Batchout

Celtic Knotwork Template

2012-02-20T17:46:00.000-05:00

LOST "23" Light Cube

2012-02-20T10:22:00.000-05:00

BUZZ Logo Project

2011-12-14T01:37:00.004-05:00

My BUZZ Logo Project made over 20 years,
as sketch,
DeluxePaint file,
Imagewriter Heat Transfer Printout,
created in Construx between 2009 & 2010
based on the logos from

"BUZZ"
an MTV media-trend show

the sixth glyph would be a tattoo if I ever got one.
You could even say it glows.

Skeletal Pyramid [top view]

2011-12-14T01:32:00.000-05:00

On The Mantle

2011-12-14T01:29:00.000-05:00

Construction Zone

2011-11-13T21:59:00.003-05:00

Ultimate Double Keyboard

2011-09-30T22:44:00.000-04:00

Maltron Keyboard Update

2011-09-20T11:54:00.001-04:00

Current Keyboards

2011-09-08T15:21:00.002-04:00

UPWORDS Letter Game

2011-08-22T02:21:00.004-04:00

Meat-Boys Crave Goo. Mild Clip? Fine Nude Tomb. Quilt X-Ray Tank. Hush, Spaz! Judge Pew. (Pudge Jew)

MessagEase KBD Sobé Mayo Mope Tail Ruge Dude PC

MessagEase KBD & Slam Tude IO Meld Pube Goya Cope

MessagEase KBD & Epic Tune Slam Hire Malt Dude Spay Goat Bone IO

New Keyboard Again

2011-08-15T17:07:00.001-04:00

Happy 8/15 #LOST

2011-08-15T17:05:00.000-04:00

My 1 Finger & 1 Hand ShapeKeys Keyboards

2011-07-18T03:16:00.005-04:00

Not because they are easy, but because they are Hard [JFK,Re:MoonLanding]
This ergo keyboard started with 35 keys and ended with 12. Based on a combination of the FrogPad, MessageEase Keyboard, Lillian Malt's MALTRON layout minimizing key travel, and some very basic gestural type keystrokes, e.g. hops, knight moves, swipes
that IMHO should be unpatentable.

NOW THE KEYBOARD ROUND UP:

With 35 Keys, that's our 26 letters Plus nine keys
2 level(layout) shifts, three CTRL ALT SHIFT modifiers, ESC, ENTER, and two punctuation shifts... :; " '

shift one (right space) is movement, #s 0-9 & brackets (bottom left on key diagram)
shift two is movement but with symbols of the #s 0-9 & select f-keys (plus ESC becomes Tab on lvl 2.

The "Gateway 2000" "AnyKey" maps it's 124 keys to most anything. Great test bay, no soldering & such, just REMAP in the blink of an eye.

Blank Red Key is CAPS LOCK hardcoded, I keep it on for my NumPad Mods.

Then I thought, simplify. It's one fingered now but what if the users have 2+ fingers but limited travel, & can memorize 2 key sequences in a 4x3 grid that's smaller than even the Mighty FrogPad, but with 3 layers, agreed, it's even more of a strange (odd) duck . Now can people adopt this? let me tell you more about it, anyone. :)

So, three kinds of letters. Angular or Curved, instant shifting,

Currently only my PC platform has this type of ability to intercept all keystrokes and filter them through my logic. I still have to do it, extend it in software, because I know of no programmable keypads that have a third keymap layer.

There's a sweet OLED key matrix but sadly it's 3x3. 48x48 images per key, Yellow Glowing from Black. One Column short. Hint for below, F-keys go IN to the O, outwards from O is nav.

Final KeyMap, last 2 columns are just inked-on-case diagrams, 12 keys is enough.

Changed my script's config keymap to match 12 reliable number keys. no issues with phantom keystrokes. 5 regular keys & 3 side chicklet keys are available as non-chorded modifiers, which can be triggered with the 2 letter sequences as follows:
A -> I : Ctrl single fire
I -> A: Alt single fire (can stack modifier keys) to release on alpha
U -> bcdgipq (red) key : Shift single-fire( each of these you can double up to lock)
the blue keys are shifted by green and red side keys. Holding U makes the blue keys a number pad

And I haven't joined the GeekHack Forums yet? Sheeeeet. #ClayDavis #TheWire

Finally, My First laughable attempt at a ShapeKeys Board (this project)
MS Ergo 4000 worked but Kinesis & TypeMatrix blew it out of the water.

What needs just 1 Hand, 1 Finger & 35 Keys?
My ShapeKeys/Maltron/FrogPad/MessageEase/TypeMatrix hybrid keyboard!

angled letters (red)
FKL
MVW XYZ
rounded letters (green)
BCD
GJP QU
common letters, vowels (blue)
ANI HOR
TES U

Tap SemiComma: Numbers, Symbols, Functions
Tap Quote: Symbols & Punctuation

X and Y are shift layers:

My FileSystem 2 years ago

2011-07-15T02:51:00.001-04:00

Chrome is too damn bright!

2011-07-07T23:43:00.003-04:00

I use white text and orange links on a black background for my surfing.
How?

In Firefox:
Go to Tools-> Options-> Content tab-> Advanced button,
Set the color chips,
Uncheck "Use colors specified on web pages"
To toggle this effect, get the nifty "toggleDocumentColors" Add-On for a toolbar CSS toggle icon (get it from the customize dialog for the toolbar)

In IE:
Go to Tools-> Internet Options-> General tab
Click "Colors" to set the color chips,
Click "Accesibility Options"
Check "Ignore colors present on webpages"

For Chrome:
Find the application (C:\Users\Root\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome)

Shift right-click to get a command line, and run it:
chrome --enable-user-stylesheet

Then edit Custom.css
(C:\Users\Root\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\User StyleSheets)

Here's mine:

*{
color:#FFF!important;
background-color:#000!important;
background-image:url();
:link{color:#F90!important;
:visited{color:#940!important;
}

Happy Surfing. The Custom.css file take effect the moment you save changes,

...so table {border:1;} for instance, would immediately reveal all the page table borders

Table rendering is extremely broken in FireFox5 for me right now.
That's why I needed to darken my Chrome.

My #Construx Meat Boys

2011-06-11T14:18:00.001-04:00

COLECAD Light & Dark

2011-06-11T14:05:00.003-04:00

Their Web vs. My Web.css

2011-06-11T13:50:00.008-04:00

Their Web
Bright, and almost everything is needlessly an image.
Some sites use table-cell background images as buttons, not actual FORM buttons that are stylable, and behave. Some sites are all Images, otherwise I tame them with: toggleDocumentColors. Firefox. When the web is too bright. PCs are better in the Dark!

My Web
much better. just the sweet, sweet data:

My MessagEase Skin

2011-03-30T00:52:00.001-04:00

Mantergus & The Rio NSA Keymaps

2011-03-19T02:39:00.003-04:00

Am I Kara Thrace? #BSG

Cloning The MessagEase Pen Keyboard .xls

2011-03-18T01:34:00.009-04:00

Here is BG Image 1024:
Using the yellow lines, implemeting zones so I can make my own KB in AHK

tMessageEase website want $25 to reg

Gonna do it in a few days or so. I have no pen yet but an Agile Trackball.

BLUE = Tap, or diagonal swipe

RED = Shift inward

GREEN = Shift Outward (opposite of red shift)

·Keystrokes may be indexed by Zone x, Zone Y, optional drag-back for a Capital .

