programming

barely there

2009-11-05T13:43:26+00:00

running late tonight so I modified a processing patch used for a different project - playing with tints and darker images. maybe it's the influence of the HP Lovecraft class I'm doing a the moment.. ;)

05/11/2009

blog post @ http://www.aliak.com/content/barely-there

this is day 5 of VloMo09 - 2009 Videoblogging Month - watch other people's videos at http://videobloggers.mirocommunity.org

.mov video file ::: .flv video file ::: video page at blip.tv

mobile processing links

2009-09-29T05:25:42+01:00

mobile processing links
Mobile Processing page
Francis Li's page
Mobile Me(dia) course at NYU by Shawn Van Every
Mobile Processing for Mobile Phones workshop at electrofringe 2009

TechnoCalyps: Transhuman documentary - quotes & notes

2009-07-14T13:39:58+01:00

as part of the "Transhumanism, Singularities, and Other Far Out Futures" class with R.U. Sirius at Evolver Academy we watched TechnoCalyps: Transhuman documentary - here are my notes & quotes from viewing the film
note: times mentioned are rough times only

TechnoCalyps: Transhuman Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT_LnUObIf8

- keeping the brain surviving outside of the body - experiments with animals
05:25 - total body transplant. Stephen Hawkings could possibly survive a total body transplant?
06:10 - consciousness can be transplanted. human soul? can be argued that this can be transplanted. they did experiments with monkeys - transplanted the head of one monkey onto another & it lived for 7 days before being rejected

TechnoCalyps: Transhuman Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z257yC2HAlI

01:10 - humanising the pig kidney/liver so it's not rejected by human body, then transplanting these into humans (pigs as donors)

01:35 metamouse - laboratory grown ear on back of a mouse. hasn't Stelarc been growing an ear on his arm? art project?

03:25 - artist - designing future human bodies. 'after all the body is an extension of fashion' -- I think the body was around before fashion...

10:00 - most people think you have to build a brain and a body will fall out of it. but when you look at nature, well over half the species on Earth have no brain to speak of at all yet manage to move around and survive very effectively.

TechnoCalyps: Transhuman Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxBGMGxVCg0

00:00 - scientists have evolved very effective nervous systems. not brains

03:10 - history of humans is that they haven't treated other life that is similar to humans very well. even back to neanderthals when the homosapiens arrived - they didn't live in co-operation, even though they were very similar. even back to 500 years (or this year?) humans haven't treated other humans well (colonization)
won't be pleasant for the losers. -- joseph m rosen

08:30 - highlighted/coloured nerve cells - can see them working

TechnoCalyps: Transhuman Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZShORepzB-g

04:45 - replacing part of the biological brain with microchip. inputs & outputs still work the same

06:45 - using these computer chip-brain replacements now for sound recognition - to recognise sounds of gunshots which make a camera zoom in on the sound - crime stopper cameras in high crime areas. member of the black community says that they are being watched whereas white community areas are not

TechnoCalyps: Transhuman Part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGQjwhntAG0

01:30 fit onto a cd rom - 600Mb I bet that's all you need to copy a person

03:25 scientists can move a single atom from one place to another

05:50 they want to build nanobots (low number of atoms devices with computers more powerful than today) - inject them into the human body eg bloodstream to kill cancer cells, modify dna, etc

06:15 basic goal of nanotechnology is to build an assembler (auto-assembler) - a very basic device, that can build copies of itself

06:50 molecular nanotechnology is to physical reality what computer programming is to virtual reality. .. bit of an exaggeration, but gives the idea.. whereas computer programmers can program software to do what they want, molecular nanotechnology will allow us to change matter at the most fundamental level. it will allow us to build just about any kind of structure, to our exact specifications by moving individual atoms. ... this sounds like a world of magic(k) where all that we imagined becomes reality but the role of the good fairy is taken over by robots so miniscule that we cannot see them. (background images of Cinderella where pumpkin changes into a coach) and instead of saying the magic word, we program them to grant all our wishes.
>> myths, dreams & fairy tales - the human premonition of what we will one day create. or if not premonition, the imagination of what we want to create?

07:40 the other side of the fairy tale is what is called the "grey goo syndrome" - nanobots programmed for terrorist action or rapidly start reproducing themselves & a chain reaction causes planet to be reduced in 72hours into a grey goo of swarming nanobots

08:00 most scientists think that "grey goo syndrome" is very unlikely - we will have nanotechnology to control nanotechnology.
>> the "watchdog" - who's watching the watchdog??

TechnoCalyps: Transhuman Part 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7Wx3UPyd6U

00:00 this is not the end of history. becoming post-human creates new problems. still have same personality problems as before. you're just going to be "more" than you were before. you'll have more power. with more power comes more responsibility.

GE AR - augmented reality

2009-05-21T14:47:57+01:00

GE AR - augmented reality
I tried playing this AR video at home tonight and it worked! this is the first attempt so the video I took is a bit dodgy but it gives an idea. the cat was purring whilst I was recording and kept nudging my head. I tried blowing on the mic but couldn't get the windmill blades to spin. try it out! now I want to try make my own!!
thanks to @LukeSnarl for tweeting the link

http://vimeo.com/4764743 :

GE AR - augmented reality from kath on Vimeo.

GE page
- print out the marker
- u might need to upgrade your flash player to v10
- turn on your webcam (mac - do this with flash player not photobooth - read the help tips on the url for help)
- launch wind power or solar energy links
(if you just see the green oval spinning then it probably can't see your camera)
- hold the marker printout so it's facing your webcam.. then watch the 3d images appear!

http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality

http://bit.ly/9V5hV is a better video demo (clearer than what I've done - but I wanted to try it myself)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00FGtH5nkxM

luke sent me a great AR game by Julian Oliver (NZ) :
http://vimeo.com/1320756 :

levelHead v1.0, 3 cube speed-run (spoiler!) from Julian Oliver on Vimeo.

this is amazing!
he's made a game using cubes - called Levelhead - it's won all sorts of awards (deservedly so!)
he explains it on his website @ http://julianoliver.com/levelhead (& has code for you to try too)

Julian is part of HIT Lab NZ - The Human Interface Technology Laboratory New Zealand - from their site it looks like they're doing some pretty cool stuff!!

