Cool Stuff and Nifty Animations and Videos


Surviving slashdot'ing with a small server. A description of the web/ftp server providing these web pages. Also describes the server's response to load demands that accompany this site's listing on the web news service "slashdot.org," Includes some interesting data about the slashdot event itself.

Magellan's Venus: Atla Regio (35M mpg music video). NASA's Magellan spacecraft orbited the planet Venus from 1990 to 1993 collecting Synthetic Aperature Radar and Altimetry data. This computer generated flyby is of a section of Venus named "Atla Regio." The video images were created from Magellan data and set to music. They explore the mountain chain and volcanos near the planet's equator. Here is a full-res version of the same Atla Regio Flyby (125M mpg) and here's a Windows Media version (16M).

HydroFracture (37M mpeg music video) Seismic verification of hydraulic fracture from data collected by the Bellaire Research Center in Houston, Texas. Fluid pumped under pressure over several days causes a series of underground fractures which are mapped by seismographic instruments deployed in three surrounding monitor wells. Here's a full-res version (125M mpeg) and also a Windows media verson (8M).

Video Dance 1995 (50 Mb mpeg music video). with friends Kevin and Theresa. Video compositing and metrical rhythmic movement triggers. I especially like the dancing hands. Here's a Windows Media version (23 Mb) of the same thing.

Video Poem 1995 (33 Mb mpeg music video). Theresa, Kevin, Chess-Boy, and friends. Animations by our (then brand-new) SGI Workstation. Here's a full res version (136M) and here is a Windows Media version (16 Mb).

Fun with Motion Capture (552k mpeg) There is a security camera outside my office door, looking down the hallway towards the student computer lab. A computer grabs frames several times per second and compares them to a reference frame. If their differences are large enough it timestamps the images and saves them. This is an mpeg movie of the movement outside my office door, shown backwards just for fun. The asterix (*) at the beginning of some timestamps indicates that the computer thinks someone is standing outside my office door in the image. That's me towards the end, spinning down the hallway and thumbing my nose at the camera.

[movie icon]RocketCam I (1M mpeg). Our friend Mark Sims, holder of several World Records for high-power rocketry, mounted a small Digital Video camera in the nose cone of A Very Large Rocket. The camera shuts down with the jolt of the parachute opening. You'll have to imagine the tremendous whoosh of the rocket engine at liftoff.

[movie icon]RocketCam II (1.4M mpeg). Another of Mark's rocket-borne video cameras documents a perfect launch followed by a pre-mature ejection. Look closely at the first few frames of the launch for Gumby and Pokey spinning head-over-heels off the launch pad. Another silent film.

camera carGeological Sciences Remotely Piloted Vehicle (3.2M mpeg). This is a radio controlled car with a television camera and transmitter attached. We sit in front of a TV set in my office or downstairs in the National Data Center and drive it around the building by remote control in the wee hours of the morning. There is some more detailed information on the robots webpage. This mpeg movie shows the car worrying a trashcan free from the wall and pushing it down the stairs and running away like a naughty child. That particular trashcan still sits next to the water fountain at the front entrance of the Heroy building. The lid doesn't fit any more. I think they've moved the lid outdoors to the concrete ashtray on the porch. I hope none of the SMU custodians ever look at these web pages...

robotsAutonomous Robots. Descriptions, images, and videos of these award winning robots in action around the SMU Heroy Building, around the house, and around the contest course. The one pictured here, nBot, solves the inverted pendulum problem for a moving platform. It can balance on two wheels and drive by leaning forward at exactly the correct angle to counteract the torque needed for locomotion.

David at Carnegie HallDavid's Music. David at Carnegie Hall with the BL Lacerta Quartet. Like many programmers and systems analysts, I studied music in college and have a bachelor degree in music theory and composition. I've performed professionally in the US and Europe since the mid-1970's. Here is a link to some pictures and mp3 files.

Jonathan plays his VibesJonathan's Music. Jonathan Michael Hodges Anderson, percussionist and composer. Music and video from the UNT Drumline, Steel Band, Phantom Regiment, and 2008 Senior Composition Recital.

Robert flies his TREX-500Friends Flying Helis. Robert, Rusty, Anthony, Marcelo, and George perform incredible gymnastics with their R/C helicopters.

Breanna en ArabesqueDance at SMU. Multi-talented geophysicist/dance/choreographer and SMU alumnus Breanna Gribble along with Nina Watt, Lauren Thompson, Kim Corbet, David Anderson, and the SMU Division of Dance.

Jose Bowen and JamPactJamPact mp3. SMU Meadows Dean Jose Bowen and JamPact ensemble present Cafe Jazz improvisation and pizza.



Here is a link to our current attempt at a live video feed.




SMU Geological Sciences Archive


last update: 17 August 2014 dpa
SMU (c) 1993-2014 David P. Anderson
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons License.