·There is no inter key swiping.

·All swipes cross a yellow line to get registered

of the 9 zones,

· A is 1- O is 5- therefore V is 1,5 and Q is 5,1

·single tap letters are capped by Zone 6,3 (Shift On)

·123 toggles #s/letters

·Space Bksp & Enter are a waste of space- a "gesture enter" could be 2,8,7

·Fkeys on drag-back to # like my newfrog

·CutCopyPasteEsc could also get distributed on the AIHTS keys where no char is assigned by default.

·Optional Mouse Gesture Trail will help debug the code

·It will help to make it resolution independent, dividing the bounding box into equal sized keys

EXCEL Painting Follows:

PSEUDOCODE FOR EMULATION:


1) surround 3x3 keys with edge boxes for drag detect

ani
hor
tes

1 2 3 4 5 (x)

1  b 1 2 3 c
2  4 a.n.i 7
3  5 h.o.r 8
4  6 t.e.s 9
5  d x y z f

(y)

anihortes core
123456789xyz edges
 bcdf corners

2) map key in, key out on the grid (divide by resolution)
USE x+y coordinates to GET keynames

11 b  12 1  13 2  14 3  15 c
21 4  22 a  23 n  24 i  25 7
31 5  32 h  33 o  34 r  35 8
41 6  42 t  43 e  44 s  45 9
51 d  52 x  53 y  54 z  55 f

3) match IN & OUT keys to character map

A aa  K ho  U on  ~ t5  , ex  @ re      > s9    win yz
B or  L no  V ao  < t6  ^ n2  # se    tab ty    app zy C oh  M ro  W wo  - an  . ey  ; sy   bksp et   PgUp ha D oe  N nn  X io  % hn  ' n3  = ir  shift ri   PgDn ah E ee  O oo  Y io  _ he  ! ni  & sr  unshi rs    [c] ab F so  P oi  Z es  * te  \ nr  € i8    esc sa   Ctrl ic G ot  Q oa  $ a5  ` n1  ' er  } r7  space yy    Alt td H hh  R rr  { h4  + na  : ez  ) r8  enter yw  cornr sf I ii  S ss  ( h5  / nh  ? in  ] r9    del xy J os  T tt  [ h6  " eh  | rn  º s8  numbs zz  4) handle number pad / f-key toggle

GridHaus

2011-03-17T01:48:00.000-04:00

Matchbox "Linkits" Puzzle Cube

2011-03-16T16:05:00.002-04:00

PentaStarGlyph

2010-11-24T00:30:00.001-05:00

Piet Hein's SOMA Puzzle

2010-11-24T00:28:00.000-05:00

ToughBook™ FrogClaw

2010-11-12T21:03:00.001-05:00

My Secret Garden

2010-11-12T21:01:00.000-05:00

Gaudi Anthropomorphism

2010-10-08T03:17:00.004-04:00

Sitting in the courtyard earlier, I noticed that my brownstone framed block built c1898 is much the same, without all the fractal detail that wasn't called that back then.
The Block Has Eyes, and Chins, and nasal cavities. Buggin'

Gaudi. Wikipedia. Go!

Father's Day June 16, 1968

2010-10-06T11:59:00.006-04:00

Father's Day cards are
only for father's Day

This is a letter
to my father
for all year long...

To
Dad
From
Kris

June 16, 1968

What is a father?

a father is someone who cares

a father:
is someone who caries in his wallet
the needle that sewed up his little girl's chin.

a father is someone who:

- teaches his daughter to shoot a .22
with her eyes open

- plays ping-pong with her left-handed
and still wins

- tells a little girl to put her bloody finger in her mouth
while he searches for a band-aid

- informs his innocent daughter of
the location of the little boy on the Camels cigarette pack

- brings a little "toon" [a racoon] out of the woods
and -upon request- returns it to its mommy

a father is someone who:

- plays "crazy eights" with a baby

- makes a dolly a dress on the sewing machine

- comes to school to retrieve a
daughter who has fainted from the cramps

- introduces his little girl to
friends in fire stations and Erie cabooses

- tells stories to a little girl who
likes to be in daddy's bed at night

- gets her "foot taught" under him sometimes

- builds stilts to walk on

- knows where little girls are ticklish

- goes camping and plays in the water
and floats on his back better than anybody
and climbs hills mother won't go up

A father:

- can whistle like a train

- can touch his toes

- claps his hands a lot

- has a beerstein that plays music
and a dog whose eyes cross

- makes better pancakes than mother

- picks out the best parakeet in the cage

- eats sardines that smell up the room

- gets you on a turbo-train for a tour

a father is someone who

- can listen to Herman's Hermits
for hours without cracking up

- fixes broken anythings

- sends his daughter to the basement for a crescent wrench
and remains calm when she hands him a screwdriver

- laughs when she flushes the toilet the third time
she is sent upstairs to brush her teeth

- lets a 2' "helper" wash his car

- holds a little girl on his lap
and gets her a drink of water when
she won't even speak to him (because she's
not _sure_ he's her daddy) [when he came home from overseas]

- buys a pink snake on the
boardwalk because his daughter doesn't
have a boyfriend to win one for her

- buys a little red chair because
"baby" won't let go of it

- bends over double to hold a little girl's hand

- types your english compositions and
corrects the spelling

A father is a hero because:

- he is the only man in the house

- he shares the last dab of ice cream with you

- he writes you a letter when you go to college

- he straightens out your overdrawn bank account

- he takes you out to dinner
and donates his ice cream to you (and
then you find out it's really butter)

- he teaches you to drive the car

A father

- gets his daughter blue contact lenses
when she wants them even if they are $200
and get lost and she _could_ wear glasses

- brags when she makes the honor roll

- buys his little girl dribbly Fudgesicles
when she's dressed in white

- lets her watch _her_ program
when there's only one t.v.

- wants to take her flying with _him_ as pilot

yes, a father - one very special father -

is all of these things... sad things and

happy things... past and present

but most of all

a father is someone who loves
who cares
who feels things with you
who laughs when you
laugh
and cries when you
cry
and even hurts
when you hurt
but is strong enough to kiss away the pain.

A father stands beside you when
everything is against you... he holds a
light in the darkness... he scares away
the boogie-man ...

A father is someone who you take for granted...
step on ... ignore ... and hurt because
you never realize how much he
means to you until you try to write it
all down because father's day cards aren't
personal enough and don't really say
anything

or until you try to imagine
your life witout him

and you can't

A father trusts

and when his trust is broken

he forgives

and goes on trusting

Because I am terribly selfish and immature

i sometimes forget to be a
daughter.

please...

don't ever stop being my father.

I love you

Love,
Kris

FrogPad Angel

2010-09-19T02:08:00.006-04:00

I recentlly brought a #FrogPad from an eBay'er who didn't have the time/need to learn it. I mentioned it was to replace my broken one, and he turned out to be a solderer, tinkering since his guitar pickup days, and immediately offered, humbly, to try and fix my keyboard for fun. I'd dropped my old one to the floor with a Mini-USB cable plugged in, and the USB connector snapped it's solder to the mainboard. Well, I mailed my ailing, precious one handed keypad to him using a trusty USPS Flat Rate Box & Bubble wrap combo for Priority Mail and he fixes it to new within 40 minutes of recieving it. What an Amazingly cool tech friend!

