• Contributing Code Process.

  Useful overview of git commands for creating patches and submitting pull requests on github.

• Callback sample.

  Shows how to use the callback manager for your own custom events.

• vector<Particle> versus vector<Particle*>.

  Insight into memory layout and management.

• Cinder Syphon.

  An amazing API for cross-application realtime graphics.

• Visual C++ 2010 linking.

  Because I come from XCode.

• Using std::thread.

  A good demo of thread use in a c++ application.

• Vbo Custom Attributes.

  Some discussion of how to provide a useful abstraction to the OpenGL structure.

• Boost::filesystem.

  Simple tutorial for basic filesystem use.

Written Images is an excellent project in generative bookmaking initiated by Martin Fuchs. He has an open call-for-entries to collect image-making applications. The site copy explains the project’s ambition:

Written Images; a project in contemporary generative print design and art. Its final products will be a book that presents programmed images by various artists. Each print in process will be calculated individually – which makes every single book unique.

I’m making my submissions using Cinder so I can get more comfortable with c++ and the XCode environment. To make my life easier, I added a WrittenImages project template to the excellent TinderBox tool that comes with Cinder. Get the template by either downloading my version of TinderBox (which contains the template), or checking it out on github. You can also look at an example of code generated by the template.

The template sets up your application to receive command-line arguments and handle batch-rendering of files to the provided paths. To use it, open up TinderBox and create a new project. Your settings should be: Target: Basic App, Template: WrittenImages. I think the code inside is pretty self-explanatory for use. To pass arguments to your application in the command-line (Assuming you named your project Sample, which you probably didn’t), do the following:

$ Sample.app/Contents/MacOS/Sample ./more.png ./like.png ./this.png

The reason for the longish path to your application is that the binary is actually in an application bundle. The Sample.app/ is just a directory, and to pass arguments to the application we need to call the executable part directly.

The written images deadline was just extended to July 15, so you still have a chance to make a submission.

Download TinderBox with the WrittenImages template.

I’m starting to look for my next apartment, and I’m sick of doing the copy+paste dance to find out where craigslist postings are actually located. I wanted to be able to highlight an address on the page, hit a shortcut, and be taken to a map of that location.

After a quick google search, I couldn’t find any bookmarklets with the behavior I wanted. As a result, I took a few minute to write my own. The following is a simple bookmarklet that queries for the selected text using google maps. If nothing is highlighted, you will be prompted to enter an address.

Drag the following to your bookmarks bar: Find in maps

You can take a look at the source code for the bookmarklet on github.

I’ve been using git for a few months now, and have found it faster and more enjoyable to deal with than svn. Sure, there’s the headache with remembering git revert is not like svn revert (use reset to go back to a point in time, revert to undo a commit—more like English, actually).

In addition to git, there’s github, a good place to host your public code repositories. I’m keeping an AS3 Konami Code project and my AS3 code library on github. You can clone them to your machine or fork them to create your own project on github.

It’s easy to get a repository started anywhere: $ git init

Then you can add stuff to your next commit $ git add stuffToCommit

Then commit it: $ git commit -m "I added some really cool stuff to my project."

It’s all managed locally, so you don’t need to be online or ping a separate machine to figure out what’s changed. Inevitably, you’ll want to have your stuff backed up elsewhere, so it’s also easy to set up another location to push your repository to.

On the other machine: $ mkdir repository.git $ cd repository.git $ git --bare init

On your machine: //create a reference to the machine called ‘origin’ $ git remote add origin ssh://other.machine.info/repository.git //push your ‘master’ branch to ‘origin’ $ git push origin master

To get stuff from your remote server back to your machine, or to copy everything to a new machine (if you’re working on multiple machines and want to sync up): //use this if you have the origin setup $ git pull origin master //use this if you don’t have a repo setup locally: $ git clone ssh://other.machine.info/repository.git

You can check the status of your repository and get a log of commits by using the $git status and $git log commands, respectively. And don’t forget to edit .git/info/exclude to avoid unnecessarily versioning things.

For more information on git, check out the sites I found useful on delicious.

This weekend, I discovered my localhost wasn’t working when I wanted to do a bit of local website development. I got a pretty unfriendly ‘Failed to Connect’ message when trying to hit http://localhost/, http://127.0.0.1/ or the IP my mac was telling me my Sites/ were at in System Preferences. Bummer. I tried pinging my server from Terminal, which gave false-positives that the server was running (I should have used $ ping localhost:80, which properly showed the host was down). $ apachectl configtest returned that my syntax was OK. sudo apachectl start told me the server was already running. Everything looked right, it just wasn’t showing up in the browser.

