Them Changes....

Moved into the creative space and enjoying the privacy. Now just need a little change to the finances for the better.

Then perhaps I could make the needed pc board to go with the buttons which eventually arrived. So one day the box of tricks is complete, soon I hope.
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Bits and pieces

So now my living space is rapidly improving and its quite exciting because for the first time in my life I have my own creative space and shortly all my creative tools accessible too.

So my creative lair is a work in progress and very exciting.

So much yet to do.....
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The monster is alive and it has replicated

Ah finally, after much fiddling the monome is properly alive. With the help of a few compassionate friends I now have an input device I can totally customise to my liking. Now if I just had DSL again.

As of yesterday I now also have the buttons I ordered from Sparkfun electronics and a little monome 10h having life breathed into on a veroboard setup with pretty blue LED's

And if only I had the money to make bibo's 8x8 board to match the sparkfun buttons and waterjet/laser cut faceplates.

Now just to complete an enclosure...
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Its Alive!! Its Alive

I've after a two and a half year odessey building a monome and now its finally working. I had long envisaged using it as a realtime input animation device and now it is working. Finally

Now I just need to learn enough to write my own Maya motion capture servers and that is the next odessey.

Mmm programming and more programming. Right now I'm really glad I'm studying programming. Still a lot to do.

Onward!!
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Incubating in my brain.....

Is a plethora of ideas the latest of which I have made into a specification and issued to somebody I am hopeful can help me realise it.

So now we wait for feedback. But if it can be done, and I'm sure it can, open source gets another huge stride forward. I myself can hardly wait to begin using this monster......
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More progress coding

I'm pleased to say I've now successfully got glovePIE to give me feedback for a number of options relating specifically to what the wiimote sees on my trusty mini muti-touch surface.

I've also recently found a neat video with some guy doing a very nice Ableton Live and dual wiimote and multitouch system mashup video.
Not fully multi-touch if you ask me, more like index finger and thumb, but a good jumping off point for what I have in mind.

I must say its soooo neat to be learning how to program and to actually succeed in what I'm attempting for a change. GlovePIE has been a good start and until I find a language that gives me more leverage or I write a better tools myself, it will do.

Just now actually, I found some glovePIE code for OSC and its enough that I think I might be able to make me a multitouch monome as an extension of the wiimote multi touch bastard I've been fiddling with. Mmmm so much excitement and so much to learn and experiment with.

As soon as I get ADSL again I'l post links for all my kooky little tools.
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Box of tricks progresses

So now I have a smaller scale IR setup for a multitouch controller. It promises a few things but right now I can say with certainty using a wiimote to process IR blobs does not yield any tangible results for small LED arrays.

In fact it seems unless you have an LED in a glove fingertip you're gonna have no useful feedback. But now I can test my GlovePIE script in that I have a piece of hardboard with four holes drilled and IR LEDS inserted in there.

These holes are a calibration sheet, if you will for the box of tricks. Purely a method to check the wiimotes true fields of view and the Glovepie code I've written. So after a little bit more soldering hopefully we'll have something. Then its time to make an IR glove.
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Some progress with the "Box of Tricks"

I've started coding a multitouch controller using a nintendo wii remote and GlovePIE for using in sequencing and it works!!

Right now I need to finish the test surface which is not very big but will work well.

Last night saw the first fruits of my programing course and I began writing what I shall in future refer to as "my box of tricks".

Right now the programming synergy will be from using Pure Data and GlovePIE but later as my course progresses I am hopeful for a full, sleek and efficient java coded application.

So for now ahead is more coding and finishing the test control surface. Future plans will include a video projector as currently the box of tricks has no visual feedback on the surface but that too in time will come.
Now if only I was not a student and perpetually broke -eish
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A nifty idea

I think that by the end of the programming that is making my brain sweat so badly, I'll be able to create a better interface for puppeteering 3d animation, then all I need to look at is the input hardware. Mmmmm serial input via USB seems a good idea.
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Been a long time....

...since i posted here. Not so much for want of updating so much as I've had a number of my physical projects not work. I refer of course to my pursuit of completing my monome controller (www.monome.org) first.

It seems the fault may be corrected soon but the real bane is or has been the wiring and buttons for the keypad. As soon as I'm paid now for some written commercial treatments i've recently done then I can buy the sparkfun solution for my monomes.

Currently, we continue waiting...sigh

Gee brain what are we going to do tonight?

Same thing we do every night currently, occupy my time with a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

I had the brainwave today to capitalise on a friends occupancy in dubai and get her to find out about an Ipod or a clone thereof for moi.

Clone or not if the applications ,accelorometer and wifi are the same or work the same its a deal and depending how cheap it is I'll want more that 1. So now we wait for feedback.
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Tests and trials

Well here we go again, getting paid to wait. Hanging around waiting for delivery of materials so we can continue working. I hate this kind of waiting, it seems like such a waste!

Right now I'm so glad for my blackberry. It means I can entertain myself and surf or update my blog so this is just that.

The test part is to see if I can attach a photo I took with my phone and sent to the blackberry. Hmmm let's see that pic sure is taking its time coming through.
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Tick tock tick tock

The passage of time is a funny thing. So much can happen and yet often does not and then other times plenty happens when you least expect it.

