Newway to shop on Facebook

FACEBOOK is testing a service that could drive more of its over one billion users off the web and into physical shops and stores – if only to continue using the web via free WiFi access when they check in with the social media site.

Users who check in via Facebook when entering a store that supports the technology would be directed to that business or brand’s Facebook homepage, where further offers or discounts could be available.

Although Facebook hasn’t officially stated where the trial is taking place or how many businesses are involved, it is understood that rather than being forced to open up their own networks and, therefore, potential malware and other problems topassingcustomers, businesses taking part in the trial will be using special routers provided by Facebook, according to the website InsideFacebook.

The routers will also provide non-Facebook users with access to theWiFi hotspot, via a password.

As well as increasing footfall and passing trade for physical businesses, the feature could also prove to be another boost to Facebook’s mobile ad revenue streams. As more Facebook’s users are nowmobile, the site and its advertisers could benefit from targeting them with localised promotional offers. – AFPRelaxnews

Finding Nemo In 3D Interview

LEE UNKRICH, the vice president of editorial and layout at Pixar Animation Studios, is also an Oscar-winning director for best animated feature on Disney•Pixar’s critically-acclaimed box-office hit Toy Story 3.
He was also nominated by the Academy in the category of best adapted screenplay for his story credit on the film. Unkrich began his Pixar career in 1994 as a film editor on Toy Story and was supervising film editor on A Bug’s Life as well as numerous other Pixar films.


He co-directed Monsters, Inc and the Golden Globe-winning Toy Story 2, before sharing directing credits with Andrew Stanton on the 2003 hit, Finding Nemo. This stunning underwater adventure was produced by
Graham Walters, with an Oscar-nominated screenplay by Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds.


Teeming with memorable comedic characters and heartfelt emotion, Finding Nemo follows the momentous journey of an overprotective clownfish named Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks) and his young son Nemo (voiced by Alexander Gould) – who become separated in the Great Barrier Reef when Nemo is unexpectedly taken far from his ocean home to a fish tank in a dentist’s office.


Buoyed by the companionship of Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres), a friendly-butforgetful blue tang fish, Marlin embarks on a dangerous trek and finds himself the unlikely hero of an epic effort to rescue his son who
hatches a few daring plans of his own to return safely home.


Finding Nemo now returns to the big screen in thrilling Disney Digital 3D for the first time. Here Unkrich talks about this new development.


What were your thoughts when you first saw the movie in 3D?
“I was pretty staggered when I saw Finding Nemo in 3D, because we hadn’t designed the film to be a 3D film and it was so amazing to see how much of it looked like we had. “Everything from Bruce the shark lunging at the camera to the amazing scene with all the jellyfish to what is probably my favourite part of the movie in


3D, which is Nemo and his dad going through the coral reef on their way to his first day of school. That scene was so lovely – so colourful and rich in detail – and now there’s a whole new element that really brings it to life and gives it so much depth.”


What makes Finding Nemo such a good film in 3D?
“When we were making Finding Nemo in 2D all those years ago, we worked really hard to give a sense of depth to the images because so much of the movie was taking place in the ocean, in open water – and that could have easily felt very flat. So we did a lot of work to the look of the water to give it a sense of depth.
“Even the scenes in the movie that have nothing in them – when it’s just Marlin and Dory in open water with nothing around them – look cool in 3D because we did so much work putting all these little tiny particles and
bubbles in the water.”


Are there any specific scenes in which 3D really helps express the storyline?
“I was really impressed by the scene in the East Australian Current with Crush and all the sea turtles. We struggled when we made the original film to define that shape in the space – this weird current of water flowing through open ocean.

“The scene with the sharks is really cool, especially when we first meet Bruce, the Great White – he’s lunging at the camera and his teeth are coming right at the audience. It was fun in the original version and it’s really cool in 3D.”


Are you excited that the film will be in theatres again?
“Absolutely. I feel so fortunate to have worked on Finding Nemo and to have helped make a film that generation after generation seems to love. It’s exciting to have it back in theatres again because I strongly believe that the best place to see a movie for the first time is in a movie theatre.

“I’m glad that by releasing it in 3D, a new generation will see it as it was meant to be seen – up on the big screen.

“One of the neat things about 3D is that it can elevate the emotional intimacy with the audience. People get drawn in – it can be a little more intense than when you’re watching a 2D film.

“With Finding Nemo in particular, I think people are going to find that they’re experiencing this world and these characters in a way that they never have before.” – Walt Disney Pictures

THE SUN 2012-11-09 PAGE 21

Software Engineering Case Studies

No scene from prehistory is quite so vivid as that of the mortal
struggles of great beasts in the tar pits. In the mind’s eye one sees
dinosaurs, mammoths, and sabertoothed tigers struggling against
the grip of the tar. The fiercer the struggle, the more entangling the
tar, and no beast is so strong or so skillful but that he ultimately
sinks.

Large-system programming has over the past decade been
such a tar pit, and many great and powerful beasts have thrashed
violently in it. Most have emerged with running systems—few
have met goals, schedules, and budgets. Large and small, massive
or wiry, team after team has become entangled in the tar. No one
thing seems to cause the difficulty—any particular paw can be
pulled away. But the accumulation of simultaneous and interacting
factors brings slower and slower motion. Everyone seems to
have been surprised by the stickiness of the problem, and it is hard
to discern the nature of it. But we must try to understand it if we
are to solve it.

Therefore let us begin by identifying the craft of system programming
and the joys and woes inherent in it. (read more)

More software projects have gone awry for lack of calendar time
than for all other causes combined. Why is this cause of disaster
so common?

First, our techniques of estimating are poorly developed. More
seriously, they reflect an unvoiced assumption which is quite untrue,
i.e., that all will go well.

Second, our estimating techniques fallaciously confuse effort
with progress, hiding the assumption that men and months are
interchangeable.

Third, because we are uncertain of our estimates, software
managers often lack the courteous stubbornness of Antoine’s chef.

Fourth, schedule progress is poorly monitored. Techniques
proven and routine in other engineering disciplines are considered
radical innovations in software engineering.

Fifth, when schedule slippage is recognized, the natural (and
traditional) response is to add manpower. Like dousing a fire with
gasoline, this makes matters worse, much worse. More fire requires
more gasoline, and thus begins a regenerative cycle which
ends in disaster.

Schedule monitoring will be the subject of a separate essay.
Let us consider other aspects of the problem in more detail.

(Read More)