Mark's Tech Blog

If you’re an iPad user with young kids and you haven’t heard about OSMO yet, which planet have you been on?

Making use of a unique periscope like mirror system attached over the front camera of your iPad (2 and above, Minis included), it allows for interaction with the application by doing things (arranging shapes, writing, drawing, etc) at the area just infront of the iPad’s screen. Designed primarily for kids, the technology uses the front camera to scan objects, shapes and even well defined drawn outlines in real time back into the application which can then alter the way the application runs.

The Newton game for exaple, requires kids to get balls dropping from the top of the screen to hit a particular target. The kids can put objects or draw lines in the space infront of the iPad (on a piece of paper of course!) and the line or object will be scanned (very roughly) into the game and the balls will bounce, or roll off the shape.

There is also Tangram, which challenges the player to form predefined designs using solid colored shapes (part of the set). Words is a fun way for kids to learn spelling by forming the words using square pieces with letters (also part of the set) depicting the picture shown on the iPad. You can even upload your own pictures and create your own game for your kids.

I got a set for Hayden during their launch period for about S$80 and its been a hit – he loves Newton and Tangram and I think he is almost done with all the Tangram designs. The system is safe and easy enough for him to setup on his own without an adult present too.

If you’ve got young kids, check the website out and get one, your kids will love it and folks won’t be bugging you about kids with iPads not learning anything useful!

UPDATE:

OSMO have just released a new app called ‘Masterpiece’ – a drawing application using the OSMO system thats pretty fun! Check it out here.

This is what occupied the bulk of my time this year – about 5 months of it in fact, from late April till early October. Lots of things happened during that time and I was very quickly reminded of why I didn’t particularly enjoy Data Center (DC) design and construction projects. Its hard enough coming to an agreement with the contractors on the design, especially when we know what we want, whats available and what the vendor can do and the sub contractors are trying to find ways to do things easily and quickly and hence telling you everything you want “can’t be done” (good thing our main contractor was a solid chap who kept the sub contractors in line for the most part), but when you throw in the estate and facilities management teams who have no clue about DC design and construction and are trying to force every rule in the book down your throats, then its basically a nightmare. The number of people I had to tell off and put down in those 5 months, must have set some kind of record. I’ll spare you the details.

We designed the DC from scratch and thankfully the tender process selected a good vendor to deliver and they (eventually) did. The  DC has temperature control, water leak detection, FM200 fire suppression, proximity card and biometric access, SMS and email alert systems, a redundant auto cut in/out UPS with an hour long rundown time (an nearly 2 meter high cabinet full of batteries) and remote access/monitoring of almost everything. The DC can take up to twelve 42U racks (yes its small, but comfortable for what we need to do) with each rack drawing a maximum of 7kW of power, 40 network ports and a sustained 16 degree temperature (courtesy of 6 FCUs working on rotation). Not to mention our sweet offices (exact replicas of what we had at the old location) and a tiny lounge area (which is kind of difficult to lounge in given that its 16 degrees outside our offices – maybe time to look at ceiling mounted infra-red heaters).

Pretty happy with how the place turned out and I hope to have all the boxes and stuff we brought up from the old place cleaned up before June next year (hopefully).