Thursday, December 18, 2008
Dubberly Design concept maps
Dubberly Design has posted a series of maps of different things on one page. some of them have links to pdf versions so you can really see the details.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
how to make a blue laser gun
instructions for making a blue laser gun out of an Xbox and a CO2 pistol (whatever that is).
Saturday, December 6, 2008
user experience design at halo
this is a short interview with Colm Nelson, Halo's interaction designer.
here's a short excerpt:
"By any measure, Halo 3 is one of the most wildly-successful consumer software interfaces in recent memory: more than 1 million players played the game in its first 24 hours on Xbox Live; over 8 million copies sold to date; and “over 100,000 pieces of user generated content being uploaded daily[...]"
the article is fairly brief but I wanted to be able to find it again some day so I'm posting it here.
here's a short excerpt:
"By any measure, Halo 3 is one of the most wildly-successful consumer software interfaces in recent memory: more than 1 million players played the game in its first 24 hours on Xbox Live; over 8 million copies sold to date; and “over 100,000 pieces of user generated content being uploaded daily[...]"
the article is fairly brief but I wanted to be able to find it again some day so I'm posting it here.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
water veins
natural motion with a haunting similarity to a vascular system. thanks to Paul Kahn and NEW Magazine.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
links to self portrait pdf's
here are pdf files showing 8 self portraits drawn with my eyes closed from an exercise in class compared with self portraits I have drawn from as far back as when I was a teenager.
self portrait 1
self portrait 2
self portrait 3
the above 3 are just portraits drawn from memory with my eyes closed
self portrait bad 1
self portrait bad 2
these next 2 were drawn when I was thinking about a time when I was being told I was bad
self portrait child 1
self portrait child 2
these 2 above were drawn while thinking of myself as a child
self portrait overjoyed
this final one was drawn while I thought about a time when I was overjoyed.
self portrait 1
self portrait 2
self portrait 3
the above 3 are just portraits drawn from memory with my eyes closed
self portrait bad 1
self portrait bad 2
these next 2 were drawn when I was thinking about a time when I was being told I was bad
self portrait child 1
self portrait child 2
these 2 above were drawn while thinking of myself as a child
self portrait overjoyed
this final one was drawn while I thought about a time when I was overjoyed.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
link to as3 class notes
I started posting my class notes from Brian's class in a separate blog. this way they will all be in one place without other junk inbetween. go to my main blog at viacamp.blogspot.com and look in the column on the right under good links if you want to see them.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Wii night at dmi
work hard. play hard. and drive like a bat out of hell! wii night at dmi is a serious study all about passing information through the wiimote. ok and a little bit of friendly competition. tennis anyone?
Saturday, October 4, 2008
chaos, mojo, talisman, hoodoo, randomness and brownian motion
"Chaos = order without surface predictability." -Bala
"Talisman or amulet, a small object intended to bring good luck and/or protection to its owner
Mojo (pronounced /ˈmoʊdʒoʊ/) is a term commonly encountered in the African-American folk belief called hoodoo. A mojo is a type of magic charm, often of red flannel cloth and tied with a drawstring, containing botanical, zoological, and/or mineral curios, petition papers, and the like. It is typically worn under clothing.
"Spider's Nest Blues" by Hattie Hart and the Memphis Jug Band, Hart wants to go to New Orleans to get her toby (mojo) "fixed" because she is "having so much trouble" -- the mojo is protective and its power is wearing off, as witnessed by the "bad luck" she is having.
An amulet ( [Pliny], meaning "an object that protects a person from trouble"), a close cousin of the talisman (from Arabic طلاسم tilasm, ultimately from Greek telesma or from the Greek word "talein" which means "to initiate into the mysteries").
"Brownian motion (named in honor of the botanist Robert Brown) is the random movement of particles suspended in a liquid or gas or the mathematical model used to describe such random movements
Consider a large balloon of 10 meters in diameter. Imagine this large balloon in a football stadium. The balloon is so large that it lies on top of many members of the crowd. Because they are excited, these fans hit the balloon at different times and in different directions with the motions being completely random. In the end, the balloon is pushed in random directions, so it should not move on average. Consider now the force exerted at a certain time. We might have 20 supporters pushing right, and 21 other supporters pushing left, where each supporter is exerting equivalent amounts of force. In this case, the forces exerted from the left side and the right side are imbalanced in favor of the left side; the balloon will move slightly to the left. This type of imbalance exists at all times, and it causes random motion of the balloon. If we look at this situation from far above, so that we cannot see the supporters, we see the large balloon as a small object animated by erratic movement."
Einstein's Explanation of Brownian Motion; click here, this is a link. this is an animation showing a bunch of small balls making a bigger ball move around by randomly hitting it over and over again.
Below: Lucretius's scientific poem On the Nature of Things (c. 60 BC) has a remarkable description of Brownian motion of dust particles
"Observe what happens when sunbeams are admitted into a building and shed light on its shadowy places. You will see a multitude of tiny particles mingling in a multitude of ways... their dancing is an actual indication of underlying movements of matter that are hidden from our sight... It originates with the atoms which move of themselves [i.e. spontaneously]. Then those small compound bodies that are least removed from the impetus of the atoms are set in motion by the impact of their invisible blows and in turn cannon against slightly larger bodies. So the movement mounts up from the atoms and gradually emerges to the level of our senses, so that those bodies are in motion that we see in sunbeams, moved by blows that remain invisible."
all quotes except for Bala's taken from Wikipedia, September 30 and October 4, 2008.
"Talisman or amulet, a small object intended to bring good luck and/or protection to its owner
Mojo (pronounced /ˈmoʊdʒoʊ/) is a term commonly encountered in the African-American folk belief called hoodoo. A mojo is a type of magic charm, often of red flannel cloth and tied with a drawstring, containing botanical, zoological, and/or mineral curios, petition papers, and the like. It is typically worn under clothing.
"Spider's Nest Blues" by Hattie Hart and the Memphis Jug Band, Hart wants to go to New Orleans to get her toby (mojo) "fixed" because she is "having so much trouble" -- the mojo is protective and its power is wearing off, as witnessed by the "bad luck" she is having.
An amulet ( [Pliny], meaning "an object that protects a person from trouble"), a close cousin of the talisman (from Arabic طلاسم tilasm, ultimately from Greek telesma or from the Greek word "talein" which means "to initiate into the mysteries").
"Brownian motion (named in honor of the botanist Robert Brown) is the random movement of particles suspended in a liquid or gas or the mathematical model used to describe such random movements
Consider a large balloon of 10 meters in diameter. Imagine this large balloon in a football stadium. The balloon is so large that it lies on top of many members of the crowd. Because they are excited, these fans hit the balloon at different times and in different directions with the motions being completely random. In the end, the balloon is pushed in random directions, so it should not move on average. Consider now the force exerted at a certain time. We might have 20 supporters pushing right, and 21 other supporters pushing left, where each supporter is exerting equivalent amounts of force. In this case, the forces exerted from the left side and the right side are imbalanced in favor of the left side; the balloon will move slightly to the left. This type of imbalance exists at all times, and it causes random motion of the balloon. If we look at this situation from far above, so that we cannot see the supporters, we see the large balloon as a small object animated by erratic movement."
Einstein's Explanation of Brownian Motion; click here, this is a link. this is an animation showing a bunch of small balls making a bigger ball move around by randomly hitting it over and over again.
Below: Lucretius's scientific poem On the Nature of Things (c. 60 BC) has a remarkable description of Brownian motion of dust particles
"Observe what happens when sunbeams are admitted into a building and shed light on its shadowy places. You will see a multitude of tiny particles mingling in a multitude of ways... their dancing is an actual indication of underlying movements of matter that are hidden from our sight... It originates with the atoms which move of themselves [i.e. spontaneously]. Then those small compound bodies that are least removed from the impetus of the atoms are set in motion by the impact of their invisible blows and in turn cannon against slightly larger bodies. So the movement mounts up from the atoms and gradually emerges to the level of our senses, so that those bodies are in motion that we see in sunbeams, moved by blows that remain invisible."
all quotes except for Bala's taken from Wikipedia, September 30 and October 4, 2008.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Microsoft releases Photosynth for public use
I haven't checked this out yet but hope to once I get a little caught up with the rest of my work. Microsoft has released an online version of its software that collect groups of images and builds a kind of 3D model of a place out of them. it's available here
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
terminology considerations for a catalog of movement
I'm considering words to describe my catalog of movement.
lexography
The pursuit of lexicography is divided into two related disciplines:
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoretical lexicography is the scholarly discipline of analyzing and describing the semantic, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships within the lexicon (vocabulary) of a language, developing theories of dictionary components and structures linking the data in dictionaries, the needs for information by users in specific types of situation, and how users may best access the data incorporated in printed and electronic dictionaries. This is sometimes referred to as metalexicography.
General lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluation of general dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that provide a description of the language in general use. Such a dictionary is usually called a general dictionary or LGP dictionary. Specialized lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluation of specialized dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that are devoted to a (relatively restricted) set of linguistic and factual elements of one or more specialist subject fields, e.g. legal lexicography. Such a dictionary is usually called a specialized dictionary or LSP dictionary.
taxonomy
Originally the term taxonomy referred to the classifying of living organisms (now known as alpha taxonomy); however, the term is now applied in a wider, more general sense and now may refer to a classification of things, as well as to the principles underlying such a classification.
