After much asking around and much hair pulling, it’s become apparent that Gawker doesn’t want their xml to be accessible to ANYONE, not even the brilliant coders and hackers who populate ITP. It’s managed by Feedburner, and the RSS can only be viewed through an online RSS reader like Rojo. When I try to access the xml feed online I’m redirected to this god-awful site (see below), and asking to read the RSS without a reader just opens the page in Safari where you get the site info in plain text, not xml. The person who coded this is either a genius or moron. Either way it’s obvious that Gawker is Feedburner’s bitch!

Nancy told me to load the url for what is “supposed” to be the xml document into processing as a string and then use the saveString() command to save it as a text file. Then I can read it from there, but, obviously, it won’t be automatically updated. Using the text file as a reference, but loading the xml from the url rather than the text file using the proxml library should have solved the problem, but the code is funky, and there seems to be some style sheet stuff incorporated into the xml. Steven Jackson tried to use the code from his Google News project with the Gawker url loaded in place of google.news, but the loadElement() function loads the first line of text, which is really a style sheet thing and not the parent of the the child , which becomes a problem when you load the element then tell it to get children, because there are none. Didi Hubbard spent awhile trying to figure out a way to skip the first two lines of text (the fake elements) and start loading at the third line of text (the real element), but to no avail.

index.xml

So, that all being said, I’ve left Gawker for Radar, which really makes more sense seeing as the magazine (which I read religiously) is only released a few times a year, but the website is updated daily. To my chagrin the xml is totally accessible using Firefox at www.radarmagazine.com/index.xml. It should be a go from here. More on this later…

radarxmldoc

As the first step for my final project, I started by loading the URL gawker.com into an array of strings and saving is as an xml file in my sketch data folder. Then I parsed the information and displayed desired text in my applet. This is an example of using networking and strings. For some reason, this doesn’t want to load when I post it to the web. I didn’t think I needed to use the proxy server, but maybe I do?

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//Load strings from url and save as .xml file in data folder
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

//String url = “http://gawker.com/index.xml”;
//String[] txt = loadStrings(url);
//String alltxt = join(txt,”\n”);
//println(alltxt);
//saveStrings(”index.xml”, txt);

PFont verdana;
String title = ” “;
String description = ” “;

void setup() {
size(600,400);
getGossip();
verdana = loadFont(”Verdana-14.vlw”);
}

void draw() {
background(0);
textFont(verdana);
textMode(SCREEN);
fill(255);
text(title,20,20);
text(description,30,40);
}

void getGossip() {
String file[] = loadStrings(”index.xml”);
//println (file);
String bigfile = join(file, “\n”);

String lookfor = ““;
title = giveMe(bigfile, lookfor, end);

String lookformore = “•”;
String ending = “<";
description = giveMe(bigfile, lookformore, ending);
}

String giveMe(String s, String before, String after) {
String found = “”;
int start = s.indexOf(before); // Find the index of the beginning tag
if (start == -1) return “”; // If we don’t find anything, send back a blank String
start += before.length(); // Move to the end of the beginning tag
int end = s.indexOf(after,start); // Find the index of the end tag
if (end == -1) return “”; // If we don’t find the end tag, send back a blank String
return s.substring(start,end); // Return the text in between
}

While I’m not terribly impressed with the way Ms. Brande ended her book, with a haphazardly strung together list of items that simply didn’t fit into her other chapters, I did find the end of the book rather interesting. Here, all this time I’ve been reading, trying to convince myself that there are two sides to my brain to reconcile, and then POOF! it turns out that there’s a third. Now, wether this creative energy, which Ms. Brande suggests can be unlocked through meditation and relaxation, is actually another facet to the author, or simply the unconsciouss of the last few chapters revisited, I am not really one to say. However, I do appreciate the importance of the excercises she recommends for producing the “artistic coma”.

