090909, HKU

It was 09.09 in the morning of 090909 when I took the train to the Hague. It is a 20 minutes journey from Schiedam to Holland Spoor and I usually take a walk to the office from there.

There was nobody when I arrived. I opened the door for the first time with my own key and started working. In a few minutes Graham and his partner Robbert appeared too. I got the sources from Robbert and directly begun to study them.

The sources are written in Java by Tim. The source is based on Java4Skype API. Java4Skype is a project started by a Japanese and a Dutch guy. It gives possibility to write plugins for Skype in Java. The source contains about 10 classes. Some of them are the user interfaces and others are for other reasons. This plugin is made to control the movable WebCam remotely when Skype is running. It can turn the camera to right, left, up and down. It can also zoom in or out. The plugin uses the very well-known serial communication Serial Port COM. In order to get that, a usb-serial converter is needed on a mac mini.
Well, I got a converter and a bunch of cables from Graham with a WebCam and I started my trial to understand the code. After a few hours trying, I could finally get the software work and be able to move the camera around. The Extention from Comport to the Webcam jack was eventually damaged. But we succeeded to get a result. Well, to be honest, the extension was not the only problem. Some Jar libraries were also missing when I got the source from Robbert. So I had to google and find the right ones.

It was about two hours in the afternoon when I went for a break with my colleague Annelies. After finding the sandwich shop, we got two sandwiches. One for her and one for Robbert. They seemed deliciouse ;) and after the break the work continued.

I continued studying the code and at the end of the day I made an appointment with my traineeship coach Mr. Abdel Ghany for friday to sign the contract with Graham.

The next day I, Graham, Christina and Annelies went to HKU for the kick off. HKU is the Utrecht School of the Arts in Utrecht. Graham has thaught for a few years there. We met a new group there who also work on the CyberCity project. Rick, Rene, Nick, Klara, Julien, Martha, Nicolo and Daniele are the members of the new group from HKU. We all introduced ourselves and the kick was off ;). Many things were discussed. It helped me to get a better image of the project on which we work.
The team is very energetic and enthausiast about the project. I hope it will continue that way, and I as see Christina and Graham, they keep up the spirit of the group.

On the way back to the Hague Christina told us that we might be sponsored to go Essen to see the exhibition hall. It seems very interesting as Essen is the cultural capital of 2010. Well, until then... let's wait :)