Almost anything — animate objects, inanimate objects, places, concepts, events, properties, and relationships — may be classified according to some taxonomic scheme.
The term taxonomy may also apply to relationship schemes other than parent-child hierarchies, such as network structures with other types of relationships. Taxonomies may include single children with multi-parents, for example, "Car" might appear with both parents "Vehicle" and "Steel Mechanisms"; to some however, this merely means that 'car' is a part of several different taxonomies.[1]
A taxonomy might also be a simple organization of kinds of things into groups, or even an alphabetical list. However, the term vocabulary is more appropriate for such a list. In current usage within "Knowledge Management", taxonomies are seen as less broad than ontologies as ontologies apply a larger variety of relation types.
ontology
In both computer science and information science, an ontology is a formal representation of a set of concepts within a domain and the relationships between those concepts. It is used to reason about the properties of that domain, and may be used to define the domain.
Ontologies are used in artificial intelligence, the Semantic Web, software engineering, biomedical informatics, library science, and information architecture as a form of knowledge representation about the world or some part of it. Common components of ontologies include:
* Individuals: instances or objects (the basic or "ground level" objects)
* Classes: sets, collections, concepts, types of objects, or kinds of things.[1]
* Attributes: aspects, properties, features, characteristics, or parameters that objects (and classes) can have
* Relations: ways in which classes and individuals can be related to one another
lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon (from Greek Λεξικόν) of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes.
The lexicon includes the lexemes used to actualize words. Lexemes are formed according to morpho-syntactic rules and express sememes. In this sense, a lexicon organizes the mental vocabulary in a speaker's mind: First, it organizes the vocabulary of a language according to certain principles (for instance, all verbs of motion may be linked in a lexical network) and second, it contains a generative device producing (new) simple and complex words according to certain lexical rules. For example, the suffix '-able' can be added to transitive verbs only, so that we get 'read-able' but not 'cry-able'.
Usually a lexicon is a container for words belonging to the same language. Some exceptions may be encountered for languages that are variants, like for instance Brazilian Portuguese compared to the Portuguese language, where a lot of words are common and where the differences may be marked word by word.
When linguists study the lexicon, they study such things as what words are, how the vocabulary in a language is structured, how people use and store words, how they learn words, the history and evolution of words (i.e. etymology), types of relationships between words as well as how words were created.
An individual's lexicon, lexical knowledge, or lexical concept is that person's knowledge of vocabulary.
vocabulary
The vocabulary of a person is defined either as the set of all words that are understood by that person or the set of all words likely to be used by that person when constructing new sentences.
all definitions taken from wikipedia. links to the articles are placed on the terms. I will post some thoughts on the terms considered and why I am considering them soon.
lexography
The pursuit of lexicography is divided into two related disciplines:
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoretical lexicography is the scholarly discipline of analyzing and describing the semantic, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships within the lexicon (vocabulary) of a language, developing theories of dictionary components and structures linking the data in dictionaries, the needs for information by users in specific types of situation, and how users may best access the data incorporated in printed and electronic dictionaries. This is sometimes referred to as metalexicography.
General lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluation of general dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that provide a description of the language in general use. Such a dictionary is usually called a general dictionary or LGP dictionary. Specialized lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluation of specialized dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that are devoted to a (relatively restricted) set of linguistic and factual elements of one or more specialist subject fields, e.g. legal lexicography. Such a dictionary is usually called a specialized dictionary or LSP dictionary.
taxonomy
Originally the term taxonomy referred to the classifying of living organisms (now known as alpha taxonomy); however, the term is now applied in a wider, more general sense and now may refer to a classification of things, as well as to the principles underlying such a classification.
Almost anything — animate objects, inanimate objects, places, concepts, events, properties, and relationships — may be classified according to some taxonomic scheme.
The term taxonomy may also apply to relationship schemes other than parent-child hierarchies, such as network structures with other types of relationships. Taxonomies may include single children with multi-parents, for example, "Car" might appear with both parents "Vehicle" and "Steel Mechanisms"; to some however, this merely means that 'car' is a part of several different taxonomies.[1]
A taxonomy might also be a simple organization of kinds of things into groups, or even an alphabetical list. However, the term vocabulary is more appropriate for such a list. In current usage within "Knowledge Management", taxonomies are seen as less broad than ontologies as ontologies apply a larger variety of relation types.
ontology
In both computer science and information science, an ontology is a formal representation of a set of concepts within a domain and the relationships between those concepts. It is used to reason about the properties of that domain, and may be used to define the domain.
Ontologies are used in artificial intelligence, the Semantic Web, software engineering, biomedical informatics, library science, and information architecture as a form of knowledge representation about the world or some part of it. Common components of ontologies include:
* Individuals: instances or objects (the basic or "ground level" objects)
* Classes: sets, collections, concepts, types of objects, or kinds of things.[1]
* Attributes: aspects, properties, features, characteristics, or parameters that objects (and classes) can have
* Relations: ways in which classes and individuals can be related to one another
lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon (from Greek Λεξικόν) of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes.
The lexicon includes the lexemes used to actualize words. Lexemes are formed according to morpho-syntactic rules and express sememes. In this sense, a lexicon organizes the mental vocabulary in a speaker's mind: First, it organizes the vocabulary of a language according to certain principles (for instance, all verbs of motion may be linked in a lexical network) and second, it contains a generative device producing (new) simple and complex words according to certain lexical rules. For example, the suffix '-able' can be added to transitive verbs only, so that we get 'read-able' but not 'cry-able'.
Usually a lexicon is a container for words belonging to the same language. Some exceptions may be encountered for languages that are variants, like for instance Brazilian Portuguese compared to the Portuguese language, where a lot of words are common and where the differences may be marked word by word.
When linguists study the lexicon, they study such things as what words are, how the vocabulary in a language is structured, how people use and store words, how they learn words, the history and evolution of words (i.e. etymology), types of relationships between words as well as how words were created.
An individual's lexicon, lexical knowledge, or lexical concept is that person's knowledge of vocabulary.
vocabulary
The vocabulary of a person is defined either as the set of all words that are understood by that person or the set of all words likely to be used by that person when constructing new sentences.
all definitions taken from wikipedia. links to the articles are placed on the terms. I will post some thoughts on the terms considered and why I am considering them soon.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
notes and suggestions on research agenda
I've been pooling notes for the exhaustive and exhausting self-study that I need to submit by October 1 in order to keep my job. one of the items I am asked to supply is my research interest and agenda. I do not know what a research agenda is, so I did some searching and found the following links.
Professor Barbara Ryder of Rutgers University has a simple, very understandable list of ideas on how ad why to do research.
this link goes to a pdf with her questions and answers. I am going to use this one in writing the paragraph on my research goals and agenda for my self-study.
Luis Villa made a blog posting of a series of notes from a seminar on establishing a research agends. First Movers focuses on legal research but it seems to have good general tips on what belongs in a research agenda and how to think about doing research long-term.
Getting A Teaching Job: The Research Agenda again, is written by a law professor. this article describes what a research agenda is and goes on to discuss why schools look for research agenda in prospective professors. I think the approach fits a variety of fields.
Brad Neuberg's "Coding in Paradise" is one programmer's musings about his own personal approach to research and why he finds it important. there is a list of research questions down on the page that I found helpful when I start thinking about my own research questions, particularly now that I need to explain them in writing to an academic, liberal arts audience that will most likely not understand any technical information but will very likely be evaluating my writing against an unknown and undefined criteria.
You and Your Research is a transcript of a seminar talk given by Richard W. Hamming of Bell communications research on March 7, 1986. the talk is about his relationship to his research peppered with some stories of others around him and where they succeeded or failed in their life's research. it's interesting.
Professor Barbara Ryder of Rutgers University has a simple, very understandable list of ideas on how ad why to do research.
this link goes to a pdf with her questions and answers. I am going to use this one in writing the paragraph on my research goals and agenda for my self-study.
Luis Villa made a blog posting of a series of notes from a seminar on establishing a research agends. First Movers focuses on legal research but it seems to have good general tips on what belongs in a research agenda and how to think about doing research long-term.
Getting A Teaching Job: The Research Agenda again, is written by a law professor. this article describes what a research agenda is and goes on to discuss why schools look for research agenda in prospective professors. I think the approach fits a variety of fields.
Brad Neuberg's "Coding in Paradise" is one programmer's musings about his own personal approach to research and why he finds it important. there is a list of research questions down on the page that I found helpful when I start thinking about my own research questions, particularly now that I need to explain them in writing to an academic, liberal arts audience that will most likely not understand any technical information but will very likely be evaluating my writing against an unknown and undefined criteria.
You and Your Research is a transcript of a seminar talk given by Richard W. Hamming of Bell communications research on March 7, 1986. the talk is about his relationship to his research peppered with some stories of others around him and where they succeeded or failed in their life's research. it's interesting.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
links to my processing sketches
pointLight5 is my sketch for moving light around following the mouse. I got it to read mouseX and mouseY.
(speaking of mice, I cleaned a lot of droppings in the studio this morning. pretty yucky.)
useMyClass10 is a space with the point light and another kind of light from the pointLight sketch with some spheres created with a class and some composite cubes with a stationary cube in the same place as a non stationary cube that rotates according to the mouse. it looks pretty cool.
moveClass4 is a sketch that I started with the hope of making the elements of useMyClass float around on the screen. it didn't work out that way but what happened is really interesting. I have no control over this one and I don't know how it does what it does but it does move.
