oh jeez i forgot

Last post, 3 months ago? Ouch. I Thought I’d update at least once a week. No dice.

So, what’s new? Nothing, really. I’ve been focusing more and more on developing my skills with software, and I think I might start to understand what I would like to do in a future career. The management part doesn’t appeal to me as it used to, but I think that’s mostly related to factors I won’t mention here. I’m constantly learning new stuff about myself and about others- I think of my time at HI as learning by failing.

Other than that, busy trying to finally finish my portfolio, create some interesting secrets, build a castle etc.

searching for tools..

As in all craftsmanship, having the right tools is essential in order to get a great result. One of the downsides of working with computers is that the tools are constantly changing. Today, I’ve tried to get the phidgets to communicate with Quartz- but I ended up being even more frustrated. I love the feeling of “I’ve almost nailed it now”, so I shouldn’t really complain, but after desperate attempts it gets quite annoying.

Like, I found a plugin for QC, which would give me instant access to the ins and outs of the phidget board. After a few tries and some extensive googling, I found out it didn’t work in Leopard- so I went to get my G4 Mini, running Tiger. Turns out it doesn’t support PPC architecture.

I can’t help but to imagine how things had been if we had different technology; what we are trying to do could be done in less than 45 minutes with a few wiimotes, seeing as I already have the “software architecture” side of things. This would also elliminate the major troubles that we will have to deal with soon, portability and getting rid of cables. Another option would be to have access to an arduino. We could do the same thing, but the community is much bigger and it would be easier to make things talk to each other. I guess it’s a valuable lesson, and I know we will realize our idea. I just have to convince myself everything must not be perfect and effective.

We will probably end up using flash to handle data, it just feels a bit wrong IMHO. Hopefully I will hook up with Sebastian, my neighbor and friend, to get a introduction to Max / MSP. It’s been on my todo list for quite some time anyhoo. I’m told we’re having a workshop with a fellow circuit bender tomorrow, I hope it will be rewarding. Maybe I should bring some show-offs..

monday bloody monday

Argh, annoying. Of all the pieces of equipment I could have gotten, I got the ones I found to be least inspiring. Sure, there are loads of things you could do with phidgets. However, the same things could have been done with arduinos. While there are many practical applications for thermometers, they aren’t very arty. “Measure body temperature!” Yeah, it’s gonna differ a lot from person to person. I can find loads of pracical uses for it, like, checking how warm it is in my summer house and then turning on the heating from the phidget relays, it sure ain’t gonna win any art awards. The task is to make art, not commercial products.

Another annoying detail is how the two phidget kits weren’t really two phidget kits, but one kit + another interface board. Guess I’m lucky I got sensors, and not just three bags of LED’s and some switches. Would have been nice to have at least any, though, so I had to go home and pick a few up. The sensors aren’t that exciting either, the vibration sensor is pretty much a binary piezo disc (it either vibrates or not), the IR reflectors handles distances of like 3 and 10 cm and so on. Sliders are always fun, but not really innovative. I could (and probably will) get more use of a few gutted joysticks.

It’s somewhat annoying to see the other groups do the things I want to do, and I can’t really say no when they come and ask me how to do this or how to do that. I don’t know typography, I can’t really draw etcetera. I make weird devices and that’s what I do. Yes, I am jealous- I wan’t to develop my webcam -> midi patch and explore more musical uses for the wiimote. Instead I’m trying to make the best out of the situation and learn Max/MSP to at least get some fun out of this. I’ve really longed for this module and at least the start turned out a bit disappointing.

Enough wining. I have to sleep, so I can convince my group to build the biggest drum machine EVAR!

/ Whiny bastard

edit: one day to make project plan, come up with ideas AND guesstimate what our technology can do? “Hur tänkte ni nu?”

Experience Techno..

