An archive of our old posts.
So, some time after I first decided I would do an MA, I am finally enrolled on a course. I am doing the Masters in Digital Art and Technology at Plymouth University (m.i-dat.org). Very excited. Much to post over the next few days.
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digital art, technology
My friend Joe has recently released his first mac application (a plugin actually):
If you have a mac, use iPhoto and wish you had an easy way to upload photos to your Wordpress blog then look no futher than WordpressExport. Its an iPhoto plugin that lets you easily select and upload photos.
This is a work in progress so may still contain a few bugs, if you do find any un-expected behaviour please let me know so I can fix/improve it. Registration will be available as soon as I get time to sort it out.
Give it a go - it works pretty well! Laters. SteamSHIFT out.
If you use MySQL on a remote server for web sites, you may want a nice way of backing them up or moving them to another server (perhaps keeping 2 servers in sync). To get you started try this:
Use an SSH client, like putty (if your database is on a remote server), to connect to your server and export the databse you want simply with:
mysqldump --user=username --password=1234 --databases your_database --opt --quote-names --allow-keywords --complete-insert | bzip2 -c > your_database.sql.bz2
download the .bz2 file created, unzip it using 7-zip (if you dont have any other uncompress utility), and backup your database in mysql using:
mysql --user=username --password your_database < your_database.sql
Via Sephiroth.it
Also note, that if you have mysql installed locally, by including a host / port in the mysqldump arguements, you don't need to run the command remotely (although you would probably want to get mysql to do the compression rather than piping it through the bzip command).
I'll upload a full mysql mirror script in a few days. SteamSHIFT out.
Since I‘ve been contracting again, I’ve been working for a few different companies; one of the things that I have found interesting is the different approach to version control. The latest experience was working at a company who use Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. It's a pretty ugly application but it did show the use of decent version control - something that some of the other places I have been could have done with.
So, working on my own stuff, I thought it was about time I put in place a more structured approach to version control than the ‘make a backup copy when I think about it’ approach.
Enter Subversion. I had heard the name bandied about, but never really looked much into it until I saw the Clickable Bliss video introducing Subversion, posted on Del.icio.us. I followed the instructions in the video and then added SvnX into the mix (an OS X GUI svn client).
Brilliant. Sweet version control goodness.
One little thing that makes life easier for web developers:- make your working directory part of your local web server document root (I use a copy of apache/mysql/php5 on my local machine for web development before deploy), that way you can check it in a ‘live’ environment.
Also see this tutorial.
SteamSHIFT out.
Technorati Tags:
mac, osx, developing, subversion
I recently acquired a Behringer BCF2000 midi controller, and wanted to use with Quartz Composer. A quick google turned up the quartz composer patches and sysex files that Steve Mokris (aka Softpixel) had produced for this device. Bonus thought I and downloaded the software from Behringer to apply the files. It didn't work and I left the project for another day…
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VJ, quartz composer, midi, mac, osx, windows xp, parallels, bcf2000
… some weeks later, I had a free evening and I decided to crack this particular nut! So first up, I used a friend‘s PC to update the firmware. No problems. Then I tried to load Steve’s new patch using Behringer's BC-Edit application; no chance! First up I just have to say that it is extremely unintuitive to use for such a simple application - I actually had to resort to reading the manual - ewww.
Once I figured out the process, I tried to upload my new settings to the BCF2000, and got :
`
Timeout Error:
While trying to send
“$rev F1”
We are currently working on “$rev F1”
`
Apparently a common occurrence! And one that has been around since at least this time last year - Behringer what are you playing at?
Back to the drawing board, with much googling and frustration. During this process, I found that, whether due to the FW update or the recent beta install of Parallels, that my copy of WinXP under Parallels could see the BCF2000 (it may have done before but I don‘t think so) - very handy. BTW forget using BC-Edit on the Mac - it doesn’t seem to like loading Sysex files?!?!
Eventually it turned out that if you have an old version of Java (JRE 1.4.2_05 or below), the error doesn't occur; Parallels to the rescue once again. Since my friend was not about to downgrade his PC, I simply set up the old version of Java under Parallels and the rest is history.
Now I can get down to seeing what this thing can do. SteamSHIFT out.
I was having some problems with a post with a bit of javascript in it (I was replacing the object / embed stuff for the YouTube flash movie in Time Fountain, with a way of doing it that wouldn‘t cause validation errors. I’m using deconcept %u203A SWFObject: Javascript Flash Player detection and embed script, to dynamically build the flash embed, and insert it into a DIV.
Anyway Wordpress was making a total mess of it, so after some hunting I found the TextControl plugin which allows you to switch off all the automatic formatting and character encoding on a global or per post basis. And now, my javascript works perfectly.
SteamSHIFT out.
