1000 blank white cards

From the site:

1000 Blank White Cards is a card game, the purpose of which is to create the cards you're playing with. The original version of the game was created by Nathan McQuillan of Madison, Wisconsin. I originally learned about that version of the game here, although that page hasn't been updated in a while.

This new edition of the game was created in late 2001 by Riff Conner, and has been extensively playtested by the Discordian Intelligence Agency - Riff Conner, Mark and Kelly Hennies, and David Youtz - along with various guest stars.  Several rules guidelines have been added, for the purpose of giving it a more gamelike framework.

http://www.geocities.com/nconner23/bwcards.html

filling algorithms

levitated.net now has two nice filling altorithms. take a look at the source if you are interested.

http://www.levitated.net/daily/levEmotionFractal.html

http://www.levitated.net/daily/levBoxFitting.html

It's interesting to see the different approaches each takes. In the first example, the Emotion Fractal, it is the world itself (the space to be filled) that is aware of it's inhabitants. It uses a recursive function to partition it's land, and fills itself based on those divisions. This approach, while much faster than the second, is much different than the box example.

In the Box-Filling experiment, the world knows nothing about itself and it's inhabitants. The boxes are each given a simple set of instructions, and based on those, the world is filled.

This takes much longer, but is more interesting in that it is very lifelike. These boxes could adapt to any space, and create patterns much more complex and unique than those created by the smart world. Clearly, even rudimentary alife systems like Conway's Life are more complex than this, but I liked these systems because they nicely illustrate the different approaches taken towards this problem.

siggraph

so, while it was rather tedious at times, I must thank my friend for letting me stay with him in San Diego for a week so that I could go to a lot of stuff at siggraph. below is the stuff you should look at if interested, because you didn't see at emerging tech, and most certainly didn't see on the exhibition floor.

All info pulled directly from the siggraph page.

Little Red MR: Storytelling in Mixed Reality
Mixed-reality systems as a storytelling interface, using picture books as a metaphor. "Little Red" implements methods of re-creating literary work in 3D using MR techniques. url

Office Voodoo: A Real-Time Editing Engine for an Algorithmic Sitcom
An interactive sitcom running on a real-time, shot-based editing engine where viewers can control the emotions of the characters in the film using physical voodoo dolls. url

Textable Movie: Improvising With a Personal Movie Database
A graphical interface that invites a storyteller of any age to compose and visualize movies, images, and sound environments while writing a story. url

Social Network Fragments: An Interactive Tool for Exploring Digital Social Connections
A novel application for interactively visualizing the interpersonal networks that emerge during email interactions. While people have complex email interrelationships, no previous tool allows examination of an emailer's overall network. url

Processing: A Learning Environment for Creating Interactive Web Graphics
Processing is a context for exploring the emerging conceptual space enabled by electronic media. It is a new language and environment for developing interactive web graphics. url

Touchy.Internet: A Cybernetic System for Human-Pet Interaction Through the Internet
An innovative cybernetic system for human-pet physical touch interaction over the internet that delivers the sense of physical and emotional presence between man and animal.url