Archive for the 'General' category

Stephen Fry on Blog Comments, Twitter, etc.

Aug 13 2010 Published by keith under General

Really timely quote with some of the stuff I was talking about with others today.

You know there is nothing easier than writing an article against something, which is so simple. It writes itself. You just got to be angry about something and just got to puff and wheeze with indignation and fury and resentment and bile and malice and the thing writes itself and if you write anything that’s for something it looks sentimental and cutesy and you know so much… and so much harder to write, so much harder to write well. So all the successful columnists are… certainly in the British press are vicious and they’re good at being vicious and admirable and if you share their politics mostly their viciousness is something you can applaud. If you don’t then you just call them beasts and animals and revolting. It just gets so annoying. It’s such a pity and that’s one of the reasons I love the online world is that although that exists in abundance you can choose absolutely which part of the online world you want to live in. You can make your own kingdom in that sense, so things like Twitter or whatever I’m sure there are all kinds of Twitter you know clusters of people who have politics that I would find horrific and really just views that I would preposterous and impertinent, but I just don’t have to follow them and I can block them and I will never know they exist and that’s glorious.

And similarly as long as you don’t lower your eyes when reading a blog, as long as you don’t go down to the comment section where the trolls lurk, where the viciousness is because that’s… I mean there really is just suppurating, boiling seas of acid where if you just so much as dip a toe you’ve lost your limbs you know, just vileness abounding. Again, there is this resentment, “I will be heard and not only will I be heard I will offend.” “I will tear.” “I will lacerate.” “I will wound.” “I want the sensibilities of anyone who disagrees with me to be bruised beyond mending.” That kind of attitude is very strong on the net and for all that we can be advocates for the glory and the democracy that exists online we must be aware too that that dark side of humanity that just needs to be heard and can’t bear people like me for example who have access to greater numbers of followers on Twitter or whose website gets more hits and the more they see that, the more the web becomes a reflection of their view of the meanness and wrongness of society where somebody will get it all and others get none and then the more bitterness there is and I think it’s difficult because I don’t certainly want there to be aristocracy on the net. I don’t want there to be that. I think that whole beauty of it at its best is that there is genuine equality and genuine reciprocity between you know a Twitterer and his or her followers or between a blogger and their readers and that it’s not… You know it’s not an audience going to one site that is permanent and stable and is like the equivalent of the old models of the broadcaster, but that it’s much more fluid and the broadcaster becomes the broadcasted too, you know the TV station becomes the audience and as long as people believe that and behave as if that is true then there is real hope in the way information is going.

- Stephen Fry

Or better yet, watch and listen. Quote starts about 12 minutes in.

13 responses so far

Kindle and iPad Displays: Up close and personal.

Aug 12 2010 Published by keith under General, Kindle, Uncategorized, iPhone

This really isn’t meant to be a contentious post. It really only came about because I got a new toy, something I’ve been wanting to get for a while – a USB microsope! Here’s the model I got:

Veho VMS004 DELUXE USB Powered Microscope

The family had great fun playing with it tonight – looking at everyone’s skin and hair and dirty fingernails and bug bites, and paper and money and cloth and salt and sugar, etc. I could barely pry my daughter away from it. The software allows you to capture images and videos and even notate them with actual measurements, etc. based on the level of magnification.

While playing a bit more with it, I held it up to my computer screen and my Nexus One screen and could clearly see the pixels. Neat. Then I wondered what the Kindle’s screen looks like close up. Quite different! I then compared the Kindle’s screen at roughly 26x and 400x with the iPad’s screen at approximately the same resolution. Wow! No wonder the Kindle is so much easier to read!

First at about 26x.

Kindle:

iPad:

And now at about 400x for the Kindle and 375x for the iPad.

Kindle:

iPad:

The Kindle’s screen looks almost organic at high magnification. I need to learn more about eInk now. I will hopefully be getting my Kindle 3 in a couple of weeks (should ship August 27). I’m interested to see how that shows up – supposedly the contrast is much better. And now I need to get my hands on a iPhone 4 with that retina display. I’d love to see what that looks like close up. Not buying one though. Maybe someone at FiTC San Francisco will have one they can lend me for a photo.

[Update 8/13/10]

As requested, here are some additional photos at 26x and 400x, of print media.

First, newsprint, then a magazine, then a paperback book at 26x.

Newsprint:

Magazine:

Book:

And now the same three, in the same order, at 400x:

Newsprint:

Magazine:

Book:

Again, I leave it to you to make your conclusions.

[Edit #2]
I changed the post title to remove the “vs.”, replacing it with “and”. This is not a battle, people. Just some interesting photos. Relax. It’s all going to be OK.

354 responses so far

Magical!

Jul 02 2010 Published by keith under General, iPhone

I made a funneh:

I’m not trying to be an Apple hater, but this letter just cracked me up.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/07/02appleletter.html

12 responses so far

FlashBelt Monday Run!

