Welcome to the johncarling.com website.  This part of the site is run by a content management system so if you don’t like the look and feel you can change it with the dropdown below at the side somewhere. Sometimes you may have to login to see it.

If you want to add something to the site you can register and start writing or uploading pictures. It is very easy to do and you don't need any html skills or to have edited a website before. We don't allow spam or any offensive remarks, but pretty much anything else goes in some parts.

Links down the side will take you to other areas of the site. Make sure you check out the cool 3d in various sections. At the moment most work is going into the Historic Houses section but the stage lighting simulation and anatomy work is also worth looking at.  Be aware that some of the 3d work will not work on every computer. Some requires you to have Java installed and some needs the free Adobe Director Shockwave plugin.

You can find out more by looking at the frequently asked questions or FAQs link.

Bayleaf is a beautiful house at the excellent Weald and Downland museum. This is something like the Bayleaf timber structure (from memory) but without all the textures. Because of the 64 bit Director Shockwave problem I've used Wirefusion which requires Java. This model is only a proof of concept and will be checked for accuracy and have textures added in the near future, but it does give a basic idea of the main parts of the timber frame and, with a bit of imagination, what the final interaction might look like. 

Bayleaf itself is well worth visiting. The staff and volunteers at the museum are immensely knowledgeable and often they make sure there is someone with expert knowledge in the larger houses who is more than happy to chat to anyone passing through.

 An anatomy exploration tool for school children developed for digitalbrain is available here.

This is part of a project to put an interactive human anatomy model online for schools. When looking at it first find the light and turn it on! Buttons show and hide parts of the body or move it in a controlled way. You can also drag the model about in any direction with the mouse or use the arrow keys to move in and out or around. To reset press the F5 key.

The early versions are aimed at schools and people wishing to look at human anatomy in an interesting and interactive way. Although some nurses and trainee medical students have found the model useful they usually require a more detailed tool.

The version of the model here is about 1 Mb, or for more anatomy information and the model visit anatomy.digitalbrain.com. A slightly larger version (1.6Mb) is here.

Besides being useful for science lessons this is also very useful for art lessons.

Many shops in medieval times were built roughly along the same pattern. They had a large front door and either one or two unglazed openings at the front. If instead of walking into the shop you walked down the long passage you usually came to a hall. This would often have had an open fire and a large table with some stools, maybe a cupboard or two and some other bits of simple wooden furniture.  

There would have been either a stair way or a ladder up to a bedroom. This, room would have had unglazed windows with shutters and sometimes there was an upper continuation of the hallway.

Many people were too poor to have candles and for many they were a comparative luxury. There were no paraffin wax candles which most of ours are, they were made of beeswax or tallow, a type of animal fat. Frequently people used spills instead because they were cheaper. Often if you have a fire you might not use even them. The firelight would frequently light the room sufficiently as most people did not need to be able to see well enough to read, although it was common for women to sew in poor light.