Old techies never die, and practically re-incarnate when they meet their next generation.

So pay it forward, people.
Faith in Humanity Restored.

Fresh Key Caps

2010-09-11T02:33:00.001-04:00

Nine Eleven Nine

2010-09-11T02:28:00.002-04:00

Rubik's Cage

2010-08-19T01:00:00.002-04:00

Surf, Keys, Get Info

2010-08-19T00:55:00.001-04:00

Ergo Keypads & Stand

2010-08-10T04:55:00.004-04:00

Storage Cases of Fury

2010-08-10T04:53:00.001-04:00

NYC Subway Car

2010-07-04T04:12:00.000-04:00

Geodesic Revisited

2010-06-04T22:32:00.001-04:00

LOST Swan Hatch

2010-05-24T16:24:00.003-04:00

To pass the time before the LOST Finale, I constructed a model of The Swan Hatch for @jopinionated's DVD Contest . I intend to finish it eventually. Here is what I had by the deadline:

Cityscapes v1

2010-05-04T00:12:00.000-04:00

Job Corps

2010-05-03T23:59:00.002-04:00

At least someone's Hiring!

Workers doing their morning stretches.

Tux, Wheel & New Hypercubes

2010-04-30T02:57:00.001-04:00

The Construx Manifest (no o)

2010-04-14T22:49:00.004-04:00

This took quite awhile, but everything is in it's right place. Thanks to the 31 people on eBay who helped, and less so to the one who sent me a dank, mouldy lot. The Orange Cases were rated for 1,000 pcs, the Yellow ones for 400 pcs, but I packed in a LOT more. Trivia Note: The Yellow Cases fit exactly inside the Orange cases when emptied.

Eternal Plastic Flowers

2010-04-12T07:25:00.000-04:00

Empire State

2010-04-12T07:20:00.000-04:00

More Structures

2010-04-12T07:09:00.001-04:00

7 Recursive Ball Tower

2010-03-23T21:51:00.003-04:00

20x Size Blue Knot

2010-02-28T15:07:00.002-05:00

Taj Mahal Dome

2010-02-28T15:06:00.000-05:00

Construx Chess Set

2010-02-10T01:34:00.003-05:00

Chess Board (tied together with threaded wire)

Chess Pieces

Perspective View

Nu-Construx Spaceship

2010-02-10T01:25:00.001-05:00

Made with Mattel's Deluxe Builder Set, 1997 or so. Lighter Plastic with more ribbing and specialty pieces. Immense wheels as turbines.

Dharma Logo In Construx

2010-02-07T01:51:00.001-05:00

Yes, there are 42 blue knotted connectors. Wheel keeps on Turning.

Wah-Shing Construx

2010-02-07T01:43:00.003-05:00

Dinner Plate for the ABS Plastic calorie-free diet:

Smelling of Mildew. Eew.

Reactor Core #1 (drying after cleanse)

Reactor Core #2 (drying after cleanse)

Reactor Core #3 (drying after cleanse)

Packing Strategies, v3

2010-01-31T20:39:00.003-05:00

How many #Construx can fit in these 8 cases? Notice the PowerBook G3 is DVORAK, by the way :)

TOP ROW: White Beams & Turntables / 100% Gray Beams / Black & Wheels
MID ROW: Army & Weapons / Nuts & Pods / Engines & Boats (Hi, Mac!)
LAST ROW: Panels / A Nut Case / Wheels & Specials Pieces (smaller, yellow cases)

5,768 pieces sorted by color & size.nothing rattles, they're in there to such tight tolerances. I actually felt air escape upon closing each orange case, and located the small pressure hole drilled into the case. Each case closes effortlessly,so no nasty stretching and compression that can break the occasional fragile or overstretched/overturned pieces. The Gray case was liberated from a DREMEL Tool.

RIP 20 broken beyond belief pieces. Slight cracks may be taped or glue-ed back.

SOMA Puzzle Cubes

2010-01-27T12:51:00.004-05:00

Inventor Piet Hein and his SOMA puzzle cubes were always a bunch of fun to play with, so I recreated them in #Construx. The Seven irregular combinations of 3-4 Cubes form a 3x3x3 cube, and are used to make puzzle figures.

Here the 6 remaining pieces form a double-sized copy of the 3-cube piece. I had to adjust the models so they didn't overlap. The original soma cubes assemble with no gaps because they are simple solid blocks. My frames needed spacers to assemble properly.

Notice the little yellow axles with nuts in the center. They fit the Construx pieces' holes) With these in place, lightly squeezing both sides of the assembly lets you lift it as a whole and turn it on end:

Pretty META, huh?

Construx Pyramid Ball

2010-01-23T22:50:00.003-05:00

Having recently acquired a bunch more Construx for Xmas, I have been building up a storm. Here's my Latest creation, made using several interlocking shapes:

and here it is taken apart:

There is a Flickr Group called Construx Creations with only 2 members. Anyone still enjoying these Fisher-Price construction Toys is encouraged to join. Truly an all ages phenomenon.

Re-Watching LOST

2010-01-23T13:24:00.003-05:00

My #FrogPad keyboard wanted to thank everyone for re-watching #LOST with @LOST_WFTB:

Construx Mega Collection

2010-01-11T03:40:00.003-05:00

The Collection

And Here's Some of the Stuff I Built with it over holiday:

Rounded Rhombicuboctahedron (go ahead, google it)

Rounded Rhombicuboctahedron Elements

Rounded Rhombicuboctahedron Taken Apart

Light Bulb

Light Bulb Taken Apart

Green Column

Green Column Taken Apart

Small Beam Cube

White Shipping Crate

Beams Big Case #1

Extras Big Case #2

Gears Wheels Pulleys Motors

Rounded Rhombicuboctahedron Applies to the #LOST Numbers :)

To Build... Construx

2009-12-22T11:16:00.003-05:00

The Coolest Building Toy ever. eBay is a godsend. 27 years after Construx debuted, it is still widely available. The pieces, made of ABS Plastic, retain their bright colors and most definately a fun factor.

In addition to making a bad-ass custom Keyboard & Mouse tray, there are many ways to play...

How tightly can one pack them in a box?
Given a random set of pieces, can you connect them?
If so, what is the smallest area you can do it in?
Make a structure that can hold x pounds, arranging the beam's directions to keep the structures intact)
A variant on the egg-drop engineering challenge

Merry Christmas everyone!

I wanted the perfect keyboard

2009-12-10T23:50:00.005-05:00

I wanted the perfect keyboard

The Final Maltron-Inspired Letter/Symbol Layout

The TypeMatrix Keypad and Arrow Cluster Overlay

Assembled for Cellophane Coating

2009-11-07T03:58:00.004-05:00

Quad-Key Layout Grid

2009-10-31T06:49:00.006-04:00

Keyboard Revelations

2009-10-31T06:39:00.003-04:00

Qwerty Red, Dvorak White KeyCaps

2009-10-09T05:17:00.005-04:00

White Dvorak KeyCap Designs,
with Qwerty shadowed in Red for reference,

and for use WITHOUT Key Remapping,
or for comparison of the layouts differences

These Caps were applied to My Classic MS Ergo Keyboard, which is about to get a nice even coat of Black spray paint applied. the keys are then capped with matte cellophane tape over and around each printed letter or symbol, rubbed down until it goes clear, leaving a nice smooth slick finish that relaxes the fingers.

