Eye Eye

Fun with microscopes...

Clavilux 2000

Clavilux 2000: an interactive instrument for generative music visualization from Jonas Heuer, built using the vvvv platform. Very pretty.

Why Online Privacy Matters

If you've ever mocked privacy zealots for their convictions, read this article about crime in the age of augmented reality. New technologies bring with them a whole new set of methods for crime.

Life Before Google

Thanks to Chris for linking to this. Hilarious.

PTAM Augmented Reality API

PTAM is a non-commercial API from Oxford's ActiveVision group which enables augmented reality applications without special geometric markers. It identifies edges which it uses as anchors to map virtual 3D objects to. It's amazingly responsive.

Future Shock, Past & Present

If you've seen the scare-mongering Frontline documentary "Digital Nation," you should definitely listen to this NPR radio program:

Javascript Random Seed

JavaScript doesn't have a random seed function, which means you've got to roll you own. This little fella works like a charm:

function random(seed) {
  if (!seed)
    seed = new Date().getTime();
  seed = (seed*9301+49297) % 233280;
  return seed/(233280.0);
}

Oh, and if you're a fan of Python, check out jash.

Bruno Latour on Nature @ MIT

Have a listen to the complete talk that Bruno Latour gave at MIT's Science & Technology Studies Program a couple of days ago:

Boston Dynamics' Petman

Python + MySQL on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

I just spent the last four hours trying to get Python talking to MySQL on my Mac. Ugh. For anyone else who is looking for this solution, here is the webpage that solved the problem for me:

http://www.zen-hacking.com/2009/09/01/python-mysql-under-snow-leopard/

Bike Stolen

My bike was stolen yesterday evening. I'm offering a reward for its recovery, and a reward for forwarding this to someone who provides definitive information leading to its recovery. See http://woj.com/bikestolen.html for details.

3D Printing

I've been playing around with 3D printing recently. It's amazing how well it can output complex geometries like my urban globe above.

Takehito Etani

I spent the last few days sketching out this exact prosthetic system. I must be on the right track...

Learning Electronics

I'm taking an intense course on electronics at Harvard called Physics 123. It's throwing me for a loop, not having done any serious math in at least ten years or so. In the process of studying for this class, I came across an amazing circuit simulator applet. It is indispensable in visualizing concepts from our textbook. Check it out.

Software Studies

I just came across this conference from 2008 on the topic of Software Studies. For anyone out there who bridges engineering and culture, or anyone interested in the cultural effects of software this will no doubt be a fascinating set of talks.

Robert Aumann's 2005 Nobel Prize Lecture

The 2005 Nobel Memorial Prize winner in Economics was Robert Aumann, for his significant contributions to the field of Game Theory. In his Nobel Lecture, Aumann discusses his view of economics, his contribution to game theory, a few lessons from the Talmud, and how to move towards a world without war. He discusses, for example, some of the paradoxes of how an arms race can actually lead to a more peaceful world.

This is a good companion video to Steven Pinker on the decline of violence.

The Straw Man Argument

Today's Wikipedia entry: Straw Man. Read this and you'll start seeing them everywhere.

How I (Almost) Made Something

Well, I didn't use my blog to publish my homework from How to Make (Almost) Anything, as I mentioned earlier. Instead, I published my homework locally on the class website. I'll be sharing my work in greater detail in late January as I tie up some loose ends.



It was an amazing class: intense, but very worthwhile. I'm amazed by how much I've learned about about microcontroller assembly programming, basic sensor operation, low-cost digital networking, computer-controlled milling, making composite structures, molding and casting, 3D scanning and debugging electronic hardware in general. The class has enabled me to create a whole new category of things that I wasn't capable of before. Like Neil said to us at the end of the course: "You're now half-way through the class."

Stay tuned.

Warren Sack on Citizen-Centric Software

Polishness

My latest invention:



I can't claim that this tool is very intelligent. It takes crude measurements based on Google search results and although it is tempting to draw conclusions from this data, this process is far from scientific. It's more scientishtic. And as much as I'm like this to be a work of art, it's not quite there either.

This project takes a particular tactic towards unveiling the meanings of Polishness. I'm as much interested in how Poles understand Polishness as I am in how others project other kinds of Polishnesses onto Poles and Poland.

The most interesting component of this project is the growing database of word pairings that people enter. Binary concepts have long been an unfashionable way of thinking in the fields of sociology, cultural studies and contemporary philosophy, however there is something enjoyable about exploring the tensions between two concepts. Binaries also graph well onto the duotone Polish flag.

Using the main Google database is a way of weighing one's own expectations of Polishness against some kind of mass average. The difference between how we expect concepts to graph and how concepts actually graph becomes its own territory. Perhaps the difference between Google averages and our own expectations of Polishness is the conceptual space that people actively produce in their daily interactions...

and here you have the body

I made this collage today. I might make some miniature 3D statuettes next week. It's molding and casting week at How to Make (Almost) Anything.

How to Make (Almost) Anything - Week 1

I'm going to be using a slice of my blog to document my class work for the MIT Media Lab's course, "How to Make (Almost) Anything," aka MAS 863.

For our first assignment we had to design a 3D model of our final project. I proposed that I would take the 3D model of my Oracle project and reform it as a flat map. The final work will likely use conductive plastic for the extruded city blocks, along with some kind of microprocessor-controlled lighting system to represent data across it. Capacitive contact-sensing could add an element of sound to the map -- if I have time to get to that.

An illustration is on its way...

Back to School

Last week was the first week of classes at MIT. We all have about five weeks to add and drop courses, in what they call the "shopping period." It's quite a lot of fun roaming the campus to see what's available here. It's a little overwhelming, but overwhelming in a good way.

Skol

I have a solo show coming up next year in Montreal. Click this title graphic for a good brief write-up about it:

Poland and Missile Trading

Poland seems to in the middle of the bargaining of larger nations, once again. This time it seems that Poland could contribute to the stabilization of the Middle East, not only by helping to revise arms deals, but also through knowledge transfer to developing nations. A quote from this article summarizes well one of the larger meta-purposes that the Polish nation sees for itself:

"Poland is a country that has carried out a successful transformation both in terms of politics and in terms of the economy. We want to be used to transmit that experience to others, not just in Europe, but in other parts of the world." -- Radosław Sikorski, Poland's Minister of Foreign Affairs