ARToolKit

ARToolKit
ARToolKit documentation page - with samples, tutorials and background details

augmented reality / AR links

ARToolKit
HIT Lab NZ
COSC426 course page on HITLabNZ
julian's page for making your own patterns
augmented-reality.org
Jim Vallino's AR page
University of Washington's AR page
AR videos on youtube
open scene graph
OSGART - combines ARToolKit tracking library with OpenSceneGraph
ISMAR 2009 conference page - International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality
AR forum
AR Forum mail list - archive page

AR videos
Augmented Reality Encyclopedia
Semaphore - TV 3
Augmented Reality by Hitlab
Augmented Reality Magic 1.0
See-Through LCD
GE's Augmented Reality demo

openframeworks & openCV - computer vision libraries

2009-04-29T04:40:08+01:00

yesterday, @DustForEyes posted an "AR scratching" video by vanderlin to stealth board & twitter. it's tagged with tags such as AR, augmented reality, opencv, and openframeworks, so I googled some of these. the AR markers seem like the fiducial markers found in reactable - note there's going to be a performance / demo of one of these called dubtable at ripped next week which would be cool to check out.

via Augmented reality wikipedia page :
Augmented reality (AR) is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time. At present, most AR research is concerned with the use of live video imagery which is digitally processed and "augmented" by the addition of computer-generated graphics. Advanced research includes the use of motion-tracking data, fiducial markers recognition using machine vision, and the construction of controlled environments containing any number of sensors and actuators.

computer vision wikipedia page

openCV
- openCV wiki - openCV is a c++ library for creating computer vision applications
- Learning OpenCV: Computer Vision with the OpenCV Library seems to be a good book on learning openCV
- openCV yahoogroups mail list

what is openCV? : (via openCV wiki)
OpenCV (Open Source Computer Vision) is a library of programming functions mainly aimed at real time computer vision. Example applications of the OpenCV library are Human-Computer Interaction (HCI); Object Identification, Segmentation and Recognition; Face Recognition; Gesture Recognition; Motion Tracking, Ego Motion, Motion Understanding; Structure From Motion (SFM); Stereo and Multi-Camera Calibration and Depth Computation; Mobile Robotics.

openframeworks
- openframeworks website
- openframeworks download page
- openframeworks forum
- openframeworks wiki
- openframeworks documentation page
- openframeworks startup guide
- setup page - for c++

:::

I've downloaded the "visual studio 2008 FAT" (windows - will try mac too hopefully) & the "code blocks FAT" and the "Dev-C++ setup guide" from setup page as it said this is an easy one to start with on windows.

I'm not sure yet whether I should try both or just one of them - starting with openframeworks anyway. will try the hello world / demo code and see what happens

-- OK dev-cpp works OK
-- examples in C:\_apps\Dev-Cpp\Examples
-- install files in C:\_edrive\AliaK\openframeworks

-- installed code::blocks 8.02 as per this forum post & readme file - the eyebeam guys said codeblocks is more stable so that's a good enough recommendation for me :) (their work is AMAZING!!)
- installed to C:\Program Files\CodeBlocks

- examples run OK - individual examples. the allexamples just has a blank screen when I run it?? open these .cbp files instead of import devcpp (.dev) files as the instructions say to do (I can't find the example they use on the page - maybe it was a previous version??)
- C:\_edrive\AliaK\openframeworks\devcpp\of_preRelease_v0.06_win32_cb_FAT_devcpp_examples\of_preRelease_v0.06_win32_cb_FAT\apps\addonsExamples\allAddonsExample

:::

examples by other people :
- openframeworks faq page has links to different projects
laser tag - uses an Benq 2500 lumens projector, laser & laptop + they've linked the software for people to download

:::

see the AR post - has more examples including Julian Oliver's Levelhead game & GE's AR demo for solar & wind energy (flash)

enterprise net beans & j2ee tutorials

2009-03-02T01:08:30+00:00

netbeans tutorial on netbeans.org website :

hello world app in the netbeans ide

web applications tutorial

:::

J2EE tutorials

XML
JAXP = java xml api (processing)
- dom - reads xml & creates a tree of tags
- sax - simple api for xml - read a stream of tags

JAXB = java api for xml binding

JAXR = java api for xml registry
- registry is used to deploy & locate web services
- jaxr is the abstraction that makes the interface to the web services look the same

JAXM = java api for xml messaging
- send and receive xml documents as messages
- includes SOAP (message format)

transactions
- to record the state of different steps in the application process
- useful to help keep track of what's happening eg if a system crashes at one of the stages
eg transfer $100 from one account to another
- EJB can be used to manage transactions

http://www.sun.com website - get latest version
j2re = runtime edition. has enough / minimum you need to run java apps
j2se = standard edition. if you're going to write apps you need this one. contains j2re
j2ee = enterprise edition. contains j2se & j2re. download either as 1 bundle, or as 4 separate parts (j2se, java application server, j2ee examples, j2ee documentation)

configuration
- Administration username = Admin
- administration port = 4848 (default - can use another port)
- http port=8080, https port=8081 (default values - can change these)
- path - add the paths to your PATH : eg (default) c:\Sun\AppServer;c:\Sun\AppServer\bin;c:\Sun\AppServer\jdk;c:\Sun\AppServer\jdk\bin

start
start server (windows machine) :
- program files - sun microsystems - application server - start default server
- open http://localhost:8080 & see the default page

start pointbase database
- program files - sun microsystems - application server - start pointbase
- relational database on the windows machine

jsp file
- is an html file with java code in it
- use one type of tag throughout the file eg '%' or 'jsp:' not a mix of both
- scripting code : < % --code here-- % > (remove spaces), or < jsp:scriptlet > ... < /jsp:scriptlet > (remove spaces)
- declarative code : < %! --code here-- % > or < jsp:declaration > ... < /jsp:declaration > (remove spaces) - like a global variable - inside the class definition but outside the method (eg code you write yourself)
- expression : evaluted as a string to display as text : < %= --code here-- % > or < jsp:expression > ... < /%jsp:expression > (remove spaces)
- comment code : < !-- html comment -- > or < %-- jsp comment --% > (remove spaces)
- directive code : < %@ page ... % > or < jsp:directive.page ... / > eg < %@ include file="footerl.incl" % > (remove spaces)

