turn will make everything smaller. The concept comes from regular camera lenses and is related to the notion of a camera’s focal length, as demonstrated in the fit-inducing (but highly illustrative) animated gif below.

hololens_fov

I built a quick app with the default Ethan character and placed a 3D Text element over him that checks the camera’s Field of View property on every update.

public class updateFOV : MonoBehaviour {
    private TextMesh _mesh;
    private GameObject stuff;
    void Awake()
    {
        _mesh = GetComponent<TextMesh>();
    }
    // Use this for initialization
    void Start () {
    }
    // Update is called once per frame
    void Update () {
        _mesh.text = System.Math.Round( Camera.main.fieldOfView, 2).ToString();
    }
}

Then I added a Keyword Manager from the HoloToolkit to handle changing the angular FOV of the camera dynamically.

public void IncreaseFOV()
{
    Camera.main.fieldOfView = Camera.main.fieldOfView + 1;
} public void DecreaseFOV()
{
    Camera.main.fieldOfView = Camera.main.fieldOfView - 1;
} public void ResetFOV()
{
    Camera.main.ResetFieldOfView();
}

When I ran the app in my HoloLens, the the fov reader started showing “17.82” instead of “16”. This must be the vertical FOV of the HoloLens – something else I’ve often wondered about. Assuming a 16:9 aspect ration, this gives a horizontal FOV of “31.68”, which is really close to what Oliver Kreylos guessed way back in 2015.

The next step was to increase the Field of View using my voice commands. There were two possible outcomes: either the Unity app would somehow override the natural FOV of the HoloLens and actually distort my view, making the Ethan model smaller as the FOV increased, or the app would just ignore whatever I did to the Main Camera’s FieldOfView property.

2782

The second thing happened. As I increased the Field Of View property from “17.82” to “27.82”, there was no change in the way the character was projected. HoloLens ignores that setting.

Something strange did happen, though, after I called the ResetFieldOfView method on the Main Camera and tried to take a picture. After resetting, the FOV Reader began retrieving the true value of the FOV again. When I tried to take a picture of this, though, the FOV jumped up to “34.11”, then dropped back to “17.82”.

3411

This, I would assume, is the vertical FOV of the locatable camera (RGB camera) on the front of the HoloLens when taking a normal picture. Assuming again a 16:9 aspect ratio, this would provide a “60.64” horizontal angular FOV. According to the documentation, though, the horizontal FOV should be “67” degrees, which is close but not quite right.

“34.11” is also close to double “17.82” so maybe it has something to do with unsplitting the render sent to each eye? Except that double would actually be “35.64” plus I don’t really know how the stereoscopic rendering pipeline works so – who knows.

In any case, I at least answered the original question that was bothering me – fiddling with that slider next to the Camera’s Field of View property doesn’t really do anything. I need to just ignore it.

How to find Great HoloLens Developers

nowwhat

Microsoft HoloLens is an amazing and novel device that is at the forward edge of a major transformation in the way we do computing, both professionally and as consumers. It has immediate applications in the enterprise, especially in fields that work heavily with 3D models such as architecture and design. It has strong coolness potential for companies working in the tradeshow space and for art installations.

Given its likelihood to eventually overtake the smartphone market in the next five to ten years, it should also be given attention in R&D departments of large corporations and the emerging experiences groups of well-heeled marketing firms.

the problem

Because it is a new technology, there is no established market for HoloLens developers. There is no certification process. There are no boards to license people. How do you find out who is good?

There are two legitimacy issues currently affecting the HoloLens world. One is unknown companies popping up flashy websites and publishing other people’s works as their own and exaggerating their capabilities. The internet is a great leveler, in this case, and it is hard to distinguish between what is real and what is fake.

Another is established consulting companies that have decent IT reputations but no HoloLens experience moving into the market in the hopes that a funded project will pay for their employees to learn on the job. I’ve cleaned up after several of these failed projects in the past year.

helpful rules

How do you avoid bad engagements like these? Here are some guidelines:

1. Make sure the companies you are looking to work with can show original work. If their websites are full of stock Microsoft images and their videos show work belonging to other people without proper attribution, run like the wind.

2. Find someone with HoloLens experience to vet these companies for you. Go to the main HoloLens discussion board at https://forums.hololens.com/ and see who is answering questions. These aren’t the only people who know about HoloLens development, but they do demonstrate their experience on a daily basis for the good of the mixed reality community.

3. See who is writing apps for the HoloLens Challenge. This contest happens every three weeks and challenges developers to build creative apps to specification in a short time span. Anyone who does well in the challenge is going to do a great job for you. Plus, you can actually see what they are capable of. They are effectively posting their CVs online.

4. Look for contributors to open source HoloLens projects like this and this and this.

5. Look for companies and individuals associated with the HoloLens Agency Readiness Program or the Microsoft MVP Emerging Experiences group. These are two of the longest running groups of developers and designers working with HoloLens and go back to 2015. These people have been thinking about mixed reality for a long time.

naming names

There are several areas in which you will want HoloLens expertise.

A. You need help conceptualizing and implementing a large project.

B. You need help creating a quick proof of concept to demonstrate how the HoloLens can help your company.

C. You need individuals to augment or train your internal developers for a project.

The best people for each of these areas are well known in the relatively small world of HoloLens developers. Unfortunately, because HoloLens is still niche work, they tend not to be well known, with a few exceptions, outside of that insular world.

So how do I know who’s the good and the great in Mixed Reality? Fair question.