Jun 09 2010 Published by keith under Conferences, General

The FlashBelt Run is on! Monday morning, June 14, nice and early. I’m thinking of around 7 a.m. That will give us time to get in a few miles, then shower up and get to the keynote by 9:15.

Thus far, looks like we have the following showing interest:

Me
Jeni H.
Vic C.
Veronique B.
Brandon M.
Terry P.

But no need to RSVP. I think we’ll just leave from the front of the hotel (Holiday Inn Metrodome) right around 7:00. Just show up there with running gear. I’ll post any changes in this post, so check back right here.

12 responses so far

FlashBelt Geek Run?

Jun 07 2010 Published by keith under General

I’ll be at FlashBelt in MN, arriving this coming Sunday morning, and staying through until Thursday morning. I’d like to get at least 2-3 runs in while I’m there and I know that there are several of you in the Flash community. So want to see if anyone wants to get together for a run.

At this point it looks like I’ll at least be going for a run on Monday and Tuesday morning before the conference. Probably 3-4 miles each day. Anyone up for it, contact me at kp – at – bit-101.com

2 responses so far

Digsby: Warning

Jun 01 2010 Published by keith under General

Someone recommended the program Digsby to me today. I watched the video on their site. It seems to be a multi-service IM client with Twitter, Facebook, email, and other social network services built in. A lot of stuff in the video actually turned me off, like “what if you could update your status on all your networks at once?” Well, I hate that idea. I always hated going to someone’s facebook page and seeing that it was just all their tweets, or vice versa. Besides, having just quit facbook, the only social network I use is twitter and I like TweetDeck for that.

But what the hell, it’s a free download, so if it was a decent IM client, I would be happy and ignore the rest. So I download and start the install process. Here’s what you get first:

In addition to installing itself, it wants to install a browser plugin that is going to give them money every time you buy something from certain merchants. Um… wtf? No thanks. Uncheck that and move on, cautiously at this point.

Next up we get this screen.

I admit, I actually fell for this one. I didn’t read carefully. Didn’t see an opt-out checkbox like on the other screen, clicked the “Accept” button, thinking it was a “Next” button. Moving on innocently, we get to this point:

OK, this is getting frigging ridiculous. They want to change my home page to “Google Powered Digsby” as well as my default search engine. Bug off! Worse even, is they want to use my CPU for grid computing. I didn’t even check what the hell they’d be computing on it, I just did a quick triple opt out and continued on, a bit pissed off at this point.

Then this window pops up.

No, I don’t want a damn Digsby account. I just want to see what the program does. I close that and get to the main interface, and see this:

Apparently, I HAVE to have a Digsby account to use the software at all. Well screw that. Just wasted 10 minutes of life. I close that, intending to uninstall the damn thing, but decide to check my email first. Whoa! There’s a giant “Welcome to Xobni” panel in my Outlook. Baffled, I uninstalled both Xobni and Digsby, and then walked through the Digsby install process again to see how I got duped into Xobni. That’s where I got the screenshots.

In the past, I’ve made critical remarks about software I’ve installed, only to have the developer contact me personally and say something like, “sorry you didn’t like it.” In a few cases, I felt bad – maybe I had been a bit overcritical, off the cuff puts downs, etc. But in this case, I’d say that Digsby leaves the impression of severe sleaze, bordering on malware. By my count, it tried to install 3 other pieces of software and make two browser configuration changes, all opt out. Two different UIs, for opt out, which caught me off-guard and tricked me into installing something I didn’t want. My fail, but that was their intention. So I have no problem slamming this piece of… software.

You have been warned.

27 responses so far

Not fighting your technology war

May 31 2010 Published by keith under General, Technology

A series of comments on an earlier post tempted me to get drawn into an HTML5 vs Flash and a iPhone/iPad vs anything else and a Windows vs PC battle. And I must admit, I did get drawn in to posting some comments on another blog on a rather sensationalist Android vs iPhone post.

But the truth is, I’m trying very hard to stay out of all these battles. I really don’t care what you do, what platform you use, what kind of phone you use, what language you develop in, or what kind of devices you develop for. One resolution I’ve made recently is to try to avoid the word “should”, as in “you should buy this device” or “you should try that platform”. Do what you want. I assume you’re doing it because you enjoy it. If not, well, that seems kind of stupid, but then again, you must have some other reasons for doing something you don’t enjoy. But the point is, you are doing what you are doing for a reason, and I have no interest in changing your mind.

Of course, this being my blog, I will post about the things that I am interested in and the things that I am exploring. For a while I was very interested in iPhone development, and posting about this got me branded as a “traitor” by some members of the Flash community. Silly. Part of why I think this site has any popularity at all is because I explore and experiment with stuff. Now you’re saying that I can only do that within the confines of the Flash platform? Sorry.