I posted moveClass5 here also but the only difference from moveClass4 is the background color. today I couldn't see the darker one on my screen, probably because I was facing the rising sun so I made it lighter.
Jason, exporting processing sketches to html is easy. so I did some for all of you to see.
(speaking of mice, I cleaned a lot of droppings in the studio this morning. pretty yucky.)
useMyClass10 is a space with the point light and another kind of light from the pointLight sketch with some spheres created with a class and some composite cubes with a stationary cube in the same place as a non stationary cube that rotates according to the mouse. it looks pretty cool.
moveClass4 is a sketch that I started with the hope of making the elements of useMyClass float around on the screen. it didn't work out that way but what happened is really interesting. I have no control over this one and I don't know how it does what it does but it does move.
I posted moveClass5 here also but the only difference from moveClass4 is the background color. today I couldn't see the darker one on my screen, probably because I was facing the rising sun so I made it lighter.
Jason, exporting processing sketches to html is easy. so I did some for all of you to see.
Friday, August 29, 2008
the turing test web page
this is a web site that has a collection of information about the Turing Test including some links to online bots that you can interact with.
Jason Salavon revisited
last week I posted a link to Jason Salavon's web site after looking at only a few pieces. today I took some more time to look at his work and found The Grand Unification Theory (Part Four: Every Second of Deep Throat). he took one frame from each second of the film and arranged them from light to dark radiating from the center of the page. he did one for "Star Wars," "Snow White" and "It's a Wonderful Life," too.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
notes aug 21
I put my notes in my sketchbook for this class. if you want to see them you will have to find me and ask to borrow the book for a minute.
notes August 20
Make an array
Or try an if statement
Cygwin – Unix(BSD)
Virtual box open source virtual linux for pc.
Curl is easy means of transferring files to web. url + file name needed to post music data.
Need unix prompt from pc to do music stuff.
JMyron libraries Dan worked with. Processing constructs – look under video capture/frame differencing.
A frame full of pixels is a really big array. Create multidimensional array with rows and columns. Will make one massive array
Good to use camera with fixed focus and fixed direction.
Video with windows will need: api fall into 2 categories,
native video and
each platform
capture talks to camera and
avi mov are containers. Car how codec that are inside those containers.
H.264,MJPEG, DivX
NTSC, PAL
Interlaced
Codecs
Hardware
And making things work natively on different platforms.
Either make your own library or use things that can talk to all of them
Check out real world video compression book from peachpit to learn how to encode video.
Windows : directShow, quickTime for windows
Mcos: quickTime (Cocoa; OTKit)
For capture, (important part)
MacOS quickTime cocoa has capture support
Windows directShow, no capture for quickTime. Worse, QT Cocoa is C++ mac only software, DS C++ for windows. Java doesn’t support any of that.
OT Java = processing.video
Mac: playback, capture ,terrible
Windows: playback even more terrible
Future: unspeakably awful
Deprecated
Don’t install update install new quicktime because it will break this stuff. No support at apple to check if QT java works. Capture works ok. Playback not. Should support DV camera and maybe HD camera. Windows doesn’t work at all.
WidVDIG video digitizer doesn’t talk to windows at all.
Bottom line - basic playback ok maybe on mac windows, advanced playback is trouble. Basic sketch working with video. Ask Peter to help, join the army trying to figure out how to do it.
ffmpge – java very fast and works in real time. No library now but maybe soon.
Mac capture ok
Windows look at JMyron for directShow support.
Future ffmpeg-java for playback. Java media components for playback
Use native libraries for capture.
Should be able to fix this with libraries outside of java. Flash capture works well because somewhere there is a set of libraries adobe supports that works on all platforms and they keep fixing them when they break.
If things break its not your fault. Capture applications won’t work on windows unless you use library that supports native video capture or
Mac QT for java.
Nothing on Linux.
cross platform libraries
OTHER KINDS OF INTERACTION
Watercolor
MouseX mouseY, pmouseX, pmouseY are reserved variables in processing. Pmouse I think means previous mouse position.
Remember, you always get a periodic rate. Never get continuous data, you get a set of samples and if the difference is great enough you get gaps, stepping, aliasing. You may need to interpolate to make things seem smooth.
Hold shift press play and you get whole screen mode. Can also hide menu bar and other thing.
Can also hide cursor noCursor();
Most pixels ever mostpixelsever.com has tutorials and how to use big screens. Also an explanation for how to use presentation mode without menu bar.
And can look at flickr for some other examples.
Try iterating some drawing sketches over and over again and see if you can get something to work.
Today apple store put out app that takes data values from iPhone.
Collisions with text is easy, its a rectangle. If something collides with a rectangle look for min x left edge, max x right edge, min y etc.
When in doubt, google trig and see what math has to say about the problem. Look on the processing site for some stuff. There may be answers there, too.
Toxic libraries has example vector interactions for complex shapes. Also has sin/cos lookup tables. Makes transitions gradual in movements. Think of roller coaster. Has wavy shape. At top & bottom going side to side, on sides going more vertically as a transition between the top and bottom. Slow down and speed up between states.
Shiffman book:
Look at chapter 5, fake physics and specifically 5.8 and try example 5.9.
Look at chapters 8 and 9.
Look at example 13.8, oscilation. chapter 13 is math stuff.
Then
Look on Ben Fry’s web site, http://benfry.com for examples from the data visualization book. Peter recommends it as the second processing book to buy.
Look for integrator class.
Basic interpolation in watercolor 1a sketch.
Build interaction into objects by building it into their class.
Fruit[] fruits =
{orange,pear,apple,pomegranate}
Fruits[1] = orange
Fruits[4] = pomegranate
for (int =0; i < fruits.length; i++)
Or try an if statement
if(count < array.length-1) {
do something;
count++; //this at the very end and the only use of count for the
//array.
}
println(array.length); //to find errors in the array counter
force += attraction*(target-value);
Cygwin – Unix(BSD)
Virtual box open source virtual linux for pc.
Curl is easy means of transferring files to web. url + file name needed to post music data.
Need unix prompt from pc to do music stuff.
JMyron libraries Dan worked with. Processing constructs – look under video capture/frame differencing.
A frame full of pixels is a really big array. Create multidimensional array with rows and columns. Will make one massive array
Good to use camera with fixed focus and fixed direction.
numPixels = video.width * video.height,;
Video with windows will need: api fall into 2 categories,
native video and
each platform
capture talks to camera and
avi mov are containers. Car how codec that are inside those containers.
H.264,MJPEG, DivX
NTSC, PAL
Interlaced
Codecs
Hardware
And making things work natively on different platforms.
Either make your own library or use things that can talk to all of them
Check out real world video compression book from peachpit to learn how to encode video.
Windows : directShow, quickTime for windows
Mcos: quickTime (Cocoa; OTKit)
For capture, (important part)
MacOS quickTime cocoa has capture support
Windows directShow, no capture for quickTime. Worse, QT Cocoa is C++ mac only software, DS C++ for windows. Java doesn’t support any of that.
OT Java = processing.video
Mac: playback, capture ,terrible
Windows: playback even more terrible
Future: unspeakably awful
Deprecated
Don’t install update install new quicktime because it will break this stuff. No support at apple to check if QT java works. Capture works ok. Playback not. Should support DV camera and maybe HD camera. Windows doesn’t work at all.
WidVDIG video digitizer doesn’t talk to windows at all.
Bottom line - basic playback ok maybe on mac windows, advanced playback is trouble. Basic sketch working with video. Ask Peter to help, join the army trying to figure out how to do it.
ffmpge – java very fast and works in real time. No library now but maybe soon.
Mac capture ok
Windows look at JMyron for directShow support.
Future ffmpeg-java for playback. Java media components for playback
Use native libraries for capture.
Should be able to fix this with libraries outside of java. Flash capture works well because somewhere there is a set of libraries adobe supports that works on all platforms and they keep fixing them when they break.
If things break its not your fault. Capture applications won’t work on windows unless you use library that supports native video capture or
Mac QT for java.
Nothing on Linux.
cross platform libraries
OTHER KINDS OF INTERACTION
Watercolor
MouseX mouseY, pmouseX, pmouseY are reserved variables in processing. Pmouse I think means previous mouse position.
Remember, you always get a periodic rate. Never get continuous data, you get a set of samples and if the difference is great enough you get gaps, stepping, aliasing. You may need to interpolate to make things seem smooth.
Hold shift press play and you get whole screen mode. Can also hide menu bar and other thing.
Can also hide cursor noCursor();
Most pixels ever mostpixelsever.com has tutorials and how to use big screens. Also an explanation for how to use presentation mode without menu bar.
And can look at flickr for some other examples.
Try iterating some drawing sketches over and over again and see if you can get something to work.
Dist function: dist();lets you measure distances without resorting to heavy math Pythagorean theorem.
Today apple store put out app that takes data values from iPhone.
Collisions with text is easy, its a rectangle. If something collides with a rectangle look for min x left edge, max x right edge, min y etc.
When in doubt, google trig and see what math has to say about the problem. Look on the processing site for some stuff. There may be answers there, too.
Toxic libraries has example vector interactions for complex shapes. Also has sin/cos lookup tables. Makes transitions gradual in movements. Think of roller coaster. Has wavy shape. At top & bottom going side to side, on sides going more vertically as a transition between the top and bottom. Slow down and speed up between states.
