Blog

  • rheart

    I’ve made the source code for draw-something more readable and modular, ready for the next round of development. So code that read like this:

    (defmethod draw-around ((poly polyline) (han hand)) "Draw around a polygon using a hand." (let* ((the-hand (start-drawing poly han)) (first-point (location han)) (sketch (list first-point))) ;;Make the rest, finishing when < step from the original point (loop (let ((next-point (draw-step poly the-hand))) (setf sketch (cons next-point sketch)) ;; If the list is longer than two segments (1.2.nil) ;; And the current point is passing close to the first point (when (and (> (length sketch) 2) (< (distance next-point first-point) (speed han))) ;; Close the path... ;;REVISITME: This is too perfect... (setf sketch (cons first-point sketch)) ;; Returns from the enclosing block, not the function! (return nil)))) sketch))

    now reads more like this (in part):

    (defmethod ensure-next-pen-close-enough ((poly polyline) (p pen)) "If the pen would move too far next time, turn it right until it wouldn't." (while (next-pen-too-far poly p) (turn-right p (turn-step p)))) (defmethod adjust-next-pen ((poly polyline) (p pen)) "Set the pen back on the correct path around the shape." (ensure-next-pen-far-enough poly p) (ensure-next-pen-close-enough poly p)) (defmethod draw-step ((poly polyline) (p pen)) "Find the next point forward along the drawn outline of the shape." (adjust-next-pen poly p) (move-forward p (speed p)) (location p))

    Which is much easier to understand and work with. Next up is a "probabilistic pen" if I can get that to work, and a simple colouring algorithm.

  • In A Nutshell…

    “Misinformation doesn’t want to be free. It wants to be deleted.” -PJ, Groklaw.

  • CC-UK On Wednesday?

    It looks like the CC-UK licenses for England & Wales (and the BBC Creative Archive?) might be released next Wednesday, the 19th.

    Update: I said “might”. 🙂 Another little bird tells me tomorrow (Thursday).

    Update: Well, that’s the last time I play rumour-monger. 🙂 Soon. Hopefully.

  • Cory Arcangel

    Classic games console reprogramming crosses over.

    Cory Arcangel Show
    Source Code

  • Duke University Center For The Study Of The Public Domain

    Duke University (home of Parapsychology) have a Center For The Study Of The Public Domain.

    Home page.

    Journal Issue (pdfs of articles available).

    I’m not a big fan of the public domain. I think it works just about OK for text, but it’s bad for images and worse for music and moving images. A decade ago I could photograph paintings in state-funded galleries in London, but now I would have to pay for reproductions that come with restrictive licenses attached. It’s good to see serious thought about the limitations and future possibilities of the public domain.

  • Own It!

    A London-based IP organisation that covers Creative Commons as well as more traditional IP value-maximisation.

    Own It!

    Their Guide to CC.

    Upcoming conferences, including CC for Television and CC for the Arts.

    “Hold the rights to it” sounds less appealing but would be more accurate. 🙂

  • That’s the way to do it

    (via Boing Boing )

    A copyleft record company that gives you extra stuff on DVD. Notably a commentary on the music (like you get on movie DVDs) and better than CD quality versions of the tracks. Yes, rather than the low-quality, ephemeral, part-owned downloads that you rent from iTMS for as long as the record labels will let you use them, better than CD quality versions of the tracks. Computers aren’t limited by space or technology constraints like CDs were, so you can get the best audio ever from them, if only someone will sell it to you. And here’s that someone:

    http://www.artistshousemusic.com/

  • Untitled – Making a start

    Screengrab from Illustrator of characters for a graphic novel that I started sketching out some five years ago. These characters (and the project) don’t have a name so it’s hard to refer to them, but the one on the left is the main character and we never really get to meet the one on the right.

  • One Hundred Percent Surface

    Sound and images with no depth, only surface. Like the Mandelbrot set…

    One Hundred Percent Surface.

  • Site Update

    I've updated this weblog to register on technorati and to work with Firefox/Mozilla's Live Bookmarks (via homepage.mac.com, not rheaplex-toydg.wpcomstaging.com/ :-/).

    Seeing the links to this blog on other sites is embarrassing: iBlog generates very long URLs. Not as bad as WebObjects, but still not really human-usable. Maybe I should switch to bloxsom. Or something. I did have my own blog generating script, but it seems silly to continue reinventing the wheel by updating that.