I’ll also post my personal feelings about things here. For example, I said that I did not appreciate Apple’s attitude toward developers and their insistence on overprotecting their users. This is my opinion and was offered as a partial explanation on why I switched back to Windows. I’m not saying Apple is evil, or wrong, or that you should leave too. I’m merely saying that I personally don’t like it. I also don’t like liver and most country music. It’s not an ideology, it’s just personal taste.

So here are my stances on some of the big controversial items that people have been buzzing about lately.

HTML5: If it did what I need it to do, and worked on all browsers, I’d be all over it. It probably will some day. So I’ll keep an eye on it, but in my mind it’s more properly a spec than a real technology at this point.

iPhone: Great hardware. I enjoyed learning Objective-C. It was a real thrill to develop for multi-touch, accelerometer, etc. Really opened up some new ideas. No doubt the iPhone was a game changer. However, the app store business model is so seriously flawed in my opinion though that I don’t have any specific plans to continue iPhone development.

iPad: I pre-ordered one. It’s an absolutely gorgeous device but I honestly rarely use it. If I’m on the go, I use my phone for stuff, which is way more portable. If I’m at home, I use my PC, which is way more functional. I want to love it, but I haven’t found what niche in my life it fills. I’m also disappointed that it is basically a large iPhone, with the same development and content restrictions. It has so much potential – if it had a real OS and I could install what I wanted on it, it would be even more amazing. The extent that it is locked down really kills it for me.

Windows vs. Mac: There is really not so much difference these days. Whatever. I was on Windows for years. I was on a Mac for over 3 years. Once you get past the superficial difference like keyboard shortcuts, etc., you could easily forget which platform you are working on. Apple hardware is a little more shiny and sexy, sure, but my computer is a work tool, not a fashion accessory. OS X is probably a bit more stable than Windows, sure. But not drastically so. It’s easy to achieve stability when you have one version of the OS that runs on a single piece of hardware, which you also make. At any rate, I have a long list of friends who have had nightmares with Apple hardware and software, so it’s not perfect by any stretch.

Flash: I like Flash. I have an affinity for it. I use it and will continue to use it. I have made my living with Flash for the last several years and am continuing to do so. I understand that you may hate it. I understand that you may think it’s an old dead technology. You don’t have to foam yourself at the mouth in my comment section to get that point across, OK? Thanks. I’m going to continue to use it until something else comes along that does all that it does better than it does. I’ll also continue to actively try new technologies, even if it gets me labeled a traitor, so don’t accuse me of being a Flash fanboy who is afraid to step into the future.

Android: I got a Nexus One a couple of months ago. It took me a few weeks to use it on a regular basis. But now I am totally hooked. I’m resisting the urge to say that you “should” try Android for a solid month. But if you did, you would have a hard time going back to an iPhone, I think. I know that I couldn’t go back now. Android gives you so much more freedom to do what you want with your phone. Only after using it for a few weeks do you realize just HOW locked down the iPhone really is. It’s not perfect. Not by a long shot. But I find it easy to overlook its flaws with those flaws are probably just that – flaws that will eventually be corrected – and not purposely created restrictions.

Feel free to comment on these items, but try not to be a jerk. I’m not going to argue with you. There’s really nothing to argue about. These are my opinions and my likes and dislikes. You may have similar or different opinions, likes and dislikes. I respect that.

59 responses so far

Oh yay, hacked again.

Feb 11 2010 Published by keith under General

Someone just pointed out that I had an offscreen div with about a jillion spam links. Uploaded a new WordPress install. No luck. Changed the theme, that seemed to do it. Looks like I’m in the market for a new theme. Until then, enjoy the default.

17 responses so far

Programming Art

Feb 03 2010 Published by keith under Conferences, General

Been a bit quiet around here, eh?

As I mentioned in my New Year’s post, I’ve been kind of taking a break lately. Haven’t really been doing much of anything to write about to be honest. Waiting for inspiration to hit me.

Well, it’s starting to hit. A few weeks ago, I talked to Shawn Pucknell about speaking at FiTC Toronto. So I needed to come up with a subject to talk about. Up to now, I’ve almost always done a brand new talk for every conference I’ve spoken at. Really, the only exceptions are when the organizers explicitly ask me to do a specific talk. But it seems that most speakers are doing the same talk at multiple events these days. Many do the same talk for a year, or a good part of thereof, at every conference they speak at.

I used to be opposed to this idea. I felt like it was lazy. For sure, coming up with a brand new talk and all the slides and examples that go with that, for every conference, sure is a lot more work. But I was talking to a few speakers late last year (specifically Grant and Mario while in Tokyo in November) and started to get a new viewpoint on the subject. These guys are anything but lazy about their presentations. Even though they are doing the same basic talk each time, they are constantly revising and tweaking it based on audience reaction and feedback, pacing, personal experience, new data, etc. Doing the same presentation more than once allows you to get better and better at that presentation. One part didn’t go so well? Drop it or change it? Went too long in one section? Figure out how to shorten it. Randomly run across some new graphic or example that is perfect for the subject? Squeeze it in there for next time.