deploy tool - server gui
- this uses administration port 4848
- to create the .war file (web archive)

api
- docs
- on the server, file:///c:/Sun/AppServer/docs/api/index.html

create war file - from dos prompt
eg : outloop.jsp file & WEB-INF dir with web.xml file

jar cvf newwarfile.war dir1 file1
jar cvf second.war WEB-INF outloop.jsp

deploy a jsp page
- via admin webpage:
- open http://localhost:4848/asadmin
- this opens an admin page
- login using admin/pwd

api - java.lang.Object
out object
- eg java.io.writer
- .request & .response objects
page object
application object
config object
pageContext object

page directive
- these 3 are always imported with generated code
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.jsp.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
- you could import others eg < %@ page import="java.util.Vector,java.awt.*" % > (remove spaces)
- java.lang always = java so no need to import (default value)
- put these at the top of file so they're before the imported class is used / called

- if you want to use a session object for every user of the page (default session="true"), or if you don't want to use sessions, then use : < %@ page session="false" % >
- eg if you don't want to use cookies or generate separate sessions

- info - this can be called from within the jsp page eg < %@ page info="this line of text" % >
- it can be called by using : Servlet.getServletInfo()

- errorPage - use this to specify the error page to display : < %@ page errorPage="url" % >

tag library : http://java.sun.com/j2ee/dtds/web-jsptaglib_1_1.dtd (page not found - this is prob an old version)

packages
package directory names & package names (.java files) :
com.vtc.howdy.java

compilation
compile : java file -> class
javac -classpath "c:\Sun\AppServer\lib\j2ee.jar" myfile.jar

tag libraries
- make common files if you want to reuse these in multiple files
- there's common ones eg :
- JSTL (JSP standard tag library) @ http://jakarta.apache.org/taglibs
- can be used for standard tags for date & time, internationalisation, string manipulation, input & output etc
- you can add these to your project : put the .jar files in the WIN-INF: .jar files in lib dir, .tld files in the war file, then write the jsp page that uses the tags. documentation for each library tells you where to put the files etc

server examples
- example files on the server @ http://localhost:8080/standard-examples
- this path seems to be different on the new versions (glassfish server)

:::

servlet

- write a class that extends the HttpServlet class & overrides the default methods that come from the browser (compiled java code with http code inside it)

- GET
- POST
- PUT
- HEAD - just return the header
- DELETE
- TRACE
- OPTIONS - conversations between client & server

- deploy servlet in the admin console ---> web applications - deploy - choose .war file

filter
- used for things such as : authenticating a user, logging, compressing / decompressing data, encrypting / decrypting data to & from browser. the example just changed the background colour of the html page (very simple example)

MVC
- model view controller
- design approach
- PAC - presentation abstraction controller ---> another 3 tiered architecture

database
- drivers : type 1 - type 4
- download from : http://industry.java.sun.com/products/drivers (old link)

web services
- list of publicly available web services : http://www.xmethods.net

====================

Java EE 5 SDK Update 7

Netbeans docs

http post clients
apache http post example

sun java http post

A SHIMMY SHAKIN' NIGHT OF LIVE ELECTRO/DANCE-POP WITH SUPER MASSIVE & YEN

2009-02-28T23:23:28+00:00

A SHIMMY SHAKIN' NIGHT OF LIVE ELECTRO/DANCE-POP WITH SUPER MASSIVE & YEN

Award winning Sydney dance/rock band Super Massive team with fellow electro-funksters Yen for a very special night of electro/dance-pop at the Excelsior Hotel Surry Hills on Saturday 7th March. Newcomers Life Bitter Soul support.

The night showcases three of Sydney's best up and coming electronic/dance rock bands. With all bands on the bill sharing a love of deep rhythm, shimmering synths, poetic pop, not to mention lights and lasers, it's set to be a spectacular, shimmy-shakin' night, if not an outright dancing frenzy, if both Super Massive and Yen's previous shows are anything to go by.

The show is at the Excelsior Hotel, 64 Foveaux St, Surry Hills. The night starts at 8pm. Tickets are $10- at the door.

Sydney's famous Mardi Gras Parade is on the same night a short hop & skip away, so you can watch the parade then mosey down Foveaux Street to the Excelsior and keep on dancing and partying as the bands hit the stage.

Super Massive's show is an artful blend of sophistication and sleaze. Combining creative, evocative synthscapes with slammingly funky live instrumentation and an entertaining frontwoman who's been compared to Siouxsie Sioux, Karen O, Peaches and Kylie, it's a heady mix that will make you feel like you are under a voodoo spell of dance.

The band had a fantastic year in 2008, releasing their self-titled debut EP to rave reviews, topping the Triple J Unearthed Dance Chart, playing huge shows of their own at inner city venues such as Candy's Apartment and The Supper Club as well as Surry Hills Festival and two north coast tours. They also have a Best Alternative Artist MusicOz Award under their belts. The band are already off to a great start for 2009, having toured Tasmania in February and leaving Maitland crowds' tongues wagging and motors running a couple of weeks back after a crowd-lathering show there.

Yen have crammed venues such as The Basement, The Vanguard, and Melt with their lush vibes and soulful take on electro-pop. They are also festival veterans, having played at the Peats Ridge Festival, Carriageworks 'Underbelly' festival, Playground Weekender and Newtown Festival, where they have whipped crowds into a dancing frenzy.

Newcomers Life Bitter Soul have already notched up a dozen gigs in Sydney and Melbourne after debuting at the Hopetoun Hotel on only 5th January this year! The trio make dark, edgy, catchy, electro-pop.

Get set for a big night!