I’ve been working on HoloLens interaction design and development since the HoloLens device started shipping in April of 2016 and have been writing about it since 2015. I have close relationships with many of the big players in this world as well as the indie devs who are shaping HoloLens experiences today and pushing the envelope for tomorrow. I’ve been working with emerging experiences for the past half decade starting with the original Microsoft Surface Table, to the Kinect v1 and v2 (here’s my book), to VR and the HoloLens. I’ve taught workshops on HoloLens development and am currently working on a Lynda.com course on mixed reality.

The lists below are a bit subjective, and lean towards the organizations and people I can personally vouch for. (If you think someone significant has been left off the following lists, please let me know in the comments.)

big projects

Interknowlogy and Interknowlogy Europe

Object Theory

Razorfish Emerging Experiences

Valorem

Holoforge Interactive

Taqtile

small to mid-sized projects

360 World (Hungary)

OCTO Technology (France)

Made In Holo (Germany)

Stimulant (US)

8Ninths (US)

You Are Here (US)

Truth Labs (US)

Kazendi (UK)

Nexinov (Australia / Shanghai)

Thought Experiments (US)

Studio Studio (US)

Wavelength (US)

awesome hololens / mixed reality devs

Bronwen Zande (Australia)

Nick Young (New Zealand)

Bruno Capuano (Spain / Canada – Toronto)

Kenny Wang (Canada – Toronto)

Alex Drenea (Canada – Toronto)

Vangos Pterneas (Greece / US – New York)

Nate Turley (US – New York)

Milos Paripovic (US – New York)

Dwight Goins (US – Florida)

Stephen Hodgson (US – Florida)

Jason Odom (US – Alabama)

Jesse McCulloch (US – Oregon)

Michael Hoffman (US – Oregon)

Dwayne Lamb (US – Washington)

Dong Yoon Park (US – Washington)

Cameron Vetter (US – Wisconsin)

Stephen Chiou (US – Pennsylvania)

Michelle Ma (US – Pennsylvania)

Chad Carter (US – North Carolina)

Clemente Giorio (Italy)

Matteo Valoriani (Italy)

Dennis Vroegop (Netherlands)

Jasper Brekelmans (Netherlands)

Joost Van Schaik (Netherlands)

Gian Paolo Santopaolo (Switzerland)

Rene Schulte (Germany)

Vincent Guigui (France)

Johanna Rowe Calvi (France)

Nicolas Calvi (France)

Fabrice Barbin (France)

Andras Velvart (Hungary)

Tamas Deme (Hungary)

Jessica Engstrom (Sweden)

Jimmy Engstrom (Sweden)

HoloLens and the Arts

There are roughly three classifications of experiences we can build in Mixed Reality: 

The first is the enterprise experience, which can unfairly be encapsulated as people looking at engines.

The second is the gaming experience, which can unfairly be encapsulated as squirrels playing with nuts (I’m looking at you, Conker).

And then there is art, which no one is currently doing – but they/we should be. HoloLens is the greatest media shift to happen in a long while and the potential for creating both unique entertainment and transcendent experiences is profound.

Although we typically don’t think in this way regarding the HoloLens, we can. Here are three (highly recommended) sources of inspiration for anyone interested in the Arts and Mixed Reality’s bigger potential:

golan

https://medium.com/volumetric-filmmaking James George and the people behind the RGBD depthkit are taking volumetric filmmaking head-on with a new online journal about story telling in virtual spaces. If you know these guys already, then it’s a no-brainer, but if you don’t, here’s a primer: https://vimeo.com/42852185

kusama

Yayoi Kusama is finally getting a big showing of her Infinity Mirror art at the Hirshhorn Gallery – which has already increased membership at the Hirshhorn 20x. The effects that she is producing has an obvious relationship to what we do with light – and really what we have been doing in a more or less straight line from the  Surface table to the Kinect to projection mapping and now this. It’s playing with light in a way that defies what we otherwise know about the world around us. What she does with mirrors we should be able to recreate in our HoloLenses.

ipsadixit2

Kate Soper’s 90-minute musical performance Ipsa Dixit is probably going to be the most difficult sell because it is the high-end of high art. Alex Ross in the New Yorker review of Ipsa Dixit starts off by saying the term genius these days is overused and should be retired, _but_ in the case of Ipsa Dixit … If you enjoy live performance, you know that there are still things that happen in the theater that cannot be reproduced in film and television, _but_ we can come a lot closer with mixed reality. We control 360 sound as well as 3D images the viewer can walk around. We can make either private experiences or shared experiences, and take advantage of the space the viewer occupies or occlude it. Works like Ipsa Dixit only come along once in a blue moon and they are difficult to get to see in the right way. With mixed reality, we have a medium that is able to capture the essence of genius performances like this and allow a much larger audience to experience them.

Between casual gaming and social media, the main influence of technology over the past 20 years has been to create a generation of people with extremely short attention spans. Where tl;dr started off as an ironic comment on our collective inability to concentrate, it has now become an excuse for shallow thinking and the normalization of aspergersy behavior. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Mixed reality has the potential to change all that, finally, and give us an opportunity to have a more human and thoughtful relationship to our tech.

Older but not wiser

In late December I tried making some infrastructure changes to my blog, which is hosted on Microsoft Azure, and managed to hose the whole thing. Because I’m a devotee of doing things the long way, I spent the next two months learning about Docker containers and command line tools only to discover that Docker wasn’t my problem at all. There was something wrong with the way I’d configured my Linux VM and something to do with a button I’d pressed without looking at the warnings as closely as they warranted.

Long story short, I finally just blew away that VM and slowly reconstructed my blog from post fragments and backups I found on various machines around the house.

I still need to go through and reconstruct the WordPress categories. For now, though, I will take a moment to pause and reflect on the folly of my technical ways.