On the other hand, when you do a new talk each time, you get one shot to make it good, and the next time, you’re onto something new and get one shot at that.

There’s also audience logistics that come into play. Again, I used to think that doing the same talk multiple times would be boring for the audience. But not everyone goes to every conference. If I do a talk in Brighton next year and that’s the only place I do it, there are a lot of people who might be very interested in it, but don’t happen to be at that conference, and will never hear it. And as for those people who seem to be at every conference, well, once they’ve seen your talk, they are free for the rest of the year to check out other speakers during your time slots. I know there have been plenty of times for me when there were two or more presentations going on in the same slot that I really wanted to see. I would be unhappy thinking that when I choose to miss one that I was really interested in, that’s the last shot I’ll ever get to see that particular talk.

So with that said, allow me to introduce my talk for 2010, “Programming Art”.

As you may know, in July 2008 I started a site called Art From Code. Algorithmic and generative art has, since I first started programming, been one of my biggest passions. In the old BIT-101 lab, I called them “experiments” but they were really quick and dirty interactive art pieces. Art From Code was an attempt to continue some of that same spirit, but with more focus on static images and less on the code behind them. I know that not providing the code for the pieces, and not making them interactive was a huge negative in many people’s eyes, but for me it was somehow very liberating and opened up my creative flood gates for a good six months. Then I got hooked on iPhone programming, and … well that’s another story.

So, while I was trying to figure out what to do next in my extracurricular programming life, one of the options was diving back into art. Another was to do more with games. I find game programming very fascinating. It has many of the same creative aspects as programming art, but in the end, I tend to get much more bogged down into the details of architecture and story line and level creation, and before long even the most exciting game idea becomes a chore to finish. With art it’s always fresh. Short iteration times and when you just publish the result, no bug reports!

Anyway, I decided I wanted to do more generative art again, but didn’t want to limit myself to just ActionScript and Flash. There were a lot of different tools and frameworks that I knew about and had dabbled with, that I thought would be fun to eventually try out more in depth. Stuff like Processing and Open Frameworks, but also lesser known stuff like Context Free Art, Structure Synth, Nodebox, and Toolbox, among others. I figured, what better time to dig into them but now, when I had nothing else particular going on anyway? And if I based my 2010 talk on them, that would keep me focused on them for quite a while. Enough to get to know each one really, really well by the end of the year. And so, that’s what my Programming Art talk will be about. Here’s the blurb:

As soon as computers had visual displays or printouts, people were using them to create art. In this presentation we’ll take a short look at the history of computer generated art, and a hands-on walk through of several of the available programs and languages used for that purpose today, including Flash, Processing, Structure Synth, NodeBox, Context Free, Open Frameworks, and maybe others.

I’ll be debuting the talk at FiTC Toronto in April, most likely doing it at Multi-Mania in Belgium in May, and then again at FlashBelt in Minneapolis in June. Those are the only conferences I’ve yet committed to speaking at in 2010. If I’m not totally bored with the talk, I don’t get rotten fruit thrown at me, and I get invited to speak anywhere else after that, I’ll probably do it a few more times.

Out of the talks I’ve given, one of my own personal favorites was my Art From Code talk at FiTC Amsterdam just about a year ago. I definitely plan to incorporate certain parts of that talk into Programming Art, before exploring the different tools.

I think it’s going to be a fun year!

12 responses so far

Generative Gestaltung

Jan 04 2010 Published by keith under General

A short while ago I got an email from Hartmut Bohnacker, one of the authors of a book called “Generative Gestaltung”. In his words, “In this book we try to explain the basic principles how to generate images with code.” The code used is Processing. You can find out more about it at http://www.generative-gestaltung.de/

The reason they were contacting me is that the book included some works and code based on my Lissajous Webs at Art From Code. They had credited me with the idea, but wanted to inform me personally. I, of course, was fine with it – honored in fact – and asked if I could get a copy of the book.

The book arrived the other day, and it’s a beauty. Textbook sized, and almost 500 pages. A huge color plate section – over 150 pages, and the rest is code and lots of images. Unfortunately, it’s in German, which means I can’t read a word of it, but I can read the code anyway.


As you can see, the book is absolutely gorgeous. The kind of thing you could just pour through and get inspired on every page. Here are a few shots of the Lissajous Web stuff:

Anyway, if you are into processing, or just want an amazing generative art coffee table type book, check it out.

Actually, I just noticed on the site that an English version is in the works as well. I wonder if I can cajole my way into getting a free copy of that too… :)

6 responses so far

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