I'm finding that Dvorak switches hands more often than Maltron, because of the Vowel segregation of AEIOU. I prefer the <>;:'" characters on the bottom row as on the Maltron Layout, because they are more often covered by the hands. The first two rows, being easier to reach in general, then allow access to the top 20 letters with the remaining 6 dropped down (3 on each side)

I also re-key-capped the new Apple USB Keyboard I had from my Dad's new Mac. He needed the Apple Extended Keyboard (with a full keypad) to Access all Finale's functions, but the standard board was already bundled with the Mac. He uses Keyboard Maestro for system macros on Mac, it's nowhere near as flexible as AutoHotKey for PC, but it has a clean interface.

Staggered Keyboards abound, but the square key layout is so much less messy. That said, any derivation from the standard PC Keyboard layout has benefits, so after I know Dvorak better, I will make a skin for my TypeMatrix Keyboard and enjoy the benefit.

My brother is learning to use the Dvorak as well, so this will be his take-home concession prize for coming to see me and Dad. I asked if he'd like any custom keycaps, but I think he's going for an "au natural" key treatment. (he will come around eventually)

It could be quite cool to have oversized glow in the dark leters on the keys, and maybe even integrate an enclosed light charging tray to recharge the keyboard's phosphorescence quickly when it fades.

Last Thoughts: Does a Backlit Keyboard with a Square arrangement exist? How about one that could be arranged in a sunken key-well formation?

Keyboard Nirvana

2009-09-25T05:25:00.008-04:00

The 3-month Journey for a perfect keyboard has led me here, customizing both the innovative FrogPad and TypeMatrix Keyboards in a way that visually expresses their intrinsic awesomeness.

The TypeMatrix and The FrogPad are both miracles of "engineering done right" , light and super portable. The whole process has ended up teaching me so much about input devices and Windows automation and I finally,truly Grok It. A Maltron Keyboard is the Holy Grail of Keyboards, and Windows does only one keyboard remap for all
attaced keyboards but thanks to an advanced type correction word list, any mismatched key layout gibberish resolves to words after hitting Space. This must drive any keylogger crazy! It allows for obfuscation also so people don't shoulder-surf you or see a word before Commit is pressed.

Shifted up One Row

2009-09-18T23:39:00.005-04:00

So I reclaimed the F-Key Row for numbers (Esc shifts numbers to F-Keys as a modifier) to allow the super-useful sub-alphanumeric Matched Symbol Row that the Maltron Contoured Keyboard provides:
( [ { -_ =+] } ) (with <, >. also on some models) -Balanced!

F-Keys that often used were lowered F2 rename / F4 path+closewin / F5 reload+find / F8 replace (in TextPad)

F6 hop active panes / F11 fullscreen moved up out of the center

Esc is moved down one, and used to shift the symbols (made primary for coding) to numbers. The FrogPad is still a superb dedicated NumPad as well as a full keyboard to itself

I flipped Right Alt / Ctrl to match the left side. KeyTweak (used for TypeMatrix boards) can be used to remap the relocated keys in the registry.

The FrogPad however, sharing the same SW keymap, is thrown off because windows does not have the ability to support multiple keyboard layouts (it lumps them all together as one keyboard)

I wrote a short remap script that is toggled by the caps lock key, (For Frog Use Only)

and alternate solution:
word-replace filter that corrects for the incorrect characters being sent due to the remap (15,000 word permutations, gathered from my chats and emails over the last 10 years)

e.g.
"<-can become - "Keyboarding" -> can become -> ">y=euacim.f "

... the correct word is dropped in when you hit Space. Hey, it's Kludgy, but quite fast on a 2GHz PC due to AutoHotKey's Awesomeness

When I type BFE it launches my keyboard.ahk script, for customization.

Ergo Maltron Key Caps

2009-09-18T23:21:00.003-04:00

Finalized Tosh-Pad

2009-09-02T22:43:00.004-04:00

The Last Ergo Mod

2009-09-02T21:06:00.004-04:00

FrogPad on my KeyPad!

2009-08-29T15:18:00.003-04:00

So, I own a Lefty FrogPad, but the Right Handed USB model is OUT OF STOCK indefinately, so...

Thanks to the extra keys on newer keypads, I was able to provide the Full Functions of a FrogPad: The only exception is Ctrl-Alt-Del, which is not allowed in AHK to avoid maliciousness. Not a deal-breaker, by far:

I used an AHK Script to handle the key/modifier presses and modes, adding a few beeps to the toggles: short high beep (single character shift), longer high beep (lock down) and low beep (release lock)

Besides the symbol key being off-center, and Shift moved to the side, it's a full clone! The extra left button is a "Clear" Key, to release any held-down modifiers

This layout is Right Handed, taking advantage of NumPadEnter's double width key for Space, The most-hit key on the pad.

If anyone is interested, send me your email and I can provide the Keycaps (to be printed on Avery sticker Paper, cut and attached) and the AHK Script that makes the magic happen.

Cloned 1-Hand Keypad

2009-08-20T06:56:00.004-04:00

I made another Keypad, as a Gift to my brother, CAD superstar.

Right-Handed Configuration:

Left- Handed Configuration:

Thanks to the Genovation Programmable 24-Key PS-2/USB Keypad, I was able to make a cloned FrogPad that wasn't missing 3 keys (like my former clone) In fact there are 4 extra keys. Only 2 can be pressed at a time. If not, I'd make Space double-wide. To do that now would require me to cut the contacts for the 2nd Space keyswitch. Because of this, I used the 20 centermost keys. N-Key Rollover, it's a crime you have been so neglected in the PC Keyboard industry. Small Gripe Over.

Thank you Genovation for enabling me to keymap F13-F24 and some Media Keys and AutoHotKey for handling the keypresses. The code was a good way to learn some more advanced AutoHotKey behavior, with variables and functions consolidation.

Next Post: Using the extended NumPad on the MS Ergo 3000 Keyboard as, guess what, another Frog Clone!

3 Steps to Laminated Keycaps

2009-07-18T00:20:00.008-04:00

Before I got my FrogPad, or made my FauxPad, I prototyped it by retrofitting my old PS/2 Keyboard. I couldn't square off the key grid, but did everything else to it. The actual white lettered keys are below the stickers, in the Lefty Format

Here is a BETA print of the keycaps, on my old MS Ergo Test Model:

Left Side, Lefty Layout:

Right Side, Righty Layout:

FrogPad ACTUAL (Laminated):

FrogPad Keycap Diglyphs!

2009-07-18T00:11:00.010-04:00

Original Key Map:

First Step:

Many Versions Later, My Final Design

Lefty FrogPad Layout:

Righty FrogPad Layout:

Since I'm a hunt and pecker at heart, although I have it memorized, creating this keymap has improved my speed on this thing!

Here's the result, fro ma previous printing of the keycaps:

VERY Happy with the results! WIN!

MyFrog KeypadMmod USB

2009-06-26T05:20:00.007-04:00

MADE MY OWN PORTABLE CHORDED KEYBOARD

Adapted an Intelligent Design to suit me. Wrote a large Keyhandling Macro 1,340 lines of manicured code (lots of hierarchy trees)

My new keyboard kicks ass! Cost of materials was about $30, and writing the autohotkey macro took a lot more time than I'd planned,

but after I gave up on some pesky keys, namely 000 and a num lock key that sends no scancodes (grrr), steady progress towards completion

was the order of the evening. Cutting out the stickers for the keys: not a chore, but drenched in awesome. (Typed completely with my pad)

Okay, back to deluxe Ergo USB for the recap and the blow by blow: (My new MS 4000 Keyboard is supremely hackable with a little harmless, undoable XML configuration file editing!