Shiffman book:
Look at chapter 5, fake physics and specifically 5.8 and try example 5.9.
Look at chapters 8 and 9.
Look at example 13.8, oscilation. chapter 13 is math stuff.
Location += location + “speed”
(location = location + some amount)
Then
force += attraction * (target- value);
acceleration = force/mass;
vel = (vel + acceleration) * damping;
Look on Ben Fry’s web site, http://benfry.com for examples from the data visualization book. Peter recommends it as the second processing book to buy.
Look for integrator class.
Basic interpolation in watercolor 1a sketch.
Build interaction into objects by building it into their class.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
two digital artists experimenting with media
Jason Slavon has been experimenting with making art from data for a long time. he seems to have used every kind of code there is. "Top 25 Grossing films of All Time, 2 x 2," "Every Playboy Centerfold " and "Homes for Sale" are my favorites but I haven't looked at everything yet. ok, maybe he maybe hasn't used processing at all but his work precedes processing and explores the interaction of data and visual in really cool ways.
30 September: today I took a few minutes and looked at the "Late Night Trio," which has 64 nights of video and audio of Leno, Conan and Letterman composited into single frames. now that's my favorite.
Boris Muller is a graphic designer interested in translating text into visual expression in programmed ways. he also has some map experiments on his web site. I don't seem to be able to see the maps due to plugin incompatibilities. need to explore a little more.
30 September: today I took a few minutes and looked at the "Late Night Trio," which has 64 nights of video and audio of Leno, Conan and Letterman composited into single frames. now that's my favorite.
Boris Muller is a graphic designer interested in translating text into visual expression in programmed ways. he also has some map experiments on his web site. I don't seem to be able to see the maps due to plugin incompatibilities. need to explore a little more.
Friday, August 22, 2008
font conference at college humor
Watch this video casting a group of fonts as characters. the fonts are characterized by their names, not any understanding of the concept of their design or the reasons behind their design or their historical significance, making it great for the general public but not for any serious insight into typography. still its really funny.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Joe's 5 tips for better writing
Joe's 5 tips for better writing - the nasty version. I think its time for this to be easily available.
March 20, 2008. Joe gave 5 tips for better writing during our class discussion. He said he would make a better version for us, but for those of us who appreciate the spontaneous nature of what he said in class, here is the unedited version taken from my notes:
1. Use active voice
2. Be detailed
3. Vary sentence structure
4. Write as though you are talking to someone
5. Use examples
and the free, bonus tips:
1. Put the main point at the beginning of the sentence
2. Don't use big words you don't understand
3. Be assertive, unequivocal in your writing
but wait, one cool quote
Sartre about Giacometti: "It was like he was trying to cut fat out of space." Meaning, I think, edit your writing, rinse and repeat until squeaky clean.
March 20, 2008. Joe gave 5 tips for better writing during our class discussion. He said he would make a better version for us, but for those of us who appreciate the spontaneous nature of what he said in class, here is the unedited version taken from my notes:
1. Use active voice
2. Be detailed
3. Vary sentence structure
4. Write as though you are talking to someone
5. Use examples
and the free, bonus tips:
1. Put the main point at the beginning of the sentence
2. Don't use big words you don't understand
3. Be assertive, unequivocal in your writing
but wait, one cool quote
Sartre about Giacometti: "It was like he was trying to cut fat out of space." Meaning, I think, edit your writing, rinse and repeat until squeaky clean.
august 14 notes
August 14 notes
Minim libraries for using sound
Tritonin libraires will be future for sound in processing
toxi.code or toxilibs (look at google code).
Object oriented programming
An extension of the way to work. If you use functions you are starting to use object oriented programming.
Attributes and then stept.
Instantiate object – choose instance variables. Push matrix and pop matrix inside the class so you can draw lots of them. Variable in object-speak is an attribute. Can change attributes over time like a variable and find owh what they bcome.
Underscore is to separate variable that has already been defined. So it’s an instance of the variable and easier to figure out what you used because it’s similar without being the same, which you can’t use the same variable for 2 different thing.
To be really good you would encapsulate those values. Below is good code form for programming with many classes. Not usual for processing sketches which should be fast and simple.
Private variables are not available outside of something.
Peter showed an example of using laptop microphone to read into the cube tower and change the stacking order so it pops. Then he did a spectral analysis.
Objects makes it easier to use more than one object. Showed array of cube towers that react to his voice in different ways. Efficient and fast. Frequency spectrum. Has same basic idea.
Making arrays of objects. Go to people example.
Class name[] array instance name. use plural for name of array so you remember what it is when you see it again.
When you create an object variable you make a space in memory for it. Like an empty box. First you create a name for it.
For an array, you make more of them. So name array and make a variable for it. Then you fill each empty box with some stuff.
pushMatrix and popMatrix is within the object class to draw but not within draw in this case.
For next week read dan shifmann’s class chapter 8 about object oriented programming and chapter 9 and do the examples.
Ben Fry book Visualizing Data uses processing for all the examples so if you want to do lots of rollover types of things get that book and look at how he does the examples. The book is not about processing but still makes a good reference work.
Minim libraries for using sound
Tritonin libraires will be future for sound in processing
toxi.code or toxilibs (look at google code).
Object oriented programming
An extension of the way to work. If you use functions you are starting to use object oriented programming.
Attributes and then stept.
Instantiate object – choose instance variables. Push matrix and pop matrix inside the class so you can draw lots of them. Variable in object-speak is an attribute. Can change attributes over time like a variable and find owh what they bcome.
Underscore is to separate variable that has already been defined. So it’s an instance of the variable and easier to figure out what you used because it’s similar without being the same, which you can’t use the same variable for 2 different thing.
To be really good you would encapsulate those values. Below is good code form for programming with many classes. Not usual for processing sketches which should be fast and simple.
void setX(_x) {
x = _x;
}
void get() {
y = _y;
}
Private variables are not available outside of something.
Peter showed an example of using laptop microphone to read into the cube tower and change the stacking order so it pops. Then he did a spectral analysis.
Objects makes it easier to use more than one object. Showed array of cube towers that react to his voice in different ways. Efficient and fast. Frequency spectrum. Has same basic idea.
Making arrays of objects. Go to people example.
CubeTower[] towers;
Class name[] array instance name. use plural for name of array so you remember what it is when you see it again.
When you create an object variable you make a space in memory for it. Like an empty box. First you create a name for it.
For an array, you make more of them. So name array and make a variable for it. Then you fill each empty box with some stuff.
Person[] people;
people = new Person[4];
pushMatrix and popMatrix is within the object class to draw but not within draw in this case.
For next week read dan shifmann’s class chapter 8 about object oriented programming and chapter 9 and do the examples.
Ben Fry book Visualizing Data uses processing for all the examples so if you want to do lots of rollover types of things get that book and look at how he does the examples. The book is not about processing but still makes a good reference work.
augusst 13 notes
August 13 notes
Think of loading data as columns (with headers) into objects. Put those object names into classes. function has set of inputs with set of outputs. Object describes a broad range of attributes and then function inside the class (called a method) that uses the attributes to do something.
sometimes first row has names for the columns. You can start at row 2 to use the data without the column heads. Attributes would be the column heads. Jason could have called his class Player because it is the thing that draws the players.
splitToken takes a string chops up into pieces based on a character. Jason’s table has both tab separated and tab separated columns. How did he solve that? splitToken can separate by more than one data type. WHITESPACE in his code made any number of spacebar spaces as space.
His object “Player” creates a lot of variables. His array fills the objects with data. The dot in the
Jason used variable int startingEntry = 0;
It increments each time you press the mouse. Use variable instead of number because it’s hard to understand without a name or because it has to …
Jason’s code is literal. Doesn’t look at minimum and maximum. Can not iterate through a set of data and adjust through …
With delicate variables audio signal or particle need to calibrate the data can use library from noisepages.com that has onscreen sliders for calibrating data ranges to calibrate the ranges to get number feed back and use those numbers in the code.
Look for prototyping article on Peter’s site. There is article for prototyping application to work out what to do with lighting based on the sound. Crosses and numbers in video are only used in the calibration but turned off for the performance.
For centering the text need to find the length of the string and then center that.
Processinghacks.com for good cheats and tricks for processing
Fonts are lame in processing and everybody knows it. There are workarounds but none of them really work very well.
Vertext by Michael Chang was a library for creating type as shapes in processing but it is now gone from the link on the processing site.
Now use NextText library
Geomerative also does font importing. Look at examples. They interpreted the geometry data embedded in the font file. Has its own set of classes dealing with shapes
Scott mapped his itunes library into 3d space with dots.
ProXML undocumented but he used it to import his data. Now he can design the space and can creates all disks and each time it draws it moves them toward the x y coordinates that they are going to. Used easing to get it to move naturally.
to make sphere use photoshop sprite and use pointSprite in openGL (extention maybe 2.0) image command in processing creates a rectangle and pasts an image on that rectangle. Point spirtes make the rectangle a point and positions the sprite to that. Only works with high end processors.
Could brute force figure where the camera is and always face the disk toward the camera.
Can use a spacing algorithm for layout to position things on the screen.
Array out of bounds error will always be [] index number. To troubleshoot look for the place where the problem is and work backward to find the broken part.
For array with 4 elements. Programming counts from 0. if you do length array.lenght
Object.attribute
Array has 4 items in it but it counts them.
To turn into index number need to do something.
