DNA Computing & Parallel Worlds..oh, and an Update on MindFlesh

Wow - it's already the start of July. This is a bumper update because I've had my nose to the grindstone for weeks...er.. and I went on holiday last week to Rhodes (the Greek island)...and there's lots to say. Here's the headings:

• MindFlesh update
• Books I've read recently

MindFlesh update

Picture progress...

Three of the four reels have now passed stage one (of two) - which means they've been graded and special effects added. They haven't been given an overall "look" yet and some SFX shots need to be tweaked but all-in-all progress is pretty good. I hope that by the end of July all the picture grading and SFX will be complete... at least to a really good stage :) I'm not planning to screen the film until Jan 2008 at the earliest so that gives me time to (a) improve any SFX I fancy and (b) find out how I'm going to get the hi-def image files off my PC and onto a HDCAM tape for screening! On the last point, watch this space.

Sound progress...

Matt the editor has now transferred all the Final Cut Pro (FCP) reels to ProTools where he's made a start at organising everything into tracks - vocals, production sound, sound effects, music, atmos etc.
Meanwhile Arban the composer has completed about 95% of the music so all that remains is a final (music) mix and then we can slot it into Matt's ProTools projects.

Books I've Read Recently

Did I mention I spent last week basking in the sun and I'm now a bronze Adonis? Oh... then that's probably because I was hiding in the shade with the redheads and babies :) Forty degrees...luvvly.

Anyway, at the airport I picked up two books, Genesis Machines: The New Science of Biocomputing and Parallel Worlds: The Science of Alternative Universes and Our Future in the Cosmos. Is it me or are subtitles getting longer? :)

Believe it or not I wasn't on the look-out for a book on biocomputing but it just happened to be the store and I thought it looked interesting. There's an important lesson in distribution there. Anyhow, despite what you might think, it's actually quite a riveting read and I couldn't put it down. It's not at all about living computers, computers made of flesh, stolen pregnant embryonic fluids or anything in the slightest ethically disturbing. It's about using DNA, enzymes and other microbiological chemicals to perform discrete computing tasks...or maybe not because it's all still theorize-build-trial-and-error. What makes the book enjoyable is the author's tone although I could have done with a few more diagrams. The author also has this tendency to provide examples for the easiest concepts and then skip over the more challenging. It reminded me of my school chemistry teacher who used to dictate his lectures - example: "use a 'deflagrating spoon'... thats spelt  's' 'p' 'o' 'o' 'n'". Amazingly the book inspired me to refresh my programming skills and while sunning myself by the pool I knocked-up a little program in Excel that plays Rummy using fuzzy logic. Yeah, I know it's a bit nerdy but it's not much worse than playing su doku all holiday.