Scratchpad for Enso
Andreas Schuderer has done some great work on demonstration for a Scratchpad for Enso:
http://www.schuderer.net/experiments.shtml#ensoid
Andreas Schuderer has done some great work on demonstration for a Scratchpad for Enso:
http://www.schuderer.net/experiments.shtml#ensoid
Some reasons why i’ve choosen to use a bike, in combo with a subway system, as my main transportation:

Here is what I have in my ~/.emacs. Emacs22 This is mainly to hide python compile files, or *.pyc, as well as some others files.
(add-hook '
dired-mode-hookgnu.org/.../Omitting-Examples...
(setq dired-omit-files
(concat dired-omit-files "\|^RCS$\|,v$"))
in the dired-load-hook (see Installation). This assumes
dired-omit-localp has its default value of no-dir to make the
^-anchored matches work. As a slower alternative, with
dired-omit-localp set to nil, you can use / instead of
^ in the regexp.
tib, the bibliography program for use with TeX and (setq dired-omit-files
(concat dired-omit-files "\|^INDEX$\|-t\.tex$"))
in the dired-load-hook (see Installation).
(setq dired-omit-files
(concat dired-omit-files "\|^\..+$"))
in the dired-load-hook (see Installation).
Add this to your ~/.emacs
previous version from chmouel.com/...
I needed a way of translating "644", an object permission setting, into something more readable.
I wanted to be able to do the following:
So I first wrote this [unexecuted]:
if owner == 6:
owner["read"] = True
owner["write"] = True
if owner == 4:
owner["read"] = True
owner["write"] = False
if owner == 0:
owner["read"] = False
owner["write"] = False
if group == 6:
group["read"] = True
group["write"] = True
if group == 4:
group["read"] = True
group["write"] = False
if group == 0:
group["read"] = False
group["write"] = False
if everyone == 6:
everyone["read"] = True
everyone["write"] = True
if everyone == 4:
everyone["read"] = True
everyone["write"] = False
if everyone == 0:
everyone["read"] = False
everyone["write"] = False
return {"owner": owner, "group": group, "everyone": everyone}
And then I rewrote it to the following:
And then checking for read and write rather than going through each possibility of v, as well as passing an object prior to reduce multiple seeks:
But with Python2.5 you can go even further and reduce it to:
From 32 lines at the start to 8 lines in the end! :) And both together they look like this:
def translatePermissions(self, obj):
rw = []
for v in struct.unpack("3c",str(o.permissions)):
r = True if v == 6 or v == 4 else False
w = True if v == 6 or v == 2 else False
rw.append({"read":r, "write":w})
return {"owner": rw[0], "group": rw[1], "everyone": rw[2]}
Poetry!
I just stumbled upon this from Gnu.org, and thought this would -- even though a joke -- would be a good idea! :)
A file that big?
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.
Menus are largely formatted in a linear fashion listing items from the top to bottom of the screen or window. Pull down menus are a common example of this format. Bitmapped computer displays, however, allow greater freedom in the placement, font, and general presentation of menus. A pie menu is a format where the items are placed along the circumference of a circle at equal radial distances from the center. Pie menus gain over traditional linear menus by reducing target seek time, lowering error rates by fixing the distance factor and increasing the target size in Fitts's Law, minimizing the drift distance after target selection, and are, in general, subjectively equivalent to the linear style.
This software gives you the bird-like freedom to use any typeface on the web, while still keeping it machine and human friendly. The text remains editable in the browser, or content management system, because of this. You can define styles ( in styles.conf), or use a php script to generate both dynamic css and falcontype styles, making using any typeface as flexible as if it was using css. Falcontype currently supports changing size, color, leading, and typeface. Image tags are generated with alt tags with an exact copy of the text for search engine optimization.
Changes: Translating text would now need to be done server-side, as the javascript repacement method has been replaced. Your pages will need to be php now as well.
Fitts' Law:
The farther away, and smaller the target is from your starting position the more mental attention we need to hit the target.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts'_law
Steering Law:
The more curves the movement path has more attention to avoid mistakes it needs and slower we need to go, and the wider the path for these curves less attention and faster we can go.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accot-Zhai_steering_law
Crossing Based Interfaces:
Instead of pushing a button which triggers and action, crossing a goal triggers. Multiple actions can be started quickly like strumming guitar strings to form a chord.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_Based_Interfaces
Hick's Law:
The more choices we have the longer and more attention it takes to process, the less the faster. This also depends on individuals and their knowledge of the choices which can aid in reducing the complexity by forming groups of the many choices to form fewer choices.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hick's_law
In Practice:
- The further away options are in a linear menu the more time, attention they need.
- Using scrollbars is like a 1 second game of golf 300 times a day, as are menu bars at the top of windows.
- A radial menu gives equal importance to many options, and a radial menu is never far away.
- Panning is always right underneath your hand.
- The command line goes against Hick's law by having thousands of commands, it thus takes lots of thought and time to understand.
