Building the Perfect Reputational Beast

One of the sore spots in the Real Estate Industry is a missing reputational model for evaluating professionals and their services. Since there isn't an open and neutral model which already exists, I started modelling a potential application. Below is a use-case diagram modelling potential actors, scenarios, and associations for an application:

As you can see, I've defined just three types of Actors: Professionals, References, and Guests. I've also defined two external entities, OpenID and a web service. The scenarios listed are a first pass and expect to refactor their associations while adding/removing some. I won't go into detail here regarding the scenarios, but if you would like to follow the wave and/or offer comments, please feel free to contact me on google wave. My gwave account is corey.leong@googlewave.com.

My next step in this process is to create component, deployment, and behavioural diagrams. I'll post these also to my blog in the future.

--Corey

DIY Mobile Coaching Video System

A Sony PSP connected to an HDTV Sharp Monitor via component av cable.

For the past two seasons, I've been experimenting with the idea of showing and reviewing game video to my players at practices for instructional purposes. My players are between the ages of 9 to 12 and are heavily into video gaming such as Modern Warfare 2 and NBA 2k10. So integrating
video with a gaming device seemed like a perfect match for displaying our film footage from games.

In creating a solution I decided to use a handheld PSP, a component av cable, and an HD 19" monitor. The specific hardware follows:

• PSP 2000 Console


• PSP Component AV Cable


• 19" Sharp 720p LCD HDTV


• Sony 8 GB Memory Stick PRO Duo

Once I have the previous game encoded into an mp4 format I then connect the psp to one my macs via usb cable. I then copy the mp4 file to the memory stick on the PSP. The average size for an mp4 game file is about 200mb.

After disconnecting the PSP from the mac, I then connect the PSP to the HDTV with the component AV cable. On the HDTV, I select the correct input. And finally, on the PSP navigate to Settings > Connected Display Settings > Switch Video Out > Select 'Yes' when asked if you want to display output on a connected device? > Video > the mp4 game file.

To playback, fastforward, or rewind just use the navigational keys and video options on the PSP.

For a future direction, I look forward to Apple's tablet being released in 2010. A tablet would eliminate the need for a stationary monitor and separate handheld device and merge the two together.

--Corey