Since my last entry I have gotten a rewired usb keyboard and I now wait to see how much success I can have with my button mold.

I also have restrung my guitar which motivationally, was taking a while, and I've brought my VF-1 guitar multifx processor and MIDI foot controller into the mix finally.

Now with some work at the airport I'm hoping as a side effect to score some old fluorescent light fittings for lighting my mobile bluescreen set. But we'll see if that happens thursday only, probably.

Well as soon as the creative space is going, or at least completed, then I can run amuck creating sound and vision again. But for now..... We limbo

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Queues and searches

Seems like I'm not going to accomplish much today. I'm waiting in another queue at our glorius unemployment office and will evidently be doing do for quite a while today.

Oy... And this is what I pay tax for? A portrait of inefficiency and a waste of time!

Well aside from the minor problem of having to find an exhaust manifold, which could take a while and this queue, I may be home by end of the month....

Just in time to pay my rent with money government pays with my stolen time.

All that having been said I have a few ideas for new content and a creative space which is coming along nicely.

Today I am inspired by the odd little movie "we are the strange" or at least its reasonable success it would seem. It's a model of inspiration for me and I can't wait to get working in my new space. The league of unusual superheroes is a project I think could benfit from this odd treatment and who knows perhaps my love of old videogame music will also be a drawcard.

It all waits to be born but first an overarching story is needed to unify it all. Maybe a sequence of events introducing and uniting the league....mmmm
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The box of tricks- the blind mouse

At 11ish today I'm hoping to rewire a USB key board into a box with 64 buttons. Yup that's right no led's. I'll miss them but at least then I can have an interface of sorts kinda like a blind mouse monome.... Should be interesting and hopefully empowering until I can make some kind of led feedback part as well. Pure Data is definitely beginning to crystalise as a tool in my mind and when I finally have a kind of interface it will be awesome to begin learning it properly
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Days of blunder

Currently I can't help shaking the feeling that I'm not being productive enough with my time. Truth be told I'm probably not as disciplined as I ought to be right now but I think when I am afforded a singular focus on something I am much better.

So in lieu of the fact that a few things remain in limbo for me currently, I am not going to feel excessively guilty save to say that I feel I must at least accomplish something everyday until I know where I am going.

Yesterday that was the PD code and USB keyboard dissection. So although its not rewired into a grid yet it is progress and its getting closer.

This waiting around for things and choices to crystalise is really throwing me since I am normally quite decisive. What time period I should wait around for before moving in a direction remains a qiuestion, and an annoyoing one at that.

At least I'm microns closer to a tangible music interface. Now if I can get the box working its just up to me an PD and that's more progress than I anticipated in that field for a while.
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Project urban space

A final cheque comes through so I'm fluid for the meanwhile. Things to do and people to see. Lots to write in scripts anyway but a little expenditure is needed.

So this saturday sees the beginning of the transfer of my stuff to the new workshop. It will take toime to organise but I think it will hopefully really give me a zone to retreat to and just create and be in my own space.

I'll need help of course and right now too. But first breakfast and an indulgence or two. Tomorrow definitely sushi, if Glen is available...
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New changes to the status quo

Circumstance is a funny thing. Often we despise the inconvenience of it but this particular turn brings an interesting result. The necessary relocation of my gear has allowed me a new creative space and it will include recording ability.

But first a very necessary cleanup and cleanup I indeed will. The difference will be quite substantial. Pictures of before and after hopefully to follow soon.
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Good bye windows

That's it I'm ditching the opression of windows for linux
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Train wrecks ahead

What do you do when you are informed of coming disaster and it is inevitable? So now I'm faced with an inevitable event and some measure sadly involves me. Find a new home for my tools is the big thing. Considerations are also fly all the stuff? Currently until further I just don't know..... Another day of shades of blue
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Maybe scratch that

The feeling is waning and right now I don't particularly feel like I want to empower anybody but me. So before I change my mind yet again....nah I'll just be a little self absorbed and indulge me.. :)
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So many options yet again

Every now and again in my travels I get presented with or discover new opportunities for sometimes, many things on many different levels. Although enlightnening, often I get overwhelmed with the possibilities that flood my mind and being a difficult thing to follow through I get sometimes severly bummed. So now I'm presented with the "you should... " so called advice advocating a "safe" employment path. Not a dull thing but limited thing compared to what I sometimes believe my realised potential could be. So although I've not committed to any action yet, again I need to stop and take stock before proceeding... Oy
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Pass it around

So today I'm doing a few new things one will be getting into inkscape and teaching a friend's mum how to use it as a free alternative to Adobe's Illustrator
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Try concentrate on one thing

Ok. So you find you have an aptitude for a few different things. Which do you concentrate on? Cos if you don't use it you lose it...mmmm. It kinda makes for a tall order to keep it all going. In the process you lose the capacity to earn because its "not what you do" so you'd think you have effectively become a generalist and not worth too much to anybody. What if all the things you can do are related and you're quite good at all of them? Not so mediocre then? So of the many things I can do right now matchmoving and compositing art my newest with good results so I'll sharpen that blade for a while. Oh Lord just don't let me end up deluding myself and becoming the next Ed Wood.
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And so it began...

An initial contact... And a test before I really get rolling. :)
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In the Beginning...

There was a creative guy and he could do many things. And he decided to chronicle all these things on the web....