Converting screen coordinates to OpenGL coordinates

This article looked interesting.

http://nehe.gamedev.net/data/articles/article.asp?article=13

gluUnProject converts Windows screen coordinates to OpenGL coordinates. This means that you can get the position of your mouse on an OpenGL Window and use this method to find the x, y and z coordinate of where you clicked.

These people posted a blog entry about it:

http://gamedevofdoom.wordpress.com/

I don't know them and have not tried the code from the nehe site, but it is a start.

Ruby online sample program

http://tryruby.hobix.com

This site has an online version of Ruby to try without needing to install anything.

Java 3D

Java 3D sounded like an interesting concept for doing portable 3-d graphics. However, I don't really like the idea of needing to install a plugin for it to run. For instance, a library computer may not grant enough access for the plugin to be downloaded and successfully installed.

More recently JOGL has gotten some attention. However I tried some demo applets and they also did not run on a pc without a plugin.

Robotics store in Southern California

http://www.tinmanrobotics.com/

A store specializing in robotics is available in Southern California now.

Mac, Qt toolkit, C++

There are some new posts from last month at this blog:

http://thadbeier.blogspot.com/

Thad is a technical partner at Hammerhead productions.

His recent posts describe his experience with porting some code to a Mac and the Qt UI toolkit.

3-d desktop scanner

This company has a 3-d laser scanner for the desktop.

https://www.nextengine.com/indexSecure.htm

I am curious as to whether these types of devices are used in industry.

Blender 2.5

There is some news about blender 2.50.

http://www.blendernation.com/2007/12/28/first-architecture-sketches-of-blender-250/

I am interested in object oriented programming, and one of the changes discussed is a redesign to use the model-view-controller architectural pattern.

A multi-touch interface was briefly mentioned. The transcript also contained the concept of an "operator" that sounded like the gof command pattern.

Python scripting was part of their discussion. I still have not gotten much experience with Python.

I've read the mvc pattern is also often used in web frameworks, like Ruby on Rails. I still would like to learn more about that tool as well.

php mysql golive and paypal

http://www.developertutorials.com/tutorials/php/php-and-mysql-with-paypal-7-11-14/page1.html

This link has a tutorial for using php, mysql, and paypal to enable an e-commerce site. Adobe GoLive is used.

some graphics related online demos

This site accompanies the book Subdivision Methods For Geometric Design: A Constructive Approach" by Joe Warren and Henrik Weimer. I do not have the book, but the web site looks interesting.
http://www.subdivision.org/demos/index.html

from a different site:
Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Processing is developed by artists and designers as an alternative to proprietary software tools in the same domain.

http://processing.org/learning/3d/index.html