For those of you that use Processing, you might be interested to know that 085 the Beta has been released. If you have never used/heard of it before check out www.processing.org

Un amigo (don jose florido, de ávidos), me preguntó si se podía hacer en processing algo de video ascii para una genial idea que tuvo para la decoración de su casa. Ya se que el lo que quería era hacerlo por sí mismo (tranquilo que no te pasaré el código), pero me picó la curiosidad. Aquí una captura de la primera versión.

Yesterday was the first anniversary of Beth and I dating. On Friday we went out for a nice dinner at Yemanja and drinks at Venice Cafe. The weather was beautiful, and we got the same table at Venice as on…

As you can read all over the place by now Adobe is about to acquire Macromedia. What a surprise! Still don’t know if I like it or not - but I really hope that Macromedia’s great corporate culture will survive the merger. What will probably not survive are some competing software packages: Freehand vs. Illustrator, Dreamweaver vs. GoLive, Fireworks vs. Photoshop. And I think that there’s not much guesswork necessary to decide who will be the surviviors in those battles. Flash will have not much to fear as I doubt that LiveMotion will rise from the grave.

If you are the speculative type and you haven’t done so yet, it might be a good idea to buy Studio MX 2004 now. Because one thing that a merger of the two most important players in a market will definitely not result in is lower prices. But experience says that there is always an upgrade option for existing customers in interesting times like those.

Esta semana empiezo en mi trabajo con el diseño de una aplicación para pantalla táctil. Un poco de investigación preparatoria:

La usabilidad de los terminales táctiles

Artículo general sobre la usabilidad en pantallas táctiles (es)

Interaction Design Guide for Touchscreen Applications

Recurso completísimo sobre diseño de interacción en aplicaciones táctiles (en).

Touchscreen Usability in Short

… y unos tips de usabilidad como recordatorio (en).

Touchscreen Application Tips

10 tips para conseguir el éxito en el diseño para táctiles (en).

Keys to a Successful Kiosk Application

Presentación tipo powerpoint sobre aplicaciones táctiles para kioskos interactivos (pdf/en).

Touch tips – designing touch friendly applications

Y otra lista de tips (en)

Principles of User Interface Design

Principios generales de diseño de interfaz (en).

Hace tiempo que me topé con Wiring, un proyecto de Hernando Barragán consistente en un entorno de programación y kit electrónico basado (conceptual y técnicamente) en processing. Hoy, vía we make money not art, descubro instantSOUP un “libro de recetas de electrónica” que “Hace los primeros pasos en el mundo del prototipado físico (physical prototyping) casi tan fáciles como preparar sopa instantánea”. No es de extrañar que esté basado en wiring, pues ambos proyectos están siendo desarrollados en El Sitio.

Obviando la discutible metáfora culinaria, instantSOUP es un paso más en el esfuerzo por facilitar a artistas, diseñadores, músicos y creadores el árido camino de la técnica. Contiene una colección de excelentes tutoriales paso a paso para construir pequeños proyectos de hardware. Por suerte, el primero de ellos (el soundPad) puede ser realizado sin el kit de wiring (que aún no está disponible para los que no estudiamos en el instituto ivrea**). Ya estoy buscando un teclado viejo para abrirlo y empezar a trastear.

**Y veo que las cosas empiezan a moverse en este sentido, pues la página del proyecto, que llevo viendo sin actualizaciones desde hace mucho tiempo, ha vuelto a reactivarse y ya tiene incluso un foro donde podemos informarnos sobre el estado del proyecto. Espero que pronto podamos poner nuestras zarpas sobre un prototipo comercial.

Eigentlich müsste man sich ja kaufen.

… y este soy yo con 16128 pixeles más.

Tonteando con processing y la webcam. Como siempre.

It was just a matter of time that this will happen. One of my activities are part of academic research! Bram Timmers works at the University of Utrecht on this reserachproject.

The Topic is about Netaudio und Open Source Culture.

Bram: “The fist part of my research will consist of the mapping and analysis of the netlabel scene situation: I want to find out how netlabels consider the necessity of their excistence, and if they have an ideological goal.” and “What is the essential point of this scene, and where is it taking us?”

Some Snippets from the questionnaire that Bran sent to me.
Q:“Do you feel music should be free for everybody?”
A:“This really depends on a bigger context. If we could live a system where you don’t need to work anymore and get the most important goods for living for free then – yes: music should be free for all. But right now we are facing very great structural changes almost everywhere. I am feeling sometime unlucky to give this all for free, because there is lot of time and effort in it. But on the other hand i think, that we are just started out like pioneers and maybe there are some good ways to get things done just like in the open source scene.”

Q: “Does your national situation (political regulations, musical trends, Digital Rights Management) have an effect on what/how you publish?”
A:“No. I want to keep going on the style. Of course there are some influences by the local media and so on, but after all we make world wide distribution with internatonal artists with a label based in Germany.”

More infos here: http://www.c3.hu/~bram/
and of course http://www.2063music.de

It was just a matter of time that this will happen. One of my activities are part of academic research! Bram Timmers works at the University of Utrecht on this reserachproject.

The Topic is about Netaudio und Open Source Culture.

Bram: “The fist part of my research will consist of the mapping and analysis of the netlabel scene situation: I want to find out how netlabels consider the necessity of their excistence, and if they have an ideological goal.” and “What is the essential point of this scene, and where is it taking us?”

Some Snippets from the questionnaire that Bran sent to me.
Q:“Do you feel music should be free for everybody?”
A:“This really depends on a bigger context. If we could live a system where you don’t need to work anymore and get the most important goods for living for free then – yes: music should be free for all. But right now we are facing very great structural changes almost everywhere. I am feeling sometime unlucky to give this all for free, because there is lot of time and effort in it. But on the other hand i think, that we are just started out like pioneers and maybe there are some good ways to get things done just like in the open source scene.”

Q: “Does your national situation (political regulations, musical trends, Digital Rights Management) have an effect on what/how you publish?”
A:“No. I want to keep going on the style. Of course there are some influences by the local media and so on, but after all we make world wide distribution with internatonal artists with a label based in Germany.”

More infos here: http://www.c3.hu/~bram/
and of course http://www.2063music.de

Then there is a basic idea. And then you do nothing for years than work out this idea. I work out my idea from yesterday: what is the diffrence between a “genious” design and a design that is just “good”? I think that is possible to find precious diamonds on the way filled with sweat and dust.

This is an example of the Spaceinvader. This streetart-movement is active for some years and i think there are some people who think form day to day where to put the next spaceinvader or how a good spaceinvader should look like. That picture above is from this book.

The Idea of merging pixelstyle (Kultitem no.1) with the Rubixcube (Kultitem no.2) is simply a “genious” design. I think the designer haven’t had this idea over night, but simply “found” the pixelform in the Rubixcube after seeing pixel in everything.

Then there is a basic idea. And then you do nothing for years than work out this idea. I work out my idea from yesterday: what is the diffrence between a “genious” design and a design that is just “good”? I think that is possible to find precious diamonds on the way filled with sweat and dust.

This is an example of the Spaceinvader. This streetart-movement is active for some years and i think there are some people who think form day to day where to put the next spaceinvader or how a good spaceinvader should look like. That picture above is from this book.

The Idea of merging pixelstyle (Kultitem no.1) with the Rubixcube (Kultitem no.2) is simply a “genious” design. I think the designer haven’t had this idea over night, but simply “found” the pixelform in the Rubixcube after seeing pixel in everything.