As a Unity XR prototyper, I'm always eager to explore new technologies and tools that can help me push the boundaries of what's possible. Recently, I have had the pleasure of trying out Auki Lab's ConjureKit SDK and experimenting with its monocular hand tracker (by the way, neither LIDaR nor depth sensors are required, the hand tracker just works with one RGB camera.) In my test scene, I spawned a few spheres, the user can touch the spheres which will deform a bit and move. I needed to create a grid pattern that would make the deformation more visible. Since I'm not an expert in shader programming, I decided to try using ChatGPT (OpenAI) to generate an HLSL script.

The late Paul Allen's research vessel, the Petrel, has found another historic warship at the bottom of the ocean. In the wake of an initial discovery in late January, the expedition crew has confirmed that it found the USS Hornet, an aircraft carrier that played a pivotal role in WWII through moments like the Doolittle Raid on Japan and the pivotal Battle of Midway. It was considered lost when it sank at the Battle of Santa Cruz in October 1943, but modern technology spotted it nearly 17,500 feet below the surface of the South Pacific Ocean, near the Solomon Islands. The team initially narrowed down its search area by using data from the era, such as action reports and deck logs from other ships involved in the Santa Cruz fight. From there, tech took over.

I often sit back and watch certain things quietly. This past week has been one of those moments. An article this weekend in the British media brought up the old and oft disproven argument about the"warming pause." However, as scientists dug into this latest desperate "Hail Mary" pass, it was apparent that there was more to this latest saga. My colleagues Phil Plait at Blastr and Andrew Freedman at Mashable have written excellent pieces laying out how scientists debunked these latest claims.