For more info visit: www.myspace.com/supermassivesounds

knitting links

2008-10-24T12:06:06+01:00

knitting resources and links

:::

knitty (online) magazine
http://knitty.com

:::

online knit communities

knit-list
wooly thoughts yahoogroup
wooly thoughts site
subversive yarn

:::

knitted toys

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/knitlist/message/90742
Squid Hat
Chicken hat
Knit Spider
Knit Veggies
Knit Dinos
Jess Hutchison - Her pattern booklet is fantastic!! but now out of print (i have a copy)
Fish Afghan

good technique for making stuffed toys

:::

geek knitting

thomasina's Guide to Geeky Knitting

thomasina's ideas - geek knitting

Geology and Paleontology
Biology

* Microscale: Genetics and Microbiology
* Macroscale: Anatomy and Ecology

Mathematics

* General
* Topology
* Probability, Chaos, and Fractals
* Sequences and Geometry
* Tessellation

Computer Science
History
Linguistics
All blog entries in Geeky Knitting

Ravelry's Geek Craft group project list

Avital's geek knitting page

:::

mathematical knitting

toroidalsnark - the Home of Mathematical Knitting
(sarah-marie's mathematical knitting pages)

Wooly Thoughts - Mathematical knitting

:::

blogs & organisations / links

Lisa G - she makes her own needles and sells yarn & has markets in North Sydney

Lisa G's blog

Women of Fibre

New Zealand's Wearable Art competition

TAFTA : The Australian Forum for Textile Arts

textile event listings for NSW

the Australian Textile Arts & Surface Design Association

Queensland Spinners Weavers and Fibre Artists

Hand Weavers and Spinners Guild of NSW

Avital's fiber page

:::

patterns on the web

bag minder (plastic bag holder)

books

The Art of Knitting : Inspirational Stitches, Textures, and Surfaces by Francoise Tellier-Loumagne (Author), Sandy Black (Translator) has some beautiful examples of experimental / art knitting - many are inspired by nature too.

eg here's a few pics from the book :

Unexpected Knitting by Debbie New is excellent also

and Contemporary Knitting: For Textile Artists by Ruth Lee is great too

Knitting Art: 150 Innovative Works from 18 Contemporary Artists by Karen Searle

also available from Voyageur Press

Making Mathematics with Needlework: Ten Papers and Ten Projects by sarah-marie Belcastro (Editor), Carolyn Yackel (Editor)

:::

techniques

Recycling Yarn & Unravelling thrift store garments to reuse the yarn

:::

art & guerrilla knitting
grrl+dog
subversive yarn
art yarn
I heart Kings Cross
reef knot
knitta please
yarn bombing
knitty graffity
knit the city

:::

yarn
Machine Knit Yarn Resources page
fibreworks
wooldancer etsy store and wooldancer website
all the pretty fibres etsy store

:::

OTN - on the needles (at home)

this is the new pattern I'm trying kate - they knitty kitty - another Jess Hutchison pattern

Jess' etsy store with plushies from her recent art exhibitions

and knitted robots page

yarn stores

Wild & Wooly - in Devonport, Auckland. this is a really nice yarn store. the owner is really helpful and friendly. prices are good. a good range of yarn, projects with matching yarn and examples. I think they do classes too. if you're in Auckland, take the ferry - Devonport's great for coffee and the store is a short walk up the street from the cafes so it's a nice day out. they have an online store also & take international orders. and of course, the New Zealand yarn is top quality

Morris & Sons / Tapestry Craft - Sydney city. huge range of great quality yarns. helpful staff. best to go during the sales as the prices are quite exxxy. it's really busy in winter and during the sales. great range of bamboo needles too - especially circulars, though you pay a premium for them. they hold classes and workshops. and have an online store too. great selection of pattern books too.

lincraft - sydney city, parramatta & other suburbs. the parramatta store has a great selection of cheap bamboo needles. I haven't been into the city store yet - hope to soon. there's a wide selection of yarn, but I've found it tends to be the cheaper & more garish styles. though it's good for bargain hunting and standard yarn. I buy most of my needles here as they're usually MUCH cheaper eg <$10 compare to $10-$20 in the other yarn stores

Greta's Handcraft - Lindfield, north Sydney - I haven't been to the store but I've heard it's great. and the website has lots of goodies. I keep meaning to make it there - will one day!

etsy.com - online store for crafters to sell their creations, and there are many handspun yarn sellers here too

wool dancer - I bought some yarn and a yarn dyeing kit from wool dancer at the 2009 glebe fair. great quality. original styles and colours. and dyeing kits are fun - for adults and children. Michelle also holds yarn spinning classes in the Blue Mountains and workshops. I'd love to go to one of these, but haven't had the time yet. there is also a wool dancer etsy store

Wollmeise - a German yarn store - the yarns are dyed by the owner. beautiful colours. but very expensive, especially with postage to Australia. read the FAQ for info & best quantities to buy for shipping considerations

tech chix links

2008-10-24T06:57:46+01:00

http://groups.drupal.org/drupalchix
Drupal Chix
http://groups.drupal.org/node/13312 is the drupalchix thread about conferences
:::
some in Australia / NZ regions
interestingly, most of these seem to be using drupal too!
:::
https://conf.linux.org.au
from their site blurb : "linux.conf.au (LCA) is Australia's national Linux conference, and said to be one of the best in the world. It prides itself on being “seriously fun and seriously technical”. In January 2009 it's being held in Hobart, Tasmania, for the first time. So join us and march south! :)2009 will be the 10th anniversary for LCA. It will run from January 19-24 and end with an open-to-the-public Open Day"
- not strictly women, but I've heard it's a good conference
- they're calling for papers if anyone is interested :
http://freeasinfreedom.modernthings.org/d/doku.php?id=call_for_participa...
:::
http://au.linuxchix.org
AussieChix is the Australian regional chapter of LinuxChix, for women living in Australia, aimed at providing ways for women living in Australia to meet each other, talk about, and get involved in Linux, Free Software and related things. AussieChix welcomes women interested in Linux or Free Software at any level of experience.
:::
http://conf.au.linuxchix.org/2008-microconference-sydney-and-melbourne
AussieChix microconference in Sydney and Melbourne: October 25 2008 (it's tomorrow!)
- they have a list of other events in the calendar on their site
- there's also geekgirl dinners in sydney & melbourne (related to this site)
:::
http://linuxchix.org.nz
LinuxChix NZ is a community for women who like Linux, and for women and men who want to support women in computing. Linuxchix NZ activities will include support forums, mentoring, training courses, social meetups and linux install fests.
:::
other regions :
:::
http://eclectictechcarnival.org
The /ETC is a unique tech skill-share that has been held annually since 2002. The emphasis has always been women sharing their experiences, knowledge and skills around free software, open hardware and universal interoperability of systems in a fun way. The eighth Eclectic Tech Carnival will be held sometime in Septmeber 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey.
:::
http://www.genderchangers.org/herstory.html has a list of others (past events, but you could search for them and see when the next ones are being held)
& the links page http://www.genderchangers.org/links.html has more women's groups/events
:::
http://en.oreilly.com/oscon2009
OSCON
:::

