...more recent posts
I'll be away until Monday, although I will remain connected while gone. Looking forward to a fresh start when I return. Fall is my favorite time in NYC, and many things are looking promising. Hopefully posting will return to pre summer levels. And I have a few new projects that should launch by the end of the year.
I feel like I've indulged myself a bit this summer, and now I'm ready to get back to work. I mean after the weekend, of course...
If you don't need a qwerty keyboard on your phone (and I'm ready to admit that perhaps not everybody does,) I think it would be difficult to do better than the Sony Ericsson T616.
Processing is a context for exploring the emerging conceptual space enabled by electronic media. It is an environment for learning the fundamentals of computer programming within the context of the electronic arts and it is an electronic sketchbook for developing ideas.Processing is a computer language that compiles into java, but should be easier for the non programmer / visual artist type to get some traction with. Still, your programs end up as java, so you'll have to have java enabled in your browser to see them in action. Some are slow to load over a dial up connection.
Here's more from the definition page:
Graphical user interfaces became mainstream nearly twenty years ago, but programming fundamentals are still primarily taught through the command line interface. Classes proceed from outputting text to the screen, to GUI, to computer graphics (if at all). It is possible to teach programming in a way that moves graphics and concepts of interaction closer to the surface. Making exercises created during learning viewable over the web supports the creation of a global educational community and provides motivation for learning. A “view source” method of programming enables the community to learn from each other.Here's one that Ftrain's Paul Ford made, complete with the processing code displayed underneath. Click in the blue box. Drag the mouse around. Click and hold and drag the mouse around. Cool.
The concept of Processing is to create a text programming language specifically for making responsive images, rather than creating a visual programming language. The language enables sophisticated visual and responsive structures and has a balance between features and ease of use. Many computer graphics and interaction techniques can be discussed including vector/raster drawing, 2D/3D transformations, image processing, color models, events, network communication, information visualization, etc. Processing shifts the focus of programming away from technical details like threading and double-buffering and places emphasis on communication.
Google now works as a calculator. Just type the mathematical formula you want calculated into the search field (or the google toolbar) and hit enter. 2+2. It can handle some pretty sophisticated math, like (e^(i pi)+1). And it does unit conversions like 'half a cup in teaspoons' or '100 miles in kilometers'.
The BBC is putting their entire archive on line:
Greg Dyke, director general of the BBC, has announced plans to give the public full access to all the corporation's programme archives.And in case you don't think that is cool, Oblomovka explains why it is. (via boingboing)
Mr Dyke said on Sunday that everyone would in future be able to download BBC radio and TV programmes from the internet.
The service, the BBC Creative Archive, would be free and available to everyone, as long as they were not intending to use the material for commercial purposes, Mr Dyke added.
Short Neal Stephenson interview in Wired.
A new P2P file sharing network has been launched: EarthStation 5. It's servers are located in Jenin, Palestine.
JENIN, West Bank, Aug. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to the email(via boingboing)
received today from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to Earthstation 5 for copyright violations for streaming FIRST RUN movies over the internet for FREE, this is our official response!
Earthstation 5 is at war with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Record Association of America (RIAA), and to make our point very clear that their governing laws and policys have absolutely no meaning to us here in Palestine, we will continue to add even more movies for FREE.
ES5 (http://www.es5 .com) does not require any signups, registration, credit cards and/or any other personal information to watch the first rate streamed movies like TERMINATOR 3, BRUCE ALMIGHTY, MATRIX RELOADED, etc.
Our secure software protect our users who use our P2P application and there is nothing that you can do to stop us, says Ras Kabir, president of Earthstation 5.
"File-sharers world-wide are learning that our Earthstation 5 software hides the identities of its users and their IP addresses so they can now freely share their music and movies online without the threat of a lawsuit from the RIAA and/or the MPAA," said Kabair.
UPDATE 10/03/03: DON'T INSTALL THIS - SEE THE COMMENTS FOR DETAILS
Yet another Windows virus, Sobig.f, the sixth iteration of the Sobig virus (Sobig.a, Sobig.b... Sobig.f.) Technical details of Sobig.a are here, and further details on variants .b through .e are here. Sobig.a first appeared in January 2003, followed by .b in May, and then .c, .d, and .e in June, and now .f in August.
I'm getting hammered by this one (I can't be infected *because I don't run Windows*, but I can have my mailbox completely filled with 70KB .pif win32 executables. Grrrr.)