Technorati Tags:
javascript, wordpress
Yesterday I posted an improvement to Cyberfunk's composition for using key up/down. However, if you used the output to rotate a cube for instance, it was very juddery - so I got to thinking if there was another way …
I proudly present the Javascript Key Up/Down version. Basically, it takes the input of the key, divides it by the value of a passed multiplier and adds or takes the result away from the stored value. When applied as a value to a cube's rotation, you get smooth rotation.
`
var prevScaledTime = outputs[0];
var dummy = inputs[0];
var speed = Number( inputs[1] );
var speed2 = Number( inputs[2] );
var mult = Number( inputs[3] );
outputs[0] = (prevScaledTime + speed/mult - speed2/mult) || 0;
`
Enjoy. SteamSHIFT out.
Technorati Tags:
quartz composer, mac, osx, experiments
Cyberfunk posted an answer to a Quartz Composer question the other day about how to get a composition to do something while a key was pressed. His Key Up/Down composition, whilst it works, is by his own admission clunky. And thus here is my attempt at the same thing - Key Up/Down v1.1. You‘ll notice that on the back of the interpolation items, are two different approaches for creating a signal for increasing or decreasing the counter - using a conditional patch or using a round patch. My guess is that round is quicker but I don’t really know. Enjoy!.
SteamSHIFT out.
Technorati Tags:
quartz composer, mac, osx, experiments
This is the slightly ongoing saga of my dead PowerMac - a very old but until recently, trustworthy G4 Dual 450Mhz Gigabit Ethernet that served as my back-up machine.
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mac
The drives were beginning to give out; the machine had been running all day every day for probably a couple of years (if not more) and the 20Gb, 30Gb and 120Gb drives were on their last legs, so I decided to upgrade and bought 2 shiny new 250Gb drives, with the intention of setting them up as a 250Gb mirrored RAID, with the OS remaining on the 120Gb (the most reliable of the old drives).
The drives arrived and were duly installed, only to find, when trying to power up, that the machine was dead; I mucked about with batteries, reset switches and the like and came to the conclusion it was probably the logic board (I know someone with a Quicksilver PowerMac that died and exhibited the same symptoms). It was looking like a sad day for the trusty tower, when I got the estimate for fixing it - well over £200 … until the 'Bay came to the rescue with a second hand logic board, shipped from the States for a bargain price of £35.
However, when it finally arrived, it turned out not to be the problem! In that case, it must be the power supply (confirmed with a multi-meter). £100 price tag looking likely, until … bargain … all in for £55.
So, now I have a working tower, but the saga doesn‘t end there … firstly I’ve now got a spare logic board (supplied complete with processor); I quite fancy trying my hand at either an obvious mod (2u rack server) or a crazy one (ala PC in toy Millennium Falcon). Secondly, and more annoyingly, these old machines have a limit on the drives you can use internally - it only recognises the 250Gb drives as 128Gb! Doh.
Options:-
At this point, I don't really know; the cheap option seems like the way forward; spent enough on the old beast already!
I'm totally loving Parallels! It's giving me the opportunity to try out Linux without any fear … for instance, today I decided to install Ubuntu Linux (more on why later), but for no obvious reason, a bit of the way into the install it just froze. I just stopped the virtual machine, recreated the disk image and tried again (this time ending in success).
I like Ubuntu 6.06 better than Suse 10.1 thus far, although I haven‘t spent enough time with either to make an informed decision; maybe it’s because the former feels a little more Mac like!
Technorati Tags:
mac, osx, linux, suse, how to, windows xp, parallels, ubuntu, internet explorer, wine
Things that I like about Ubuntu (to be fair I can't remember about Suse):
What don't I like (so far):
I realise that most of these are minor quibbles but those are the things that make the whole experience pleasurable to new converts.
So why did I start the Ubuntu advanture? Well partly because I can (Parallels makes it such a breeze) but more so, because I‘d really prefer to spend as little time using Windows XP as I possibly can; being a web developer, I need to test sites in Internet Explorer (preferably 5, 5.5, 6 and 7); getting these all running concurrently is a bit of a hack under XP (definitely possible and on my to do list), but when I saw a link to a blog post entitled ’Install Internet Explorer on Ubuntu Dapper in 3 easy steps‘ I thought I’d give it a crack.
I‘ve been using flavours of Linux and Unix on the command-line for years in doing web development and thus server maintenance, but the whole Linux on the desktop has passed me by - probably because I’m so wedded to mac (and especially) OS X. So, when I wanted to install SSH server and other packages, the command line doesn't daunt me (too badly). This install was so easy that to be honest almost anyone could do it.
And now, via Wine, I have Internet Explorer 5, 5.5 and 6 running quite happily, all at the same time under Linux. Bonus.
SteamSHIFT out.