On Friday, we presented our proposal to Jean Marc and the rest of our fellow classmates. He sent us some notes on things to think about and ways to make our project better before our next presentation with guest critic Phil Lenger, CEO of Show and Tell in NYC, scheduled for December 2. Here’s what he had to say:

Sound Domes Show
CATEGORY: group project
DESCRIPTION: Sound guides visitors into the Show, domes speakers, ceiling space
AUTHOR(S): Thomas, Mike, Fernando, Christin, Min, Michael
COMMENTS:
+ your project takes advantage of the space of the hallways
- sound projects run into similar problems: they can be annoying or lost during the show
NEEDS:
Your group needs to manage and coordinate various tasks in order to master a
large and complex project. The tasks include creating the audio content,
introducing the project to the organizers of the show. Work on lighting
within and around the domes. Check with Viviana.

For my ICM final, I want to use some form of cellular automata (or alife) program that will be effected by the strength of light that is input into the computer.

The Conway’s game of life (find applets here and here) is a simple mathematical system that emulates cellular automata on the screen. There is a game of life example on the Processing site, as well (find it here).

While there are other alife systems, I am leaning toward Conway’s, as the resulting patterns are quite asthetically pleasing.

I would like to use video input using brightness to create “conditions” for the cells. There will be an ideal amount of light for the “growing” of the cells. If there is no light, then no cells will appear. If there is too much light, they will start to die off. I think a brightness of 200 (out of 255) would be the best light for the cells. The code will determine a certain multiple of the brightness amount as to how many cells will appear in the applet. If the light changes, then the cells will multiply or die accordingly. I am debating whether to have a general light input that will effect the entire space, or if there will be more and less hospitable environments based on the brightness of each area of the video capture.

Input is welcome!

WHAT IS A DIGITAL POTENTIOMETER?

*exactly the same as a regular pot– only instead of turning knobs, you send it code

*problems

**super.fucking.fast.

*good things

**great for tricolors– no need for pwm-ing

*wiper sends out however many volts you’re sending into it.

*takes three pins to control six LEDs

*data sheet:

**http://www.analog.com/en/prod/0,,761_797_AD5206,00.html

**not really for LEDs– LEDs pull more milliwats than the chip puts out. you may blow your chip. try an LED driver chip.

**good data sheet will show absolute maxium ratings

**A1- power; B1- ground; W1- wiper– the data pin, goes to LED power

*common annode LEDs– run the annode to power, and run three cathode pins to the wipers, but 0-255 is reversed for potential

*SIMPLE CODE:

datapin VAR PORTD.0
clkpin VAR PORTD.1

data1 = 0

PAUSE 500
GOSUB subReset
MAIN:
FOR i = 0 TO 5 STEP 1
‘FOR j = 0 to 250 STEP 1
address = i
datal = 0
GOSUB subDigiout
PAUSE 500
‘NEXT
GOTO MAIN

subDigiout:
LOW cspin
LOW clkpin
SHIFTOUT datapin, clkpin, 1, [address\3]
SHIFTOUT datapin, clkpin, 1 [datal]
HIGH cspin
RETURN

subReset
FOR i = 0 to 5 STEP 1
address = i
data1 = 0
GOSUB subDigiout
NEXT

RETURN
‘address = the number of digipot (0-5)

‘and data1 = 0 - 255

We Talk in Text is a Livejournal community of people who communicate mainly or preferably through text, as opposed to speech, images, sound, or video.

Thanks to Terri Senft for the link.

i’m not sure if the people on my friends list will want to read these. for now i’m going to make them public but behind a cut tag. please comment as to whether or not you’d like my class notes are of any value to you. if not, i’ll just make them private.

todd talks about the game 7-up. weird.

midi– music invention digital interface.