Drupal Camp - Sydney 18/10/2008

2008-10-18T14:27:03+01:00

today 18/10/2008 was the Sydney Drupal Camp - held at University of NSW campus in Camperdown & hosted by the Drupal Australia Group. Ryan Cross did a fantastic job organising the "unconference" with assistance from many people in the group. I'm too tired right now to write up my notes about it - suffice to say it was a great event and I learnt a few new tips to try out. I'll try write more tomorrow & post the photos (I only took a few) after some sleep. I'd helped out by recording audio of the sessions which will be uploaded to the group site & available for those who couldn't make it.

attached are the raw notes I took during the day - pasted below for searching purposes. I spent all day in the "B" area - which was beginners, but they went through some of the new drupal 6 modules I haven't used much yet. area "A" was more for the hardcore programmers.

photos @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/aliak_com/tags/drupalcampau08

there are more photos by woulfe / Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sydney @ http://peu.pharm.usyd.edu.au/content/drupal/content.html

:::

audio files on archive.org uploaded using creator=drupalcampau08 for easier searching & grouping
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22drupalcampau08%22

these are raw notes - so some details may need to be checked as I might have misheard!!
(the code fragments are probably not written correctly, but should give an idea of what to search for)

:::

(part of the ) intro to the day by Ryan Cross

http://www.archive.org/details/DrupalCamp-Sydney2008-IntrorawAudio

===============================================
session 1

drupal basics
0 to drupal in 15mins
v0.1
-- by Erle Pereira

http://www.archive.org/details/DrupalCamp-Sydney2008-DrupalBasicsrawAudio

nodes

cck
- nodereference field type - linking up 2 pieces of info

views
- query & display
- view by category

themes
- each content type has a set of templates
- hooking - changing the functionality of drupal
- step 1 - prepare
- form api, hooks
- web app - control the form

- form_alter function
-- menu hooks, hooks => make a new module

function producthelper form_alter(&$form,$form_state,$form_id)

$form['#redirect

create customer cck type

create shipping address cck type
-- add a field for 'customer' and make it cck type node reference, so this points to the customer cck type
-- then select drop down, customer.title is the one that will be displayed etc.
-- so when u fill in shipping address, you see the customer select dropdown, so u can select the customer for that shipping address

views

===============================================

session 2

converting a static html to drupal theme
- by Ivan Zugec

http://www.archive.org/details/DrupalCamp-Sydney2008-ConvertingAStaticHt...

drupal 6

required :
- images folder
- .info file for your theme -> holds info like name of theme folder, version, engine (most often used is phptemplate - others are smarty (eg big company where designers only use that), regions (screen areas - eg left/right sidebar, content, footer), core (drupal version this can run on)
- you can add as many regions as you like called whatever you want

page.tpl.php file
- main template file - this is really the only one required
- head_title -> into title tag
- then print head, print styles, print ..

navigation
logo, site name

print theme('links', $primary_links, array('class',

footer
- print $footer
- print $closure - required, or some other modules don't work
- eg garland theme has everything in it

important variables
- ...
- help
- title
- content
- feed_icons

books
- learning drupal 6 - module development
- drupal 6 - building powerful & robust websites with drupal 6
- pro drupal developement

garland
- sometimes you get a blank page when making a new theme
- paste in default theme if it's not there

barron theme - tableless css theme - good to start with
good base themes - basic, sky (can convert to wiregarden)

use framework, then modify

================================

general chatter between sessions

http://www.archive.org/details/DrupalCamp-Sydney2008-GeneralChatterBetwe...

================================

session 3

agileware.net applications
-- by justin freeman

editview
signwriter
computed field
open office export
polygons with google maps

http://drupal.org/project/signwriter
- no more photoshop, great graphic design
- takes the text on the page, runs it through GD library (graphics lib) and replaces it on your page
- can set colour, font, size, use a transparency

try zektron font/typeface

writes the text as an image on the page
put fonts in files/fonts (for example)
- can do multiline, drop shadow, transparent/& it's colour backgrounds
- can output at jpg, gif

eg for all filtered text, or all H1, H2, replace text with signwriter, replace custom tags

T1 libraries - for non-true type fonts?
- no - use truetype fonts and GD library. use all lowercase truetype fonts
- apply filter text (on certain html tags)
- or .tpl file

- use full html input format

open office exporter

- cck - store quotes, invoices etc data in drupal then use open office exporter to create an xml file open office doc

cck widgets

$filename = "ooo-{$node->nid)>.odt";

in open office doc, [var.contact_details] - it will look for the "var." and then replace the section in the open office doc with the variable
- so u put the line items
- this uses GLOBALS - most sites will have register globals off though - so watch out for this

java libraries, php libraries (dom pdf), command line ---> create pdf files
fop?? xslt easy to export as pdf??

so they use drupal as a report writer

---

edit view - drupal 5 atm

http://drupal.org/project/editview

- customer wanted ms excel like functionality - table like editing
- good for updating adding database records

- uses jquery to add, delete, update nodes. can load files, images, select dates
- ajax
- obeys validation rules too

- build a view
- appears as a view type 'editview title' etc
- if it's a cck field u can save it, if it's not, eg title then you might need to code a new save-node (which is called) (check??)
- validation rules - eg in cck, check that title is required. if it's not supplied then gives a message
- update each row after editing

=====================================================================

after lunch

:::

session 4

panels 2
alpha/beta for drupal 6. works on drupal 5

from beginner to pro
-- by Jeff H. from Marmaladesoul

http://www.marmaladesoul.com

http://www.archive.org/details/DrupalCamp-Sydney2008-Panels2rawAudio

- eg to give the frontpage a different layout

panels_front url. then set this as the main page

- the panel layout options only occurs within the content area of your current theme
- ignore the titles section of panels in layout settings

- advanced settings
-- disable drupal blocks/regions - for a frontpage panel this will remove the left column nav bar

