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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.