So, first day of new module: Experience Technology. If I’ve understood everything right, we’ll be given a pile of electronics and get to do something fun with it. Up for grabs: arduinos, webcams, wiimotes, sensors and rfid kits. Christmas came early this year…

What way to start the E.T module could be better than my monday? The combination of iSight + Quartz + Osculator + MidiPipe + (insert fave noise maker) or wiimote + osculator + midipipe + anything midi controlled might be the most fun I’ve had since I bent my Yamaha VSS. Quartz is completely new to me but seems like my kinda environment. I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it etc.

Looking forward to get some time with the arduino- I really need to add midi to just about everything.

puss

Back

Yes, back from Tunisia. Quite sad to leave the mediterranean for this weather, though I got quite bored with the gin & tonic. I almost fell of a camel, but other than that, the biggest impression was the hotel next to ours- 650 rooms, several pools, restaurants, etc. Completely abandoned. I wonder how much it’d cost to buy it- I’ve always wanted a beach-front 650-room house, with a four meter wide chandelier. Won’t tell you how I got in or why I didn’t take enough photos, but there’s a reason for everything.

image link -> flickr set

It was like something out of Lost. Quite scary to walk around in dead silent rooms, where you’d expect it to be a lot of noise of happy people. I know I should have done some touch-ups on the photos, but whatever.

I didn’t think this computer was so slow before, but now it’s quite a pain to use it. Took my mb to macsupport for repair, and it will hopefully be done when im back from tunisia. Still find it extremely annoying to get something dead-on-arrival. I guess QC costs too much- I mean, that extra cost for the computer is just for the looks and the fancy shiny fruit. Macsupport seemed really nice though, even though I hope I won’t be a returning customer.

Sorry I didn’t show up today (except those ten minutes). I’ve been running all over town trying to sort things out before I leave. Mother-in-law picks us up at 7.45 am tomorrow, and then I’m off to the deserts- or the desserts. All inclusive, four star. Should be nice- especially since I’ve only had one week of vacation for the last three years. It will be hard to leave my kittnz though.

pipes

I just discovered yahoo pipes, and made my first one. It takes the digg rss feed and filters out all posts with less than 300 diggs, and titles containing “bush” “ron paul” “iphone” “best”+”ever” or “top”+”10”. Improvement!

Join the union!

Yes. Finally.

As some of you might know, I still work at my old job every other weekend, working by the turnstyles in the Stockholm subway. It’s quite a satisfying job, the sometimes extreme stress is in a weird way relaxing. It’s also nice to once in a while communicate with people IRL, and not just stare into the computer screen. I like the feeling when I actually can help someone, especially when accidents happen (they do) or someone is a obvious threat to others safety- like the guy who “shot” people with a golf club, and then started swinging it towards them- when your everyday occupation is expression, in its different forms, it’s quite rewarding to actually do something.

That being said, SL is a massive clusterfuck. While it’s entrepreneurs, like my employer Veolia, might have worked hard to get ISO-9001 certified, the certification is more of a nice diploma than a consistent and effective leadership method. I know it’s not the case, but it often feels like my bosses create conflict just to fight- they know backtalk is pretty rare, and probably still think that devo had the universal truth.

So, after a long day in school, I got a longer day out of school. I called them up, got into a minor conflict, went there to talk face-to-face (erik: now featuring guts), but that didn’t solve anything. Called Seko, went to their office. Seriously- I’ve never been listened to and fought for in that way. I am extremely impressed. I think they solved most of my troubles, just by speaking up and providing proper feedback, in the spirit of UGL. I am absolutely stunned. I thought that was how unions were in Utopia. Appearently, Utopia is seko klubb 120. Thanks. Now, if I only had done this ages ago…

Later this night, I met up with a friend and colleague, to return his RFID card I had to borrow since I couldn’t get my broken one replaced- “they are unbreakable, it can’t be broken”. Jeez. It’s a piece of plastic, with some electronics in it. It’s made to break.

Back on topic: Our group presentation sucked. I trashed it to pieces by my way of not sticking to scripts. Argh. I really need this upcoming vacation.