- Menu's break many options into fewer, making it quicker to understand.
- Dropdown menu's give a small area to hit, and thus require more thought, attention and time, but do go with Hick's law in that it reduces the amount of things which makes it quicker to get.
- Buttons that are far away and small is also like playing a 2 second game of golf.
- Multiple levels in menu's with small goal crossing spots slow us down like having many tight curves in the road, which can be fun if that is the focus. Larger curves require less thought, and are we make less mistakes. If we're concentrating on something else, big curves are better so we don't make mistakes.
So I did something new this Friday. I rode my bike to work. And then after work met up with Eric to grab ramen at Doukukai (spelling?), and then meet up for the Sins & Sprockets bike ride at the China Town metro station. View the path map.
Travel by bike:
Positives:
Exercise, better mood.
Easy parking
Flexible routes.
Increased interactions with environment
The total bike ride was about 35 miles, about 2,500 calories used, the time it took in total at around 3.5 hours at around 10mph on average.
2,500c =
Travel by car:
Positives:
Faster.
Less expensive.
It would have still been 35miles, using 1.2 gallons of gasoline, and around 2 hours travel time including the hassle of parking, at around 17mph on average.
Gasoline costs $3.40 per gallon, so the total would be $4.00 dollars.
If you live in Los Angeles they are available for pickup. If you live elsewhere, they are available for delivery for the price of packaging and shipping. Books available in these groupings, or individually selected. courier@braydon.com
Fiction
Computer
Design
Non-Fiction
This is so cool. Some people have created a Libre Graphics Meeting in Montréal, Québec, Canada. A whole community based around Free Software and Graphic Design. Very cool, I wish I lived in Montréal so I could attend. Or maybe Libre Graphics Los Angeles, will be born sometime soon. :)
There is a report from the Libre Graphics Meeting at the CC Blog
And also at rejon.org, LGM 2007

Just when you think you've done something interesting. I don't know who these folks over at productetcetera.com are, but it seems we get our news from the same damn place!!
There is an inevitable trend in our disposition towards our desire for personal entertainment; and that is our patience, or constantly waning supply as it seems. "I don't want to wait!" to sum up the nation's feelings.
It used to be that we would wait in weekly intervals for our favorite radio personalities to bring us the next installment of Little Orphan Annie. And when TV came along we did the same, for a little while at least, until our patience got a bit shorter and we expected new revelations of our favorite soap opera stars on a daily basis. But even that has become to much to bear, and we have decided that no show should revolve around any schedule, but our own; and with on-demand types of services we have become our own TV guide. But with on-demand you still have to tolerate commercials, at least once in a while, and that brings us to the forefront of this two century long battle, where advertising and DVR (digital video recorders) hold one another at the throat.
Most people know DVR as the popular brand name TiVo, which origianlly set out to free viewers from the shackles of commercials by allowing us to fast forward through buffered TV content that was captured on the device in realtime on a HDD (hard disk drive). Advertisers and the like have done everything they can to prevent the control of television content from falling completely into the hands of the viewer, but if we get our way, as history suggests we will and as most of us already have via streaming internet content, television advertising is going to have to reevaluate its tactics.
This brings me to the meat of the subject. Motion graphics has recently been a rapidly growing field of graphic design, and most of that growth can be attributed to it increasingly popular use in television and internet advertising. Certain circles of print and still-image graphic designers have been muttering curses at the motion graphics community for quite a time now, either fearing for their jobs or fearing to learn new software in order to keep up with this trend. But I say, "fear not," for the end of the motion
graphics boom is already in sight.
With convenience on its side, DVR will win the fight and soon everyone will briskly fast forward through the commercials, and what good is fancy motion graphics when 3 minuts of advertising speeds past in just 3 seconds, well it's not much good at all. But there is one device that can work it's magic in 3 seconds or less, and that's still-image communication; good still-image communication.
So those of you that never quite saw the magic of motion graphics in advertising, who held fast to your belief that 1 good image is infinitely more powerful that 30 minutes of fluff; the throne of graphic communication has been briefly sidled by a trend, only to be set ablaze by technology, seemingly, of the same blood. And from the smoldering ashes of motion graphics, will be reborn, single image, still-communication.

Richard Stallman, the 'father' of the GNU/Linux free software movement, gives many speeches around the world about Free Software (audio clip explaining free software's freedoms), and at the end of the speeches many people ask him how the ideas of Free Software can apply to other things. Listen to him speak about freedom in other things (audio clip), or his entire lecture (audio) at CalTech on Copyright vs Community in the Age of Computer Networks.
Free? What about money? The thing that confuses people is that they think free software is "for free" or "for zero price", but this is not the case. While the software is often available to download without a monetary price, they often sell cd/dvds; Free Software is about freedom; users are free to give back in a way that works for them. Some people will give back to the Free Software by further developing the software, since the source-code is free, some will help by promoting the software, or by giving support for the software, some will also send money to support the project.
