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Happy birthday Douglas

Posted by on in Thinking

I was watching the new series of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency last night and remembered that today would have been Douglas Adams’ birthday. He would have been 60 today.

I loved Hitchhiker’s and have only recently got into Dirk Gently, but the work I most loved was what he did in Doctor Who. I leant the Big Finish version of Shada with Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor to a friend at work the other day. He really enjoyed it and commented on just how much humour there was in it. What else would you expect from such a talented writer.

He will continue to be missed, but his excellent work lives on.

Playing with Android Inventor: A very simple drum pad

Posted by on in Making things

I mentioned before that I’ve been playing with Android inventor now that it’s on MIT’s servers. The first thing I tried to do with it was to make something vaguely musical. Well, ok, not that musical to be honest. I thought I’d try and do something like a little drum pad to start with.

It works, sort of, but it really isn’t too useful sadly, as the drum sound only triggers when you take your finger off the button and not when you press it. So I really need a new way of getting that to work.

Processing day 2: A little dot is going to follow you around the screen

Posted by on in Making things

[processing width=”480″ height=”120″ file=”http://www.ashleyelsdon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/spot_follows_mouse_movement.jar” method=”inline”]Load the applet[/processing]

All this applet does is follow the mouse around with a tiny spot. That’s all, but it’s day 2 of my look at processing and tracking the mouse. Here’s the code for it.

void setup() {
size(480, 120);
fill(0, 102);
smooth();
noStroke();
}

void draw() {
background(204);
ellipse(mouseX, mouseY, 9, 9);
}

Music 4.5 Mobile Music – the sound of the future

Posted by on in Events, Friends, MusicLeave a comment

I was speaking at this event yesterday, and I have to say that it was really interesting (and I’m not just talking about my talk). There was some really interesting thoughts on the relationships between mobile companies and the music business.

I learnt a lot from all of the sessions, but most of all I really enjoyed talking to Tim Cole from Intermorphic, and Michael from RJDJ, Gareth from Liine, and Ed from Audio Silver Lining. There was a great bunch of people there. It’s left me with a lot of things to think about too.

Thicket

Posted by on in Mobile Applications, MusicLeave a comment

A new version of Thicket is out. I really liked the original version, it was excellent, and really engaging for people who hadn’t used an iPad before. I’ve only briefly played with the new version so I’m not sure as yet if it’s as good. It does have a bunch of in-app purchase options, and I might try one just to see what they’re like.

Thicket - Interval Studios

New Toy, sort of

Posted by on in TechLeave a comment

I’ve thought about getting a Tapwave Zodiac for a long time, but never bothered, but I saw this one on eBay, and even though it didn’t have a cradle or cable for charging I decided to go for it, and for £4 (just over) it’s not bad going.

Having said that, I thought I could pick up a charger or cradle quite easily. Sadly, that hasn’t been the case so far, but I’m on the look out. Until then it’ll sit around sadly doing nothing until I can get it up and running again.