WHY WAS MIDI HUGE ON THE (SLOW OLD SCHOOL) INTERNET

* you didn’t have to send an audio file over the internet– you just sent the data
* computer used the numbers and interpreted them via synth
* you send 3 messages in one midi messages– its all hexidecimal

MIDI VS. SERIAL

* serial is complicated: i’m sending a letter A– if i send a letter A than blah blah happens
* midi is specific– if you send a midi signal, then the processor knows exactly how to interpret the midi signal

EXAMPLE

* todd turns out lights
* tells us that his example is related to ghostbusters
* plays random midi piano stuff with potentiometer to adjust velocity, volume, and pitch
* says “if i turn on one of the lights and one of you guys is dead i’m going to freak out”

SETUP FOR MIDI

* recommended speed is a 20 mHz clock power
+ you can run it off of a 16 mHz non-power
+ you can run it off of a 4, but its just not reliable– it will skip every once in awhile
* things to know about power clocks
+ more reliable than a non-power clock
+ to generate television signals, for example, you’ll need at least a 40 mHz powered clock
+ two pins for the 20 mHz clock– send one to clock in. no need for clock out with powered clock.
+ where the fox’s head is, the corner is squared edge. the other 3 edges are rounded. on the squared edge, you don’t plug anything in.
clockwise from the squared edge: power, signal to clock in, ground
* pic is programmed for 16 mHz chip– won’t work with the 20 mHz clock! “if you ever need to defuse a bomb that uses a pic chip, just pull
out the clock.” –todd
* all you need is: HSEROUT TO (pins C.6 and C.7)
* midi plug
+ second pin from left on top goes to microcontroller
+ third pin from left on top goes to ground
+ fourth pin from left on top goes to power, 220 ohm resistor
* the rest of the setup is basically potentiometers.
* get midi cable from ER and it goes to MIDI-IN on the midi module
* simple midi code:

DEFINE OSC 16
INCLUDE “modedefs.bas”

start:
OUTPUT PORTB.7

DEFINE HSER_RCSTA 90h ‘ enable the receive register
DEFINE HSER_TXSTA 20h ‘ enable the transmit register
DEFINE HSER_BAUD 21320 ‘ set the baud rate

HIGH PORTB.7
PAUSE 200
LOW PORTB.7
PAUSE 200
HIGH PORTB.7
PAUSE 200
HIGH PORTB.7
PAUSE 200 ‘ blinks an LED to make sure that your board is working

main:
‘ noteon channel 1, middle A, middle velocity; $ indicates hexidecimal
HSEROUT [$90, $45, $40]
PAUSE 1000

‘ noteoff channel 1, middle A, no velocity
HSEROUT [$80, $45, $00]
PAUSE 1000
GOTO main

WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO SEND MIDI TO THE PIC CHIP?

* running something from max, for example, to a chip which would output to lights (neeeeaaaat)

simple MIDI CHART on tom igoe’s site, or try midi for the professional musician

me: is it always going to be freezing in here?
todd: suzan, please stop yelling at me.
me: i’m not yelling at you.
todd: i know, its kind of a joke. it will get funnier the more i do it. its one of those. repetition.

“a lot of comedians are just really fucked up in the head. its not bittersweet, they’re not sad clowns– they’re just really fucked up.” –todd

(todd mentions resonators– ask about on sunday)

CONCEPT:

Brightness Chaser was developed as a means for real time VJing, using a poi interface. Lights would be attached to the end of the poi, and using a video input, the screen picture would trace the outline of the poi as they were used for dancing. It would be best articulated with a dancer standing in front of a large projection screen with the video camera in front of him or her, so that both the poi and the screen based visuals could be seen working together simultaneously.