- content tab
-- click the + button in the pane. then u can select what content types u can put in the panels
- add a custom content type
- u can add css tags/classes in most of these areas to apply extra css instructions to it later (it adds them as css tags)
css - u don't need the .josh just use josh for the class name. and u can use multiple, just separate the list with space

- useful with views
- u can embed a view straight into the panel
- convert same view into multiple panes. once it's a pane u can modify what it does/shows

views panes (in admin page)
- connect the view to the panel --> pane
- category = views (define your own, these then appear in the list of content types in the box above)
- views can only use page & blog (views 1, views 2 can do more)
- allow the pane configuration to modify the items to display setting = checked, then passes this control through to the panels page, so if multiple users/groups. then each group/user could assign different values for these in their own view rather than using the site-wide value

offset - to skip first article (it's shown in full / feature article), show the second article (in a list). also good for sticky articles at top of page

then go back to panel content, and add the view panel
you can override the title
eg joshs news %title
- u can use keywords from context

devel module
- automatically generates some users and a dummy page for theme demos

so in the panel, create the main section with the article view panel. then in the centre/bottom panel, use the same view but a different view panel which shows the articles in list form instead of full view

--- part 2

advanced panels

contexts
- create a node page override
- on blog pages, show other blog posts by same author
- news node pages, show other news articles on same topic

views
- latest blogs
argument : user : UID s author, display all values, title=blogs by %1
add panel page : title is replaced later, path= node/%
panel page : context tab : arguments, contexts, relationships
- arguments - these are at the end of the url, expects a number/integer, userid, vocabulary id, taxonomy term id (category)
- contexts - haven't used it much
- relationship

add an argument
- specify a new keyword eg node_title
- own display - for your own articles of that type

relationships
- user from node

node1 blog entry & node1 story entry - these have their own new views
now when u add content to the panel, there's a node context content section and a user context section

articles by same user
- in the panel view
- argument
UID is author
from context
required context=user

then add this to the panel
title= %user's latest blogs
in left column
can change to table view to show the list

export from a test site, then import:
views
veiws panes
panels
- make sure tinyMCE is switched off

========================================================

session 5

CSS theme modification

-- by Sheree from marmalade soul

http://www.marmaladesoul.com

part 1:

http://www.archive.org/details/DrupalCamp-Sydney2008-CssThemesPart1rawAudio

part 2 :

http://www.archive.org/details/DrupalCamp-Sydney2008-CssThemesPart2rawAudio

css edit $30 for mac - marcrabbit.com - mac rabbit
- xray mode - allows u to check the pages in the drupal site
- similar to firebug

glossy blue theme is being modified in this example / demo

duplicate glossy blue to christmascats theme
rename glossyblue.info to christmascats.info
edit christmascats.info & change name, description & u can delete the project section (this is added by drupal when u submit a theme to drupal.og and it is used to track when new versions are released)
screenshot - this is the screenshot in the themes list in admin 150x90

textmate for mac - to edit the text files

fix-ie.css
print.css
style.css

open style.css in css edit

click on inspector in css edit
replace the graphic files .gifs for your new theme

toggle between xray view
check the different sections/components and change colours/margins/padding etc
make sure u have dummy content in the site before u start theming it so u check the H1, H2 headings etc

don't change the float elements as it could break the theme
- add padding/margins instead to position items

=====================================================================

session 6

recording from phone recorder (presenters + audience) :

http://www.archive.org/details/DrupalCamp-Sydney2008-BuildingADrupalSite...

recoding of same session using microphone (presenters only)

http://www.archive.org/details/DrupalCamp-Sydney2008-BuildingADrupalSite...
(quicktime .mov file)

building a website
freestyling ...
-- by Aimee & Ivan

part 1
8:29 start

fckeditor - wysiwyg editor

searches on cck types

part 2
views

block view

- now we can create nice views for users as u can create it on the user node type

- select it as a link & remove the default title: prefix
- click save

taxonomy

calendar - just to display in the calendar
- date api
- cck & views - to create a content type & display it on the calendar

video tutorial on web - drupal videos / drupal tutorials - for date module - 1 hour

Sydney Drupal usergroup meeting 16/10/2008

2008-10-17T06:55:12+01:00

I went to the Sydney Drupal Usergroup - October Meetup last night - my first one in Sydney. previously I've only been to the drupal sessions at fosdem 2005 in Brussels as I'd never been to Brussels and wanted to see what it was like. I'd been using drupal for a couple of years at the time and was testing upgrades. initially this site was a custom made php site that I coded to let me do data entry for events / news items and display them on the site in the same format I used for the mail lists which had been running for a few years prior to the site - so at the time, the custom php site saved me time. but also I found I spent a lot of time getting the site to work and adding new features, so when a friend (thanks Damian) asked me over to try out some CMS's including Drupal and we got it working in about an hour, I was hooked! the format of the articles was not exactly the same as what the previous site had been using, but it was so much easier to manage! I can't remember the exact date I moved the site to drupal, but by looking at the the wayback machine pages, it seems to have been in june / july 2003 - maybe 23rd july??

slideshow of fosdem 2005 :

Cybernetics Serendipity Redux - A moderated discussion on YASMIN

2008-09-02T12:18:57+01:00

Leonardo/OLATS, co sponsor of YASMIN, is pleased to announce

Cybernetics Serendipity Redux
http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin/viewtopic.php?t=4385 (ed: discussion link seems to be broken now 15/02/2009)
http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin_oldarchives - has archive of yasmin mail list
http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin - new Yasmin list

A moderated discussion on YASMIN
Beginning September 1 2008

Discussion On YASMIN, led by Ranulph Glanville.
Moderators Ranulph Glanville, Paul Brown, Paul Pangaro

40 years ago, Jasia Reichart's exhibition "Cybernetic Serendipity" showed that cybernetics, computing and art had arrived.

40 years later, while computers and art remain, cybernetics has nearly vanished, although there is a reviving interest in art.

In celebrating Cybernetic Serendipity we have the chance to re-open the debate, to reconsider the relationship particularly between cybernetics and art, and to do so taking into account the way that cybernetics has developed during its period of near invisibility.

So what is new in cybernetics, and how can that inform art: and, what is new in art, and how can that inform cybernetics.