Searching around the internet, I found that lots of other people had different problems with WebSharing (trying to use .htaccess files, permissions errors preventing pages from showing, and enabling php), but no one was experiencing quite the same thing as me.

The Solution

This ended up being really easy. Chandler McWilliams, via email, suggested I check my apache error logs. They should live in /var/logs/apache2/error_log. My machine lacked even an apache2/ directory. So I made one: $ sudo mkdir apache2, and all of a sudden, it was populated with a new error_log (among other things), and my localhost was working again.

Solutions to other problems:

If you want to enable .htaccess files on your Mac Apache setup: in /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf: AllowOverride All in /private/etc/apache2/users/yourname.conf: AllowOverride AuthConfig For extended instructions, check out this blogpost on enabling .htaccess files.

To enable php5 on your Mac, you’ll need to load the module in /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf: Uncomment LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so Tyler also made a note of this.

If you get a 500 error on stuff on your Mac server, try changing the permissions from the command line. chmod -R 744 problemdirectory/ should do it.

EDIT: I changed the paths to the locations where you need to get things set up. They seem to be in a different location under 10.5.

There are lots of good books out there. I want to read them all and experience the stories within them. I also want to get through more technical books faster and with better comprehension. Because of this, I made a website that doesn’t help with either of those things. It just expresses the feeling of being happily overwhelmed by the amount of good stuff that’s out there. It’s called I wish I could read faster.

I photographed a lot of books I had left at my parents house in preparation for the most recent addition to timespentalone. I wish I could read faster currently catalogues those 36 books and echoes the obvious sentiment of wishing to read more. I see some more photography and photoshop sessions ahead in order to bring to piece to a higher level of completion.

Books fall from the sky continuously, producing more content than could ever be read in the amount of time given to each book. Over time, stacks pile up and fade into the background. You can throw the books around by dragging them with your mouse.

I wish I could read faster uses the AS3 port of the Box2D physics engine to handle collisions.

I would like to add the ability for people to contribute books they either wish they could read or enjoyed reading. Right now, I’m not sure a file-upload tool would be used by anyone but me. If you would like to add books to the site, let me know, and I’ll probably build a submission form for everyone to use.

Tonight, I decided to take another step in the short evolution of Robert’s fun dice-table images. Mario Klingemann raised the bar with his Aviary filter that transforms images into dice-images. In addition to all that awesomeness, you can now play with a real-time dice mirror in your web browser. Enjoy.

Interact: dice mirror Source (.zip): dice mirror source

Troubleshooting: Flash is pretty weird when it comes to accessing your webcam. Even after you click “Allow,” your webcam might not turn on. Open the settings panel (right click -> Settings…), then click on the little orb/webcam icon, then select your real webcam from the dropdown. For some reason the iSight on my mac shows up as three different cameras, but it’s actually only accessible as the “USB Video Class Video.”

I often project emotions onto inanimate forms, aspirations onto moving objects. What is the natural home for an interestingly spun wood shaving? Where are those blobs of goo headed, and what do they think of each other? Tonight, I’ve done it with a quick code sketch. The behaviors are purely overlaid on top of the still images after they’ve been taken. Some dots are rejected by others, sometimes they’re bustling to work, or a connection is made across the room. These are simple stories for simple images, and I don’t pretend that they are clearly evinced without narrator intervention.

The majority of systems overlaid with human characteristics are cute analogs (as above). What level of complexity must a system reach in order to signify human emotions with more resonance and less creator intervention? How can end viewers reach their own anthropomorphic conclusions about the piece that is within the creators intended parameters? A potential solution is the appropriate integration of language.

I have been considering the incorporation of language into my work more seriously since I saw the Lawrence Weiner retrospective at the Whitney. His work consists of a statement, which can be carried out literally or simply written or spoken. I like the writing of the intent of the piece, and its incorporation into the visual piece. The words, as they are written, can carry a specific weight. They are allowed to change within the readers mind, to be given new realizations parallel to the literal interpretations that are given. “Two Minutes of Spray Paint Directly Upon the Floor From a Standard Aerosol Spray Can” Titling alone cannot give appropriate meaning to a work, the object/symbol obviously needs to relate the message on its own. I have a project in the pipeline that I hope will address some of these concerns and enable me to be more expressive with my future making.

I just finished a short experimental animation. Independent objects move through space. Connections are formed between neighboring objects, creating an overall structure that grows, mutates and ultimately collapses.

So I’m just putting in my final days at Domani Studios now. I had the pleasure of working on a lot of fun projects with some really cool people here. Figured it was appropriate to rick roll them for my sending off. Of course with a particle system, though. Of course.