For the latter, the money way of giving, Richard Stallman suggests a few ways of how money and Free Software and Free other things, in a lecture at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Richard Stallman: Ways to make money with Free Software and other things (below). From his Copyright vs Community in the Age of Computer Networks speach at Caltech (full length uncut audio).
1. Tax Based System:
A tax is collected and distributed to artists based on their popularity.
2. The $1 Button on Media Players
A button put on media players that will send a $1 to the artist.
3. Sell Merchandise
Create physical objects to buy, so that there is an incentive to buy the 'hard' object, over the 'soft' object.
As I sat and stared at my monitor, the hourglass trickling pixel by pixel, I dreamed of how great it would be when some day I owned a 1000mhz super computer. At the click of a button, or a double click as it were, I would be able to open and close programs at a whim. Notepad, Minesweeper, Netscape Navigator and more would fall to their knees, no longer a challenge for my bit cruncher. This is how a computer should integrate with you(me, humans)...at least on a primitive level, as fast as I can think and instruct the computer to execute my command, there shall it be.
Ah, but that was a dream. I still sit in front of my 2800mhz machine and wait for my programs to open, to save, to compute. Of course the programs I'm using now are capable of doing such things I could scarcely have imagined back then. But what about in 10 more years? Will we still be pushing the limits of computing power, only to mire that power down in new dreams we've yet to have? How many times can we awaken to a horizon of possibilities promised to be limitless? I suspect that if big business and the software/computer industry continue to share a bed, the answer is forever.
For every leap in computing power there is countless billions to be had. For every incompatibility, there must exist a promised version of compatibility. And for every second that I wait for my request to be processed there builds a desire, pumping life into the possibility of my next computer upgrade, my next paycheck spent. But what about when I no longer have to wait?
My monitor pulses with the instantaneous creation and destruction of the computational power of my mind paired with my computer. But this is not just the computer I have this year, this is THE computer; I have it from birth 'till death. It exceeds the speed of my mind and my ability to control it and so, I never need to upgrade. I never need to buy the latest model, compete with the Jones' or save-up.
Great forces would like for this day never to come. That is the reason that for all the strides we've made, we feel as though we're still watching the same hourglass. Our minds will be the limiting factor, but whether they ARE our limits or they DEFINE our limits is up to us.
submitted by Eric Cushing (http://coffeeanddonut.com/ | Culture as Client)

"This speech will be accessible to all audiences and the public is encouraged to attend. Copyright developed in the age of the printing press, and was designed to fit with the system of centralized copying imposed by the printing press. But the copyright system does not fit well with computer networks, and only draconian punishments can enforce it. The global corporations that profit from copyright are lobbying for draconian punishments, and to increase their copyright powers, while suppressing public access to technology. But if we seriously hope to serve the only legitimate purpose of copyright--to promote progress, for the benefit of the public--then we must make changes in the other direction." (http://www.fsf.org/events/caltechspeech/view)
During this early afternoon (February, 27, 2007), I got a chance to hear Richard Stallman (Wikipedia | FSF Blog | Personal | "Free as in Freedom" | Gnu Philosophy | Interview) give a lecture on Copyright in the Age of the Computer. I walked to the speech at Caltech (California Institute of Technology) from my apartment here in Pasadena. It was about 15min on a warm/cool sunny day, the walk was great, and the presentation was entertaining & educating.
The talk was very popular, many people were standing outside the door to listen. Richard spoke near the door so everyone could hear well.
I brought my RadioShack 2 Speed Microcassette Recorder, and ripped the audio onto my MacBook Pro. I had to change tapes in the middle of the presentation, and I changed the speed so I could record more, I wanted to make sure I got it all. I am not familiar with analog tape recording. I hear you can run Linux on iPods which give you many options for how you record, although I've heard recording using the iPod software saves as an aiff file at about 1mb per min.
download mp3 (22MB) | download ogg (27MB)
1. Introduction (3min 54sec)
2. Respecting Freedom
3. Beginning of Free Operating System GNU/Linux
4. Freedom in Other Things
5. Copyright Laws and the Computer
6. Break: Pepsi & Coke
7. History of Copy Technology & Copyright Law
8. Note: Copyright & Patents
9. Break: Choices of Pepsi
10. History of Copy Technology & Copyright Law (continued)
11. History of Copy Technology & Copyright Law (continued 2)
12. History of Copy Technology & Copyright Law (continued 3)
13. Present: Movie Copyright
14. Break: Pepsi Test
15. Present: Music Copyright
16. Present: Book Copyright
******this is an incomplete set of clips, the full length includes everything. the rest will perhaps be made later. if you wish for them, please send me an email.******
Video Recording ( MPEG4 (297 MB) | QuickTime (811 MB) | Internet Archive ) (2004)
Audio Recording (May 20, 2004)
Audio Recording (February, 2002)
Text Transcription (7th July, 2000)
Text Transcription (7th July, 2000)
http://www.gnu.org/
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/audio/audio.html
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-doc.html
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.html
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html
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