This is a chance to reopen the connection, to explore again, and to move beyond some of the current models taken from cognitive science, computing, AI and AL, and complexity, to the (much more radical) field of their origin, cybernetics.

List of Discussants
Albert Mueller
Andreas Giannakoulopoulos
Andrew Brouse
Enrique Rivera
Ian Clothier
Jasia Reichart
Julien Knebusch
Mitchell Whitelaw
Paul Brown
Paul Pangaro
Ranulph Glanville
Roger Malina
Stephen Jones

------------------

To become a member & Yasmin list archive: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin/
To join Yasmin-map: http://haystack.cerado.com/yasmin
To post: yasmin@estia.media.uoa.gr
To unsubscribe: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin/unsubs.php?lid=1

facebook event : http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=71923825014

hackety.org

2008-04-12T22:49:46+01:00

hackety.org is a website for artful computer hacking. they're interested in how hacking weaves into life

clojure - a lisp scripting language for JVM

2008-04-12T09:24:16+01:00

just read about this on the toplap list :
Clojure was developed by architect / programmer Rich Hickey who has worked on projects such as scheduling, automation, election displays, fingerprinting, audio analysis, machine listening.

"Clojure is a dynamic programming language that targets the Java Virtual Machine. It is designed to be a general-purpose language, combining the approachability and interactive development of a scripting language with an efficient and robust infrastructure for multithreaded programming. Clojure is a compiled language - it compiles directly to JVM bytecode, yet remains completely dynamic. Every feature supported by Clojure is supported at runtime. Clojure provides easy access to the Java frameworks, with optional type hints and type inference, to ensure that calls to Java can avoid reflection."

"Clojure is a dialect of Lisp, and shares with Lisp the code-as-data philosophy and a powerful macro system. Clojure is predominantly a functional programming language, and features a rich set of immutable, persistent data structures. When mutable state is needed, Clojure offers a software transactional memory system and reactive Agent system that ensure clean, correct, multithreaded designs."

http://www.clojure.org

videos explaining clojure :

Clojure Concurrency @ http://blip.tv/file/812787

clojure is ... "maybe the friendliest face that's been presented to functional programming"

mentioned the book "Java Concurrency in Practice " - said everyone should read this. it makes it sound like concurrency in java is really hard.

emacs editor - closure plugin

DrupalCon 2007 - Barcelona links & drupal for Facebook

2007-10-19T10:43:09+01:00

DrupalCon was held recently in Barcelona. I didn't make it this year. the schedule looked good though, and from all reports it was the best drupalcon ever (as it is each year!!). there's a wrap up post on the drupal site with links to some of the slide presentations, videos of the sessions on archive.org - search for drupalconbarcelona2007 tag, or try the mirror site.
drupal for facebook was a session by Dave Cohen. he's started a Facebook project on the Drupal site. the video of his presentation is online as well as the slides
there's a demo on facebook. I'm already feeding facebook with my drupal site blog entries using the RSS capabilities of Blog Friends and the built in Notes application, but it'll be interesting to see what the Drupal guys build.
and, speaking of facebook, mashable have reviewed widget box, a wizard for creating Facebook apps

chucK - live coding music tutorials & results

2007-09-14T17:41:27+01:00

I'm trying out making music using live coding techniques, with 2 pre-requisites - that it's easy and fast to do & learn - probably not the right pre-requisites (might upset real musicians :), but it's where I'm at for the moment.
so, I'm trying chucK. this is the first chucK tutorial. I used the miniAudicle IDE instead of command line interface. it was very easy to load the songs into the IDE (miniAudicle) and play them. I had separate files for each module and adjusted some of the parameters to change the sounds, then clicked the 'replace shred' to 'take' the change and add this file's sounds to the output audio.
this it meets my criteria - easy and fast to use. now I just have to make it sound musical instead of a collection of random sounds & tones :) (the hard part)
chucK documentation
chucK community / mail lists
chucK miniAudicle documentation
chucK wiki
chucK projects - some people are hooking up chucK apps and Processing for java based visuals, plus there's many examples of laptop instruments, as well as a Max patch and more
listen to the audio :
chucK_tutorial01.mp3
loscha_com_tambura01.mp3 - from the loscha.comchucK tutorials ( Loscha is in the Australian band Toydeath - a circuit bending performance experience ) - this piece reminds me of the original samples of the bridges in the Jodie Rose Singing Bridges project and cd.

ChucK : Strongly-timed, Concurrent, and On-the-fly Audio Programming Language

2007-09-14T16:03:13+01:00

ChucK is a new (and developing) audio programming language for real-time synthesis, composition, performance, and now, analysis - fully supported on MacOS X, Windows, and Linux. ChucK presents a new time-based, concurrent programming model that's highly precise and expressive (we call this strongly-timed), as well as dynamic control rates, and the ability to add and modify code on-the-fly. In addition, ChucK supports MIDI, OSC, HID device, and multi-channel audio. It's fun and easy to learn, and offers composers, researchers, and performers a powerful programming tool for building and experimenting with complex audio synthesis/analysis programs, and real-time interactive control. ChucK is one of the programmes used in live coding circles. visit http://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/ for more details.

substrate processing app images

2007-06-17T10:44:03+01:00

I've been trying out some processing apps - Substrate is one of my favourites. written by j.tarbell from complexification.net. it creates a generative image from colours in a specified source image using a simple algorithm.
I used this photo of Auckland countryside as the source image. here's the results:

http://complexification.net/gallery/machines/substrate/ for j.tarbell's amazing works.