When are people going to learn? I guess never, since they haven't already and the lesson could hardly be easier: Don't double click on any attachment you receive in email. Especially don't click on any attachment if it contains any of the following file suffixes:
ADE Microsoft Access Project Extension
ADP Microsoft Access Project
BAS Visual Basic Class Module
BAT Batch File
CHM Compiled HTML Help File
CMD Windows NT Command Script
COM MS-DOS Application
CPL Control Panel Extension
CRT Security Certificate
DLL Dynamic Link Library
DO* Word Documents and Templates
EXE Application
HLP Windows Help File
HTA HTML Applications
INF Setup Information File
INS Internet Communication Settings
ISP Internet Communication Settings
JS JScript File
JSE JScript Encoded Script File
LNK Shortcut
MDB Microsoft Access Application
MDE Microsoft Access MDE Database
MSC Microsoft Common Console Document
MSI Windows Installer Package
MSP Windows Installer Patch
MST Visual Test Source File
OCX ActiveX Objects
PCD Photo CD Image
PIF Shortcut to MS-DOS Program
POT PowerPoint Templates
PPT PowerPoint Files
REG Registration Entries
SCR Screen Saver
SCT Windows Script Component
SHB Document Shortcut File
SHS Shell Scrap Object
SYS System Config/Driver
URL Internet Shortcut (Uniform Resource Locator)
VB VBScript File
VBE VBScript Encoded Script File
VBS VBScript Script File
WSC Windows Script Component
WSF Windows Script File
WSH Windows Scripting Host Settings File
XL* Excel Files and Templates
(Above list snipped from a /. comment.)
Or, in other words, don't fucking click on any attachments! I'm getting Sobig.f as a .pif attachment, but any of these other file types *could* be vectors for virus transmission.
But really, shouldn't you just buy a Mac?
Nice looking new (yet to be released) mobile from Pogo:
The device comes with an integrated digital camera and a 3.5", 16-bit colour display with a landscape orentation and resolution of 320 x 240 pixels, and will be available in both GSM and CDMA versions. Final configurations will offer a combination of USB, Bluetooth and Infrared for connectivity options, as well as an SDIO capable SD/MMC Card expansion slot allowing for storage and peripheral expansion. Internal memory amounts to 32 MB RAM.Very sidekick like.
We're still up if you are. Weird. People are out in the streets. Pretty calm.
I'm thinking martial law. I doubt they can bring it up very quickly.
This has been on my wish list for a while, and now Nikon has delivered with the 4.1 MP D2H:
The other 'big news' about the D2H system is the new WT-1 802.11b wireless transmission add-on which allows you to FTP images back to a server as you shoot them....This isn't the form factor I'm looking for in a camera (this is a big professional SLR body,) but it's great to see WiFi being used like this. Hopefully this ability will miniaturize and trickle down into smaller cameras.
The D2H has support for FTP built into its firmware, there is a setup page which allows you to define the FTP server, username, password and folder to be used for upload as well as the image format to upload. For instance you can shoot RAW + JPEG and just transmit the JPEG via the WT-1. Images are written to the CF card first and then transmitted, in play mode the camera indicates images which are queued to be transmitted, which have been transmitted and the image which is currently being transmitted. The camera supports automatic reconnection should the wireless link be temporarily interrupted. In action the system is very impressive, the ability to be completely portable and yet see your images 'popping up' on a remote machine is an eye opener.
Motorola and NEC are co developing a WiFi cellphone:
When used inside an office, the phones tap into a Wi-Fi wireless network to make calls that travel, in part, over the Web rather than over a telephone network. Outside the Wi-Fi network's 300-foot range, the handsets switch calls automatically to a cellular network, which offers the same data features and voice calling, but at much slower speeds.This is a must have feature for my dream mobile device (although I don't care as much about voice - I just want the data connection to use WiFi if possible, but then fall back on some cellular data connection (like GRPS) if there is no WiFi network available.)
I'm at the beach for a couple of days. And my phone doesn't have service (is that a bug or a feature in terms of being on vacation?) Email me here if you need to communicate.
Weird tiny Minox DD1 digital camera. Can you wear it on a necklace?
Here's a mini review of the Sharp Zaurus SL-C750 PDA. It has the same clamshell with a swivel screen as the Sony Clie PEG UX-50, making it a sort of super sub micro laptop. The Sharp even moreso than the Sony, since it runs linux and has a somewhat improbable 640 x 480 resolution screen (text must be tiny.)
So while it's not a phone, has no built in wireless networking (although it does have expansion slots, so you could add this,) and doesn't even look that great (IMHO,) it is still an interesting device. As phones and PDAs converge I think this sort of PDA-ish form factor will win out. Sony and Sharp have both nailed it, I think, with this basic design (although Sony's is much more stylish I think.)
And the fact that it runs linux means that you - or other knowledgeable third parties - can get into it's guts in order to add functionality. This is so big I cannot stress it enough. The device must run on open (not necessarily free) standard software accessible to the device owner. So go Sharp, go. They win big over the Sony in this department.
Now if someone could just make a combo GSM / WiFi expansion card we could add phone service and wireless to any of these PDA like devices. But without really knowing anything about it, I'm guessing this is not presently possible.
Mitch Kapor outlines his mobile device wish list. I agree with everything he says, but of course I want even much more. A camera, for starters (which his Nokia has, but he doesn't mention.) But beyond that it has to have some sort of wireless connectivity (802.11b is the best bet at this point.) Spontaneous local area networks are going to be the shiznit. Yo.