REQUIREMENTS FOR USING BRIGHTNESS CHASER:

The interface is not yet totally developed, but currently it is easy to test Brightness Chaser with a simple LED and a coin cell battery, or a flashlight. Brightness Chaser requires real time video input such as an Apple iSight with Mac OSX, which is what was used for development purposes. If you are running a PC, you will need Quicktime for Java, which is a pain in the ass to find these days if you don’t already have it. Also, Brightness Chaser will most likely crash your browser, but you can attempt to open the applet here. If you are actually interested in trying it and it crashes your browser, try downloading Processing and pasting the source code (which is listed below) in the window and running it from there.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRIGHTNESS CHASER:

Initially, Brightness Chaser was to have two inputs– a brightness input and an acceleration input. The brightness would define where the visual was located, while the acceleration would define the size. After realizing that serial input and accelerometers would make it difficult to use the poi interface because of its bulkiness, it was decided to make both size and location dependent on the brightness input. The program detects the brightest pixel in the video input and then draws the Chaser to that pixel x 5. The Chaser is redrawn 50 times, each time becoming larger and fainter, like a ripple on the surface of water. Most of the time, an ellipse is drawn, but every third time, a rectangle is drawn. Several different values were inputted for the modulus before deciding that 3 was the most pleasant. Usually, the Chaser is a light gray, but every fifth time it is violet. The change in color was also tested several different ways before deciding on a modulus of 5.

Brightness Chaser was developed on both a PC and a Mac– PC for coding, and Mac for video testing.

POTENTIAL FURTHER DEVELOPMENT:

As of this version, Brightness Chaser only chases the brightest pixel, not the 2 brightest, so using the poi while work, though not be as smooth as I hoped. It would be nice to see two trails interacting with one another, as the poi do in physical time. Color changing options could also be added according to a different input, though again, sensors will be difficult to run without some very durable and flexible electronics, and a wireless signal to the computer.

SOURCE CODE:

import processing.video.*;

//two arrays for x positions and y positions
int MAX = 50;
int[] xpos = new int[MAX];
int[] ypos = new int[MAX];

Capture video;

void setup()
{
size(500,500);
framerate(15);
smooth();
video = new Capture(this, “IIDC FireWire Video”, 100, 100);

//fill everything with 0 at the start
for (int i = 0; i < xpos.length; i++)
{
xpos[i] = 0;
ypos[i] = 0;
}
}

void captureEvent(Capture video)

{
video.read();
}

void draw()
{
float brightest;
int bx, by;

//initializes brightness
brightest = brightness(video.pixels[0]);
bx = by = 0;
for (int x = 0; x < video.width; x = x + 2)
{
for (int y = 0; y < video.height; y = y + 2)
{
color c = video.pixels[x + y * video.width];
if (brightness(c) > brightest)
{
brightest = brightness(c);
bx = x*5;
by = y*5;
}
}
}

background(0);
//image(video, 0, 0);
//fill(0);
//ellipse(bx,by,50,50);

//move all values in the array down one spot (i.e. x[0] = x[1], x[1] = x[2], etc.)
for (int i = 0; i < xpos.length-1; i++)
{
xpos[i] = xpos[i+1];
ypos[i] = ypos[i+1];
}

//fill the last spot of the array with the current brightest pixel location
xpos[xpos.length-1] = bx;
ypos[xpos.length-1] = by;

//draw a square with variable size and color for every element of each array
for (int i = 0; i < xpos.length; i++)
{
rectMode (CENTER);
stroke(200);
if( i % 5 == 0 && i != 0 )
fill( i*5, 0, i*5 );
else
fill(255,i*5);
//if( i % 10 == 0 && i != 0 )
//ellipse(xpos[i],ypos[i],(MAX-i)*4,(MAX-i)*2);
if( i % 3 == 0 && i != 0 )
rect( xpos[i], ypos[i], (MAX-i)*2, (MAX-i)*2);
else
ellipse(xpos[i],ypos[i],(MAX-i)*2,(MAX-i)*2);

/*
if( i == 49 )
{
fill(0,0);
for( int j = 0; j < xpos.length; j++ )
ellipse(xpos[j],ypos[j],(MAX-j)*2,(MAX-j)*2);
}
*/
}
}

by the way, there will be friends locked entries on here at some points, as one of the projects i’m working on will most likely be filing for a patent soon…

welcome to those who actually added it.

advanced technology

pros booster class– not much good on its own, but will send abilities in other classes through the roof. better understanding of all things phys comp and nerdy.