drupal features and development links & info

2007-03-03T09:48:27+00:00

some links for drupal features and module development.
CVS
http://cvs.drupal.org/viewcvs/drupal/ has an example/browsable view of the drupal code & contributor code CVS system.
themes
http://themegarden.org/drupal50/ has some drupal 5 themes, though it seems the themegarden has recently been closed.
http://drupal.org/project/Themes has some screen shots of themes.
artists sites & groups
http://groups.drupal.org/art-music - this replaces the http://www.drupalart.org/ site.
CCK - Content Construction Kit
http://groups.drupal.org/content-construction-kit-cck - group for Content Construction Kit (CCK). this is the new system to replace flexinodes and allows you to create different fields.
http://drupal.org/node/101723 = Content Construction Kit handbook
http://drupal.org/project/Modules/category/88 - lists the different field types for CCK
Views
http://drupal.org/project/views - there's also a system called Views which are like database user views and allow different collections of information to be collected and then displayed once integrated into the theme. from this page:
"This tool is essentially a smart query builder that, given enough information, can build the proper query, execute it, and display the results. It has four modes, plus a special mode, and provides an impressive amount of functionality from these modes."
http://drupal.org/handbook/modules/views
theming CCK fields
theming individual CCK fields - http://drupal.org/node/62466
theming CCK & views to create a scheduling grid (good examples of how to customise which could be applied to other CCK node types) : http://groups.drupal.org/node/2647
http://oif.eafarris.com/cck_theming_in_drupal_4_7 - this is the site of the creator of freelinks module. he's using CCK on his site and shows an example of how he made and themed a custom version of weblinks module in CCK
tutorials & documentation
http://groups.drupal.org - for general info on different sections of drupal project
drupal video tutorials and screencasts -
http://drupal.org/node/124318
support @ bryght.com - http://support.bryght.com/
http://drupal.org/handbooks
writing your own drupal modules
http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-dojo = a group for writing your own drupal modules with some lessons/tutorials
http://drupal.org/contribute/development has some ways people can help with drupal development
http://docs.drupaldojo.org/getting-started-with-drupal-development - there's a coding lesson coming up on 11th march. & they're working on a "Getting Started with Drupal Development" handbook
http://drupaldojo.com/lessons/ - has some of the lessons
http://drupal.org/node/508 - module developers guide
http://drupal.org/node/17914 - how to build drupal 4.7 modules
http://drupal.org/node/82920 - building drupal 5 modules
http://drupal.org/node/318 - drupal coding standards
http://api.drupal.org/ - drupal api's
http://drupal.org/node/49768 - drupal object reference
http://api.drupal.org/api/HEAD - examples from drupal head

css zen garden

2006-10-21T18:58:26+01:00

The Zen Garden aims to excite, inspire, and encourage participation. To begin, view some of the existing designs in the list. Clicking on any one will load the style sheet into this very page. The code remains the same, the only thing that has changed is the external .css file. visit http://www.csszengarden.com/ for more details

Sophie - a project for The Institute of the Future of the Book

2006-10-21T18:34:11+01:00

Sophie, the Institute's first piece of software, is designed for reading and writing next-generation electronic books. Sophie will facilitate the easy construction of documents that are designed to live on the network and to use multimedia and time in ways that are currently difficult, if not impossible. visit the website to find out more about this new format. visit http://www.futureofthebook.org/sophie/ for more details

playing with squeak

2006-10-21T15:03:18+01:00

HelloWorld! squeak file

visit squeak plugins page if you can't see the app below

or click here to open hello world squeak test app if you can't already see it. once the page opens, scroll to the toolbar at bottom of page and add things to the test page - you won't be able to save though!

hrmm... that didn't work at all :(

useful links to docs / info :

http://www.squeak.org : one of the main squeak sites

http://guzdial.cc.gatech.edu/squeakbook/ : book on squeak "Squeak: Object-oriented design with multimedia applications" by Mark Guzdial

http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/cs2340/ : uni course using squeak that the "Squeak: Object-oriented design with multimedia applications" book was based on

http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~ducasse/Videos/ : video tutorials - don't seem to have sound in all of them though! screencasts

http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak : Squeak Swiki

http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/2983 : documentation

http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/82 : a self study course in squeak

http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/20 : other squeak websites

http://www.univ-savoie.fr/Portail/Groupes/listic2/membres/Stephane.Ducas... : pdf books on squeak

Alice

2006-10-21T13:58:54+01:00

Alice is a modern programming environment designed to be a student's first exposure to object-oriented programming. It allows students to learn basic computer science while creating animated movies, simple video games, where students control the behavior of 3D objects and characters in a virtual world. visit http://www.alice.org for more details

Squeak

2006-10-21T13:43:29+01:00

Squeak is highly portable open-source Smalltalk with powerful multimedia facilities. Squeak is the vehicle of a wide range of projects, ranging from educational platforms to commercial web application development.

Squeak is an open, highly-portable Smalltalk implementation whose virtual machine is written entirely in Smalltalk, making it easy to debug, analyze, and change. To achieve practical performance, a translator produces an equivalent C program whose performance is comparable to commercial Smalltalks.

Other noteworthy aspects of Squeak include

* real-time sound and music synthesis written entirely in Smalltalk
* extensions of BitBlt to handle color of any depth and anti-aliased image rotation and scaling
* network access support that allows simple construction of servers and other useful facilities
* it runs bit-identical on many platforms (Windows, Mac, Unix, and others)
* a compact object format that typically requires only a single word of overhead per object
* a simple yet efficient incremental garbage collector for 32-bit direct pointers efficient bulk-mutation of objects

http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/ has more resources or visit http://squeak.org/ for more details

Croquet Project - teaching platform for creating collaborative multi-user online applications

2006-10-21T05:51:58+01:00

The Croquet Project is an international effort to promote the continued development of Croquet, a new open source software platform for creating deeply collaborative multi-user online applications. It features a network architecture that supports communication, collaboration, resource sharing, and synchronous computation among multiple users. Using the downloadable Croquet SDK, software developers can benefit from a flexible enough framework that virtually any user interface concept could quickly and easily be prototyped and deployed to create powerful and highly collaborative multi-user 2D and 3D applications and simulations.
-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croquet_project

Croquet is a combination of computer software and network architecture that supports deep collaboration and resource sharing among multiple users within the context of a large-scale distributed information system. Along with providing a flexible enough framework that virtually any user interface concept could quickly and easily be prototyped and deployed, Croquet can be used to deliver compelling 3D collaborative visualizations and simulations.

Croquet incorporates replication of computation (both objects and activity), and the idea of active shared subspaces in its basic interpreter model. More traditional distributed systems replicate data, but try very hard not to replicate computation. But, it is often easier and more efficient to send the computation to the data, rather than the other way round. Consequently, Croquet is defined so that replication of computations is just as easy as replication of data.

visit http://www.opencroquet.org for more details