So, first, checkout http://www.frogpad.com/ (I'll Wait)
Cool how they state that the vast majority of hunt and peckers are super suited fot this. Also I notice that one-handed and two dont mentally overlap, Two hand travelling H&P Qwerty in the dark is not impeded AT ALL. it's like your wing and index fingers are some other kind of crazy hands.

Cost of Mod:
HW $17 from Amazon,
<$1 Sheet of Sticker-Backed Paper
< $1 of Ink. Time for Mod: Few hours for the software (one big elegant AutoHotKey macro ) Few Hours graphic design/layout One Hour remapping a few keys (the 000 is an annoying key, the capslock on the keypad is non-binding to the host PC, i.e. sent only during other keypresses) Ok end of post. Sleep much. then I use KB for all sorts of awesome free mousing! (Plays Freebird)

FROM MY NOTES: Keys that didn't make it (out of 20):
Shift (first to go, thx to a 1x2 enter key)
(Thankfully a Sentence Case algorithm exists for post proscessing)

The D/V key (000, sends 0 3x, not it's own code)

The F/Tab key (a caps lock that only sends when another key is pressed, individially un-addressable)

Left over: 13 letter keys (for all 26 letters; cramped a bit but necessary due to losing 2 regular keys) and 4 modifier keys.

So I moved D and V to the bottom right corner keys, and consolidated any symbols duplicated on the keypad like - / & ^ * was lost in the mix, (altho it's not used very often at least) Faced with losing a few orange special key function (such as PgDn Home Delete, i chose Ins, Pause, SysReq(?) and Left(not the arrow key, perhaps a format toggle from Frog people? The I/D/3 key refuses to chord to anything, so I remaped delete (on U/V/^) to do Backspace instead (THE END. Keyboard Done!) PHRASES I TRAINED TYPING:
johnny too bad
horace andy
regggae mus itc feeds the world stage
and weeds tend to them tend to reason
with all these goings oin was not sexyyy or very drunk
Tarzan, King of Mars
Monster Magnetic
Tosca - Wonderful
jammys
excedrin
oxycontin
trazodone
supercalifragilisticexpialadocious
stupifying
Valtrex Covalent Bonds
Yammem Mediocracy
i would hold up
when he says we touch too much
Snap Crackle PoP
3 more divas
apple computer
centris
dellacorri!
from earth to the moon
gatecrasher iota
jam band
jambandsysdtpowerf
khemeni
khomeni ayatollah
love actually
macintosh quadra
raffi sectional faciliation
spinal cord injury
ttony hawk isis mmy gooklvalencia
watch the watchmen
wayne gretzky
where the wild things are
one, two, free, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! satisfied?

A Frog with GuyLiner

2009-06-16T03:20:00.008-04:00

To complete a reasonable facsimilie of the FrogPad, I Analyzed some photos and layouts, juggling keys to match the pad's promary and secondary (space-shiftwd) memory banks

Also found DataHand, Happy Hacking, Logitech Wave, several XP only USB Roll-Up Keyboards, The Maltron, The Ergo 8000, The Type Matrix (overlaps keypad and features straight key colums...

According to FrogPad, The Most Frequent keys are:

and the Secondary, Lesser used in English keys:

right hand side , to be used left handed.
The left side is a reference for the ALT LAYOUT.

SPACE / ALT / RCLICK / CTRL /SHIFT are going to be set up to emulate the FrogPad's 5 modifier keys
with AUTOHOTKEY (Amazing Keyboard Macro, GUI App Scripting Language)

More later...

QWERTY, Prepare to Die!

2009-06-16T01:53:00.022-04:00

The keyboard's over 12 years old and well worn, Still pretty durable. Took several college beer soakings and a ton-o-grime. Flaky FRIK keys. Got a New MS Ergo 4000 USB, and I used both simultaneously for a few days.

I got my trusty small tech screwdriver, needle nose pliers, & cloth and gently pried all the keys out. I set them up in rows like catering, and leftover letters mingled.

Several KEYS have unique shapes (see the 7 for instance and some SPANmultiple keyboard keyhole columns. The MMS Natural spacebar even has a metal wire to steady it.

Some Key caps have seperated from the plastic columns they rest in, by 2 prongs that fit into a 180 split column. A small needle nose pliers rescues the keyshafts, which then happily snap to the keys.

It's all in the wrist. At this point you can sort and wash the Keys.

Psyched to finally be More In Control, I grouped together PERL, LOST, WFTB, DC, XYZ and displacedF-keys.

T G 7 : odd shaped; not going anywhere
4 2 3 8 1 5 6 : (LOST #s)

( ) : Parentheses on top row
J C Q U G : Together
(Rounded shape letters)

The Right hand side starts with:
PERL, F8, F1 & F5 (LOST Ref)
Totally the reason I wanted to do this.

ADVK : for DVORAK, of course!
+= -_ BkSpc : Pros/Con/TimeTravel
7, H, N : fixed, due to unique shapes
H XYZ <> : Axial Navigation, Hold
< >{ }[ ] : Punct. & HTML/CSS ;':"
I O : Indeed; S : Plural near ENTER
BIOS : Nice Tech Ref

Modifier Keys were/are not interchangable. But almost all the alphanumeric keys moved. The F,R,I &K got flaky on this keyboard.

I hunt and peck with both hands without thinking, and I sure got a Brain-Age-type benefit from "changing my mental map" The keyboard doesn't own me (It's over 12 years old and well worn)

Check out the Numbers model of the "Numeric Keypad,"
NOT FOR USE WITH Hurley's new OSX/XP PC when he returns home. PS/2 Only! Sorry USB Peeps. (Wasn't that an IBM trade mark?)

CLUES TO NEXT POST:
A 5x3 Matrix +5,
Webbed Feet
A Sharpie,
Computer Case
Screwdriver Set
Chording

Yes, Stuffed Animals

2009-06-16T01:33:00.004-04:00

LOST: A Long Winter's Nap

2009-05-27T02:51:00.000-04:00

LOST Periodic Table Images

2009-04-28T18:20:00.002-04:00

View My Latest:
LOST Periodic Table of Elements (HTML)

or Grab some GIF Images:

(Suggestions? I have 159 short LOST codes now. Can't wait for Wednesday 10pm!)

Fixing Vista Columns

2009-04-21T00:40:00.001-04:00

Dude - I know how to fix the Vista Columns Issue.

It's dirty, it's wrong, but in LIEU of anybody at Microsoft Caring at all and adressing this, here goes:

AutoHotKey =
A Windows version of Automator (Event Recorder)
+ AppleScript (Access to system dialogs)
+ Visual Basic (It has a GUI toolkit)

Take on the 257+ types of Explorer Detail Columns
AT WARP SPEED!

Use on the fly, script-directed tweaking of the Explorer Detail Columns Dialog alphabetic column selection and spacebar toggle to make a custom column set.
These complex re-columning instructions can be made into a "macro.ahk"

You're gonna wanna crank up your ShellBags to like a million!