cons extremely tech heavy. may actually kill me.

electronic art history and context

pros everything about it, almost. a great understanding of how what we do at ITP is the natural progression of art history since the renaissance. i already know a shit load of art history, so the class won’t be so hard.

cons will probably be a LOT of reading. i already know a shit load of art history, so the class won’t be so hard.

generative art and physical computing

pros taught by todd. a really interesting subject to a lot of people and a big topic at ITP…

cons …but not that interesting to me.

live image processing and performance

pros live image processing is fucking amazing. will get to learn jitter. superstar vjs get lots of chicks.

cons will spend all of christmas break attempting to learn max/msp instead of relaxing and working.

materials and building strategies

pros great for wearable tech, my newest obsession.

cons may fill up super fast.

post linear narrative lab

pros dude, i’ve wanted to take this class since i first found ITP. dude. seriously, dude.

cons already interning with the professor– do i really want to see him that much, and does he want to see ME that much?

sustainable energy

pros great topic for wearable applications.

cons course description is old and no longer applicable, as we can’t go on the roof since all the suicides last year.

the brain and art

pros it says brains!!!!!

cons there’s no actual course description at all.

theoretical perspectives on interactivity

pros yet another class i’ve wanted to take since i found ITP.

cons yet another class taught by douglas rushkoff…

An exciting day.

Saturday morning one of the Miguel hamsters (now dubbed “Girl Miguel,” for obvious reasons) had a litter of nine little hamster babies. Rocio and her cousin first discovered them and left me a note which I found when I got home: “Josh! Bday! Go and see the baby hamsters.”

Christin called it pregnant on Wednesday after I’d shown her the Miguel and noticed how fat it had become so quickly. We were very careful with her and then on Friday night I wondered aloud about how long hamsters gestate. I found out…

The babies.

The boys.

Anyway, I first got on scene around 3pm on Saturday. All of the creatures were asleep. Mom had herself wrapped around the babies and the three males were conked out in their plastic house. All seemed well except for one baby that Mom had separated out from the rest. It looked a pale pinkish white instead of the rich dark pink of the other eight squirmers and seemed mostly dead. Sad, but I guess that’s how it goes. I washed the crap (literally) out of the plastic house, gave everybody some extra food and water, and let them be.

Boy Miguel and Girl Miguel.

As the afternoon went on, the males became their usual rambunctious selves, running around, climbing on things, and just generally getting in the way. After a few rounds trampling over the babies, they got to be too much for me to deal with. So I created a partition in the cage using some of Rocio’s blank DVD cases and masking tape. It kind of sucks for the boys, but they’re now penned up in the small second floor ledge of the cage. I put the house up with them and filled it with some food and made a pledge to remember to switch the water bottle between them and Girl Miguel periodically so everyone could drink.

Then I went out for a jog (in Central Park at about 7pm — very lovely). And when I got home, the shit hit the fan.

Inside the cage is a dish towel that Rocio put in the cage soon after we got the hamsters. Six weeks or so ago. Great. They love to pull it apart with their teeth and sleep on it, etc. No problems. But after I returned home I noticed one of the babies tangled up in some of the loose threads. Rocio’s cousin actually first noticed when we were talking about the babies before I left to run. At that time, I said I thought Girl Miguel would work it out and not to worry. But things seemed bad when I got back. The babies was still stuck, wrapped fairly tightly with thread. And it had stopped moving. And the other babies actually, it turns out, could wriggle along at quite a clip when they wanted to — despite being eyeless, hairless, little pink jellybeans. And others were getting into dangerous-looking situations.

Wondering what on Earth is going on.

So I made an executive decision that the babies needed to be moved. I know that you shouldn’t mess with someone else’s babies, but I felt like the risk of Girl Miguel abandoning them or eating them or whatever later was acceptable considering that a bunch may die in the ragged dish towel. So I removed the top of the cage and moved the boys away. I kept the mother on the table with me and the cage, figuring she should be around to watch or something. Maybe just to know that these were still hers.