In this case it is array.length-1
Set of classes exist
Arrays in processing work because of how they work in java. Packages called java.util in java has set of utility classes including data structures. It changes. Processing can use up to / including java 5. java numbers don’t go sequentially. Java 1, 1.1 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 (same as 2), 5, 6, 7se, openTDK. Is backwards compatible language. Processing targeted 1.3 and 1.4 as targer language. Any mac guaranteed to have 1.4. good compatible version.
.0143 supports jave 5 but not after those. Not stable yet. But can use 1.4 and 5 syntax and most libraries are built on version 1.4, which is java 2.1.4 does most of the things that people need. Almost nothing you need in 5, 6, or 7.
Code from java books should easily drop into processing and work. Processing compiles the language.
Java compiles code for the processor for the virtual machine that can run anywhere. Has to be compiled but processing does it.
Processing goes through an interpreter then compiler. It interprets all the drawing commands into java code then compiles.
How to get xml files online
proXML
simpleML
swivel.com is good for data
check the.echonest.com for music visualization api’s.
here is a video made by a mad hacker that is 4k in size.
How to do:
Peter showed particle animation using gradient fills. Not designed to always face front. How to do it?
Need open gl import to do this thing. Need to be able to talk to openGL so make a n obkect PGraphicsOpenGL
Here are the things you need to get to make openGL work for
Look for this book
openGL red book and orange book – massive. Some are documented on openGL.org. look for openGL and not directX ot HLSL do this on the 3d card for efficiency in processing.
Navigating knowledge – pick out what is important and let people do those. Otherwise it is overwhelming.
Chap 17 is brush up of what we already did
Read chap 18 – data input with examples and rss, yahoo libraries. Has rollover function.
Look in chapter 19 for syncing ML, client server stuff, and stuff like that.
Think of loading data as columns (with headers) into objects. Put those object names into classes. function has set of inputs with set of outputs. Object describes a broad range of attributes and then function inside the class (called a method) that uses the attributes to do something.
sometimes first row has names for the columns. You can start at row 2 to use the data without the column heads. Attributes would be the column heads. Jason could have called his class Player because it is the thing that draws the players.
splitToken takes a string chops up into pieces based on a character. Jason’s table has both tab separated and tab separated columns. How did he solve that? splitToken can separate by more than one data type. WHITESPACE in his code made any number of spacebar spaces as space.
His object “Player” creates a lot of variables. His array fills the objects with data. The dot in the
Class Dog }
int length;
int color;
String breed;
}
Dog fido = new Dog(13, 0x00ff00, “terrier”);
int myLenght = fido.length //the dot is important because it pulls up the attributes.
records[totalRebounds].TR ...
Jason used variable int startingEntry = 0;
It increments each time you press the mouse. Use variable instead of number because it’s hard to understand without a name or because it has to …
Jason’s code is literal. Doesn’t look at minimum and maximum. Can not iterate through a set of data and adjust through …
With delicate variables audio signal or particle need to calibrate the data can use library from noisepages.com that has onscreen sliders for calibrating data ranges to calibrate the ranges to get number feed back and use those numbers in the code.
Look for prototyping article on Peter’s site. There is article for prototyping application to work out what to do with lighting based on the sound. Crosses and numbers in video are only used in the calibration but turned off for the performance.
For centering the text need to find the length of the string and then center that.
Processinghacks.com for good cheats and tricks for processing
Fonts are lame in processing and everybody knows it. There are workarounds but none of them really work very well.
Vertext by Michael Chang was a library for creating type as shapes in processing but it is now gone from the link on the processing site.
Now use NextText library
Geomerative also does font importing. Look at examples. They interpreted the geometry data embedded in the font file. Has its own set of classes dealing with shapes
Scott mapped his itunes library into 3d space with dots.
ProXML undocumented but he used it to import his data. Now he can design the space and can creates all disks and each time it draws it moves them toward the x y coordinates that they are going to. Used easing to get it to move naturally.
x += (destx - x) * easing;
y += (destx - y) * easing;
z += (destx - z) * easing;
to make sphere use photoshop sprite and use pointSprite in openGL (extention maybe 2.0) image command in processing creates a rectangle and pasts an image on that rectangle. Point spirtes make the rectangle a point and positions the sprite to that. Only works with high end processors.
Could brute force figure where the camera is and always face the disk toward the camera.
Can use a spacing algorithm for layout to position things on the screen.
Array out of bounds error will always be [] index number. To troubleshoot look for the place where the problem is and work backward to find the broken part.
For array with 4 elements. Programming counts from 0. if you do length array.lenght
Object.attribute
Array has 4 items in it but it counts them.
To turn into index number need to do something.
In this case it is array.length-1
Set of classes exist
Arrays in processing work because of how they work in java. Packages called java.util in java has set of utility classes including data structures. It changes. Processing can use up to / including java 5. java numbers don’t go sequentially. Java 1, 1.1 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 (same as 2), 5, 6, 7se, openTDK. Is backwards compatible language. Processing targeted 1.3 and 1.4 as targer language. Any mac guaranteed to have 1.4. good compatible version.
.0143 supports jave 5 but not after those. Not stable yet. But can use 1.4 and 5 syntax and most libraries are built on version 1.4, which is java 2.1.4 does most of the things that people need. Almost nothing you need in 5, 6, or 7.
Code from java books should easily drop into processing and work. Processing compiles the language.
Java compiles code for the processor for the virtual machine that can run anywhere. Has to be compiled but processing does it.
Processing goes through an interpreter then compiler. It interprets all the drawing commands into java code then compiles.
How to get xml files online
proXML
simpleML
swivel.com is good for data
check the.echonest.com for music visualization api’s.
here is a video made by a mad hacker that is 4k in size.
How to do:
Peter showed particle animation using gradient fills. Not designed to always face front. How to do it?
Need open gl import to do this thing. Need to be able to talk to openGL so make a n obkect PGraphicsOpenGL
Here are the things you need to get to make openGL work for
import javax.media.opengl.*
import processing.opengl.*;
PGraphicsOpenGL pg1;
GL gl;
void setup() {
size (1024,768,OPENGL);
}
void draw()
{
pgl = (PGraphicsOpenGL) g;
gl = pgl.begin();
//makes blending based on alpha values
gl.glDisable(GL.GL_DEPTH_TEST); // don't know why works - disables depth test fixes glitch
gl.glEnable(GL.GL_BLEND); //makes the blend
gl.glBlendFunc(GL.GL_SRC_ALPHA,GL.GL_ONE); //chooses blend mode
}
Look for this book
openGL red book and orange book – massive. Some are documented on openGL.org. look for openGL and not directX ot HLSL do this on the 3d card for efficiency in processing.
Navigating knowledge – pick out what is important and let people do those. Otherwise it is overwhelming.
Chap 17 is brush up of what we already did
Read chap 18 – data input with examples and rss, yahoo libraries. Has rollover function.
Look in chapter 19 for syncing ML, client server stuff, and stuff like that.
July 31 notes
Put data folder into sketch folder. Put font into data folder.
Tools > create font
Do not check all characters box or all the funky characters will be embedded in the file.
Processing fonts are all bitmaps, created in processing
= (font name, size);
2 arguments for text
P3D runs without any extra stuff in a browser
OPENGL will run after asking for use of the graphics card that the user has to authorize.
Create text file
CSV coma separated values
TSC tab separated values
Rows are separated by carriage returns.
unn
June 13 39%
July 16 19%
August 29 1%
Strint[] value = to call for a text file and name the file
Split cuts the rows up into columns. It goes into an array command.
Find datasources at manyeyes.
Or cencus buread, Ben Fry’s site, visualizing data,
FIND DATA
USE YOUR OWN DATA
TRY TO VISUALIZE IT.
Put data folder into sketch folder. Put font into data folder.
Tools > create font
Do not check all characters box or all the funky characters will be embedded in the file.
Processing fonts are all bitmaps, created in processing
textFont(myCentury, 100);
= (font name, size);
2 arguments for text
text("Whoo. Fonts.", 50, 150); numbers are x and y coordinates.P3D runs without any extra stuff in a browser
OPENGL will run after asking for use of the graphics card that the user has to authorize.
Create text file
CSV coma separated values
TSC tab separated values
Rows are separated by carriage returns.
unn
June 13 39%
July 16 19%
August 29 1%
Strint[] value = to call for a text file and name the file
Split cuts the rows up into columns. It goes into an array command.
Find datasources at manyeyes.
Or cencus buread, Ben Fry’s site, visualizing data,
FIND DATA
USE YOUR OWN DATA
TRY TO VISUALIZE IT.
July 30 Processing notes
Processing class July 30 2008
Rigorous drawing stuff
do this:
BREAK DOWN COMPLICATED PROBLEMS INTO SIMPLE PROBLEMS.
How processing drawslings:
It takes a pen width and draws and then can take a different one and makes the next. Just like you might change a pen when drawing on paper.
TYPE CONSTANTS IN ALL CAPS, LIKE
string is a collection of things
or can do this
Now need a way to refer to these items in the list
Can refer to them by number
Look at #3 on the grocery items list
Or
Now use a short name
colors
#201E12
#7382AD
#7C595F
#D66753
#CDDD74
#26738F
#978988
#86B742
Can use noise to generate random information. Is maybe more useful than random. Why????