YEAH, SO I HAVE NOT PURSED THIS YET
Make all Windows like this Window
in Explorer-> Tools-> Options helps the columns die. They'll be back.

Flying Lotus Flash

2009-04-20T03:07:00.000-04:00

Vintage MacBook "Air"

2009-04-19T01:52:00.000-04:00

Two years ago, a friend of mine dropped his MacBookPro Laptop (PowerPC Edition) SHATTERING HIS MONITOR. This was before the nifty magnetic Mac power connector existed. The monitor lit up, but only the top left corner was usable, the rest simply displaying a glowing, horrific chaotic fracture pattern.

Not having owned a Mac for many years (I used plenty at work, but went PC all the way at home), I asked him for it. He had no intention of having it repaired, as it was more than a few years old. With a DVI<->VGA adapter and an Viewsonic LCD Monitor, it was good to go! It had Built in Wireless Ethernet and USB (a good thing because the CD Drive was toast; bent and inoperable).

My father wanted a new Mac to use (His old Quadra 660 AV Pizza-Box finally refused to display a video signal) but the problem was the external monitor sitting next to the laptop was an ergonomic nightmare. The real screen WOULD HAVE TO GO. So... I replaced the broken MacBook Pro screen with the LCD VGA monitor:

The bent case put up a fight, but ultimately lost.
I tore in to the Poor MacBook using:
Gloves (to not get cut, or get monitor juice all over me)
A Small Fan (to blow away the mercury vapor that would be released)
Mini Screwdrivers (Using them at an angle on a bent case = not easy)
A Putty Knife (To pop the shell, not an easy task since the case had bent enough to count)

Maybe the Mac Mini should be re- released as an All-In-One Keyboard PC. It would be very Amiga 500 of them!

"Meeblings" (Indie Game)

2009-04-18T03:30:00.001-04:00

If you enjoy physics and logic games, like World of Goo, JellyCar, Lemmings, or even Chip's Challenge, you will enjoy Meeblings. Play it at Ninja Kiwi (it's a flash game). I blazed through all 50 levels (got kinda stuck a few times, but my OCD powered through!

The soundrack had me thinking "I'm Tom Bodett for Motel 6" due to it's banjo-picking airy elevator music.

Here is the Completion Screen in all it's marvel:

Sweet. Good Night Everybody!

#mediamath Twitter Game

2009-04-04T14:19:00.000-04:00

#mediamath Twitter Game
(Day 1 Awards)

Best Three-Show Additions (3-way tie)

1. Dollhouse = The Stepford Wives + Charlie's Angels + The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (@ethernautrix)
1. Millennium = The X-Files + Medium + The Mentalist (@kidmanproject)
1. FRINGE = Numb3rs + John Doe + The 4400 (@brunoprado)

4. Rome = Debbie Does Dallas + C-SPAN + I, Claudius (@benjamin_oc)
5. Family Guy = Simpsons + Married w/ Children + Alf (talking animal) (@garyb311)
6. How I Met Your Mother = Seinfeld + Friends + Frasier (@piriri92)
7. The Big Bang Theory = Star Trek + The Wonder Years + Melrose Place (@cyclopticupcake)

Best Two-Show Additions

1. The Office = Mary Tyler Moore + Arrested Development (@cyclopticupcake)
2. Supernatural = The X-files + Buffy the Vampire Slayer (@flatlandcometh)
3. Lipstick Jungle = Golden Girls + Sex And The City (@cyclopticupcake)

Reality Shows

1. The Biggest Loser = Survivor + Real World + Big Brother + Extreme Makeover + Denise Austin Workout (@garyb311)
2. Kitchen Nightmares = The Swan + Dr. Phil + the Food Network (@ethernautrix)

Perhaps, But Not Quite

1. Ellen = Oprah + the L Word (@flatlandcometh)
2. LOST = Twin Peaks + Northern Exposure + Guiding Light - Rocky (@jmpickel)
3. Xena: Warrior Princess = Hercules + The L Word (@heimp)
4. Power Rangers = Real Life (Transformers + Voltron + G-Force + Thundercats) (@garyb311)

Thanks to Everyone for Playing!

New Pop Culture Game!

2009-04-03T01:58:00.000-04:00

"TV/Movie Formulas"
Describe a TV Show or Movie based on other TV Shows or Movies (as a formula)

HASHTAG: #mediamath (add this to a tweet to play along)

examples:
Dollhouse = ALIAS + Brainstorm + The 4400
Now And Again = The Six Million Dollar Man + The Prisoner + Once And Again
Bones = The X-Files + Crossing Jordan + Moonlighting
Life On Mars = Law & Order + Quantum Leap

Justice = Boston Legal + Jackie Brown
Reaper = The LOOP + Buffy + My Name Is Earl
House = ER + CSI + Grey's Anatomy + Monk
Tru Calling = Buffy + Six Feet Under + DayBreak

Harsh Realm = Altered States + eXistenZ
The UNIT = The A-Team + Desperate Housewives + MacGyver
LOST = Survivor + Big Brother + Swiss Family Robinson + The Prisoner + Rashomon
ALIAS = Felicity + 24 + The Unit (+ MacGyver + The DaVinci Code)
The Wire = The Sopranos + New York Undercover + Law & Order

Wonderfalls = Northern Exposure + Twin Peaks + The L-Word + Eli Stone
Twin Peaks = Six Feet Under + Deadwood
30 Rock = Studio 60 + Sports Night + The Office
Buffy The Vampire Slayer = Kolchak + Xena: Warrior Princess + The X-Files
Battlestar Galactica = Space: Above & Beyond + Star Wars + Earth2 + Solaris + The 4400

Fun, huh?

BENEFITS:
With this game, shows people have not seen or forgotten about bubble up next to similar shows, generating an implicit recommendation. Of course there's no one right answer, but describing things in terms of other things is a great mental exercise

Older shows like Now and Again can resurface - leading fans of derivative shows back to (some of) their original inspiration. Sharing these little allusions helps people find new shows to watch (based on shows they like) and the simple concept is well suited for Twitter (and us obsessive pop culture fanatics)

-SuperFan David from New York (@batchout)

Browser Toolbar Icons

2009-03-20T18:08:00.000-04:00

I love the Firefox Browser Toolbar, especially afterI added the MiniFox Extension last year. It tightly packs the icons together. These Icons have no title to save space, and are "highlights" of the category menus, which are not shown when the browser window is small. They do however pop off of the right triange of the browser window in a vertical system menu.

hen my browser is maximized (or simply full width), the rest of the Browser Toolbar is shown (with Menus)

These Menus are in the same order as the icon groups. To the far right there are dedicated bookmark menus for Google, Wikipedia and YouTube (to classify new bookmarks.

Finally, the Sub-Menus at top level are as follows:

And that's a peak at my browser's quick list of favorite sites.

Twisty Passages, All Different

2009-03-20T03:27:00.000-04:00

I never saw the manual for this game, it was installed in a Apple Compuer Lab long ago.
So I googled it. (It's also known as Alpha Waves)

I saw A Wikipedia Page about Alpha Waves
I saw The Programmer's Blog About The Game

I noticed there was next to nothing about the PLAYING game around on the web. No mention of any game level strategies, maps, or playthroughs to be found.

I decided to make a Continuum Map!

I played the game for 5+ hours with Excel at my side.