I got my nail clippers and clipped the one baby out that had been tangled in the rag. Which took some creative effort and very steady hands. It was really caught tightly and some of the strands had caused little rope burns on his neck and side. But he was alive. So I got in there and clipped him out along with a bit of fabric and then put him in my palm and finished cutting everything off of him. It got a bit difficult because some of the strands had lacerated him and were stuck a bit in his body, requiring some very close clipping and a few gentle tugs. At one point he accidentally rolled over in my hand and fell down a few feet to the floor — which I felt horrible about: Poor guy. Rough start at life… But he appeared to have not been additionally injured. I then found another dish towel and manually moved the rest of the babies over, including the pale, half-dead one, which I did a little check-up on, as well, to see if anything obvious could be fixed.

Holding them was odd. I expected them to feel very, very delicate. And they were, I guess, but they were also much firmer and stronger-feeling than I had anticipated. When one of the big hamsters stepped on one of them earlier, I winced. But now I think it probably doesn’t hurt them that much. Also, their skin was still very translucent. I could see their dark pea-sized lungs and heart and a white little squiggle of lower intestines inside of them. And, of course, the two dark dots of forming eyes under the skin in their heads. It was fascinating to look at them. In a way, they’re kind of an example of what the simplest pieces are that one needs to have a working, living mammal. If you strip off all of the fancy deluxe features of a human, we’re that same package of heart, lungs, and bowels.

While this was going on, Girl Miguel was beginning her descent into crazy. Understandably, I guess. She flat-out ran off the side of the table a few times and hid behind the vacuum cleaner in the corner, so I put her in with the boys for a bit to save her from killing herself while I finished setting the cage back up.

I spread a bunch of new wood shavings around the base of the cage and spread out the new dish towel, covering about two-thirds of the space. And I replaced the food dish and the water and placed the babies on the new towel. And put the cage back together with Mom inside.

Mom was going insane. She got in there and began just franticly running about. She’d run a couple of circles around the cage, climb a wall for a split second, run a second in the treadmill, and go back to running in circles. It’s one thing having energy, but this was a kind of mortal confusion. She had no idea what had happened and she was very, very scared. And so I continued to try to figure out what to do. The babies were squirming around, reaching up with their open mouths whenever Girl Miguel came close, looking for a nipple.

I guess I really changed the scent when I switched out the towels and moved the babies. Maybe still having sweat on me from jogging made it worse. The original place with he babies still had blood and placental debris (I guess) from the childbirth all over it, and maybe Girl Miguel needed this. I mentioned to Christin that we’d had a conflict of the different wirings of our species’ brains: My brain saw them getting caught and went “this looks really bad — I’ve got to fix it.” Her brain saw the moved babies and may have fired off some signals to the effect: “I had some babies, but I don’t know where they are. These are babies, but they’re different. Something is very wrong.”

Things got extra bizarre when she picked up the pale, dying one by the head and began running around with it. She dug in the corner a few times, as if looking for a place to bury it or to get it away from the healthy babies. I pulled her out of the cage and set her on the towel (baby still in mouth) figuring that it might help to give her a way to leave it outside of the cage. No dice. So I put them back in and left the cage door open so she could leave him elsewhere on the table if necessary. No. She ran around with him. And then picked up the damaged baby I had cut out of the towel and ran around holding him by the head. She wasn’t being particularly careful with either baby. So, okay. I didn’t know what to do. I finally just closed the cage door and left the room, figuring she’d either start taking care of them again or eat them and, at that point, I really had no more say in the matter.

An hour or two later I checked in. She had settled down and had made a nest and collected the babies into it. Except for the pale one — she finally disposed of him by placing him in the food dish. He still twitched feebly. The one I rescued from the cloth seemed to be okay and a part of the family. So success on that front.

And that’s basically how the night ended.

Today the pale baby had been moved into the nest, as well, so I guess she decided to give him (or her) a try.