Tron has use of noise to make data visual. Random is boring to look at. noise used to make octaves of randomness. Randomizes in an organic way. Perlin noise makes continuous slopes within the screen example shown. Semi continuous random information. Bands. Is a set of pre-calculated vectors. Good for generating clouds and smoke.
Using Translate
pushMatrix and popMatrix are beginning and ending a translation. All the rest you don’t need to know.
Translate moves the 0,0 point from top left corner. All coordinates are relative to 0,0. translate allows you to move the 0,0 origin point to somewhere on the screen, or where ever you want it to be.
On 7a example, it looks like the square is rotating but actually the whole thing is rotating.
To rotate from the center of the square, instead of starting at 0,0; the corner of the square, make the start point -1/2width, -1/2height.
pushMatrix and popMatrix starts a new set of translations for each thing. pushMatrix starts the translation and popMatrix ends the rotation. There is a matrix behind the scenes that runs the whole thing.
0, 0 coordinate is top left. Is also how each shape is translated. Will rotate around top left corner. How to make it rotate around its center? Make with and height half of width and height. To use variables, see example 7b.
Open GL library can be loaded into the sketch> import library menu button.
Rigorous drawing stuff
do this:
BREAK DOWN COMPLICATED PROBLEMS INTO SIMPLE PROBLEMS.
How processing drawslings:
It takes a pen width and draws and then can take a different one and makes the next. Just like you might change a pen when drawing on paper.
TYPE CONSTANTS IN ALL CAPS, LIKE
strokeCap (SQUARE);
string is a collection of things
String dog = "Fido";
String dog2 = "Woofy";
String dog3 = "Charlie";
String dog4 = "Blue";
String dog5 = "Killer";
println(dog + "," + dog2 + "," + dog3 + "," + dog4);
or can do this
String[] dogs = {"Fido", " Woofy ", " Charlie ", " Blue " " Killer "}
Array = list, collection
To call it use []
So all [] is an array.
groceryItems[] = list (collection) of grocery items
groceryItems[ stuffToBuyAtGroceryToday =
1. milk
2. eggs
3. apples
{milk, eggs, apples} or, stuff between curly brackets are items on the list.
Now need a way to refer to these items in the list
Can refer to them by number
Look at #3 on the grocery items list
Or
stuffToBuyAtGroceryToday[2] //in this case code counts from 0
Now use a short name
buyStuff.length //dot
colors
#201E12
#7382AD
#7C595F
#D66753
#CDDD74
#26738F
#978988
#86B742
Can use noise to generate random information. Is maybe more useful than random. Why????
Tron has use of noise to make data visual. Random is boring to look at. noise used to make octaves of randomness. Randomizes in an organic way. Perlin noise makes continuous slopes within the screen example shown. Semi continuous random information. Bands. Is a set of pre-calculated vectors. Good for generating clouds and smoke.
Using Translate
//can use translate to make something happen relative to another point
//subtle randomization can go a long way
//can make it look organic
//non-subtle randomization can look synthetic
pushMatrix and popMatrix are beginning and ending a translation. All the rest you don’t need to know.
Translate moves the 0,0 point from top left corner. All coordinates are relative to 0,0. translate allows you to move the 0,0 origin point to somewhere on the screen, or where ever you want it to be.
On 7a example, it looks like the square is rotating but actually the whole thing is rotating.
To rotate from the center of the square, instead of starting at 0,0; the corner of the square, make the start point -1/2width, -1/2height.
pushMatrix and popMatrix starts a new set of translations for each thing. pushMatrix starts the translation and popMatrix ends the rotation. There is a matrix behind the scenes that runs the whole thing.
0, 0 coordinate is top left. Is also how each shape is translated. Will rotate around top left corner. How to make it rotate around its center? Make with and height half of width and height. To use variables, see example 7b.
Size(200,200); //defaults to java 2d
Size(20,200,P3D); //is jave 3-d. is real 3-d that runs on the graphics card. Can be flakey
or
Size(20,200,OPENGL); //. GOGL. Will run in a browser but not well, otherwise is really true 3-d. can do things that run fast and look really good. Can copy and paste code to get good glow effects. Uses graphics card to make the effects.
Open GL library can be loaded into the sketch> import library menu button.
Friday, August 1, 2008
america is f****d
This video uses the F word a lot but the message resonates with me. after looking at the world around me and seeing poor design at every turn, I easily sympathize with his reaction. it's time that someone speaks out.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
processing notes July 17
For working with 3-d models
Core.jar
Is all the stuff under reference > language
Libraries
(obj loader) use for loading object files into processing.
(pro-midi) has some problems. Input and output to midi. Not written from scratch.
If you want stuff: write it yourself. See the site for more user-created libraries. Use any java code you want.
Use: import javax(where java libraries live).audio.mid(path)
Library is a collection of classes organized in a particular way. They are shared. Best ones get added to processing website. Some get implemented into core.
Core libraries don’t need to be removed if you don’t use anything. It just ignores them.
Sketchup----open source modeling program
lib
Design by numbers john Maida at mit group made
DBN simplified syntax and drawing, logo-style drawing
Book: design by numbers
But later people wanted to do more; motion, video, sound
That’s where Processing came from
Focused on making code as simple as possible. Should run into things that you can not do in the program.
Keith Peters book about flash has explanation of bitwise operators that makes sense!!! Don’t know which one.
Concatenation code:
You can add strings like this:
the
Most numbers and characters can be typed without using entity codes, etc.
Characters = single quote
strings = double quote
black bar at the bottom of processing window is the console.
Variables in processing are containers. Like a little box. What’s in it can change. It has to have a type and a name. once it has those 2 things you can change it as often as you like. Really big program its easy to reuse variable names by accident. To avoid problems variables have both a type and a scope.
Within its function and within its class. If in setup you can use it in setup.
Within a function can only use it in that function. Then it forgets it ever existed.
If any 2 functions need to use it, put it above the setup and they will all have access to it. Don’t make variables in draw. If you do it a lot it will slow the program down. If you load an image in draw it will redraw the image over and over as it cycles through frames.
When creating processing sketch it creates a class. When your code gets too full of other stuff objects can be created as classes.
If then statements
Need to use if with else if you want to be compliant. Statement needs to be true or false statement.
Width and height are reserved keywords that processing knows.
Logical operator uses double symbols, like
Better video support possible in the coming 6-12 months hopefully.
The For Loop
It’s all about counting.
1. Start with a number. 0
2. add 1
3. stop when you get to 10
For loop is good when you repeat yourself efficiently.
Array is for storing lists of stuff. Java list is called array.
If you work with an image of 400 x 300 would be 120,000 pix. With video take that number x the frame rate per second x number of seconds in the video. So for loop will make better code.
Tricky thing – array has a number of slots. Numbers start at 0 and end –say 4, array has 5 elements.
myList.length-1 will tell the last slot because the array starts numbering at 0. the out of bounds exception is a mistake with the array length. Reference on processing site has details of what you can do with arrays.
Loop inside the loop allows the first loop of several concentric circles to be repeated several times.
For 4 pix x 3 pix image :
translation matrix
keeps track of complex math
rotate and translate commands
pop and push matrices
there is a matrix of where all stuff. Push and pop allow you to move stuff relative to where I had previously been.
See 7b
What is hard- where starts at 0. rotates around 0. position is x-y but rotation always restarts at 0.
Core.jar
Is all the stuff under reference > language
Libraries
(obj loader) use for loading object files into processing.
(pro-midi) has some problems. Input and output to midi. Not written from scratch.
If you want stuff: write it yourself. See the site for more user-created libraries. Use any java code you want.
Use: import javax(where java libraries live).audio.mid(path)
Library is a collection of classes organized in a particular way. They are shared. Best ones get added to processing website. Some get implemented into core.
Core libraries don’t need to be removed if you don’t use anything. It just ignores them.
Sketchup----open source modeling program
lib
Design by numbers john Maida at mit group made
DBN simplified syntax and drawing, logo-style drawing
Book: design by numbers
But later people wanted to do more; motion, video, sound
That’s where Processing came from
Focused on making code as simple as possible. Should run into things that you can not do in the program.
Keith Peters book about flash has explanation of bitwise operators that makes sense!!! Don’t know which one.
Concatenation code:
You can add strings like this:
println(myRed + ", " + myGreen + ", " + myBlue);
the
+adds multiple characters.
Most numbers and characters can be typed without using entity codes, etc.
Characters = single quote
strings = double quote
black bar at the bottom of processing window is the console.
Variables in processing are containers. Like a little box. What’s in it can change. It has to have a type and a name. once it has those 2 things you can change it as often as you like. Really big program its easy to reuse variable names by accident. To avoid problems variables have both a type and a scope.
Within its function and within its class. If in setup you can use it in setup.
Within a function can only use it in that function. Then it forgets it ever existed.
Int mySize = 200;
Size (mySize, mySize);
If any 2 functions need to use it, put it above the setup and they will all have access to it. Don’t make variables in draw. If you do it a lot it will slow the program down. If you load an image in draw it will redraw the image over and over as it cycles through frames.
When creating processing sketch it creates a class. When your code gets too full of other stuff objects can be created as classes.
These are operators
num = num+1 is same as num++
num +=
If then statements
Need to use if with else if you want to be compliant. Statement needs to be true or false statement.
Width and height are reserved keywords that processing knows.
Logical operator uses double symbols, like
&& or ||
Better video support possible in the coming 6-12 months hopefully.
The For Loop
It’s all about counting.