After much tweaking and exploring, I made the above GIF. It's a screen grab of the 75% Excel view on a 1280 x 1024 resolution desktop. An amazing huge image in 77K or so. Excel is great for mapping games when you prepare well (text, borders, grid, and go!)

A fun side effect was not knowing exactly where I spawned in the maze. The walls eventually told me. This game taps into your brain, I'd swear it. It's very colorful and varied.

This ran on a 386, people! Full screen! 15+ FPS!

MORE ABOUT THE GAME

Admittedly this is an obscure, yet groundbreaking game.

Continuum is a game where you bounce around rooms to go through doors. It's very cerebral, yet strangely ineffable. You can thrust forward, turn left and right, and raise and lower the camera angle. That's it for the controls. There are keys and crystals to collect, and different types of bouncy platforms. No shooting, save for one platform type that fires missles where your craft is facing.

You interact entirely in 3d with various objects

(Now I keep in mind... this was 1991, This ran on a 386, people! Full screen! 15+ FPS!)

3d Facet rendering had never been done before on this scale, Full Screen, Spriteless, pure genius code. The filled shapes algorhythm and precomputed trigonometric 3d perspective programming techniques made this possible.

The game has two modes:

Action- A Timed Mode. All areas connected with a save game feature, but when time runs out, GAME OVER. This is not a mode favored for detailed analysis, but for kicking Arcade ass once you know the ropes.

Emotion- Free play in discrete areas. I was always more of an explorer than a points whore, so this was my mode. Emotion mode made it possible to make the map without being killed constantly by the time limit, which came in handy as I was flying without a manual. It gives you one "saved game state" to undo back to. Try, try again.

ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC

The DOS version was the last conversion, and it's Soundtrack that permeates every game level was the most ambitious best to be featured in a physics game like this. The Soundblaster/Ad-Lib FM Synthesis jams this game kicks out are unbelievable, is the best use of PC speaker taken to it musical conclusion.

If the soundtrack exists anywhere, I'd feel stupid for using Audacity to make a Soundtrack album: 35.8MB zipped. Not going to link to it, unless someone is interested, but here's the theoretical CD Cover:

I love this game's style, the simple object of ecploring the game and learning its complexity. It's a very universal, abstract, non-violent thing of beauty.

Who knew that simple was best? Just tons of 3d mazelike rooms, each with a simple Name and a new twist. A simple, unique great game engine with tons of depth thrown in. Timeless & Classy.

Over the years, I learned some rules: Little cubes remove big cubes. If it looks different (platform variations) than it does something different (lightning, creatures, spaceships, teleportation) Some balloons make you lighter than others. There are little Dark-Crystal type shards that you collect for points.

iPhone version? I can dream,,,

That's all for now, folks! Namaste

PERL/PHP Programmer

2009-03-19T04:03:00.001-04:00

I resumed programming when I discovered Perl and how it was used to make websites.

Putting PERL into action, it was deployed on Qru Studios Incorporated for several newsletters, including "Tech Tips" (browse it HERE)

Learned PERL from a Quick Refrence Card, Learned PHP from the Online Help
Read O'Reilly Books cover to cover while working at an ad agency and isp which fired up a dev toolbox I was all too eager to explore

Eschewing plugins, I crafted a text-file database system from scratch, using it's abstraction to remove incompatability with proprietary plugins when hopping platforms.

Late I created Intranet Applications for Business Recordkeeping, Payroll, Legal Documents and Web Site Generation, including calendars & forums, much like the features Yahoo and Google have developed to this day.

Game System Icon Roundup

2009-03-19T01:03:00.001-04:00

The Foundation of Personal Computing, represented here. MESS is like MAME except for old system architectures. (someone's out ROM hunting) The Apple ][c is my favorite, Apple ][ logo is so classic

Windows just gets the ONE Icon because little has changed since Win98 except massive software bloat. (WinSXS, ProgramData and Users folders should not be mullti-gig as on Vista) I have used all the Other Platforms except for the iPhone. Still have a Treo 700p (not w) I should make a G5 Ipod Classic Icon to round out the set.

Game Systems my brother and me owned over the years. Old is good because the roms are super small but all the Gameplay is intact.

Didn't own any of these systems, I was a PC Gamer by then. The ROMS start to get really Big from here on out. I am a firm believer that a game doesn't need to fill a CD/DVD to be good. Cutscenes end up sucking anyway.

Trailing _s, by the way, are emulators I have not found and configured, Preferring PC games and any IndieGames that use physics like 2d Boy's World of Goo (under 80MB for the entire game!)

That's all for now

Thoughts On The Amiga

2009-03-18T23:30:00.001-04:00

I always envied Amiga owners...
for their Sound and Graphics, their huge Library of Games, and
and their awesome Demo Scene [programmer/artist multimedia]

The company with the best graphic designers back then was:

Apple ][gs and Amiga were truly baby steps in computing, due to their overall poor system software, and lack of hard drives, but the Media Tech that they started has grown into the truly amazing MPCs we see today.

The closest I got to a Hard drive back then was a large RAM disk, which was screaming fast compared to a floppy. Back when RAM was respected and Virtual Memory(ugh) was non existent.

As a tribute to my Amiga HAM Mode 4096 color envy I purchased an Atari LYNX, which was fun and had integrated special chips for graphics and sound. It blew Gameboy out of the water (technically)

Related:
WinUAE Amiga Emulator
HANDY Lynx Emulator

Emulator Icon Project

2009-03-18T18:36:00.000-04:00

I made these Icons for various PC and Game system emulators. Most are 64x64 BMPs, which were used to set the icon images in Windows. I started from 256x256 originals, and made the best of what I had (see Nintendo and LYNX for examples.

It's hip to be square. If need to make a ZIP file of the BMPs, or a single .ico file. Any recommendations on a program?

Mac User from Day One

2009-03-18T18:08:00.001-04:00

The Macintosh line, with the MacII and IIcx, quickly buried any further Apple ][gs development, and when starting high school I became King of the Mac lab. I soaked up any new software like Quark XPress and ended up DTP'ing my yearbook at HS of A&D.

OS 8-9 were the only game around when I used Macs at work. I remember being an avid colelctor of extensions. The Whole PowerPC RISC was a great idea that then was abandoned by Apple. I remember when Apple's whole gameplan was compatibility

After OS X, I started to respect the platform for making a clean break with legacy apps. and then they went Intel again. right move but felt wrong, Windows then decided to make Vista a clean break with the past of the PC, the dirtiest clean break ever. Vista is just NT v6, gone DRM crazy. (see my PC post)

Ever since I saw and played with MacPaint for 45 minutes in a long-defunct COMPUTERWORLD, I got the fever for a GUI os!

I'd like to offer condolences to Jef Raskin's family.
Jef was integral to the classic Mac interface design, and his contributions have remained to this day.

Also thanks to Steven Levy, who wrote a great book about the origins and cult of mac.
And XEROX Parc, who got owned.

Apple ][gs User

2009-03-18T18:02:00.001-04:00

The first computer I saved up money for was an Apple ][gs. The commercials roped me in, as did the graphics capacity and the ability to increase speed 3x from the standard Apple ][. I had programmed in Logo and Basic and at the time had a ton of 5.25" Floppy discs.

After singing in the New York City Opera and Met Children's chorus, I had earned an extra $800 to spend on a New Computer, The GS.