Right now she’s sitting over them all. I haven’t had any direct access to them since Saturday, but I think they’re all accounted for and basically doing okay. She worried me a bit earlier when she covered them with the towel and was running around (just getting a bit of exercise, I imagine). She hid them very well and the only was I finally knew where they were was by noticing a faint motion underneath a bit of the towel where the little’uns were squirming.

The roof of a hotel in Monaco.

I have worked on a pile of interesting projects over the years. Not all fit neatly onto a resume, so I’ve assembled some of my favorites (and recent projects) here for you to check out, if you’d like.

Please contact me at chasing@spaceship.com if you would like a copy of my resume. Thanks!

Web Projects

Sugarcandy Mobile Chat — I co-founded this project with Josh Klein and have acted as lead developer and visual designer. In addition to being an SMS-based chat app, Sugarcandy is also a platform for rapid SMS-based app development. See Sleuth! below.

University of Texas College of Liberal Arts CMS — I single-handedly developed website management software for the UT College of Liberal Arts (servicing about 15,000 students). The software could be zipped up and quickly deployed and customized on any server running PHP by non-technical employees. Currently, the software runs most of the COLA departmental websites (over 20). For example: COLA Home, Plan II Honors (my undergrad program), Department of Economics, Department of Government.

iLoveFreeWifi — I first set this sit up in 2002 so I could find places to use my new Mac iBook in Austin. Over the years I’ve added cities across the country and a few other features and the site has grown steadily. Users still add new hotspots and comments daily.

Outside.in — I am an assistant developer on Steven Berlin Johnson’s Outside.In geo-located blog-aggregator.

School Projects

eParole — I worked with four other students on a conceptual project called eParole. Our idea: Help improve the effectiveness of the United States parole system by introducing networked technologies to the way parolees are monitored and assisted in reentering society. We presented this project at the Microsoft Design Summit in the summer of 2006.

Common Editor — Common Editor is a more recently-conceived project of mine that attempts to bridge the gap between basic blog-style comments and full-edit wikis to create a system by which an open group can offer editorial advice and critique to a writer in the process of drafting new material.

Gametron 7000 — This is a silly in-development game project for mobile phones. The idea: You design a game level on the site, save it, and then anyone with the GT7K software (written in J2ME) can play the game. I want to make the game design process for mobile phones more open and fun for people — making the game is as much a game as playing it!

Music and Art Projects

Frescher-Southern Electronic Music — I founded and managed F-S in Austin, Texas. We put on live electronic music events — laptops, live synth performances, visual art, etc — for a couple of years in clubs and galleries around town. I often performed, as well. (I also designed and coded the website.)

DXM — I have performed my own laptop-based electronic music as DXM for about ten years, mostly in the central Texas area. I sometimes perform, as well, as The Clearing Stages. I used out-of-the-box software for much of this, but I also sometimes write my own software instruments when I need to. Recently I took part in the Intel-sponsored Laptop Battle at Lincoln Center in NYC. (And lost…) I also presented a talk called “The Powerbook Rockstar” at the 2004 O’Reilly Mac OS X Conference.

Big Games

Quoto — I developed with three other students a big game called Quoto for Frank Lantz’ Game Design class. The short rules: You get sentences — quotes — and go out onto the streets of New York and photograph them rebus-style. So if you have the word “dog,” you can photograph a real dog or the letters “d” “o” “g”. Easy. We debuted this game at the Come Out and Play big games festival. Quoto also had a booth at the Nokia Games Summit in Monaco in September 2006.

Sleuth! — Another game for Come Out and Play. A criminal is on the loose in Manhattan! Teams of Detective Agencies must use their clue-solving and geo-locating skills to find him or her! The Sleuth! software was built using the Sugarcandy mobile platform (see above) and Yahoo!’s maps API.

SnagU — I was an assistant developer on SnagU, a game developed by students at ITP and funded and promoted by MTVU.

Have I forgotten anything?