collision

hrm. yeah. spent most of today *perfecting* the collision algorithm. the algorithm does work perfectly (thanks to peter), although it's implementation within this project still has maybe 1 or 2 minor bugs. much better though. still working out all the rules and trying to design a few of the different stages, builing up, building down, etc., and trying to decide if I want to have any instructions or not...leaning towards not. the backgrounds work nicely, I think -- just some early russian constructivist stuff, but they definitely fit nicely into the overall look and idea behind this game/puzzle/toy.

Grey Tuesday

Today is Grey Tuesday

NOTICE: EMI has begun sent cease and desist letters to many of the participating sites in an attempt to stop this protest. This intimidation tactic has not stopped us. EMI's censorship attempts are the reason why we called for the protest, the reason why so many people chose to join the protest, and they’re the reason why the protest will continue. Please read the letter that Downhill Battle received from EMI and our response, here.

Even if you hate all music, download this album.

kottke.org is grey today because I believe that musical sampling without prior consent of the copyright holder should be legally allowed because it does our society more good than harm.

eco-puzzle, another iteration

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army of clerks

oh man, so cool.

Army of clerks proposes an architecture which consists of self-organising algorithmic processes. It tries to develop new architectural aesthetics which are not grounded on the creative genius of the architect, but on the relentless accumulation of unintelligent calculations, a mindless arithmetic performed by computational armies of clerks.

via archinect>

mogwai: remix this album

was just looking at the liner notes for the Mogwai album happy songs for happy people and I noticed this interesting little insert:

Contained on this CD-ROM is a demo version of the music program Cubase SX by Steinberg. The parts of "Haunted by a Freak" are also on the CD so that the song can be remixed to your great satisfaction using the Cubase program. The demo is PC only, however Mac users can still use the individual parts if they already have a version of SX on their computer. More details can be found at www.mogwai.co.uk/hauntedremixcubase. Thanks to Steinberg for making this possible and enjoy your mixing. (www.steinberg.net)

Pretty damn good idea. clearly, no reference is made here as to what constitutes 'fair use,' but since mogwai are cool about recording live shows, it's probably fine to do just about anything as long as you don't try and sell it. Also interesting to note that this record was indeed released by Matador just last year.

flash supercomputing

the name says it all.

Link via Smartmobs

view from the top

a couple of zml photos

pretty exotic?

There have been a few threads running around the blogsphere today about quote unquote sensor music:

This is what does a trio of Australian musicians from Canberra. The musicians of the group, named Hypersense Complex, create their digital music using sensors attached to their hands. This generates sounds through a laptop network of Apple PowerBooks running a Python script. Pretty exotic, isn't?

I can't tell if this guy is being facetious or what with the "pretty exotic" quote. I suppose using python to generate this stuff is somewhat novel, but c'mon, people have been doing this, and much more interesting stuff, since almost before the digital age. This is like reading the international computer music conference preceedings from the early 1980s. You'd think that people writing for tech blogs would have a bit more understanding of the context.

browser space

very nice implementation of creating a unique space within a browser window. absolutely great design, with a relatively intuitive interface (for this type of thing). see? flash is not used only for evil.

Link via archinect

blocks move too fast. fix that.

enclosed is a midterm design spec for 542. hopefully, these rule sets are pretty clear, and will work well, although I anticipate a bit of tweaking once these are implmented in order to offer the most satisfying experience. also, any comments on how the best way to iterate these rules into different stages -- that is, how best to make each stage a little different, would be nice. some ideas: changing the rule set slightly each stage; decreasing the number of blocks each stage, appling more specific rules to specific colors, and then keep the same rule set each stage, but alter which rules are applied to each color.

Brown U. E-Fest

Brown University Program in Literary Arts will present E-Fest 2004, a celebration of electronic literary art February 17-19. The program will feature readings by John Cayley, Stephanie Strickland, Talan Memmott, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Brian Kim Stefans, Aya Karpinska, Alan Sondheim and more.

The program will open with an overview of electronic writing activities at Brown University, including readings by Talan Memmott and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, with a special performance by Thalia Field and Jamie Jewett. Wednesday's program includes panels and discussions with artists and theorists in the field including George Landow, Roberto Simanowski, and Alan Sondheim. An evening reading will feature John Cayley, Stephanie Strickland, Brian Kim Stefans, and Aya Karpinksa. Thursday will feature artist demos and the introduction of new books on digital media. [Including Nick's Twisty Little Passages.]

link via Grand Text Auto

u-beat, other wearable speakers

from most to least relevant / interesting.

u-beat is a set of speakers that you wear around your neck. designed for gamers to 'feel' the vibration whilst playing.

more clothing integrated stuff here

the NeckPhone (integrated mp3/headphones)

mobile "L" check'a

I woke up, messed around on the computer for a bit, read some Far Side. Then, suddenly inspired, had to walk all the way downstairs with my overflowing laundry basket, only to find all the "L" machines in use. So I walk all the way back upstairs, dropping more laundry on the way back upstairs. The next trip, I had to check if the machines were open, then rush back upstairs, then back down with my L. I got the machines, luckily, but there have been plenty of times that I have been foiled on even these subsequent trips downstairs.

So I hate this. It was an especially large problem in college, or in previous apartments, where there was no elevator, and more bloodthirsty L-doers to be trifled with. Therefore, reading this article has been disarmingly relevant to my day so far. Check the status of the "L" situation from my phone. The perfect solution to these annoyances. More info is here.

Reminds me of this MIT Bathroom server, which is perhaps the best, most ingenious project ever.

<--patholog...-->>under continuuuued construction

Here's what we've got now.

Embedded content in space. Sound / Video / Image / Text. Anyone can author these places. As these enviornments become authored, and only if they indeed do, does patholog become relevant. With this project, we are making the assumption that it will.

dynamap

cool mapping technology -- check out the flash demo at the bottom of the page.

Link via archinect.

pdf

People | Money | Tools [.PDF]

8 zones / 8 tones

GPS guitar. 8 zones in the landscape mapped to 8 different tones. myraid ways to manipulate those tones. the idea is a GPS device attached to the guitar, which runs to a machine (like to get away w/ a tablet) that parses the GPS data. Once the data is parsed, each gps sample is checked against a set of 8 zones, each of which is mapped to a tone. then, using a bunch of different m1d1 controllers on the 'guitar,' the user can manipulate those tones.

more puzzling behavior

oh, and puns!

another iteration. build block environments up: they will move and grow, allowing the player to reach greater heights. still really basic rule sets: if you collide with another block on the x plane, then jump on top of it; if you collide with another block on the y plane, then stay on top. apply gravity. use W to jump, A to move left, and D to move right. You can't use S. But you can use R to reset.

applet

"I have a scream"

nice article on Kuro5hin about the lackluster post-iowa dean campaign.

"The speech was played over 700 times by the media, and it spread across the Internet, even inspiring dance mixes."

perhaps this is the real effect of easy-bake-oven sound and video packages (apple, I'm looking in your direction...) -- giving users the kind of power to create parody that can spread like wildfire across the net. because this stuff is certainly not for creating good music or cinema. apple should sponsor these things. like, this remix of the dean scream remixed with Soundtrack. or this peanuts Hey-Ya parody made with iMovie.

if these enabling technologies didn't exist, would the dean stuff, or a long list of other examples happen?