I bought it from some hasidic jews who ran "47th Street Photo," an electronics store in mitown manhattan. I remember going to the bank with my passbook savings account and withdrawing 8 crisp $100 bills, then taking a bus downtown with my parents to Buy It.

I got a Apple ][GS, Applecolor monitor, Imagewriter ][ printer, and a RAM expansion along with 3 1/2 and 5.25 drives. The power brick on the ][c was rivaled only by the Texas Instruments one in size.

DeluxePaint from Electronic Arts was one of the first graphics programs with menus and tools. It got me hooked on computer graphics, and many of the works I made while attending High Schoool of Art and Design became the Slides that earned me admission to the Computer Graphics BFA program at Pratt Institute in NYC.

Games that were released for the Apple ][gs were not always stellar, but Will Harvey's Immortal and Zany Golf were great examples of what dedicated people could make for the ][gs.

Other software companies used the default system tools, which were in a Mac Plus state of clunkiness.The official ][gs developers used C, Pascal, or LISP to make their Apps, which was a huge barrier for amateurs to make apps.

After finding Applesoft Basic Extensions from So What Software, I was able to create software that used the Enhanced Graphics of the ][gs, which were not available from BASIC at all until then.

I once programmed a 3d facet renderer in Applesoft Basic, I Created the EXIT board game in basic with a GUI display, and rendered animations of fractals. I also made a voxel [volumetric pixel, like from a 3d scan] rendering system. Debugging and Test Runs took forever (back when scripting lanugages were slooow) but I pushed through, eventually buying a TransWarp accelerator card to 7MHz and cutting development time in half.

The FREE TOOLS ASSOCIATION were some french GS hackers who made their own System software. They came closer than anyone to utilizing the machine's potential. The Amiga Demos were even more spectacular, but they had even greater multimedia functions in hardware.

These days, there are some great emulators for the ][gs and most of the software is still available. A flash drive makes everything 1000% easier today, along with terrabyte drives. Back then it was floppies or nothing.

My Apple ][gs is the "Signed By Woz" special edition.
Now Steve Wozniak is on Dancing With The Stars.
I love the guy, he decided to return to education after Steve Jobs and the Mac's cult of personality pushed the original creative team out.

See Also:
Apple ][gs as a Laptop
Apple ][gs Emulator for Mac for PC
History of the Apple Line
Apple ][gs Wiki Page

Apple ][c User

2009-03-18T15:24:00.002-04:00

My first Apple was the sleek Apple ][c which resided under my bunk bed at home. Using basic graphics modes with BASIC filled my time. I made a bitmap editing program for my own use, as well a s primitive games.

The keyfeel and integrated floppy were amazing for the time. I was on the fence and almost got an Apple ][e, but I used those at school in a lab, and wanted something different. I actually carried a monitor and power supply in a backpack a couple of times.

(Later I borrowed others' monitors, eventually I kept it at home - It was not really a laptop, although there was eventually a monochrome flat screen that could mount to the main unit)

Bank Street Writer was THE word processing software of the day, but WORDSTAR on the commodore PET was the feature-packed command line editing tool of the day (my first taste of UNIX). The Print Shop from Brodurbund was my first baby step intop DTP.

Lode Runner, Apple Panic and Marble Madness were my first favorite games after Little Brick Out, which was the first game I saw running on an Apple ][e.

On the Apple ][e I Programmed Tetris, and other similar games, from scratch. It blows my mind how many goto's and line numbers I used back then. Tetris topped out at 1000 lines of code. I had previously filled a floppy with advanced LOGO programs, one of which drew sheet music with command line entries.

TI-994a User

2009-03-18T15:23:00.000-04:00

My family had a TI-994a for games (programming required saving sounds to audio tape!) and My school was entirely Apple ][e-based. Games and shareware were just getting started back then, and BBS logons were what passed for what chat, IM, SMS and Text are now.

Among the First Cartridges:
Hunt The Wumpus
Munch Man
Car Wars
Blasto
Video Graphs
TI Invaders
Hopper
The Attack
Parsec

Most Arcane Accesory: Audiocasette Tape Drive

Meta Keywords Revisited

2009-03-18T14:43:00.000-04:00

I figured some subdivision of the Keywords in post #1 is in order.
I attempted to sort most recent topics to the top, followed by their precursors.

BUSINESS

Web Technologist
Perl/PHP Programmer - Database Admin - Interface Designer
Computer Graphic Artist - Photoshop Bible - Power User Mac/PC
Marketing Agency Campaigns - Ad Sales Representative
Production Artist - Desktop Publisher - Architectual Drafting
Library Automation - Set Builder - Lighting Designer - Special Effects
Data Entry - Research Assistant - Secretary - Parallegal

CURRENT

Avid Collector - Library Of Music TV/Film classics
(Rock-Funk-Electronica-Coens-Greenaway-Epic TV)
LOST Fan - gspn PLUS Member - DPP Superfan
NPR Addict - Slashdot Reader - UI Tweaker
Win95/2000 Power User - Command-Line Jockey
Keyboard Shortcut Advocate - Apache Linux Nerd

HISTORICAL

Promoter & Programmer for NYC Comedy Clubs
(NY Pro, EM Ventures and Nu-Genesis)

PC Gamer - MAME Gamer - iD software - Electronic Arts
( TI994a - Atari - Colecovision - Intellivision - Apple ][c -Apple ][gs - Genesis - LYNX)

Designer at Qru Studios Incorporated
(HTML - Javascript - CSS - Perl - PHP - LAMP)

Computer Graphics at Pratt Institute
(Lab Monitor - Drawing - Painting - Sculpture)

Architecture at The HS of Art & Design
(TechTips Editor - Yearbook Editor)

Former Child Opera Singer/Actor
(Childrens Chorus - Computer Consulting)

Splitting off the Business Skills will help outline my resume. My personal timeline keywords are intended to sync up with a Life Timeline, currently outlined on my TREO smartphone.

Now to flesh them out, one by one...
Namaste

Orientation Post

2009-03-08T00:18:00.000-05:00

First BLOG post. I spent the majority of my life collecting clips and articles to collage. I hope to open them up to everyone throught this blog.

I would like to thank Brian's LOST AND GONE FOREVER, The Transmission, and the Delta Park Project

To be fully META, here are some keywords that I will compose posts about.

Apple ][GS Owner
Architectual Drafting
Software Usability Tester
Command-Line Jockey
Database Administrator
Director of Special Effects
Desktop Publisher
Computer Graphic Artist
Keyboard Shortcut Advocate
Library Research Assistant
Lighting Designer
LOST Fan
Mac Power User
Music Enthusiast
Opera Childrens Chorus Singer/Actor
PLUS Member
Pop Culture Fan
Perl/PHP Programmer
Production Artist
Marketing Rep
Registry Editor
Set Builder
Singer
Superfan
Web Technologist

I attended Pratt for Drawing,Painting, Collage, but mostly Computer Graphics (which morphed into Web Developer and Programmer through independant study) and I studied Architecture in High School (which morphed into Multimedia Design and 3d Modeling)

Later on there were Stints in Acting, Office Work, Advertising, Web Design and Certain (now defunct) Marketing Firms. Stay tuned.

Then I suppose I will add a Section for TV/Film/Radio Greatest Hits.

I should also mention my huge library of music, and how it is maintained and sorted. I definitely am an "album rock" collector.

'Til later-
Mahalo and Namaste!