1. Start with a number. 0
2. add 1
3. stop when you get to 10
for (int i= 0; i<10; i++ ) {
}
for (int i= 0; i < listLength; i + + ) {
(spaces added to because blogger wouldn't post)
}
For loop is good when you repeat yourself efficiently.
Array is for storing lists of stuff. Java list is called array.
int[] circles = {
170,113,78,30,13};
[] indicates array
/*Length of an array is the number of elements in the list*/
If you work with an image of 400 x 300 would be 120,000 pix. With video take that number x the frame rate per second x number of seconds in the video. So for loop will make better code.
Tricky thing – array has a number of slots. Numbers start at 0 and end –say 4, array has 5 elements.
myList.length-1 will tell the last slot because the array starts numbering at 0. the out of bounds exception is a mistake with the array length. Reference on processing site has details of what you can do with arrays.
int[] circles = {
170,113,78,30,13};
size(400,400);
background(150);
noStroke();
smooth();
for (int j=0;j<4;j++) {
for (int i=0;i < circles.length; i++){
fill(random(0,255), random(0,255), random(0,255));
ellipse ((width/4)*j,(height/4)*j,circles[i],circles[i]);
}
}
Loop inside the loop allows the first loop of several concentric circles to be repeated several times.
For 4 pix x 3 pix image :
for (int i=0, i<4; i++)
translation matrix
keeps track of complex math
rotate and translate commands
pop and push matrices
there is a matrix of where all stuff. Push and pop allow you to move stuff relative to where I had previously been.
See 7b
What is hard- where starts at 0. rotates around 0. position is x-y but rotation always restarts at 0.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Mark Coleran demo reel
Mark Coleran makes interfaces for movies that move and pulse and twirl in ways that feel like interfaces ought to work. this reel has intriguing movement ideas to study. you can back out to his home page at www.coleran.com to look at the large reel if you want to see the big version.
Friday, June 6, 2008
some ideas to look for:
scaling
rotating in 3D space
sliders
mac dock is notify when an icon appears
any simple animation showing a process would qualify as instruct
rotating in 3D space
sliders
mac dock is notify when an icon appears
any simple animation showing a process would qualify as instruct
this video talks about gestures on tabletop mulit-touch tables and gives some details about how the tools work and some of the features included in selecting, copying, cutting and pasting. this is a very nice explanation of the interface on this multi-touch screen; more functional than the normal eye candy that gets shown in the publicity videos. the tabletop is from the University of Toronto and the Mitsubishi Electric Research Lab. I need to give a shout out to Jan, who commented on a previous post and left his blog address iatelevision.com.
toronto_multi
note to self: add to matris: context, possibly related. think about different function for this.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
watch the content of web pages flow in slow motion
these videos show mozilla.org, googleco.jp and wilipedia page content flowing slowly enough on a page that you can see the ordering and repositioning of the pieces.
internet neutrality - updated with video by Tim Berners-Lee
a few days ago, I posted a video on net neutrality and asked if anyone knew if the warning about the loss of access was true. today I found (at iatelevision.com) this video from Tim Berners-Lee clarifying his point of view on net neutrality. watch this. here are some quotes from the video. I edited this a little out of order but I hope I haven't altered the message.
"The US House seems to have wavered from the path of preserving net neutrality... even though it's against the long-term interests of the industry.
In the US, the threat is that companies will control what I can access for commercial reasons.
Freedom of connection with any application to any party is the fundamental social basis of the internet and now is the basis of the society we've built on the internet. Let's see whether the United States is capable of acting in accordance with it's fundamental values. Or is it, as some people have been saying, run by the misguided short-term interests of large companies. I hope Congress can protect net neutrality so I can continue to innovate in the internet space. I want to go on seeing the huge number of innovations which are happening out there and which are so diverse and so exciting. I want to see that continue unabated."
2012: The Year The Internet Ends
do any of you know if this is true or not?
interactive multi-touch table
here is an example of a multi-user, multi-touch table display with things moving around all over the place.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Intel mashmaker gallery
the mash maker gallery shows the results where people took data from multiple websites and create new ways to view that data. there is a link to the home page here so you can get more info about the details..
Monday, May 12, 2008
George Balanchine Serenade and Agon
Twyla Tharp writes in her book "The Creative Habit" about George Balanchine's choreography of abstracted gestures "that pluck a chord in us that we can't name but that resonates."
Balanchine created "beautiful plotless structures that mirror music rather than interpret it… The content is the essence of life, not the details of living." He wasn't trying to explain or tell a story with his movements. His language of movement created connections between the natural and the emotional.
I chose the example video because the movements are broken into small pieces, they are interspersed with natural movements shot from intimate range rather than performance range and the use of atypical music makes the movements seem more primal.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
terminator cyborg point of view data feed
updated and dynamic, the Terminators from the Sarah Connor Chronicles have animated graphics as well as text readout. check out the show web site for a dynamic animation using the same kind of display graphics.
the classic, the original, the governator at his best.
who could resist terminator vs. robocop? yes, it's just gratuitous at this point.
I am including these screenshots from the terminator's point of view with this thought. the idea of displaying data as it is read was well imagined in the terminator movies. but imagine a future where humans can augment their natural sight with display devices that read and interpret deeper meaning to what is seen. for example, a surgeon could use a visual display that allowd them to see what is happening inside of a brain on superimposed on top of their regular vision.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
twyla tharp on failure
Twyla talks about the differences between success and failure and how to evaluate them, as well as motivation and creativity.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
laser magician
this isn't related to my research at all but it is amazing. . this guy plays with a laser like it's solid matter instead of light. wow.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
title sequence to the matrix
Thursday, April 24, 2008
levitated flash experiments in motion
sea.thing slowly undulates across the screen like a leviathan, twisting and turning in its element. click on a segment and it separates from the rest to move separately.
legged.creatures collide and engulf each other.
falgellum are creepy worm-like creatures with a very realistic way of moving.
orbiting.networks - spheres of sizes made by time of mousedown create orbits with their neighbors.
the trema. generator - fills the screen with various sized blackdots.
isoblocks grows a grid of cubes in a background-like space.
cylinder .image.display is a more practical thing, a rotating cylinder of tall images that can be selected and enlarged.
legged.creatures collide and engulf each other.
falgellum are creepy worm-like creatures with a very realistic way of moving.
orbiting.networks - spheres of sizes made by time of mousedown create orbits with their neighbors.
the trema. generator - fills the screen with various sized blackdots.
isoblocks grows a grid of cubes in a background-like space.
cylinder .image.display is a more practical thing, a rotating cylinder of tall images that can be selected and enlarged.
Tim Hunkin clock for the london zoo
Tim Hunkin made an animated clock for the London Zoo that has a whole range of things happening. it seems like a great way of making narrative from moving parts.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
snapz enlarge tool demo
this smapz tool demo shows a moving window that shows an enlarged area of the screen directly below the cursor. I am not exactly sure where this would fall within the area of movement and info yet but I believe it has relevance to the topic.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
transitoins in yahoo design pattern library
it turns out that Yahoo has a site with different kinds of transitions for web design. some of these are perfect for my catalog of movements made within interface and some of them do help in understanding what is going on in the interface.
the pause that refreshes
this article in UXmatters deals with transitional elements in an interface. interesting points in the article are the ideas of a pause or transition allowing a natural rest period in an interface. there are several examples of transitional elements that allow someone using a product to understand something that is happening.
Jason, if you sent me this link and I'm not crediting you, I apologize ahead.
Jason, if you sent me this link and I'm not crediting you, I apologize ahead.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
transition as interface
Jason said:
I have been thinking a bit about visual morphing and how everything between a and b in the typical morphing process is just fluff (yes, I know I am a weirdo). Anyway, the word "transition" kept popping up in my head.
Transition can be a meaningful form of animation. It serves to communicate the crossing from one thing the next and almost always requires some form of motion. I think in your case you are not interested in motion as transition but motion as stand alone form of communication. However, you can't have motion (or animation) without transition and vice versa.
Sorry for the babble, what I am really getting at is perhaps you could frame your study as "transition in interface" and then nobody starts thinking about bugs bunny or text on wheels. Animation represents all kinds of things you don't care about, transition in interface seems way more appropriate.:)
-Jason
then he sent a link to this web site talking about transition as an interface element.
and I answered:
good points. I did realize after class on thursday that I didn't emphasize that my interest was movement in interface. I think I am correct to use the word movement rather than animation, regardless of what other people think about it because animation is the enabler for movement but it's the idea that the movement can contain information that I am interested in investigating.
the examples on that article page are really good ones. I haven't been thinking about transitions as simple as these and I think they are strong. thanks for the thoughts.
and don't let me forget that the eagle has landed.
I have been thinking a bit about visual morphing and how everything between a and b in the typical morphing process is just fluff (yes, I know I am a weirdo). Anyway, the word "transition" kept popping up in my head.
Transition can be a meaningful form of animation. It serves to communicate the crossing from one thing the next and almost always requires some form of motion. I think in your case you are not interested in motion as transition but motion as stand alone form of communication. However, you can't have motion (or animation) without transition and vice versa.
