Blob

Computer graphics modelling technique using implicit surfaces. Also the nickname of the inventor of the technique, a computer science professor at the University of Calgary. Blobs are very useful for modelling smooth shapes, such as gummi bears and water balloons. They also turn out to be good for rendering hair and fur and flame and smoke in particle systems. Can be compared with NURBS, which have trouble with making smooth patches and forming good cusps.

As an example of what modelling with blobs would look like, imagine taking two point charges of like charge. They will form an electrostatic field. Each alone forms a radially-symmetric field, where any isosurface is a sphere. If the two points are brought together, the isosurfaces will distort towards each other, until they touch, and meld. (Think of silly putty.) Similarly, it is possible to have points with a negative charge. This is a fairly good way of thinking of modelling with blobs. You can also (sometimes) have lines as sources of the surfaces.

Title: Blob
Author: Jonnathan Hilliard
Released: Christmas 1993 by Core Design
No. of disks: 1
HDD installable: Yes, copy the disk to a directory named "Blob"
Languages: English
RAM: one half meg required

A vertically scrolling platform game who's central character is always fixed relative to your view. Your view is about five metres above the blob. When blob jumps it doesn't move, it's always fixed five metres below your view, but the entire world shrinks and fades below (in glorious 32 colours).

It all worked quite well - Blob bouncing in the blackness of space - ever upwards to the exit. Amiga Power said "watching it plummet to its death is a sight that can reduce even grown men to tears". In a similar vein to Bob's Bad Day (or Nebulus for that matter) in that the strange viewing angle is what makes you able to rediscover the simple joys of bouncing along.

It was fairly generic platform stuff. Jump on bad guys. Step on pressure sensors to make integral stepping stones appear. Amiga Power gave it 88%

Although most magazines credit the game's construction to Core Designs it was done entirely by Jonnathan Hilliard for a job interview at Core. Core had little to do with the game aside from the box artwork and promotion. Jon now works at Lucky Chicken games.

A memeber of the Marvel Universe, specifically the X-Men aspect of it. The Blob was a staple in the cartoon, comic, and video game aspect of the X-Men. The Blob also made an appearance in the Spider Man aspect of the universe as well.

Fred Dukes began to use his mutant powers in a freak show, where his oversized body and mass attracted many visitors. His life would stay like this if not for Magneto. When the master of magnetism was forming the first Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, he went for Dukes. Then he learned how to use his powers in evil ways, controlling his density to make himself immovable and to trap others inside his fat. He, along with the other members of the Brotherhood, became one of the X-Men worse enemies, fighting many times against them.

After Magneto left the leadership of the Brotherhood, Mystique became their leader. Their first mission was to kill Senator Kelly, but the New X-Men stopped him and the other. The Blob was arrested, but set free some time after by Mystique and Rogue. Some months later, when the government offered the Brotherhood to become the Freedom Force, Blob turned into a worker of the government, but not for a long time. During a mission to save a scientist, almost all of the Freedom Force members died fighting against the group that had kidnapped the scientist. Blob and Pyro escaped. They both returned to the Brotherhood when Toad formed the third incarnation of the team. This Brotherhood did not make many problems, and the Blob vanished for some time.

Fred recently returned, fighting with X-Force with his powers enhanced by Onslaught. X-Force defeated him, but the Mimic saved Fred. This two fought Warpth and Risque and it seems that he, the Mimic and Risque used to work for the same man and that Fred and the Mimic are still working for him. In addition, the Blob showed up and fought Maverick, after a bar discussion.

In his last appearance, Blob was a member of a Brotherhood that liberated Xavier from the Hulkbuster Base. Cerebro captured this group, and their whereabouts are unknown.

Original name of the foremost (in relative geographic terms) crested Rockhopper (also Eudyptes chrysocome) penguin at the NEA in Boston. According to rumor, after many years of being Blob, Blob now has a more serious, educational, and scientifically oriented name, but Blob is much easier to remember.

Much of the time Blob stands on a meter square faux islet just off the shores of Rockhopper Island in the back corner of the colony or tray. His main activity between thrice daily feedings of prepared fish seems to be rock collecting. Many of the 50 or so penguins have collected pebbles and small stones to build rock nests, but Blob — with his own little kingdom — seems to have the greatest obsession and the best art. I have only ever seen him go for a swim to fetch more of his precious rocks.

My understanding is that to date Blob has not found a mate. Perhaps it is because he is upstaged by the far more famous Pinacho, star of the movie Next Stop Wonderland, who stands at attention a couple of feet back and above Blob's fort.

How did he get the name Blob? Hard for me to say. It doesn't fit him any better than it would any other healthy Rockhopper. My guess is that he is part of the group of arrivals that included Sting and Psycho Killer. Immigration must have been in a funny mood...

bloatware = B = block

BLOB

1. n. [acronym: Binary Large OBject] Used by database people to refer to any random large block of bits that needs to be stored in a database, such as a picture or sound file. The essential point about a BLOB is that it's an object that cannot be interpreted within the database itself. 2. v. To mailbomb someone by sending a BLOB to him/her; esp. used as a mild threat. "If that program crashes again, I'm going to BLOB the core dump to you."

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

Blob (?), n. [See Bleb.]

1.

Something blunt and round; a small drop or lump of something viscid or thick; a drop; a bubble; a blister.

Wright.

2. Zool.

A small fresh-water fish (Uranidea Richardsoni); the miller's thumb.

 

© Webster 1913.