Sorry for the babble, what I am really getting at is perhaps you could frame your study as "transition in interface" and then nobody starts thinking about bugs bunny or text on wheels. Animation represents all kinds of things you don't care about, transition in interface seems way more appropriate.:)
-Jason
then he sent a link to this web site talking about transition as an interface element.
and I answered:
good points. I did realize after class on thursday that I didn't emphasize that my interest was movement in interface. I think I am correct to use the word movement rather than animation, regardless of what other people think about it because animation is the enabler for movement but it's the idea that the movement can contain information that I am interested in investigating.
the examples on that article page are really good ones. I haven't been thinking about transitions as simple as these and I think they are strong. thanks for the thoughts.
and don't let me forget that the eagle has landed.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
quicktime video of mac os user change
on the Snapz Pro X web page you can see a video (made with Snapz Pro X) of the Mac user change screen. it rotates a cube-link image from the desktop of the first user to the desktop of the second one. there are a lot of other interesting video captures on this web site. they are there to illustrate the capabilities of the screen capture program but they are interesting in themselves.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
learnin is phun
See more funny videos at CollegeHumor
you can download this game and play yourself. it is a physics sandbox where you can easily create objects (2d), endow them with properties and they react and respond. the video shows lots of examples of building and setting properties for different objects and how they work together afterward. there is also a link to the game you can download at college humor.com. oops. too bad, windows only.
informational movement from Ocean's Eleven and some type
In this animated video using text and part of the script from the movie "Ocean's Eleven," movement of the text objects on the page also gives an idea of the caper they are discussing. The object of this animation is to entertain but part of what it accomplishes is also some visual ideas of the space they are talking about.
I know the video won't show in the aggreator so here is a link to the video on You'Tube.
defrag hard drive - good use of movement to provide information
Thursday, March 20, 2008
link to the iraq war map
The Iraq war fatalities ma is here.
and here is a good critical assessment of the information value of the map from my friend Andrew Gilmartin:
and here is a good critical assessment of the information value of the map from my friend Andrew Gilmartin:
The one element I don't like is that there is no direct representation of deaths over time per region. I understand that this information visual is an animated one and so is intended to be "watched" rather
than "seen" but, being old and gray, I like my information visuals to have a conclusion or a summary and this one does not. So, while each death is marked by a dot and the density of dots does indirectly
represents deaths over time but where deaths are geographically close together then the dots overlap and so the density is less than what it should be. What constituents a region is hard to define; place names
are important for orientation but they might not accurately reflect regionalism. I am sure there is some math that could be used to cluster deaths.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Inspiration for interface design
Dan Saffer of Adaptive Path slideshow on where interface design inspiration comes from. some of the text is too small to read but it's still worth looking at.
Star Wars Sweded
Sweding the classic. Take a break from that frantic writing and have a laugh. The dogfight is awesome.
1:47. I don't know how to get the video to show in the aggregator but it's on my blog page at viacamp. maybe a link to youtube?
Monday, March 10, 2008
Interaction-Design.org HCI encyclopedia
this is a web site dedicated to collecting terms of interaction design, complete with an online citation maker. there is an invitation to write entries for terms that you suggest. so if you get some good info under your belt you may be able to have it published here.
Jacob Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics
here are 10general principles for usability on useit.com.
and as long as I'm at it, here is a blog discussion linking the 10 heuristics to real life zen haiku
and as long as I'm at it, here is a blog discussion linking the 10 heuristics to real life zen haiku
Sunday, February 10, 2008
I eat beef to get even
quoted by a cowboy talking about his job working with cows. thought it was funny.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
stream of consciousness 1
3 feb 2008
my interest in interface is strong. there is no doubt of the direction I think and have always thought I would take for a thesis project. I think it's a good idea at this point to explore some other ideas before committing, though. what I'm not sure of is how to approach a period of experimentation in other interests in the context of this project. two things concern me at the moment: I don't want to get behind on the serious work of the thesis for one and I do want to spend some time thinking about other things that I think I would find to be interesting additions or other options to the thesis but I think that approach will want some kind of limits or structure to keep it from becoming an unwieldy distraction rather than a chance to open my horizons.
some of the things that always have interested me are visualizing information (really a subset of design for interface) and using animation to communicate information. the final presentation last semester also brought up some ideas that could prove to be fruitful directions to explore: interest in the hand-drawn scans in my presentation had me thinking for a while. I don't really think it is feasible to consider that as a thesis research but contemplating the difference in the freedom of design using traditional tools against the refinement of what is accepted as professional work done with the current tool set, mostly adobe products, could be a wonderful concept to bring into a more widely defined project. also, I started making the movie for the sound project using photos I took and by overlapping them in photoshop I started getting effects that fascinated me. I have not done much work using photoshop as an image editor so the whole experience opened my mind to ideas I have never had before. putting those images into a movie was also interesting. it's possible that the movie making and animation to communicate ideas are somehow linked together in their general direction.
I've also been paying some attention to dreams this week and some messages are coming through. one night I dreamed of something that had to do with something from a long time ago in my life. odd, but it seemed to do with arranging living space. not sure how that fits. there were more dreams but lost now. I'll pay more attention later.
another area I've liked to play around with is creating stuff using some kind of code. I've never been able to focus on that kind of work to any degree. there has always been some kind of distraction in terms of work to do or work to search for that has drawn me away. it would be good to work on ways to make prototypes of interface designs. things that don't show something working just don't do justice to the idea and could be said to fail to communicate effectively.
at a really basic level, things I find important are color, concept, contrast, structure, logic and typography. that seems like a weird grouping. I hate an application that requires training. when it's a web application that requires training I always think it's because the application is poorly designed. today, with new, interactive possibilities for web programs, that idea may be entirely too demanding. but if it is, what is the new baseline to describing how applications on the web work?
obsession, obsession, obsession, obsession.
I have questions about how changing from hierarchical file structuring systems will affect how we understand our computers and how it will change the way programs work.
so here's the split.
for interface design, I have a lot of ideas for directions project(s) can go and a lot of ideas for how to go about thinking about it.
for everything else, I am at a disadvantage. I know what I like and what I dislike and what I might consider doing and which things I would not want to consider doing. but I don't know where to start thinking about those thing or how to identify possible projects within the group.
it seems like a good idea to take a moment now to consider - explore as best I can - directions I haven't taken seriously to see if something strikes me as a likely alternate direction or as a modifier to my other interests.
I don't know how much effort would be good to put into that search for direction or how emphatically I should deviate from my expected path. should I start by researching in 2 directions at the same time to keep from getting behind? would it be better to spend a finite amount of time thinking about other things and then stop and see what kinds of things have shown up by then.
I like interface.
To the point of obsession
And other stuff too.
my interest in interface is strong. there is no doubt of the direction I think and have always thought I would take for a thesis project. I think it's a good idea at this point to explore some other ideas before committing, though. what I'm not sure of is how to approach a period of experimentation in other interests in the context of this project. two things concern me at the moment: I don't want to get behind on the serious work of the thesis for one and I do want to spend some time thinking about other things that I think I would find to be interesting additions or other options to the thesis but I think that approach will want some kind of limits or structure to keep it from becoming an unwieldy distraction rather than a chance to open my horizons.
some of the things that always have interested me are visualizing information (really a subset of design for interface) and using animation to communicate information. the final presentation last semester also brought up some ideas that could prove to be fruitful directions to explore: interest in the hand-drawn scans in my presentation had me thinking for a while. I don't really think it is feasible to consider that as a thesis research but contemplating the difference in the freedom of design using traditional tools against the refinement of what is accepted as professional work done with the current tool set, mostly adobe products, could be a wonderful concept to bring into a more widely defined project. also, I started making the movie for the sound project using photos I took and by overlapping them in photoshop I started getting effects that fascinated me. I have not done much work using photoshop as an image editor so the whole experience opened my mind to ideas I have never had before. putting those images into a movie was also interesting. it's possible that the movie making and animation to communicate ideas are somehow linked together in their general direction.
I've also been paying some attention to dreams this week and some messages are coming through. one night I dreamed of something that had to do with something from a long time ago in my life. odd, but it seemed to do with arranging living space. not sure how that fits. there were more dreams but lost now. I'll pay more attention later.
another area I've liked to play around with is creating stuff using some kind of code. I've never been able to focus on that kind of work to any degree. there has always been some kind of distraction in terms of work to do or work to search for that has drawn me away. it would be good to work on ways to make prototypes of interface designs. things that don't show something working just don't do justice to the idea and could be said to fail to communicate effectively.
at a really basic level, things I find important are color, concept, contrast, structure, logic and typography. that seems like a weird grouping. I hate an application that requires training. when it's a web application that requires training I always think it's because the application is poorly designed. today, with new, interactive possibilities for web programs, that idea may be entirely too demanding. but if it is, what is the new baseline to describing how applications on the web work?
obsession, obsession, obsession, obsession.
I have questions about how changing from hierarchical file structuring systems will affect how we understand our computers and how it will change the way programs work.
so here's the split.
for interface design, I have a lot of ideas for directions project(s) can go and a lot of ideas for how to go about thinking about it.
for everything else, I am at a disadvantage. I know what I like and what I dislike and what I might consider doing and which things I would not want to consider doing. but I don't know where to start thinking about those thing or how to identify possible projects within the group.
it seems like a good idea to take a moment now to consider - explore as best I can - directions I haven't taken seriously to see if something strikes me as a likely alternate direction or as a modifier to my other interests.
I don't know how much effort would be good to put into that search for direction or how emphatically I should deviate from my expected path. should I start by researching in 2 directions at the same time to keep from getting behind? would it be better to spend a finite amount of time thinking about other things and then stop and see what kinds of things have shown up by then.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
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